Number 55. Articles agreed upon by the Bishops and other Learned Men in the Convocation held at London in the Year 1552. for the avoiding diversities of Opinions and stablishing Consent touching true Religion Published by the King's Authority With Marginal Notes of the differences between these and those set out by Queen Elizabeth Anno 1562. I. Of Faith in the Holy Ghost THere is but one living and true God everlasting without Body Parts or Passions of infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness the Maker and Preserver of all things both visible and invisible And in the unity of this God-head there are three Persons of one Substance Power and Eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost II. The Word of God made very Man The Son which is the Word of the Father The Son which is the Word of the Father begotten from everlasting of the Father the very and eternal God of one Substance with the Father took Man's Nature in the Womb of the blessed Virgin c. took Man's Nature in the Womb of the blessed Virgin of her Substance So that two whole and perfect Natures that is to say the God-head and Manhood were join'd together in one Person never to be divided whereof is one Christ very God and very Man who truly suffered was crucified dead and buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be a Sacrifice not only for Original Guilt but also for Actual Sins of Men. III. Of the going down of Christ into Hell As Christ died for us and was buried so also is it to be believed that he went down into Hell * These words were left out For his Body lay in the Grave till his Resurrection but his Soul being separate from his Body remained with the Spirits which were detained in Prison that is to say in Hell and there preached unto them as witnesseth that place of Peter IV. The Resurrection of Christ Christ did truly rise again from Death and took again his Body with Flesh Bones and all things appertaining to the perfection of Man's Nature wherewith he ascended into Heaven and there sitteth till he return to judg all Men at the last day Of the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son is of one Substance Majesty and Glory with the Father and the Son very and eternal God V. The Doctrine of the Holy Scripture is sufficient to Salvation Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of the Faith or be thought necessary or requisite to Salvation In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament of whose Authority was never any doubt in the Church that is to say Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Joshua Judges Ruth 1st of Samuel 2d of Samuel c. And the other Books as Hierom saith the Church doth read for example of Life and instruction of Manners but yet doth it not apply them to establish any Doctrine such are these following The 3d of Esdras the 4th of Esdras the Book of Tobias the Book of Judeth the rest of the Book of Hester the Book of Wisdom c. All the Books of the New Testament as they are commonly received we do receive and account them Canonical Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby although sometimes it may be admitted by God's faithful People as pious and conducing unto order and decency yet is not to be required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of the Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation VI. The Old Testament is not to be rejected The Old Testament is not to be rejected as if it were contrary to the New but to be retained Forasmuch as in the Old Testament as in the New everlasting Life is offered to Mankind by Christ who is the only Mediator betwixt God and Man being both God and Man Wherefore they are not to be heard who feign that the old Fathers did look only for transitory Promises Although the Law given from God by Moses as touching Ceremonies and Rites do not bind Christian Men nor the Civil Precepts thereof ought of necessity to be received in any Common-wealth yet notwithstanding no Christian Man whatsoever is free from the obedience of the Commandments which are called Moral VII The three Creeds The three Creeds Nice Creed Athanasius Creed and that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed ought throughly to be received * And believed for they may be proved by most certain Warrants of the Holy Scripture VIII Original Sin Original Sin standeth not in the following of Adam as the Pelagians do vainly talk * Left out and at this day is affirmed by the Anabaptists but it is the fault and corruption of every Man that naturally is ingendred of the Off-spring of Adam whereby Man is very far gone from Original Righteousness and is of his own nature inclined to evil so that the Flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit and therefore in every Person born into this World it deserveth God's Wrath and Damnation And this Infection of Nature doth remain yea in them that are regenerated whereby the lust of the Flesh called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some do expound the Wisdom some Sensuality some the Affection some the desire of the Flesh is not subject to the Law of God And although there is no condemnation for them that believe and are baptized yet the Apostle doth confess that Concupiscense and Lust hath of it self the nature of Sin IX Of Free-will The condition of Man after the Fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good Works to Faith and calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good Works pleasant and acceptable unto God c. We have no power to do good Works pleasant and acceptable to God without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will X. Of Grace The Grace of Christ or the Holy Ghost which is given by him doth take from Man the heart of Stone and giveth him a heart of Flesh And though it rendereth us willing to do those good Works which before we were unwilling to do and unwilling to do those evil Works which before we did yet is no violence offered by it to the will of Man so that no Man when he hath sinned can excuse himself as if he had sinned against his will or upon constraint and therefore that he ought not to be accused or condemned upon that account XI Of the Justification of Man Justification by Faith only in Jesus Christ
who used auricular Confession to a Priest but that all should keep the Rule of Charity every Man being satisfied to follow his own Conscience and not judging another Mans in things not appointed by God After the Priest had received the Sacrament he was to turn to the People and read an Exhortation to them the same we now use only a little varied in words After that followed a Denunciation against Sinners requiring them who were such and had not repented to withdraw lest the Devil should enter into them as he did into Judas Then after a little pause to see if any would withdraw there was to follow a short Exhortation with a Confession of sins and Absolution the very same which we do yet retain Then those Texts of Scripture were read which we yet read followed with the Prayer We do not presume c. After this the Sacrament was to be given in both kinds first to the Ministers then present and then to all the People with these words The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy Body unto Everlasting Life and The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for thee preserve thy Soul unto Everlasting Life When all was done the Congregation was to be dismissed with a Blessing The Bread was to be such as had been formerly used and every one of the Breads so consecrated was to be broken in two or more pieces and the People were to be taught that there was no difference in the quantity they received whether it were small or great but that in each of them they received the whole Body of Christ If the Wine that was at first consecrated did not serve the Priest was to consecrate more but all to be without any Elevation This Office being thus finished was set forth with a Proclamation reciting That whereas the Parliament had Enacted that the Communion should be given in both kinds to all the Kings Subjects it was now ordered to be given in the Form here set forth and all were required to receive it with due reverence and Christian behaviour and with such uniformity as might encourage the King to go on in the setting forth godly Orders for Reformation which he intended most earnestly to bring to effect by the help of God Willing his Subjects not to run before his direction and so by their rashness to hinder such things assuring them of the earnest zeal he had to set them forth hoping they would quietly and reverently tarry for it This was published on the 8th of March and on the 13th Books were sent to all the Bishops of England requiring them to send them to every Parish in their Diocess that the Curates might have time both to instruct themselves about it and to acquaint their People with it so that by the next Easter it might be universally received in all the Churches of the Nation This was variously censured It is variously censured Those that were for the old Superstition were much troubled to have Confession thus left indifferent and a general Confession of sins to be used with which they apprehended the People would for the most part content themselves Chiefly that Auricular Confession was laid down In the Scripture there was a Power of Binding and Loosing sins given to the Apostles And St. James exhorted those to whom he wrote to confess their faults to one another Afterwards Penitents came to be reconciled to the Church when they had given publick scandal either by their Apostacy or ill Life by an open Confession of their sins and after some time of separation from the other pure Christians in Worship and an abstention from the Sacrament they were admitted again to their share of all the Priviledges that were given in common to Christians But according to the nature of their sins they were besides the publick Confession put under such Rules as might be most proper for curing these ill Inclinations in them and according to the several Ranks of sins the time and degrees of this Penitence was proportioned And the Councils that met in the fourth and fifth Centuries made the regulating these penitentiary Canons the chief Subject of their Consultations In many Churches there were penitentiary Priests who were more expert in the knowledge of these Rules and gave directions about them which were taken away in Constantinople upon the indiscretion of which one of them had been guilty For secret sins there was no obligation to confess since all the Canons were about publick scandals yet for these the devout People generally went to their Priests for their Counsel but were not obliged to it and so went to them for the distempers of their Minds as they did to Physicians for the Diseases of their Bodies About the end of the 5th Century they began in some Places to have secret Penances either within Monasteries or other Places which the Priests had appointed and upon a secret Confession and performing the Penance imposed Absolution was also given secretly whereas in former times Confession and Absolution had been performed openly in the Church In the 7th Century it was every where practised that there should be secret Penance for secret sins which Theodore Arch-bishop of Canterbury did first bring into a Method and under Rules But about the end of the 8th Century the commutation of Penance and exchanging it for Money or other Services to the Church came to be practised and then began Pilgrimages to Holy Places and afterwards the going to the Holy War and all the severities of Penance were dispensed with to such as undertook these This brought on a great Relaxation of all Ecclesiastical Discipline Afterwards Croisadoes came in use against such Princes as were deposed by Popes and to these was likewise added to encourage all to enter into them that all Rules of Penitence were dispensed with to such as put on that Cross But Penitence being now no more publick but only private the Priests managed it as they pleased and so by Confession entred into all Mens secrets and by Absolution had their Consciences so entirely in their Power that the People were generally governed by them Yet because the Secular Priests were commonly very ignorant and were not put under such an association as was needful to manage those designs for which this was thought an excellent Engine therefore the Friars were employed every where to hear Confessions and to give Absolutions And to bring in Customers to them two new things were invented The one was a Reserving of certain Cases in which such as were guilty of them could not be absolved but by the Popes or those deputed by them and the Friars had faculties in the Popes Name to absolve in these Cases The other was on some occasion the use of certain new Secrets by which Men were to obtain great Indulgences either by saying such Prayers or performing such Impositions and these were all trusted to the Friars who were to
lose their Degree in the Church This was soon received over all the Western Church and Arguments were found out afterwards by the Canonists to prove the necessity of continuing it from Davids not being suffered to build the Temple since he was a Man of Blood and from the qualification required by St. Paul in a Bishop That he should be no striker since he seemed to strike that did it either in Person or by one whom he deputed to do it But when afterwards Charles the Great and all the Christian Princes in the West gave their Bishops great Lands and Dominions they obliged them to be in all their Councils and to do them such Services as they required of them by vertue of their Tenures The Popes designing to set up a Spiritual Empire and to bring all Church-lands within it required the Bishops to separate themselves from a dependance on their Princes as much as it was possible And these Laws formerly made about Cases of Blood were judged a Colour good enough why they should not meddle in such Trials so they procured these Cases to be excepted But it seems Cranmer thought his Conscience was under no tie from those Canons and so judged it not contrary to his Function to Sign that Order The Parliament was on the 14th of March Prorogued to the 4th of Nov. the Clergy having granted the King a Subsidy of 6 s. in the Pound to be paid in three Years Subsidies granted by the Clergy and Laity In the Preamble of the Bill of Subsidy they acknowledged the great quietness they enjoyed under him having no Let nor Impediment in the Service of God But the Laity set out their Subsidy with a much fuller Preamble of the great happiness they had by the true Religion of Christ declaring that they were ready to forsake all things rather than Christ as also to assist the King in the Conquest of Scotland which they call a part of his Dominion therefore they give 12 d. in the Pound of all Mens Personal Estates to be paid in three Years But now to look into Matters of Religion there was A New Visitation immediately after the Act of Vniformity pass'd a new Visitation which it is probable went in the same Method that was observed in the former There were two things much complained of the one was that the Priests read the Prayers generally with the same tone of Voice that they had used formerly in the Latin Service so that it was said the People did not understand it much better than they had done the Latin formerly This I have seen represented in many Letters and it was very seriously laid before Cranmer by Martin Bucer The course taken in it was that in all Parish Churches the Service should be read in a plain audible Voice but that the former way should remain in Cathedrals where there were great Quires who were well acquainted with that Tone and where it agreed better with the Musick that was used in the Anthems Yet even there many thought it no proper way in the Letany where the greatest gravity was more agreeable to such humble Addresses than such a modulation of the Voice which to those unacquainted with it seemed light and for others that were more accustomed to it it seemed to be rather use that had reconciled them to it than the natural decency of the thing or any fitness in it to advance the devotion of their Prayers But this was a thing judged of less importance It was said that those who had been accustomed to read in that Voice could not easily alter it but as those dropt off and died others would be put in their places who would officiate in a plainer Voice Some of the old Abuses coninued in the new Service Other Abuses were more important Some used in the Communion-Service many of the old Rites such as kissing the Altar crossing themselves lifting the Book from one place to another breathing on the Bread shewing it openly before the distribution with some other of the old Ceremonies The People did also continue the use of their praying by Beads which was called an Innovation of Peter the Hermite in the 12th Century By it ten Aves went for one Pater Noster and the reciting these so oft in Latin had come to be almost all the devotion of the Vulgar and therefore the People were ordered to leave that unreasonable way of Praying it seeming a most unaccountable thing that the reciting the Angels Salutation to the Blessed Virgin should be such a high piece of Divine Worship And that this should be done ten times for one Prayer to God looked so like preferring the Creature to the Creator that it was not easie to defend it from an appearance of Idolatry The Briests were also ordered to exhort the People to give to the Poor The Curates were required to preach and declare the Catechism at least every sixth Week And some Priests continuing secretly the use of Soul Masses in which for avoiding the censure of the Law they had one to communicate with them but had many of these in one day It was ordered that there should be no selling of the Communion in Trentals and that there should be but one Communion in one Church except on Easter-day and Christmas in which the People coming to the Sacrament in greater numbers there should be one Sacrament in the Morning and another near Noon And there being great abuses in Churches and Church-yards in which in the times of Popery Markets had been held and Bargains made that was forbid chiefly in the time of Divine Service or Sermon Collection Number 33. These Instructions which the Reader will find in the Collection were given in charge to the Visitors Cranmer had also a Visitation about the same time in which the Articles he gave out are all drawn according to the Kings Injunctions By some Questions in them they seem to have been sent out before the Parliament because the Book of Service is not mentioned but the last Question save one being of such as contemned married Priests and refused to receive the Sacrament at their hands I conceive that these were compiled after the Act concerning their Marriage was past but before the Feast of Whit-Sunday following for till then the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book was not to be received There were also Orders sent by the Council to the Bishop of London to see that there should be no special Masses in St. Pauls Church which being the Mother-Church in the chief City of the Kingdom would be an example to all the rest and that therefore there should be only one Communion at the great Altar and that at the time when the high Mass was wont to be celebrated unless some desired a Sacrament in the Morning and then it was to be celebrated at the high Altar Bonner who resolved to comply in every thing sent the Councils Letter to the Dean and Residentiaries of St. Pauls to see it obeyed
Ranks and thought the Lands the King intended to give were not sufficient for the maintenance of the Honour to be conferred on them which he reported to the best advantage he could for every Man and endeavoured to raise the Kings favour to them as high as he could But while this was in consultation the Duke of Norfolk very prudently apprehending the ruin of his Posterity if his Lands were divided into many Hands out of which he could not so easily recover them whereas if they continued in the Crown some turn of Affairs might again establish his Family and intending also to oblige the King by so unusual a Complement sent a desire to him that he would be pleased to settle all his Lands on the Prince the now King and not give them away for said he according to the Phrase of that Time They are good and stately Gear This wrought so far on the King that he resolved to reserve them for himself and to reward his Servants some other way Whereupon Paget pressed him once to resolve on the Honours he would bestow and what he would give with them and they should afterwards consider of the way how to give it The King growing still worse said to him That if ought came to him but good as he thought he could not long endure he intended to place them all about his Son as Men whom he trusted and loved above all other and that therefore he would consider them the more So after many Consultations he ordered the Book to be thus filled up The Earl of Hartford to be Earl Marshal and Lord Treasurer and to be Duke of Somerset Exeter or Hartford and his Son to be Earl of Wiltshire with 800 l. a year of Land and 300 l. a year out of the next Bishops Land that fell void the Earl of Essex to be Marquess of Essex the Viscount Lisle to be Earl of Coventry the Lord Wriothesly to be Earl of Winchester Sir Tho. Seimour to be a Baron and Lord Admiral Sir Richard Rich Sir Jo. St. Leiger Sir William Willoughby Sir Ed. Sheffield and Sir Christopher Danby to be Barons with yearly Revenues to them and several other Persons And having at the Suit of Sir Edw. North promised to give the Earl of Hartford six of the best Prebends that should fall in any Cathedral except Deanries and Treasurerships at his suit he agreed that a Deanry and a Treasurership should be in stead of two of the six Prebendaries And thus all this being written as the King had ordered it the King took the Book and put it in his Pocket and gave the Secretary order to let every one know what he had determined for them But before these things took effect the King died Yet being on his Death-bed put in mind of what he had promised he ordered it to be put in his Will that his Executors should perform every thing that should appear to have been promised by him All this Denny and Herbert confirmed for they then waited in his Chamber and when the Secretary went out the King told them the substance of what had passed between them and made Denny read the Book over again to him whereupon Herbert observed that the Secretary had remembred all but himself to which the King answered He should not forget him and ordered Denny to write 400 l. a year for him All these things being thus declared upon Oath and the greatest part of them having been formerly signified to some of them and the whole matter being well known and spread abroad the Executors both out of Conscience to the Kings Will and for their own Honours resolved to fulfil what the King had intended but was hindred by death to accomplish But being apprehensive both of Wars with the Emperour and French King they resolved not to lessen the Kings Treasure nor Revenue nor to sell his Jewels or Plate but to find some other ways to pay them and this put them afterwards on selling the Chantry Lands The Affairs of Scotland The business of Scotland was then so pressing that Balnaves who was Agent for those that had shut themselves within the Castle of St. Andrews had this day 1180 l. ordered to be carried to them for an half years pay to the Soldiers of that Garrison There were also Pensions appointed for the most leading Men in that Business The Earl of Rothes eldest Son had 280 Pound Sir James Kircaldy had 200 and many others had smaller Pensions allowed them for their amity as it is expressed in the Council Books 1547. Feb. 6. the King Knighted That day the Lord Protector Knighted the King being authorized to do it by Letters Pattents So it seems that as the Laws of Chivalry required that the King should receive Knighthood from the Hand of some other Knight so it was judged too great a presumption for his own Subject to give it without a Warrant under the Great Seal The King at the same time Knighted Sir John Hublethorn the Lord Major of London When it was known abroad what a distribution of Honour and Wealth the Council had resolved on it was much censured many saying that it was not enough for them to have drained the dead King of all his Treasure but that the first step of their proceedings in their new Trust was to provide Honour and Estates for themselves whereas it had been a more decent way for them to have reserved their Pretensions till the King had come to be of Age. Another thing in the Attestations seemed much to lessen the credit of the Kings Will which was said to be Signed the 30th of Decemb. and so did bear date whereas this Narration insinuates that it was made a very little while before he died not being able to accomplish his design in these things which he had projected but it was well known that he was not so ill on the 30th of December Secular Men had their Ecclesiastical Dignities It may perhaps seem strange that the Earl of Hartford had six good Prebends promised him two of these being afterwards converted into a Deanry and a Treasurership But it was ordinary at that time The Lord Cromwell had been Dean of Wells and many other Secular Men had these Ecclesiastical Benefices without Cure conferred on them For which there being no charge of Souls annexed to them this might seem to be an excuse Yet even those had a sacred charge incumbent on them in the Cathedrals and were just and necessary encouragements either for such as by Age or other defects were not fit for a Parochial Charge and yet might be otherwise capable to do eminent service in the Church or for the support of such as in their Parochial labours did serve so well as to merit preferment and yet perhaps were so meanly provided for as to need some farther help for their subsistence But certainly they were never intended for the enriching of such lazy and sensual Men who having given themselves up
Kingdom to cast themselves wholly into the Arms of France and to offer their young Queen to the Dolphin and to think of no Treaty with the English So the Earl of Warwick returned to London having no small share in the Honour of this Expedition He was Son to that Dudley who was attainted and executed the first year of King Henry the 8th's Reign But whether it was that the King afterwards repented of his severity to the Father or that he was taken with the qualities of the Son he raised him by many degrees to be Admiral and Viscount Lisle He had defended Bulloigne when it was in no good condition against the Dolphin whose Army was believed 50000 strong and when the French had carried the Bassetown he recovered it and killed 800 of their Men The Year after that being in Command at Sea he offered the French Fleet Battel which they declining he made a descent upon Normandy with 5000 Men and having burnt and spoiled a great deal he returned to his Ships with the loss only of one Man And he shewed he was as fit for a Court as a Camp For being sent over to the French Court upon the Peace he appeared there with much Splendour and came off with great Honour He was indeed a Man of great Parts had not insatiable ambition with profound dissimulation stained his other Noble Qualities The Protector at his return was advised presently to meet the Parliament for which the Writs had been sent out before he went into Scotland now that he was so covered with Glory to get himself established in his Authority and to do those other things which required a Session The Visitors execute the Injunctions He found the Visitors had performed their Visitation and all had given obedience And those who expounded the secret Providences of God with an Eye to their own opinions took great notice of this that on the same day in which the Visitors removed Acts and Monuments and destroyed most of the Images in London their Armies were so successful in Scotland in Pinkey Field It is too common to all Men to magnifie such Events much when they make for them but if they are against them they turn it off by this That Gods Ways are past finding out So partially do Men argue where they are once engaged Bonner and Gardiner had shewed some dislike of the Injunctions Bonner received them with a Protestation that he would observe them if they were not contrary to Gods Law and the Ordinances of the Church Upon which Sir Anthony Cook and the other Visitors complained to the Council So Bonner was sent for where he offered a submission but full of vain Quiddities so it is expressed in the council-Council-Book But they were not well received by Bonner Collection Number 12. But they not accepting of that he made such a full one as they desired which is in the Collection Yet for giving terror to others he was sent to lie for some time in the Prison called the Fleet. Gardiner seeing the Homilies was also resolved to protest against them Nor by Gardiner Sir John Godsalve who was one of the Visitors wrote to him not to ruine himself nor lose his Bishoprick by such an Action To whom he wrote a Letter that has more of a Christian and of a Bishop in it than any thing I ever saw of his He expresses in handsome terms a great contempt of the World and a resolution to suffer any thing rather than depart from his Conscience Besides that as he said the things being against Law he would not deliver up the Liberties of his Country but would petition against them This Letter will be found in the Collection Collection Number 13. for I am resolved to suppress nothing of consequence on what side soever it may be Sept. 15. On the 25th of September it being informed to the Council that Gardiner had written to some of that Board and had spoken to others many things in prejudice and contempt of the Kings Visitation and that he intended to refuse to set forth the Homilies and Injunctions he was sent for to the Council Where being examined he said he thought they were contrary to the Word of God and that his Conscience would not suffer him to observe them He excepted to one of the Homilies that it exclude Charity from justifying Men as well as Faith This he said was contrary to the Book set out in the late Kings time which was afterwards confirmed in Parliament in the Year 1542. he said further that he could never see one place of Scripture nor any ancient Doctor that favoured it He also said Erasmus's Paraphrase was bad enough in Latin but much worse in English for the Translator had oft out of ignorance and oft out of design misrendred him palpably and was one that neither understood Latin nor English well He offered to go to Oxford to dispute about Justification with any they should send him to or to enter in conference with any that would undertake his Instruction in Town But this did not satisfie the Council So they pressed him to declare what he intended to do when the Visitors should be with him He said he did not know he should further study these Points for it would be three weeks before they could be with him and he was sure he would say no worse than that he should obey them as far as could consist with Gods Law and the Kings The Council urged him to promise that he would without any limitation set forth the Homilies and the Injunctions which he refusing to do was sent to the Fleet. Some days after that Cranmer went to see the Dean of St. Pauls having the Bishops of Lincoln and Rochester with Dr. Cox and some others with him He sent for Gardiner thither and entred into discourse with him about that Passage in the Homily excluding Charity out of our Justification and urged those Places of St. Paul That we are justified by Faith without the Works of the Law He said his design in that Passage was only to draw Men from trusting in any thing they did and to teach them to trust only to Christ But Gardiner had a very different Notion of Justification For as he said Infants were justified by Baptism and Penitents by the Sacrament of Penance and that the Conditions of the justifying of those of Age were Charity as well as Faith as the three Estates make a Law all joyned together for by this Simile he set it out in the report he writ of that Discourse to the Lord Protector reckoning the King one of the three Estates a way of Speech very strange especially in a Bishop and a Lawyer For Erasmus it was said that though there were faults in his Paraphrase as no Book besides the Scriptures is without faults yet it was the best for that use they could find and they did choose rather to set out what so learned a Man had written
trade with them and bring all the Money they could gather by that means to Rome They being bred up to a voluntary Poverty and expecting great Rewards for their Industry sold those Secrets with as much cunning as Mounte-banks use in selling their Tricks only here was the difference that the ineffectualness of the Mountebanks Medicines was soon discovered so their Trade must be but short in one Place whereas the other could not be so easily found out The chief Piece of the Religion of those Ages being to believe all that their Priests taught them Of this sort the Reader will find in the Collection an Essay of Indulgences as they were printed in the Hours after the use of Sarum Collection Number 26. which were set down in English though the Prayers be all Latine that so all the People might know the value of such Ware Those had been all by degrees brought from Rome and put into Peoples Hands and afterwards laid together in their Offices By them Indulgences of many years Hundreds Thousands and Millions of years and of all sins whatsoever were granted to such as devoutly said such Collects but it was always understood that they must confess and be absolved which is the meaning of those Expressions concerning their being in a state of Grace And so the whole Business was a Cheat. And now all this Trade was laid aside and Confession of secret sins was left to all Mens free choice since it was certain that the Confession to a Priest was no where enjoyned in the Scriptures It was a reasonable Objection that as secret Confession and private Penance had worn out the primitive practice of the publick censuring of scandalous Persons so it had been well if the reviving of that Discipline had driven out these later Abuses but to let that lie unrestored and yet to let Confession wear out was to discharge the World of all outward restraints and to leave them to their full liberty and so to throw up that Power of Binding and Loosing which ought to take place chiefly in admitting them to the Sacrament This was confessed to be a great defect and effectual endeavours were used to retrieve it though without success and it was openly declared to be a thing which they would study to repair But the total disuse of all publick censure had made the Nation so unacquainted with it that without the effectual concurrence of the Civil Authority they could not compass it And though it was acknowledged to be a great disorder in the Church yet as they could not keep up the necessity of private Confession since it was not commanded in the Gospel so the generality of the Clergy being superstitious Men whose chief influence on the People was by those secret Practices in Confession they judged it necessary to leave that free to all People and to represent it as a thing to which they were not obliged and in the place of that ordered the general Confession to be made in the Church with the Absolution added to it For the Power of Binding and Loosing it was by many thought to be only Declarative and so to be exercised when the Gospel was preached and a General Absolution granted according to the Ancient Forms In which Forms the Absolution was a Prayer that God would absolve and so it had been still used in the Absolution which was given on Maundy-Thursday but the Formal Absolution given by the Priest in his own Name I absolve thee was a late invention to raise their Authority higher and signified nothing distinct from those other Forms that were anciently used in the Church Others censured the Words in distributing the two kinds in the Lords Supper the Body being given for the preserving the Body and the Blood of Christ for preserving the Soul This was thought done on design to possess the People with an high value of the Chalice as that which preserved their Souls whereas the Bread was only for the preservation of their Bodies But Cranmer being ready to change any thing for which he saw good reason did afterwards so alter it that in both it was said Preserve thy Body and Soul And yet it stands so in the Prayer We do not presume c. On all this I have digressed so long because of the importance of the matter and for satisfying the Scruples that many still have upon the laying aside of Confession in our Reformation Commissions were next given to examine the state of the Chantries and Guildable Lands The Instruction about them will be found in the Collection of which I need give no abstract here Collection Number 27. for they were only about the Methods of enquiring into their value and how they were possessed or what Alienations had been made of them The Protector and Council were now in much trouble The War with Scotland they found was like to grow chargeable since they saw it was supported from France There was a Rebellion also broke out in Ireland and the King was much indebted nor could they expect any Subsidies from the Parliament in which it had been said that they gave the Chantry Lands that they might be delivered from all Subsidies Therefore the Parliament was prorogued till Winter Upon this the whole Council did on the 17th of April unanimously resolve that it was necessary to sell 5000 l. a year of Chantry Lands for raising such a Sum as the Kings occasions required and Sir Hen. Mildmay was appointed to treat about the Sale of them Gardiner falls into new Troubles The new communion-Communion-Book was received over England without any opposition Only complaints were brought of Gardiner that he did secretly detract from the Kings Proceedings Upon which the Council took occasion to reflect on all his former behaviour And here it was remembred how at first upon his refusing to receive the Kings Injunctions he had been put in the Fleet where he had been as well used as if it had been his own House which is far contrary to his Letters to the Protector of which mention has been already made and that he upon promise of Conformity had been discharged But when he was come home being forgetful of his Promises he had raised much strife and contention and had caused all his Servants to be secretly armed and harnessed and had put publick affronts on those whom the Council sent down to preach in his Diocess for in some Places to disgrace them he went into the Pulpit before them and warned the People to beware of such Teachers and to receive no other Doctrine but what he had taught them Upon this he had been sent for a second time but again upon his Promise of Conformity was discharged and ordered to stay at his own House in London That there he had continued still to meddle in publick Matters of which being again admonished he desired that he might be suffered to clear himself of all misrepresentations that had been made of him in a Sermon
and indeed all England over the Book was so universally received that the Visitors did return no complaint from any corner of the whole Kingdom All received the new Service except the Lady Mary Only the Lady Mary continued to have Mass said in her House of which the Council being advertised writ to her to conform her self to the Laws and not to cast a reproach on the Kings Government for the nearer she was to him in Blood she was to give the better example to others and her disobedience might encourage others to follow her in that contempt of the Kings Authority So they desired her to send to them her Comptroller and Dr. Hopton her Chaplain by whom she should be more fully advertised of the King and Councils Pleasure Upon this she sent one to the Emperor to interpose for her that she might not be forced to any thing against her Conscience At this time there was a Complaint made at the Emperours Court The Ambassador at the Emperors Court not suffered to use it of the English Ambassador Sir Philip Hobby for using the new Common-Prayer-Book there To which he answered He was to be obedient to the Laws of his own Prince and Country and as the Emperors Ambassador had Mass at his Chappel at London without disturbance though it was contrary to the Law of England so he had the same reason to expect the like liberty But the Emperor espousing the Interest of the Lady Mary both Paget who was sent over Ambassador Extraordinary to him upon his coming into Flanders and Hobby promised in the Kings Name that he should dispense with her for some time as they afterwards declared upon their Honours when the thing was further questioned though the Emperor and his Ministers pretended that without any Qualification it was promised that she should enjoy the free exercise of her Religion The Emperor was now grown so high with his success in Germany A Treaty of Marriage for the Lady Mary and that at a time when a War was coming on with France that it was not thought advisable to give him any offence There was likewise a Proposition sent over by him to the Protector and Council Cotton lib. Galba B. 12. for the Lady Mary to be married to Alphonso Brother to the King of Portugal The Council entertained it and though the late King had left his Daughters but 10000 l. a-piece yet they offered to give with her 100000 Crowns in Money and 20000 Crowns worth of Jewels The Infant of Portugal was about her own Age and offered 20000 Crowns Jointure But this Proposition fell on what hand I do not know She writ to the Council concerning the new Service The Lady Mary writ on the 22d of June to the Council that she could not obey their late Laws and that she did not esteem them Laws as made when the King was not of Age and contrary to those made by her Father which they were all bound by Oath to maintain She excused the not sending her Comptroller Mr. Arundel and her Priest the one did all her business so that she could not well be without him the other was then so ill that he could not travel Upon this the Council sent a peremptory Command to these requiring them to come up and receive their Orders The Lady Mary wrote a second Letter to them on the 27th of June in which she expostulated the matter with the Council She said She was subject to none of them and would obey none of the Laws they made but protested great Obedience and Subjection to the King When her Officers came to Court they were commanded to declare to the Lady Mary that though the King was young in Person yet his Authority was now as great as ever that those who have his Authority and act in his Name are to be obeyed and though they as single Persons were her humble Servants yet when they met in Council they acted in the Kings Name Who required her to obey as other Subjects did and so were to be considered by all the Kings Subjects as if they were the King himself they had indeed sworn to obey the late Kings Laws but that could bind them no longer than they were in force and being now repealed they were no more Laws other Laws being made in their room There was no exception in the Laws all the Kings Subjects were included in them and for a Reformation of Religion made when a King was under Age one of the most perfect that was recorded in Scripture was so carried on when Josiah was much younger than their King was therefore they gave them in charge to perswade her Grace for that was her Title to be a good example of obedience and not to encourage peevish and obstinate Persons by her stiffness But this Business was for some time laid aside And now the Reformation was to be carried on to the establishing of a Form of Doctrine which should contain the chief Points of Religion In order to which there was this Year great enquiry made into many particular Opinions The manner of Christs Presence in the Sacrament examined and chiefly concerning the Presence of Christ in the Sacrament There was no Opinion for which the Priests contended more ignorantly and eagerly and that the People generally believed more blindly and firmly as if a strong Belief were nothing else but winking very hard The Priests because they accounted it the chief support now left of their falling Dominion which being kept up might in time retrieve all the rest For while it was believed that their Character qualified them for so strange and mighty a Performance they must needs be held in great reverence The People because they thought they received the very Flesh of Christ and so notwithstanding our Saviours express Declaration to the contrary that the Flesh profiteth nothing looked on those who went about to perswade them otherwise as Men that intended to rob them of the greatest Priviledge they had And therefore it was thought necessary to open this fully before there should be any change made in the Doctrine of the Church The Lutherans seemed to agree with that which had been the Doctrine of the Greek Church that in the Sacrament there was both the Substance of Bread and Wine and Christs Body likewise Only many of them defended it by an Opinion that was thought a-kin to the Eutychian Heresie that his humane Nature by vertue of the union of the God-head was every where though even in this way it did not appear that there was any special Presence in the Sacrament more than in other things Those of Switzerland had on the other hand taught that the Sacrament was only an Institution to commemorate the Sufferings of Christ This because it was intelligible was thought by many too low and mean a thing and not equal to the high expressions that are in the Scripture of its being the Communion of the Body
the want of faithful Teachers and intreated the Arch-bishop to see to the mending of this and to think on some stricter ways of examining those who were to be ordained than barely the putting of some Questions to them All this I have gathered out the more largely that it may appear how carefully things were then considered and that almost in every particular the most material things which Bucer excepted to were corrected afterwards But at the same time the King having taken such care of him that hearing he had suffered in his health last Winter by the want of a Stove such as is used in Germany he had sent him 20 l. to have one made for him he was told that the King would expect a New-years-gift from him of a Book made for his own use So upon that occasion he writ a Book entituled Bucer writ a Book for the Kings use Concerning the Kingdom of Christ. He sets out in it the miseries of Germany which he says were brought on them by their sins for they would bear no discipline nor were the Ministers so earnest in it as was fitting though in Hungary it was otherwise He writes largely of Ecclesiastical Discipline which was intended chiefly for separating ill Men from the Sacrament and to make good Men avoid their company whereby they might be ashamed He presses much the Sanctification of the Lords-day and of the other Holy-days and that there might be many days of Fasting but he thought Lent had been so abused that other times for it might be more expedient He complains much of Pluralities and Non-residence as a remainder of Popery so hurtful to the Church that in many Places there were but one or two or few more Sermons in a whole year But he thought that much was not to be expected from the greatest part of the Clergy unless the King would set himself vigorously to Reform these things Lastly he would have a compleat exposition of the Doctrine of the Church digested and set out and he proposed divers Laws to the Kings consideration as 1. For Catechising Children 2. For Sanctifying Holy-days 3. For Preserving Churches for Gods Service not to be made Places for walking or for Commerce 4. To have the Pastoral Function entirely restored to what it ought to be that Bishops throwing off all Secular cares should give themselves to their Spiritual Employments he advises that Coadjutors might be given to some and a Council of Presbyters be appointed for them all It was plain that many of them complied with the Laws against their minds these he would have deprived He advises Rural Bishops to be set over twenty or thirty Parishes who should gather their Clergy often together and inspect them closely And that a Provincial Synod should meet twice a year where a Secular Man in the Kings Name should be appointed to observe their Proceedings 5. For restoring Church-Lands that all who served the Church might be well provided If any lived in luxury upon their high Revenues it was reasonable to make them use them better but not to blame or rob the Church for their fault 6. For the maintenance of the Poor for whom anciently a fourth part of the Churches Goods was assigned The 7th was about Marriage That the prohibited degrees might be well setled Marriage without consent of Parents annulled and that a second Marriage might be lawful after a Divorce which he thought might be made for Adultery and some other reasons 8. For the Education of Youth 9. For restraining the excess of some Peoples living 10. For reforming and explaining the Laws of the Land which his Father had begun 11. To place good Magistrates that no Office should be sold and that Inferior Magistrates should often give an account to the Superior of the Administration of their Offices 12. To consider well who were made Judges 13. To give order that none should be put in Prison upon slight offences The 14th was for moderating of some punishments chiefly the putting Thieves to death which was too severe whereas Adultery was too slightly passed over though Adultery be a greater wrong to the suffering Party than any Theft and so was punished with death by Moses Law This Book was sent to the young King And he having received it The King thinks of Reforming many abuses set himself to write a general Discourse about a Reformation of the Nation which is the second among the Discourses written by him that follow the Journal of his Reign Coll. K. Edw. Remains Number 2. In it he takes notice of the Corrections of the Book of the Liturgy which were then under consideration as also that it was neccssary there should be a Rule of Church-discipline for the censures of ill Livers but he thought that Power was not to be put into the Hands of all the Bishops at that time From thence he goes on to discourse of the ill state of the Nation and of the remedies that seemed proper for it The first he proposes was the Education of Youth next the correction of some Laws and there either broke it off or the rest of it is lost In which as there is a great discovery of a marvellous probity of mind so there are strange hints to come from one not yet fourteen years of Age. And yet it is all written with his own Hand and in such a manner that any who shall look on the Original will clearly see it was his own Work The Stile is simple and sutable to a Child few Men can make such Composures but somewhat above a Child will appear in their Stile which makes me conclude it was all a device of his own This Year the King began to write his Journal himself He writes a Journal of all Proceedings during his Reign The first three years of his Reign are set down in a short way of recapitulating matters But this Year he set down what was done every day that was of any moment together with the Forreign News that were sent over And oftentimes he called to mind Passages some days after they were done and sometime after the middle of a Month he tells what was done in the beginning of it Which shews clearly it was his own Work for if it had been drawn for him by any that were about him and given him only to copy out for his memory it would have been more exact so that there remains no doubt with me but that it was his own originally And therefore since all who have writ of that time have drawn their Informations from that Journal and though they have printed some of the Letters he wrote when a Child which are indeed the meanest things that ever fell from him yet except one little fragment nothing of it has been yet published I have copied it out entirely and set it before my Collection Coll. K. Edw. Remains Number 1. I have added to it some other Papers that were also writ by him The first
are two Sacraments which are not bare Tokens of our Profession but effectual Signs of Gods good Will to us which strengthen our Faith yet not by vertue only of the Work wrought but in those who receive them worthily The 27th That the vertue of these does not depend on the Minster of them The 28th That by Baptism we are the adopted Sons of God and that Infant Baptism is to be commended and in any ways to be retained The 29th That the Lords Supper is not a bare Token of love among Christians but is the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation is contrary to Scripture and hath given occasion to much Superstition that a Body being only in one place and Christs Body being in Heaven therefore there cannot be a real and bodily Presence of his Flesh and Blood in it and that this Sacrament is not to be kept carried about lifted up nor worshiped The 30th That there is no other Propitiatory Sacrifice but that which Christ offered on the Cross The 31st That the Clergy are not by Gods command obliged to abstain from Marriage The 32d That Persons rightly excommunicated are to be looked on as Heathens till they are by Penance reconciled and received by a Judge competent The 33d It is not necessary that Ceremonies should be the same at all times but such as refuse to obey lawful Ceremonies ought to be openly reproved as offending against Law and Order giving scandal to the weak The 34th That the Homilies are godly and wholesom and ought to be read The 35th That the Book of Common-Prayer is not repugnant but agreeable to the Gospel and ought to be received by all The 36th That the King is Supream Head under Christ that the Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in England that the Civil Magistrate is to be obeyed for Conscience sake that Men may be put to death for great offences and that it is lawful for Christians to make War The 37th That there is not to be a community of all Mens Goods but yet every Man ought to give to the Poor according to his ability The 38th That though rash swearing is condemned yet such as are required by the Magistrate may take an Oath The 39th That the Resurrection is not already past but at the last day Men shall rise with the same Bodies they now have The 40th That departed Souls do not die nor sleep with their Bodies and continue without sense till the last day The 41st That the Fable of the Millenaries is contrary to Scripture and a Jewish dotage The last condemned those who believe that the damned after some time of suffering shall be saved Thus was the Doctrine of the Church cast into a short and plain Form in which they took care both to establish the positive Articles of Religion and to cut off the errors formerly introduced in the time of Popery or of late broached by the Anabaptists and Enthusiasts of Germany avoiding the niceties of School-men or the peremptoriness of the Writers of Controversie leaving in matters that are more justly controvertible a liberty to Divines to follow their private Opinions without thereby disturbing the Peace of the Church There was in the Ancient Church a great simplicity in their Creeds and the Exposition of the Doctrine But afterwards upon the breaking out of the Arrian and other Heresies concerning the Person of Jesus Christ as the Orthodox Fathers were put to find out new Terms to drive the Hereticks out of the equivocal use of these formerly received so they too soon grew to love niceties and to explain Mysteries with Similies and other subtilties which they invented and Councils afterwards were very liberal in their Anathematismes against any who did not agree in all Points to their Terms or ways of Explanation And though the Council of Ephesus decreed That there should be no Additions made to the Creed they understood that not of the whole Belief of Christians but only of the Creed it self and did also load the Christian Doctrine with many Curiosities But though they had exceeded much yet the School-men getting the management of the Doctrine spun their Thread much finer and did easily procure Condemnations either by Papal Bulls or the Decrees of such Councils as met in these times of all that differed from them in the least matter Upon the progress of the Reformation the German Writers particularly Osiander Illiricus and Amstorfius grew too peremptory and not only condemned the Helvetian Churches for differing from them in the manner of Christs Presence in the Sacrament but were severe to one another for lesser Punctilio's and were at this time exercising the patience of the great and learned Melancton because he thought that in things of their own Nature indifferent they ought to have complied with the Emperor This made those in England resolve on composing these Articles with great temper in many such Points Only one Notion that has been since taken up by some seems not to have been then thought of which is That these were rather Articles of Peace than of Belief so that the subscribing was rather a Compromise not to teach any Doctrine contrary to them than a Declaration that they believed according to them There appears no reason for this conceit no such thing being then declared so that those who subscribed did either believe them to be true or else they did grosly prevaricate The next Business in which the Reformers were employed this Year Some Corrections made in the Common-Prayer-Book was the correcting the Common-Prayer-Book and the making some Additions with the changing of such Particulars as had been retained only for a time The most considerable Additions were That in the daily Service they prepared a short but most simple and grave Form of a general Confession of sins in the use of which they intended that those who made this Confession should not content themselves with a bare recital of the Words but should joyn with them in their Hearts a particular Confession of their private sins to God To this was added a General Absolution or Pronouncing in the Name of God the pardon of sin to all those who did truly repent and unfeignedly believe the Gospel For they judged that if the People did seriously practise this it would keep up in their thoughts frequent reflections on their sins and it was thought that the pronouncing a Pardon upon these Conditions might have a better effect on the People than that absolute and unqualified Pardon which their Priests were wont to give in Confession By which Absolution in times of Popery the People were made to believe that their sins were thereupon certainly forgiven than which nothing could be invented that would harden them into a more fatal security when they thought a full Pardon could be so readily purchased But now they heard the terms on which they could only expect it every day promulgated to them The other
them but if their Divines had any scruple in which they desired satisfaction with a humble and obedient mind they should be heard And for a safe Conduct he thought it was a distrusting the Council to ask any other than what was already granted Soon after this there arrived Ambassadors from Strasburg and from other five Cities and those sent from the Duke of Saxe were on their Journey so the Emperor ordered his Ambassadors to study to gain time till they came and then an effectual course must be taken for compassing that about which he had laboured so long in vain to bring it to a happy conclusion And thus this Year ended The Parliament was opened on the 23d of January 1552. A Session of Parliament and sate till the 15th of April So I shall begin this Year with the account of the Proceedings in it The first Act that was put into the House of Lords was for an Order to bring Men to Divine Service which was agreed to on the 26th and sent down to the Commons who kept it long before they sent it back On the 6th of April when it was agreed to the Earl of Darby the Bishops of Carlisle and Norwich and the Lords Sturton and Windsor dissented The Lords afterwards brought in another Bill for authorizing a new Common-Prayer-Book according to the Alterations which had been agreed on the former Year This the Commons joyned to the former and so put both in one Act. By it was first set forth That an Order of Divine Service being published An Act authorizing the new Common-Prayer-Book many did wilfully abstain from it and refused to come to their Parish-Churches therefore all are required after the Feast of All-hallows next to come every Sunday and Holy-day to Common-Prayers under pain of the Censures of the Church And the King the Lords Temporal and the Commons did in Gods Name require all Arch-bishops Bishops and other Ordinaries to endeavour the due execution of that Act as they would answer before God for such Evils and Plagues with which he might justly punish them for neglecting that good and wholesome Law and they were fully authorized to execute the Censures of the Church on all that should offend against this Law To which is added That there had been divers doubts raised about the manner of the Ministration of the Service rather by the curiosity of the Ministers and Mistakers than of any other worthy Cause and that for the better explanation of that and for the greater perfection of the Service in some places where it was fit to make the Prayer and fashion of Service more earnest and fit to stir Christian People to the true honouring of Almighty God therefore it had been by the Command of the King and Parliament perused explained and made more perfect They also annexed to it the Form of making Bishops Priests and Deacons and so appointed this new Book of Service to be every where received after the Feast of All-Saints next under the same Penalties that had been enacted three years before when the former Book was set out Which was much censured It was upon this Act said by the Papists That the Reformation was like to change as oft as the Fashion did since they seemed never to be at a Point in any thing but new Models were thus continually framing To which it was answered That it was no wonder that the corruptions which they had been introducing for above a thousand years were not all discovered or thrown out at once but now the business was brought to a fuller perfection and they were not like to see any more material Changes Besides any that would take the pains to compare the Offices that had been among the Papists would clearly perceive that in every Age there was such an encrease of additional Rites and Ceremonies that though the old ones were still retained yet it seemed there would be no end of new improvements and additions Others wondred why the execution of this Law was put off so long as till the end of the Year All the account I can give of this is that it was expected that by that time the new Body of the Ecclesiastical Laws which was now preparing should be finished and therefore since this Act was to be executed by the Clergy the day in which it was to be in force was so long delayed till that Reformation of their Laws were concluded An Act concerning Treasons On the 8th of February a Bill of Treasons was put in and agreed to by all the Lords except the Lord Wentworth It was sent down to the Commons where it was long disputed and many sharp things were said of those who now bore the sway that whereas they who governed in the beginning of this Reign had put in a Bill for lessening the number of such offences now they saw the change of Councils when severer Laws were proposed The Commons at last rejected the Bill and then drew a new one which was passed By it they Enacted That if any should call the King or any of his Heirs named in the Statute of the 35th of his Fathers Reign Heretick Schismatick Tyrant Infidel or Usurper of the Crown for the first offence they should forfeit their Goods and Chattels and be imprisoned during pleasure for the second should be in a Praemunire for the third should be attainted of Treason but any who should advisedly set that out in printing or writing was for the first offence to be held a Traitor And that those who should keep any of the Kings Castles Artillery or Ships six days after they were lawfully required to deliver them up should be guilty of Treason that Men might be proceeded against for Treasons committed out of the Kingdom as well as in it They added a Proviso That none should be Attainted of Treason on this Act unless two Witnesses should come and to their face averr the Fact for which they were to be tried except such as without any violence should confess it and that none should be questioned for any thing said or written but within three Months after it was done This Proviso seems clearly to have been made with relation to the Proceeding against the Duke of Somerset in which the Witnesses were not brought to averr the Evidence to his Face and by that means he was deprived of all the benefit and advantage which he might have had by cross examining them It is certain that though some false Witnesses have practised the Trade so much that they seem to have laid off all shame and have a brow that cannot be daunted yet for the greatest part a bright serenity and cheerfulness attends Innocence and a lowring dejection betrays the Guilty when the Innocent and they are confronted together On the 3d of March a Bill was brought into the Lords for Holy-days and Fasting days and sent down to the Commons on the 15th of March An Act about Fasts and Holy-days by
Recorder of London told the Earl of Leicester the secret of this in Queen Elizabeth's Time who writ down his Discourse and from thence I have copied it There was one that had been Cromwell's Servant and much employed by him in the suppression of Monasteries he was a Man of great Notions but very busy and factious so having been a great stickler for the Lady Jane he was put in the Fleet upon the Queen's first coming to the Crown yet within a month he was discharged but upon the last Rising was again put up and indicted of High Treason He had great Friends and made application to one of the Emperor's Ambassadors that was then the Chancellor of the Dutchy of Milan and by his means he obtained his Liberty Being brought to him he shewed him a new Plat-form of Government which he had contrived for the Queen She was to declare her self a Conqueror or that she having succeeded to the Crown by Common Law was not at all to be limited by the Statute Laws since those were only restrictions upon the Kings but not on the Queens of England and that therefore all those Limitations of the Prerogative were only binding in the Persons of Kings but she was free from them Upon this he shewed how she might establish Religion set up the Monasteries raise her Friends and ruin her Enemies and Rule according to her Pleasure The Ambassador carried this to the Queen and seemed much pleased with it but desired her to read it carefully and keep it as a great Secret As she read it she disliked it and judged it contrary to the Oath she had made at her Coronation and thereupon sent for Gardiner and charged him as he would answer before the Judgment-Seat of God at the general Day of the Holy Doom that he would consider the Book carefully and bring her his Opinion of it next day which fell to be Maundy Thursday So as the Queen came from her Maundy he waited on her into her Closet and said these words My good and most gracious Lady I intend not to pray your Highness with any humble Petitions to name the Devisers of this new invented Plat-form but here I say That it is pity that so noble and vertuous a Lady should be endangered with the pernicious Devices of such lewd and subtil Sycophants for the Book is naught and most horrible to be thought on Upon this the Queen thanked him and threw the Book into the Fire and charged the Ambassador that neither he nor any of his Company should receive more such Projects from any of her People This made Gardiner apprehended that if the Spaniards began so soon to put such Notions into the Queen's Head they might afterwards when she was in their Hands make somewhat of them and therefore to prevent such Designs for the future he drew the Act in which though he seemed to do it as an Advantage to the Queen for the putting of her Title beyond dispute yet he really intended nothing by it but that she should be restrained by all those Laws that the former Kings of England had consented to And because King Henry the Seventh though his best right to the Crown flowed from his Marriage to the Heir of the House of York had yet taken the Government wholly into his own hands he fearing lest the Spaniards should pretend to such a Power by the Authority which Marriage gives the Husband over the Wife got the Articles of the Marriage to be ratified in Parliament by which they not only confirmed those agreed on but made a more full explanation of that part of them which declared the entire Government of the Kingdom to belong only to the Queen To this the Spaniards gave too great an occasion Great Jealousies of the Spanish Power by publishing King Philip's Pedigree whom they derived from John of Gaunt They said this was only done to conciliate the favour of the Nation by representing him not a stranger but a Native But this gave great offence concerning which I have seen a little Book that vvas then printed It was there said That King Henry the Seventh came in pretending only to marry the Heir of the House of York But he was no sooner on the Throne than he declared his own Title and kept it his whole Life So it vvas said the Spaniard vvould call himself Heir of the House of Lancaster and upon that Pretension would easily wrest the Power out of the Queen's hands who seemed to mind nothing but her Devotions This made Gardiner look the better to the securing of the Liberties of the Crown and Nation so that it must be acknowledged that the preserving of England out of the hands of the Spaniards at that time seems to be almost vvholly owing to him In this Parliament the Marquess of Northampton vvas restored in Blood And the Act for restoring the Bishoprick of Duresm The Bishoprick of Duresm restored not having gone through the last Parliament vvhen it vvas dissolved vvas now brought in again The Town of Newcastle opposed it much vvhen it came down to the Commons But the Bishop of Duresm came to them on the 18th of April and gave them a long account of all his Troubles from the Duke of Northumberland and desired that they would dispatch his Bill There vvere many Proviso's put into it for some that vvere concerned in Gateside but it vvas carried in the House That instead of these Proviso's they should send a Desire to him recommending those Persons to his Favour So upon a Division there vvere 120 against it and 201 for it After this came the Bill confirming the Attainders of the Duke of Suffolk and fifty eight more vvho vvere attainted for the late Rebellion The Lords put in a Proviso excepting Entailed Lands out of their Forfeitures but the Commons rejected the Proviso and passed the Bill Then did the Commons send up a Bill for reviving the Statutes made against Lollardy vvhich being read twice by the Lords vvas laid aside The Commons intended next to have revived the Statute of the Six Articles but it did not agree vvith the Design at Court to take any notice of King Henry's Acts so this vvas let fall Then they brought in another Bill to extirpate Erroneous Opinions and Books but that vvas at the third reading laid aside After that they passed a particular Bill against Lollardy in some Points as the eating of flesh in Lent but that also being sent up to the Lords was at the third reading laid aside by the major part of the House so forward were the Commons to please the Queen or such Operation had the Spanish Gold on them that they contrived four Bills in one Session for the prosecution of those they called Hereticks But to give some content on the other hand they passed a Bill that neither the Bishop of Rome nor any other should have any Power to Convene or trouble any for possessing Abbey Lands This was sent up to
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
you shall find any Person stubborn or disobedient in not bringing in the said Books according to the tenour of these our Letters that then ye commit the said Person to Ward unto such time as you have certified us of his misbehaviour And we will and command you that you also search or cause search to be made from time to time whether any Book be withdrawn or hid contrary to the tenour of these our Letters and the same Book to receive into your Hands and to use all in these our Letters we have appointed And further whereas it is come unto our knowledg that divers froward and obstinate Persons do refuse to pay towards the finding of Bread and Wine for the Holy Communion according to the Order prescribed in the said Book by reason whereof the Holy Communion is many times omitted upon the Sunday These are to will and command you to convent such obstinate Persons before you and then to admonish and command to keep the Order prescribed in the said Book and if any shall refuse so to do to punish them by Suspension Excommunication or other Censures of the Church Fail you not thus to do as you will avoid our Displeasure Westminst Decemb. 25. Regni tertio Thom. Cantuarien Rich. Chanc. Will. St. John J. Russel H. Dorset W. Northampton Number 48. Cardinal Woolsey's Letters to Rome for procuring the Popedom to himself upon Pope Adrian's death Ex MS. Col. Cor. C. Cant. MY Lord of Bath Mr. Secretary and Mr. Hannibal I commend me unto you in my right hearty manner letting you wit That by Letters lately sent unto me from you my Lord of Bath and Mr. Hannibal dated at Rome the 14th day of September Which Letters I incontinently shewed unto the King's Grace his Highness And I have been advertised to our great discomfort That the said 14th day it pleased Almighty God to call the Pope's Holiness unto his Infinite Mercy whose Soul Jesu pardon News certainly unto the King's Grace and to me right heavy and for the universal weal or quiet of Christendom whereunto his Holiness like a devout and virtuous Father of Holy Church was very studious much displeasant and contrarious Nevertheless conforming our selves to the Pleasure of Almighty God to whose Calling we all must be obedient the Mind and Intention of the King's Highness and of me both is to put some helps and furtherances as much as conveniently may be that such a Successor unto him may now by the Holy College of Cardinals be named and elected as may with God's Grace perform atchieve and fulfil the good and vertuous Purposes and Intents concerning the Pacification of Christendom whereunto our said late Holy Father as much as the brevity of the time did suffer was as it should seem minded and inclined which thing how necessary it is to the state of Christs Religion now daily more and more declining it is facil and easie to be consider'd and surely amongst other Christian Princes there is none which as ye heretofore have perfectly understood that to this purpose more dedicated themselves to give Furtherance Advice and Counsel than the Emperor and the King's Grace who as well before the time of the last Vacation as sithence by Mouth and by Letters with Report of Ambassadors and otherwise had many sundry Conferences Communications and Devices in that behalf In which it hath pleased them far above my merits or deserts of their goodness to think judg and esteem me to be meet and able for to aspire unto that Dignity persuading exhorting and desiring me that whensoever opportunity should be given I should hearken to their Advice Counsel and Opinion in that behalf and offering unto me to interpone their Authorities Helps and Furtherances therein to the uttermost In comprobation whereof albeit the Emperor now being far distant from these Parts could not nor might in so brief time give unto the King's Grace new or fresh confirmation of his Purpose Desire and Intent herein Yet nevertheless my Lady Margaret knowing the inclination of his mind in this same hath by a long discourse made unto me semblable Exhortation offering as well on the Emperor's behalf as on her own that as much shall by them be done to the furtherance thereof as may be possible Besides this both by your Letters and also by particular most loving Letters of the Cardinal 's de Medicis Sanctorum Quatuor Campegius with credence show'd unto me on their behalf by their Folks here resident I perceive their good and fast minds which they and divers other their Friends owe unto me in that matter And finally the King's Highness doth not cease by all the gracious and comfortable means possible to insist that I for manifold notable urgent and great respects in any wise shall consent that his Grace and the Emperor do set forth the thing with their best manner The Circumstances of whose most entire and most firm mind thereunto with their bounteous godly and beneficial Offers for the Weal of Christendom which his Grace maketh to me herein is too long to rehearse For which Causes albeit I know my self far unmeet and unable to so high a Dignity minding rather to live and die with his Grace in this his Realm doing Honour Service Good or Pleasure to the same than now mine old days approaching to enter into new things yet nevertheless for the great zeal and perfect mind which I have to the exaltation of the Christian Faith the honour weal and surety of the King's Grace and the Emperor and to do my Duty both to Almighty God and to the World I referring every thing to God's disposition and pleasure shall not pretermit to declare unto you such things as the King's Highness hath specially willed me to signify unto you on his Grace's behalf who most effectually willeth and desireth you to set forth the same omitting nothing that may be to the furtherance thereof as his special trust is in you First Ye shall understand that the mind and entire desire of his Highness above all earthly things is That I should attain to the said Dignity having his perfect and firm hope that of the same shall ensue and that in brief time a general and universal Repose Tranquillity and Quietness in Christendom and as great Renown Honour Profit and Reputation to this Realm as ever was besides the singular comfort and rejoice that the King's Grace with all his Friends and Subjects should take thereof who might be well assured thereby to compone and order their great Causes and Affairs to their high Benefit Commodity and most Advantage For this and other great and urgent Causes the Pleasure of his Highness is That like-as ye my Lord of Bath and Mr. Hannibal have right prudently and discreetly begun so ye all or as many of you as be present in the Court of Rome and continue your Practices Overtures Motions and Labours to bring and conduce this the King 's inward Desire to perfect end
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
enabling of their own Judgments to treat and conclude of such Laws as might depend thereupon This also being thought very reasonable was signified to both Parties and so fully agreed upon And the day appointed for the first Meeting to be the Friday in the Forenoon being the last of March at Westminster Church where both for good Order and for Honour of the Conferences by the Queen's Majesty's Commandment the Lords and others of the Privy-Council were present and a great part of the Nobility also And notwithstanding the former Order appointed and consented unto by both Parties yet the Bishop of Winchester and his Colleagues alleadging that they had mistaken that their Assertions and Reasons should be written and so only recited out of the Book said Their Book was not then ready written but they were ready to Argue and Dispute and therefore they would for that time repeat in Speech that which they had to say to the first Proposition This variation from the former Order and specially from that which themselves had by the said Arch-Bishop in writing before required adding thereto the Reason of the Apostle that to contend with words is profitable to nothing but to the subversion of the Hearer seemed to the Queen's Majesty somewhat strange and yet was it permitted without any great reprehension because they excused themselves with mistaking the Order and argued that they would not fail but put it in writing and according to the former Order deliver it to the other Part. And so the said Bishop of Winchester and his Colleagues appointed Dr. Cole Dean of Pauls to be their Utterer of their Minds who partly by Speech only and partly by reading of Authorities written and at certain times being informed of his Colleagues what to say made a declaration of their Meanings and their Reasons to the first Proposition Which being ended they were asked by the Privy Council If any of them had any more to be said and they said No. So as then the other Part was licensed to shew their Minds which they did accordingly to the first Order exhibiting all that which they meant to propound in a Book written Which after a Prayer and Invocation made most humbly to Almighty God for the enduing of them with his Holy Spirit and a Protestation also to stand to the Doctrine of the Catholick Church builded upon the Scriptures and the Doctrine of the Prophets and the Apostles was distinctly read by one Robert Horn Batchelor in Divinity late Dean of Duresm And the same being ended with some likelyhood as it seemed that the same was much allowable to the Audience certain of the Bishops began to say contrary to their former Answer that they had now much more to say to this Matter wherein although they might have been well reprehended for such manner of cavillation yet for avoiding any more mistaking of Orders in this Colloquie or Conference and for that they should utter all that which they had to say it was both ordered and thus openly agreed upon of both Parts in the full Audience that upon the Monday following the Bishops should bring their Minds and Reasons in Writing to the second Assertion and the last also if they could and first read the same and that done the other Part should bring likewise theirs to the same and being read each of them should deliver to other the same Writings And in the mean time the Bishops should put in writing not only all that which Doctor Cole had that day uttered but all such other Matters as they any otherwise could think of for the same and as soon as might possible to send the same Book touching the first Assertion to the other part and they should receive of them that Writing which Master Horn had there read that day and upon Monday it should be agreed what day they should exhibit their Answer touching the first Proposition Thus both parts assented thereto and the Assembly was quietly dismissed And therefore upon Monday the like Assembly began again at the Place and Hour appointed and there upon what sinister or disordered meaning is not yet fully known though in some part it be understanded the Bishop of Winchester and his Colleagues and specially Lincoln refused to exhibit or read according to the former notorious Order on Friday that which they had prepared for the second Assertion and thereupon by the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal they being first gently and favourably required to keep the Order appointed and that taking no place being secondly as it behoved pressed with the more earnest request they neither regarding the Authority of that Place nor their own Reputation nor the Credit of the Cause utterly refused that to do And finally being again particularly every one of them apart distinctly by Name required to understand their Opinions therein they all saving one which was the Abbot of Westminster having some more consideration of Order and his Duty of Obedience than the other utterly and plainly denied to have their Book read some of them as more earnestly than other some so also some others more indiscreetly and irreverently than others Whereupon giving such Example of Disorders Stubbornness and Self-will as hath not been seen and suffered in such an Honourable Assembly being of the two Estates of this Realm the Nobilities and Commons besides the Persons of the Queen's Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council the same Assembly was dismissed and the Godly and most Christian Purpose of the Queen's Majesty made frustrate And afterwards for the contempt so notoriously made the Bishops of Winchester and Lincoln who have most obstinately disobeyed both Common Authority and varied manifestly from their own Order specially Lincoln who shewed more folly than the other were condignly committed to the Tower of London and the rest saving the Abbot of VVestminster stand bound to make daily their personal appearance before the Council and not to depart the City of London and VVestminster until further Order be taken with them for their Disobedience and Contempt N. Bacon Cust Sigill F. Shrewsbury F. Bedford Pembrok E. Clynton G. Rogers F. Knollys W. Cecill A. Cave Number 6. An Address made by some Bishops and Divines to Queen Elizabeth against the Use of Images To the Queen 's most Excellent Majesty WE knowing your gracious Clemency and considering the necessity of the Matter that we have to move the one doth encourage us and the other compel us as before to make our humble Petition unto your Highness and to renew our former Suit not in any respect of self-will stoutness or striving against your Majesty God we take to Witness for with David we confess that we are but as Canes mortui aut Pulices in comparison But we do it only for that fear and reverence which we bear to the Majesty of Almighty God in whose Hands to fall 't is terrible for it lieth in his Power to destroy for ever and to cast both Body and Soul into Hell Fire