46. Anne r. Elizabeth 6th r. 4th p. 396. l. 44. for was so r. so was p. 412. l. 6. for five r. free EDWARDUS SEXTUS ANGLIAE GALLIAE HIBERNIAE REX R White sculp HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE Natus 12 Octob 1537. Regnare cepit 28 Januarij 15â—7 Obijt 6. to Julij 1553. Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in S. t Pauls Church yard The Second Part OF THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION OF THE Church of England BOOK I. Of the Life and Reign of King Edward the Sixth EDward the Sixth King of England of that Name 1547. was the only Son of King Henry the 8th by his best beloved Queen Jane Seimour or St. Maur Daughter to Sir John Seimour who was descended from Roger St. Maur that married one of the Daughters and Heirs of the Lord Beauchamp of Hacche Their Ancestors came into England with William the Conqueror and had at several times made themselves considerable by the Noble Acts they did in the Wars * 1537. Oct. 12. Edward VI. born He was born at Hampton-Court on the 12th day of October being St. Edward's Eve in the Year 1537. * The Queen died on the 14th say Hall Stow Speed and Herbert on the 15th saith Hennings on the 17th if the Letter of the Physicians be true in Fullers Church Hist p. 422. Cott. libr. and lost his Mother the day after he was born who died not by the cruelty of the Chyrurgeons ripping up her Belly to make way for the Princes Birth as some Writers gave out to represent King Henry barbarous and cruel in all his Actions whose report has been since too easily followed but as the Original Letters that are yet extant shew she was well delivered of him and the day following was taken with a distemper incident to Women in that condition of which she died He was soon after Christened the Arch-bishop of Canterbury And Christned and the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk being his God-fathers according to his own Journal though Hall says the last was only his God-father when he was Bishopped He continued under the charge and care of the Women till he was six years old and then he was put under the Government of Dr. Cox and Mr. Cheek The one was to be his Preceptor for his Manners and the knowledge of Philosophy and Divinity The other for the Tongues and Mathematicks And he was also provided with Masters for the French and all other things becoming a Prince the Heir of so great a Crown His disposition He gave very early many indications of a good disposition to Learning and of a most wonderful probity of mind and above all of great respect to Religion and every thing relating to it So that when he was once in one of his childish diversions somewhat being to be reached at that he and his Companions were too low for one of them laid on the floor a great Bible that was in the Room to step on which he beholding with indignation took up the Bible himself and gave over his play for that time He was in all things subject to the Orders laid down for his Education and profited so much in Learning that all about him conceived great hopes of extraordinary things from him if he should live But such unusual beginnings seemed rather to threaten the too early end of a Life that by all appearance was likely to have produced such astonishing things He was so forward in his learning that before he was eight years old he wrote Latine Letters to his Father who was a Prince of that stern severity that one can hardly think those about his Son durst cheat him by making Letters for him He used also at that Age to write both to his God-father the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and to his Unkle who was first made Viscount Beauchamp as descended from that Family and soon after Earl of Hartford It seems Q. Catherine Parr understood Latin for he wrote to her also in the same Language But the full Character of this young Prince is given us by Cardan who writ it after his death and in Italy where this Prince was accounted an Heretick so that there was nothing to be got or expected by flattering him and yet it is so Great and withal so agreeing in all things to Truth that as I shall begin my Collection of Papers at the end of this Volume with his words in Latin Collection Number 1. so it will be very fit to give them here in English Cardanes Character of him All the Graces were in him He had many Tongues when he was yet but a Child Together with the English his natural Tongue he had both Latin and French nor was he ignorant as I hear of the Greek Italian and Spanish and perhaps some more But for the English French and Latin he was exact in them and apt to learn every thing Nor was he ignorant of Logick of the Principles of natural Philosophy nor of Musick The sweetness of his temper was such as became a Mortal his gravity becoming the Majesty of a King and his disposition suitable to his high degree In sum that Child was so bred had such Parts was of such expectation that he looked like a Miracle of a Man These things are not spoken Rhetorically and beyond the truth but are indeed short of it And afterwards he adds He was a marvelous Boy When I was with him he was in the 15th Year of his Age in which he spake Latin as politely and as promptly as I did He asked me what was the Subject of my Books de rerum Varietate which I had dedicated to him I answered That in the first Chapter I gave the true cause of Comets which had been long enquired into but was never found out before What is it said he I said it was the concourse of the light of wandring Stars He answered How can that be since the Stars move in different Motions How comes it that the Comets are not soon dissipated or do not move after them according to their Motions To this I answered They do move after them but much quicker than they by reason of the different Aspect as we see in a Christal or when a Rain-bow rebounds from the Wall for a little change makes a great difference of place But the King said How can that be where there is no Subject to receive that Light as the Wall is the Subject for the Rain-bow To this I answered That this was as in the Milky-way or where many Candles were lighted the middle place where their shining met was white and clear From this little tast it may be imagined what he was And indeed the ingenuity and sweetness of his disposition had raised in all good and learned Men the greatest expectation of him possible He began to love the Liberal Arts before he knew them and to know them before he could use them and in him
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
Bonner turning to speak to the People was interrupted by one of the Delegates who told him he was to speak to them and not to the People at which some laughing he turned about in great fury and said Ah Woodcocks Woodcocks But to the chief Point he said he had prepared Notes of what he intended to say about the Kings Power in his Minority from the Instances in Scripture of Achaz and Osias who were Kings at Ten of Solomon and Manasses who Reigned at Twelve and of Josias Joachim and Joas who began to Reign when they were but Eight years old He had also gathered out of the English History that Henry the third Edward the third Richard the second Henry the sixth and Edward the fifth were all under Age and even their late King was but eighteen when he came to the Crown and yet all these were obeyed as much before as after they were of full Age. But these things had escaped his memory he not having been much used to preach There had been also a long Bill sent him from the Council to be read of the defeat of the Rebels which he said had disordered him and the Book in which he had laid his Notes fell out of his hands when he was in the Pulpit for this he appealed to his two Chaplains Bourn and Harpsfield whom he had desired to gather for him the Names of those Kings who Reigned before they were of Age. For the other Injunctions he had taken care to execute them and had sent Orders to his Arch-deacons to see to them and as far as he understood there were no Masses nor Service in Latin within his Diocess except at the Lady Maries or in the Chappels of Ambassadors But the Delegates required him positively to answer whether he had obeyed that Injunction about the Kings Authority or not otherwise they would hold him as guilty and if he denied it they would proceed to the examination of the Witnesses He refusing to answer otherwise than he had done they called the Witnesses who were Sir John Cheek and four more who had their Oaths given them and Bonner desiring a time to prepare his interrogatories it was granted So he drew a long Paper of twenty Interrogatories every one of them containing many Branches in it full of all the niceties of the Canon Law a tast of which may be had from the third in number which is indeed the most material of all The Interrogatory was Whether they or any of them were present at his Sermon where they stood and near whom when they came to it and at what part of his Sermon how long they tarried at what part they were offended what were the formal Words or Substance of it who with them did hear it where the other Witnesses stood and how long they tarried or when they departed The Court adjourned to the 18th of September And then there was read a Declaration from the King explaining their former Commission chiefly in the Point of the Denunciation that they might proceed either that way or ex Officio as they saw cause giving them also Power finally to determine the matter cutting off all superfluous delays Bonner gave in also some other Reasons why he should not be obliged to make a more direct Answer to the Articles objected against him The chief of which was That the Article about the Kings Age was not in the Paper given him by the Protector but afterwards added by Secretary Smith of his own Head Cranmer admonished him of his irreverence since he called them always his pretended Judges Smith added That though Proctors did so in common matters for their Clients yet it was not to be endured in such a Case when he saw they acted by a special Commission from the King New Articles were given him more explicite and plain than the former but to the same purpose And five Witnesses were sworn upon these who were all the Clerks of the Council to prove that the Article about the Kings Age was ordered by the whole Council and only put in writing by Secretary Smith at their Command He was appointed to come next day and make his Answer But on the 19th two of his Servants came and told the Delegates that he was sick and could not attend It was therefore ordered That the Knight-Marshal should go to him and if he were sick let him alone but if it were not so should bring him before them next day On the 20th Bonner appearing answered as he had done formerly only he protested that it was his opinion that the King was as much a King and the People as much bound to obey him before he was of Age as after it And after that Secretary Smith having taken him up more sharply than the other Delegates he protested against him as no competent Judge He protests against Secretary Smith since he had expressed much passion against him and had not heard him patiently but had compared him to Thieves and Traitors and had threatned to send him to the Tower to sit with Ket and Arundel and that he had added some things to the Injunctions given him by the Protector for which he was now accused and did also proceed to judge him notwithstanding his Protestation grounded on his not being present when the Commission was first opened and received by the Court But this Protestation also was rejected by the Delegates and Smith told him That whereas he took exception at his saying that he acted as Thieves and Traitors do it was plainly visible in his doings upon which Bonner being much inflamed said to him That as he was Secretary of State and a Privy Councellor he honoured him but as he was Sir Tho. Smith he told him he lied and that he defied him At this the Arch-bishop chid him and said he deserved to be sent to Prison for such irreverent carriage He answered he did not care whither they sent him so they sent him not to the Devil for thither he would not go he had a few Goods a poor Carkass and a Soul the two former were in their power but the last was in his own After this being made to withdraw he when called in again put in an Appeal from them to the King and read an Instrument of it which he had prepared at his own House that Morning and so would make no other answer unless the Secretary should remove For this contempt he was sent to the Prison of the Marshalsea and as he was led away he broke out in great passion both against Smith and also at Cranmer for suffering Hereticks to infect the People which he required him to abstain from as he would answer for it to God and the King On the 23d he was again brought before them where by a second Instrument he adhered to his former Appeal But the Delegates said they would go on and judge him unless there came a Supersedeas from the King and so required him to answer those
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
Rudiments of Grammar to her by the Title of Princess of Cornwal and Wales Besides the Letter of Pope Leo's declaring K. Henry P. 19. l. 26. Defender of the Faith there was a more pompous one sent over by P. Clement the 7th March 5. 1523 4 which as is supposed granted that Title to his Successors whereas the first Grant seems to have been only Personal P. 22. l. 2. No wonder there was no Seal to that Grant of King Edgars for Seals were little used in England before the Conquest Ibid. l. 10. The Monks were not then setled in half the Cathedrals in England their chief Seats were in the Rich Abbeys that were scarce subject to the Bishops Ibid. Marg. April 1524 was not the 14th Year of the King's Reign as it is put on the Margent but the 15th P. 44. l. 5. from bottom The Lord Piercy was in the Cardinal's Family rather in a way of Education not unusual in those Times than of Service P. 47. l. 12. from bottom The General of the Observants in Spain seems an improper expression for the Generals have the government of the whole Order every-where yet I find him so called in some Originals see Coll. pag. 22 23. whether it was done improperly or whether that Order was then only in Spain I cannot determine P. 56. l. 19. How far the Cardinal had carried the Foundation at Ipswich it is not known but it is certain he did never finish what he had designed at Oxford But in this I went according to the Letters Patents by which it appears he had then done his part and had set off both Lands and Mony for these Foundations P. 69. l. 16. from bottom Campegio's Son is by Hall none of his Flatterers said to have been born in Wedlock i. e. before he took Orders This is also confirmed by Gauricus Genitur 24. who says he had by his Wife three Sons and two Daughters P. 77. l. 18. Campegio might take upon him to direct the Process as being sent Express from Rome or to avoid the imputation that might have been cast on the Proceedings if Wolsey had done it but he was not the ancienter Cardinal for Wolsey was made alone Sept. 7. 1515. and Campegio with many more was advanced July 1. 1517. P. 81. l. 32. The Lord Herbert says the King gave him only the use of Richmond which is more probable P. 82. l. 6. The Cardinal died Novemb. 29. as most Writers agree so it is wrong set in the History the 28 and in the Picture 26 for 29. P. 85. l. 21. This Book is in the end of it said to be printed 1530 in April but it seems an Error for 1531 for the Censures of the Universities which are printed in and mentioned in several places of it do all bear date after that April except those made by these of Oxford and Orleans from bottom P. 86. What is said concerning the Author of the Antiquities of Oxford has been much complained of by him I find he has Authorities for what he said but they are from Authors whose Manuscripts he perused who are of no better Credit than Sanders himself such as Harpsfield and others of the like Credit And I am satisfied that he had no other Design in what he writ but to set down things as he found them in the Authors whom he made use of Calvin's Epistle seems not to belong to this Case for besides that P. 92. he was then but 21 and tho he was a Doctor of the Law and had often preached before he was 24 for then he set out Seneca de Clementia with Notes on it Yet this was too soon to think he could have been consulted in so great a Case That Epistle seems to relate to a Prince who was desirous of such a Marriage and not of dissolving it though it is indeed strange that in treating of that Question he should make no mention of so famous a case as that of King Henry which had made so much noise in the World The Letter dated the 8th of Decemb. P. 110. l. 22. should have been mentioned immediately after that of the 5th being but three days after it and the Appeal that followed should have been set down after it It were also fit to publish the Appeal it self for the power of Appealing was a Point much contraverted Pope Pius the 2d condemned it 1549 yet it was used by the Venetians 1509 and by the University of Paris March 27. 1517. Pool as Dean of Exeter P. 113. l. 4. is said to be have been one of the Lower House of Convocation which doth not agree with the Conjecture p. 129. that the Deans at that time sat in the Upper House of Convocation These sent by the King to Rome came thither in February P. 120. l. 8. not in March and the Articles they put in were 27 not 28 as it is there said These with other small Circumstances appear from a Book then printed of these Disputes If Cranmer was present at Ann Boleyn's Marriage P. 126. l. 11. which was certainly in Novemb. Warham having died in August before he could not have delayed his coming to England six months Antiq. Brit. says he followed the Emperor to Spain but Sleiden says that the Emperor went no further than Mantua this Year and sailed to Spain in March following and Cranmer would not go then with him for he was consecrated not on the 13th of March which is an Error but on the 30th of March. The order in which these Books were published is not observed P. 137. l. 10. they were thus printed 1. De vera differentia Regiae Potestatis Ecclesiasticae written by Edw. Fox Bishop of Hereford 1534. 2. De vera Obedientia by Stephen Gardiner 1535. set out with Bonner's Preface before it in Jan. 1536. 3. The Institution of a Christian Man 1537. which was afterwards reduced into another Form under another Title viz. A Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man 1540. But there was another put out before all these De potestate Christianorum Regum in suis Ecclesiis contra Pontificis Tyrannidem and the distinction there made between the Bishop's Book and the King's Book seems not well applied It is more probable that the Institution of a Christian Man set out by the Bishops was called their Book and that being afterwards put in another Method and set out by the King's Authority it was called his Book P. 150. l. 19. Bocking is called a Canon of Christs-Church in Canterbury But there were then no Canons in that Church they were all Monks P. 158. l. 6. The Bishops Suffragans were before common in England some Abbots or rich Clergy-Men procuring under Forreign or perhaps feigned Titles that Dignity and so performing some parts of the Episcopal Function in large or neglected Diocesses so the Abbot or Prior of Tame was one
there is nothing which could give a colour to the corruptions that were afterwards brought in The Heathens had their Mysteries which the Priests concealed with hard and dark words and dressed up with much Pomp and thereby supported their own esteem with the People since they looked on these to be of so high a nature that all those who had the ordering of them were accounted Sacred Persons The Primitive Christians retained the first simplicity of Divine Institutions for some Ages But afterwards as their number encreased they made use of some things not unlike those the Heathens had practised to draw the Gentiles more easily into their belief since external Shews make deep impressions in the Vulgar And those that were thus brought over might afterwards come to like these things for their own sakes which were at first made use of only to gain the World Others finding some advantage in such Services that were easie and yet appeared very pompous that they might cover great faults by countenancing and complying with the follies that were in vogue contributed liberally to the improvement of them And after the Roman Emperors turned Christian much of that vast Wealth of which they and their People were Masters was brought into the Church and applied to these Superstitions Yet it became not so universally corrupted till by the Invasion of the Goths Vandalls and other barbarous Nations the Roman Empire was broken and divided into many Kingdoms These new Conquerors were rude and ignorant wholly given to sensible things and Learning being universally extinguish'd gross Superstition took place for more refined Superstitions would not serve the turn of darker Ages But as they grew in Ignorance they continued in the Belief and Practice of more absurd things The high opinion they justly had of this Sacrament being much raised by the Belief of the Corporal Presence of Christ in it which came in afterwards then the dull Wits of the Priests and the Wealth of the People were employed to magnifie it with all the pomp possible All the Vessels and Garments belonging to it were consecrated and anointed with much devotion the whole Office was in an unknown Tongue A great part of it was to be secretly whispered to make it appear the more wonderful charm But chiefly the words of Consecration were by no means to be heard by the People it being fabled that when the words were spoken aloud some Shepherds had repeated them over their Bread which was thereupon presently turned into Flesh Besides that it was but suitable that a Change which was not to be seen should be made by words not to be heard The Priest was not to approach it but after so many Bowings Crossings and Kissings of the Altar and all the while he went through with the Office the People were only now and then blessed by a short Blessing The Lord be with you and even that in Latin Then after Consecration the Bread was lifted up and all the People worshiped it as if Christ had appeared in the Clouds It was oft exposed on the Altar and carried about in Processions with the Ceremonies of carrying Flambeaux before it which the greatest Persons accounted it an Honour to do the Priest that carried it all the while going pompously under a rich Canopy This was also thought most effectual for all the accidents of life And whereas it was first only intended to be a Commemoration and Communion of the Death of Christ that seemed almost forgotten but it was applied to all other ends imaginable That which brought in most Custom was Trentalls which was a Method of delivering Souls out of Purgatory by saying 30 Masses a year for them And whereas it was observed that Men on the Anniversaries of their Birth-days Wedding or other happy accidents of their Lives were commonly in better humour so that Favours were more easily obtain'd they seemed to have had the same opinion of God and Christ So they ordered it that three of these should be said on Christmas day three on Epiphany three on the Purification of the Blessed Virgin three on the Annunciation three on the Resurrection three on the Ascension three on Whit-Sunday three on Trinity-Sunday three on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin and three on her Birth-day hoping that these days would be the Mollia tempora when God and Christ or the Blessed Virgin would be of easier access and more ready to grant their desires Yet the most unaccountable part of all was the Masses on the Saints days praying that the Intercession of the Saint might make the Sacrifice acceptable that the Saint for whose Honour these Oblations were solemnly offered would by his Merits procure them to be accepted and that the Sacrifice might bring to them a greater Indulgence being offered up by the Suffrages of the Saint If the Sacrifice was of Jesus Christ and was of its own Nature expiatory how this should be done in honour to a Saint and become of greater vertue by his Intercession was a thing very hard to be understood There were many Pieces of ridiculous Pageantry also used in it as the laying the Host in the Sepulchre they made for Christ on Good-Friday and that not only the Candles that were to burn at the Easter Celebration but the very Fire that was to kindle them was particularly consecrated on Easter Eve Some Masses were believed to have a peculiar Vertue in them For in the Mass-Book printed at London Anno 1500. there is a Mass for avoiding sudden death which Pope Clement made in the Colledge with all his Cardinals and granted to all who heard it 270 days of Indulgence charging them that they should hold in their Hand a burning Candle all the while it was saying and for five days after should likewise hold a Candle kneeling during the whole Mass and to those that did so sudden death should do no harm And it is added that this was certain and approved in Avignion and all the neighbouring Places All this I have opened the more largely to let the Reader plainly understand what things were then in this Sacrament that required Reformation and I have gathered these things out of the mass-Mass-Book then most used in England and best known by the Name of the Missal after the use of Sarum A new Office for the Communion set out The first step these deputed Bishops and Divines made was to reform this But they did not at once mend every thing that required it but left the Office of the Mass as it was only adding to it that which made it a Communion It began first with an Exhortation to be used the day before which differs not much from that now used Only after the advice given concerning Confession it is added That such as desired to make auricular Confession should not censure those who were satisfied with a general Confession to God and that those who used only Confession to God and to the Church should not be offended with those
they had now lost all hopes of the Marriage and were almost engaged in a War with France which was like to fall on the King when his Affairs were in an ill condition his People being divided and discontented at home and his Treasure much exhausted by this War The state of Germany was at this time most deplorable The Affairs of Germany The Pope and Emperor continued their quarrelling about the translation of the Council Mendoza at Rome and Velasco at Bologna declared in the Emperors Name that a Council being called by his great and long endeavours for the quieting of Germany and he being engaged in a War to get it to be received and having procured a submission of the Empire to the Council it was upon frivolous and feigned causes removed out of Germany to one of the Popes Towns by which the Germans thought themselves disengaged of their promise which was to submit to a Council in Germany and therefore that he protested against it as an unlawful Meeting to whose Decrees he would not submit and that if they did not return to Trent he would take care of setling Religion some other way But the Pope being encouraged by the French King was not ill pleased to see the Emperor anew embroil himself with the Germans and therefore intended the Council should be continued at Bologna The Emperor being displeased with the Translation of the Council orders the Interim to be drawn Upon this the Emperor ordered three Divines Julius Flugius Bishop of Naumburg Michael Sidonius and Islebius Agricola to draw a Form of Religion The two former had been always Papists and the latter was formerly a Protestant but was believed to be now corrupted by the Emperor that the Name of one of the Ausburg Confession might make what they were to set out pass the more easily They drew up all the Points of Religion in a Book which was best known by the Name of the Interim because it was to last during that Interval till a General Council should meet in Germany In it all the Points of the Romish Doctrine were set forth in the smoothest terms possible only married Men might officiate as Priests and the Communion was to be given in both kinds Feb. Diet at Ausburg The Book being thus prepared a Diet was summoned to Ausburg in Feb. where the first thing done was the solemn Investiture of Maurice in the Electorate of Saxony He had been declared Elector last year by the Emperor before Wittenberg but now it was performed with great Ceremony on the 24th of Feb. which was the Emperors Birth-day Feb. 24. Maurice made Elector of Saxony John Frederick looking on with his usual constancy of mind All he said was Now they triumph in that Dignity of which they have against Justice and Equity spoiled me God grant they may enjoy it peaceably and happily and may never need any assistance from me or my Posterity And without expressing any further concern about it he went to his Studies which were almost wholly employed in the Scriptures The Book of the Interim being prepared the Elector of Brandenburg sent for Martin Bucer who was both a learned and moderate Divine and shewed it him Bucer having read it plainly told him that it was nothing but downright Popery only a little disguised at which the Elector was much offended for he was pleased with it and Bucer not without great danger returned back to Strasburg On the 15th of March March 15. The Interim received in the Diet. the Book was proposed to the Diet and the Elector of Mentz without any order did in all the Princes Names give the Emperor thanks for it which he interpreted as the assent of the whole Diet and after that would not hear any that came to him to stop it but published it as agreed to by the Diet. The Papists offended at it as well as the Protestants At Rome and Bologna it was much condemned as an high attempt in the Emperor to meddle with Points of Religion such as dispensing with the Marriage of Priests and the Communion in both kinds Wherefore some of that Church writ against it And Matters went so high that wise Men of that side began to fear the Breach between the Emperor and them might before they were aware be past reconciling for they had not forgot that the last Popes stiffness had lost England and they were not a little afraid they might now lose the Emperor But if the Pope were offended for the concessions in these two Particulars the Protestants thought they had much greater cause to dislike it since in all other controverted Points it was against them So that several of that side writ likewise against it But the Emperor was now so much exalted with his success that he resolved to go through with it little regarding the opposition of either hand The new Elector of Saxony went home and offered it to his Subjects But they refused to receive it and said as Sir Philip Hobbey Cotton Library Titus B. 2. then Ambassador from England at the Emperors Court writ over that they had it under the Emperors Hand and Seal that he should not meddle with Matters of Religion but only with reforming the Common-wealth and that if their Prince would not protect them in this matter they should find another who would defend them from such oppression An Exhortation for the receiving of it was read at Ausburg but they also refused it Many Towns sent their Addresses to the Emperor desiring him not to oppress their Consciences But none was of such a nature as that from Linda a little Town near Constance which had declared for the Emperor in the former War They returned answer That they could not agree to the Interim without incurring Eternal Damnation but to shew their submission to him in all other things they should not shut their Gates nor make resistance against any he should find though it were to spoil and destroy their Town This let the Emperor and his Council see how difficult a work it would be to subdue the Consciences of the Germans But his Chancellor Granvell pressed him to extream Councils and to make an example of that Town who had so peremptorily refused to obey his Commands Yet he had little reason to hope he should prevail on those who were at liberty when he could work so little on his Prisoner the Duke of Saxe For he had endeavoured by great offers to perswade him to agree to it but all was in vain for he always told them that kept him that his Person was in their Power but his Conscience was in his own and that he would not on any terms depart from the Ausburg Confession Upon this he was severely used his Chaplain was put from him with most of his Servants but he continued still unmoved and as cheerful as in his greatest Prosperity The Lutheran Divines entred into great disputes how far they might comply
two Positions Transubstantiation cannot be proved by the plain and manifest words of Scripture nor can it be necessarily collected from it nor yet confirmed by the consent of the Ancient Fathers In the Lords Supper there is none other Oblation and Sacrifice than of a Remembrance of Christs Death and of Thanksgiving Dr. Madew defended these and Glyn Langdale Sedgewick and Young disputed against them the first day and the second day Glyn defended the contrary Propositions and Peru Grindal Gest and Pilkington disputed against them On the third day the Dispute went on and was summed up in a learned Determination by Ridley against the Corporal Presence There had been also a long Disputation in the Parliament on the same Subject but of this we have nothing remaining but what King Edward writ in his Journal Ridley had by reading Bertrams Book of the Body and Blood of Christ been first set on to examine well the old Opinion concerning the Presence of Christs very Flesh and Blood in the Sacrament and wondering to find that in the 9th Century that Opinion was so much controverted and so learnedly writ against by one of the most esteemed Men of that Age began to conclude that it was none of the ancient Doctrines of the Church but lately brought in and not fully received till after Bertrams Age. He communicated the Matter with Cranmer and they set themselves to examine it with more than ordinary care Cranmer afterwards gathered all the Arguments about it into the Book which he writ on that Subject to which Gardiner set out an Answer under the disguised Name of Marcus Constantius and Cranmer replied to it I shall offer the Reader in short the Substance of what was in these Books and of the Arguments used in the Disputations and in many other Books which were at that time written on this Subject Christ in the Institution took Bread and gave it So that his words The manner of the Presence explained according to the Scripture This is my Body could only be meant of the Bread Now the Bread could not be his Body literally He himself also calls the Cup The Fruit of the Vine St. Paul calls it The Bread that we break and the Cup that we bless and speaking of it after it was blessed calls it That Bread and that Cup. For the Reason of that Expression This is my Body it was considered that the Disciples to whom Christ spoke thus were Jews and that they being accustomed to the Mosaical Rites must needs have understood his words in the same sense they did Moses's words concerning the Paschal Lamb which is called the Lords Passover It was not that literally for the Lords Passover was the Angels passing by the Israelites when he smote the first-born of the Egyptians so the Lamb was only the Lords Passover as it was the Memorial of it and thus Christ substituting the Eucharist to the Paschal Lamb used such an Expression calling it his Body in the same manner of speaking as the Lamb was called the Lords Passover This was plain enough for his Disciples could not well understand him in any other sense than that to which they had been formerly accustomed In the Scripture many such Figurative Expressions occurre frequently In Baptism the other Sacrament instituted by Christ he is said to Baptize with the Holy Ghost and with Fire and such as are Baptized are said to put on Christ which were Figurative Expressions As also in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the Cup is called the New Testament in Christs Blood which is an Expression full of Figure Farther it was observed that that Sacrament was Instituted for a Remembrance of Christ and of his death which implied that he was to be absent at the time when he was to be remembred Nor was it simply said that the Elements were his Body and Blood but that they were his Body broken and his Blood shed that is they were these as suffering on the Cross which as they could not be understood literally for Christ did Institute this Sacrament before he had suffered on the Cross so now Christ must be present in the Sacrament not as glorified in Heaven but as suffering on his Cross From those Places where it is said that Christ is in Heaven and that he is to continue there they argued that he was not to be any more upon Earth And those words in the 6th of St. John of eating Christs Flesh and drinking his Blood they said were to be understood not of the Sacrament since many receive the Sacrament unworthily and of them it cannot be said that they have Eternal Life in them but Christ there said of them that received him in the sense that was meant in that Chapter that all that did so eat his Flesh had Eternal Life in them therefore these words can only be understood Figuratively of receiving him by Faith as himself there explains it And so in the end of that Discourse finding some were startled at that way of expressing himself he gave a Key to the whole when he said his Words were Spirit and Life and that the Flesh profited nothing it was the Spirit that quickned It was ordinary for him to teach in Parables and the receiving of any Doctrine being oft expressed by the Prophets by the Figure of eating and drinking he upon the occasion of the Peoples coming to him after he had fed them with a few Loaves did discourse of their believing in these dark Expressions which did not seem to relate to the Sacrament since it was not then Instituted They also argued from Christs appealing to the Senses of his Hearers in his Miracles and especially in his discourses upon his Resurrection that the Testimony of Sense was to be received where the Object was duly applied and the Sense not vitiated They also alledged natural Reasons against a Bodies being in more places than one or being in a Place in the manner of a Spirit so that the Substance of a compleat Body could be in a crumb of Bread or drop of Wine and argued that since the Elements after Consecration would nourish might putrifie or could be poisoned these things clearly evinced That the Substance of Bread and Wine remained in the Sacrament And from the Fathers From this they went to examine the Ancient Fathers Some of them called it Bread and Wine others said it nourished the Body as Justin Martyr others that it was digested in the Stomach and went into the draught as Origen Some called it a Figure of Christs Body so Tertullian and St. Austin others called the Elements Types and Signs so almost all the Ancient Liturgies and the Greek Fathers generally In the Creeds of the Church it was professed that Christ still sate on the Right Hand of God the Fathers argued from thence that he was in Heaven and not on Earth And the Marcionites and other Hereticks denying that Christ had a true Body or did really suffer the Fathers
Gods Word but she was sure that was not now Gods Word that was called so in her Fathers days He said Gods Word was the same at all times She answered She was sure he durst not for his Ears have avowed these things in her Fathers time which he did now and for their Books as she thanked God she never had so she never would read them She also used many reproachful words to him and asked him If he was of the Council He said not She replied He might well enough be as the Council goes now a-days and so dismissed him thanking him for coming to see her but not at all for offering to preach before her Sir Tho. Wharton one of her Officers carried him to a place where he desired him to drink which Ridley did but reflecting on it said He had done amiss to drink in a place where Gods Word was rejected for if he had remembred his Duty he should upon that refusal have shaken the dust off his Feet for a Testimony against the House and have departed immediately These words he was observed to pronounce with an extraordinary concern and went away much troubled in his mind And this is all I find of the Lady Mary during this Reign For the Lady Elizabeth she had been always bred up to like the Reformation and Dr. Parker who had been her Mothers Chaplain received a strict charge from her Mother a little before her death to look well to the instructing her Daughter in the Principles of true Religion so that there is no doubt to be made of her chearful receiving all the changes that had been established by Law The Designs of the Earl of Warwick And this is all that concerns Religion that falls within this Year But now a design came to be laid which though it broke not out for some time yet it was believed to have had a great influence on the Fall of the Duke of Somerset The Earl of Warwick began to form great Projects for himself and thought to bring the Crown into his Family The King was now much alienated from the Lady Mary the Privy-Council had also embroiled themselves so with her that he imagined it would be no hard matter to exclude her from the Succession There was but one reason that could be pretended for it which was that she stood illegitimated by Law and that therefore the next Heirs in Blood could not be barred their right by her since it would be a great blot on the Honour of the English Crown to let it devolve on a Bastard This was as strong against the Lady Elizabeth since she was also illegitimated by a Sentence in the Spiritual Court and that confirmed in Parliament so if their jealousie of the elder Sisters Religion and the fear of her revenge moved them to be willing to cut her off from the Succession the same reason that was to be used in Law against her was also to take place against her Sister So he reckoned that these two were to be passed over as being put both in the Act of Succession and in the late Kings Will by one error The next in the Will were the Heirs of the French Queen by Charles Brandon who were the Dutchess of Suffolk and her Sister Though I have seen it often said in many Letters and Writings of that time that all that Issue by Charles Brandon was illegitimated since he was certainly married to one Mortimer before he married the Queen of France which Mortimer lived long after his Marriage to that Queen so that all her Children were Bastards some say he was divorced from his Marriage to Mortimer but that is not clear to me The Sweating Sickness This Year the Sweating Sickness that had been formerly both in Henry the 7th and the late King's Reign broke out with that violence in England that many were swept away by it Such as were taken with it died certainly if they slept to which they had a violent desire but if it took them not off in twenty four hours they did sweat out the venom of the distemper which raged so in London that in one week 800 died of it It did also spread into the Country and the two Sons of Charles Brandon by his last Wife both Dukes of Suffolk died within a day one of another So that Title was fallen Their Sister by the half Blood was married to Gray Lord Marquess of Dorset So she being the eldest Daughter to the French Queen the Earl of Warwick resolved to link himself to that Family and to procure the Honour of the Dukedome of Suffolk to be given the Marquess of Dorset who was a weak Man and easily governed He had three Daughters the eldest was Jane a Lady of as excellent qualities as any of that Age of great Parts bred to Learning and much conversant in Scripture and of so rare a temper of mind that she charmed all who knew her in particular the young King about whom she was bred and who had always lived with her in the familiarities of a Brother The Earl of Warwick designed to marry her to Guilford his fourth Son then living his three elder being already married and so to get the Crown to descend on them if the King should die of which it is thought he resolved to take care But apprehending some danger from the Lady Elizabeths Title he intended to send her away So an Ambassador was dispatched to Denmark to treat a Marriage for her with that Kings eldest Son To amuse the King himself a most splendid Embassy was sent to France The King treats with the French King for a Marriage with his Daughter to propose a Marriage for the King to that Kings Daughter Elizabeth afterwards married to Philip of Spain The Marquess of Northampton was sent with this Proposition and with the Order of the Garter With him went the Earls of Worcester Rutland and Ormond the Lords Lisle Fitzwater Bray Abergaveny and Evers and the Bishop of Ely who was to be their Mouth With them went many Gentlemen of Quality who with their Train made up near 500. King Henry received the Garter with great expressions of Esteem for the King The Bishop of Ely told him They were come to desire a more close tie between these Crowns by Marriage and to have the League made firmer between them in other Particulars To which the Cardinal of Lorrain made answer in his way of speaking which was always vain and full of ostentation A Commission was given to that Cardinal the Constable the Duke of Guise and others to treat about it The English began first for Forms sake to desire the Queen of Scots But that being rejected they moved for the Daughter of France which was entertained but so that neither Party should be bound in Honour and Conscience till the Lady were twelve years of Age. Yet this never taking effect it is needless to enlarge further about it of which the Reader will find
University Orator in Cambridge and Sir Jo. Cheek were employed to put it in Latine And they did so imitate the Stile of the Roman Laws that any who reads the Book will fancy himself to be reading a Work of the purer Ages of that State when their Language was not yet corrupted with these barbarous terms which the mixture of other Nations brought in and made it no where more nauseously rude than in the Canon Law The Work was digested and cast into fifty one Titles to bring it near the Number of the Books of the Pandects into which Justinian had digested the Roman Law It was prepared by February this year and a Commission was granted to thirty two Persons of whom the former eight were a part consisting of eight Bishops eight Divines among whom John a Lasco was one eight Civilians and eight Common Lawyers They were to revise correct and perfect the Work and so to present it to the King They divided themselves into four Classes eight to a Classis and every one of these were to prepare their Corrections and so to communicate them to the rest And thus was the Work carried on and finished but before it received the Royal Confirmation the King died and this fell with him nor do I find it was ever since that time taken up or prosecuted with the care that a thing of such consequence deserved and therefore I shall not think it improper for me having before shewed what was done in the next place to give an account of what was then intended to be done and is now very fit to be well considered The first Title was of the Trinity and the Catholick Faith The Chief Heads of it in which those who denied the Christian Religion were to suffer death and the loss of their Goods The Books of Scripture were numbred these called Apocryphal being left out of the Canon which though they were read in the Church it was only for the edification of the People but not for the proof of the Doctrine The power of the Church was subjected to the Scriptures The four General Councils were received but all Councils were to be examined by the Scripture as were also the Writings of the Fathers who were to be much reverenced but according to what themselves have written they were only to be submitted to when they agreed with the Scriptures The second Title contains an enumeration of many Heresies viz. against the Trinity Jesus Christ the Scriptures about Original sin Justification the Mass Purgatory and censured those who denied Magistracy to be lawful or asserted the Community of Goods or Wives or who denied the Pastoral Office and thought any might assume it at pleasure or who thought the Sacraments naked Signs who denied the Baptism of Infants or thought none could possibly be saved that were not Baptized or who asserted Transubstantiation or denied the lawfulness of Marriage particularly in the Clergy or who asserted the Popes Power or such as excused their ill Lives by the pretence of Predestination as many wicked Men did from which and other Heresies all are disswaded and earnestly exhorted to endeavour the extirpation of them The third was about the Judgments of Heresie before the Bishop of the Diocess even in exempted Places They were to proceed by Witnesses but the Party upon fame might be required to purge himself if he repented he was to make publick profession of it in those places where he had spread it and to renounce his Heresie swearing never to return to it any more but obstinate Hereticks were to be declared infamous incapable of publick Trust or to be Witnesses in any Court or to have power to make a Testament and were not to have the benefit of the Law Clergy-men falling into Heresie were not to return to their Benefices unless the Circumstances were such that they required it and thus all Capital Proceedings for Heresie were laid down The fourth was about Blasphemy flowing from hatred or rage against God which was to be punished as obstinate Heresie was The fifth was about the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper To which is added that Imposition of Hands is to be retained in the Ordination of Pastors that Marriages are to be solemnly made that those who renew their Baptismal Vow be confirmed by the Bishop and that the Sick should be visited by their Pastors The sixth was about Idolatry Magick Witchcraft or consulting with Conjurers who were to be arbitrarily punished if they submitted otherwise to be excommunicated The seventh was about Preachers whom the Bishops were to examine carefully before they licensed them and were once a year to gather together all those who were licensed in their Diocesses to know of them the true state of their Flock what Vices abounded and what Remedies were most proper Those who refused to hear Sermons or did make disturbance in them were to be separated from the Communion It seems it was designed that there should be in every Diocess some who should go round a Precinct and Preach like Evangelists as some then called them The eighth was about Marriage which was to be after asking Banes three Sundays or Holy-days Those who were married in any other Form than that in the Book of Service were not to be esteemed lawfully married those who corrupted Virgins were to be excommunicated if they did not marry them or if that could not be done they were to give them the third part of their Goods besides other arbitrary punishments Marriages made without the consent of Parents or Guardians were declared null Then follow the things that may void Marriages they are left free to all Poligamy is forbid Marriages made by force are declared void Mothers are required to suckle their Children The ninth is about the Degrees of Marriage All these in the Levitical Law or those that are reciprocal to them are forbidden but Spiritual Kindred was not to hinder Marriage since there was nothing in Scripture about it nor was there any good reason for it The tenth was about Adultery A Clergy-man guilty of it was to forfeit all his Goods and Estate to his Wife and Children or if he had none to the Poor or some pious use and to lose his Benefice and be either banished or imprisoned during Life A Lay-man was to restore his Wives Portion and to give her the half of his Goods and be imprisoned or banished during Life Wives that were guilty were to be in like manner punished But the Innocent Party might marry again yet such were rather exhorted if they saw hope of amendment to be reconciled to the offending Party No Marriage was to be dissolved without a Sentence of Divorce Desertion long Absence Capital Enmities where either Party was in hazard of their Life or the constant perverseness or fierceness of a Husband against his Wife might induce a Divorce but little Quarrels might not do it nor a perpetual Disease Relief in such a Misery being one of the Ends
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
they continued still in that mind that they could not be offered by them as Mediators yet they ordered them to impart them unto the Emperor as News and carefully to observe his looks and behaviour upon their opening of every one of them But now the Kings death broke off this Negotiation The Kings sickness together with all his other Affairs He had last year first the Measels and then the Small-Pox of which he was perfectly recovered In his Progress he had been sometimes violent in his Exercises which had cast him into great Colds but these went off and he seemed to be well after it But in the beginning of January this year he was seized with a deep Cough and all Medicines that were used did rather encrease than lessen it upon which a suspition was taken up and spread over all the World so that it is mentioned by most of the Historians of that Age that some lingering Poison had been given him but more than Rumours and some ill-favoured Circumstances I could never discover concerning this He was so ill when the Parliament met that he was not able to go to Westminster but ordered their first meeting and the Sermon to be at White-hall In the time of his sickness Bishop Ridley preached before him and took occasion to run out much on Works of Charity and the obligation that lay on Men of high Condition to be eminent in good Works This touched the King to the quick So that presently after Sermon he sent for the Bishop His care of the Relief of the Poor And after he had commanded him to sit down by him and be covered he resumed most of the Heads of the Sermon and said he looked on himself as chiefly touched by it he desired him as he had already given him the Exhortation in general so to direct him how to do his duty in that Particular The Bishop astonished at this tenderness in so young a Prince burst forth in Tears expressing how much he was overjoyed to see such inclinations in him but told him he must take time to think on it and craved leave to consult with the Lord Major and Court of Aldermen So the King writ by him to them to consult speedily how the Poor should be relieved They considered there were three sorts of Poor such as were so by natural infirmity or folly as impotent Persons and Mad-men or Ideots such as were so by accident as sick or maimed Persons and such as by their idleness did cast themselves into poverty So the King ordered the Gray-friars Church near Newgate with the Revenues belonging to it to be a House for Orphans St. Bartholomews near Smith-field to be an Hospital and gave his own House of Bridewell to be a Place of Correction and Work for such as were wilfully idle He also confirmed and enlarged the Grant for the Hospital of St. Thomas in Southwark which he had erected and endowed in August last And when he set his Hand to these Foundations which was not done before the 26th of June this Year He thanked God that had prolonged his Life till he had finished that design So he was the first Founder of those Houses which by many great Additions since that time have risen to be among the Noblest in Europe He expressed in the whole course of his sickness great submission to the Will of God and seemed glad at the approaches of death only the consideration of Religion and the Church touched him much and upon that account he said he was desirous of Life About the end of May Several Marriages or beginning of June the Duke of Suffolks three Daughters were married The eldest Lady Jane to the Lord Guilford Dudley the fourth Son of the Duke of Northumberland who was the only Son whom he had yet unmarried The second the Lady Katharine to the Earl of Pembroke's eldest Son the Lord Herbert The third the Lady Mary who was crooked to the Kings Groom-Porter Martin Keys The Duke of Northumberland married his two Daughters the eldest to Sir Henry Sidney Son to Sir William Sidney that had been Steward to the King when he was Prince the other was married to the Lord Hastings Son to the Earl of Huntington The People were mightily inflamed against this insolent Duke for it was generally given out that he was sacrificing the King to his own extravagant ambition He seemed little to regard their Censures but attended on the King most constantly and expressed all the care and concern about him that was possible And finding that nothing went so near his Heart as the ruine of Religion which he apprehended would follow upon his death when his Sister Mary should come to the Crown He is perswaded to leave the Crown to the Lady Jane Upon that he and his Party took advantage to propose to him to settle the Crown by his Letters Patents on the Lady Jane Gray How they prevailed with him to pass by his Sister Elizabeth who had been always much in his favour I do not so well understand But the King being wrought over to this the Dutchess of Suffolk who was next in King Henry's Will was ready to devolve her Right on her Daughter even though she should come afterwards to have Sons So on the 11th of June Mountague that was Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas and Baker and Bromley two Judges Which the Judges at first opposed with the Kings Attorney and Solicitor were commanded to come to Council There they found the King with some Privy-Councellors about him The King told them he did now apprehend the danger the Kingdom might be in if upon his death his Sister Mary should succeed who might marry a Stranger and so change the Laws and the Religion of the Realm So he ordered some Articles to be read to them of the way in which he would have the Crown to descend They objected that the Act of Succession being an Act of Parliament could not be taken away by any such device yet the King required them to take the Articles and draw a Book according to them they asked a little time to consider of it So having examined the Statute of the first Year of this Reign concerning Treasons they found that it was Treason not only after the Kings death but even in his Life to change the Succession Secretary Petre in the mean while pressed them to make hast When they came again to the Council they declared they could not do any such thing for it was Treason and all the Lords should be guilty of Treason if they went on in it Upon which the Duke of Northumberland who was not then in the Council-Chamber being advertised of this came in great fury calling Mountague a Traitor and threatned all the Judges so that they thought he would have beaten them But the Judges stood to their Opinion They were again sent for and came with Gosnold added to them on the 15th of June The King was
present and he somewhat sharply asked them Why they had not prepared the Book as he had ordered them They answered That what ever they did would be of no force without a Parliament The King said He intended to have one shortly Then Mountague proposed that it might be delayed till the Parliament met But the King said He would have it first done and then ratified in Parliament and therefore he required them on their Allegiance to go about it and some Counsellors told them if they refused to obey that they were Traitors This put them in a great consternation and old Mountague thinking it could not be Treason what ever they did in this matter while the King lived and at worst that a Pardon under the Great Seal would secure him consented to set about it if he might have a Commission requiring him to do it and a Pardon under the Great Seal when it was done Both these being granted him he was satisfied The other Judges But through fear all yielded except Judge Hales being asked if they would concur did all agree being overcome with fear except Gosnald who still refused to do it But he also being sorely threatned both by the Duke of Northumberland and the Earl of Shrewsbury consented to it the next day So they put the Entail of the Crown in Form of Law and brought it to the Lord Chancellor to put the Seal to it They were all required to set their Hands to it but both Gosnald and Hales refused Yet the former was wrought on to do it but the latter though a most steady and zealous Man for the Reformation would upon no consideration yield to it After that the Lord Chancellor for his Security desired that all the Counsellors might set their Hands to it which was done on the 21st of June by thirty three of them it is like including the Judges in the Number But Cranmer as he came seldom to Council after the Duke of Somersets Fall so he was that day absent on design Cecil in a Relation which he made one write of this Transaction for clearing himself afterwards says That when he had heard Gosnald and Hales declare how much it was against Law he refused to set his Hand to it as a Counsellor and that he only Signed as a Witness to the Kings Subscription But Cranmer still refused to do it after they had all Signed it and said he would never consent to the disinheriting of the Daughters of his late Master Many Consultations were had to perswade him to it Cranmer was very hardly brought to consent to it But he could not be prevailed on till the King himself set on him who used many Arguments from the danger Religion would otherwise be in together with other Perswasions so that by his Reasons or rather Importunities at last he brought him to it But whether he also used that distinction of Cecils that he did it as a Witness and not as a Counsellor I do not know but it seems probable that if that liberty was allowed the one it would not be denied the other The Kings sickness becomes desperate But though the setling this business gave the King great content in his mind yet his Distemper rather encreased than abated so that the Physicians had no hope of his recovery Upon which a confident Woman came and undertook his Cure if he might be put into her Hands This was done and the Physicians were put from him upon this pretence that they having no hopes of his recovery in a desperate Case desperate Remedies were to be used This was said to be the Duke of Northumberlands advice in particular and it encreased the Peoples jealousie of him when they saw the King grow very sensibly worse every day after he came under the Womans care which becoming so plain she was put from him and the Physicians were again sent for and took him into their charge But if they had small hopes before they had none at all now Death thus hastening on him the Duke of Northumberland who knew he had done but half his work except he had the Kings Sisters in his Hands got the Council to write to them in the Kings Name inviting them to come and keep him company in his sickness But as they were on the way on the sixth of July his Spirits and Body were so sunk that he found death approaching and so he composed himself to die in a most devout manner His whole exercise was in short Prayers and Ejaculations The last that he was heard to use was in these words Lord God deliver me out of this miserable and wretched Life His last Prayer and take me among thy Chosen Howbeit not my Will but thine be done Lord I commit my Spirit to thee O Lord thou knowest how happy it were for me to be with thee yet for thy Chosens sake send me Life and Health that I may truly serve thee O my Lord God bless my People and save thine Inheritance O Lord God save thy chosen People of England O Lord God defend this Realm from Papistry and maintain thy true Religion that I and my People may praise thy Holy Name for Jesus Christ his sake Seeing some about him he seemed troubled that they were so near and had heard him but with a pleasant countenance he said he had been praying to God And soon after the Pangs of death coming on him he said to Sir Henry Sidney who was holding him in his Arms I am faint Lord have mercy on me and receive my Spirit and so he breathed out his Innocent Soul The Duke of Northumberland according to Cecils Relation intended to have concealed his death for a fortnight but it could not be done His Death and Character Thus died King Edward the sixth that incomparable young Prince He was then in the sixteenth Year of his Age and was counted the wonder of that Time He was not only learned in the Tongues and other Liberal Sciences but knew well the State of his Kingdom He kept a Book in which he writ the Characters that were given him of all the chief Men of the Nation all the Judges Lord-Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace over England in it he had marked down their way of living and their zeal for Religion He had studied the matter of the Mint with the Exchange and value of Money so that he understood it well as appears by his Journal He also understood Fortification and designed well He knew all the Harbours and Ports both of his own Dominions and of France and Scotland and how much Water they had and what was the way of coming in to them He had acquired great knowledge in Forreign Affairs so that he talked with the Ambassadors about them in such a manner that they filled all the World with the highest opinion of him that was possible which appears in most of the Histories of that Age. He had great quickness of apprehension and
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
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
them into some other Cure or reserve a Pension out of their Benefice for them That no religious Man who had professed Chastity should be suffered to live with his Wife That care should be taken of vacant Churches That till they were provided the people should go to the Neighbouring Churches That all the Ceremonies Holy-days and Fasts used in King Henry's time should be again observed That those who were ordained by the new Book in King Edwards time not being ordained in very deed The Bishop if they were otherwise sufficient should supply vvhat vvas vvanting before and so admit them to Minister That the Bishops should set forth an uniform Doctrine of Homilies and compel the people to come to Church and hear Divine Service That they should carefully look to all School-masters and Teachers of Children And that the Bishops should take care to set forth the Premises vvith all kind of Vertue godly Living and good Example Proceedings against the Bishops that adhered to the Reformation and endeavour to keep down all sort of Vice These vvere Sign'd on the 4 of March and Printed and sent over the Kingdom But to make the Married Bishops Examples of the severity of their proceedings the Queen gave a special Commission to Gardiner Tonstall Bonner Parfew Bishop of St. Asaph Day and Kitchin of Landaffe making mention that vvith great grief of heart she had heard that the Archbishop of York the Bishops of St. Davids Chester and Bristol had broken their Vows and defiled their Function by contracting Marriage therefore those or any three of them are empowered to call them before them and if the Premises be found to be true Col. Number 11. 12. to deprive and turn them out of their Bishopricks This I have put into the Collection with another Comission to the same Persons to call the Bishops of Lincoln Glocester and Hereford before them in whose Patents it was provided that they should hold their Bishopricks so long as they behaved themselves well and since they by preaching Erroneous Doctrine and by inordinate Life and Conversation as she credibly understood had carried themselves contrary to the Laws of God and the Practice of the universal Church these or any two of them should proceed against them either according to Ecclesiastical Canons or the Laws of the Land and declare their Bishopricks void as they vvere indeed already void Thus vvere Seven Bishops all at a dash turned out It was much censured that there having been Laws made allowing Marriage to the Clergy the Queen should by her own Authority upon the repealing these Laws turn out Bishops for things that had been so well warranted by Law for the Repeal was only an Annulling of the Law for the Future but did not void it from the beginning so that however it might have justified proceedings against them for the Future if they had lived with their Wives yet it could not warrant the punishing them for what was past And even the severest Popes or their Legates who had pressed the Coelibate most had always before they proceeded to deprive any Priests for Marriage left it to their choice whether they would quit their Wives or their Benefices but had never summarily turned them out for being married And for the other Bishops it was an unheard of way of procedure for the Queen before any process was made to empower Delegates to declare their Sees void as they were indeed aIready void This was to give Sentence before hearing And all this was done by vertue of the Queens Supremacy for tho she thought that a sinful and Schismatical Power yet she was easily perswaded to use it against the Reformed Clergy and to turn them out of their Benefices upon such unjust and Illegal pretences So that now the proceedings against Gardiner and Bonner in which were the greatest Stretches made that had been in the last Reign were far outdone by those new Delegates For the Archbishop of York tho he was now turned out yet he was still kept Prisoner till King Philip among the Acts of Grace he did at his coming over procured his Liberty But his See was not filled till February next for then Heath had his Conge d'elire On or before the 18th of March this Year were those other Sees declared Vacant For that day did the Conge d'elire go out to the Deans and Chapters of St. Davids Lincoln Hereford Chester Glocester and Bristol sor Morgan White Parfew Coates Brookes and Holyman Goodrick of Ely died in April this Year He seems to have complied with the time as he had done often before for he was not at all cast into any trouble which it cannot be imagined he could have escaped since he had put the great Seal to the Patents for the Lady Jane if he had not Redeemed it by a ready consenting to the changes that were to be made He was a busie secular spirited Man and had given himself up wholly to Factions and Intrigues of State so that tho his opinion had always leaned to the Reformation it is no wonder if a man so tempered would prefer the keeping of his Bishoprick before the Discharge of his Conscience Thirleby of Norwich was Translated to Ely and Hopton was made Bishop of Norwich But Scory that had been Bishop os Chichester tho upon Day 's being restored he was turned out of his Bishoprick did comply meerly He came before Bonner and Renounced his Wife and did Penance for it and had his Absolution under his Seal the 14th of July this Year which is in the Collection Number 13. But it seems this was out of fear for he soon after fled out of England and lived beyond Sea untill Queen Elizabeth's days and then he came over But it was judged indecent to restore him to his former See where it is likely this Scandal he had given was known and so he was made Bishop of Hereford The Bishop of Bath and Wales Barlow was also made to Resign as appears by the Conge d'elire for Bourn to succeed him dated the 19th of March. Therein it is said that the See wss Vacant by the Resignation of the former Bishop tho in the Election that was made on the 28th of March it is said the See was vacant by the Removal or Deprivation of their former Bishop But I incline to believe it truer that he did resign since he is not mentioned in the Commissions formerly spoken of But that was not all for at this time a Book was set out in his Name whether written by him or Forged and laid on his Name I cannot judge in which he retracts his former errours and speaks of Luther and Oecolampadius and many others with whom he says he had familiarly conversed with great bitterness He also accuses the Gospellers in England of Gluttony Hypocrisie Pride and ill Nature And indeed it is one of the most Virulent Invectives against the Reformation that was written at that time But it is not likely
if he had turned so heartily as the Strain of that Book runs that he would have been quite thrown out especially since he had never Married so I rather look on it as a Forgerie cast on his Name to disgrace the Reformation He fled beyond Sea where he lived till the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign and then it seems there was some offence taken at his former behaviour for he was not restored to Bath and Wales but put into Chichester that was a much meaner Bishoprick Thus I have given a clear account and free of all Partiality or Reservation of the changes made in the most of the Sees in England The two Arch-Bishops Cranmer and Holgate the Bishops Ridley Poinet Scory Coverdale Taylor Harvey Bird Bush Hooper Ferrar and Barlow were all removed Rochester was void and Griffins was put into it this April Goddrick dying now Thirleby succeeded him and Sampson of Coventry and Litchfield dying soon after Bayn succeeded him So here were sixteen new Bishops brought in which made no small change in the Church The Mass every where set up When this done the Bishops went about the executing of the Queen's Injunctions The New Service was every-where cast out and the Old Ceremonies and Service were again set up In this Business none was so hot as Bonner for the Act that repealed King Edward's Laws being agreed to by the Commons to whom the Lords had sent it he without staying for the Royal Assent did that very Night set up the Old Worship at Pauls on St. Katherines day and it being the custom that on some Holy Days the Quire went up to the Steeple to sing the Anthems that fell to be on that Night which was an antick way of beginning a form of Worship to which the People had been long disused And the next Day being St. Andrew's he did officiate himself and had a solemn Procession The most eminent Preachers in London were either put in Prison or under Confinement and as all their Mouths had been stopt by the prohibiting of Sermons unless a License were obtained so they were now to be fallen on for their Marriages Parker estimates it that there were now about 16000 Clergy-Men in England and of these 12000 were turned out upon this account some he says were deprived without Conviction upon common Fame some were never cited to appear and yet turned out Many that were in Prison were cited and turned out for not appearing though it was not in their Power Some were induced to submit and quit their Wives for their Livings They were all summarily deprived Nor was this all but after they were deprived they were also forced to leave their Wives which piece of severity was grounded on the Vow that as was pretended they had made though the falshood of this Charge was formerly demonstrated To justify this severity of Procedure many were set to write against the Marriage of the Clergy Books against the marriage of the Clergy Smith of whom I made mention in the former Book that had then so humbly recanted and submitted did now appear very boldly and reprinted his Book with many Additions But the most studied Work was set out by Martin a Doctor of the Laws It was certainly for most part Gardiner's Work and I have seen the Proof Sheets of a great part of it dasht and altered in many places by Gardiner's hand This Martin had made his Court to Cranmer in former times He had studied the Law at Bourges where Francis Balduin one of the celebrated Lawyers of that time had publickly noted him for his lewdness as being not only over-run himself with the French Pox but as being a Corrupter of all the University which Balduin certified in a Letter to one in England that took care to print it It was also printed that Bonner had many Bastards and himself was believed to be the Bastard of one Savage a Priest in Leicestershire that had been Bastard to Sir John Savage of Cheshire Which Priest by Elizabeth Frodshum the Wife of one Edmond Bonner had this Edmond now Bishop of London and it seems his Mother did not soon give over those her lewd Courses for Wymsly Arch-Deacon of London was another of her Bastards That Kennel of the uncleanness of the Priests and Religious Houses was again on this occasion racked and exposed with too much indecency for the married Priests being openly accused for the impurity and sensuality of their Lives thought it was a just piece of self-defence to turn these Imputations back on those who pretended to Chastity and yet led most irregular Lives under that appearance of greater strictness This was the state in which things were when the New Parliament A New Parliament met on the 2d of April Gardiner had before-hand prepared the Commons by giving the most considerable of them Pensions some had 200 and some a 100 l. a Year for giving their Voices to the Marriage The first Act that passed seemed of an odd nature and has a great Secret under it The Speaker of the House of Commons brought in a Bill declaring That whereas the Queen had of right succeeded to the Crown but because all the Laws of England had been made by Kings The Regal Power asserted to be in a Queen as well as a King and declared the Prerogatives to be in the King's Person from thence some might pretend that the Queen had no right to them it was therefore declared to have been the Law that these Prerogatives did belong to the Crown whether it were in the hands of Male or Female and whatsoever the Law did limit and appoint for the King was of right also due to the Queen who is declared to have as much Authority as any other her Progenitors Many in the House of Commons wondered what was the intention of such a Law and as People were at this time full of jealousie The Secret Reasons for that Act. one Skinner a Member of the House who in Queen Elizabeth's time took Orders and was made Dean of Duresm said he could not imagine why such a frivolous Law was desired since the thing was without dispute E M. SS D. Gul. Petyt and that that which was pretended of satisfying the People was too slight he was affraid there was a trick in these words That the Queen had as great Authority as any of her Progenitors on which perhaps it might be afterwards said She had the same Power that William the Conqueror exercised in seizing the Lands of the English and giving them to Strangers which also Edward the First did upon the conquest of Wales He did not know what relation this might have to the intended Marriage therefore he warned the House to look well to it so a Committee being appointed to correct it such words were added as brought the Queen's Prerogative under the same Limitations as well as it exalted it to the height of her Progenitors But one Fleetwood afterwards
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
Houses in England again she had begun with their Order the Franciscans of the Observance and with their House at Greenwich which was the first that was suppressed as was shewn in the former Book and therefore she ordered that to be rebuilt this Summer So Elston and Peyto going down by water there were Stones flung at them by some that were a Shore in London This the Queen resented highly so she sent the Lord Treasurer to the Lord Mayor requiring him to make Proclamation of a Reward to any that should discover those who had done it but it could not be found out She ordered all Sir Thomas Mores's Works to be printed Sir Th. More 's Works Printed together in one Volumn which were in the Press this Year and it was given out as an extraordinary thing that King Edward had died and she succeeded to the Crown that very day in which he was beheaded But in publishing his Works one piece of Fraud has occurred to me since the former Part was printed But his Letter about the Nun of Kent was left out I have seen the Manuscript out of which his Letters were printed where the Originals of the Letters that he writ to his Daughter Mris Roper are with the Copies of those that he writ to Cromwel But among these there is a long Letter concerning the Nun of Kent in which he speaks fully of her Hypocrisie and other Villanies It contains many remarkable passages concerning her of the high opinion he at first had of her how he was led into it and how he was afterwards convinced That she was the most false dissembling Hypocrite that had been known and guilty of the most detestable Hypocrisie and devilish dissembled Falshood and he believed that she had communication with an evil Spirit This Letter was at that time concealed but not destroyed So I find the conjecture I made about it in my former Part has proved true though I did not then hope to come by the Letter it self as I have done since It seems it was resolved to raise the Credit of that Story and since the Nun was believed to be both a Martyr and a Prophetess it is like she might have been easily gotten to be Canoniz'd and therefore so great a Testimony from such a Man was not thought fit to be left in her way Coll. Number 21. The Letter I have put into the Collections Concerning this Edition of Sir Thomas Mores's Works I shall recal to the Reader 's mind what was said in the former Part about his Life pretended to be writ by Rastal Rastal published his works but did not write his Life was now the publisher of his Works and so much encouraged in it that the Queen promoted him soon after to be a Judge and so it is not likely that Rastal ever writ any such Book otherwise he had now prefixed it to this Edition Nor is it probable that the stories which Sanders vented in his name afterwards concerning Ann Boleyn or Queen Elizabeths Birth were then so much as contrived otherwise it is not credible that they should not have been printed at this time since the Lady Elizabeth being the only object of the fear and jealousy of the popish Party was now out of the Queens favour and a Prisoner so that we cannot doubt but all such Stories would have bin very acceptable to the Queen and the Clergy would have taken care to have published them for the defaming her and blasting her Title And therefore these things seem to be afterwards contrived in revenge when Queen Elizabeth began to proceed severely against that Party after the many and repeated Conspiracies they had engaged in against her Life But now the Queen The Queen restores all he Church Lands that â—elonged to the Crown Col. Number 22. resolved to endow so many Religious Houses as the Revenues of the Church that were in her hands could maintain and about that and some other particulars she writ some directions to the Council with her own hand which will be found in the Collections I have seen two Copies of these that differ a little but I follow that which seemed to me to be best derived from the Original She desired That those who had Commission to treat with the Cardinal about the goods of the Church might wait on him once a week to finish that and some other matters that were to be prepared for the Parliament She particularly recommended the care of having good Preaching encouraged which she wished might be well looked to and she advised a general Visitation both of the Vniversities and Churches to be made by such as the Cardinal and they should think fit As for the punishment of Hereticks she wished it might not be done rashly yet she would have Justice done on those who by Learning studied to deceive the simple but would have it so managed that the People might see they were not condemned but upon just occasions and therefore ordered that some of the Council should be present at all the burnings about London and that there should be every where good Sermons at those times She also verily believed that many Benefices should not be in one mans hand but that every Priest ought to look to his Cure and reside upon it And she looked on the Pluralities over England to be a main cause of the want of good Preachers whose Sermons if joyned with a good Example would do much good and without that she thought their Sermons would profit little And now I return to the Burnings More Hereticks burnt from which I am not unwilling frequently to break off since a continued relation of such things cannot be but an ungrateful entertainment to the Reader In July one Juxon was burnt at Chichester On the 2d of August James Abeys was burnt at Bury in Suffolk On the 8th of August Denly a Gentleman was burnt at Vxbridge and Robert Smith at Waybridge On the 26th George Tankervil was burnt at St. Albans And on the 28th of August Patrick Packingham also was burnt there On the 31st of August one Newman was burnt at Saffron Walden in Essex and Robert Samuel a Preacher was burnt at Ipswich There were also in August six burnt in one Fire at Canterbury Elizabeth VVarne burnt at Stratford Le-Bow Stephen Whorwood at Stratford Thomas Fust at Ware and William Hall at Barnet but of their sufferings the days are not marked In September on the 6th day of the month George Catmer and four others were burnt at Canterbury On the 20th Robert Glover a Gentleman and one Cornelius Bangey were burnt at Coventry The same month but we know not on what days William Allen was burnt at Walsingham Roger Coo at Yerford Thomas Cob in Thetford Thomas Haywood and John Garaway at Lichfield were also burnt on the same account On the 16th of October following William Woley and Robert Pigot were burnt at Ely where Shaxton that had been Bishop of Salsbury in
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
the Church till they met in a Convocation yet they soon after prepared them And for the present they agreed on a short Profession of their Doctrine which all Incumbents were obliged to read and publish to their People This will be found in the Collection Coll. Num. 11. copied from it as it was then printed In the Articles made in King Edward's Reign which I have put in the Collection the Reader will find on the Margent the differences between those and these marked In the third Article the explanation of Christ's descent to Hell was left out In that about the Scriptures they now added an enumeration of the Canonical and Apocryphal Books declaring that some Lessons were read out of the latter for the Instruction of the People but not for the confirmation of the Doctrine About the Authority of the Church they now added That the Church had power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and had Authority in Controversies of Faith but still subordinate to the Scripture In the Article about the Lord's Supper there is a great deal left out for instead of that large refutation of the Corporal Presence from the impossibility of a Bodies being in more places at once from whence it follows that since Christ's Body is in Heaven the Faithful ought not to believe or profess a Real or Corporal Presence of it in the Sacrament In the new Articles it is said That the Body of Christ is given and received after a Spiritual manner and the means by which it is received is Faith But in the Original Copy of these Articles M.SS. C. Cor. Christ Cant. which I have seen subscribed by the hands of all that sat in either House of Convocation there is a further addition made The Articles were subscribed with that Precaution which was requisite in a matter of such consequence for before the Subscriptions there is set down the number of the Pages and of the Lines in every Page of the Book to which they set their hands In that Article of the Eucharist these words are added Christus in Coelum ascendens corpori suo immortalitatem dedit naturam non abstulit Humanae enim naturae veritatem juxta scripturas perpetuo retinet quam in uno definito loco esse non in multa vel omnia simul loca diffundi oportet Quum igitur Chistus in Coelum sublatus ibi usque ad finem Soeculi sit permansurus atque inde non aliunde ut loquitur Augustinus venturus sit ad judicandum vivos mortuos non debet quisquam fidelium Carnis ejus Sanguinis realem corporalem ut loquuntur praesentiam in Eucharistia vel credere vel profiteri In English thus Christ An Explanation of Christ's Presence in the Sacrament when he ascended into Heaven made his Body Immortal but took not from it the nature of a Body For still it retains according to the Scriptures the verity of a humane Body which must be always in one definite place and cannot be spread into many or all places at once Since then Christ being carried up to Heaven is to remain there to the end of the World and is to come from thence and from no place else as says St. Austin to judg the Quick and the Dead None of the Faithful ought to believe or profess the real or as they call it the corporal Presence of his Flesh and Blood in the Eucharist But this in the Original is dasht over with minium yet so that it is still legible â—uâ— 't is suppresseâ— The Secret of it was this The Queen and her Council studied as hath been already shewn to unite all into the Communion of the Church and it was alleaged that such an express definition against a Real Presence might drive from the Church many who were still of that Perswasion and therefore it was thought to be enough to condemn Transubstantiation and to say that Christ was present after a Spiritual manner and received by Faith to say more as it was judged superfluous so it might occasion Division Upon this these words were by common consent left out And in the next Convocation the Articles were subscribed without them of which I have also seen the Original This shews that the Doctrine of the Church subscribed by the whole Convocation was at that time contrary to the belief of a Real or Corporal Presence in the Sacrament only it was not thought necessary or expedient to publish it Though from this silence which flowed not from their Opinion but the Wisdom of that Time in leaving a Liberty for different Speculations as to the manner of the Presence some have since inferred that the chief Pastors of this Church did then disapprove of the Definition made in King Edward's Time and that they were for a Real Presence For the Translating of the Bible it was divided into many Parcels The Pentateuch was committed to William Alley Bishop of Exeter The Books from that to the second of Samuel were given to Richard Davis who was made Bishop of St. Davids when Young was removed to York All from Samuel to the second Book of Chronicles was assigned to Edwin Sandys then Bishop of Worcester From thence to the end of Job to one whose Name is marked A. P. C. The Book of the Psalms was given to Thomas Bentham Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield The Proverbs to one who is marked A. P. The Song of Solomon to one Marked A. P. E. All from thence to the Lamentations of Jeremy was given to Robert Horn Bishop of Winchester Ezekiel and Daniel to Bentham From thence to Malachi to Grindal Bishop of London The Apocripha to the Book of Wisdom was given to Barlow Bishop of Chichester and the rest of it to Parkhurst Bishop of Norwich The Gospels Acts and Epistle to the Romans were given to Richard Cox Bishop of Ely The Epistles to the Corinthians to one marked G. G. I know not to whom the rest of the New Testament was assigned All these Allotments I gather from the Bible it self as it was afterwards set out by Parker What Method they followed in this Work I cannot discover unless the Rules afterwards given in King James his Time when the Translation was revived Coll. Num. 10. were copied from what was now done which Rules for the curiosity of the thing I shall put in the Collection as I copied it from B. Ravis's Paper They were given with that care that such a matter required There were many Companies appointed for every parcel of the Scripture and every one of a Company was to translate the whole Parcel then they were to compare these together and when any Company had finished their Part they were to communicate it to the other Companies So it is like that at this Time those several Bishops that had undertaken the Translation did associate to themselves Companies with whose assistance they perfected it afterwards and when it was set out at the end
tempore agnoscamus sequamur Haec dum non datur commentari tecum coram quia te vere diligo quia colo sinceriter cum hunc certum haberem nuncium ad te scribere volui Quod magnificum D. Cancellarium meis Verbis diligenter Salutasti gratias ago utinam autem resalutare ille vel hic cum fuit quod usque ad eam Diem quo iterum abiit clam me fuit admittere me ad pium colloquium dignatus esset Tamen rogo salutes illum officiose meis verbis Dominus Jesus qui solus efficit largitur omne bonum donet ut omnia in ipso quaeramus ab ipso expectemus Sic facile nos in ipso agnoscemus complectemur quicquid odiosorum Titulorum Diabolus Membra ejus injiciant In Christo enim nec Mas quidem Foemina Judaeus Ethnicus nedum Lutherani Romani sed omnes unum sunt In hoc bene vale fac pro Chrsti Charitate ut tandem nos aliquando videamus Sancto Colloquio nos mutuo recreemus Optime mi colende atque vere dilecte Cordi meo Groppere Bonn pridie Calendas Februarii 1543. Deditus Tibi in Domino M. Bucerus Praecipuum oblitus eram te per Christum rogo obtestor mone ad huc me versantem in Negotio Christi Debes hoc Christo apud me tuto depones omnia nec unquam frustra monebis Number 20. Questions and Answers concerning the Divorce of the Marquess of Northampton 1. QUid dirimit Matrimonii Vinculum Ex M. S. Dr. Stillingfleet 2. Quas ob causas dirimi poterit 3. An dirimi poterit Conjugium a thoro non a vinculo 4. Quibus casibus possit sic dirimi 5. An exceptio illa excepta Fornicationis causa etiam in Lucae Marci Pauli locis qui de his rebus tractant est subaudienda 6. An etiam Uxor repudiata propter Adulterium alteri poterit nubere 7. An redire ad priorem maritum repudiatae Adulterae liceat 8. An Maritus propter Adulterium ab Uxore casta possit repudiari Ad primam Respondemus Ipso Adulterii facto Matrimonii vinculum dirimi Nam alioquin ob solum Adulterium non liceret viro Uxorem repudiare voluntas viri solicitat judices Judices palam faciunt Ecclesiae virum licite talem repudiare Uxorem Ad secundam Resp Quod ob solam causam stupri dirimitur Matrimonii vinculum cujus ipso quidem facto Conjugii dissolvitur nodus loquimur his qui Sacrosancti Matrimonii jus agnoscunt Ad tertiam Resp Quod non quia Mulier quamdiu vixerit alligata viro Rom. 7. item ne fraudetis vos invicem 1 Cor. 7. item in eodem loco Uxori Vir debitam benevolentiam reddat simpliciter Uxor viro item Vir non habeat potestatem sui corporis sed Uxor similiter nec Vxor habeat potestatem sui corporis sed Vir. Ad quartam patet in responsione ad tertiam Ad quintam Respondemus quod exceptio ista viz. Nisi causa stupri est subaudienda in Luca Marco Paulo alioquin manifesta erit repugnantia inter Matthaeum eos Ad sextam respond Quod repudiata propter Adulterium quia Uxor repudiantis desiit esse ob idque libera est sicut aliae omnes post obitum virorum possunt aliis nubere aequo jure juxta illud Pauli si non contineant contrahant Matrimonium 1 Cor. 7. Ad septimam respond Quod non licet repudiatae Adulterae redire ad repudiantem tanquam alligatae ei Jugi vinculo Matrimonii Ultima Questio Nihil ad Nos Number 21. Injunctions given by the King's Majesty's Visitors to all and every the Clergie and Laity now resident within the Deanry of Duncastre Ex MS. Dr. Item Johnson YOu shall not hereafter in the Pulpit or else-where on the Sunday or any other day give knowledg to your Parishioners when or what day in the Week any of the Abrogate Holy-days were solemnized or kept in the Church but omit the same with silence as other Working-days for the utter abolishing of the remembrance thereof Item You shall teach your Parishioners That Fasting in the Lent and other days is a meer Positive that is to say Man's Law and by the Magistrates upon considerations may be altered changed and dispensed with and that therefore all Persons having just cause of Sickness or other Necessity or being licensed thereto may temperately eat all kinds of Meat without scruple or grudge of Conscience Item You shall every day that an High Mass is said or sung at the High Altar before the same Mass read openly in your Churches the English Suffrages for the preservation and safeguard of the King's Majesty's People and prosperous success of his Affairs Item You shall every Sunday at the time of your going about the Church with Holy Water into three or four places where most audience and assembly of People is for the declaration of the Ceremonies say distinctly and plainly that your Parishioners may well hear and perceive the same these words Remember Christ's Blood-shedding by the which most holy sprinkling of all your Sins you have free pardon And in like manner before the dealing of the Holy Bread these words Of Christ's Body this is a Token which on the Cross for our Sins was broken wherefore of his Death if you will be partakers of Vice and Sin you must be forsakers And the Clarke in the like manner shall bring down the Paxe and standing without the Church Door shall say loudly to the People these words This is a Token of joyful Peace which is betwixt God and Mens Conscience Christ alone is the Peace-maker which straitly commands Peace between Brother and Brother And so long as ye use these Ceremonies so long shall ye use these Significations Item The Church-Wardens of every Parish-Church shall some one Sunday or other Festival day every Month go about the Church and make request to every of the Parish for their charitable Contribution to the Poor and the Sum so collected shall be put in the Chest of Alms for that purpose provided And forasmuch as the Parish-Clark shall not hereafter go about the Parish with his Holy Water as hath been accustomed he shall instead of that labour accompany the said Church-Wardens and in a Book Register the Name and Sum of every Man that giveth any thing to the Poor and the same shall intable and against the next day of Collection shall hang up some-where in the Church in open place to the intent the Poor having knowledg thereby by whose Charity and Alms they be relieved may pray for the increase and prosperity of the same Item The Church-Wardens for the better relief of honest Poverty shall upon sufficient Surety found for the repayment of the same lend to some young married Couple or some poor Inhabitants of their Parish some part of the
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
such things as your Majesty willed me to be done And first where your Majesty's Pleasure was to have the Names of such Persons as your Highness in times past appointed to make Laws Ecclesiastical for your Grace's Realm The Bishop of Worcester promised me with all speed to enquire out their Names and the Book which they made and to bring the Names and also the Book unto your Majesty which I trust he hath done before this time And as concerning the ringing of Bells upon Alhallow-day at Night and covering of Images in Lent and creeping to the Cross he thought it necessary that a Letter of your Majesty's Pleasure therein should be sent by your Grace unto the two Arch-Bishops and we to send the same to all other Prelats within your Grace's Realm And if it be your Majesty's Pleasure so to do I have for more speed herein drawn a Minute of a Letter which your Majesty may alter at your Pleasure Nevertheless in my Opinion when such things be altered or taken away there would be set forth some Doctrine therewith which should declare the Cause of the Abolishing or Alteration for to satisfy the Conscience of the People For if the Honouring of the Cross as creeping and kneeling thereunto be taken away it shall seem to many that be ignorant that the Honour of Christ is taken away unless some good teaching be set forth withal to instruct them sufficiently therein which if your Majesty command the Bishops of Worcester and Chichester with other your Grace's Chaplains to make the People shall obey your Majesty's Commandment willingly giving thanks to your Majesty that they know the Truth which else they would obey with murmuration and grutching And it shall be a satisfaction unto all other Nations when they shall see your Majesty do nothing but by the Authority of God's Word and to the setting forth of God's Honour and not diminishing thereof And thus Almighty God keep your Majesty in his Preservation and Governance From my Mannor at Beckisbourn the 24th of January 45. Your Graces most bounden Chaplain and Beadsman POSTSCRIPT I Beseech your Majesty that I may be a Suitor unto the same for your Cathedral Church of Canterbury who to their great unquietness and also great Charges do alienate their Lands daily and as it is said by your Majesty's Commandment But this I am sure that other Men have gotten their best Lands and not your Majesty Wherefore this is mine only Suit That when your Majesty's Pleasure shall be to have any of their Lands that they may have some Letter from your Majesty to declare your Majesty's Pleasure without the which they be sworn that they shall make no Alienation And that the same Alienation be not made at other Mens pleasures but only to your Majesty's Use For now every Man that list to have any of their Lands make suit to get it into your Majesty's Hands not that your Majesty should keep the same but by Sale or Gift from your Majesty to translate it from your Grace's Cathedral Church unto themselves T. Cantuarien The Draught of a Letter which the King sent to Cranmer against some superstitious Practices To the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury FOrasmuch as you as well in your own Name as in the Name of the Bishops of Worcester and Chichester and other our Chaplains and Learned Men whom We appointed with you to peruse certain Books of Service which We delivered unto you moved Us that the Vigil and ringing of Bells all the Night long upon Alhallow-day at Night and the covering of Images in the Church in the time of Lent with the lifting up the Veil that covereth the Cross upon Palm-Sunday with the kneeling to the Cross at the same time might be abolished and put away for the Superstition and other Enormities and Abuses of the same First Forasmuch as all the Vigils of our Lady and the Apostles and all other Vigils which in the beginning of the Church were Godly used yet for the manifold Superstition and Abuses which after did grow by means of the same they be many Years past taken away throughout all Christendom and there remaineth nothing but the name of the Vigil in the Calendar the thing clearly abolished and put away saving only upon Alhallows-day at Night upon which Night is kept Vigil Watching and ringing of Bells all the Night long Forasmuch as that Vigil is abused as other Vigils were Our pleasure is as you require That the said Vigil shall be abolished as the other be and that there shall be no watching nor ringing but as be commonly used upon other Holy-days at Night We be contented and pleased also That the Images in Churches shall not be covered as hath been accustomed in times past nor no Veil upon the Cross nor no kneeling thereto upon Palm-Sunday nor any other time And forasmuch as you make no mention of creeping to the Cross which is a greater abuse than any of the other for there you say Crucem tuam adoramus Domine and the Ordinal saith Procedant Clerici ad crucem adorandum nudis pedibus And after followeth in the same Ordinal Ponatur Crux ante aliquod Altare ubi a populo adoretur which by your own Book called A Necessary Doctrine is against the Second Commandment Therefore Our Pleasure is That the said creeping to the Cross shall likewise cease from hence-forth and be abolished with the other Abuses before rehearsed And this We will and straitly command you to signify unto all the Prelats and Bishops of your Province of Canterbury charging them in Our Name to see the same executed every one in his Diocess accordingly FINIS A COLLECTION OF RECORDS c. BOOK II. Number 1. The Proclamation of Lady Jane Grayes Title to the Crown JANE by the Grace of God Queen of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and also of Ireland under Christ in Earth the Supream Head To all our most Loving Faithful and Obedient Subjects and to every of them Greeting Whereas our most dear Cousin Edward the 6th late King of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and in Earth Supream Head under Christ of the Church of England and Ireland by his Letters Patents signed with his own Hand and sealed with his Great Seal of England bearing date the 21st day of June in the seventh Year of his Reign in the presence of the most part of his Nobles his Councellors Judges and divers other grave and sage Personages for the profit and surety of the whole Realm thereto assenting and subscribing their Names to the same hath by the same his Letter Patents recited That forasmuch as the Imperial Crown of this Realm by an Act made in the 35th Year of the Reign of the late King of worthy memory King Henry the 8th our Progenitor and great Uncle was for lack of Issue of his Body lawfully begotten and for lack of Issue of the Body of our said late Cousin
concerning the Corporal Presence They were so couragious that as soon as any Change was made they all complied most obsequiously to it as will appear both by Oglethorp and Smith's Submissions But while the Changes were under consultation they seeing it could bring them into no trouble were very stout but as soon as they were to loose or suffer any thing for their Consciences then they grew as tractable as could be In such a Zeal let him glory as much as he will 39. He says Ibid. Smith did often challenge Peter Martyr to a publick Dispute at Oxford but he declined it till Dr. Cox a Man of a lewd Life was sent to moderate in the Dispute and till Dr. Smith was banished the University Smith did once challenge Peter Martyr to a Dispute to which he presently consented upon two Conditions the one was that a License should first be obtained of the King and Council and Delegates be appointed by them to make a just Report of the Dispute the other was That it should be managed in the Terms of Scripture and not in the School Terms They were both more proper for Matters of Divinity and more easily understood by all People Upon this the Council sent down Delegates and then Smith who intended only to raise a tumult in the Schools withdrew himself and fled beyond Sea but was never banished His calling Dr. Cox a Man of a lewd Life is one of the Flowers he stuck in to adorn the rest All the Writers of that Age make honourable mention of him He was first set about this King by his Father and continued with him in all the turns of Affairs and did so faithfully discharge that high Trust that it appears he must have been a very extraordinary Man This was so well known to the whole Nation that in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign he met with more than ordinary Favour This considering the hatred which the Popish Party bore him is a clear evidence of his great Worth and that they were afraid to be severe to a Man so universally esteemed Ibid. 40. He says Cox saw he was so much pressed by the Doctors that disputed with him and the Hearers did so hiss him down that he broke off the Dispute giving Peter Martyr a high commendation for his Learning and exhorting the rest to live peaceably Peter Martyr afterwards printed the Disputation falsly but by the Judgment of the University he was doubly bafled both that he refused to dispute with Smith and that he did acquit himself so ill with those Doctors that disputed with him It is probable the Hearers might have been set on to hiss but the printed Disputation will decide this Matter and shew who argued both more nervously and more ingenuously We have no reason to believe it was falsly printed unless we will take it on this Author's word for I do not find the Popish Doctors did either at this Time or afterwards in Queen Mary's Reign when the Presses were all in their hands publish any thing to the contrary of what P. Martyr printed so that he neither refused to dispute with Smith nor was he baffled by those that undertook it Smith fled and the rest were clearly worsted And for the University there was no Judgment passed by them unless he means the Rudeness and Clamours of some that might be set on to it Pag. 211. 41. He says The Dispute with Bucer at Cambridg had the same effect It had so indeed the printed Relation shews the weakness and disingenuity of the Popish Disputants and that was never contradicted Ibid. 42. He gives account of many other Disputes and of Gardiner's Book under the name of Marcus Constantius which he says was a full confutation of all the Books then written for the contrary Opinion He also mentions the Sermons and Imprisonment of Crispine Moreman Cole Seaton and Watson These other Disputes could be no more than private Conferences but I can give no account of these having met with them in none of the Writers of that Time As for Gardiner's Book such as will compare it with Cranmer's Book which it pretends to answer will soon see in it the difference between plain simple Reasoning on the one side and sophistical Cavilling on the other But for the Sufferings of that Party there is no great reason to boast of them for they universally complied with every thing that was commanded even the Lady Mary's Chaplains did it in the Churches where they were beneficed Nor do I find any one Man turned out of his Cure for refusing to Conform but it was found some of these did privately say Mass either in the Lady Mary's Chappel or in private Houses and did secretly act against what they openly professed and it was no wonder if such Dissemblers were more severely handled But there was no Blood shed in the Quarrel so that if the Popish Party made such ressistance as our Author pretends they did it very much commends the gentleness of the Government at that Time since they were so mercifully handled It was far otherwise in Queen Mary's Time 43. He runs out in a Discourse of the Sufferings of his Party Pag. 212. of their Zeal and Constancy and particularly mentions Story who he says suffered Martyrdom under Queen Elizabeth He had said in the Parliament Wo to thee O Land whose King is a Child and this drew so much hatred on him that he was forced to fly out of England What the Zeal and Constancy of the Party was may be gathered from what has been already said This Story did say these words in the House of Commons and was by Order of the House sent to the Tower for though it was a Text of Scripture that he cited yet the Application carried with it so high a reflection on the Government that it well deserved such a censure but upon his Submission the House of Commons sent an Address to the Protector that he and the Council would forgive him which was done and he was again admitted to the House so that he was not forced on this Account to fly out of England And for his Martyrdom under Queen Elizabeth the Record of his Trial shews the ground of that Sentence He had endeavoured all he could to set on many in Queen Mary's Time to advise the cutting off Queen Elizabeth His ordinary Phrase was It was a foolish thing to cut off the Branches of Heresy and not to pluck it up by the Root He knowing how faulty he had been fled over to Flanders in the beginning of her Reign and when the Duke of Alva was Governor there he pressed him much to invade England and gave him a Map of some of the Roads and Harbours with a Scheme of the way of conquering the Nation He had also consulted with Magicians concerning the Queen's Life and used always to curse the Queen when he said Grace after Meat These things being known in England some got
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
prevailed with to do it Heath Bishop of Worcester put in Prison for not agreeing with the others appointed to draw the Book for Ordinations Wherefore on the fourth of March he was committed to the Fleet because as it is entred in the Council Books that he obstinately denied to subscribe the Book for the making of Bishops and Priests He had hitherto opposed every thing done towards Reformation in Parliament though he had given an entire obedience to it when it was enacted He was a Man of a gentle temper and great prudence that understood Affairs of State better than Matters of Religion But now it was resolved to rid the Church of those Compliers who submitted out of fear or interest to save their Benefices but were still ready upon any favourable conjuncture to return back to the old superstition As for the Forms of Ordination they found that the Scripture mentioned only the Imposition of Hands and Prayer In the Apostolical Constitutions In the fourth Council of Carthage and in the pretended Works of Denis the Areopagite there was no more used Therefore all those additions of Anointing and giving them Consecrated Vestments were later Inventions But most of all the conceit which from the time of the Council of Florence was generally received that the Rites by which a Priest was ordained were the delivering him the Vessels for consecrating the Eucharist with a Power to offer Sacrifice to God for the dead and the living This was a vain Novelty only set up to support the belief of Transubstantiation and had no ground in the Scriptures nor the Primitive Practice So they agreed on a Form of ordaining Deacons Priests and Bishops which is the same we yet use except in some few words that have been added since in the Ordination of a Priest or Bishop For there was then no express mention made in the words of Ordaining them that it was for the one or the other Office In both it was said Receive thou the Holy Ghost in the Name of the Father c. But that having been since made use of to prove both Functions the same it was of late years altered as it is now Nor were these words being the same in giving both Orders any ground to infer that the Church esteemed them one Order the rest of the Office shewing the contrary very plainly Another difference between the Ordination Book set out at that time and that we now use was that the Bishop was to lay his one Hand on the Priests Head and with his other to give him a Bible with a Chalice and Bread in it saying the words now said at the delivery of the Bible In the Consecration of a Bishop there was nothing more than what is yet in use save that a Staff was put into his Hand with this Blessing Be to the Flock of Christ a Shepherd By the Rule of this Ordinal a Deacon was not to be ordained before he was 21 a Priest before he was 24 nor a Bishop before he was 30 years of Age. The Additions brought into the Church of Rome in giving Orders In this Ritual all those superadded Rites were cut off which the later Ages had brought in to dress up these Performances with the more pomp whereof we have since a more perfect account than it was possible for them then to have For in our Age Morinus a learned Priest of the Oratorian Order has published the most ancient Rituals he could find by which it appears how these Offices swelled in every Age by some new addition About the middle of the sixth Century they anointed and blessed the Priests Hands in some parts of France though the Greek Church never used anointing nor was it in the Roman Church two Ages after that for Pope Nicolaus the first plainly says it was never used in the Church of Rome In the 8th Century the Priests Garments were given with a special Benediction for the Priests offering expiatory Sacrifices It was no ancienter that that Phrase was used in Ordinations and in that same Age there was a special Benediction of the Priests Hands used before they were anointed and then his Head was anointed This was taken partly from the Levitical Law and partly because the People believed that their Kings derived the Sacredness of their Persons from their being anointed So the Priests having a mind to have their Persons secured and exempted from all Secular Power were willing enough to use this Rite in their Ordinations and in the 10th Century when the belief of Transubstantiation was received the delivering of the Vessels for the Eucharist with the Power of offering Sacrifices was brought in besides a great many other Rites So that the Church did never tie it self to one certain Form of Ordinations nor did it always make them with the same Prayers for what was accounted anciently the Form of Ordination was in the later Ages but a preparatory Prayer to it Interrogations and Sponsions in the new Book The most considerable addition that was made in the Book of Ordinations was the putting Questions to the Persons to be ordained who by answering these make solemn Declarations or Sponsions and Vows to God The first Question when one is presented to Orders is Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this Office and Ministration to serve God for the promoting his Glory and for the edifying of his People To which he is to answer He trusts he is It has been oft lamented that many come to receive Orders before ever they have seriously read over these Questions and examined themselves whether they could with a good Conscience make the Answers there prescribed since it is scarce credible that Men of common honesty would lie in the Presence of God on so great an occasion and yet it is too visible that many have not any such inward vocation nor have ever considered seriously what it is If it were well apprehended that heat that many have to get into Orders would soon abate who perhaps have nothing in their Eye but some Place of Profit or Benefice to which way must be made by that preceding Ceremony and so enter into Orders as others are associated into Fraternities and Corporations with little previous sense of that Holy Character they are to receive when they thus dedicate their Lives and Labours to the Service of God in the Gospel In the Primitive Church the apprehension of this made even good and holy Men afraid to enter under such Bonds and therefore they were often to be drag'd almost by force or catched at unawares and be so initiated as appears in the Lives of these two Greek Fathers Nazianzen and Chrysostome If Men make their first step to the Holy Altar by such a lye as is their pretending to a motion of the Holy Ghost concerning which they know little but that they have nothing at all of it they have no reason to expect that
nos justitiam ejus Causae perpendentes c. doth make as much and more for the maintenance of that shall be done in your Highness Cause then if the Commission Decretal being in Cardinal Campegius's Hands should be shewed and this your Highness at your liberty to shew to whom of your Council it shall please your Grace thinking in my poor Opinion that it were not the best therefore to move the Pope in that Matter again in this adverse Time I most humbly desire your Majesty that I may be a Suitor to the same for the said Mr. Gregory so as by your most gracious Commandment payment may be made there to his Factors of such Diets as your Highness alloweth him for omitting to speak of his true faithful and diligent Service which I have heretofore and do now perceive in him here I assure your Highness he liveth here sumptuously and chargeably to your Highness Honour and in this great Scarcity must needs be driven to Extremity unless your Highness be a gracious Lord unto him in that behalf Thus having none other Matter whereof privately to write unto your Majesty besides that is contained in our common Letters to my Lord Legat's Grace desiring your Highness that I may know your Pleasure what to do in case none other thing can be obtained here I shall make an end of these Letters praying Almighty God to preserve your most noble and royal Estate with a short expedition of this Cause according to your Highness Purpose and Desire From Rome the 21 day of April Your Highness most humble Subject Servant and daily Orator Stephen Gardiner Number 27. The Writ for the burning of Cranmer PHILIP and MARY c. Rot. Pat. 2 3 Phil. Mar. 2. par TO Our right trusty Nicholas Arch-Bishop of York Lord Chancellor of England Greeting We Will and Command you that immediately upon the sight hereof and by Warrant of the same ye do cause to be made a Writ for the Execution of Thomas Cranmer late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the same so made to Seal with our Great Seal of England being in your Custody according to the Tenor and Form hereafter following PHilippus Maria Dei Gratia c. Majori Ballivis Civitatis Oxon. Salutem Cum Sanctissimus Pater noster Paulus Papa ejusdem Nominis Quartus per sententiam definitivam juris Ordine in ea parte requisito in omnibus observato juxta canonicas sanctiones judicialiter definitive Thomam Cranmer nuper Cantuariensem Archiepiscopum fore Haeresiarchum Anathematizatum Haereticum manifestum propter suos varios nefandos Errores manifestos damnabiles Haereses detestandas pessimas Opiniones Fidei nostrae Catholicae Vniversalis Ecclesiae determinationi obviantes repugnantes praedict Thomam Cranmer multis modis contract comiss dict affirmat perpetrat publice pertinaciter tent defens judicavit declaravit pronunciavit condemnavit eadem causa idem Sanctissimus Pater noster Papa Paulus quartus Iudicialiter definitive more solito praedictum Thomam Cranmer a praedicto Archiepiscopatu aliis Praelaturis dignitatibus Officiis Beneficiis deprivavit abjudicavit prout cunctam inde habemus noticiam Cumque etiam Reverendus in Christo Pater Edmundus Londini Episcopus Thomas Elien Episcopus Authoritate ejusdem Sanctissimi nostri Patris Papae praedictum Thomam Cranmer ab omni Ordine Gradu Officio Dignitate Ecclesiastica tanquam Haeresiarcham Haereticum manifestum realiter degradaverunt Vigore cujus idem Thomas Cranmer in presenti Haereticus Haeresiarcha juste legitime Canonice Iudicatus condemnatus degradatus existit Et cum etiam Mater Ecclesia non habet quod ulterius in hac parte contra tam putridum detestabile membrum heresiarchum faciat aut facere debeat Iidem Reverendi Patres eundem Thomam Cranmer damnatum Haereticum Haeresiarcham brachiis potestati nostris secularibus tradiderunt commiserunt reliquerunt prout per Literas Patentes eorundem Reverendorum Patrum superinde confect nobis in Cancellaria nostra Certificatum est Nos igitur ut Zelatores Iusticiae Fidei Catholicae Defensores volentesque Ecclesiam Sanctam ac Iuxa Libertates ejusdem Fidem Catholicam manutenere defendere hujusmodi Haereses Errores ubique quantum in nobis est eradicare extirpare praedictum Thomam Heresiarcham ac convictum damnat degradat animadversione condigna punire Attendentesque hujusmodi Heretic Heresiarch in forma praedicta convict damnat degradat juxta Leges consuetudines Regni nostri Angliae in hac parte consuetas ignis incendio comburi debere Vobis Praecipimus quod dictum Thomam Cranmer in custodia vestra existen in Loco publico aperto infra Libertatem dicti Civitatis nostrae Oxon. ex causa praedicta coram Populo igni Committi ac ipsum Thomam Cranmer in eodem igne realiter comburi facietis in hujusmodi Criminis detestationem aliorum Christianorum exemplum manifestum Et hoc sub paena periculo incumbente ac prout nobis subinde respondere volueritis nullatenus Omittatis Test nobis ipsis apud Westmonasterium Vicesimo quarto Februarii Annis Regis Reginae secundo ac tertio And this Bill signed with the hand of Us the said Queen shall be your sufficient Warrant and Discharge for the same Number 28. A Commission to Bonner and others to search and raze Records PHILIP and MARY c. TO the Right Reverend Father in God Rot. Pat. 3 4 Phil. Mar. 12. Pars. Edmond Bishop of London and to Our trusty and well-beloved Henry Cole Doctor of Divinity and Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul London and Thomas Marten Esq Doctor of the Civil Law Greeting Where is come to Our knowledg and understanding that in the time of the late Schism divers and sundry Accompts Books Scroles Instruments and other Writings were practised devised and made concerning Professions against the Pope's Holiness and the See Apostolick And also sundry and divers infamous Scrutinies were taken in Abbeys and other Religious Houses tending rather to subvert and overthrow all good Religion and Religious Houses than for any Truth contained therein which Writings and other the Premises as We be informed were delivered to the Custody and Charge of divers and sundry Registers and other Officers and Ministers of this Our Realm of England to be by them kept and preserved And minding to have the said Writings and other the Premises brought to knowledg whereby they may be considered and ordered according to Our Will and Pleasure And trusting in your Fidelities Wisdoms and Discretions We have appointed and assigned you to be Our Commissioners and by these presents do give full Power and Authority unto you or two of you to call before you or two of you all and singular the said Registers and other Officers and Ministers within this Our
said Realm to whose hands custody knowledg or possession any of the said Accompts Books Scroles Instruments or other Writings concerning the Premises or any part thereof did or is come giving streight charge and commandments to them and every of them to bring before you or two of you at their several appearance all and singular the said Accompts Books Writings and other the Premises whatsoever And them and every of them to charge by Oath or otherwise to make a true Certificate and Delivery of all and singular the said Premises to the hands of you or two of you commanding you or two of you to attend and execute the Premises with effect by all ways and means according to your Wisdoms and Discretions And of all and singular your doings therein Our Pleasure and Commandment is Ye shall make Certificate unto the most Reverend Father in God and our dearest Cousin Reginald Pool Lord Cardinal Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Metropolitan and Primate of England with diligence to the intent that further Order may be taken therein as shall appertain charging and commanding all and singular Justices of Peace Mayors Sheriffs Bayliffs Constables and all other Our Officers Ministers and Subjects to be aiding helping assisting and at Our Commandment in the due execution hereof as they tender Our Pleasure and will answer to the contrary at their perils In Witness whereof c. Witness the King and Queen at Greenwich the 29th day of December Per Regem Reginam Number 29. Cromwell's Commission to be Lord-Vicegerent in all Ecclesiastical Causes HEnricus Octavus Dei Gratia Angliae Franciae Rex Cotton Libr. Cleop. F. 2. Fidei Defensor Dominus Hiberniae ac in Terris Supremum totius Ecclesiae Anglicanae sub Christo Caput dilectis nobis A. B. C. D. Salutem In terris supremam Ecclesiae Anglicanae sub Christo Autoritatem etsi Regiae Nostrae dignitati ut praecellenti jam inde ab adepto primum divina disponente gratia hujus Regni nostri Angliae Sceptro jure nobis competierit nunc denuo exercere quodam modo impellimur nempe quum hi qui curam illius regimen sibi potissimum arrogabant suis potius ipsorum privatis commodis quam publicae illius saluti aut compendio consulentes eam tandem eo calamitatis tum nimia licentia in Officiis eiis commissis oscitantia tum suis malis exemplis devenire passi sunt ut non ab re metuendum sit ne illam Christus nunc suam non agnoscat sponsam Quamobrem nostrae Regiae excellentiae cui prima suprema post Deum Auctoritas in quoscunque hujus Regni nostri incolas nullo sexus aetatis ordinis aut conditionis habito discrimine sacro testante eloquio coelitus demandata est ex muneris hujusmodi debito potissimum incumbit dictam Ecclesiam vitiorum vepribus quantum cum Deo possumus purgare virtutum seminibus plantis conserere Porro cum hi qui in eadem de caeteris antehac censuram sibi vindicabant de se vero nullam a quovis mortalium haberi sustinebant tum aliis hominibus plura indies corrigenda committant tum ex eorum corruptis moribus majori prae caeteris sunt plebi offendiculo ut non immerito iidem bonorum omnium si boni malorum omnium si contra certissimi sint Authores Ab his igitur veluti fonte scaturigine ad universalem hujus Regni nostri Ecclesiae Anglicanae reformationem jure auspicandum esse duximus haud vanam spem habentes quod fonte primitus purgato purus deinde limpidus decurret rivus Caeterum quia ad singula hujus Regni nostri loca pro praemissis exequendis nos ipsi personaliter obire non valemus alios quorum Vicaria fide freti munus hujusmodi veluti per ministros exequamur qui quum vices nostras in ea parte suppleant in partem solicitudinis adstitimus vocamus Cum itaque nos alias praedilectum nobis Thomam Cromwell Secretarium nostrum primarium Rotulorum nostrorum Magistrum sive custodem Nostrum ad Causas Ecclesiasticas quascunque nostra Autoritate uti supremi capitis dictae Ecclesiae Anglicanae quomodolibet tractand seu ventiland atque ad exercend expediend exercend omnem omnimodam jurisdictionem Authoritatem sive potestatem Ecclesiasticam quae nobistanquam supremo capiti hujusmodi competit aut quovismodo competere possit aut debeat ubilibet infra Regnum nostrū Angliae loca quaecunque nobis subjecta Vicem gerentem Vicarium Generalem ac Commissarium specialem principalem cum potestate alium vel alios Commissarium sive Commissarios ad praemissa vel eorum aliqua ordinanda deputanda per alias literas nostras Patentes sigillo nostro majori communitas constituerimus deputaverimus ordinaverimus prout ex tenore literarum nostrarum hujusmodi plenius liquet Quia tamen ipse nostris totius hujus Regni nostri negotiis praepeditus existit quominus praemissa personaliter obire exequi possit Idem Thomas Cromwell Vicem gerens Vicarius generalis Officialis principalis noster hujusmodi vos A. B. C. D. prelibatos ad infra-scripta omnia singula vice nomine nostris exequenda Commissarios nostros deputaverit ordinaverit constituerit Nos igitur deputationem ordinationem constitutionem hujusmodi ratam gratam habentes ad visitandum tam in Capite quam in Membris de tam plena quam vacante quoties quando vobis opportunum visum fuerit omnes singulas Ecclesias etiam Metropoliticas Cathedrales Collegiatas Hospitalia quaeque Monasteria tam Virorum quam Mulierum Prioratas Preceptorias Dignitates Officia Domos Loca alia Ecclesiastica tam Scholaria quam Regularia exempta non exempta quaecunque infra Regnum nostrum Angliae Provincias Civitates Terras Dominia Loca nobis Subjecta ubicunque sita seu constituta cujuscunque Dignitatis Praerogativae Ordinis Regulae sive conditionis existant deque statu conditione eorundem tam in Spiritualibus quam in Temporalibus necnon vita moribus conversatione tam Praesidentium sive Praelatorum eorundem quocunque nomine dignitate etiamsi Archiepiscopali vel Episcopali praefulgeant quam aliarum personarum in eis degentium quarumcunque inquirendum inquiri faciendum Ac illos quos in ea parte curiosos vel culpabiles fore compereritis pro modo culpae hujusmodi corrigendi puniendi coercendi ac si delicti qualitas poposcerit officiis sive beneficiis suis pro tempore vel in perpetuum privandi amovendi vel ad tempus ab eisdem suspendendi fructus quoque redditus proventus Ecclesiarum Locorum hujusmodi si videbitur sequestrandos ac sub salvo tuto sequestro custodiri faciendos atque mandandō sequestrumque hujusmodi relaxandum ac computum calculum rationem de receptis