Lords and others who onely had the power to reform the same because they could not question those who had so miserably invaded the Churches patrimony without condemning of themselves Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester having long lain Prisoner in the Fleet was enlarged and permitted to return to his Diocess where contrary to the promise made at his enlargement he shewed himself cross to the King's proceedings in case of Images and other things that he was sent Prisoner to the Tower where he abode till he was set at liberty by Queen Mary Notwithstanding the King's great care to set forth one uniform order of Administring the holy Communion in both kinds yet among the inferior Priests and Ministers of Cathedral and other Churches in this Realm there arose variety of Factions in Celebrating the Communion Service and Administraâ—ion of the Sacraments and other Rites of the Church Some followed the Order of the King's proceedings others patchingly used some part of them onely but many causelesly contemning them all would still continue in their former Popery Moreover many of those who had been licensed appeared as active in Preaching against the King's proceedings as any of the unlicensed Preachers had been found to be Which being made known to the King and the Lords of the Council it was advised that a publick Liturgy should be drawn and confirmed by Parliament which was done An. 1548. and in the next year a penalty was imposed by Act of Parliament on such who should deprave or neglect the use thereof The King caused those Godly Bishops and other Learned Divines whom he had formâ—rly imployed in drawing up the order for the holy Communion to frame a publick Liturgy containing the order of Morning and Evening Prayer together with a Form of Ministring the Sacraments and for the celebrating of all publick Offices in the Churches This was done accordingly Some exception being taken at it by Mr. Calvin abroad and some zealots at home the Book was brought under a review and by Statute in Parliament it was appointed it should be faithfully perused explained and made fully perfect And here take notice that those who had the chief stroke in this Affair were before-hand resolved that none but English Heads or hands should be used therein Calvin offered his assistance to Archbishop Cranmer as himself confesseth but he refused the offer And though it was thought necessary for the better seasoning of both Universities in the Protestant Reformed Religion that Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr two eminent Divines of Forreign Churches should be invited to come over yet had the Liturgy passed the approbation of the King and Council if not both Houses of Parliament before their coming Which being finished they all subscribed it except Doctor Day Bishop of Chichester Then in Parliament it was enacted that all such positive Lawes and Ordinances as prohibited the marriages of Priests and pains and forfeitures therein contained should be repealed In this Parliament also it was enacted that no person should from thence-forth take or carry away any Tithe or Tithes which had been received or paid within the space of fourty years next before the date thereof c. under the pain or forfeiture of the Treble value of the Tithes so taken or carried away To which a clause was also added enabling the said Parsons Vicars c. to enter upon any man's Land for the due setting out of his Tithes and carrying away the same without molestation There also passed another Act for Abstinence from flesh upon all such days as had been formerly taken and reputed for fasting-dayes viz. fall Fridays and Saturdays in the year the time of Lent the Ember-days the Eves or Vigils of such Saints as had been anciently used for Fasts by the Rules of the Church On Septemb. 5. 1548. Doctor Farrar's was consecrated Bishop of S. Davids as Doctor Heylin noteth and not in the year 1547. as Mr. Fox makes it nor in 1549. as Bishop Godwin saith The Lord Protector pulled down two Churches two Chappels and three Episcopal Houses for the materials of the building of his new intended Palace called Sommerset-house About this time there arose a sort of men who were termed Gospellers against whom Bishop Hooper inveigheth in the Preface to his Exposition on the ten Commandments Some Anabaptists also discovered themselves Some of the Chiefs of them were convented before the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Westminster Doctor Cox Almoner to the King and others and being convicted of their errours some of them were dismissed only with an Admonition some sentenced to a Recantation and others among which I find one Champney's condemned to bear their Faggots at S. Paul's Cross Then brake forth two dangerous Rebellions one in Devonshire the other in Norfolk That of Devonshire was found to be chiefly raised in maintenance of their old Religion On Whitsun Munday being next day after the first exercising of the publick Liturgy some few of the Parishioners of the Parish of Sampford-Courtney compelled their Parish-Priest who is supposed to have invited them to that compulsion to let them have the Latine Mass as in former-times These being seconded with many others Henry Arundel Esquire Governour of the Mount in Cornwal Winslade and Coffin Gentlemen headed them The seditious exceeding the number of ten thousand march in a full body to Exeter They send their demands to the King among which one more specially concerned the Liturgy It was demanded by the Rebels That forasmuch as we constantly believe that after the words of Consecration spoken by the Priest being at Mass there is very really the Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ God and man and that no substance of Bread and Wine remaineth after but the very self-same body that was born of the Virgin Mary and was given upon the Cross for our Redemption Therefore we will have Mass Celebrated as it was in times past without any man Communicating with the Priests forasmuch as many presuming unworthily to receive the same put no difference between the Lord's body and other kind of meat c. To which demand of theirs the King thus answered viz. that for the Mass I assure you no small study nor Travel hath been spent by all the Learned Clergy therein and to avoyd all contention it is brought even to the use that Christ left it as the Apostles used it as the Holy Fathers delivered it indeed somewhat altered from that to which the Popes of Rome for their lucre had brought it And although saith he you may hear the contrary from some Popish evil men Yet we on our Honour assure you that they deceive abuse you and blow these opinions into your Heads to finish their own purposes But this answer satisfying not they marched with all their forces to the siege of Exeter carrying before them in their march the Pix or Consecrated Host under a Canopy with Crosses Banners Candlesticks Holy-bread and Holy-water c. But the Lord
Leases from Colledges and Hospitals Now some sixty Fifth-monarchy men under the conduct of one Thomas Venner a Cooper broke forth into Rebellion This Venner was a Preacher to a Conventicle of that opinion in Coleman-street in London Such was the madness of these men that they believed that They and the rest of their judgement were called by God to reform the world and make all the earthly powers which they called Babylon subservient to the Kingdom of Jesus and in Order thereunto never to sheath their swords till the carnal powers of the world were subdued They were taught and believed that one of them should subdue a Thousand making account when they had done their work in England to go into France Spain Germany and other parts of the world there to prosecute their pretended holy design The place where they plotted and continued their conspiracy was the meeting-place for their devotion and thither they had at several times convayed arms On Sunday January 6. which was the day before their excursion they were very late at their Assembly which made one Martin the Landlord of the House inquisitive after their doings He peeping through a chink in their door saw them arming themselves with Back breast and head-piece and thereupon immediately gave notice to the next Officers Half an hour after they came down and first marched to S. Thomas the Apostle to call some of their party from thence to Bishops-gate and after to White-cross-street They escaped to S. John's Wood and from thence to Canc-wood betwixt High-gate and Hampsted On Wednesday morning the Rebels came again into London and divided themselves into two parties one whereof about five or six in the morning appeared about Leaden-hall and from thence marched to little Eastcheap where they fought desperately but were dispersed by the trained bands Venner and another â—â—rty came to my Lord Mayor's house thinking to have taken him Prisoner but missing him they marched into Woodstreet where Colonel Corbet and nine of his party charged through the Rebels and broke them They fought with admirable courage and if they had not been hindred from encreasing their numbers a Thousand men so resolved might have done much mischief Venner himself was much wounded before he was taken and about five or six were killed that refused quarter About eight or ten dayes after Venner with about sixteen or seventeen of the most notorious were arraigned at Justice-hall in the old Baily found guilty and executed in several parts of London About this time there was a conference at the Savoy between divers Episcopal and Presbyterian Divines about the Church discipline but to little effect A new Parliament was called which assembled at Westminster May 8. 1661. In the first Session whereof an Act was passed Entitled An Act for disenabling all Persons in Holy Orders to exercise any temporal jurisdiction or Authority Repealed The Bishops were brought to sit again as Peers in the House of Lords and their Ecclesiastical jurisdiction restored to them The Parliament explained a clause contained in an Act of Parliament made in the seventeenth year of King Charles the first Entitled An Act for Repeal of a branch of a Statute Primo Elizabethae concerning Commissioners for causes Ecclesiastical At the second Session of this Parliament an Act was made against Quakers and others denying to take a Lawful Oath with several penalties to be inflicted on them for several offences An Act was also passed for Uniformity of publick Prayers and Administration of Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies and of ordering and consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons in the Church of England The King's Majesty according to his Declaration of the 25th of October 1660. had granted his Commission under the Great Seal of England to several Bishops and other Divines to review the Book of Common-Prayer and to prepare such additions and alterations as they thought fit to offer And afterwards the Convocations of both the Provinces of Canterbury and York being by His Majesty called and assembled His Majesty was pleased to Authorize and require the Presidents of the said Congregation and other the Bishops and Clergy of the same to review the said Book of common-Common-Prayer and the Book of the Form and manner of making and Consecrating of Bishops Priests and Deacons c. Since which time upon full and mature deliberation they the said Presidents Bishops and Clergy of both Provinces having accordingly reviewed the same Books and made some alterations which they thought fit to be inserted to the same and some additional Prayers to be used upon proper and emergent occasions and having presented the same unto His Majesty in Writing in one Book entitled The Book of common-Common-Prayer and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church according to the use of the Church of England together with the Psalter or Psalms of David pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches and the form and manner of making Ordaining and Consecrating of Bishops Priests and Deacons All which His Majesty having duly considered fully approved and allowed the same and recommended to this present Parliament then sitting and yet continuing to sit that the said Book of common-Common-Prayer c. be the Book which shall be appointed to be used by all that officiate in all Cathedral and Collegiate Churches and Chappels and in all Chappels or Colledges and Halls in both the Universities and the Colledges of Eaton and Winchester and in all Parish-Churches and Chappels within the Kingdom of England Dominion of Wales and Town of Berwick upon Tweed and by all that make or consecrate Bishops Priests or Deacons in any of the said places under such sanctions and penalties as the Houses of Parliament shall think fit And accordingly it was Enacted by the King's Majesty and both Houses of Parliament That Morning and Evening Prayers in the said Book contained should upon every Lord's day and upon all other days and occasions and at the times therein appointed be openly and solemnly read by all and every Minister and Curate in every Church Chappel or other place of publick worship within this Realm of England and places aforesaid It was also Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That every Parson Vicar or other Minister whatsoever who then had and enjoyed any Ecclesiastical Benefice or Promottion within this Realm of England c. should in the Church Chappel or place of publick worship belonging to his said Benefice or Promotion upon some Lord's day before the Feast of St. Bartholomew which should be in the year of our Lord God one thousand six hundred sixty two openly publickly and solemnly read the Morning and Evening Prayer appointed to be read by and according to the said Book of Common-Prayer at the times thereby appointed and after such reading thereof openly and publickly before the Congregation there assembled declare his unfeigned Assent and Consent to the use of all things in the said Book contained and prescribed in these words and no other I A.
Heylins History of Queen Eliz. Cures which filled the Church with an Ignorant Clergy whose Learning went no further than the Liturgy or the Book of Homilies but otherwise conformable which was no small felicity to the Rules of the Church And on the other side many were raised to great preferments who having spent their time of exile in such Forreign Churches as followed the platform of Geneva returned so disaffected to Episcopal Government unto the Rites here by Law established as not long after filled the Church with most sad disorders On which account we find the Queens Professor in Oxford among the Non-conformists and Cartwright the Lady Margaret's in Cambridge VVhittingham the Ring-leader of the Franckfort dividers was preferred to the Deanery of Durham Sampson to the Deanery of Christ-church and within few years after turned out for a rigid Non-conformist Hardiman one of the first twelve Prebendaries of the Church of VVestminster deprived soon after for throwing down the Altar and defacing the Vestments of the Church Whether it were by the Pope's instigation or by by the ambition of the Daulphin who had then Married the Queen of Scots the Scottish Queen assumeth unto her self the Style and Title of Queen of England quartereth the Armes thereof upon all her Plate and in all Armories and Eschutcheons as she had occasion A folly that Queen Elizabeth could never forget nor forgive and this engaged her the more resolutely in that Reformation so happily begun And to that purpose she sets out by advice of her Council a certain Body of Injunctions accommodated to the temper of the present time wherein severe course was taken about Ministers Marriages the use of Singing and the Reverence in Divine Worship to be kept in Churches the posture of the Communion-table and the Form of Prayers in the Congregation By the Injunctions she made way to her Visitation Executed by Commissioners in their several Circuits and regulated by a Book of Articles printed and published for thâ—â— purpose Proceeding by which Articles the Commissioners removed all carved Images out of the Church which had been abused to Superstition defacing also all such Pictures Paintings as served for the setting forth feigned Miracles They enquired also into the life and doctrine of Ministers their diligence in attending their several Cures the decency of their apparel the respect of the Parishioners toward them the reverent behaviour of Hâ—yliâ—'s Hist of Q. Elizab. all manner of persons in God's Worship c. by means whereof the Church was setled and confirmed in so good an Order that the work was made more easie to the Bishops when they came to Govern than otherwise it could have been In London the Visitors were Sir Richard Sackvil Father to Thomas Earl of Dorset Robert Horn soon after Bishop of VVinchester Doctor Huick a Civilian and one Salvage a Common Lawyer who calling before them divers Persons of every Parish gave them an Oath to enquire and present upon such Articles and Injunctions as were given unto them In pursuance whereof they burnt in St. Paul's Church-yard Cheapside and other places of the City all the Roods and other Images which had been taken out of the Churches And in some places the Copes Vestments Altar-cloathes Books Banners Sepulchres and Rood-lofts were burned altogether A Peace being concluded betwixt England and France although Queen Elizabeth had just cause to be offended with the young King Francis the Second for causing the Queen of Scots his Wise to take upon her self the Title and Armes of England yet she resolved to bestow a Royal obsequy upon the King deceased which was performed in St. Paul's Church on the eighth and nineth of September in most solemn manner Kellison the Jesuite and Parsons from him slaunderously affirmed That Archbishop Parker was consecrated at the Nags-head Tavern in Cheapside This slaunder was raised on this occasion In order to his Consecration the first thing to be done after the passing the Royal Assent for ratifying the election of the Dean and Chapter was the confirming it in the Court of the Arches according to the usual form in that behalf Which being accordingly done the Vicar General the Mason's Consecration of Bishops in the Church of England lib. 3. cap. 4. Dean of the Arches the Proctors and Officers of the Court whose presence was required at this Solemnity were entertained at a Dinner provided for them at the Nags-head Tavern in Cheapside for which though Archbishop Parker paid the shot yet shall the Church be called to an after-reckoning But the Records of the Archbishoprick declare that he was Consecrated in the Chappel within his Mannor of Lambeth These slaunderers knew right well that nothing did more justifie the Church of England in the eye of the World than that it did preserve a Succession of Bishops and consequently of all other sacred Orders in the Ministration without which as they would not grant it to be a Church so could they prove it to be none by no stronger Argument than that the Bishops or the pretended Bishops rather in their Opinion were either not Consecrate at all or not Canonically Consecrated as they ought to be And now we may behold the face of the Church of England as it was first setled and established under Queen Elizabeth The Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops These Bishops nominated and elected according to the Statute in the twenty sixth of King Henry the Eighth and Consecrated by the Ordinal confirmed by Parliament in the fifth and sixth year of King Edward the Sixth never appearing publickly but in their Rotchets nor Officiating otherwise than in Copes of the Altar the Priests not stirring out of doors in their square Caps Cowns or Canonical Coats nor Executing any Divine Service but in their Surplice The Doctrine of the Church reduced Heylin Hist of Q. Elizab. unto it's antient purity according to the Articles agreed upon in Convocation Anno 1552. The Liturgy conform to the Primitive paterns The Festivals preserved in their former dignity observed with their distinct Offices peculiar to them the weekly Fasts the time of Lent the Embring weeks and Rogation severely kept not now by vertue of the Statute as in the time of King Edward but as appointed by the Church in her publick Calendar before the Book of Common-Prayer The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper celebrated in a Reverend manner the Table seated in the place of the Altar In the Court the Liturgy was officiated every day both Morning and Evening not onely in the publick Chappel but the private Closet celebrated in the Chappel with Organs and other Musical Instruments and the most excellent voices both of men and children that could be got in all the Kingdom The Gentlemen and Children in their Surplices and the Priests in Copes as oft as they attended the Divine Service at the Altar The Altar furnished with rich Plate two fair gilt Candlesticks with Tapers in them and a Massy Crucifix in
the Company haled to the next prison and the rest dispersed the Priest escaping with difficulty by a private passage the Queen being then absent in the North. In France the City and Castle of Cane besieged by the confederate forces both French and English was finally surrendred to the Admiral Chastilion to the use of the Princes After which followed the surrendry of Baieux Faleise S. Lod's and divers other Towns and Castles The Town of Harâ—flew on the Seine was gallantly taken by the help of the English of Newhaven on the tenth of March and garrisoned by such Souldiers and Inhabitants as were sent from thence These successes amazed the Guisian faction that they agreed unto an Edict of Pacification by the which the French forces were restored to the King's Favour the Hugonots to the free exercise of their own Religion But they must buy this happiness by betraying the English whom they had brought into the Countrey and joyn their forces with the rest to drive them out of New-haven if they would not yield it on demand The French closely besiege the Town and the Plague raging sore among the English they capitulate and leave the Town to the French on July the twenty ninth and carry the Plague with them into England The Pope was so incensed against Queen Elizabeth that he dispatched a commission to the Fathers of Trent to proceed to an excommunication Hist Concil 〈◊〉 of the Queen of England But the Emperour Ferdinand wrote Letters both to the Pope and to the Legates in which he signified unto them That if the Council would not yield that fruit which was desired at least they should not give occasion to the Hereticks to unite themselves more which certainly they would do in case they proceeded so against the Queen of England by means whereof they would undoubtedly make a league against the Catholicks Hereupon the Pope desisted at Rome and revoked his Commission sent before to the Legates at Trent The Plague brought out of France by the Garrison Souldiers of New-haven had so dispersed it self and made such desolation in many parts of England that it swept away above twenty thousand of the City of London which was the greatest at that time which any man living could remember Soon after this the Queen makes peace with France Then the Queen went in progress to take the pleasures of the Countrey and visited the University of Cambridge where being with all kinds of honour received by the Students and delighted with Comedies Tragedies and Scholastical disputations she survayed every Colledge and in a Latine Oration takes her leave of Cambridge giving them encouragement to pursue their Studies The English Bishops being impowered by their Canons began to shew their Authority in urging the Clergy of their Diocesses to subscribe to the Liturgy Rites and discipline of the Church and such as refused the same were branded with the name of Puritans The Non-conformists in this Age were divided into two Ranks some mild and moderate contented onely to enjoy their own conscience Others fierce and fiery to the diâ—turbance of Church and State saith Fuller Among the former was Father John Fox for so Queen Elizabeth termed him summoned to subscribe by Archbishop Parker The old man produced the New Testament in Greek To this saith he will I subscribe But when a subscription to the Canons was subscribed of him he refused it saying I have nothing in the Church save a Prebend at Salisbury and much good may it do you if you will take it away from me However such respect did the Bishops most formerly his fellow-exiles bear to his Age parts and pains that he continued his place till the day of his death With Mr. Fox we may joyn his dear friend Laurence Humfery who was Regius Profâ—ssor of Divinity in Oxford But such was his quiet carriage that notwithstanding his non-subscribing he kept his Professors place and Deanery of Winchester as long as he lived A second sort of Non-conformists were fierce sticklers against Church-discipline we will begin with Anthony Gilby bred in Christ's Colledge in Cambridge His fierceness against the Ceremonies â—ake from his own pen They are saith he known Liveries of Anâ—â—christ accursed leaven of the blasphemous popish Priest-hood cursed patches of Popery and Idolatry c. William Whittingham succeeds who after his return from his exile in Germany was made Dean of Durham Christopher Goodman is the third who wrote a book stuffed with much dangerous Doctrine wherein he maintained that Sir Thomas Wait was no Traitor that his cause was God's c. These three saith Mr. Fuller were the Antesignani of the fierce Non-conformists for David Whitehead is not mentioned with them Yet find we none of them silenced Onely we meet with Thomas Sampson Dean of Christ-church in Oxford who was displaced out of his Deanery for his Non-conformity This Deanery was then conferred on Dr. Thomas Godwin Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen who was after advanced to the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells who was Father to Francis Godwin late Bishop of Landaff the Author of the Catalogue of the English Bishops Bullinger and Gualter two Divines of Switzerland men eminent in all points of Learning being sollicited by some zealous brethren to signifie their judgement in the present controversie about the Habit of the Clergy return an approbation of it but send the same enclosed to Sandy's Horn and Grindal Now the Queen thought fit to make a further signification of Her Royal Pleasure legally declared by Her Commissioners for causes Ecclesiastical according to the Acts and Statutes made in that behalf The Archbishop is thereupon required to consult together with such Bishops and Commissioners as were next at hand upon the making of such Rules and Oâ—ders as they thought necessary for the peace of the Church with reference to the present estate thereof Which being accordingly performed presented to the Queen and by her approved the said Rules and Orders were set forth and published in a certain Book Entitled Advertisements partly for due Order in the publick Administration of the common-Common-prayers and using the holy Sacraments and partly for the Apparel of all Persons Ecclesiastical by vertue of the Queen's Majestie 's Letters Commanding the same January fifteenth c. In this year 1564. died the Emperour Ferdinand and Mr. John Calvin What Peter Lombard was esteemed to be in the Schools at Rome the same was Calvin reckoned to be in all those Churches which were Reformed according to the Zuinglian Doctrine in the point of the Sacrament Yet the Royal and Prelatical Divines conceived otherwise Hâ—yâ—in's Hist of Q. 〈◊〉 of him saith Dr. Heylin and the learned Adrian Seravia though by birth a Dutchâ—an Yet being once preferred in the Church of England could not endure to be called Calvinian About the middle of February the Lord Darly came to the Court of Scotland who being not fully twenty years old of lovely person sweet behaviour and a most
Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Civil or Ecclesiastical within her Realms or Dominions II. That the Book of common-Common-Prayer and the Ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons containeth nothing contrary to the Word of God but may lawfully be used and that they will use that and none other III. That the Articles of Religion agreed in the Synod holden at London Anno 1562. and published by the Queens Authority they did allow of and did believe them to be consonant to the word of God Now came forth the Rhemish Translation of the New Testament every where bespeckled with hard words which transcend common capacities taxed by our Divines as full of abominable errors Secretary Walsingham soliciteth Mr. Thomas Cartwright to undertake to refute this Rhemish Translation and sent him an hundred pounds out of his own purse the better to enable him for the work Walsingham's Letters to Cartwright were seconded by another from the Doctors and Heads of Houses and Dr. Fulk among the rest at Cambridge besides the importunity of the Ministers of London and Suffolk to the same purpose Cartwright prepares for the work But Archbishop Whitgift having notice thereof prohibiteth his further proceeding therein Cartwright hereupon desisted But some years after encouraged by an honourable Lord he resumed the work but prevented by death he perfected no further than the fifteenth Chapter of the Revelation Many years lay this worthy work neglected and the Copy thereof Mouse-eaten in part at last came forth though late Anno 1618. a Book to which the Rhemists never durst return the least answer But whilst Cartwrights work lay retarded Dr. William Fulk Master of Pembrook-hall in Cambridge entred the list against the Rhemists and Judiciously and Learnedly performed his undertaking therein This year came forth the Exposition of Mr. Thomas Rogers on the Articles of the Church of England not onely the two extremes Papists and Schismaticks but many Protestants of a middle temper were offended thereat Mr. Rogers his restrictive Comment shut out such from their concurrence with the Church of England which the discreet laxity of the Text admitted thereunto On November 23. 1585. The Parliament was begun and holden at Westminster wherein the Statute against Jesuites and Priests their departing out of England and not returning thither was made with penalty for relieving them A Convocation was kept in St. Pauls Church in London and from hence removed to St. Peter's in Westminster where William Redman D. D. was chosen and presented Prolocutor An Assembly of Ministers met at the same time but the certain place of their meeting not known being Clandestine Arbitrary and changeable as advised by their Conveniences Some Agents for them were all day at the door of the Parliament-house and some part of the night in the Chambers of Parliament-men effectually solliciting their business with them What impression was made by the Agents of the Ministers may appear by an ensuing Letter sent to her Majesty by Archbishop Whitgift wherein he complaineth of several Bills that had the day before the dating of his Letter passed in the House of Commons in favour of the Non-conformists about Marrying at all times in the year concerning Ecclesiastical Courts and Episcopal Visitations which saith he may reach to the overthrow of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and study of the Civil Law But the Queen would alter nothing material to Church-government The Parliament being dissolved the Convocation ended the next day after having effected nothing of moment save that in the ninth Session thereof John Hilton Priest made a solemn Abjuration of his blasphemous Heresies The Non-conformists now missing their mark abated much of their former Activity insomuch as that Mr. Cartwright began to make by the mediation of the Earl of Leiâ—ester who now design'd to make him Master of his new-built Hospital in Warwick compliance with the Archbishop though he not over-fond of his friendship warily kept him at distance as appears by the Earl of Leicester's Letter to the Archbishop in Cartwright's behalf and the Archbishop's answer thereto Now the Earl of Leicester went over into the Low Countries commanding a great Army with the Title of General of the Auxiliaries of the Queen of England and the Non-conformists lost their best friend in Court And afterwards the Archbishop being sworn one of the Privy Council it fared worse with them Three Protestant Bishops died this year viz. Richard Curteys Bishop of Chichester Nicholas Robinson Bishop of Bangor and John Scory Bishop of Hereford The same year also died John Fecknam late Abbot of Westminster The Jesuites began now to possess their English Proselites with high Opinions of the Spanish power as the Nation designed by God's providence to work their restitution in England and they sent into England as Pasquier saith one Samier a man of their Society to draw Noblemen and Gentlemen to the Spaniards party and to thrust forward the Queen of Scots to dangerous practices by telling her That if she were refractory neither She nor her Son should Reign and by exciting the Guises her kinsmen to new stirs against the King of Navar and the Prince of Conde that they might not be able to ayd her In the year 1586. a firm League of Amity was concluded and ratified betwixt the Queen of England and James King of Scotland A dangerous conspiracy against the Queen of England begun by John Savage but prosecuted by Anthony Babington and others was discovered The chief discover of this Conspiracy was one Gifford a Gentleman of a good house at Chellington in Stafford-shire not far from Chartley where the Queen of Scots was kept prisoner He was sent by the English fugitives in France under the counterfit name of Luson to put Savage in mind of the vow which he had made to kill Queen Elizabeth and to convey Letters between them and the Queen of Scots Gifford revealed the plot to Secretary Walsingham who sent him down into Stafford-shire to do the work he had undertaken Here Gifford bribing the Brewer of the house where the Queen of Scots lay so contrived the matter with him that by a hole in the wall in which a loose stone was put he should give in and receive forth Letters the which by Messengers purposely laid by the way came ever to Walsingham's hands who broke them open copied them out and by the cunning of Thomas Philips found out the meaning of the private Cyphers and by the Art of Arthur Gregory sealed them up again so neatly that no man could have imagined them to be opened and ever sent â—hem to the parties to whom the superscription directed them In like manner were the former Letters from the Queen of Scots to Babington intercepted as also other Letters written at the same time to Mendoza the Spanish Ambassador Charles Paget the Lord Paget the Archbishop of Glasco and Francis Englefied Then Ballard was apprehended Babington seeks to escape and is taken The Queen of Scots hath her Closets broken open
Queen and Her Council finding both the Jesuites and the Secular 〈◊〉 Baâ—â—â—â— Chron. Priests dangerous to this Common Wealth both the one and the other commandeth them to depart out of the Kingdom presently The last Parliament in this Queen's Reign was now begun at Westminster and dissolved the Moneth next following In this Parliament it was Enacted That overseers of the poor should be nominated yearly in Easter-week under the Hand and Seal of two Justices of peace and that these with the Church-wardens should take care of the poor binding out of Apprentices c. As also That the Lord Chancellor should award Commissions under the great Seal into any part of the Realm as cause should require to the Bishop of every Diocess and his Chancellor c. to enquire by oathes of twelve men into the misemployment of any lands or goods given to pious uses Francis Godwin D. D. Subdean of Exeter son of Thomas Godwin Bishop of Bath and Wells was made Bishop of Landaff He was born in the fourth year of Queen Elizabeth and was made a Bishop within Her Reign Anno 1601. Now came forth a notable book against the Jesuites written Scholastically by Watson a secular Priest consisting of â—en Quodlibets each whereof is subdivided into as many Articles which discovereth the Jesuites in their Colours Anno 1602. died Herbert Westphaling Bishop of Hereford being the first Bishop of that foundation a man very pious and of such gravity that he was scarce ever seen to laugh There died also Alexander Nowel D. D. and Dean of S. Paul's in London He fled into Germany in the Reign of Queen Mary and was the first of English exiles that returned in the days of Queen Elizabeth an holy and Learned Man He bestowed two hundred pound a year rent on Brazen-nose Colledge wherein he was educated for the maintenance of thirteen Students He died at ninety years of age a single man fresh in his youthful Learning his eyes were not dim nor did he ever make use of Spectacles Mr. William Perkins who was born in the first died also in the last year of Queen Elizabeth Gregory Sayer also and William Harris two Popish Writers bred the one at Cambridge the other at Oxford died this year beyond the Seas At this time the City of Geneva was in a low estate for the Duke of Savoy addicted to the Spanish faction had banished all Protestants of his Dominions By the Liberal example of Archbishop Whitgift large summes of Money were Collected and seasonably sent over for the Relief of Geneva Queen Elizabeth the mirrour of her Sex and Age died having Reigned over this Kingdom above fourty years Her Corps were Solemnly interred under a fair Tomb in Westminster Abbey Now the Defenders both of Episcopacy and Presbitery with equal hopes of success make besides private and particular Addresses publick and visible Applications to King James the first to continue the last to set up their Government Dr. Thomas Nevil Dean of Canterbury sent by Archbishop Whitgift to his Majesty in the name of the Bishops and Clergy of England brought back a well-come answer which was to uphold the Government of the Late Queen as she left it setled Then Watson a Secular Priest with William Cleark another of his Profession having fancied a notional Treason impart it to George Brook These break it to Brook's brother the Lord Cobham to the Lord Gray of Wilton and Sir Walter Rawleigh besides some other discontented Knights Watson devised an Oath of secreâ—y for them all The ends they propounded to themselves were to kill the King raise Rebellion alter Religion and procure a Forreign invasion c. The treason was discovered The two Priests alone with G. Brook were executed the rest were pardoned No sooner was King James setled on the English throne but Mr. Cartwright presented unto him his Latine Comment on Ecclesiastes and died soon after Mr. Dod Preached his funeral Sermon Now there being a general expectation of a Parliament to succeed the Presbterian party went about to get hands of the Ministers to a petition which they intended seasonably to present to the King and Parliament A conference was appointed at Hampton-Court which began on January 14. 1603. The names of the Persons which were employed therein are as follow For Conformity Archbishop of Canterbury Whitgift Bishops of London Durham Winchester Worcester S. David's Chichester Carlile Peterborow Bancroft Mathew Bilson Babington Rudd Watson Robinson Dove Deans of The Chappel Christ-Church Worcester Westminster S. Paul's Chester Sarisbury Windsor Doctor Field King Against Conformity Doctor Reinolds Sparks Master Knewstubs Chadderton Moderator King James Spectators All the Lords of the Privy Council On the first dayes Conference the Bishops and five of the Deans were called in severally by themselves then the King reduceth some special points wherein he desireth to be satisfied to three Heads 1. Concerning the Book of Common Prayer c. used in the Church 2. Excommunication in Ecclesiastical Courts 3. The providing of fit and able Ministers for Ireland In the Common-prayer-book he required satisfaction about three things 1. About Confirmation 2. Absolution 3. Private Baptism Touching Confirmation he said he abhorred the abuse wherein it was made a Sacrament or Corroboration to Baptism As for Absolution he said he had heard it likened to Pope's Pardons And Concerning Private Baptism he would be satisfied if called private from the place or if so termed that any besides a Lawful Minister may Baptize which he disliked Concerning excommunication he offered two things to be considered of 1. The Matter 2. The Persons For the first whether it were executed in light Cases which causeth the undervaluing thereof For the persons he would be resolved why Chancellors and Commissaries being lay men should do it and not rather the Bishops themselves c. As for providing Ministers for Ireland he said he would refer it in the last dayes Conference to a Consultation The Archbishop of Canterbury answered that Confirmation hath been used in the Catholick Church ever since the Apostles The Bishop of London That it is an Apostolical Institution named in express words Heb. 6. 2. The Bishop of Carlile Learnedly urged the same And the Bishop of Durham urged something out of S. Mathew for the Imposition of hands on Children The Conclusion was this for the fuller explanation that we make Confirmation neither a Sacrament nor a Corroboration thereof their Lordship should consider whether it might not without alteration be entitled an Examination with a Confirmation As for Absolution the Archbishop told His Majesty that it is clear from all Superstition as it is used in the Church of England as will appear on the Reading both of the Confession and Absolution following it in the beginning of the Communion-book Here the King perused both liked and approved them The Particular and Personal Absolution in the Visitation of the sick was also Read by the Dean of the Chappel and approved by the King
of it by their fecular power and levy it by force where there was need Hereupon the Chauncellor issued Writs to all the Sheriffs of England and some others to assist the Collectors accordingly It seems the Bishop of Winton compounded and paid a fine of five hundred Marks for his two years Dismes to the Pope's Collector At the same time the King wanting Moneys appointed special Collectors of the Arrears due upon the Dismes granted to his Father by the Pope towards the relief of the holy Land A new Archbishop of Dublin being elected the second year of this King's Reign who resided with the Queen of Scots in Scotland the â—ing at â—er special request granted him this priviledge to make Attorneys to appear for him in all his Courts and to exempt him from all Amercements for not appearing personally in them Pope Gregory the tenth usurping the Emperor's Sovereign authority of Summoning general Councils sent forth general Letters through every Nation concerning the gathering together a Council on May the first at Lyons Whence it was said of him Gregorius denus Colligit omne genus What Archbishops Bishops Abbots and Clergy-men repaired to this Council by the King 's special License who constituted Attorneys and Proxieâ— for them in the King's Courts to sue and be sued during their absence may be seen in the Records mentioned by Mr. Prynne King Edward the first himself sent four special Proctors to this General Council to propound assent or dissent unto in his Name and behalf whatever they or either of them should deem fit or expedient A clear evidence that He and his Proxies had an affirmative and negative voice in General Councils Matthew Westminster renders us an account of the proceedings in this Council and of the Greek Emperors Patriarcks and Bishops acknowledgement of the Supremacy of the Pope and Church of Rome over all other Prelates and Churches as an Article of their Faith which they never before assented to The Executors of John Maunsel Treasurer of York having by his last Will assigned to the Vicars of St. Peter's in York a Messuage of His in York to maintain an Anniversary for his Soul of which they were afterwards dispossessed by others the King upon complaint thereof issued a Writ of Inquisition to examine the truth thereof and restore the said Messuage to the Vicars to maintain the Anniversary for the salvation of John Maunsel's soul The next year the King issued Commissions for the apprehending some vagrant and Apostate Friers of the Order of St. Augustine who had deseted their Houses and Order to the prejudice of their Souls and scandal of their Order King Edward the first made at Westminster at his first Parliament General Vide Cokâ—s 2. Instit p. 156. 157. after his Coronation on Easter-Monday in the third year of his Reign many excellent useful Statutes some of them relating to the Priviledges and Jurisdiction of the Clergy controlling some Canons of the Pope formerly used to the obstruction of publick Justice Soon after the Council of Lions Pope Gregory the tenth sent Reymund de Nogeriis his Chaplain as his Nuncio into England Wales Scotland and Ireland for certain affairs of the Church especially to demand and receive from the King eight years Arrears of the annual Tribute and Peter-pence then due to the Church of Rome The Abbot and Covent of Feversham being greatly indebted to Merchants and others by their expences at Rome and Papal exactions the King to preserve Them and their House from ruine took them and all their Lands Moneys Goods into his Protection and committed them to the management of certain persons for discharge of their debts and necessary support The like Protections were granted in the same form to the Abbot and Covents of Bordesley and Byndon the same year and to the Prior and Covent of Thornholm but the custody of them their Lands and Goods to other Persons The Chalices Books Ornaments Goods and Lands of the Hermitage near Cripple-gate London being usually imbezilled for want of good Government and Regulation the King being Patron thereof committed it to the care and Government of the Lord Major of London for the time being The Chancellor and University of Oxford having at their proper costs founded a Chappelry in the Church of St. Maries in the midst of the Town to pray for the safety of the King his Queen and Children Ancestors and all their Benefactors the King highly commending their Piety therein and endeavouring to promote it wrote to all the Archbishops and Bishops of England and Ireland to grant some special Indulgences to all who should resort to this Chappelry to hear Mass or Prayers The King upon the Petition of the Prior and Covent of Bath and of the Dean and Chapter of Wells granted his License to them to elect a new Bishop that See being then void Upon this License they Elected Robert Burnel This Bishop soon after his Conseâ—ration to end the frequent Controversies between the King Abbots of Glastonbury and Bishops of this See by consent of the Dean and Chapter of Wells and of the Prior and Covent of Bath exchanged the Patronage of the Abbey of Glastonbury and some other rights therein granted to him by former Kings Patents for the City of Bath In pursuit and execution of which exchange the King issued two Patents to the Citizens of Bath and others to make Livery and Seisin thereof to the Bishop The King gave License upon the Petition of the Dean and Chapter of Hereford to Elect a new Bishop in the place of John Breton after his Decease and confirmed their Election of Thomas de Cantilupo and restored Pat. 3. Edw. 1. the Temporalties to him after his Confirmation by the Archbishop of Canterbury without the Pope's approbation or privity This King in the fourth year of his Reign to prevent the ruine of the Abbey of Redding issued Patents of protection and regulation of the expences of it and of the Cell belonging to it founded by his Ancestors committing it's Revenues to certain persons to defray the Debts thereof In the fifth year of his Reign he issued a Commission to enquire of all Christians who used usury in London and else-where and punish them according to Law by seizing their Goods as a thing unbeseeming Christians and Christianity About the same time Walter Bronescomb Bishop of Exeter and his Officials cited sundry of the King's Subjects and Officers into his Ecclesiastical Courts for Debts and Chattels that concerned not Matrimony or Testament and for Trespasses Free-holds and other things of 〈◊〉 Catal of Bish p. 320. 327. which they had no legal jurisdiction Excommunicating and putting them to pecuniary Redemptions and grievous penalties and withall exacted illegal Oathes and obligations from them the King upon the complaints of Edmond Earl of Cornwall and his Officers and of the whole County of Cornwall of these his exorbitances issued a speedy Commission in the sixth year of his Reign to some
Fuller Church history and Auditors of Incumbents to view their register-Register-books easter-Easter-books and all other Writings and to use all other wayes to know the full value of Ecclesiastical preferments with the number and names of persons enjoying the same They were to divide themselves by Three and Three allotting to every number so many Deaneries and to enquire the number and names of all Abbies Monasteries Priories Brotherships Sisterships Fellowships c. Houses Religious and Conventual as well CHARTER-HOVSE as others these Carthusians being specified by name because pretending priviledge of Papal exemption and meeting together to certifie into the Exchequer at the time limited in their Commission the true value of such places or preferments This work took up some years in the effecting thereof Devon-shire and Sommerset were done in the twenty seventh Stafford-shire and many other Counties in the thirty fourth year of King Henry the Eighth and most of Wales not till the Reign of King Edward the Sixth In Ireland the Commissioners found the work so troublesome that they never came into the County of Kerrey the South-West extremity of that Island so that the Clergy thereof are put into their Benefices without any payments But in England all were unpartially rated and Vicaridges valued very high according to their present Revenue by personal Requisites Idem ibid. In that Age he generally was the richest Shepherd that had the greatest Flock where Oblations from the living and Obits for the dead as certainly paid as predial Tithes much advanced their Income In consideration whereof Vicaridges mostly lyinig in Market-Towns and populous Parishes were set very high though soon after those obventions sunk with superstition And the Vicars in vain desired a proportionable abatement in the King's Books which once drawn up were no more to be altered Now Queen Mary did by Act of Parliament exonerate acquit and discharge the Clergy from all First-fruits As for Tenths the same Statute ordered them to be paid to Cardinal Pool who from the same was to pay the Pensions allowed to Monks and Nuns by her Father at the dissolution of Abbeys yet so that when such persons who were but few and aged all named in a Deed indented should decease all such payments of the Clergy reserved Nomine Decimae should cease and be extinct for ever But her Sister Queen Elizabeth succeeding her was exact to have Vide 〈◊〉 1 Elâ—â— cap. 4. her Dues from the Clergy Sir Christopher Hatton who was Master of this First-fruits Office was much indebted to her for Moneys received All which Arrears her Majesty required so severely and suddenly from him that the grief thereof cost him his life I say this Queen in the first of her Reign resumed First-fruits and Tenths only with this case to Parsonages not exceeding ten Marks and Vicaridges ten pounds that they should be freed from First-fruits In the months of October and November Anno 1538. the Abbeys and Monasteries in England were dissolved Cromwel being made General Visitor employed Richard Layton Thomas Lee William Detre Doctors of the Law Doctor John London Dean of Wallingford with others giving them instruction in eighty six Articles for visiting Monasteries every where by which they were to enquire into the government behaviour and education of the persons of both Sexes to find out all their offences and to this purpose give them encouragements to accuse both their Governors and each other To command them to exhibit their Mortmains Evidences and Conveyances of their Lands to produce Lord Herbert in vit Henr. 8. their Plate and Money and give an Inventory thereof The King also gave forth Injunctions to be observed some tending to the establishing of his Supremacy Some touching the good Government of the Houses As that no Brother go out of the Precinct That there be but one entrance That no Woman frequent the Monks nor any Man the Nuns c. And some for Education As that a Divinity-lecture be every where read and frequented That the Abbot daily expound some part of the Rule of their Order shewing yet that these Ceremonies are but Introductions to Religion which consisteth not in Apparel shaven Heads c. but in purity of mind That none shall profess or wear the Habit till twenty four years of age That no feigned Relicks or Miracles be shewed no Offerings to Images c. Lee and the rest at their return gave that account of their feigned Miracles and Relicks as well as sinful and sluggish life of the Religious Oâ—ders as not only Cromwel said their Houses should be thrown down to the foundation but the whole Body of the Kingdom when it was published to them became so scandalized thereat as they resolve if the King ever put it into their hands to give remedy thereunto Yet were not all alike criminal for some Societies behaved themselves so well as their life being not only exempt from notorious faults but their spare times bestowed in writing Books Painting Carving Graving and the like Exercises their Visitors became Intercessors for them But these being not many were at last involved in the common fate Not long after this the King caused all Colledges Chantries and Hospitals to be visited not omitting to take a particular survey of all the Revenues and Diguities Ecclesiastical within his Kingdom which was returned to him in a Book to be kept in the Exchequer Then King Henry sent Fox Bishop of Hereford to the Protestant Princes in Germany assembled at Smalcald to exhort them to an unity in Doctrine wherein he offered his assistance by conference with their Divines Immediately after the ruine of Monasteries in the Month of November followed the condemnation of John Lambert that faithful Servant of Christ On a set day Lambert was brought forth where he had not only the King 's fierce countenance against him but also ten Disputers against him from twelve of the clock till five at night among which were the Archbishop Stephen Gardiner C. Tunstal Bishop of Durham and J. Stokesley Bishop of London Through Winchester's perswasion to gratifie the people the King himself condemned Lambert and commanded Cromwel to read the Sentence He was burned in Smithfield where he suffered most horrible torments before he expired The King after the burning of many Images caused the bones of Thomas Becket Archbishop in the time of Henry the Second to be burned He also seized on that immense Treasure and Jewels that were offered to his Shrine there being few since the time of Henry the Second that passed to Canterbury that did not both visit his Tomb and bring rich Presents to it Among which there being one Stone eminent which it was said Lewis the Seventh coming hither on Pilgrimage from France Anno Dom. 1179. bestowed Our King wore it in a Ring afterwards The number of Monasteries first and last suppressed in England and Wales were as Mr. Camden accounts them six hundred forty five whereof these had voices among the Peers The
those that disliked his doings about some points in the Sacrament Doctor Cox Chancellour of the University assisted by Mr. Morrison a right learned man being Moderators declared that Martyr had sufficiently answered all Arguments which were brought against him by Chadsey the chief of the opponents and the rest of those who disputed with him Bucer came not over till June and being here receives letters from Mediis consiliis vel Authoremesse vel Approbatorem Calvin Epist. ad Bucer Calvin by which he was advised to take heed of his old fault for a fault he thought it which was to run a moderate course in his Reformations The first thing that Bucer did after his coming hither was to acquaint himself with the English Liturgy translated for him into Latine by Alexander Alesius a Learned Scot and generally well approved of by him as to the main Frame and Body of it Of this he gives an account to Calvin Having received a courteous entertainment from the Lord Protector and being heartily well-commed by Archbishop Cranmer he is sent to take the Chair at Cambridge But he had not held that place long when he left this life deceasing on January 19. Anno 1550. to the great loss and grief of that University Calvin writes to the Protector to this effect That the Papists would grow more insolent every day than other unless the difference were composed about the Ceremonies But how not by reducing the Opponents to Conformity but by encouraging them rather in their opposition John Rogers Lecturer in S. Paul's and John Hooper Vicar of S. Sepulchres The Founders of Non-conformity were founders of Non-conformity This John Hooper was bred in Oxford well-skilled in Latine Greek and Hebrew and afterwards travelled over into Switzerland He was preferred to be Bishop of Glocester by the favour of his Paâ—ron John Earl of Warwick afterwards Duke of Northumberland But when Hooper came to be consecrated Bishop of Glocester he scrupled the wearing of certain Episcopal Ornaments Rochet Chimere Square Cap c. producing a letter from the Eaâ—l of Warwick that he might be favourably dispensed with therein The King also thirteen dayes after wrote to Archbishop Cranmer to the same effect All would not do Resolute Bishop Ridley stood stiffly to his tackling and here was bandying of the business betwixt them and arguments urged on both sides The Earl of Warwick deserted his Chaplain and Hooper was sent to prison and kept sometime in durance till he condescended to conform himself in his habit and so was consecrated Bishop of Glocester After this Hooper bare a great grudge against Ridley who enforced him thereunto but God's providence sanctified their sufferings afterwards into an agreement We must not forget that this earnest contest was not about the vocation but about the vestments of Bishops Thus we have the first beginning of that opposition which hath continued ever since against the Liturgy c. and other Rites and Usages of the Church of England About this time John a Lasco free Baron of Lasco in Poland with his Congregation of Germans and other strangers took Sanctuary this year in England hoping that here they might enjoy that liberty of conscience and safety for their goods and persons which their own Countrey had denyed them The King gratiously vouchsafed to give them both entertainment and protection assigned them the west part of the Church belonging to the late dissolved house of Augustine-friars for the exercise of Religious Worship made them a Corporation consisting of a Superintendent and four other Ministers with power to fill the vacant places by a new Succession whensoever any of them should be voyd by death or otherwise the parties by them chosen to be approved by the King and Council He commanded the Lord Mayor of London the Aldermen and Sheriffâ— thereof as also the Archbishop of Canterbury and all other Bishops of this Realm not to distrub them in the free exercise of their Religion and Ecclesiastical Government although they differed from the government and forms of Worship established in the Church of England All which he granted by his Letters Patents This John a Lasco quickly publisheth a book Entitled Forma Ratio totius Ecclesiastici Ministerii wherein he maintains the use of sitting at the Holy Communion contrary to the custom of the Church of England to the encouragement of those who impugned her Orders A controversie moved by Bishop Hooper touching the Episcopal Habit was presently propagated among the rest of the Clergy touching Caps and Surplices And in this quarrel John a Lasco engageth countenancing those that refused to wear them and Writing to Martin Bucer to declare 〈◊〉 Hist 〈◊〉 VI. against them But that Moderate and Learned Man severely reprâ—hended him and solidly answered all his Objections Which being sent to him in the way of letter was afterward Printed and dispersed for keeping down that opposite humour This controversie was countenanced by Peter Martyr for besides his judgement which he gives of these things in some of his Epistles about things of this nature he hath told us of his own practice in one of his Epistles Dated at Zurick Novemb. 4. 1559. being more than five years after he had left this Kingdom That he had never used the Surplice when he lived in Oxford though he were then a Canon of Christ-church and frequently present in the Quire While this controversie was on foot between the Bishops and the Clergy John Rogers one of the Probends of S. Paul's and Divinity Reader of that Church then newly return'd from beyond the Seas could never be perswaded to wear any other than the round cap when he went abroad And being further pressed unto it he thus declared himself That he would never agree to that point of Conformity but on this condition that if the Bishops did require the Cap and Tippet c. then it should also be declared that all Popish Priests for a distinction between them and others should be constrained to wear upon their sleeves a Chalice with an Host upon it Nay such peccancy of humour began then to break out that it was Preached at Pauls Cross by one Steven Curate of Katherine Cree-Church Stow's Chro. Edw. VI. That it was fit the names of Churches should be altered and the names of the dayes in the Week changed that Fish-dayes should be altered and the Lent kept at any other time except onely between Shrovetide and Easter John Stow saith that he had seen the said Steven to leave the Pulpit and Preach to the People out of an high Elm which stood in the midst of the Church-yard and that being done to return into the Church again The wings of Episcopal Authority had been so clipped that it was scarce able to fly abroad the sentence of Excommunication had not been in use since the first year of this King which occasioned not onely these disorders among the Ministers of the Church but also tended to the
great encrease of vitiousness in all sorts of men So that it was not without cause that it was called for so earnestly by Bishop Latimer in a Sermon Preached before the King Bring into the Church of England saith he the open Discipline of Excommunication that open sinners may be stricken withal Then upon the Complaint of Calvin to Archbishop Cranmer and Peter Martyr's bemoaning the miserable condition of the Church for want of Preachers it was ordained by the advice of the Lords of the Council that of the King 's six Chaplains which attended in Ordinary two of them should be always about the Court and the other four should travel in Preaching abroad About this time Sermonâ—â—t Court were encreased also Then followed the taking down of Altars by pâ—blick A 〈…〉 This being resolved on a Letter cometh to Bishop 〈…〉 of the King subscribed by Sommerset and other of the Lords of the Council concerning the taking down of Altars and setting up Tables in the stead thereof He appointed the form of a right Table to be used in his Diocess and caused the wall standing on the back-side of the Altar in the Church of S. Paul's to be broken down for an example to the rest No universal change of Altars was there into Tables in all parts of the Realm till the repealing of the first Liturgy in which the Priest is appointed to stand before the midst of the Altar in the Celebration and the establishing of the second in which it is required that the Priest shall stand on the North-side of the Table had put an end to the Dispute About this time David's Psalms were Translated into English metre by Thomas Sternhold Esq and of the Privy Chamber to King Edward the sixth John Hopkins Robert Wisdom c. and generally permitted to be Sung in all Churches Bishop Gardiner having been a Prisoner in the Tower almost two years the Lord Treasurer the Earl of Warwick and some others are sent with certain Articles Signed by the King and Lords of the Council unto him According to the tenour hereof he is not only to testifie his consent to the establishing the Holy-dayes and Fasting-days by the King's Authority the allowance of the publick Liturgy and the abrogating of the Statute for the six Articles but to subscribe the confession of his fault in his former obstinacy after such form and manner as was there required To which Articles he subscribed but refused to put his hand to the said Confession Then a Book of Articles is drawn up containing all the alteration made by the King and his Father as well by Act of Parliament as their own injunctions of all which doings he is required to signifie his approbation to make Confession of his fault with an acknowledgment that he had deserved the punishment which was laid upon upon him but no such submission and acknowledgment being made as was required on Feb. 14. 1550. he was deprived and so remitted to the Tower Notwithstanding this severity yet some of the Bishops were so stiff in their old opinions that neither terrour nor perswasions could prevail upon them eiâ—her to approve of the King's proceedings or otherwise to advance the King's commands And some complyed so coldly with the King's commands as that they were laid open to the spoil though not to the loss of their Bishopricks of which last sort were Kitching Bishop of Landaff Salcot Bishop of Salisbury and Sampson of Coventry 〈◊〉 Hist â—â—w VI. and Lichfield Heath of Worcester Voysie of Exeter Day of Chichester and Tonstal of Durham would not any way comply Voisy made such havock of his Lands before he was brought under a deprivation that he left but seven or eight of the worst mannours and those let out into long Leases and those charged with pensions and not above two houses both bare and naked He was deprived a sew moneths after Gardiner but lived to be restored again as Gardiner also was in the time of Queen Mary Day and Heath were both deprived October 10. and were both restored in Queen Maries Reign Tunstal was cast into the Tower December 20. and was there kept until the dissolution of his Bishoprick by Act of Parliament To Gardiner in the See of Winchester succeeded Doctor John Poynet Bishop of Rochester To Voisy in the See of Exeter succeeded Doctor Miles Coverdale one who had formerly assisted Tyndal in translating the Bible into English and for the most part lived at Tubing an University belonging to the Duke of Saxony where he received the degree of Doctor Scory being Consecrated Bishop of Rochester in the place of Poynet on the thirtieth of August in the next year following succeeded Day of Chichester Of which Bishoprick he was deprived in the time of Queen Mary and afterwards preferred by Queen Elizabeth to the See of Hereford in which place he died The Bishoprick of Worcester was given in Commendam to Bishop Hooper The Princess Mary having been bred up in the Romish Religion would not change her mind And although the King and the Lords of his Council wrote many Letters to her to take off those affections which she bear to the Church of Rome yet she keeps up her Mass with all the Rites and Ceremonies belonging to it and suffers divers persons besides her own domestick Servants to be present at it By the Emperor's mediation her Chaplains were permitted to celebrate the Mass but with this Restriction that they should do it in her presence only For the transgression of which bounds Mallet and Barkley her two Chaplains were imprisoned Then a Plot is laid to convey the Princess Mary out of the Realm by stealth but the King being secretly advertised of the design puts a stop thereunto She is brought to the King and appointed to remain with him but none of her Chaplains permitted to have any access unto her And notwithstanding the mediation of the Emperor in her behalf and his threatening War in case she were not permitted the free exercise of her Religion and although the Lords of the Council generally seemed very inclinable thereunto yet the King would not be perswaded thereunto And when the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London sent by the Lords to the King used divers Arguments to perswade him he declared a Resolution rather to venture life and all things else that were dear unto him than to give way to any thing which he knew to be against the Truth Then the King burst forth into a flood of tears and the Bishops on sight thereof wept as fast as He. The Bishops thereupon withdrew admiring at such great Abilities in so young a King and blessed God for giving them a Prince of such eminent piety Then the reviewing the Liturgy and the composing of a Book of Articles were brought under consideration This last for the avoiding diversities of Opinions and for the establishing consent touching true Religion the other for removing such offences as had been taken by
Calvin and his followers at some parts thereof The Liturgy so reviewed was ratified by Act of Parliament in the year following By the learned Writings of Erasmus and Melancthon together with the Augustan Confession a Book of Articles being thought necessary to be composed the Composers of those Articles were much directed using them as subservient Helps to promote the service Now followed the fatal Tragedy of the Duke of Sommerset and we must recoyl a little to fetch forward the cause thereof Thomas Seymour Baron of Sudely and Lord Admiral the Protector 's younger Brother had married the Lady Katherine Par the Relict of King Henry the Eighth A contest arose between their Wives about place The Women's discords derived themselves into their Husbands hearts whereupon not long after followed the death of the Lord Thomas Seymour arraigned for designing to translate the Crown to himself Soon after the Lords of the Council accuse the Protector of many high offences his greatest Enemy and Accuser was John Dudley Earl of Warwick Hereupon he was imprisoned at Windsor yet he was acquitted though outed his Protectorship restored and continued Privy Counsellor But after two years and two months his Enemies assault him afresh He was indicted of Treason and Felony he was condemned for Felony by a new made Statute for plotting the death of a Privy Counsellor namely the Earl of Warwick Here a strange oversight was committed that he craved not the benefit of the Clergy which could not legally be denied him Not long after he was beheaded on Tower-hill with no less praise for his piety and patience than pity and grief of the beholders In the beginning of the year 1551. happened a terrible Earthquake at Croydon and some other Villages thereabouts in the County of Surrey Afterwards six Dolphins were taken up in the Thames three at Queenborough and three near Greenwich the least as big as any Horse Their coming up so far beheld by States-men as a presage of those storms and Tempests which afterwards befel this Nation in the death of King Edward and the tempestuous Reign of Queen Mary But the saddest presage of all was the breaking out of a Disease câ—llâ—d the Sweating-sickness appearing first at Shrewsbury on April 15. and afterwards spreading by degrees over the Kingdom wherewith if any man were attacqued he died or escaped within nine or ten hours if he slept as most persons desired to do he died within six hours if he took cold he died within three hours Sir Michael Stanhop Sir Thomas Arundel Sir Ralph Vane and Sir Miles Partridge were arraigned and condemned to dye The two first were beheaded and the two last hanged at what time they solemnly protested taking God to witness that they never practised Treason against the King c. Vane adding after all the rest that his Blood would make the pillow of the Earl of Warwick lately made Duke of Northumberland uneasie to him Then fifty six Articles are drawn up against Robert Farrars Bishop of St. Davids and a Commission issued March 9. to enquire into the merit of those Articles charged against him on the return whereof he is indicted of a Praemunire at the Assizes at Carmarthen committed thereupon to prison where he remained all the rest of King Edward's time never restored to liberty till he came to the Stake in Queen Maries Reign On the twenty ninth of January 1552. The Bishoprick of Westminster was dissolved by the King's Letters Patents by which the County of Middlesex which had before been laid unto it was restored unto the See of London The Book of Articles made in the Synod at London may be truly said to be the work of that Convocation though many Members of it never saw the same till the Book was published in regard as Mr. Philpot saith that they had a Synodical Authority to make such spiritual Laws Fox Acts and Monuments fol. 1282. as to them seemed to be necessary or convenient for the use of the Church Moreover the Church of England for the first five years of Queen Elizabeth retained these Articles and no other as the publick Tenents of the Church in point of Doctrine which she had not done had they been commended to her by a less Authority than a Convocation These Râ—giâ authoritate in lucemedâ—ti Articles were confirmed and published for such by the King's Authority as appears further by the Title in due form of Law And so it is resolved by Philpot in behalf of the Catechism which came out Anno 1553. with the approbation of the said Bishops and learned Men. The Liturgy being setled and confirmed in Parliament was by the King's command translated into French for the use of the â—sles of Guernsey and Jersey and such as lived within the Marches and command of Calais But no such care was taken for Wales till the fifth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth nor of the Realm of Ireland from that time to this as Doctor Heylin observeth Then that which concerns as well the nature as the number of such Feasts and Fasts as were thought fit to be retained were determined and concluded on by an Act of Parliament Which Statute though repealed in the first of Queen Mary and not revived till the first year of the Reign of King James yet in effect it stood in force and was more punctually observedin the time of Queen Elizabeth's Reign than after the reviving of it The next care was that Consecrated places should not be profaned by fighting and quarrelling as they had been lately since the Episcopal Jurisdiction and the ancient Censures of the Church were lessened in Authority and reputation This Parliament ending on April 15. the Book of Common-prayer was printed and published which had been therein authorized And the time being come which was set for the officiating it there appeared much alteration in the outward solemnities of Divine service to which the people had formerly been so long accustomed For by the Rubrick of that Book no Copes or other Vestures were required but the Surplice only whereby the Bishops must forbear their Crosses and the Prebends of St. Paul â—s leave off their Hoods To give a beginning hereunto Bishop Ridley then Bishop of London did the same day officiate the Divine service of the Morning in his Rochet only without Cope or Vestment he preached also at St. Paul's in the afternoon the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Companies in their best Liveries in their Companies being present at it the Sermon tending for the most part to the setting forth the said Book of Common-prayer and to acquaint them with the Reasons of such alterations as were made therein On the same day the new Liturgy was executed also in all the Churches of London Not long after the upper Quire in St. Paul's Church where the high Altar stood was broken down and all the Quire thereabout and the Communion-table was placed in the lower part of the Quire where the Minister
without a name joyned himself to the other five in the disputation The Prolocutor would admit of no more though desired by Philpot that some of the Divines which had the passing of the Book of Articles in King Edward's time might be assembled with them in the defence thereof The main point in debate concernded the manner of Christ's presence in the Sacrament It was not denied by Philpot and his Brethren That Christ was present in the Sacrament rightly administred according to his Institution but onely that He was not present in the gross and carnal manner which They of the Popish party had before subscribed unto Six dys the disputation lasted but to little effect At length Weston put an end to the dispute saying It is not the Queen's pleasure that we should spend any longer time in these debates and yet are well enough already For you saith He have the Word and we have the Sword After the end of the Evensong on St. Katherine's day Bonner caused the Quire of St. Paul's to go about the Steeple singing with lights after the old custom And on St. Andrew's day next following he began the Procession in Latin himself with many Parsons and Curates and the whole Quire together with the Lord Mayor and divers of the Aldermen the Prebendaries of the Church attired in their old gray Amises as they used to call them in which manner they continued it for three days after on January 14. he restored the solemn Sunday's procession about the Church with the Mayor and Aldermen the Preacher taking his Benediction in the midst of the Church according to the antient custom likewise he sent out his Mandates to all Parsons and Curates within his Diocese for taking the names of all such as would not come the Lent following to Auricular Confession and receive at Easter he likewise enjoyned the blotting out of all such paintings and sentences of holy Scripture as had been pensiled on the Church-walls in King Edward's days Mr. Jewel continued some weeks in Broad-gates Hall whither his Scholars repaired unto him whom he instructed in Learning and Religion He had not long lived there but being perswaded by the Popish Fuller Church History of Q. Mary Inquisitors to subscribe he took a pen in his Hand and smiling said Have you a mind to see how well I can write and thereupon under-writ their Opinions The Papists trusted him not any whit the more for this his subscription His life being way-laid for with great difficulty he escaped into Germany But on a Sunday after his Forenoon-sermon by the advice of Dr. Edwin Sandys afterwards Archbishop of York Mr. Chambers and Mr. Sampson his bosom Friends in the Congregation of Franckfort he bitterly bewailed his fall and heartily requested pardon from God and his people whom thereby he he had offended On November 20. the Mayor of Coventry sent up to the Lords of the Council one Baldwin Cleark John Careless Thomas Wilcocks and Richard Estlin Careless and Wilcocks were committed to the Gate-house and Cleark and Estlin to the Marshalsey In the moneth of December the Parliament broke up in which there was a Communication of Marriage betwixt the Emperor's Son Philip and the Queen In the mean-while Cardinal Pool hasteneth toward England The Emperor invites him to come into Germany by his way and entertains him with great shew of Honour untill by his Ambassador Petri. Church Hist Câ—nt 1â— he had finished a Contract of Marriage between his Son Philip and Queen Mary This match was generally distasted To hinder it Sir Thomas Wyat a Kentish Knight took Armes with a great party assisting him But albeit he wanted neither Wit Wealth Learning yet all were 〈◊〉 employed about him Wyat demandeth the Person of the Queen the Tower of London to be committed unto him with power to displace evil Counsellors his demands were refused with scornâ— Queen Mary came to Guildhall and there made a long Oration which secured the affections of the Citizens unto her Wyat came up to London He was taken at Temple-bar carried thence be examined and thence to the Tower to be committed Some days after he suffered penitently and patiently on the Scaffold condemning his own Act. Of his complices were hanged fifty persons and four hundred more led through the City with halters about their necks to Westminster where they were all pardoned in the Tilt-yard by the Queen Doctor Crome for his Preaching without License on Christmas day was committed to the Fleet Thomas Wotton Esquire was for matters of Religion committed also to the Fleet. The Duke of Suffolk Father to the Lady Jane but lately pardoned of life in the midst of the Kentish tumult secretly departeth into Leicester and Warwick-shires instigating the people to withstand the Queen's Marriage agreed upon with Philip. The Duke was betrayed Speeds Chron. in Q. Mary by one Vnderwood his Servant in Ashley-park with his Brother John Lord Gray unto the Earl of Huntington whence they were by him convayed prisoners to the Tower of London This seemed to hasten the death of the Lady Jane and the Lord Guilford her Husband who were both beheaded February 12. 1554. he was beheaded on a Scaffold on Tower-hill and she upon the Green within the Tower Two days before her death Mr. Fecknam was sent unto her by the Queen to reduce her to the Popish Religion whom she constantly and with great power of God's Spirit resisted Eleven days after her death her Father the Duke of Suffolk was beheaded on Tower-hill And on April 23. his Brother the Lord Thomas Gray suffered death in the same place Now for putting the Affairs of the Church into a posture Articles are sent into every Diocese and Letters writ unto their several and respective Bishops on the third of March to see them carefully put in execution the substance whereof were 1. That the Ecclesiastical Laws of King Henry the Eighth should be put in practice being not directly against the Laws and Statutes of the Realm 2. That no Bishop do use the Clause in any of their Ecclesiastical writings Regia authoritate fulcitus 3. That no Sacramentary be admitted to Benefice 4. That all Bishops do labour to suppress Heresies especially in the Clergy 5. That they should suppress all unlawfull Books and writings 6. The next Article was against Priests Marriages and that such as would depart from their Wives should be admitted to the same function 7. That for want of Priests one Priest should serve two places 8. That Processions be used 9. That Holy-days and Fasts be frequented 10. That the Ceremonies be used and Confirmation of Children be put in practice In the same moneth of March the Lord Courtney whom the Queen at her first entry delivered out of the Tower and the Lady Elizabeth also the Queen's Sister were both by the suggestion of Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester suspected to have been of Wyat's Conspiracy and for the same were apprehended and sent to the Tower
Dorothy Stafford afterwards of the Bed-chamber to Queen Elizabeth 〈…〉 Lady Elizabeth Berkley Some of the English Exiles seated themselves at Emden in East-Frizland a Staple Town of English Merchants John Scory late Bishop of Chichester was Superintendent of the English Congregation in Emden Some setled themselves at Weasel then in the Dominions of the Duke of Cleve but bordering on the Low Countries in the King of Spain's possession but they quickly left this place some of them went to Arrow a small City in Switzerland on the banks of the River Arrola belonging to Bern. The most eminent English seated themselves at Strasburgh as James Haddon Edwyn Sandys Edmond Grindal John Huntington Guido Eaton John Geoffry John Peader Thomas Eaton Michael Raymuger Augustine Bradbridge Arthur Saule Thomas Steward Christopher Goodman Thomas Lakin Humfrey Alcocson Thomas Crafton Some went to Zuric stiled the Students at Zuric viz. Robert Horn Richard Chambers Thomas Leaver Nicholas Carvil John Mullings Thomas Spencer Thomas Bentham William Cole John Parkhurst Roger Kelk Robert Beaumont Laurence Humfrey Henry Cockcraft John Pretio At Franckford on the Meine was the most conspicuous English Church beyond the Seas consisting of John Bale Edmond Sutton John Makebray William Whittingham Thomas Cole William Williams George Chidley William Hammon Thomas Steward Thomas Wood John Staunton William Walton Jasper Swift John Geoffry John Gray Michael Gill John Fox Laurence Kent William Kethe John Hollingham John Samford John Wood Thomas Sorby Anthony Carier Hugh Alford George Whetnal Thomas Whetnal Edward Sutton Besides these the first Founders of these Congregations many additional persons coming afterward out of England joyned themselves thereunto Now followed the sad troubles of Frankford rending these Exiles into divers Factions The English had a Church granted unto them in câ—parcenie with the French Protestants they one day and the English another Which was granted them with this proviso That they should not dissent from the French in Doctrine or Ceremony lest thereby they should minister occasion of offence The English constituted their new Church chusing a Minister and Deacons for a time and out of conformity to the French abrogated many things formerly used by them in the Church of England 1. They concluded there should be no answering aloud after the Minister 2. That the Litany Surplice c. should be omitted 3. Instead of the English Confession they used another framed according to the state and time 4. The same ended the people sang a Psalm in metre in a plain tune 5. That done the Minister prayed for the assistance of God's Spirit and so proceeded to the Sermon 6. After Sermon a general Prayer for all States and particularly for England was devised 7. Then followed a Rehearsal of the Articles of Belief which ended the people sang another Psalm 8. Lastly The Minister pronounced the Blessing and so the people departed Thus setled in their Church they write Letters to all the English Congregations at Strasburgh Zuric Emden c. to invite them with all convenient speed to joyn with them at Franckford This occasioned several reiterated Letters from Franckford requiring those of Zurich to weigh the necessity of joyning themselves in one Congregation Those of Zurich by many dilatory Letters excused themselves from coming thither But the main reason was those of Zurich were resolved to recede no whit from the Liturgy used in England under King Edward the sixth and unless coming thither they might be assured they should have the full and free use thereof they utterly refused any Communion with their Congregation Then came Mr. John Knox from Geneva and was chosen by the Congregation at Frankford for their Pastor At which time Mr. Chambers and Mr. Edmond Grindal came thither as Agents with a Letter from Troubles of Frankford p. 24. the Congregation of Strasburgh These made a motion that they might have the substance of the Common-prayer-book though such Ceremonies and things which the Country could not bear might well be omitted But Knox and Whittingham were as much bent against the substance of the Book as against any of the Circumstantials which belonged to it Hereupon Grindal and Chambers return back again to Strasburgh Knox and others in Frankford drew up in Latin a platform of the English Liturgy and sent it to Geneva tendring it to the judgment of Mr. John Calvin who answereth that in the English Liturgy he had observed multas tolerabiles ineptias many tolerable fooleries adding that there wanted that purity which was to be desired in it that it contained many Relicks of Popish dregs that seeing there was no manifest impiety in it it had been tolerated for a season because at first it could not otherwise be admitted But howsoever though it was lawful to begin with such beggarly rudiments yet it behoved the learned grave and godly Ministers of Christ to endeavour further and set forth something more refined from filth and rustiness This being sent unto Knox and Whittingham those who formerly approved did afterwards dislike the English Liturgy But in the end it was agreed on that a mixt form consisting partly of the order of Geneva and partly of the Book of England should be digested and received till the first of April In this condition of affairs Doctor Richard Cox the late Dean of Christ-church and Westminster first School-master and afterward Almoner to King Edward the Sixth putteth himself into Frankford March 13. accompanied with many English Exiles Being a man of great learning of great authority in the Church and one that had a principal hand in drawing up the Liturgy by Law established he could not patiently bear these innovations in it He thereupon first begins to answer the Minister contrary to the order there agreed on and the next Lord's-day after causeth one of his company to go into the Pulpit and read the Litany Against which doings of his Knox in a Sermon the same day inveigheth most bitterly affirming many things in the English book to be imperfect and superstitious for which he is both rebuked by Cox and forbidden to preach Hereupon Whittingham procureth an Order from the Magistrates requiring that the English should conform themselves to the Rules of the French Cox his party being depressed they accuse Knox to the State for high Treason against the Emperor in an English book of his entitled An Adnonition to all Christians first privately preached in Buckinghamshire and now publickly printed to the world wherein he called the Emperor no less an enemy to Christ than Nero. Hereupon the State of Frankford willed Knox to depart the City who on March 25. to the great grief of his Friends left the Congregation and retâ—â—eth himself to Geneva Whittingham and the rest of his party were commanded to receive the Book of England against which Order Whittingham for a time opposeth encouraged therein by Goodman but finding Cox and his party too strong for them they also left Franckford shortly after Then Doctor Cox and his Adherents
and her Boxes searched Fourteen of the Conspirators were Arraigned Condemned of High-treason and executed Afterwards in the Star-chamber sentence was pronounced against the Queen of Scots And in a Parliament presently following the Lords petition the Queen that the sentence passed against her may presently be promulged The King of Scots and the King of France sollicit for her life But when this would not prevail L' Aubespine the French Ambassador thinks no way so effectual for saving the Queen of Scots life as to take away the life of Queen Elizabeth The plot was discovered And at length the Sentence against the Queen of Scots was put in execution and she ended her doleful life at Fothringhay Castle She was buried in the Quire of Peterborough and Doctor Wickham Bishop of Lincoln Preached her Funeral-sermon Some twenty yaars after King James caused her Corps to be solemnly removed from Poterborough to Westminster where in the South-side of the Chappel of King Henry the Seventh he erected a stately Monument to her Memory The Earl of Leicester having raised great offence is called home again into England by the Queen giveth over his Government and the free Administration of his Government is left to the States Now Conformity was pressed to the height The power of the High Fuller Church Hist in An. 1537. Commission began to extend far and penalties to fall heavy on offenders whereupon the favourers of Non-conformists much opposed it in their Printed Books some questioning the Court as not warranted by Law others taxing their proceedings as exceeding their Commission But the most general exception against the High Commission was this That proceeding Ex Officio mero by way of enquiry against such whom they suspected they tendred unto them an Oath which was conceived unjust that in cases criminal a party should be forced to discover what might be penal to himself The lawfulness of which Oath was learnedly canvassed with arguments on both sides Because many did question the Legalâ—ty and Authority of the High Commission Archbishop Whitgift so contrived the matter that the most sturdy Non-conformists especially if they had any visible Estates were brought into the Star-chamber the power whereof was above dispute where some of them besides imprisonment had very heavy fines imposed on them And because most of the Queens Council were present at the Censures this took off the odium from the Archbishop This year died Mr. John Fox the Industrious compiler of the Acts and Monuments of the Church and was buried at St. Giles near Cripplegate in London It is said he foretold the destruction of the Invincible so called Spanish Armado in the year 1588. which came so to pass though he survived not to see the performance of his own prediction About this time Mr. William Lambert finished his Hospital at Greenwich Camd Brit. in Kent founded and endowed by him for poor people He was the first Protestant who erected a charitable house of that nature saith Camden But King Edward the Sixth â—ounded Christ-church and St. Thomas Hospital Now the sticklers against the Hierarchy appeared more vigorous though for a time they had concealed themselves The Parliament now sitting aâ— Westminster the House of Commons presented to the Lords a petition complaining how many Parishes especially in the North of England and Wales were destitute of Preachers and no care taken to supply them Sixteen were the particulars whereof the six first were against insufficient Ministers Of all the particulars the House fell most fiercely on the debate of pluralities and Non-residents The Arch-bishop pleads for Non-residency in divers cases He affirmed whatever was pretended to the contrary that England then flourished with able Ministers more than ever before yea had more than all Christendom besides The Lord Grey rejoyned to this Assertion saying That England had more able Ministers than all the Churches in Christendom was onely to be attributed to God who now opened the hearts of many to see into the truth and that the Schools were better observed The Lord Treasurer seemed to moderate betwixt them Matters flying thus high the Archbishop with the rest of the Clergy Petition the Queen To the Petition were annexed a Catalogue of those inconveniences to the State present State to come Cathedral Churches Universities to her Majesty to Religion in case pluralities were taken away Nothing was effected in relation to this matter but things left in statu quo prius at the dissolution of this Parliament This year died Richard Barnes Bishop of Durham In the year 1588. when there was a Treaty of Peace between England and Spain out cometh their Invincible Navy and Army perfectly appointed for both Elements Land and Water to Sayl and March compleat in all Warlike Equipage but that great Fleet was wonderfully defeated by the English and dissipated by stormy Winds and many of the Spaniards were Barbarously butchered by the Irish For the happy success of this action Queen Elizabeth appointed Prayers and Thanksgivings over all the Churches in England and she with a great Train of the Nobility came into St. Pauls Church where the Banners taken from the Enemy were placed in view and there in most humble manner gave thanks to Almighty God the giver of all Victory About this time many Papists were committed to custody in Wisbych Castle At this time many Libels flew abroad thus named 1. The Epitome 2. The Demonstration of Discipline 3. The Supplication 4. Diotrephes 5. The Minerals 6. Have ye any work for the Cooper 7. More work for the Cooper 8. Martin Senior Mar-prelate 9. Martin Junior Mar-prelate The main drift of these Pamphlets was to defame the English Prelates scoffing at them for their Garb Gate Apparel Vanities of their Youth natural Defects and personal Infirmities It is strange how secretly they were Printed how speedily Dispersed how generally Bought how greedily Read how firmly Believed especially of the Common sort Some precise men of that side thought these jeering pens well employed but these Books were disclaimed by the more descreet and devoutsort of men And how highly the State distasted these Books will appear by the heavy censures inflicted on such as were but accessary thereunto To pass by John Vdal and John Penry Ministers accused for making some of them together with the Printers and Humfry Newman a Cobler chief disperser of them The Star-chamber deeply fined Sir Richard Knightly and Sir 〈…〉 Wigston for entertaining and receiving the press Gentlemen But upon their submission they had their liberty and were eased of their fines A Synod of the Presbyterians of the Warwick-shire Classis was called at Covâ—ntry wherein the questions brought the last year from the Brethren of Cambridge-Synod were thus resolved I. That private Baptism was unlawful Ep. â—â—â—croâ—t's Book called Englands Scoâ—izing for Discipline by practice II. That it is not lawful to read Hâ—miles in the Church III. That the sign of the cross is not to be used in Baptism IV.
together on April 13. 1640. instead of acting Short view of the life and Reign of King Charles p. 77. any thing for his Majesties service they were at the point of passing a Vote for blasting his War against the Scots To prevent which his Majesty was forced to dissolve them on May 5. the Convocation still continuing who granted him a Benevolence of four shillings in the pound for all their Ecclesiastical promotions to be paid six years together then next ensuing The Convocation sate after the breaking up of the Parliament A new Commission was brought from his Majesty by vertue whereof they were warranted to sit still not in the capacity of a Convocation but of a Synod to prepare their Canons for the Royal assent thereunto But Doctor Brâ—wnrigg Doctor Hacket Doctor Holdsworth Mr. Warmstrey with others to the number of thirty six the whole House consisting of about sixscore protested against the continuance of the Convocation To satisfie these an Instrument was brought into the Synod signed with the hands of the Lord Privy-seal the two chief Justices and other Judges justifying their so sitting in the nature of a Synod to be legal according to the Laws of the Realm Now their disjoynted meeting being set together again they consulted about new Canons I shall set down the number and titles of the several Canons 1. Concerning the Regal power 2. For the better keeping of the day of his Majesties Inauguration 3. For suppressing of the growth of Popery 4. Against Socinianism 5. Against Sectaries 6. An Oath enjoyned for the preventing of all Innovations in Doctrine and Government 7. A Declaration concerning some Rites and Ceremonies 8. Of preaching for Conformity 9. One Book of Articles of enquiry to be used at all Parochial visitations 10. Concerning the Conversation of the Clergy 11. Chancellors Patents 12. Chancellors alone not not to censure any of the Clergy in sundry cases 13. Excommunication and Absolution not to be pronounced but by a Priest 14. Concerning the Commutations and the disposing of them 15. Concerning some Concurrent Jurisdictions 16. Concerning Licenses to marry 17. Against vexatious Citations The Oath it self I shall set down as I find it in the Life of Archbishop Laud written by Doctor Heylin in this form following viz. I A. B. do swear That I do approve the Doctrine and Discipline or Government established in the Church of England as containing all things necessary to salvation And that I will not endeavour by my self or any other directly or indirectly to bring in any Popish doctrine contrary to that which is so established Nor will I ever give my consent to alter the Government of this Church by Archbishops Bishops Deans and Archdeacons c. As it stands now established and as by right it ought to stand nor yet ever subject it to the usurpations and superstitions of the See of Rome And all these things I do plainly and seriously acknowledge and swear according to the plain and common sence and understanding of the same words without any equivocation or mental evasion or secret reservation whatsoever And this I do heartily willingly and truly upon the faith of a Christian So help me God in Jesus Christ Toward the close of the Convocation Doctor Griffith made a motion that there might be a new Edition of the Welsh Church-bible some sixty years first translated into Welsh by the endeavours of Bishop Morgan but not without many mistakes and omissions of the Printer The matter was committed to the care of the Welsh Bishops but nothing was effected therein Near the ending of the Synod Godfrey Goodman Bishop of Glocester privately acquainted the Archbishop of Canterbury that he could not in his Conscience subscribe the new Canons The Archbishop being present with the Synod in King Henry the Seventh his Chappel said unto him My Lord of Glocester I admonish you to subscribe and presently after My Lord of Glocester I admonish you the second time to subscribe and immediately after I admonish you to subscribe To all which the Bishop pleaded Conscience and returned a denial Some dayes after he was committed to the Gaâ—e-house Soon after the same Canons were subscribed at York and on the last of June following the said Canons were publickly printed with the Royal assent affixed thereunto Various were mens censures upon these Canons But most took exception Fuller Church History ad An. 1640. against that clause in the Oath We will never give any consent to alter this Church-governmet as if the same were intended to abridge the liberty of King and State in future Parliaments and Convocations if hereafter they saw cause to change any thing therein Yet others with a favourable sence endeavoured to qualifie this suspitious clause whereby the taker of this Oath was tied up from consenting to any alteration saying that these words We will never give any consent to alter are intended here to be meant only of a voluntary and pragmatical alteration when men conspire and endeavour to change the present Government of the Church in such particulars as they do dislike without the consent of their Superiors Bishop Goodman on July the tenth made acknowledgment of his fault before the Lords of the Council and took the Oath enjoyned in the sixth Canon for preserving the Doctrines and Discipline of the Church of England against all Popish doctrines which were thereunto repugnant Upon the doing whereof he was restored by his Majesty to his former liberty Yet in the time of his last sickness it is said that he declared himself to be a Member of the Church of Rome and caused it so to be expressed in his last Will and Testament On December 27. 1639. at night and the night following there was such a violent Tempest that many of the Boats which were drawn to Land at Lambeth were dashed one against the other and were broke to pieces and that the shafts of two Chimneys were blown down upon Hâ—ylin's Hist of Archbishop Laud. ad â—n 1640. the roof of the Archbishop's Chamber and beat down both the Lead and Rafters upon his Bed in which ruine he must needs have perished if the roughness of the Water had not forced him to keep his Chamber at White-hall A like mischance happened the same night at Croydon a retiring place belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury where one of the Pinacles fell from the Steeple beat down the Lead and Roof of the Church above twenty foot square But that which was more remarkable than either of these was that which happened the same night at Canterbury in the Metropolitical Church where one of the Pinacles upon the top of the Belfrey-Tower which carried a Vane with this Archbishop's Arms upon it was violently struck down but born a good distance from the Steeple to fall upon the Roof of the Cloyster where the Armes of the Archiepiscopal See it self were ingraven in Stone which Armes being broke to pieces by the fall of the other
to Preach who is not Ordained a Minister either in this or some other Reformed Church except such as intending the Ministry shall be allowed for the trial of their gifts by those who shall be appointed thereunto August 19. 1645. Directions of the Lords and Commons after advice had with the Assembly of Divines for the electing and chusing of Ruling Elders in all the Congregations And in the Classical Assemblies for the Cities of London and Westminster and the several Counties of the Kingdom for the speedy setling of the Presbyterial government August 21. 1645. Ordained that the Knights and Burgesses of Parliament of the several Counties of England and Wales shall send Printed books of the Directory of God's Worship fairly bound up in Leather to the Committees of Parliament residing in the several Counties who shall send or cause the same to be delivered to the several Ministers of every Parish c. October 20. 1645. An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons together with Rules and Directions concerning suspension from the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in cases of Ignorance and Scandal Also the names of such Ministers and others that are appointed Tryers and Judges of the Ability of Elders in the twelve Classes within the Prâ—vince of London January 7. 1645. An Ordinance for making Covent-garden Parâ—chical and that the new erected Church within the Precinct of the said new intended Parish shall be a Parish-Church for the said Precinct and that William Earl of Bedford his Heirs and Assigns for ever shall have the Patronage of the said Church c. March 14. 1645. An Ordinance for keeping of scandalous Persons from the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper the enabling of the Congregation for the choyce of Elders and supplying of defects in former Ordinances and Directions of Parliament concerning Church-government June 5. 1646. An Ordinance for the present setling without further delay of the Presbyterial government in the Church of England August 28. 1646. An Ordinance for the Ordination of Ministers by the Classical Presbyters within their respective bounds for the several Congregations in the Kingdom of England January 29. 1647. An Ordinance for the speedy dividing and setling of the several Counties of this Kingdom into distinct Classical Presbyteries and Congregational Elderships February 9. 1647. An Ordinance for Reparation of Churches and paying of Church-duties April 3. 1648. An Ordinance for union of Churches in the City of Glocester and maintenance for Preaching Ministers there May 2. 1648. An Ordinance for punishing Blasphemies and Heresies The King on April 17. 1646. In disguise went out of Oxford attended by Mr. John Ashburnham and one more On May 6. His Majesty came to the Scots Army which occasioned the Scotch Commissioners to write to the Parliament about it May 19. the Scots came with the King to New-castle A great dispute was between the King and Mr. Alexander Henderson about Church-matters where after several Discourses and meetings 〈◊〉 Hist 〈…〉 many writings passed between them till July 16. concerning these matters by Authority of the Fathers and Practice of the Primitive Church His Majesty concludeth that to him it is incredible that any custome of the Catholick Church be erroneous which was not Contradicted by Orthodox Learned men in the times of their first practice as is easily perceived that these defections were which Henderson mentions And finally that albeit He never esteemed any Authority equal to the Scriptures yet he thinks the unanimous consent of the Fathers and the Universal practice of the Primitive Church to be the best and Authentical Interpreters of God's word and consequently the fiâ—test Judges between him and Henderson until better may be found These disputes were afterwards published in Print to the everlasting Honour of His Majesty and his Cause On February 6. 1646. the Scots according to agreement quitted New-castle and the English possessed it The Parliament voted the King's remove to Holdenby-house with respect to the safety of His Person And the Commissioners appointed for receiving the King's Person came to Newcastle on June 22. The King desireth two of his Chaplains to be with him which was denied him at which he is much troubled His Majesty resolves to keep every Friday a day of Solemn Fasting and Humiliation After His Majesty had been neer five moneths at Holdenby near a Thousand Souldiers commanded by Cornet Joyce came to Holdenby to the King and told him that they were come by command from the Army to remove him from that place His Majesty demanded whether they would offer any violence to his Person They all cried None He also desired that his Trunks and Papers might not be Riffled and tumbled They promised to set a guard on them Thirdly he required such servants to attend him against whom there was no just exceptions They answered he should Lastly he desired that nothing be imposed on him contrary to his Conscience They answered it was not their judgement to force any thing against Conscience upon any one much less on His Majesty So at one of the Clock His Majesty went along with them On June 28. 1647. His Majesty was brought to Hatfield the Duke of Richmond attending him and others and from thence came to Casam At this time the Parliament was jealous of the King and the Army lest they should treat without the consent of the Parliament And the Army likewise devised as many jealousies and fears of a private engagement and Subscribing in the City of London and against the Army Then the Parliament Order their Votes of the Militia in the hands of the City to be Null c. The Apprentices clamour at the Houses and gather together in Westminster-hall in such multitudes that the Commons were forced to unvote and null their last Orders Then the Army marcheth nearer London Both Speakers and some Members fly the Army On August 7. the General and the Army march in Triumph through the City Sir Thomas Fairfax is made Constable of the Tower and Titchburn is made Lieutenant of the Tower The King is brought first to Oatelands and afterward to Hampton-court and his Children Ordered to be with him September 28. 1647. The Commons considered of several Propositions to send to His Majesty That about Religion being the main thing They also Vote that His Majesty be desired to give His consent to such Act or Acts of Parliament as shall be presented for setling of Presbyterian Government according to the matter of several Ordinances of Parliament for the Directory or Church-government to continue for the space of three years from the time that the King shall give his consent to such Acts. They likewise voted the Common-prayer book shall not be used in Private November 11. 1647. the King escaped from Hampton-court and leâ—t on the Table three Papers one to the Parliament one to the Commissioners a third to Colonel Whaley On October 15. Information was brought to the House that His Majesty was safe at the Isle of Wight and