she was called the English Hackney That the French King liked her and from the freedoms he took with her she was called the King's Mule But returning to England she was admitted to the Court where she quickly perceived how weary the King was of the Queen and what the Cardinal was designing and having gained the King's affection she governed it so that by all innocent freedoms she drew him into her Toiles and by the appearances of a severe virtue with which she disguised her self so encreased his affection and esteem that he resolved to put her in his Queens place as soon as the Divorce was granted The same Author adds That the King had likewise enjoyed her Sister with a great deal more to the disgrace of this Lady and her Family I know it is not the work of an Historian to refute the Lies of others but rather to deliver such a plain account as will be a more effectual confutation than any thing can be that is said by way of Argument which belongs to other Writers And at the end of this King's Reign I intend to set down a Collection of the most Notorious False-hoods of that Writer together with the evidences of their being so But all this of Anne Boleyn is so palpable a lie or rather a complicated heap of lies and so much depends on it that I presume it will not offend the Reader to be detained a few minutes in the refutation of it For if it were true very much might be drawn from it both to disparage King Henry who pretended Conscience to annul his Marriage for the nearness of Affinity and yet would after that Marry his own Daughter It leaves also a foul and lasting stain both on the Memory of Anne Boleyn and of her incomparable Daughter Queen Elizabeth It also derogates so much from the first Reformers who had some kind of dependence on Queen Anne Boleyn that it seems to be of great importance for directing the Reader in the judgment he is to make of persons and things to lay open the falshood of this account It were sufficient for blasting it that there is no proof pretended to be brought for any part of it but a Book of one Rastall a Judg that was never seen by any other person than that Writer The Title of the Book is The Life of Sir Thomas More there is great reason to think that Rastall never writ any such Book for it is most common for the Lives of great Authors to be prefixed to their Works Now this Rastall published all More 's Works in Queens Maries Reign to which if he had written his Life it is likely he would have prefixt it No evidence therefore being given for his Relation either from Record Letters or the Testimony of any person who was privy to the matter the whole is to be looked upon as a black Forgery devised on purpose to defame Queen Elizabeth For upon her Mothers death who can doubt but that some either to flatter the King or to defame her would have published these things which if they had been true could be no secrets For a Lady of her Mothers condition to bear a Child two years after her Husband was sent out of England on such a publick Employment and a Process thereupon to be entred in the Arch-Bishops Courts are things that are not so soon to be forgotten And that she her self was under so ill a Reputation both in her Father's Family and in France for common lewdness and for being the Kings Concubin are things that could not lie hid And yet when the Books of the Arch-Bishops Courts which are now burnt were extant it was published to the world and satisfaction offered to every one that would take the pains to inform themselves that there was no such thing on Record Nor did any of the Writers of that time either of the Imperial or Papal side once mention these things notwithstanding their great occasion to do it But 80 years after this Fable was invented or at least it was then first published when it was safer to lie because none who had lived in the time could disprove it But it has not only no foundation but Sanders through the vulgar errors of Liars has strained his wit to make so ill a story of the Lady that some things in his own relation make it plainly appear to be impossible For to pass by those many improbable things that he relates as namely That both the King of England and the French King could be so taken with so ugly and monstrous a Woman of so notorious and lewd manners and that this King for the space of Seven years that is during the Suit of the Divorce should continue enamoured of her and never discover this or having discovered it should yet resolve at all hazards to make her his Wife which are things that would require no common testimony to make them seem credible There is beside in that story an heap of things so inconsistent with one another that none but such an one as Sanders could have had either blindness or brow enough to have made or publisht it For first if the King that he might the more freely enjoy Sir Thomas Boleyn's Lady sent him over into France as Sanders says I shall allow it as soon as may be that it was in the very beginning of his Reign 1509. Then the time when Anne Boleyn was born being according to Sanders his account two years after that must be Anno 1511. and being as he says deflowred when she was 15. that must be Anno 1526. Then some time must be allowed for her going to France for her living privately there for some time and afterwards for her coming to Court and meriting those Characters that he says went upon her and after all that for her return into England and insinuating her self into the Kings favour yet by Sanders his own Relation these things must have happened in the same year 1526. for in that year he makes the King think of putting away his Wife in order to Marry Anne Boleyn when according to his account she could be but 15. years old though this King had sent Sir Thomas Boleyn into France the first day of his coming to the Crown But that he â—as not sent so early appears by several Grants that I have seen in the Rolls which were made to him in the first 4 years of the Kings Reign They sufficiently shew that he was all that while about the Kings person and mention no services beyond Sea but about the Kings person as the ground upon which they were made Besides I find in the Treaty-Rolls no mention of his being Ambassador the first 8 years of the Kings Reign In the first year the Bishops of Winchester and Duresme and the Earl of Surrey are named in the Treaty between the two Crowns as the Kings Ambassadors in France After this none could be Ambassadors there for two
he sent first to him concerning it to which More refers himself in all his following Letters though it is more like a Copy of that would have been preserved than of those other Letters that refer to it But perhaps it was kept up on design for in Queen Maries time they had a mind to magnifie that story of the Nuns since she was thought to have suffered on her Mothers account and among the other things she talked one was that the Lady Mary should one day Reign in England for which Sanders has since thought fit to make a Prophetess of her And it is certain More had a low opinion of her which appears in many places of his printed Letters but that would have been much plainer if that full account he wrote of that Affair had been published and therefore that one of their Martyrs might not lessen the esteem of another it was fit to suppress it Whether my conjectures in this be well grounded or not is left to the Readers judgment In conclusion More 's justifications seconded with the good Offices that the Lord Chancellour Audley and Cromwell did him who as appears by his Leters stood his Friends in that matter did so work on the King that his name was put out of the Bill and so the Act was agreed on by both Houses and the Royal assent followed The matter was this Elizabeth Barton of Kent in the Parish of Aldington being sick and distempered in her brain fell in some Trances it seems by the Symptoms they were Hysterical fits and spoke many words that made great impressions on some about her who thought her Inspired of God and Richard Master Parson of the Parish hoping to draw great advantages from this went to Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and gave him a large account of her Speeches who ordered him to attend her carefully and bring him a further report of any new Trances she might afterwards fall in But she had forgot all she had said in her fits yet the crafty Priest would not let it go so but perswaded her that what she had said was by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost and that she ought to own that it was so Upon which he taught her to counterfeit such traunces and to utter such speeches as she had done before so that after a whiles Practice she became very ready at it The thing was much noised abroad and many came to see her but the Priest had a mind to raise the reputation of an Image of the Blessed Virgin that was in a Chappel within his Parish that so Pilgrimages being made to it he might draw these advantages from it that others made from their famed Images but chose for his Associate one Doctor Bocking a Canon of Christ-Church in Canterbury Upon which they instructed her to say in her Counterfeited traunces that the Blessed Virgin had appeared to her and told her she could never recover till she went and visited her Image in that Chappel They had also taught her in her fits to make strange motions with her body by which she was much diffigured and to speak many Godly words against Sin and the new Doctrines which were called Heresies as also against the Kings suit of Divorce It was also noised abroad on what day she intended to go and visit the Image of the Virgin so that about 2000 people were gathered together and she being brought to the Chappel fell into her fits and made many strange Grimaces and alterations of her body and spake many words of great piety saying that by the Inspiration of God she was called to be a Religious Woman and that Bocking was to be her Ghostly Father And within a little while she seemed by the intercession of our Lady to be perfectly recovered of her former distempers and she afterwards professed a Religious Life There were also violent suspitions of her incontinency and that Bocking was a Carnal as well as a Spiritual Father She fell in many raptures and pretended she saw strange Visions heard Heavenly Melody and had the Revelation of many things that were to come so that great credit was given to what she said and people generally looked on her as a Prophetess and among those the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was led away with the rest A Book was writ of her Revelations and Prophecies by one Deering another Monk who was taken in to the Conspiracy with many others It was also given out that Mary Magdalen gave her a Letter that was writ in Heaven which was shewed to many being all writ in Golden Letters She pretended when the King was last at Calais that he being at Mass an Angel brought away the Sacrament and gave it to her being then invisibly present and that she was presently brought over the Sea to her Monastery again But the design of all these traunces was to alienate the people from their duty to the King for the Maid gave it out that God revealed to her that if the King went on in the Divorce and Marryed another Wife he should not be King a Month longer and in the reputation of Almighty God not one howr longer but should die a villains Death This she said was revealed to her in answer to the prayers she had put up to God to know whether he approved of the Kings proceedings or not Which coming to the knowledg of the Bishop of Rochester and some others who adhered to the Queens interests they had frequent meetings with the Maid and concealed what she spake concerning the King and some of them gave such credit to what she said that they practised on many others to draw them from their allegeance and prevailed with several of the Fathers and Nuns of Sion of the Charter-House in London and Shene and of the Observants of Richmont Greenwich and Canterbury with a great many other persons This appeared most signally at Greenwich where the King lived most in Summer for one Peto being to preach in the Kings Chappel denounced heavy judgments upon him to his face and told him that many lying prophets had deceived him but he as a true Michajaâ— warned him that the dogs should lick his blood as they had done Ahabs for that prophecy about Ahab was his Text with many other bitter words and Concluded that it was the greatest misery of Princes to be daily so abused by flatterers as they were The King bore it patiently and expressed no signs of any commotion but to undeceive the people he took care that Doctor Corren or Carwin should preach next Sunday who justified the Kings proceedings and condemned Peto as a Rebel a Slanderer a Dog and a Traytor Peto was gone to Canterbury but another observant Frier of the same House Elston interrupted him and said he was one of the lying Prophets that sought by Adultery to establish the Succession to the Crown and that he would justifie all that Peto had said and speak many other things with great
could be saved The Book that had the greatest Authority and influence was Tindals Translation of the new Testament of which the Bishops made great complaints and said it was full of errors But Tonstall then Bishop of London being a man of invincible moderation would do no body hurt yet endeavoured as he could to get their Books into his hands So being at Antwerp in the year 1529. as he returned from his Embassie at the Treaty of Cambray he sent for one Packington an English Merchant there and desired him to see how many New Testaments of Tindals Translation he might have for Money Packington who was a secret favourer of Tindal told him what the Bishop proposed Tindal was very glad of it for being convinced of some faults in his work he was designing a new and more correct Edition but he was poor and the former Impression not being sold off he could not go about it so he gave Packington all the Copies that lay in his hands for which the Bishop payed the price and brought them over and burnt them publickly in Cheapside This had such an hateful appearance in it being generally called a burning of the Word of God that people from thence concluded there must be a visible contrariety between that book and the Doctrines of those who so handled it by which both their prejudice against the Clergy and their desire of reading the New Testament was encreased So that next year when the Second Edition was finished many more were brought over and Constantine being taken in England the Lord Chancellor in a private examination promised him that no hurt should be done him if he would reveal who encouraged and supported them at Antwerp which he accepted of and told that the greatest encouragement they had was from the Bishop of London who had bought up half the Impression This made all that heard of it laugh heartily though more judicious persons discerned the great temper of that Learned Bishop in it When the Clergy condemned Tindals Translation of the New Testament they declared they intended to set out a true Translation of it which many thought was never truly designed by them but only pretended that they might restrain the Curiosity of seeing Tindals work with the hopes of one that should be Authorized and as they made no progress in it so at length on the 24th of May Anno 1530. there was a paper drawn and agreed to by Arch-Bishop Warham Chancellor More Bishop Tonstall and many Canonists and Divines which every Incumbent was commanded to read to his Parish as a warning to prevent the Contagion of Heresie The Contents of which were that the King having called together many of the Prelates with other Learned men out of both Universities to examine some Books lately set out in the English tongue they had agreed to condemn them as containing several points of Heresie in them and it being proposed to them whether it was necessary to set forth the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue they were of opinion that though it had been sometimes done yet it was not necessary and that the King did well not to set it out at that time in the English tongue So by this all the hopes of a Translation of the Scriptures vanished There came out another Book which took mightily it was entituled The Supplication of the Beggars written by one Simon Fish of Grayes-Inn In it the Beggars complained to the King that they were reduced to great misery the Alms of the people being intercepted by companies of strong and idle Friars for supposing that each of the Five Mendicant Orders had but a Peny a quarter from every houshold it did rise to a vast Sum of which the Indigent and truly Necessitous Beggars were defrauded Their being unprofitable to the Common-wealth with several other things were also complained of He also taxed the Pope for Cruelty and Covetousness that did not deliver all persons out of Purgatory and that none but the Rich who payed well for it could be discharged out of that Prison This was written in a witty and taking Style and the King had it put in his hands by Anne Boleyn and lik'd it well and would not suffer any thing to be done to the Author Chancellor More was the most zealous Champion the Clergy had for I do not find that any of them wrote much only the Bishop of Rochester wrote for Purgatory but the rest left it wholly to him either because few of them could write well or that he being much esteemed and a disinteressed person things would be better received from him than from them who were look'd on as Parties So he answered this Supplication by another in the name of the souls that were in Purgatory representing the miseries they were in and the great relief they found by the Masses the Friers said for them and brought in every mans Ancestours calling earnestly upon him to befriend those poor Friars now when they had so many Enemies He confidently asserted it had been the Doctrine of the Church for many Ages and brought many places out of the Scriptures to prove it besides several reasons that seemed to confirm it This being writ of a Subject that would allow of a great deal of popular and moving Eloquence in which he was very eminent took with many But it discovered to others what was the Foundation of those Religious Orders and that if the belief of Purgatory were once rooted out all that was built on that Foundation must needs fall with it So Iohn Frith wrote an answer to More 's Supplication to shew that there was no ground for Purgatory in Scripture and that it was not believed in the Primitive Church He also answered the Bishop of Rochester's Book and some Dialogues that were written on the same Subject by Rastal a Printer and Kinsman of Mores He discovered the fallacy of their reasonings which were built on the weakness or defects of our Repentance in this Life and that therefore there must be another state in which we must be further purified To this he answered That our sins were not pardoned for our Repentance or the Perfection of it but only for the Merits and Sufferings of Christ and that if our Repentance is sincere God accepts of it and sin being once pardoned it could not be further punished He shewed the difference between the punishments we may suffer in this Life and those in Purgatory the one are either Medicinal Corrections for Reforming us more and more or for giving Warning to others The other are terrible Punishments without any of these ends in them therefore the one might well consist with the free pardon of sin the other could not So he argued from all these places of Scripture in which we are said to be freely pardoned our sins by the Blood of Christ that no punishment in another state could consist with it He also argued from all those places in which it
And the corruptions of their Worship and Doctrine were such that a very small proportion of common sense with but an overly looking on the New Testament discovered them Nor had they any other varnish to colour them by but the Authority and Traditions of the Church But when some studious men began to read the Ancient Fathers and Councils though there was then a great mixture of Sophisticated stuff that went under the Ancient names and was joyned to their true works which Criticks have since discovered to be spurious they found a vast difference between the first Five Ages of the Christian Church in which Piety and Learning prevailed and the last Ten Ages in which Ignorance had buried all their former Learning only a little misguided Devotion was retained for Six of these Ages and in the last Four the restless Ambition and Usurpation of the Popes was supported by the seeming holiness of the begging Friers and the false Counterfeits of Learning which were among the Canonists School-men and Casuists So that it was incredible to see how men notwithstanding all the opposition the Princes every-where made to the progress of these reputed new Opinions and the great advantages by which the Church of Rome both held and drew many into their Interests were generally inclined to these Doctrines Those of the Clergy who at first Preached them were of the begging Orders of Friers who having fewer engagements on them from their Interests were freer to discover and follow the truth And the austere Discipline they had been trained under did prepare them to encounter those difficulties that lay in their way And the Laity that had long lookt on their Pastors with an evil eye did receive these Opinions very easily which did both discover the Impostures with which the world had been abused and shewed a plain and simple way to the Kingdom of Heaven by putting the Scriptures into their hands and such other Instructions about Religion as were sincere and genuine The Clergy who at first despised these new Preachers were at length much Allarmed when they saw all people running after them and râ—ceiving their Doctrines As these things did spread much in Germany Switzerland and the Netherlands so their Books came over into England where there was much matter already prepared to be wrought on not only by the prejudices they had conceived against the corrupt Clergy but by the Opinions of the Lollards which had been now in England since the days of Wickliff for about 150 years Between which Opinions and the Doctrines of the Reformers there was great Affinity and therefore to give the better vent to the Books that came out of Germany many of them were translated into the English-Tongue and were very much read and applauded This quickned the proceedings against the Lollards and the enquiry became so severe that great numbers were brought into the Toils of the Bishops and their Commissaries If a man had spoken but a light word against any of the Constitutions of the Church he was seized on by the Bishop's Officers and if any taught their Children the Lord's Prayer the Ten Commandments and the Apostle's Creed in the Vulgar Tongue that was crime enough to bring them to the Stake As it did Six men and a woman at Coventry in the Passion-week 1519. being the 4 th of April Longland Bishop of Lincoln was very cruel to all that were suspected of Heresie in his Diocess several of them abjured and some were Burnt But all that did not produce what they designed by it The Clergy did not correct their own faults and their cruelty was looked on as an evidence of Guilt and of a weak Cause so that the method they took wrought only on peoples fears and made them more cautious and reserved but did not at all remove the Cause nor work either on their reasons or affections Upon all this the King to get himself a name and to have a lasting Interest with the Clergy thought it not enough to assist them with his Authority but would needs turn their Champion and write against Luther in defence of the Seven Sacraments This Book was magnified by the Clergy as the most Learned Work that ever the Sun saw and he was compared to King Solomon and to all the Christian Emperours that had ever been And it was the chief subject of flattery for many years besides the glorious Title of Defender of the Faith which the Pope bestowed on him for it And it must be acknowledged that considering the Age and that it was the Work of a King it did deserve some Commendation But Luther was not at all daunted at it but rather valued himself upon it that so great a King had entred the lists with him and answered his Book And he replied not without a large mixture of Acrimony for which he was generally blamed as forgetting that great respect that is due to the Persons of Soveraign Princes But all would not do These Opinions still gained more footing and William Tindal made a Translation of the New Testament in English to which he added some short Glosses This was printed in Antwerp and sent over into England in the year 1526. Against which there was a Prohibition published by every Bishop in his Diocess Bearing that some of Luthers followers had erroneously Translated the New Testament and had corrupted the Word of God both by a false Translation and by Heretical Glosses Therefore they required all Incumbents to charge all within their Parishes that had any of these to bring them in to the Vicar-General within 30 days after that premonition under the pains of Excommunication and incurring the suspition of Heresie There were also many other Books Prohibited at that time most of them written by Tindal And Sir Thomas More who was a man celebrated for Vertue and Learning undertook the answering of some of those but before he went about it he would needs have the Bishops Licence for keeping and reading them He wrote according to the way of the Age with much bitterness and though he had been no Friend to the Monks and a great declaimer against the Ignorance of the Clergy and had been ill used by the Cardinal yet he was one of the bitterest Enemies of the new Preachers not without great cruelty when he came into Power though he was otherwise a very good-natured man So violently did the Roman Clergy hurry all their Friends into those excesses of Fire and Sword When the Party became so considerable that it was known there were Societies of them not only in London but in both the Universities then the Cardinal was constrained to act His contempt of the Clergy was looked on as that which gave encouragement to the Hereticks When reports were brought to Court of a company that were in Cambridge Bilney Latimer and others that read and propagated Luther's Book and Opinions some Bishops moved in the year 1523. that there might be a Visitation appointed
to go to Cambridge for trying who were the Fautors of Heresie there But he as Legate did inhibite it upon what grounds I cannot imagine Which was brought against him afterwards in Parliament Art 43. of his Impeachment Yet when these Doctrines were spread every-where he called a meeting of all the Bishops and Divines and Canonists about London where Thomas Bilney and Thomas Arthur were brought before them and Articles were brought in against them The whole process is set down at length by Fox in all Points according to Tonstall's Register except one fault in the Translation When the Cardinal asked Bilney whether he had not taken an Oath before not to preach or defend any of Luthers Doctrines he confessed he had done it but not judicially judicialiter in the Register This Fox Translates not lawfully In all the other particulars there is an exact agreement between the Register and his Acts. The sum of the proceedings of the Court was That after examination of Witnesses and several other steps in the Process which the Cardinal left to the Bishop of London and the other Bishops to manage Bilney stood out long and seemed resolved to suffer for a good Conscience In the end what through human infirmity what through the great importunity of the Bishop of London who set all his Friends on him he did abjure on the 7 th of December as Arthur had done on the 2 d. of that Month. And though Bilney was relapst and so was to expect no mercy by the Law yet the Bishop of London enjoyned him Penance and let him go For Tonstall being a man both of good Learning and an unblemisht life these Vertues produced one of their ordinary effects in him great moderation that was so eminent in him that at no time did he dip his hands in Blood Geoffrey Loni and Thomas Gerard also abjured for having had Luther's Books and defending his Opinions These were the proceedings against Hereticks in the first half of this Reign And thus far I have opened the State of Affairs both as to Religious and Civil concerns for the first 18 years of this Kings time with what Observations I could gather of the dispositions and tempers of the Nation at that time which prepared them for the Changes that followed afterwards The End of the First Book THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION OF THE Church of England BOOK II. Of the Process of Divorce between King Henry and Queen Katharine and of what passed from the Nineteenth to the Twenty fifth year of his Reign in which he was declared Supreme Head of the Church of England KING Henry hitherto lived at ease and enjoyed his pleasures he made War with much honour and that always produced a just and advantageous Peace He had no trouble upon him in all his affairs except about the getting of Money and even in that the Cardinal eased him But now a Domestick trouble arose which perplexed all the rest of his Government and drew after it Consequences of a high nature Henry the 7 th upon wise and good considerations resolved to link himself in a close Confederacy with Ferdinand and Isabella Kings of Castile and Arragon and with the House of Burgundy against France which was looked on as the lasting and dangerous Enemy of England And therefore a Match was agreed on between his Son Prince Arthur and Katharine the Infanta of Spain whose eldest Sister Ioan was Married to Philip that was then Duke of Burgundy and Earl of Flanders out of which arose a triple Alliance between England Spain and Burgundy against the King of France who was then become formidable to all about him There was given with her 200000 Duckats the greatest Portion that had been given for many Ages with any Princess which made it not the less acceptable to King Henry the Seventh EFFIGIES CATHARINAE PRINCIPIS ARTHURI VXORIS HENRICO REGI NUPTAE H. Holbeâ—n Pinxit R. White Sculp 1486. Nata 1501. Nov. 14. Arthuro nupsit 1509. Iun. 3. Henrico Regi nupsit 1526. toro exclusa 1533. May. 23 incesti damnata 1536. Ian. 8. obijt Printed for Rich Chiswell at the Rose Crown in St Pauls Church yard The Infanta was brought into England and on the 14th of Nov. was Married at St. Pauls to the Prince of Wales They lived together as man and wife till the 2d of April following and not only had their Bed solemnly blest when they were put in it on the night of their Marriage but also were seen publickly in Bed for several days after and went down to live at Ludlow-Castle in Wales where they still Bedded together But Prince Arthur though a strong and healthful youth when he Married her yet died soon after which some thought was hastened by his too early Marriage The Spanish Ambassador had by his Masters order taken proofs of the Consummation of the Marriage and sent them into Spain the young Prince also himself had by many expressions given his Servants cause to believe that his Marriage was consummated the first night which in a youth of Sixteen years of Age that was vigorous and healthful was not at all judged strange It was so constantly believed that when he dyed his younger Brother Henry Duke of York was not called Prince of Wales for some considerable time Some say for one Month some for 6 Months And he was not created Prince of Wales till 10 Months were elapsed viz. in the February following when it was apparent that his Brothers wife was not with Child by him These things were afterwards looked on as a full Demonstration being as much as the thing was capable of that the Princess was not a Virgin after Prince Arthur's Death But the reason of State still standing for keeping up the Alliance against France and King Henry the 7th having no mind to let so great a Revenue as she had in Jointure be carried out of the Kingdom it was proposed That she should be married to the younger Brother Henry now Prince of Wales The two Prelats that were then in greatest esteem with King Henry the 7th were Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Fox Bishop of Winchester The former delivered his opinion against it and told the King that he thought it was neither honourable nor well-pleasing to God The Bishop of Winchester perswaded it and for the Objections that were against it and the Murmuring of the people who did not like a Marriage that was disputable lest out of it new Wars should afterwards arise about the Right of the Crown the Popes Dispensation was thought sufficient to answer all and his Authority was then so undisputed that it did it effectually So a Bull was obtained on the 26 of Decemb. 1503 to this effect that the Pope according to the greatness of his Authority having received a Petition from Prince Henry and the Princess Katharine Bearing That whereas the Princess was Lawfully Married to Prince Arthur which was
to which it related which was also shewed him having considered of them he said he would neither blame these that made the Act nor those that Swore the Oath but for his part though he was willing to Swear to the Succession if he might be suffered to draw an Oath concerning it yet for the Oath that was offered him his Conscience so moved him that he could not without hazarding his Soul take it Upon this the Lord Chancellour told him that he was the first who had refused to Swear it and that the King would be highly offended with him for denying it and so he was desired to withdraw and consider better of it Several others were called upon and did all take the Oath except the Bishop of Rochester who answered upon the matter as More had done When the Lords had dispatched all the rest More was again brought before them they shewed him how many had taken it he answered he judged no man for doing it only he could not do it himself Then they asked the reasons why he refused it He answered he feared it might provoke the King more against him if he should offer reasons which would be called a disputing against Law but when he was further pressed to give his reasons he said if the King would command him to do it he would put them in Writing The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury urged him with this Argument that since he said he blamed no other person for taking it it seemed he was not perswaded it was a Sin but was doubtful in the matter but he did certainly know he ought to obey the King and the Law so there was a certainty on the one hand and only a doubt on the other therefore he was obliged to do that about which he was certain notwithstanding these his doubtings This did shake him a little especially as himself writes coming out of so Noble a Prelates mouth but he answered that though he had examined the matter very carefully yet his Conscience leaned positively to the other side and he offered to purge himself by his Oath that it was purely out of a Principle of Conscience and out of no light Fantasie or Obstinacy that he thus refused it The Abbot of Westminster pressed him that however the matter appeared to him he might see his Conscience was Erroneous since the great Council of the Realm was of another mind and therefore he ought to change his Conscience A Reasoning very fit for so rich an Abbot which discovers of what temper his Conscience was But to this More answered that if he were alone against the whole Parliament he had reason to suspect his own understanding but he thought he had the whole Council of Christendome on his side as well as the great Council of England was against him Secretary Cromwell who as More writes tenderly favoured him seeing his ruin was now inevitable was much affected at it and protested with an Oath he had rather his own only Son had lost his head than that he should have refused the Oath Thus both he and the Bishop of Rochester refused it but both offered to Swear another Oath for the Succession of the Crown to the issue of the Kings present Marriage because that was in the Power of the Parliament to determine it Cranmer who was a moderate and wise man and foresaw well the ill effects that would follow on contending so much with persons so highly esteemed over the World and of such a temper that severity would bend them to nothing did by an earnest Letter to Cromwell dated the 27th of April move that what they offered might be accepted for if they once Swore to the Succession it would quiet the Kingdom for they acknowledging it all other persons would acquiesce and submit to their Judgments But this sage advice was not accepted The King was much irritated against them and resolved to proceed with them according to Law and therefore they were both indicted upon the Statute and Committed Prisoners to the Tower And it being apprehended that if they had Books and Paper given them they would write against the Kings Marriage or his Supremacy these were denyed them The Old Bishop was hardly used his Bishoprick was seized on and all his goods taken from him only some old rags were left to cover him and he was neither supplyed well in diet nor other necessaries of which he made sad complaints to Cromwell But the remander of this Tragical business which left one of the greatest blots on this Kings proceedings falling within the limits of the next Book I haste on to the Conclusion of this The Separation from Rome was made in the former Session of Parliament but the Kings Supremacy was not yet fully setled This was reserved for the next Session that sate in November from the 3d of that month to the 18th of December about which we can have no light from the Journals they being lost The first Act Confirmed what had been already acknowledged by the Clergy that the King was the Supream Head in Earth of the Church of England which was to be annexed to his other Titles it was also enacted that the King and his heirs and Successors should have Power to visit and reform all Heresies Errors and other Abuses which in the Spiritual jurisdiction ought to be reform'd By the Second Act they Confirmed the Oath about the Succession concerning which some doubts had been made because there was no Oath specified in the former Act though both Houses had taken it it was now Enacted that all the Subjects were obliged to take it when offered to them under the pains contained in the Act pass'd in the former Session By the Third Act the first Fruits and Tenths of all Ecclesiastical Benefices were given to the King as the Supream Head of the Church The Clergy were easily prevailed on to consent to the putting down of the Annates pay'd to the Court of Rome for all men readily concur to take off any Imposition but at that time it had perhaps abated much of their heartiness if they had imagined that these duties should have been still payed therefore that was kept up till they had done all that was to be done against Rome And now as the Commons and the Secular Lords would no doubt easily agree to lay a taxe on the Clergy so the others having no forreign support were not in a condition to wrestle against it In the Thirteenth Act among other things that were made Treason one was the denying the King the Dignity Title or name of his Estate Royal or the calling the King Heretick Schismatick Tyrant Infidel or Usurper of the Crown This was done to restrain the Insolencies of some Friars and all such offenders were to be denyed the Priviledge of Sanctuaries By the Fourteenth Act provision was made for Suffragan Bishops which as is said had been accustomed to be had within this Realm for the
more speedy administration of the Sacraments and other good wholesom and devout things and laudable ceremonies to the encrease of Gods honour and for the commodity of good and devout people therefore they appointed for Suffragans Sees the Towns of Thetford Ipswich Colechester Dover Gilford Southampton Taunton Shaftbury Malton Marleborough Bedford Leicester Glocester Shrewsbury Bristol Penreth Bridgewater Nottingham Grantham Hâ—ll Huntington Cambridge and the Towns of Pereth and Berwick St. Germans in Cornwall and the Isle of Wight For these Sees the Bishop of the Diocess was to present two to the King who might choose either of them and present the person so named to the Arch-Bishop of the Province to be Consecrated after which they might exercise such jurisdiction as the Bishop of the Diocess should give to them or as Suffragans had been formerly used to do but their Authority was to last no longer than the Bishop continued his Commission to them But that the Reader may more clearly see how this Act was executed he shall find in the Collection a Writ for making a Suffragan Bishop These were believed to be the same with the Chorâ—piscopi in the Primitive Church which as they were begun before the first Council of Nice so they continued in the Western Church till the Ninth Century and then a Decretal of Damasus being forged that condemned them they were put down every-where by degrees and now revived in England Then followed the grant of a Subsidy to the King It was now Twelve years since there was any Subsidy granted A Fiveteenth and a Tenth were given to be payed in Three years the final payment being to be at Allhallontide in the year 1537. The Bill began with a most Glorious Preamble of the Kings high Wisdom and Policy in the Government of the Kingdom these Twenty Four years in great wealth and quietness and the great charges he had been at in the last War with Scotland in fortifying Callais and in the War of Ireland and that he intended to bring the wilful wild and unreasonable and savage people of Ireland to Order and Obedience and intended to build Forts on the Marches of Scotland for the security of the Nation to amend the Haven of Calais and make a new one at Dover By all which they did perceive the entire love and zeal which the King bore to his People and that he sought not their wealth and quietness only for his own time being a Mortal man but did provide for it in all time coming therefore they thought that of very equity reason and good Conscience they were bound to show like correspondence of zeal gratitude and kindness Upon this the King sent a general pardon with some exceptions ordinary in such cases But Fisher and More were not only excluded from this pardon by general Clauses but by two particular Acts they were attainted of misprision of Treason By the Third Act according to the Record Iohn Bishop of Rochester Christopher Plummer Nicholas Wilson Edward Powel Richard Fetherston and Miles Willyr Clerks were attainted for refusing the Oath of Succession and the Bishoprick of Rochester with the Benefices of the other Clerks were declared void from the 2d of Ianuary next yet it seems few were fond of succeeding him in that See for Iohn Hilsey the next Bishop of Rochester was not Consecraed before the year 1537. By the Fourth Act Sr. Thomas More is by an Invidious Preamble charged with ingratitude for the great favours he had received from the King and for studying to sow and make sedition among the Kings Subjects and refusing to take the Oath of Succession therefore they declared the Kings Grants to him to be void and attaint him of misprision of Treason This severity though it was blamed by many yet others thought it was necessary in so great a Change since the Authority of these two men was such that if some signal notice had not been taken of them many might by their endeavors especially encouraged by that Impunity have been corrupted in their affections to the King Others thought the prosecuting them in such a manner did rather raise their reputation higher and give them more credit with the people who are naturally enclined to pity those that suffer and to think well of those opinions for which they see men resolved to endure all extremities But others observed the justice of God in retaliating thus upon them their own severities to others for as Fisher did grievously prosecute the preachers of Luthers Doctrine so Mores hand had been very heavy on them as long as he had Power and he had shewed them no mercy but the extremity of the Law which himself now felt to be very heavy Thus ended this Session of Parliament with which this Book is also to conclude for now I come to a Third period of the Kings Reign in which he did Govern his Subjects without any Competitor but I am to stop a little and give an account of the Progress of the Reformation in these years that I have past through The Cardinal was no great persecutor of Hereticks which was generally thought to flow from his hatred of the Clergy and that he was not ill pleased to have them depressed During the agitation of the Kings process there was no prosecution of the Preachers of Luthers Doctrine whether this flowed from any Intimation of the Kings pleasure to the Bishops or not I cannot tell but it is very probable it must have been so for these opinions were received by many and the Popish Clergy were so inclined to severity that as they wanted not Occasions so they had a good mind to use those Preachers cruelly so that it is likely the King restrained them and that was always mixed with the other threatnings to work upon the Pope that Heresie would prevail in England if the King got not justice done him so that till the Cardinal fell they were put to no further trouble But as soon as More came into favour he pressed the King much to put the Laws against Hereticks in execution and suggested that the Court of Rome would be more wrought upon by the Kings supporting the Church and defending the Faith vigorously than by threatnings and therefore a long Proclamation was issued out against the Hereticks many of their Books were prohibited and all the Laws against them were appointed to be put in execution and great care was taken to seize them as they came into England but many escaped their diligence There were some at Antwerp Tindal Ioye Constantine with a few more that were every year writing and printing new Books chiefly against the corruptions of the Clergy the Superstition of pilgrimages of worshiping Images Saints and Relicks and against relying on these things which were then called in the common style Good works in opposition to which they wrote much about Faith in Christ with a true Evangelical obedience as the only mean by which men
conferr'd Grace That Consecrations and Benedictions used by the Church were good That it was good and profitable to set up the Images of Christ and the Saints in the Churches and to adorn them and burn Candles before them and that Kings were not obliged to give their people the Scriptures in a vulgar tongue By these Articles it may be easily Collected what were the Doctrines then preach'd by the Reformers There was yet no dispute about the presence of Christ in the Sacrament which was first called in question by Frith for the Books of Zuinglius and Oecolampadius came later into England and hitherto they had only seen Luthers works with those written by his followers But in the year 1532. there was another memorable instance of the Clergies cruelty against the dead bodies of those whom they suspected of Heresie The Common style of all Wills and Testaments at that time was First I bequeath my Soul to Almighty God and to our Lady St. Mary and to all the Saints in Heaven but one William Tracie of Worcestershire dying left a Will of a far different strain for he bequeathed his Soul only to God through Jesus Christ to whose intercession alone he trusted without the help of any other Saint therefore he left no part of his goods to have any pray for his Soul This being brought to the Bishop of Londons Court he was condemned as an Heretick and an order was sent to Parker Chancellor of Worcester to raise his Body The Officious Chancellor went beyond his order and burn't the Body but the Record bears that though he might by the Warrant he had raise the body according to the Law of the Church yet he had no Authority to burn it So two years after Tracies heirs sued him for it and he was turn'd out of his Office of Chancellor and fined in 400 Pound There is another Instance of the Cruelty of the Clergy this year One Thomas Harding of Buckinghamshire an Ancient man who had abjured in the year 1506. was now observed to go often into woods and was seen sometimes reading Upon which his house was search'd and some parcels of the New Testament in English were found in it So he was carryed before Longland Bishop of Lincoln who as he was a cruel Persecutor so being the Kings Confessor acted with the more Authority This Aged man was judged a Relapse and sent to Chesham where he lived to be burn't which was Executed on Corpus Christi Eve At this time there was an Indulgence of 40 dayes pardon proclaimed to all that carryed a Faggot to the burning of an Heretick So dextrously did the Clergy endeavor to infect the Laity with their own cruel Spirit and that wrought upon this occasion a signal effect for as the fire was kindled one flung a Faggot at the old mans head which dash't out his brains In the year 1533. it was thought fit by some signal evidence to convince the World that the King did not design to change the establish'd Religion though he had then proceeded far in his breach with Rome and the crafty Bishop of Winchester Gardiner as he complyed with the King in his second Marriage and separation from Rome so being an inveterate Enemy to the Reformation and in his heart addicted to the Court of Rome did by this argument often prevail with the King to punish the Hereticks That it would most effectually justifie his other proceedings and convince the World that he was still a good Catholick King which at several times drew the King to what he desired And at this time the steps the King had made in his Separation from the Pope had given such heart to the new Preachers that they grew bolder and more publick in their Assemblies Iohn Frith as he was an excellent Schollar which was so taken notice of some years before that he was put in the list of those whom the Cardinal intended to bring from Cambridge and put in his Colledge at Oxford so he had offended them by several writings and by a discourse which he wrote against the Corporal presence of Christ in the Sacrament had provoked the King who continued to his death to believe that firmly The substance of his Arguments was that Christ in the Sacrament gave eternal life but the receiving the bare Sacrament did not give eternal life since many took it to their damnation therefore Christs presence there was only felt by Faith This he further proved by the Fathers before Christ who did eat the same spiritual food and drink of the Rock which was Christ according to St. Paul since then they and we communicate in the same thing and it was certain that they did not eat Christs Flesh Corporally but fed by Faith on a Messias to come as Christians do on a Messias already come therefore we now do only communicate by Faith He also insisted much on the signification of the word Sacrament from whence he concluded that the Elements must be the Mystical Signs of Christs Body and Blood for if they were truly the Flesh and Blood of Christ they should not be Sacraments he concluded that the ends of the Sacrament were these three by a visible action to knit the Society of Christians together in one body to be a means of conveighing Grace upon our due participating of them and to be Remembrances to stir up men to bless â—od for that unspeakable love which in the death of Christ appeared to mankind To all these ends the Corporal presence of Christ availed nothing they being sufficiently answered by a Mystical presence yet he drew no other Conclusion from these Premisses but that the belief of the Corporal presence in the Sacrament was no necessary Article of our Faith This either flowed from his not having yet arrived at a sure perswasion in the matter or that he chose in that modest style to encounter an opinion of which the World was so fond that to have opposed it in down-right words would have given prejudices against all that he could say Frith upon a long conversation with one upon this Subject was desired to set down the heads of it in writing which he did The Paper went about and was by a false Brother conveyed to Sr. Thomas More 's hands who set himself to answer it in his ordinary style treating Frith with great contempt calling him alwayes the young man Frith was in Prison before he saw Mores Book yet he wrote a reply to it which I do not find was then published but a Copy of it was brought afterwards to Cranmer who acknowledged when he wrote his Apology against Gardiner that he had received great light in that matter from Friths Books and drew most of his Arguments out of it It was afterwards Printed with his works Anno 1573. and by it may appear how much Truth is Stronger than Error For though More wrote with as much Wit and Eloquence as any man
in that Age did and Frith wrote plainly without any Art yet there is so great a difference between their Books that whoever compares them will clearly perceive the one to be the Ingenious defender of an ill cause and the other a simple asserter of Truth Frith wrote with all the disadvantage that was possible being then in the Jayl where he could have no Books but some Notes he might have collected formerly he was also so loaded with Irons that he could scarce sit with any ease He began with confirming what he had delivered about the Fathers before Christ their feeding on his Body in the same manner that Christians do since his death This he proved from Scripture and several places of St. Austins works he proved also from Scripture that after the Consecration the Elements were still Bread and Wine and were so called both by our Saviour and his Apostles that our Senses shew they are not changed in their Natures and that they are still subject to Corruption which can no way be said of the body of Christ. He proved that the eating of Christs Flesh in the 6th of St. Iohn cannot be applyed to the Sacrament since the wicked receive it who yet do not eat the Flesh of Christ otherwise they should have eternal life He shewed also that the Sacrament coming in the room of the Jewish Paschal Lamb we must understand Christs words This is my Body in the same sense in which it was said that the Lamb was the Lords Passover He confirmed this by many passages cited out of Tertullian Athanasius Chrysostome Ambrose Ierome Austin Fulgentius Eusebius and some later Writers as Beda Bertram and Druthmar who did all assert that the Elements retained their former Natures and were only the Mysteries Signs and Figures of the Body and Blood of Christ. But Gelasius's words seemed so remarkable that they could not but determine the Controversie especially considering he was Bishop of Rome he therefore writing against the Eutichians who thought the humane nature of Christ was changed into the Divine says that as the Elements of Bread and Wine being Consecrated to be the Sacraments of the Body and Blood of Christ did not cease to be Bread and Wine in Substance but continued in their own proper natures so the humane nature of Christ continued still though it was united to the Divine nature this was a manifest Indication of the belief of the Church in that Age and ought to weigh more than a hundred high Rhetorical Expressions He brought likewise several testimonies out of the Fathers to shew that they knew nothing of the Consequences that follow Transubstantiation of a Body being in more places at once or being in a place after the manner of a Spirit or of the worship to be given to the Sacrament Upon this he digresses and says that the German Divines believed a Corporal presence yet since that was only an Opinion that rested in their minds and did not carry along with it any Corruption of the worship or Idolatrous practise it was to be born with and the peace of the Church was not to be broken for it but the case of the Church of Rome was very different which had set up gross Idolatry building it upon this Doctrine Thus I have given a short Abstract of Friths Book which I thought fit the rather to do because it was the first Book that was written on this Subject in England by any of the Reformers And from hence it may appear upon what solid and weighty reasons they then began to shake the received Opinion of Transubstantiation and with how much learning this Controversie was managed by him who first undertook it One thing was singular in Friths Opinion that he thought there should be no contest made about the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament for what-ever Opinion men held in Speculation if it went not to a practical error which was the Adoration of it for that was Idolatry in his Opinion there were no disputes to be made about it therefore he was much against all heats between the Lutherans and Zuinglians for he thought in such a matter that was wholly speculative every man might hold his own Opinion without making a breach of the Unity of the Church about it He was apprehended in May 1533. and kept in Prison till the 20th of Iune and then he was brought before the Bishop of London Gardiner and Longland sitting with him They objected to him his Opinions about the Sacrament and Purgatory he answered that for the first he did not find Transubstantiation in the Scriptures nor in any approved Authors and therefore he would not admit any thing as an Article of Faith without clear and certain grounds for he did not think the Authority of the Church reached so far They argued with him upon some passages out of St. Austin and St. Chrysostome to which he answered by opposing other places of the same Fathers and shew'd how they were to be reconciled to themselves when it came to a Conclusion these words are set down in the Register as his Confession Frith thinketh and judgeth that the natural Body of Christ is not in the Sacrament of the Altar but in one place only at once Item he saith that neither part is a necessary Article of our Faith whether the natural Body be there in the Sacrament or not As for Purgatory he said a man consisted of two parts his Body and Soul his Body was purged by sickness and other pains and at last by death and was not by their own Doctrine sent to Purgatory And for the Soul it was purged through the word of God received by Faith So his Confession was written down in these words Item Frith thinketh and judgeth that there is no Purgatory for the Soul after that it is departed from the Body and as he thinketh herein so hath he said written and defended howbeit he thinketh neither part to be an Article of Faith necessarily to be believed under pain of Damnation The Bishops with the Doctors that stood about them took much pains to make him change but he told them that he could not be induced to believe that these were Articles of Faith And when they threatned to proceed to a Final Sentence he seemed not moved with it but said Let judgment be done in righteousness The Bishops though none of them were guilty of great tenderness yet seem'd to pity him much and the Bishop of London professed he gave Sentence with great grief of heart In the end he was judged an Obstinate Heretick and was delivered to the Secular Power there is one clause in this Sentence which is not in many others therefore I shall set it down Most earnestly requiring in the Bowels of our Lord Jesus Christ that this Execution and punishment worthily to be done upon thee may be so moderate that the rigor thereof be not too extreme nor yet the gentleness too much
which it will appear in the sequel of this work that he neither Copied form Forreign Writers nor proceeded rashly in the Reformation He was a man of great temper and as I have seen in some of his Letters to Osiander and some of Osiander's answers to him he very much disliked the violence of the German Divines He was gentle in his whole behaviour and though he was a man of too great candour and simplicity to be refined in the Arts of Policy yet he managed his Affairs with great prudence which did so much recommend him to the King that no ill Offices were ever able to hurt him It is true he had some singular opinions about Ecclesiastical Functions and Offices which he seemed to make wholly dependent on the Magistrate as much as the Civil were but as he never studied to get his opinion in that made a part of the Doctrine of the Church reserving only to himself the freedom of his own thoughts which I have reason to think he did afterwards either change or at least was content to be over-ruled in it So it is clear that he held not that opinion to get the Kings favour by it for in many other things as in the business of the six Articles he boldly and freely argued both in the Convocation and the House of Peers against that which he knew was the Kings mind and took his life in his hands which had certainly been offered at a stake if the Kings esteem of him had not been proof against all attempts Next him or rather above him was Cromwell who was made the Kings Vice-gerent in Ecclesiastical matters A man of mean Birth but Noble Qualities as appeared in two signal Instances the one being his Pleading in Parliament so zealously and successfully for the fallen and disgrac'd Cardinal whose Secretary he was when Gardiner though more obliged by him had basely forsaken him This was thought so just and generous in him that it did not at all hinder his Preferment but raised his Credit higher Such a Demonstration of gratitude and friendship in misfortune being so rare a thing in a Court The other was his remembring the Merchant of Lucca that had pitied and relieved him when he was a poor stranger there and expressing most extraordinary acknowledgements and gratitude when he was afterwards in the top of his Greatness and the other did not so much as know him much less pretend to any returns for passed favours which shew'd that he had a noble and generous temper only he made too much haste to be great and rich He joyned himself in a firm friendship to Cranmer and did promote the Reformation very vigorously But there was another Party in the Court that wrestled much against it the head of it was the Duke of Norfolk who though he was the Queens Uncle yet was her mortal enemy He was a dextrous Courtier and complied with the King both in his Divorce and Separation from Rome yet did upon all occasions perswade the King to innovate nothing in Religion His great friend that joyned all along with him in those Counsels was Gardiner Bishop of Winchester who was a crafty and politick man and understood the King well and complied with his temper in every thing he despised Cranmer and hated all Reformation Longland that had been the Kings Confessor was also managed by them and they had a great Party in the Court and almost all the Church-men were on their side That which prevailed most with the King was that himself had writ a Book in Defence of the Faith and they said would he now retract that which all Learned men admired so much or would he encourage Luther and his Party who had treated him with so little respect If he went to change the Doctrines that were formerly received all the world would say he did it in spite to the Pope which would cast a great dishonour on him as if his passion govern'd his Religion Forreign Princes who in their hearts did not much blame him for what he had hitherto done but rather wished for a good opportunity to do the like would now condemn him if he medled with the Faith And his own Subjects who complied with that which he had done and were glad to be delivered from Forreign Jurisdiction and the Exactions of the Court of Rome would not bear a change of the Religion but might be thereby easily set on by the Emissaries of the Pope or Emperor to break out in Rebellion These things being managed skilfully and agreeing with his own private opinion wrought much on him and particularly what was said about his own Book which had been so much commended to him that he was almost made believe it was written by a special Inspiration of the Holy Ghost But on the other side Cranmer represented to him that since he had put down the Popes Authority it was not fit to let those Doctrines be still taught which had no other Foundation but the Decrees of Popes And he offered upon the greatest hazard to prove that many things then received as Articles of Faith were no better grounded therefore he pressed the King to give order to hear and examine things freely that when the Popes power was rejected the people might not be obliged to believe Doctrines which had no better warrant And for Political Counsels he was to do the duty of a good Christian Prince and leave the event to God and things might be carried on with that due care that the justice and reasonableness of the Kings proceedings should appear to all the world And whereas it was objected that the Doctrines of the Catholick Church ought not to be examined by any particular Church It was answered that when all Christendom were under one Emperor it was easie for him to call general Councils and in such circumstances it was fit to stay for a one and yet even then particular Churches did in their National Synods condemn Heresies and reform Abuses But the State of Christendom was now altered it was under many Princes who had different Interests and therefore they thought it a vain expectation to look for any such Council The Protestants of Germany had now for above ten years desired the Emperor to procure one but to no effect for sometimes the Pope would not grant it and at other times the French King protested against it The former year the Pope had sent to the King to offer a general Council to be held at Mantua this year but the King found that was but an illusion for the Marquess of Mantua protested he would not admit such a number of strangers as a Council would draw together into his Town yet the King promised to send his Ambassadors thither when the Council met But now the King consulting his Prelates whether the Emperor might by his Authority summon a general Council as the Roman Emperors had done some of them gave the following answer Copied from
and that which he prints is not exactly according to the Record For as he prints it the Bishop of London is not named in the precedency which is not according to the Parliament-Roll in which the Bishop of London has the precedence next the Arch-Bishop of York and though this is corrected in a Posthumous edition yet in that set out by himself it is wanting Nor is that Omission among the Errours of the Press for though there are many of these gathered to be amended this is none of them This I do not take notice of out of any vanity or humour of Censuring a man so great in all sorts of Learning but my design is only to let ingenious persons see that they ought not to take things on trust easily no not from the greatest Authors These are all the publick Acts that relate to Religion which were passed in this Parliament With these there passed an Act of Attaindor of the Marquess of Exeter and the Lord Montacute with many others that were either found to have had a great hand in the late Rebellion or were discovered to hold correspondence with Cardinal Pool who was then trafficking with forreign Princes and projecting a League among them against the King But of this I shall give a more full account at the end of this Book being there to open the grounds of all the Attaindors that were passed in these last years of the Kings Reign There is one remarkable thing that belongs to this Act. Some were to be attainted in absence others they had no mind to bring to make their answer but yet designed to attain them Such were the Marchioness of Exeter and the Countess of Sarum Mother to Cardinal Pool whom by a gross mistake Speed fancies to have been condemned without Arraignment or Tryal as Cromwel had been by Parliament For she was now condemned a year before him About the Justice of doing this there was some debate and to clear it Cromwel sent for the Judges and asked their opinions Whether a man might be attainted in Parliament without being brought to make his answer They said it was a dangerous Question That the Parliament ought to be an example to all inferiour Courts and that when any person was charged with a Crime he by the common Rule of Justice and Equity should be heard to plead for himself But the Parliament being the Supream Court of the Nation what way soever they proceeded it must be good in Law and it could never be questioned whether the party was brought to answer or not And thus a very ill president was made by which the most innocent person in the world might be ruined And this as has often been observed in the like cases fell very soon heavily on the Author of the Counsel as shall appear When the Parliament was Prorogued on the 28th of Iune the King apprehending that the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury might be much cast down with the Act for the six Articles sent for him and told him That he had heard how much and with what Learning he had argued against it and therefore he desired he would put all his arguments in writing and bring them to him Next day he sent the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk and the Lord Cromwel to dine with him Ordering them to assure him of the Kings constant and unshaken kindness to him and to encourage him all they could When they were at Table with him at Lambeth they run out much on his commendation and acknowledged he had opposed the Act with so much Learning Gravity and Eloquence that even those that differed from him were much taken with what he said and that he needed fear nothing from the King Cromwel saying that this difference the King put between him and all his other Councellors that when complaints were brought of others the King received them and tried the truth of them but he would not so much as hearken to any complaint of the Arch-Bishop From that he went on to make a Parallel between him and Cardinal Wolsey That the one lost his Friends by his haughtiness and pride but the other gained on his Enemies by his gentleness and mildness Upon which the Duke of Norfolk said he might best speak of the Cardinal for he knew him well having been his man This nettled Cromwel who answered that though he had served him yet he never liked his manners and that though the Cardinal had designed if his attempt for the Popedome had been successful to have made him his Admiral yet he had resolved not to accept of it nor to leave his Countrey To which the Duke of Norfolk replied with a deep Oath That he Lied with other reproachful language This troubled Cranmer extremely who did all he could to quiet and reconcile them But now the Enmity between those two great Ministers broke out to that height that they were never afterwards hearty friends But Cranmer went about that which the King had commanded and made a Book of the reasons that led him to oppose the six Articles in which the places out of the Scriptures the Authorities of the ancient Doctors with the arguments drawn from these were all digested in a good method This he commanded his Secretary to write out in a fair hand that it might be given the King The Secretary returning with it from Croydon where the Arch-Bishop was then to Lambeth found the Key of his Chamber was carried away by the Arch-Bishops Almoner So that he being obliged to go over to London and not daring to trust the Book to any others keeping carried it with himself where both he and the Book met with an un-lookt-for encounter Some others that were with him in the Wherry would needs go to the South-wark side to look on a Bear-baiting that was near the River where the King was in person The Bear broke loose into the River and the Dogs after her They that were in the Boat leaped out and left the poor Secretary alone there But the Bear got into the Boat with the Dogs about her and sunk it The Secretary apprehending his life was in danger did not mind his Book which he lost in the water But being quickly rescued and brought to land he begun to look for his Book and saw it floating in the River So he desired the Bear-ward to bring it to him who took it up but before he would restore it put it into the hands of a Priest that stood there to see what it might contain The Priest reading a little in it found it a Confutation of the six Articles and told the Bearward that whosoever claimed it would be hanged for his pains But the Arch-Bishops Secretary thinking to mend the matter said it was his Lords Book This made the Bear-ward more intractable for he was a spiteful Papist and hated the Arch-Bishop so that no offers nor entreaties could prevail with him to give it back Whereupon Morice that was the
unfeigned which were meritorious towards the attaining of Everlasting life Other works were of an Inferior sort such as Fasting Almsdeeds and other fruits of Penance And the merit of good works is reconciled with the freedom of Gods mercies to us since all our works are done by his Grace so that we have no cause of boasting but must ascribe all to the Grace and goodness of God The last Chapter is about Prayers for Souls departed which is the same that was formerly set out in the Articles three years before All this was finished and set forth this year with a Preface written by those of the Clergy who had been imployed in it declaring with what care they had examined the Scriptures and the ancient Doctors out of whom they had faithfully gathered this Exposition of the Christian Faith To this the King added another Preface some years after declaring that although he had cast out the darkness by setting forth the Scriptures to his people which had produced very good effects yet as hypocrisie and superstition were purged away so a Spirit of presumption dissension and carnal liberty was breaking in For repressing which he had by the advice of his Clergy set forth a Declaration of the true knowledg of God for directing all mens belief and practice which both Houses of Parliament had seen and liked very well So that he verily trusted it contained a true and sufficient Doctrine for the attaining everlasting life Therefore he required all his people to read and print in their hearts the Doctrine of this Book He also willed them to remember that as there were some Teachers whose Office it was to instruct the people so the rest ought to be taught and to those it was not necessary to read the Scriptures and that therefore he had restrained it from a great many esteeming it sufficient for such to hear the Doctrine of the Scriptures taught by their Preachers which they should lay up in their hearts and practise in their lives Lastly he desired all his Subjects to pray to God to grant them the Spirit of Humility that they might read and carry in their hearts the Doctrine set forth in this Book But though I have joyned the account of this Preface to the Extract here made of the Bishops Book yet it was not prefixed to it till above two years after the other was set out When this was published both parties found cause in it both to be glad and sorrowful The Reformers rejoyced to see the Doctrine of the Gospel thus opened more and more for they concluded that Ignorance and prejudices being the chief supports of the Errours they complained of the instructing people in Divine Matters even though some particulars displeased them yet would awaken and work upon an inquisitive humour that was then a-stirring and they did not doubt but their Doctrines were so clear that Inquiries into Religion would do their business They were also glad to see the Morals of Christianity so well cleared which they hoped would dispose people to a better taste of Divine matters since they had observed that purity of Soul does mightily prepare people for sound opinions Most of the Superstitious conceits and practices which had for some ages embased the Christian Faith were now removed and the great fundamental of Christianity the Covenant between God and man in Christ with the conditions of it was plainly and sincerely declared There was also another principle laid down that was big with a further Reformation for every National Church was declared a compleat Body within it self with power to reform heresies correct abuses and do every thing else that was necessary for keeping it self pure or governing its members By which there was a fair way opened for a full discussion of things afterwards when a fitter opportunity should be offered But on the other hand the Popish party thought they had gained much The seven Sacraments were again asserted so that here much ground was recovered and they hoped more would follow There were many things laid down to which they knew the Reformers would never consent So that they who were resolved to comply with every thing that the King had a mind to were pretty safe But the others who followed their perswasions and consciences were brought into many snares and the Popish party was confident that their absolute compliance which was joyned with all possible submission and flattery would gain the King at length and the stiffness of others who would not give that deference to the Kings judgment and pleasure would so alienate him from them that he would in the end abandon them for with the Kings years his uneasiness and peevishness grew mightily on him The dissolution of the Kings Marriage with Anne of Cleves had so offended the Princes of Germany that though upon the Ladies account they made no publick noise of it yet there was little more intercourse between the King and them especially Cromwel falling that had alwayes carried on the correspondence with them And as this intercourse went off so a secret Treaty was set on foot between the King and the Emperor yet it came not to a Conclusion till two years after The other Bishops that were appointed to examine the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church drew up a Rubrick and Rationale of them which I do not find was printed but a very Authentical M S. of a great part of it was is extant The alterations they made were inconsiderable and so slight that there was no need of reprinting either the Missals Breviaries or other Offices for a few rasures of these Collects in which the Pope was prayed for of Thomas Beckets Office and the Offices of other Saints whose days were by the Kings Injunctions no more to be observed with some other Deletions made that the old Books did still serve For whether it was that the Change of the Mass-Books and other publick Offices would have been too great a Charge to the Nation or whether they thought it would have possessed the people with an opinion that the Religion was altered since the Books of the ancient worship were changed which remaining the same they might be the more easily perswaded that the Religion was still the same there was no new impression of the Breviaries Missals and other Rituals during this Kings Reign Yet in Queen Maries time they took care that Posterity should not know how much was dashed out or changed For as all Parishes were required to furnish themselves with new compleat Books of the Offices so the dashed Books were every-where brought in and destroyed But it is likely that most of those Scandalous Hymnes and Prayers which are addressed to Saints in the same style in which good Christians worship God were all struck out because they were now condemned as appears from the Extract of the other Book set out by the Bishops But as they went on in these things the Popish party whose Counsels were
the Supremacy which was matter of Conscience But the King was resolved to let all his Subjects see there was no Mercy to be expected by any that denyed his being Supream head of the Church and therefore made him and More two Examples for terrifying the rest This being much censured beyond Sea Gardiner that was never wanting in the most servile complyances wrote a vindication of the Kings proceedings The Lord Herbert had it in his hands and tells us it was written in elegant Latine but that he thought it too long and others judged it was too vehement to be inserted in his History VERA EFFIGIES THOMAE MORI QVONDAM TOTIUS ANGLIAE CANCELLARII DIGNISSIMI ET H. Holbein pinxit R. White sculpsit Natus 1482 Angliae Cancellarius 1529 Capite truncatus An 1535 Iuly 6. to Printed for Ric Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in St. Pauls Church yard Thus did Sir Thomas More end his days in the 53d year of his age He was a man of rare vertues and excellent parts In his youth he had freer thoughts of things as appears by his Vtopia and his Letters to Erasmus but afterwards he became superstitiously devoted to the interests and passions of the Popish Clergy and as he served them when he was in Authority even to assist them in in all their cruelties so he employed his pen in the same cause both in writing against all the new opinions in general and in particular against Tindal Frith and Barnes as also an unknown Writer who seemed of neither party but reprooved the corruptions of the Clergy and condemned their cruel proceedings More was no Divine at all and it is plain to any that reads his writings that he knew nothing of Antiquity beyond the quotations he found in the Canon-Law and in the Master of the sentences only he had read some of St. Austins treatises for upon all points of Controversie he quotes only what he found in these Collections nor was he at all conversant in the critical learning upon the Scriptures but his peculiar excellency in writing was that he had a natural easie expression and presented all the opinions of Popery with their fair side to the Reader disguising or concealing the black side of them with great Art and was no less dextrous in exposing all the ill consequences that could follow on the Doctrine of the Reformers and had upon all occasions great store of pleasant tales which he applyed wittily to his purpose And in this consists the great strength of his Writings which were designed rather for the Rabble than for Learned men But for justice contempt of money humility and a true generosity of mind he was an example to the Age in which he lived But there is one thing unjustly added to the praise of these two great men or rather feigned on design to lessen the Kings honour that Fisher and he penned the book which the King wrote against Luther This Sanders first published and Bellarmin and others since have taken it up upon his Authority Strangers may be pardoned such errors but they are inexcusable in an English man For in Mores printed works there is a Letter written by him out of the Tower to Cromwel in which he gives an account of his behaviour concerning the Kings Divorce and Supremacy among other particulars one is that when the King shewed him his Book against Luther in which he had asserted the Popes Primacy to be of Divine right More desired him to leave it out since as there had been many contests between Popes and other Princes so there might fall in some between the Pope and the King therefore he thought it was not fit for the King to publish any thing which might be afterwards made use of against himself and advised him either to leave out that point or to touch it very tenderly but the King would not follow his counsel being perhaps so fond of what he had writ that he would rather run himself upon a great inconvenience than leave out any thing that he fancied so well written This shews that More knew that Book was written by the Kings own pen and either Sanders never read this or maliciously concealed it lest it should discover his foul dealing These Executions so terrified all people that there were no further provocations given and all persons either took the Oaths or did so dextrously conceal their opinions that till the Rebellions of Lincolnshire and the North broke out none suffered after this upon a publick account But when these were quieted then the King resolved to make the chief Authors and Leaders of those Commotions publick examples to the rest The Duke of Norfolk proceeded against many of them by Martial Law there were also Tryals at common Law of a great many more that were taken Prisoners and sent up to London The Lords Darcy and Hâ—ssie were tryed by their Peers the Marquis of Exceter sitting Steward And a Commission of Oyer and Terminer being issued out for the Tryal of the rest Sir Robert Constable Sir Iohn Bulmer and his Lady Sir Francis Pigot Sir Stephen Hamilton and Sir Thomas Piercy and Ask that had been their Captain with the Abbots of Whalley Ierveux Bridlington Lenton Woburn and Kingstead and Mackrall the Monk that first raised the Lincolnshire Rebellion with sixteen more were Indicted of high Treason for the late Rebellions And after all the steps of the Rebellion were reckoned up it is added in the Indictment that they had met together on the 17th of Ianuary and consulted how to renew it and prosecute it further being encouraged by the new Risings that were then in the North by which they had forfeited all the favour to which they could have pretended by vertue of the Indemnity that was granted in the end of December and of the pardons which they had taken out They were all found Guilty and had judgment as in cases of Treason divers of them were carryed down into Lincolnshire and Yorkshire and executed in the places where their Treasons were committed but most of them suffered at London and among others the Lady Bulmer whom others call Sir Iohn Bulmers harlot was burnt for it in Smithfield The only censure that passed on this was that advantages were taken on too slight grounds to break the Kings Indemnity and pardon since it does not appear that after their pardon they did any thing more than meet and consult But the Kingdom was so shaken with that Rebellion that if it had not bâ—en for the great conduct of the Duke of Norfolk the King had by all appearance lost his Crown And it will not seem strange that a King especially so tempered as this was had a mind to strike terror into the rest of his Subjects by some signal Examples and to put out of the way the chief leaders of that design nor was it to be wondered at that the Abbots and other Clergy-men who had been so active in
many Untruths and weak Reasons which Mr. Wailing desired might be answered before the Defence were made by Proclamation I trust you will so hold hand to the Reformation of all these things as the Queen my Soveraign may have effectual occasion to esteem you her Friend which doing you shall never offend the Queen your Mistris your Country nor Conscience but be a favourer of the Truth against Errors and yet deserve well of a Princess who hath a good heart to recognize any good turn when it is done her and may hereafter have means to do you pleasure For my particular as I have always honoured you as my Father so do I still remain of the same mind as one whom in all things not touching the State you may direct as your Son Thomas Cecil and with my hearty commendations to you and my Lady both I take my leave From Striveling the 14 th of Ianuary 1566. FINIS AN APPENDIX Concerning some of the Errors Falshoods IN SANDER's Book OF THE English Schism AN APPENDIX THose who intend to write Romances or Plays do commonly take their Plot from some true piece of History in which they fasten such Characters to Persons and Things and mix such Circumstances and secret Passages with those publick Transactions and Changes that are in other Histories as may more artificially raise these passions and affections in their Readers minds which they intend to move than could possibly be done if the whole story were a meer fiction and contrivance and tho all Men know those tender passages to flow only froâ— the invention and fancy of the Poet yet by I know not what charâ— the greatest part that read or hear their Poems are softned and sensibly touched Some such design Sanders seems to have had in his Book which he very wisely kept up as long as he lived he intended to represent the Reformation in the foulest shape that was possible to defame Queen Elizabeth to stain her Blood and thereby to bring her Title to the Crown in question and to magnify the Authority of the See of Rome and celebrate Monastick Orders with all the praises and high characters he could devise And therefore after he had writ several Books on these Subjects without any considerable success they being all rather filled with foul calumnies and detracting malice than good Arguments or strong sense he resolved to try his skill another way so he intended to tell a doleful Tale which should raise a detestation of Heresie an ill Opinion of the Queen cast a stain on her Blood and disparage her Title and advance the honour of the Papacy A Tragedy was fitter for these ends since it left the deepest impressions on the graver and better affections of the mind the Scene must be laid in England and King Henry the Eighth and his three Children with the changes that were in their times seemed to afford very plentiful Matter for a Man of wit and fancy who knew where he could dextrously shew his Art and had boldness enough to do it without shame or the reverence due either to crowned Heads or to Persons that were dead Yet because he knew not how he could hold up his Face to the World after these discoveries were made which he had reason to expect this was concealed as long as he lived and after he had died for his Faith that is in Rebellion which I shall shew is the Faith in his stile this Work of his was published The stile is generally clean and things are told in an easy and pleasant way only he could not use his Art so decently as to restrain that malice which boiled in his Breast and often fermented out too palpably in his Pen. The Book served many ends well and so was generally much cried up by Men who had been long accustomed to commend any thing that was useful to them without troubling themselves with those impertinent Questions whether they were true or false yet Rishton and others since that time took the Pencil again in their hands and finding there were many touches wanting which would give much life to the whole Piece have so changed it that it was afterwards reprinted not only with a large continuation that was writ by a much more unskilful Poet but with so many and great additions scattered thorough the whole Work whereby it seemed so changed in the vamping that it looked new If any will give themselves the trouble to compare his Fable with the History that I have written and the certain undoubted Authorities I bring in confirmation of what I assert with the slender and for the most part no Authorities he brings they will soon be able to discern where the Truth lies but because all People have not the leisure or opportunities for laying things so critically together I was advised by those whose Counsels directed me in this whole Work to sum up in an Appendix the most considerable Falshoods and Mistakes of that Book with the Evidences upon which I rejected them Therefore I have drawn out the following Extraction which consists of Errors of two sorts The one is of theâ—e in which there is indeed no malice yet they shew the Writer had no â—â—ue information of our Affairs but commits many Faults which tho they leave not such foul imputations on the Author yet tend very much to disparage and discredit his Work But the others are of an higher guilt being designed Forgeries to serve partial ends not only without any Authority but manifestly contrary to Truth and to such Records as in spite of all the care they took in Q. Mary's time by destroying them to condemn Posterity to Ignorance in these Matters are yet reserved and serve to discover the falshood of those Calumnies in which they have traded so long I shall pursue these Errors in the series in which they are delivered in Sanders his Book according to the Impression at Colen 1628 which is that I have I first set down his Errors and then a short confutation of them referring the Reader for fuller information to the foregoing History 1. Sanders says That when Prince Arthur and his Princess were bedded King Henry the 7 th ordered a grave Matron to lie in the Bed that so they might not consummate their Marriage This is the ground-work of the whole Fable and should have been some-way or other proved But if we do not take so small a circumstance upon his word we treat him rudely and who will write Histories if they be bound to say nothing but Truth But little thought our Author that there were three Depositions upon Record point blank against this for the Dutchess of Norfolk the Viscount of Fitswater and his Lady deposed they saw them bedded together and the Bed blessed after they two were put in it besides that such an extravagant thing was never known done in any place 2. Sanders says Prince Arthur was not then fifteen years of Age and was sick of a
some lesser Particulars yet in the main Business Whether Prince Arthur did know his Princess they did it a great prejudice for whereas the Bull bore that by the Queens Petition her former Marriage was perhaps consummated the Breve bears that in her Petition the Marriage was said to be consummated without any perhaps 15. He says The King having seen these second Letters both he and his Council resolved to move no more in it The Process was carried on almost a year before the Breve was heard of and the forgery of it soon appeared so they went on notwithstanding it 16. He says The Bishop of Tarby being come from France to conclude the Match for the Lady Mary was set on by the King and the Cardinal to move the exception to the lawfulness of the marriage There is no reason to believe this for that Bishop tho afterwards made a Cardinal never published this which both he ought to have done as a good Catholick and certainly would have done as a true Cardinal when he saw what followed upon it and perceived that he was trepanned to be the first mover of a thing which ended so fatally forthe Interests of Rome 17. He says The Bishop of Tarby in a Speech before the King in Council said That not he alone but almost all Learned Men thought the King's Marriage unlawful and null so that he was freed from the Bond of it and that it was against the Rules of the Gospel and that all Forreign Nations had ever spoken very freely of it lamenting that the King was drawn into it in his Youth It is not ordinary for Ambassadors to make Speeches in King's Counâ—cils But if this be true it agrees ill with what this Author delivers in his third Page That there was not a Man in the whole Church nor under Heaven that spoke against it otherwise the Bishop of Tarby was both an impudent and a foolish Man 18. He says Upon the Pope's Captivity Wolsey was sent over to France with 300000 Crowns to procure the Pope's liberty Hall Hollingshead and Stow say He carried over 240000 pounds Sterlin which is more than thrice that sum 19. He says Two Colleagues were sent in this Ambassy with the Cardinal His greatness was above that and none are mentioned in the Records 20. He says Orders followed him to Callais not to move any thing about the King's Marriage with the French King's Sister the King having then resolved to marry Ann Boleyn This agrees ill with what he said pag. 9. that a year before the King was resolved whom to marry 21. He says King Henry that he might have freer access to Sir Boleyn's Lady sent him to France where after he had stayed two years his Lady was with Child of Ann Boleyn by the King This Story was already confuted see pag. 41 42. And in it there are more than one or two lies 1. Sir Thomas Boleyn went not Ambassador to France till the 7 th year of the King's Reign And if two years after that Ann was born which was the 9 th of his Reign she must then have been but ten years old at this time 2. Tho he had sent him upon his first coming to the Crown this could not be true for two years after admit her to be born that is Anno 1511 then a year before this which was Anno 1526 she was fifteen years old in which Age Sanders says she was corrupted in her Father's House and sent over to France where she staid long But all this is false For 3. She was born two years before the King came to the Crown in the year 1507. and if her Father was sent to France two years before it was in the year 1505. 4. The King being then Prince was but fourteen years old for he was born the 28 th of Iune in the year 1491 in which Age there is no reason to think he was so forward as to be corrupting other Mens Wives for they will not allow his Brother when almost two years elder to have known his own Wife As for the other pieces of this Story that Sir Thomas Boleyn did sue his Lady in the Spiritual Court that upon the King 's sending him word that she was with Child by him he passed it over that the King had also known her Sister and that she had owned it to the Queen that at the fifteenth year of Ann's Age she had prostituted her self both to her Fathers Butler and Chaplain that then she was sent to France where she was at first for some time concealed then brought to Court where she was so notoriously lewd that she was called an Hackney that she afterwards was kept by the French King that when she came over into England Sir Thomas Wiat was admitted to base privacies with her and offered to the King and his Council that he himself should with his own Eyes see it And in fine that she was ugly mishaped and monstrous are such an heap of impudent Lyes that none but a Fool as well as a Knave would venture on such a recital And for all this he cites no other Authority but Rastal's Life of Sir Thomas More a Book that was seen by none but himself and he gives no other evidence that there was any such Book but his own Authority Nor is it likely that Rastal ever writ More 's Life since he did not set it out with his Works which he published in one Volume Anno 1556. It is true More 's Son in Law Roper writ his Life which is since printed but there is no such Story in it The whole is such a piece of lying as if he who forged it had resolved to out-do all who had ever gone before him for can it be so much as imagined that a King could pursue a design for seven years together of marrying a Woman of so scandalous a Life and so disagreeable a Person and that he who was always in the other extream of Jealousie did never try out these Reports and would not so much as see what Wiat informed Nor were these things published in the Libels that were printed at that time either in the Emperor's Court or at Rome All which shew that this was a desperate contrivance of Malicious Traitors against their Soveraign Queen Elizabeth to defame and disgrace her And this I take to be the true reason why none made any full answer to this Book all her time It was not thought for the Queen's honour to let such Stuff be so much considered as to merit an answer So that the 13 14 15 16 17 and 18 pages are one continued Lye 22. He says Sir Thomas Boleyn hearing the King intended to marry his supposed Daughter came over in all haste from France to put him in mind that she was his own Child and that the King bade him hold his peace for a Fool for an hundred had lien with his Wife as well as he but
correspondence with the King fell to the ground with her but he may well cite Cochleus an Author of the same honesty with himself from whose writings we may with the like security make a judgment of Forreign Matters as we may upon Sanders's testimony believe the account he gives of English Affairs 90. He tells us among other things done by the King and picks it out as the only instance he mentions of the King's Injunctions that the People should be taught in Churches the Lord's Prayer the Ave the Creed and the Ten Commandments in English It seems this Author thought the giving these Elements of Religion to the People in the vulgar Tongue a very heinous Crime when this is singled out from all the rest 91. That being done he says there was next a Book published called Articles appointed by the King's Majesty which were the six Articles This shews that he either had no information of English Affairs or was sleeping when he wrote this for the Six Articles were not published soon after the Injunctions as he makes it by the same Parliament and Convocation but three years after by another Parliament They were never put in a Book nor published in the King's Name they were Enacted in Parliament and are neither more nor less than 25 lines in the first Impression of that Act so far short come they of a Book 92. He reckons up very defectively the differences between the Church of Rome and the Doctrine set forth by the King's Authority but in one point he shews his ordinary wit for in the sixth particular he says He retained the Sacrament of Order but appointed a new Form of Consecrating of Bishops This he put in out of malice that he might annul the Ordinations of that time but the thing is false for except that the Bishops instead of their Oaths of Obedience to the Pope which they formerly swore did not swear to the King there was no other change made and that to be sure is no part of the Form of Consecration 93. He resolved once to speak what he thought was Truth tho it be treasonable and impious and says Upon these changes many in Lincolnshire and the Northern parts did rise for Religion and the Faith of Christ. This was indeed the motive by which their Seditious Priests misled them yet he is mistaken in the time for it was not after the six Articles were published but almost three years before it Nor was it for the Faith of Christ which teaches us to be humble subject and obedient but because the King was removing some of the corruptions of that Faith which their false Teachers did impiously call the Faith of Christ. 94. He says The King did promise most faithfully that all these things of which they complained should be amended This is so evidently false that it is plain Sanders resolved dextrously to avoid the speaking of any sort of Truth for the King did fully and formally tell them he would not be directed nor counselled by them in these Points they complained of and did only offer them an Amnesty for what was past 95. Then he reckons up 32 that died for the defence of the Faith They were attainted of Treason for being in actual Rebellion against the King and thus it appears that Rebellion was the Faith in his sense and himself died for it or rather in it having been starved to death in a Wood to which he fled after one of his rebellious Attempts on his Soveraign in which he was the Pope's Nuncio 96. He says The King killed the Earl of Kildare and five of his Uncles By this strange way of expressing a legal Attainder and the execution of a Sentence for manifest Treason and Rebellion he would insinuate on the Reader a fancy that one of Bonner's cruel fits had taken the King and that he had killed those with his own hand The Lord Herbert has fully opened that part of the History from the Records that he saw and shews that a more resolved Rebellion could not be than that was of which the Earl of Kildare and his Uncles were guilty But because they sent to the Pope and Emperor for assistance the Earl desiring to hold the Kingdom of Ireland of the Pope since the King by his Heresie had fallen from his Right to it Sanders must needs have a great kindness for their memory who thus suffered for his Faith 97. He says Queen Iane Seimour being in hard labour of Prince Edward the King ordered her Body to be so opened by Surgeons that she died soon after All this is false for she had a good Delivery as many Original Letters written by her Council that have been since printed do shew but she died two days after of a distemper incident to her Sex 98. He sets down some Passages of Cardinal Pole's Heroical Constancy which being proved by no Evidence and not being told by any other Writer whom I ever saw are to be lookt on as the flourishes of the Poet to set off his Hero 99. He would perswade the World that the Marquess of Exceter the Lord Montacute and the rest that suffered at that time died because they were believed to dislike the King 's wicked Proceedings and that the Countess of Sarum was beheaded on this single account that she was the Mother of such a Son and was sincerely addicted to the Catholick Faith and that she was condemned because she wrote to her Son and for wearing in her Breast the Picture of the five Wounds of Christ. The Marquess of Exceter pretended he was well satisfied with the King's Proceedings and was Lord Stewart when the Lords Darcy and Hussie were tried and he gave judgment against them But it being discovered that he and other Persons approved of Cardinal Pole's proceedings who endeavoured to engage all Christian Princes in a League against the King pursuant to which they had expressed themselves on several occasions resolved when a fit opportunity offered it self to rebel it was no wonder if the King proceeded against them according to Law And for the Countess of Sarum tho the legality of that Sentence passed against her cannot be defended yet she had given great offence not only by her correspondence with her Son but by the Bulls she had received from Rome and by her opposing the King's Injunctions hindring all her Tenants to read the New Testament or any other Books set out by the King's order And for the Picture which was found among her Cloaths it having been the Standard of the Rebellion and the Arms of England being found on the other side of it there was just ground to suspect an ill design in it 100. He says The Images which the King destroyed were by many wonderful Works of God recommended to the Devotion of the Nation All the wonder in these Works was the knavery of some jugling Impostors and the simplicity of a credulous multitude of
his time and have continued since in great honour as the Seimours from whom the Dukes of Somerset are descended the Paulets from whom the Marquess of Winchester derives the Russels Wriothslies Herberts Riches and Cromwells from whom the Earls of Bedford Southampton Pembroke Essex and Ardglass have descended and the Browns the Petres the Pagets the Norths and the Mountagues from whom the Vice-Count Mountague the Barons Petre Paget North and Mountague are descended These Families have now flourished in great Wealth and Honour an Age and a half and only one of them has and that but very lately determined in the Male Line but the Illustrious Female Branches of it are intermixed with other Noble Families So that the Observation is false and the Inference is weak 119. He says When the King found his strength declining he had again some thoughts of reconciling himself to the Church of Rome which when it was proposed to one of the Bishops he made a flattering answer But Gardiner moved that a Parliament might be called for doing it and that the King for the quiet of his own Conscience would vow to do it of which God would accept in that extremity when more was not possible to be done But some of his Courtiers coming about him who were very apprehensive of such a Reconciliation lest they should have been made restore the Goods of the Church diverted the King from it And from this our Author infers that what the King had done was against his Conscience and that so he sinned the Sin against the Holy Ghost I shall not examine this Theological definition of the Sin against the Holy Ghost for my quarrel is not at present with his Divinity but with his History tho it were easy to shew that he is alike at both But for this story it is a pure dream for not only there is no evidence for it nor did Gardiner in the Reign of Queen Mary ever own any such thing tho it had been then much for the credit of their Cause especially he being often upbraided with his compliances to this King for which the mention of his repentance had furnished him with a good answer But as the Tale is told the Fiction appears too plainly for a Parliament was actually sitting during the King's sickness which was dissolved by his Death and no such Proposition was made in it The King on the contrary destroyed the chief hopes of the Popish Party which were founded on the Duke of Norfolk's greatness by the Attainder which was passed a day before he died And yet Sanders makes this discourse to have been between the King and Gardiner after his fall and his Sons death between which and the King's Death there were only nine days but besides all this Gardiner had lost the King's favour a considerable time before his death 120. He says The King that he might not seem never to have done any good Work in his whole life as he was dying founded Christ's Church Hospital in London which was all the restitution he ever made for the Monasteries and Churches he had robbed and spoiled If it had not already appeared in many Instances that our Author had as little shame as honesty here is a sufficient proof of it I will not undertake to justify the King as if he had done what he ought to have done in his new Foundations But it is the height of impudence to deny things that all England knows He founded six Bishopricks he endowed Deans and Prebendaries with all the other Offices belonging to a Cathedral in fourteen several Sees Canterbury Winchester Duresme Ely Norwich Rochester Worcester and Carlisle together with Westminster Chester Oxford Glocester Peterborough and Bristol where he endowed Bishopricks likewise He founded many Grammar-Schools as Burton Canterbury Coventry Worcester c. He founded and endowed Trinity Colledg in Cambridg which is one of the noblest Foundations in Christendom He also founded Professors in both Universities for Greek Hebrew Law Physick and Divinity What censure then deserves our Author for saying that the Hospital of Christ's-Church was all the restitution he ever made of the Church-Lands 121. He gives a Character of the King which sutes very well with his History his malice in it being extravagantly ridiculous Among other things he says The King promoted always learned Bishops Cranmer only being excepted whom he advanced to serve his Lusts. Cranmer was a Man of greater Learning than any that ever sate in that See before him as appears in every thing that he writ Tonstal was a learned Man and Gardiner was much esteemed for Learning yet if any will compare Cranmer's Books of the Sacrament with those the other two writ on the same Subject there is so great a difference between the learning and solidity of the one and the other that no Man of common ingenuity can read them but he must confess it 122. He says When the King found himself expiring he called for a Boul of White Wine and said to one that was near him We have lost all and was often heard repeating Monks Monks and so he died This was to make the Fable end as it had gone on and it is forged without any authority or appearance of truth The manner of his death was already told so it needs not be repeated 123. He says The King by his Will appointed the Crown to go to his righteous Heirs after his three Children and commanded his Son to be bred a true Catholick but his Will was changed and another was forged by which the Line of Scotland was excluded and they bred his Son an Heretick There was no such Will ever heard of and in all the Debates that were managed in Queen Elizabeth's Reign about the Succession those that pleaded for the Scotish Line never alleadged this which had it been true did put an end to the whole Controversie It was indeed said that the Will which was given out as the King's Will was not signed by his Hand nor sealed by his Order but it was never pretended that there was any other Will so this is one of our Author's Forgeries The Conclusion THus I have traced him in this History and hope I have said much more than was necessary to prove him a Writer of no credit and that his Book ought to have no Authority since he was not only a stranger to the Publick Transactions Printed Statutes and the other Authentick Registers of that time but was a bold and impudent Asserter of the grossest and most malicious Lies that ever were contrived I have not examined all the Errors of his Chronology for there is scarce any thing told in its right order and due place nor have I insisted on all the passages he tells without any proof or appearance of truth for as I could only deny these without any other evidence but what was negative so there are so many of them that I must have transcribed the greatest part of
PREFACE THere is no Part of History better received than the Account of great Changes and Revolutions of States and Governments in which the Variety of unlooked-for Accidents and Events both entertains the Reader and improves him Of all Changes those in Religion that have been sudden and signal are enquired into with the most searching Curiosity where the Salvation of Souls being concern'd the better sort are much affected and the Credit Honour and Interest of Churches and Parties draw in these who though they do not much care for the Religious part yet make noise about it to serve other Ends. The Changes that were made in Religion in the last Century have produc'd such effects everywhere that it is no wonder if all persons desire to see a clear account of the several steps in which they advanced of the Counsels that directed them and the Motives both Religious and Political that enclined men of all conditions to concur in them Germany produced a Sleidan France a Thuanus and Italy a Frier Paul who have given the World as full satisfaction in what was done beyond Sea as they could desire And though the two last lived and died in the Communion of the Church of Rome yet they have delivered things to Posterity with so much Candour and Evenness that their Authority is disputed by none but those of their own Party But while Forreign Churches have such Historians ours at home have not had the like good fortune for whether it was that the Reformers at first presumed so far on their Legal and calm proceedings on the continued Succession of their Clergie the Authority of the Law and the Protection of the Prince that they judged it needless to write an History and therefore employed their best pens rather to justifie what they did than to deliver how it was done or whether by a meer neglect the thing was omitted we cannot determine True it is that it was not done to any degree of Exactness when matters were so fresh in mens memories that things might have been opened with greater Advantages and vouch'd by better Authority than it is to be expected at this distance They were soon after much provok'd by Sanders History which he published to the World in Latine yet either despising a writer who did so impudently deliver falshoods that from his own Book many of them may be disproved or expecting a Command from Authority they did not then set about it The best account I can give of their silence is that most of Sanders Calumnies being levelled at Queen Elizabeth whose birth and parents he designed chiefly to disgrace it was thought too tender a point by her wise Counsellors to be much enquired into it gave too great credit to his Lies to answer them an answer would draw forth a Reply by which those Calumnies would still be kept alive and therefore it was not without good reason thought better to let them lie unanswered and despised From whence it is come that in this age that Author is in such Credit that now he is quoted with much assurance most of all the writers in the Church of Rome relie on his testimony as a good authority The Collectors of the General History of that Age follow his thred closely some of them transcribe his very words One Pollini a Dominican published an History of the Changes that were made in England in Italian at Rome Anno. 1594. which he should more ingenuously have called a Translation or Paraphrase of Sanders History and of late more candidly but no less maliciously one of the best pens of France has been employed to translate him into their language which has created such prejudices in the minds of many there that our Reformation which generally was more modestly spoken of even by those who wrote against it is now look'd on by such as read Sanders and believe him as one of the foulest things that ever was Fox for all his Voluminous Work had but few things in his eye when he made his Collection and designed only to discover the Corruptions and Cruelties of the Roman Clergie and the Sufferings and Constancy of the Reformers But his work was written in haste and there are so many defects in it that it can by no means be called a Compleat History of these times though I must add that having compared his Acts and Monuments with the Records I have never been able to discover any errors or prevarications in them but the utmost fidelity and exactness Parker Arch-bishop of Canterbury designed only in his account of the British Antiquities to do justice and honour to his See and so gives us barely the life of Cranmer with some few and general hints of what he did Hall was but a superficial Writer and was more careful to get full informations of the Cloaths that were worn at the Interviews of Princes Iusts Tournaments and great Solemnities than about the Counsels or secret Transactions of the time he lived in Holingshead Speed and Stow give bare Relations of things that were Publick and commit many faults Upon their scent most of our later Writers have gone and have only collected and repeated what they wrote The Lord Herbert judged it unworthy of him to trifle as others had done and therefore made a more narrow search into Records and original Papers than all that had gone before him and with great fidelity and industry has given us the History of King Henry the Eighth But in the Transactions that concern Religion he dwells not so long as the matter required leaving those to men of another Profession and judging it perhaps not so proper for one of his condition to pursue a full and accurate Deduction of those matters Since he wrote two have undertaken the Ecclesiastical History Fuller and Heylin The former got into his hands some few Papers that were not seen before he published them but being a man of fancie and affecting an odd way of writing his work gives no great Satisfaction But Doctor Heylin wrote smoothly and handsomly his Method and Stile are good and his work was generally more read than any thing that had appeared before him but either he was very ill informed or very much led by his Passions and he being wrought on by most violent prejudices against some that were concerned in that time delivers many things in such a manner and so strangely that one would think he had been secretly set on to it by those of the Church of Rome though I doubt not he was a sincere Protestant but violently carried away by some particular conceits In one thing he is not to be excused That he never vouched any Authority for what he writ which is not to be forgiven any who write of Transactions beyond their own time and deliver new things not known before So that upon what grounds he wrote a great deal of his Book we can only conjecture and many in their guesses are not apt to be very favourable
to him Things being delivered to us with so much alloy and uncertainty those of the Church of Rome do confidently disparage our Reformation The short History of it as it is put in their mouths being That it was begun by the lusts and passions of King Henry the Eighth carried on by the Ravenousness of the Duke of Summerset under Edward the Sixth and confirmed by the Policy of Queen Elizabeth and her Council to secure her Title These things being generally talked and spread abroad in Forreign parts especially in France by the new Translation of Sanders and not being yet sufficiently cleared many have desired to see a fuller and better account of those Transactions than has yet been given so the thing being necessary I was the more encouraged to set about it by some persons of great Worth and Eminence who thought I had much leisure and other good Opportunities to go through with it and wished me to undertake it The person that did engage me chiefly to this work was on many Accounts much fitter to have undertaken it himself being the most Indefatigable in his Industry and the most Iudicious in his Observations of any I know and is one of the greatest Masters of Stile now living But being engaged in the service of the Church in a station that affords him very little leisure he set me on to it and furnished me with a curious Collection of his own Observations And in some sort this work may be accounted his for he corrected it with a most Critical Exactness so that the first materials and the last finishing of it are from him But after all this I lie under such restraints from his Modesty that I am not allowed to publish his name I had two Objections to it besides the knowledg of my own unfitness for such a work One was my Unacquaintedness with the Laws and Customs of this Nation not being born in it the other was the Expence that such a Search as was necessary required which was not easie for me to bear My acquaintance with the most ingenious Master William Petyt Councellour of the Inner-Temple cleared one difficulty he offering me his assistance and direction without which I must have committed great faults But I must acknowledg my self highly obliged by the favour and bounty of the Honourable Master of the Rolls Sir Harebottle Grimstone of whose Worth and Goodness to me I must make a large digression if I would undertake to say all that the Subject will bear The whole Nation expressed their value of him upon the most Signal Occasion when they made him their Mouth and Speaker in that Blessed Assembly which called home their King after which real evidence all little Commendations may be well forborn The Obligations he has laid on me are such that as the Gratitude and Service of my whole life is the only equal return I can make for them so as a small tribute I judg my self obliged to make my acknowledgments in this manner for the leisure I enjoy under his Protection and the Support I receive from him and if this work does the world any service the best part of the Thanks is due to him that furnished me with particular Opportunities of Carrying it on Nor must I conceal the Nobleness of that Renown'd Promoter of Learning Master Boyle who contributed liberally to the Expence this Work put me to Upon these encouragements I set about it and began with the Search of all Publick Records and Offices the Parliament and Treaty-Rolls with all the Patent-Rolls and the Registers of the Sees of Canterbury and London and of the Augmentation-Office Then I laid out for all the MSS. I could hear of and found things beyond my Expectation in the famous Cotton Library where there is such a Collection of Original Papers relating to these times as perhaps the World can shew nothing like it I had also the favour of some MSS. of great value both from the Famous and eminently Learned Doctor Stillingfleet who gave me great Assistance in this work and from Mr. Petyt and others When I had look'd these over I then used all the Endeavours I could to gather together the Books that were printed in those days from which I not only got considerable hints of matters of Fact but that which I chiefly look'd for the Arguments upon which they managed the Controversies then on foot of which I thought it was the part of an Ecclesiastical Historian to give an Account as I could recover them that it may appear upon what motives and grounds they proceeded The Three chief Periods of Henry the Eighth his Reign in which Religion is concerned are First From the beginning of his Reign till the Process of his Divorce with Queen Katharine commenced The Second is from that till his total Breaking off from Rome and setting up his Supremacy over all Causes and Persons The Third is from that to his Death When I first set about this Work I intended to have carryed on the History of the Reformation to the Reign of Queen Elizabeth in which it was finished and fully setled but I was forced to change that Resolution The chief reason among many others was that I have not yet been able to discover such full Informations of what passed under the Succeeding Reigns as were necessary for a History and though I have search't the publick Registers of that time yet I am still in the dark my self in many particulars This made me resolve on publishing this Volume first hoping that those in whose hands any Manuscripts or Papers of that time lie will from what is now performed be encouraged to Communicate them or if any have made a considerable Progress in those Collections I shall be far from envying them the honour of such a work in which it had been inexcusable Vanity in me to have medled if the desires of others who have great Power over me had not prevailed with me to set about it And therefore though I have made a good Advance in the following part of the Work I shall most willingly resign it up to any who will undertake it and they shall have the free use of all my Papers But if none will set about it who yet can furnish materials towards it I hope their zeal for carrying on so desired a Work will engage them to give all the help to it that is in their Power There is only one passage belonging to the next Volume which I shall take notice of here since from it I must plead my Excuse for several defects which may seem to be in this Work In the Search I made of the Rolls and other Offices I wondred much to miss several Commissions Patents and other Writings which by clear evidence I knew were Granted and yet none of them appeared on record This I could not impute to any thing but the omission of the Clerks who failed in the enrolling those Commissions though it was not likely that matters of
so high Concernment should have been neglected especially in such a Critical time and under so severe a King But as I continued down my search to the Fourth year of Queen Mary I found in the Twelvth Roll of that year a Commission which cleared all my former doubts and by which I saw what was become of the things I had so anxiously searched after We have heard of the Expurgation of Books practised in the Church of Rome but it might have been imagined that publick Registers and Records would have been safe yet lest these should have been afterwards Confessors it was resolved they should then be Martyrs for on the 29th of December in the 4th year of her Reign a Commission was issued out under the great Seal to Bonner Bishop of London Cole Dean of St. Pauls and Martine a Doctor of the Civil Law which is of that importance that I shall here insert the material words of it Whereas it is come to our knowledg that in the time of the late Schisme diverse Compts Books Scrolls Instruments and other writings were practised devised and made concerning Professions against the Popes Holiness and the See Apostolick and also sundry infamous Scrutinies taken in Abbeys and other Religious houses tending rather to subvert and overthrow all good Religion and Religious houses than for any truth contained therein Which being in the Custody of divers Registers and we intending to have those writings brought to knowledg whereby they may be Considered and ordered according to our will and pleasure thereupon those three or any two of them are empowered to cite any persons before them and examine them upon the Premisses upon Oath and to bring all such Writings before them and certifie their diligence about it to Cardinal Pool that further order might be given about them When I saw this I soon knew which way so many Writings had gone and as I could not but wonder at their boldness who thus presumed to raze so many Records so their ingenuity in leaving this Commission in the Rolls by which any who had the Curiosity to search for it might be satisfied how the other Commissions were destroyed was much to be commended Yet in the following Work it will appear that some few Papers escaped their hands I know it is needless to make great Protestations of my sincerity in this Work These are of course and are little considered but I shall take a more effectual way to be believed for I shall vouch my Warrants for what I say and tell where they are to be found And having copied out of Records and MSS. many Papers of great importance I shall not only insert the substance of them in the following Work but at the end of it shall give a Collection of them at their full length and in the Language in which they were originally written from which as the Reader will receive full Evidence of the truth of this History so he will not be ill pleased to observe the Genius and way of the Great men in that time of which he will be better able to judge by seeng their Letters and other Papers than by any representation made of them at second hand They are digested into that order in which they are referred to in the History It will surprize some to see a Book of this Bigness written of the History of our Reformation under the Reign of King Henry the Eighth since the true beginnings of it are to be reckoned from the Reign of King Edward the 6. in which the Articles of our Church and the Forms of our Worship were first compiled and set forth by Authority And indeed in King Henry's time the Reformation was rather conceived than brought forth and two Parties were in the last 18 years of his Reign strugling in the Womb having non and then advantages on either side as the unconstant humour of that King changed and as his Interests and often as his passions swayed him Cardinal Wolsey had so dissolved his mind into pleasures and puffed him up with Flattery and servile Compliances that it was not an easie thing to serve him for being boisterous and impatient naturally which was much heightned by his most extravagant vanity and high conceit of his own Learning and Wisdom he was one of the most uncounsellable persons in the World The Book which he wrote had engaged him deep in these Controversies and by perpetual flatteries he was brought to fancie it was written with some degrees of inspiration And Luther in his answer had treated him so unmannerly that it was only the necessity of his Affairs that forced him into any correspondence with that Party in Germany And though Cranmer and Cromwel improved every advantage that either the Kings temper or his Affairs offered them as much as could be yet they were to be pitied having to do with a Prince who upon the slightest pretences threw down those whom he had most advanced which Cromwel felt severely and Cranmer was sometimes near it The faults of this King being so conspicuous and the severity of his proceedings so unjustifiable particularly that heinous violation of the most sacred Rules of Iustice and Government in condemning men without bringing them to make their Answers most of our Writers have separated the Concerns of this Church from his Reign and imagining that all he did was founded only on his Revenge upon the Court of Rome for denying his Divorce have taken little care to examine how matters were transacted in his time But if we consider the great things that were done by him we must acknowledge that there was a signal providence of God in raising up a King of his temper for clearing the way to that blessed Work that followed and that could hardly have been done but by a man of his humour so that I may very fitly apply to him the witty Simile of an ingenious writer who compares Luther to a Postilion in his waxed Boots and oiled Coat lashing his horses through thick and thin and be spattering all about him This Character befits King Henry better saving the Reverence due to his Crown who as the Postilion of Reformation made way for it through a great deal of mire and filth He abolished the Popes Power by which not only that Tyranny was destroyed which had been long an heavie burthen on this oppressed Nation but all the Opinions Rites and Constitutions for which there was no better Authority than Papal Decrees were to fall to the ground The Foundation that supported them being thus sapped He suppressed all the Monasteries in which though there were some inexcusable faults committed yet he wanted not reason to do what he did For the Foundation of those Houses being laid on the Superstitious Conceit of Redeeming Souls out of Purgatory by saying Masses for them they whose Office that was had by counterfeiting Relicks by forging of Miracles and other like Impostures drawn together a vast wealth to the enriching of their Saints
upon their Mothers Title which might have been a dangerous competition to him that was so little beloved by his Subjects took this Method for amusing them with other things thence it was that his Son was the most learned Prince that had been in the World for many Ages and deserved the Title Beau-Clerke on a better account than his Predecessor that long before had carried it The Learning then in credit was either that of the Schools about abstruse Questions of Divinity which from the days of Lombard were debated and descanted on with much subtlety and nicety and exercised all Speculative Divines or the Study of the Canon-Law which was the way to Business and Preferment To the former of these the King was much addicted and delighted to read often in Thomas 〈◊〉 and this made Cardinal Wolsey more acceptable to him who was 〈◊〉 conversant in that sort of Learning He loved the purity of the 〈◊〉 tongue which made him be so kind to Erasmus that was the great Resâ—â—â—er of it and to Polidore Virgil though neither of these made their Court dextrously with the Cardinal which did much intercept the Kingâ— favour to them so that the one left England and the other was but coâ—rsly used in it who has sufficiently revenged himself upon the Cardinal's Memory The Philosophy then in fashion was so intermixed with their Divinity that the King understood it too and was also a good Musician as appears by two whole Masses which he composed He never wrote well but scrawled so that his hand was scarce legible Being thus inclined to Learning he was much courted by all hungry Scholars who generally over Europe dedicated their Books to him with such flattering Epistles that it very much lessens him to see how he delighted in such stuffe For if he had not taken pleasure in it and rewarded them it is not likely that others should have been every year writing after such ill Copies Of all things in the World Flattery wrought most on him and no sort of Flattery pleased him better than to have his great Learning and Wisdom commended And in this his Parliaments his Courtiers his Chaplains Forreigners and Natives all seemed to vie who should exceed most and came to speak to him in a Stile which was scarce fit to be used to any Creature But he designed to entail these praises on his Memory cherishing Church-men more than any King in England had ever done he also Courted the Pope with a constant submission and upon all occasions made the Popes Interests his own and made War and Peace as they desired him So that had he dyed any time before the 19th year of his Reign he could scarce have scaped being Canonized notwithstanding all his faults for he abounded in those vertues which had given Saintship to Kings for near 1000 years together and had done more than they all did by writing a Book for the Roman Faith England had for above 300 years been the tamest part of Christendome to the Papal Authority and had been accordingly dealt with But though the Parliaments and two or three high-spirited Kings had given some interruption to the cruel exactions and other illegal proceedings of the Court of Rome yet that Court always gained their designs in the end But even in this Kings days the Crown was not quite stript of all its Authority over Spiritual persons The Investitures of Bishops and Abbots which had been originally given by the delivery of the Pastoral Ring and Staffe by the Kings of England were after some opposition wrung out of their hands yet I find they retained another thing which upon the matter was the same When any See was vacant a Writ was issued out of the Chancery for seizing on all the Temporalties of the Bishoprick and then the King recommended one to the Pope upon which his Bulls were expeded at Rome and so by a Warrant from the Pope he was consecrated and invested in the Spiritualties of the See but was to appear before the King either in Person or by Proxie and renounce every clause in his Letters and Bulls that were or might be prejudicial to the Prerogative of the Crown or contrary to the Laws of the Land and was to swear Fealty and Allegiance to the King And after this a new Writ was issued out of the Chancery bearing that this was done and that thereupon the Temporalties should be restored Of this there are so many Precedents in the Records that every one that has searched them must needs find them in every year but when this began I leave to the more Learned in the Law to discover And for proof of it the Reader will find in the Collection the fullest Record which I met with concerning it in Henry the 7th his Reign of Cardinal Adrian's being Invested in the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells So that upon the matter the Kings then disposed of all Bishopricks keeping that still in their own hands which made them most desired in those Ages and so had the Bishops much at their Dovotion But King Henry in a great degree parted with this by the above-mentioned power granted to Cardinal Wolsey who being Legate as well as Lord Chancellour it was thought a great errour in Government to lodge such a trust with him which might have past into a Precedent for other Legates pretending to the same Power since the Papal greatness had thus risen and oft upon weaker grounds to the height it was then at Yet the King had no mind to suffer the Laws made against the suing out of Bulls in the Court of Rome without his leave to be neglected for I find several Licenses granted to sue Bulls in that Court bearing for their Preamble the Statute of the 16 of Richard the Second against the Popes pretended Power in England But the immunity of Ecclesiastical persons was a thing that occasioned great complaints And good cause there was for them For it was ordinary for persons after the greatest Crimes to get into Orders and then not only what was past must be forgiven them but they were not to be questioned for any Crime after holy Orders given till they were first degraded and till that was done they were the Bishops Prisoners Whereupon there rose a great dispute in the beginning of this Kings Reign of which none of our Historians having taken any Notice I shall give a full account of it King Henry the Seventh in his Fourth Parliament did a little lessen the Priviledges of the Clergy enacting that Clerks convicted should be burnt in the hand But this not proving a sufficient restraint it was Enacted in Parliament in the Fourth year of this King that all Murderers and Robbers should be denyed the benefit of their Clergy But though this seemed a very Just Law yet to make it pass through the House of Lords they added two Proviso's to it the one for excepting all such as were within
the Proceedings in the Kings Bench since there was no justice done and all thought the King seemed more careful to maintain his Prerogative than to do Justice This I have related the more fully because it seems to have had great Influence on peoples minds and to have disposed them much to the Changes that followed afterwards How these things were entred in the Books of Convocation cannot be now known For among the other sad losses sustained in the late burning of London this was one that almost all the Registers of the Spiritual Courts were burnt some few of the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and Bishops of London's Registers being only preserved But having compared Fox his Account of this and some other matters and finding it exactly according to the Registers that are preserved I shall the more confidently build on what he published from those Records that are now lost This was the only thing in the first 18 years of the Kings Reign that seemed to lessen the Greatness of the Clergy but in all other matters he was a most faithful Son of the See of Rome Pope Iulius soon after his coming to the Crown sent him a Golden Rose with a Letter to Arch-Bishop Warham to deliver it and though such Presents might seem fitter for young Children than for men of discretion yet the King was much delighted with it and to shew his Gratitude there was a Treaty concluded the year following between the King and Ferdinand of Arragon for the Defence of the Papacy against the French King And when in opposition to the Council that the French King and some other Princes and Cardinals had called first to Pisa which was afterwards translated to Milan and then to Lions that summoned the Pope to appear before them and suspended his Authority Pope Iulius called another Council to be held in the Lateran the King sent the Bishops of Worcester and Rochester the Prior of St. Iohns and the Abbot of Winchelcomb to sit in that Council in which there was such a Representative of the Catholick Church as had been for several of the latter Ages in the Western Church in which a few Bishops packt out of several Kingdoms and many Italian Bishops with a vast number of Abbots Priors and other Inferiour Digniâ—â—ed Clergy-men were brought to Confirm together whatever the Popes had a mind to Enact which passing easily among them was sent over the world with a stamp of Sacred Authority as the Decrees and Decisions of the Holy Universal Church assembled in a General Council Nor was there a worse understanding between this King and Pope Leo the 10 th that succeeded Iulius who did also complement him with those Papal Presents of Roses and at his desire made Wolsey a Cardinal and above all other things obliged him by conferring on him the Title of Defender of the Faith upon the presenting to the Pope his Book against Luther in a pompous Letter Signed by the Pope and 27 Cardinals in which the King took great pleasure affecting it always beyond all his other Titles though several of the former Kings of England had carried the same Title as Spelman informs us So easie a thing it was for Popes to oblige Princes in those days when a Title or a Rose was thought a sufficient Recompence for the greatest Services The Cardinal Governing all Temporal Affairs as he did it is not to be doubted but his Authority was absolute in Ecclesiastical Matters which seemed naturally to lie within his Province yet Warham made some opposition to him and complained to the King of his encroaching too much in his Legantine Courts upon his Jurisdiction and the things being clearly made out the King chid the Cardinal sharply for it who ever after that hated Warham in his heart yet he proceeded more warily for the future But the Cardinal drew the hatred of the Clergy upon himself chiefly by a Bull which he obtained from Rome giving him Authority to visit all Monasteries and all the Clergy of England and to dispence with all the Laws of the Church for one whole year after the date of the Bull. The power that was lodged in him by this Bull was not more invidious than the words in which it was conceived were offensive for the Preamble of it was full of severe Reflections against the Manners and Ignorance of the Clergy who are said in it to have been delivered over to a Reprobate mind This as it was a publick Deâ—aming them so how true soever it might be all thought it did not become the Cardinal whose Vices were notorious and scandalous to tax others whose faults were neither so great nor so eminent as his were He did also affect a Magnificence and Greatness not only in his Habit being the first Clergy-man in England that wore Silks but in his Family his Train and other pieces of State equal to that of Kings And even in performing Divine Offices and saying Mass he did it with the same Ceremonies that the Popes use who judg themselves so nearly related to God that those humble acts of Adoration which are Devotions in other persons would abase them too much He had not only Bishops and Abbots to serve him but even Dukes and Earls to give him the Water and the Towel He had certainly a vast mind and he saw the corruptions of the Clergy gave so great Scandal and their Ignorance was so profound that unless some effectual ways were taken for correcting these they must needs fall into great disesteem with the People For though he took great liberties himself and perhaps according to the Maxime of the Canonists he judged Cardinals as Princes of the Church were not comprehended within ordinary Ecclesiastical Laws yet he seemed to have designed the Reformation of the Inferiour Clergy by all the means he could think of except the giving them a good Example Therefore he intended to visit all the Monasteries of England that so discovering their corruptions he might the better justifie the design he had to suppress most of them and convert them into Bishopricks Cathedrals Collegiate Churches and Colledges For which end he procured the Bull from Rome but he was diverted from making any use of it by some who advised him rather to suppress Monasteries by the Popes Authority than proceed in a Method which would raise great hatred against himself cast foul aspersions on Religious Orders and give the Enemies of the Church great advantages against it Yet he had communicated his design to the King and his Secretary Cromwell understanding it was thereby instructed how to proceed afterwards when they went about the total suppression of the Monasteries The Summoning of Convocations he assumed by vertue of his Legantine Power Of these there were two sorts the first were called by the King for with the Writs for a Parliament there went out always a Summons to the Two Arch-Bishops for calling a Convocation of
their Provinces the Stile of which will be found in the Collection It differs in nothing from what is now in use but that the King did not prefix the day requiring them only to be Summoned to meet with all convenient speed and the Arch-Bishops having the King's pleasure signified to them did in their Writs prefix the day Other Convocations were called by the Arch-Bishops in their several Provinces upon great Emergencies to meet and treat of things relating to the Church and were Provincial Councils Of this I find but one and that called by Warham in the first year of this King for restoring the Ecclesiastical Immunities that had been very much impaired as will appear by the Writ of Summons But the Cardinal did now as Legate issue out Writs for Convocations In the year 1522. I find by the Register there was a Writ issued from the King to Warham to call one who upon that Summoned it to meet at St. Pauls the 20 th of April But the Cardinal prevailed so far with the King that on the 2 d. of May after he by his Legantine Authority dissolved that Convocation and issued out a Writ to Tonstall Bishop of London to bring the Clergy of Canterbury to St. Peter's in Westminster there to meet and reform Abuses in the Church and consider of other important Matters that should be proposed to them What they did towards Reformation I know not the Records being lost But as to the Kings Supply it was proposed That they should give the King the half of the full value of their Livings for one year to be paid in Five years The Cardinal laid out to them how much the King had merited from the Church both by suppressing the Schism that was like to have been in the Papacy in Pope Iulius his time and by Protecting the See of Rome from the French Tyrannie but most of all for that excellent Book written by him in Defence of the Faith against the Hereticks and that therefore since the French King was making War upon him and had sent over the Duke of Albany to Scotland to make War also on that side it was fit that on so great an occasion it should appear that his Clergy were sensible of their Happiness in having such a King which they ought to express in granting somewhat that was as much beyond all former Presidents as the King had merited more from them than all former Kings had ever done But the Bishops of Winchester and Rochester opposed this For they both hated the Cardinal The one thought him ungrateful to him who had raised him The other being a man of a strict Life hated him for his Vices Both these spake against it as an unheard-of Tax which would so oppress the Clergy that it would not be possible for them to live and pay it and that this would become a Precedent for after-times which would make the condition of the Clergy most miserable But the Cardinal who intended that the Convocation by a great Subsidy should lead the way to the Parliament took much pains for carrying it thorough and got some to be absent and others were prevailed on to consent to it And for the fear of its being made a Precedent a Clause was put in the Act That it should be no Precedent for after-times Others laughed at this and said It would be a Precedent for all that if it once passed But in the end it was granted with a most glorious Preamble and by it all the Natives of England that had any Ecclesiastical Benefice were to pay the full half of the true value of their Livings in Five years and all Forreigners who were Beneficed in England were to pay a whole years Rent in the same time out of which number were excepted the Bishops of Worcester and Landaffe Polidore Virgil Peter the Carmelite Erasmus of Roterdam Silvester Darius and Peter Vannes who were to pay only as Natives did This encreased the hatred that the Clergy bore the Cardinal But he despised them and in particular was a great Enemy to the Monks and looked on them as idle mouths that did neither the Church nor State any Service but were through their scandalous Lives a reproach to the Church and a burden to the State Therefore he resolved to suppress a great number of them and to change them to another Institution From the days of King Edgar the State of Monkery had been still growing in England For most of the Secular Clergy being then Married and refusing to put away their Wives were by Dunstan Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Ethelwald Bishop of Winchester and Oswald Bishop of Worcester who were all Monks turned out of their Livings There is in the Rolls an Inspeximus of King Edgars Erecting the Priory and Convent of Worcester which bears date Anno 964. Edgari 6 to on St. Innocents-day Signed by the King the Queen Two Arch-Bishops Five Bishops Six Abbots but neither Bishoprick nor Abbey are named Six Dukes and Five Knights but there is no Seal to it It bears that the King with the Council and Consent of his Princes and Gentry did Confirm and Establish that Priory and that he had Erected 47 Monasteries which he intended to encrease to 50. the number of Jubilee and that the former Incumbents should be for ever excluded from all pretensions to their Benefices because they had rather chosen with the danger of their Order and the prejudice of the Ecclesiastical Benefice to adhere to their Wives than to serve God Chastly and Canonically The Monks being thus setled in most Cathedrals of England gave themselves up to Idleness and Pleasure which had been long complained of but now that Learning began to be restored they being every-where possessed of the best Church-Benefices were looked upon by all Learned-men with an evil eye as having in their hands the chief encouragements of Learning and yet doing nothing towards it they on the contrary decrying and disparaging it all they could saying It would bring in Heresie and a great deal of mischief And the Restorers of Learning such as Erasmus Vives and others did not spare them but did expose their Ignorance and ill Manners to the world Now the King naturally loved Learning and therefore the Cardinal either to do a thing which he knew would be acceptable to the King or that it was also agreeable to his own Inclinations resolved to set up some Colledges in which there should be both great Encouragements for eminent Scholars to prosecute their Studies and good Schools for teaching and training up of Youth This he knew would be a great honour to him to be lookt upon as a Patron of Learning and therefore he set his heart much on it to have Two Colledges the one at Oxford the other at Ipswich the place of his Birth well constituted and nobly Endowed But towards this it was necessary to suppress some Monasteries which was thought every-whit as justifiable
a Book for his opinion and confirm it with as much Authority as he could and was recommended to the care of the Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond to which honor the King had advanced Sr. Thomas Boleyn in the right of his Mother and in the beginning of the next year he published his Book about it Richard Crook who was Tutor to the Duke of Richmond was sent into Italy and others were sent to France and Germany to consult the Divines Canonists and other Learned men in the Universities about the Kings business How the rest managed the matter I have not yet been able to discover but from a great number of original Letters of Doctor Crooks I shall give a full account of his Negotiation It was thought best to begin at home and therefore the King wrote to the two Universities in England to send him their conclusions about it The matters went at Oxford thus The Bishop of Lincoln being sent thither with the Kings Letters for their Resolution it was by the Major vote of the Convocation of all the Doctors and Masters as well Regents as non-Regents committed to 33 Doctors and Batchelours of Divinity who were named by their own Facultie or to the greater number of them to determine the Questions that were sent with the Kings Letters and to set the common Seal of the University to their Conclusions and by vertue of that Warrant they did on the 8 of April put the common Seal of the University to an Instrument declaring the Marriage of the Brothers wife to be both contrary to the Laws of God and Nature The Collector of the Antiquities of Oxford informs us of the uneasiness that was in the University in this matter and of the several messages the King sent before that Instrument could be procured so that from the 12 of February to the 8 of April the matter was in agitation the Masters of Arts generally opposing it though the Doctors and Heads were for the greatest part for it But after he has set down the Instrument he gives some reasons upon what design I cannot easily imagine to shew that this was extorted by force and being done without the consent of the Masters of Arts was of it self void and of no force and as if it had been an ill thing he takes pains to purge the University of it and lays it upon the fears and corruptions of some aspiring men of the University and without any proof gives credit to a lying Story set down by Sanders of an Assembly called in the night in which the Seal of the University was set to the Determination But it appears that he had never seen or considered the other Instrument to which the University set their Seal that was agreed on in a Convocation of all the Doctors and Masters as well Regents as non-Regents giving Power to these Doctors and Batchelors ofDivinity to determine the Matter and to set the Seal of the University to their Conclusion The original whereof the Lord Herbert saw upon which the persons so deputed had full Authority to set the University Seal to that Conclusion without a new Convocation Perhaps that Instrument was not so carefully preserved among their Records or was in Queen Maries days taken away which might occasion these mistakes in their Historian There seems to be also another mistake in the Relation he gives for he says those of Paris had determined in this matter before it was agreed to at Oxford The Printed Decision of the Sorbone contradicts this for it bears date the 2d of Iuly 1530. whereas this was done the 8th of April 1530. But what passed at Cambridge I shall set down more fully from an original Letter written by Gardiner and Fox to the King in February but the day is not marked When they came to Cambridge they spake to the Vice-Chancellor whom they found very ready to serve the King so was also Bonner whom they call Doctor Edmonds and several others but there was a contrary party that met together and resolved to oppose them A meeting of the Doctors Batchelors of Divinity and Masters of Arts in all about 200 was held There the Kings Letters were read and the Vice-Chancellor calling upon several of them to deliver their opinions about it they answered as their affections led them and were in some disorder But it being proposed that the answering the Kings Letter and the Questions in it should be referred to some indifferent men great exceptions were made to Doctor Salcot Doctor Reps and Crome and all others who had approved Doctor Cranmers Book as having already declared themselves partial But to that it was answered that after a thing was so much discoursed of as the Kings matter had been it could not be imagined that any number of men could be found who had not declared their judgment about it one way or another Much time was spent in the debate but when it grew late the Vice-Chancellor commanded every man to take his place and to give his voice whether they would agree to the Motion of referring it to a Select body of men but that night they would not agree to it The Congregation being Adjourned till next day the Vice-Chancellor offered a Grace or Order to refer the matter to 29 persons himself 10 Doctors and 16 Batchelors and the 2 Proctors That the Questions being publickly disputed what two parts of three agreed to should be read in a Congregation and without any further debate the Common Seal of the University should be set to it Yet it was at first denyed then being put to the vote it was carryed equally on both sides But being a third time proposed it was carryed for the Divorce Of which an account was presently sent to the King with a Schedule of their names to whom it was committed and what was to be expected from them so that it was at length determined though not without opposition That the King's Marriage was against the Law of God It is thought strange that the King who was otherwise so absolute in England should have met with more difficulty in this matter at home than he did abroad But the most reasonable account I can give of it is That at this time there were many in the Universities particularly at Cambridge who were addicted to Luthers Doctrine And of those Cranmer was lookt on as the most Learned So that Crome Shaxton Latimer and others of that Society favoured the Kings Cause besides that Anne Boleyn had in the Dutchess of Alancon's Court who inclined to the Reformation received such impressions as made them fear that her Greatness and Cranmers Preferment would encourage Heresie to which the Universities were furiously averse and therefore they did resist all Conclusions that might promote the Divorce But as for Crooke in Italy he being very Learned in the Greek Tongue was first sent to Venice to search the Greek Manuscripts that lay in the Library of
St. Mark and to examine the Decrees of the ancient Councils He went incognito without any Character from the King only he had a Letter Recommending him to the care of Iohn Cassali then Ambassador at Venice to procure him an admittance into the Libraries there But in all his Letters he complained mightily of his Poverty that he had scarce whereby to live and pay the Copiers whom he imployed to Transcribe passages out of MSS. He stayed some time at Venice from whence he went to Padua Bononia and other Towns where he only talked with Divines and Canonists about these questions Whether the Precepts in Leviticus of the Degrees of Marriage do still oblige Christians And whether the Popes Dispensation could have any force against the Law of God These he proposed in Discourse without mentioning the King of England or giving the least intimation that he was sent by him till he once discovered their Opinions But finding them generally inclining to the Kings Cause he took more courage and went to Rome where he sought to be made a Penitentiary Priest that he might have the freer access into Libraries and be lookt on as one of the Popes Servants But at this time the Earl of Wiltshire and Stokesley who was made Bishop of London Tonstall being Translated to Duresm were sent by the King into Italy Ambassadors both to the Pope and Emperor Cranmer went with them to justifie his Book in both these Courts Stokesley brought full Instructions to Crooke to search the Writings of most of the Fathers on a great many passages of the Scripture and in particular to try what they wrote on that Law in Deuteronomy which provided that when one died without Children his Brother should marry his Wife to raise up Children to him This was most pressed against the King by all that were for the Queen as either an Abrogation of the other Law in Leviticus or at least a Dispensation with it in that particular Case He was also to consult the Iews about it and was to Copy out every thing that he found in any Manuscript of the Greek or Latine Fathers relating to the Degrees of Marriage Of this labour he complained heavily and said That though he had a great task laid on him yet his allowance was so small that he was often in great straits This I take notice of because it is said by others That all the Subscriptions that he procured were bought At this time there were great Animosities between the Ministers whom the King imployed in Italy the two Families of the Cassali and the Ghinucci hating one another Of the former Family were the Ambassadors at Rome and at Venice Of the other Hierome was Bishop of Worcester and had been in several Ambassies into Spain His Brother Peter was also imployed in some of the little Courts of Italy as the Kings Agent Whether the King out of Policy kept this hatred up to make them Spies one on another I know not To the Ghinucci was Crooke gained so that in all his Letters he complained of the Cassali as men that betraied the Kings Affairs and said that Iohn then Ambassador at Venice not only gave him no assistance but used him ill and publickly discovered That he was imployed by the King which made many who had formerly spoken their minds freely be more reserved to him But as he wrote this to the King he begged of him that it might not be known otherwise he expected either to be Killed or Poisoned by them Yet they had their Correspondents about the King by whose means they understood what Crooke had Informed against them But they wrote to the King that he was so morose and ill-natured that nothing could please him and to lessen his Credit they did all they could to stop his Bills All this is more fully set down than perhaps was necessary if it were not to show that he was not in a condition to corrupt so many Divines and whole Universities as some have given out He got into the acquaintance of a Frier at Venice Franciscus Georgius who had lived 49 years in a Religious order and was esteemed the most Learned man in the Republick not only in the vulgar Learning but in the Greek and Hebrew and was so much accounted of by the Pope that he called him the Hammer of Hereticks He was also of the Senatorian Quality and his Brother was Governor of Padua and payed all the Readers there This Friar had a great opinion of the King and having studied the case wrote for the Kings cause and endeavoured to satisfie all the other Divines of the Republick among whom he had much credit Thomas Omnibonus a Dominican Philippus de Cremis a Doctor of the Law Valerius of Bergamo and some others wrote for the Kings cause Many of the Iewish Rabbins did give it under their hands in Hebrew That the Laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy were thus to be reconciled That Law of Marrying the Brothers wife when he dyed without Children did only bind in the Land of Judaea to preserve Families and maintain their Successions in the Land as it had been divided by Lot But that in all other places of the world the Law of Leviticus of not Marrying the Brothers wife was obligatory He also searched all the Greek MSS. of Councils and Nazianzens and Chrysostoms works After that he run over Macarius Acacius Apollinaris Origen Gregory Nyssen Cyril Severian and Gennadius and copied out of them all that which was pertinent to his purpose He procured several hands to the Conclusions before it was known that it was the Kings business in which he was employed But the Government of Venice was so strict that when it was known whose Agent he was he found it not easie to procure Subscriptions Therefore he advised the King to order his Minister to procure a Licence from the Senate for their Divines to declare their opinions in that matter Which being proposed to the Senate all the answer he could obtain was that they would be Neutrals and when the Ambassador pressed as an evidence of Neutrality that the Senate would leave it free to their Divines to declare of either side as their Consciences led them he could procure no other answer the former being again repeated Yet the Senate making no Prohibition many of their Divines put their hands to the Conclusions And Crook had that Success that he wrote to the King he had never met with a Divine that did not favour his cause but the Conclusions touching the Popes Power his Agents did every-where discourage and threaten those who subscribed them And the Emperors Ambassador at Venice did threaten Omnibonus for writing in prejudice of the Popes Authority and asserting conclusions which would make most of the Princes of Europe Bastards He answered he did not consider things as a Statesman but as a Divine Yet to take off this fear Crook suggested to the King to order his Minister at the
some days publick Dispute on the 1st of Iuly determined to the same purpose about which Crooks Letter will be found among the Instruments at the end of this Book At Ferrara the Divines did also confirm the same conclusion and sâ—t their Seal to it but it was taken away violently by some of the other Faction yet the Duke made it be restored The profession of the Canon-Law was then in great credit there and in a Congregation of 72 of that proâ—ession it was determined for the King but they asked 150 Crowns foâ— setting the Seal to it and Crook would not give more than an hundred the next day he came and offered the Money but then it was told him they would not meddle in it and he could not afterwards obtain it In all Crook sent over by Stokesley an hundred several Books Papers and Subscriptions and there were many hands subscribed to many of those Papers But it seems Crook died before he could receive a reward of this great Service he did the King for I do not find him mentioned after this I hope the Reader will forgive my insisting so much on this Negotiation for it seemed necessary to give full and convincing Evidences of the sincerity of the Kings proceedings in it since it is so confidently given out that these were but mercenary Subscriptions What difficulties or opposition those who were employed in France found does not yet appear to me but the Seals of the chief Universities there were procured The University of Orleance determined it on the 7th of April The faculty of the Canon-Law at Paris did also conclude that the Pope had no Power to dispence in that Case on the 25th of May. But the great and celebrated faculty of the Sorbon whose Conclusions had been lookt on for some Ages as little inferiour to the Decrees of Councils made their Decision with all possible Solemnity and Decency They first met at the Church of St. Mathurin where there was a Mass of the H. Ghost and every one took an Oath to study the Question and resolve it according to his Conscience and from the 8th of Iune to the 2d of Iuly they continued searching the matter with all possible diligence both out of the Scriptures the Fathers and the Councils and had many Disputes about it After which the greater part of the Faculty did Determine That the King of Englands Marriage was unlawful and that the Pope had no Power to dispence in it and they set their common Seal to it at St. Mathurin's the 2d of Iuly 1530. To the same purpose did both the Faculties of Law Civil and Canon at Angiers Determine the 7th of May. On the 10th of Iune the Faculty of Divinity at Bourges made the same Determination And on the 1st of October the whole University of Tholose did all with one consent give their judgment agreeing with the former Conclusions More of the Decisions of Universities were not Printed though many more were obtained to the same effect In Germany Spain and Flanders the Emperors Authority was so great that much could not be expected except from the Lutherans with whom Cranmer conversed and chiefly with Osiander whose Neece he then Married Osiander upon that wrote a Book about Incestuous Marriages which was published but was called in by a Prohibition Printed at Ausburg because it Determined in the Kings cause and on his side But now I find the King did likewise deal among those in Switzerland that had set up the Reformation The Duke of Suffolk did most set him on to this so one who was imployed in that time writes for he often asked him how he could so humble himself as to submit his Cause to such a vile vitious stranger Priest as Campegio was To which the King answered He could give no other reason but that it seemed to him Spiritual men should judge Spiritual things yet he said he would search the matter further but he had no great mind to seem more curious than other Princes But the Duke desired him to discuss the matter secretly amongst Learned men to which he consented and wrote to some Forreign Writers that were then in great estimation Erasmus was much in his favour but he would not appear in it He had no mind to provoke the Emperor and live uneasily in his own Country But Simon Grineus was sent for whom the King esteemed much for his Learning The King informed him about his Process and sent him back to Basil to try what his Friends in Germany and Switzerland thought of it He wrote about it to Bucer Oecolampadius Zuinglius and Paulus Phrygion Oecolampadius as it appears by three Letters one dated the 10th of August 1531. another the last of the same Month another to Bucer the 10th of September was positively of Opinion That the Law in Leviticus did bind all mankind and says That Law of a Brothers Marrying his Sister-in-Law was a Dispensation given by God to his own Law which belonged only to the Jews and therefore he thought that the King might without any scruple put away the Queen But Bucer was of another mind and thought the Law in Leviticus did not bind and could not be Moral because God had dispensed with it in one Case of raising up seed to his Brother Therefore he thought these Laws belonged only to that Dispensation and did no more bind Christians than the other Ceremonial or Judiciary Precepts and that to Marry in some of these Degrees was no more a sin than it was a sin in the Disciples to pluck Ears of Corn on the Sabbath-day There are none of Bucers Letters remaining on this Head but by the answers that Grineus wrote to him one on the 29th of August another of the 10th of September I gather his Opinion and the reasons for it But they all agreed That the Popes Dispensation was of no force to alter the nature of the thing Paulus Phrygion was of Opinion That the Laws in Leviticus did bind all Nations because it is said in the Text That the Canaanites were punished for doing contrary to them which did not consist with the Iustice of God if those Prohibitions had not been parts of the Law of Nature Dated Basil the 10th of September In Grineus's Letter to Bucer he tells him that the King had said to him That now for seven years he had perpetual trouble upon him about this Marriage Zuinglius Letter is very full First he largely proves that neither the Pope nor any other Power could dispence with the Law of God Then that the Apostles had made no new Laws about Marriage but had left it as they found it That the Marrying within near degrees was hated by the Greeks and other Heathen Nations But whereas Grineus seemed to be of opinion that though the Marriage was ill made yet it ought not to be dissolved and inclined rather to advise that the King should take
Cardinal A King of France desired a Dispensation to Marry his Wives Sister The matter was long considered of and debated in the Rota himself being there and bearing a share in the Debate but it was concluded That if any Pope either out of Ignorance or being Corrupted had ever granted such a Dispensation that could be no president or warrant for doing the like any more since the Church ought to be governed by Laws and not by such Examples Antonin and Ioannes de Tabia held the same And one Bacon an English-man who had taught the contrary was censured for it even at Rome and he did retract his Opinion and acknowledged that the Pope could not dispence with the Degrees of Marriage forbidden by the Law of God The Canonists agree also to this both Ioannes Andreas Ioannes de Imola and Abbas Panormitanus assert it saying That the Precepts in Leviticus oblige for ever and therefore cannot be dispenced with And Panormitan says These things are to be observed in Practice because great Princes do often desire Dispensations from Popes Pope Alexander the 3d. would not suffer a Citizen of Pavia to Marry his younger Son to the Widow of his eldest Son though he had Sworn to do it For the Pope said it was against the Law of God therefore it might not be done and he was to repent of his unlawful Oath And for the Power of dispencing even with the Laws of the Church by Popes it was brought in in the latter Ages All the Fathers with one consent believed That the Laws of God could not be dispenced with by the Church for which many places were cited out of St. Cyprian Basil Ambrose Isidore Bernard and Urban Fabian Marcellus and Innocent that were Popes besides an infinite number of latter Writers And also the Popes Zosimus Damasus Leo and Hilarius did freely acknowledge they could not change the Decrees of the Church nor go against the Opinions or Practices of the Fathers And since the Apostles confessed they could do nothing against the truth but for the truth the Pope being Christs Vicar cannot be supposed to have so great a Power as to abrogate the Law of God and though it is acknowledged that he is Vested with a fulness of Power yet the phrase must be restrained to the matter of it which is the Pastoral care of Souls And though there was no Court Superiour to the Popes yet as St. Paul had withstood St. Peter to his face so in all Ages upon several occasions holy Bishops have refused to comply with or submit to Orders sent from Rome when they thought the matter of them unlawful Laurence that Succeeded Austin the Monk in the See of Canterbury having Excommunicated King Edbald for an Incestuous Marriage would not Absolve him till he put away his Wife though the Pope plied him earnestly both by Intreaties and Threatnings to let it alone and Absolve him Dunstan did the like to Count Edwin for an other Incestuous Marriage nor did all the Popes Interposition make him give over They found many other such instances which occurred in the Ecclesiastical History of Bishops proceeding by Censures and other Methods to stop the course of Sin notwithstanding any encouragement the Parties had from Popes And it is certain that every man when he finds himself engaged in any course which is clearly sinful ought presently to forsake it according to the opinion of all Divines And therefore the King upon these Evidences of the unlawfulness of his Marriage ought to abstain from the Queen and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with the other Bishops ought to require him to do it otherwise they must proceed to Church Censures Many things were also brought from reason or at least the Maximes of the School Philosophy which passed for true reason in those days to prove Marriage in the degrees forbidden by Moses to be contrary to the Law of Nature and much was alledged out of Profane Authors to show what an abhorrency some Heathen Nations had of Incestuous Marriages And whereas the chief strength of the Arguments for the contrary opinion rested in this That these Laws of Moses were not confirmed by Christ or his Apostles in the New Testament To that they answered That if the Laws about Marriage were Moral as had been proved then there was no need of a particular Confirmation since those Words of our Saviour I came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it do confirm the whole Moral Law Christ had also expresly asserted the Relation of Affinity saying That man and wife are one Flesh. St. Paul also condemned a Match as Incestuous for Affinity But though it were not expresly set down in the Gospel yet the Traditions of the Church are received with equal Authority to written Verities This the Court of Rome and all the Learned Writers for the Catholick Faith lay down as a Fundamental Truth And without it how could the Seven Sacraments some of which are not mentioned in the New Testament with many other Articles of Catholick Belief be maintained against the Hereticks The Tradition of the Church being so full and formal in this particular must take place And if any Corruptions have been brought in by some Popes within an Age or two which have never had any other Authority from the Decrees of the Church or the Opinions of Learned men they are not to be maintained in opposition to the Evidence that is brought on the other side This I have summed up in as short and Comprehensive words as I could Being the Substance of what I gathered out of the Printed Books and Manuscripts for the Kings cause But the Fidelity of an Historian leads me next to open the arguments that were brought against it by those who wrote on the other side for the Queens cause to prove the validity of the Marriage and the Popes Power of Dispensing with a Marriage in that degree of Affinity I could never by all the search I have made see either MSS. or Printed Books that defended their Cause except Cajetans and Victorias Books that are Printed in their works But from an answer that was written to the Bishop of Rochesters Book and from some other writings on the other side I gather the Substance of their arguments to have been what follows Cardinal Cajetan had by many arguments endeavored to prove that the Prohibitions in Leviticus were not parts of the Moral Law They were not observed before the Law no not by the holy seed Adams Children Married one another Abraham Married his Sister Iacob Married two Sisters Iudah gave his two Sons to Tamar and promised to give her the third for her Husband By the Law of Moses a Dispensation was granted in one case for Marrying the Brothers wife which shows the Law was not Moral otherwise it could not be dispenced with and if Moses dispensed with it why might not the Pope as well do it nor was there any force in the
the Father Son Uncle and other such Relations there is no ground to disjoynt this so much from the rest as to make it only extend to a Marriage before the Husbands death And for any Presidents that were brought they were all in the latter Ages and were never Confirmed by any publick Authority Nor must the Practices of later Popes be laid in the Ballance against the Decisions of former Popes and the Doctrine of the whole Church and as to the Power that was ascribed to the Pope that began now to be enquired into with great Freedom as shall appear afterwards These Reasons on both sides being thus opened the Censures of them it is like will be as different now as they were then for they prevailed very little on the Queen who still persisted to justifie her Marriage and to stand to her Appeal And though the King carryed it very kindly to her in all outward appearance and employed every body that had credit with her to bring her to submit to him and to pass from her Appeal remitting the Decision of the matter to any Four Prelates and Four Secular men in England she was still unmovable and would hearken to no Proposition In the judgments that people passed the Sexes were divided the Men generally approved the Kings cause and the Women favoured the Queen But now the Session of Parliament came on the Sixteenth of Ianuary and there the King first brought in to the House of Lords the Determination of the Universities and the Books that were written for his cause by Forreigners After they were read and Considered there the Lord Chancellor did on the 20th of March with Twelve Lords both of the Spiritualty and Temporalty goe down to the House of Commons and shewed them what the Universities and Learned men beyond Sea had written for the Divorce and produced Twelve Original Papers with the Seals of the Universities to them which Sr. Brian Tuke took out of his hand and read openly in the House Translating the Latine into English Then about an Hundred Books written by Forreign Divines for the Divorce were also showed them none of which were read but put off to another time it being late When that was done the Lord Chancellor desired they would report in their Countries what they had heard and seen and then all men should clearly perceive that the King hath not attempted this matter of Will and Pleasure as strangers say but only for the Discharge of his Conscience and the Security of the Succession to the Crown Having said that he left the House The matter was also brought before the Convocation and they having weighed all that was said on both sides seemed satisfied that the Marriage was unlawful and that the Bull was of no force more not being required at that time But it is not strange that this matter went so easily in the Convocation when another of far greater consequence passed there which will require a â—ull and distinct account Cardinal Wolsey by exercising his Legantine Authority had fallen into a Premunire as hath been already shewn and now those who had appeared in his Courts and had sutes there were found to be likewise in the same guilt by the Law and this matter being excepted out of the Pardon that was granted in the former Parliament was at this time set on foot Therefore an Indictment was brought into the Kings Bench against all the Clergy of England for breaking the Statutes against Provisions or Provisors But to open this more clearly It is to be Considered that the Kings of England having claimed in all Ages a Power in Ecclesiastical Matters equal to what the Roman Emperors had in that Empire they exercised this Authority both over the Clergy and Laity and did at first erect Bishopricks grant Investitures in them call Synods make Laws about Sacred as well as Civil Concerns and in a word they Governed their whole Kingdom Yet when the Bishops of Rome did stretch their Power beyond either the limits of it in the Primitive Church or what was afterward granted them by the Roman Emperors and came to assume an Authority in all the Churches of Europe as they found some Resistance every where so they met with a great deal in this Kingdom and it was with much Difficulty that they gained the Power of giving Investitures Receiving Appeals to Rome and of sending Legates to England with several other things which were long contested but were delivered up at length either by feeble Princes or when Kings were so engaged at home or abroad that it was not safe for them to offend the Clergy For in the first Contest between the Kings and the Popes the Clergy were generally on the Popes side because of the Immunity and Protection they enjoyed from that See but when Popes became ambitious and warlike Princes then new Projects and Taxes were every where set on foot to raise a great Treasure The Pall with many Bulls and high Compositions for them Annates or first Fruits and Tenths were the standing Taxes of the Clergy besides many new ones upon emergent occasions So that they finding themselves thus oppressed by the Popes fled again back to the Crown for Protection which their Predecessors had abandoned From the days of Edward the 1st many Statutes were made to restrain the Exactions of Rome For then the Popes not satisfied with their other oppressions which a Monk of that time lays open fully and from a deep sense of them did by Provisions Bulls and other Arts of that See dispose of Bishopricks Abbeys and lesser Benefices to Forreigners Cardinals and others that did not live in England Upon which the Commonalty of the Realm did represent to the King in Parliament That the Bishopricks Abbeys and other Benefices were founded by the Kings and people of England To inform the people of the Law of God and to make Hospitality Alms and other works of Charity for which end they were endowed by the King and people of England and that the King and his other Subjects who endowed them had upon Voidances the Presentment and Collations of them which now the Pope had Usurped and given to Aliens by which the Crown would be disinherited and the ends of their endowments destroyed with other great Inconveniences Therefore it was ordained that these Oppressions should not be suffered in any manner But notwithstanding this the abuse went on and there was no effectual way laid down in the Act to punish these Transgressions The Court of Rome was not so easily driven out of any thing that either encreased their Power or their Profits Therefore by another Act in his Grand-Child Edward the 3ds time the Commons complained that these abuses did abound and that the Pope did daily reserve to his Collation Church-Preferments in England and raised the first-Fruits with other great Profits by which the Treasure of the Realm was carried out of it
necessity of making another Law in the Reign of Henry 5th against Provisors that the Incumbents Lawfully Invested in their Livings should not be molested by them though they had the Kings Pardon and both Bulls and Licences were declared void and of no value and those who did upon such grounds molest them should incur the pains of the Statutes against Provisors Our Kings took the best opportunity that ever could have been found to depress the Papal Power for from the beginning of Richard the Second's Reign till the Fourth year of Henry the Fiâ—th the Popedome was broken by a long and great Schism and the Kinâ—doms of Europe were divided in their Obedience Some holding for those that sate at Rome and others for the Popes of Avignon England in opposition to France that chiefly supported the Avignon-Popes did adhere to the Roman Popes The Papacy being thus divided the Popes were as much at the mercy of Kings for their Protection as Kings had formerly been at theirs so that they durst not Thunder as they were wont to do otherwise this Kingdom had certainly been put under Excommunications and Interdicts for these Statutes as had been done formerly upon less Provocations But now that the Schism was healed Pope Martin the Fifth began to reassume the Spirit of his Predecessors and sent over threatning messages to England in the beginning of Henry the Sixths Reign None of our Books have taken any notice of this piece of our History The Manuscript out of which I draw it had been written near that time and contains many of the Letters that passed between Rome and England upon this occasion The first Letter is to Henry Chichely then Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who had been promoted to that See by the Pope but had made no opposition to the Statute against Provisions in the Fourth year of Henry the Fifth and afterwards in the Eighth year of his Reign when the Pope had granted a Provision of the Arch-Bishoprick of York to the Bishop of Lincoln the Chapter of York rejected it and pursuant to the former Statute made a Canonical Election Henry the Fifth being then the greatest King in Christendome the Pope durst not offend him So the Law took place without any further contradiction till the Sixth year of his Sons Reign that England was both under an Infant King and had fallen from its former greatness Therefore the Pope who waited for a good conjuncture laid hold on this and first expostulated severely with the Arch-Bishop for his remisness that he had not stood up more for the Right of St. Peter and the See of Rome that had bestowed on him the Primaâ—y of England and then says many things against the Statute of Premunire and exhorts him to imitate the Example of his Predecessor St. Thomas of Canterbury the Martyr in asserting the Rights of the Church requiring him under the pain of Excommunication to declare at the next Parliament to both Houses the unlawfulness of that Statute and that all were under Excommunication who obeyed it But to make sure work among the people he also commands him to give orders under the same pains that all the Clergy of England should preach the same Doctrine to the people This bears date the 5th day of December 1426. and will be found in the Collection of Papers But it seems the Pope was not satisfied with his Answer for the next Letter in that MSS. is yet more severe and in it his Legantine Power is suspended It has no date added to it but the Paper that follows bearing date the 6th of April 1427. leads us pretty near the date of it It contains an Appeal of the Arch-Bishops from the Popes Sentence to the next general Council or if none met to the Tribunal of God and Jesus Christ. There is also another Letter dated the 6th of May directed to the Arch-Bishop and makes mention of Letters written to the whole Clergie to the same purpose Requiring him to use all his Endeavors for repealing the Statute and chides him severely because he had said that the Popes zeal in this matter was only that he might raise much Money out of England which he resents as an high Injury and Protests that he designed only to maintain these Rights that Christ himself had granted to his See which the Holy Fathers the Councils and the Catholick Church has always acknowledged If this does not look like Teaching ex Cathedra it is left to the Readers Judgment But the next Letter is of an higher strain It is directed to the two Arch-Bishops only and it seems in despite to Chichely the Arch-Bishop of York is named before Canterbury By it the Pope annuls the Statutes made by Edward the Third and Richard the Second and commands them to do no Act in pursuance of them and declares if they or any other gave obedience to them they were ipso facto Excommunicated and not to be relaxed unless at the point of death by any but the Pope He charges them also to intimate that his Monitory Letter to the whole nation and cause it to be affixed in the several places where there might be occasion for it This is dated the 8th of Decemb. the tenth year of his Popedom Then follow Letters from the University of Oxford the Arch-Bishop of York the Bishops of London Duresm and Lincoln to the Pope all to mitigate his displeasure against the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in which they gave him the highest testimony possible bearing date the 10th and the 25th day of Iuly These the Arch-Bishop sent by an Express to Rome and wrote the humblest submission possible to the Pope Protesting that he had done and would do all that was in his Power for repealing these Statutes One thing in this Letter is remarkable he says he hears the Pope had proceeded to a Sentence against him which had never been done from the days of St. Austin to that time but he knew that only by report for he had not opened much less read the Bulls in which it was contained being commanded by the King to bring them with the Seals entire and lay them up in the Paper-Office till the Parliament was brought together There are two other Letters to the King and one to the Parliament for the Repeal of the Statute In those to the King the Pope writes that he had often pressed both King and Parliament to it and that the King had answered that he could not repeal it without the Parliament But he excepts to that as a delaying the business and shews it is of it self unlawful and that the King was under Excommunication as long as he kept it therefore he expects that at the furthest in the next Parliament it should be repealed It bears date the 13th of October in the 10th year of his Popedom In his Letter to the Parliament he tells them that no Man can be saved who is for the observation of that Statute
Modena and Reggio from the Duke of Ferrara to which he pretended as being Fiefs of the Papacy and the Emperor having engaged by the former Treatyto restore them to him But now that the Popes pretensions were appointed to be examined by some Judges delegated by the Emperor they determined against the Pope for the Duke of Ferrara which so disgusted the Pope that he fell totally from the Emperor and did unite with the King of France a Match being also projected between the Duke of Orleance afterwards Henry the 2d and his Neece Catharine de Medici which did work much on the Popes ambition to have his Family Allied to so mighty a Monarch So that now he became wholly French The French King was also on account of this Marriage to resigne all the pretensions he had to any Territory in Italy to his younger Son which as it would give less-Umbrage to the other Princes of Italy who liked rather to have a King 's younger Son among them than either the Emperor or the French King so the Pope was wonderfully pleased to raise another great Prince in Italy out of his own Family On these grounds was the Match at this time designed which afterwards took effect but with this difference that by the Dolphin's death the Duke of Orleance became King of France and his Queen made the greatest Figure that any Queen of France had done for many Ages This change in the Popes mind might have produced another in the Kings Affairs if he had not already gone so far that he was less in fear of the Pope than formerly He found the Credit of his Clergy was so low that to preserve themselves from the contempt and fury of the people they were forced to depend wholly on the Crown For Lutheranisme was then making a great progress in England of which I shall say nothing here being resolved at the end of this Book to give an account of the whole Course of it in those years that fall within this time But what by the means of the new Preachers what by the scandals cast on the Clergy they were all at the Kings Mercy so he did not fear much from them especially in the Southern parts which were the richest and best peopled Therefore the King went on resolutely The Pope on the other hand was in great perplexity he saw England ready to be lost and knew not what to do to rescue or preserve it If he gave way to what was lately done in the business of the Premunire he must thereby lose the greatest advantages he drew from that Nation and it was not likely that after the King had gone so far he would undo what was done The Emperor was more remiss in prosecuting the Queens Appeal at Rome for at that time the Turk with a most numerous and powerful Army was making an impression on Hungary which to the great scandal of the most Christian King was imputed to his Councils and Presents at the Port and all the Emperor's thoughts were taken up with this Therefore as he gave the Protestant Princes of Germany some present satisfaction in Religion and other matters so he sent over to England and desired the Kings assistance against that vast Army of 300000 men that was falling in upon Christendom To this the King made a general answer that gave some hopes of assisting him But at the same time the Protestant Princes resolving to draw some advantage from that conjuncture of Affairs and being courted by the French King entred into a League with him for the defence of the Rights of the Empire And to make this firmer the King was invited by the French King to joyn in it to which he consented and sent over to France a sum of Money to be employed â—or the safety of the Empire And this provoked the Emperor to renew his endeavours in the Court of Rome for prosecuting the Queens Appeal The French King encouraged the King to go on with his Divorce that he might totally Alienate him from the Emperor The French Writers also add another Consideration which seems unworthy of so great a King that he himself being at that time so publick a Courtier of Ladies was not ill pleased to set forward a thing of that nature But though Princes allow themselves their pleasures yet they seldom Govern their Affairs by such Maximes In the beginning of the next year a new Session of Parliament was held in which the House of Commons went on to complain of many other grievances they lay under from the Clergy which they put in a writing and Presented it to the King In it they complained of the proceedings in the Spiritual Courts and especially their calling men before them ex officio and laying Articles to their charge without any Accuser and then admitting no Purgation but causing the Party Accused either to abjure or to be burnt which they found very grievous and intollerable This was occasioned by some violent proceeding against some reputed Hereticks of which an account shall be given afterwards But those complaints were stifled and great misunderstandings arose between the King and the House of Commons upon this following occasion There was a common practice in England of mens making such Setlements of their Estates by their Last Wills or other Deeds that the King and some great Lords were thereby defrauded of the advantages they made by Wards Marriages and Primer Season For regulating which a Bill was brought in to the House of Peers and assented to there but when it was sent down to the House of Commons it was rejected by them and they would neither pass the Bill nor any other Qualification of that Abuse This gave the King great offence and the House when they addressed to him about the proceedings of the Clergy also prayed That he would consider what Cost Charge and Pains they had been at since the beginning of the Parliament and that it would please his Grace of his Princely Benignity to Dissolve his Court of Parliament and that his Subjects might return into their Countries To which the King answered That for their complaints of the Clergy he must hear them also before he could give Judgment since in Justice he ought to hear both Parties but that their desiring the Redress of such Abuses was contrary to the other part of their Petition for if the Parliament were Dissolved how could those things they complained of be amended And as they complained of their long attendance so the King had stayed as long as they had done and yet he had still patience and so they must have otherwise their grievances would be without Redress But he did expostulate severely upon their rejecting the Bill about Deeds in prejudice of the Rights of the Crown He â—aid he had offered them a great mitigation of what by the rigour of the Law he might pretend to and if they would not accept of it he would
the King had done That the Pope had said at Marseilles that if the King would send a Proxy to Rome he would give the Cause for him against the Queen because he knew his Cause was good and just Which is a great presumption that the Pope did really give some engagements to the French King about the King's business When the Bishop of Paris came to Rome the Motion was liked and it was promised that if the King sent a promise of that under his Hand with an Order to his Proxies to appear in Court there should be Judges sent to Cambray to form the Process and then the matter should be Determined for him at Rome This was sent to the King with the Notice of the day that was prefixed for the return of his answer and with other Motives which must have been very great since they prevailed so much For in answer there was a Courier dispatcht from the King with a formal promise under his Hand And now the matter seemed at a point the French Interest was great in the Court of Rome four new Cardinals had been made at Marseilles and there were six of that Faction before which with the Popes Creatures and the indifferent or venal Voices ballanced the Imperial Faction so that a wound that was looked on as fatal was now almost healed But God in his wise and unsearchable Providence had designed to draw other great ends out of this Rupture and therefore suffered them that were the most concerned to hinder it to be the chief instruments of driving it on For the Cardinals of the Imperial Faction were now very active they liked not the President of excluding the Cardinals of the Nations concern'd out of any business But above all things they were to hinder a Conjunction between the Pope and the King of England for the Pope being then allied to France there was nothing the Emperor feared more than the closing the Breach with England which would make the union against him so much stronger Therefore when the day that had been prefixed for the return of the Courier from England was elapsed they all pressed the Pope to proceed to a Sentence Definitive and to Censures Bellay the Bishop of Paris represented the injustice of proceeding with so much Precipitation since where there were Seas to cross in such a Season many accidents might occasion the delay of the Express The King of England had followed this Suit six years and had patience so long therefore he desired the delay of six dayes and if in that time no return came they might proceed But the Imperialists represented that those were only delays to gain time and that the King of England was still proceeding in his contempt of the Apostolick See and of the Cardinals and publishing Books and Libels against them This so wrought on the angry Pope that without consulting his ordinary prudence he brought the business into the Consistory where the Plurality of voices carryed it to proceed to a Sentence And though the Process had been carryed on all that winter in their usual Forms yet it was not so ripe but by the Rules of the Consistory there ought to have been three Sessions before Sentence was given But they concluded all in one day and so on the 23d of March the Marriage between the King and Queen Katharine was declared good and the King required to take her as his wife otherwise Censures were to be denounced against him Two days after that the Courier arrived from England with the Kings Submission under his hand in due Form and earnest Letters from the French King to have it accepted that so the business might be composed When this was known at Rome all the indiâ—â—erent and wise Cardinals among whom was Farnese that was afterwards Pope Paul the 3d. came to the Pope and desired that it might be again considered before it went furâ—her So it was brought again into the Consistory But the secret reason of the Imperialists opposing it was now more pressing since there was such an appearance of a settlement if the former Sentence were once recalled Therefore they so managed the matter that it was confirmed a-new by the Pope and the Consistory and they ordered the Emperor to execute the Sentence The King was now in so good hope of his business that he sent Sr. Edward Karne to Rome to prosecute his Suit who on his way thither met the Bishop of Paris coming back with this Melancholick account of his unprosperous Negotiation When the King heard it and understood that he was used with so much scorn and contempt at Rome being also the more vexed because he had come to such a submission he resolved then to break totally from Rome And in this he was before hand with that Court. For judging it the best way to procure a peace to manage the War vigorously he had held a Session of Parliament from the 15th of Ianuary till the 30th of March in which he had procured a great Change of the whole Constitution of the Government of the Church But before I give an account of that I shall first open all the Arguments and reasons upon which I find they proceeded in this Matter The Popes Power had been then for 4 years together much examined and disputed in England in which they went by these steps one leading to another They first controverted his Power of Dispensing with the Law of God From that they went to examine what Jurisdiction he had in England upon which followed the Convicting the Clergy of a Premunire with their Submission to the King And that led them to controvert the Popes right to Annates and other Exactions which they also condemned The Condemning all appeals to Rome followed that naturally And now so many branches of that Power were cut off the Root was next struck at and the Foundations of the Papal Authority were examined For near a year together there had been many publick debates about it and both in the Parliament and Convocation the thing was long disputed and all that could be alledged on both sides was Considered The Reader will be best able to judge of their reasons and thereby of the ripeness of their judgments when they Enacted the Laws that passed in this Parliament when he sees a full account of them which I shall next set down not drawn from the Writings and Apologies that have been published since but from these that came out about that time For then were written the Institution for the Necessary Erudition of a Christian man Concluded in the Convocation and published by Authority and another Book De Differentia Regiae Ecclesiasticae Potestatis The former of these was called the Bishops and the latter the Kings Book Gardiner also wrote a Book De vera Obedientia to which Bonner prefixed a Preface upon the same Subject Stokesly Bishop of London and Tonstal Bishop of Duresm wrote a long
vehemency nor could they silence him till the King himself commanded him to hold his peace And yet all that was done either to him or Peto was that being called before the Privie Council they were rebuked for their insolence by which it appears that King Henry was not very easily inflamed against them when a crime of so high a Nature was so slightly passed over Nor was this all but the Fathers that were in the Conspiracy had confederated to publish these Revelations in their Sermons up and down the Kingdom They had also given Notice of them to the Popes Ambassadors and had brought the Maid to declare her Revelations to them they had also sent an account to Queen Katharine for encouraging her to stand out and not submit to the Laws of which Confederacy Thomas Abel was likewise one The thing that was in so many hands could not be a secret therefore the King who had despised it long ordered that in Nouember the former year the Maid and her Complices Richard Master Doctor Bocking Richard Deering Henry Gold a Parson in London Hugh Rich an observant Frier Richard Risby Thomas Gold and Edward Twaites Gentlemen and Thomas Laurence should be brought into the Star-Chamber where there was a great appearance of many Lords they were examined upon the premises and did all without any rack or torture confess the whole Conspiracy and were adjudged to stand in Pauls all the Sermon time and after Sermon the Kings Officers were to give every one of them his Bill of Confession to be openly read before the people which was done next Sunday the Bishop of Bangor preaching they being all set in a Scaffold before him This publick manner was thought upon good grounds to be the best way to satisfie the people of the Imposture of the whole matter and it did very much convince them that the cause must needs be bad where such methods were used to support it From thence they were carryed to the Tower where they lay till the Session of Parliament but when they lay there some of their Complices sent messages to the Nun to encourage her to deny all that she had said and it is very probable that the reports that went abroad of her being forced or cheated into a Confession made the King think it necessary to proceed more severely against her The thing being considered in Parliament it was judged a Conspiracy against the Kings Life and Crown So the Nun and Master Bocking Deering Rich Risby and Henry Gold were Attainted of high Treason And the Bishop of Rochester Thomas Gold Thomas Laurence Edward Twaites Iohn Adeson and Thomas Abell were judged guilty of misprision of Treason and to forfeit their goods and Chattels to the King and to be imprisoned during his pleasure and all the Books that were written of her Revelations were ordered to be sent in to some of the chief Officers of State under the pains of Fine and Imprisonment It had been also found that the Letter which she pretended to have got from Mary Magdalen e was written by one Hankherst of Canterbury and that the door of the Dormitorie which was given out to be made open by miracle that she might go into the Chappel for Converse with God was opened by some of her Complices for beastly and carnal ends But in the Conclusion of the Act all others who had been corrupted in their Allegiance by these impostures except the persons before named were at the earnest intercession of Queen Anne pardoned The two Houses of Parliament having ended their business were prorogued on the 29th of March to the 3d of November and before they broke up all the Members of both Houses that they might give a good example to the Kings other Subjects swore the Oath of Succession as appears from the Act made about it in the next Session of Parliament The Execution of these persons was delayed for some time it is like till the King had a return from Rome of the Messenger he had sent thither with his Submission Soon after that on the 20 of April the Nun and Bocking Master Deering Risby and Gold Rich is not named being perhaps either dead or pardoned were brought to Tiburn The Nun spake these words Hither I am come to die and I have not been only the cause of mine own death which most justly I have deserved but also I am the cause of the death of all those persons which at this time here suffer And yet to say the truth I am not so much to be blamed considering that it was well known to these learned men that I was a poor wench without Learning and therefore they might easily have perceived that the things that were done by me could not proceed in no such sort but their capacities and Learning could right well judge from whence they proceeded and that they were altogether feigned but because the thing which I feigned was profitable to them therefore they much praised me and bore me in hand that it was the Holy-Ghost and not I that did them and then I being pussed up with their praises fell into a certain pride and foolish fantasie with my self and thought I might feign what I would which thing hath brought me to this case and for the which now I cry God and the Kings Highness most heartily Mercy and desire you all good people to pray to God to have mercy on me and on all them that here suffer with me On all this I have dwelt the longer both because these are all called Martyrs by Sanders and that this did first provoke the King against the Regular Clergy and drew after it all the severities that were done in the rest of his Reign The foulness and the wicked designs of this Imposture did much alienate people from the Interest of Rome and made the other Acts both pass more easily and be better received by the people It was also generally believed that what was now discovered was no new practice but that many of the Visions and Miracles by which Religious Orders had raised their Credit so high were of the same Nature and it made way for the destroying of all the Monasteries in England though all the severity which at this time followed on it was that the Observant Friers of Richmont Greenwich Canterbury Newark and Newcastle were removed out of their Houses and put with the other Gray-Friers and Augustin-Friers were put in their Houses But because of the great name of Fisher Bishop of Rochester and since this was the first step to his ruin it is necessary to give a fuller account of his carriage in this matter When the cheat was first discovered Cromwell then Secretary of State sent the Bishops Brother to him with a sharp reproof for his carriage in that business but withal advised him to write to the King and acknowledge his offence and desire his pardon which he knew the King considering his Age and sickness
saw her no more with those eyes which she had formerly captivated but grew jealous and ascribed these caresses to some other criminal affections of which he began to suspect her This being one of the most memorable passages of this Reign I was at more than ordinary pains to learn all I could concerning it and have not only seen a great many Letters that were writ by those that were set about the Queen and catcht every thing that fell from her and sent it to Court but have also seen an account of it which the Learned Spelman who was a Judge at that time writ with his own hand in his Common-place Book and another account of it writ by one Anthony Anthony a Surveyor of the Ordnance of the Tower From all which I shall give a just and faithful relation of it without concealing the least circumstance that may either seem favourable or unfavourable to her She was of a very cheerful temper which was not always limited within the bounds of exact decency and discretion She had rallied some of the Kings Servants more than became her Her Brother the Lord Rochford was her Friend as well as Brother but his spiteful Wife was jealous of him and being a Woman of no sort of Vertue as will appear afterwards by her serving Queen Katharine Howard in her beastly practices for which she was attainted and executed she carryed many Stories to the King or some about him to perswade that there was a familiarity between the Queen and her Brother beyond what so near a Relation could justifie All that could be said for it was only this that he was once seen leaning upon her Bed which bred great suspition Henry Norris that was Groom of the Stole Weston and Brereton that were of the Kings Privy-Chamber and one Mark Smeton a Musician were all observed to have much of her favour And their zeal in serving her was thought too warm and diligent to flow from a less active Principle than Love Many circumstances were brought to the King which working upon his aversion to the Queen together with his affection to Mistress Seimour made him conclude her guilty Yet somewhat which himself observed or fancied at a Tilting at Greenwich is believed to have given the Crisis to her Ruin It is said that he spied her let her Handkerchief fall to one of her Gallants to wipe his face being hot after a Course Whether she dropt it carelesly or of design or whether there be any truth in that story the Letters concerning her fall making no mention of it I cannot determine for Spelman makes no mention of it and gives a very different account of the discovery in these words As for the evidence of this matter it was discovered by the Lady Wingfield who had been a Servant to the Queen and becoming on a sudden infirm sometime before her death did swear this matter to one of her ..... and here unluckily the rest of the Page is torn off By this it seems there was no legal evidence against the Queen and that it was but a Witness at second hand who deposed what they heard the Lady Wingfield swear Who this person was we know not nor in what temper of mind the Lady Wingfield might be when she swore it The safest sort of forgery to one whose Conscience can swallow it is to lay a thing on a dead persons name where there is no fear of discovery before the great day and when it was understood that the Queen had lost the Kings heart many either out of their zeal to Popery or design to make their fortune might be easily induced to carry a story of this Nature And this it seems was that which was brought to the King at Greenwich who did thereupon immediately return to Whitehall it being the 1st of May. The Queen was immediately restrained to her Chamber the other Five were also seized on But none of them would confess any thing but Mark Smeton as to any actual thing so Cromwell writ Upon this they were carryed to the Tower The poor Queen was in a sad condition she must not only fall under the Kings displeasure but be both defam'd and destroyed at once At first she smiled and carryed it cheerfully and said she believed the King did this only to prove her But when she saw it was in earnest she desired to have the Sacrament in her Closet and expressed great devotion and seemed to be prepared for death The surprize and confusion she was in raised fits of the Mother which those about her did not seem to understand But Three or Four Letters which were writ concerning her to Court say that she was at some times very devout and cryed much and of a sudden would burst out in Laughter which are evident signs of Vapours When she heard that those who were accused with her were sent to the Tower she then concluded her self lost and said she should be sent thither next and talked idlely saying That if her Bishops were about the King they would all speak for her She also said That she would be a Saint in Heaven for she had done many good deeds and that there should be no Rain but heavy judgments on the Land for what they were now doing to her Her Enemies had now gone too far not to destroy her Next day she was carryed to the Tower and some Lords that met her on the River declared to her what her Offences were Upon which she made deep Protestations of her Innocence and begged leave to see the King but that was not to be expected When she was carryed into the Tower She fell down on her knees and prayed God to help her as she was not guilty of the thing for which she was accused That same day the King wrote to Cranmer to come to Lambeth but ordered him not to come into his presence Which was procured by the Queens Enemies who took care that one who had such credit with the King should not come at him till they had fully perswaded him that she was guilty Her Uncles Lady the Lady Boleyn was appointed to lye in the Chamber with her Which she took very ill for upon what reason I know not she had been in very ill terms with her She engaged her into much discourse and studied to draw Confessions from her Whatsoever she said was presently sent to the Court. And a Woman full of Vapours was like enough to tell every thing that was true with a great deal more for persons in that condition not only have no command of themselves but are apt to say any thing that comes in their fancy The Duke of Norfolk and some of the Kings Council were with her but could draw nothing from her though they made her believe that Norris and Mark had accused her But when they were gone she fell down on her knees and wept and prayed often Iesu have Mercy on me and then fell a-laughing
Conjuncture of affairs knowing that few would come to it and so they might carry things as they pleased But the World was now awake the Scriptures were again in mens hands and people would not be so tamely couzen'd as they had been Then he shewes how unsafe it was for any English man to go to Mantua how little regard was to be had to the Popes safe Conduct they having so oft broken their Oaths and Promises He also shew's how little reason he had to trust himself to the Pope how kind he had been to that See formerly and how basely they had requited it And that now these Three years past they had been stirring up all Christian Princes against him and using all possible means to create him trouble Therefore he declared he would not go to any Council called by the Bishop of Rome but when there was a General peace among Christian Princes he would most gladly hearken to the motion of a true General Council and in the mean-while he would preserve all the Articles of the Faith in his Kingdom and sooner lose his Life and his Crown than suffer any of them to be put down And so he protested against any Council to be held at Mantua or any where else by the Bishop of Romes Authority That he would not acknowledg it nor receive any of their Decrees At this time Reginald Pool who was of the Royal Blood being by his Mother descended from the Duke of Clarence Brother to King Edward the Fourth and in the same degree of kindred with the King by his Fathers side was in great esteem for his Learning and other Excellent vertues It seems the King had determined to breed him up to the greatest dignity in the Church and to make him as Eminent in Learning and other acquired parts as he was for Quality and a Natural Sweetness and Nobleness of temper Therefore the King had given him the Deanery of Excester with several other dignities towards his maintenance beyond Sea and sent him to Paris where he stayed several years There he first incurred the Kings displeasure For being desired by him to concur with his Agents in procuring the Subscriptions and Seals of the French Universities he excused himself yet it was in such terms that he did not openly declare himself against the King After that he came over to England and as he writes himself was present when the Clergy made their Submission and acknowledged the King Supream Head In which since he was then Dean of Exeter and kept his Deanry several years after that it is not to be doubted but that as he was by his place obliged to sit in the Convocation so he concurred with the rest in making that Submission From thence he went to Padua where he lived long and was received into the Friendship and Society of some celebrated persons who gave themselves much to the Study of Eloquence and of the Roman Authors These were Centareno Bembo Caraffa Sadoletti with a great many more that became afterwards well known over the World But all those gave Pool the Preheminence and that justly too for he was accounted one of the most Eloquent men of his time The King called him oft home to assist him in his affairs but he still declined it at length finding delays could prevail no longer he wrote the King word that he did not approve of what he had done neither in the matter of his Divorce nor his separation from the Apostolick See To this the King answered desiring his reasons why he disagreed from him and sent him over a Book which Doctor Sampson had writ in defence of the Proceedings in England Upon which he wrote his Book De unione Ecclesiastica and sent it over to the King and soon after Printed it this year In which Book he condemned the Kings Actions and pressed him to return to the obedience he owed the See of Rome with many sharp reflections but the Book was more considered for the Author and the Wit and Eloquence of it than for any great Learning or deep reasoning in it He did also very much depress the Royal and exalt the Papal Authority He compared the King to Nebuchadonosor and addressed himself in the Conclusion to the Emperor whom he conjured to turn his Arms rather against the King than the Turk And indeed the indecencies of his expressions against the King not to mention the scurrilous Language he bestows on Sampson whose Book he undertakes to answer are such that it appears how much the Italian Air had changed him and that his Converse at Padua had for some time defac'd that generous temper of mind which was otherwise so natural to him Upon this the King desired him at first to come over and explain some passages in his Book But when he could not thus draw him into his toyles he proceeded severely against him and devested him of all his Dignities but these were plentifully made up to him by the Popes bounty and the Emperors He was afterwards rewarded with a Cardinals hat but he did not rise above the degree of a Deacon Some believe that the Spring of this opposition he made to the King was a secret affection he had for the Lady Mary The publishing of this Book made the King set the Bishops on work to write Vindications of his Actions which Stokesley and Tonstal did in a long and Learned Letter that they wrote to Pool And Gardiner published his Book of true obedience To which Bonner who was hot on the scent of Preferment added a Preface But the King designed sharper tools for Pool's punishment Yet an Attaindor in absence was all he câ—uld do against himself But his Family and kindred felt the weight of the Kings displeasure very sensibly But now I must give an account of the dissolution of the Monasteries pursuant to the Act of Parliament though I cannot fix the exact time in which it was done I have seen the Original Instructions with the Commission given to those who were to visit the Monasteries in and about Bristol All the rest were of the same kind They bear date the 28th of April after the Session of Parliament was over and the report was to be made in the Octaves of St. Michael the Arch-Angel But I am inclined to think that the great concussion and disorder things were in by the Queens death made the Commissioners unwilling to proceed in so invidious a matter till they saw the Issue of the new-Parliament Therefore I have delayed giving any account of the Proceedings in that matter till this place The Instructions will be found in the Collection The Substance of them was as follows The Auditors of the Court of Augmentations were the persons that were employed Four or any Three of them were Commissioned to execute the Instructions in every particular Visitation One Auditor or Receiver and one of the Clerks of the former Visitation were to call for Three discreet persons in
brought with them then they afforded them the favour of turning the clear side outward who upon that went home very well-satisfied with their journey and the expence they had been at There was brought out of Wales a huge Image of wood called Darvel Gatheren of which one Ellis Price Visitor of the Diocess of St. Asaph gave this account On the 6th of April 1537. That the people of the Countrey had a great Superstition for it and many Pilgrimages were made to it so that the day before he wrote there were reckoned to be above five or six hundred Pilgrims there Some brought Oxen and Cattel and some brought Money and it was generally believed that if any offered to that Image he had Power to deliver his Soul from Hell So it was ordered to be brought to London where it served for fewel to burn Friar Forrest There was an huge Image of our Lady at Worcester that was had in great reverence which when it was stript of some veils that covered it was found to be the Statue of a Bishop Barlow Bishop of St. Davids did also give many advertisements of the Superstition of his Countrey and of the Clergy and Monks of that Diocess who were guilty of Heathenish Idolatry gross Impiety and Ignorance and of abusing the people with many evident forgeries about which he said he had good evidence when it should be called for But that which drew most Pilgrims and presents in those parts was an Image of our Lady with a Taper in her hand which was believed to have burnt nine years till one forswearing himself upon it it went out and was then much Reverenced and Worshipped He found all about the Cathedral so full of Superstitious conceits that there was no hope of working on them therefore he proposed the Translating the Episcopal Seat from St. Davids to Caermaerden which he pressed by many Arguments and in several Letters but with no success Then many rich Shrines of our Lady of Walsingham of Ipswich and Islington with a great many more were brought up to London and burnt by Cromwels Orders But the richest Shrine of England was that of Thomas Becket called St. Thomas of Canterbury the Martyr who being raised up by King Henry the ad to the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury did afterwards give that King much trouble by opposing his Authority and exalting the Popes And though he once consented to the Articles agreed on at Clarendon for bearing down the Papal and securing the Regal Power yet he soon after repented of that only piece of Loyalty of which he was guilty all the while he was Arch-Bishop He fled to the Pope who received him as a Confessor for the dearest Article of the Roman Belief The King and Kingdoms were Excommunicated and put under an Interdict upon his Account But afterwards upon the Intercession of the French King King Henry and he were reconciled and the Interdict was taken off Yet his unquiet Spirit could take no rest for he was no sooner at Canterbury than he began to Embroyl the Kingdom again and was proceeding by Censures against the Arch-Bishop of York and some other Bishops for Crowning the Kings Son in his Absence Upon the news of that the King being then in Normandy said If he had faithful Servants he would not be so troubled with such a Priest whereupon some zealous or officious Courtiers came over and killed him For which as the King was made to undergoe a severe pennance so the Monks were not wanting in their ordinary Arts to give out many miraculous stories concerning his Blood This soon drew a Canonization from Rome and he being a Martyr for the Papacy was more extolled than all the Apostles or Primitive Saints had ever been So that for 300 years he was accounted one of the greatest Saints in Heaven as may appear from the accounts in the leger-leger-Books of the offerings made to the three greatest Altars in Christs Church in Canterbury The one was to Christ the other to the Virgin and the third to St. Thomas In one year there was offered at Christ's Altar 3 lib. 2 s. 6 d. To the Virgins Altar 63 lib. 5 s. 6 d. But to St. Thomas's Altar 832 lib. 12 s. 3 d. But the next year the odds grew greater for there was not a penny offered at Christs Altar and at the Virgins only 4 lib. 1 s. 8 d. But at St. Thomas's 954 lib. 6 s. 3 d. By such offerings it came that his Shrine was of inestimable value There was one Stone offered there by Lewis the 7th of France who came over to visit it in a Pilgrimage that was believed the Richest in Europe Nor did they think it enough to give him one day in the Calendar the 29th of December but unusual honours were devised for this Martyr of the liberties of the Church greater than any that had been given to the Martyrs for Christianity The day of raising his body or as they called it of his Translation being the 7th of Iuly was not only a holy-day but every 50th year there was a Jubilee for 15 days together and Indulgence was granted to all that came to visit his shrine as appears from the Record of the sixth Jubilee after his Translation Anno. 1420 which bears that there were then about an hundred thousand strangers come to visit his Tomb. The Jubilee began at twelve a clock on the Vigil of the feast and lasted 15 days by such Arts they drew an incredible deal of wealth to his shrine The Riches of that together with his disloyal practices made the King resolve both to un-shrine and un-Saint him at once And then his skull which had been much worshipped was found an Imposture For the true skull was lying with the rest of his bones in his grave The shrine was broken down and carryed away the Gold that was about it filling two Chests which were so heavy that they were a load to Eight strong men to carry them out of the Church And his bones were as some say burnt so it was understood at Rome but others say they were so mixed with other dead bones that it would have been a Miracle indeed to have distinguished them afterwards The King also ordered his name to be struck out of the Kalendar and the office for his Festivity to be dasht out of all Breviaries And thus was the Superstition of England to Images and Relicks extirpated Yet the King took care to qualifie the distaste which the Articles published the former year had given And though there was no Parliament in the year 1537. yet there was a Convocation upon the Conclusion of which there was Printed an Explanation of the chief points of Religion Signed by nineteen Bishops eight Arch-Deacons and seventeen Doctors of Divinity and Law In which there was an Exposition of the Creed the seven Sacraments the ten Commandments the Lords Prayer and the Salutation of the Virgin with an Account of Justification and Purgatory
limited by any appearances of difficulties which flowed from our want of a right understanding of things and our Faculties being weak our notions of Impossibilities were proportioned to these But Stokesley thought he had found out a Demonstration that might put an end to the whole Controversie for he shewed that in Nature we see one substance changed into another and yet the accidents remain So when Water is boyled till it evaporates into Air one substance is changed into another and moysture that was the accident remains it being still moist This as one of the eye-witnesses relates was received with great applause and much joy appeared in the Bishops looks upon it But whether the Spectators could distinguish well between Laughter for Joy and a scornful smile I cannot tell For certainly this Crotchet must have provoked the latter rather since it was a Sophisme not to be forgiven any above a Junior Sophister thus from an accidental conversion where the substance was still the same only altered in its Form and Qualities according to the Language of that Philosophy which was then most in vogue to infer a substantial mutation where one substance was annihilated and a new one produced in its place But these arguments it seems disorder'd Lambert somewhat and either the Kings stern looks the variety of the Disputants ten one after another engaging with him or the greatness of the presence with the length of the action which continued five hours put him in some confusion it is not improbable but they might in the end bring him to be quite silent This one that was present said flowed from his being spent and wearied and that he saw what he said was little considered but others ascribed it to his being confounded with the arguments that were brought against him So the general applause of the Hall gave the victory on the Kings side When he was thus silent the King asked him if he was convinced by these arguments and whether he would live or die He answered That he committed his Soul to God and submitted his Body to the Kings Clemency But the King told him if he did not recant he must die for he would not be a Patron of Hereticks and since he would not do that the King ordered Cromwel to read the Sentence which he as the Kings Vice-gerent did declaring him an Incorrigible Heretick and condemning him to be burnt Which was soon after executed in Smithfield in a most barbarous manner for when his Legs and Thighs were burnt to the Stumps there not being fire enough to consume the rest of him suddenly two of the Officers raised up his body on their Halberds he being yet alive and crying out None but Christ none but Christ and then they let him fall down into the Fire where he was quickly consumed to ashes He was a learned and good man His answers to the Articles objected to him by Warham and a Book which in his Imprisonment he wrote for justifying his opinion which he directed to the King do shew both great Learning for those times and a very good Judgment This being done the party that opposed the Reformation perswaded the King that he had got so much reputation to himself by it that it would effectually refute all aspersions which had been cast on him as if he intended to change the Faith neither did they forget to set on him in his weak side and magnifie all that he had said as if the Oracle had uttered it By which they said it appeared he was indeed a Defender of the Faith and the Supream Head of the Church And he had so good a conceit of what was then done that he intended to pursue these severities further and therefore soon after he resolved on Summoning a Parliament partly for confirming what he had done and compleating what remained to be done further in the suppression of the Monasteries and likewise for making a new Law for punishing some Opinions which were then spreading about the Sacrament and some other Articles as will soon appear Now the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury's Interest at Court suffered a great diminution His chief friend among the Bishops was Fox Bishop of Hereford who was much esteemed and imployed by the King He was a Privy-Councellor and had been imployed in a Negotiation with the Princes of Germany to whom he was a very acceptable Minister They proposed That the King would receive the Ausburg Confession except in such things as should be altered in it by common Consent and defend it in a free Council if any such were called and that neither of them should acknowledg any Council called by the Pope That the King should be called the Patron of their League and they should mutually assist one another the King giving 100000 Crowns a year towards the defence of the League The Bishop of Winchester being then in France did much disswade the King from making a Religious League with them against which he gave some plausible politick reasons for his Conscience never strugled with a maxim of State But the King liked most of the propositions only he would not accept the Title of Defender of their League till some differences in the Doctrine were agreed So they were to have sent over Sturmius as their Agent and Melancthon Bucer and George Draco to confer with the Kings Divines But upon Queen Anne's fall this vanished and though the King entered into a Civil League with them and had frequently a mind to bring over Melancthon for whom he had a great value yet it never took effect There were three things in which the Germans were more positive than in any other point of Reformation These were the Communion in both kinds the worship in a known Tongue and an allowance for the marriage of the Clergy All the people had got these things in their heads so that it was generally believed that if the Pope had in time consented to them the Progress of the Reformation had been much stopped The express words of the Institution and the Novelty of the contrary practice had engaged that Nation very early for Communion in both kinds Common sense made them all desire to understand what they did and said in the Worship of God and the lewd and dissolute practices of the unmarried Clergy were so publick that they thought the honour of their Families of which that Nation is extremely sensible could not be secured unless the Clergy might have Wives of their own But at these the King stuck more than at other things that were more disputable For in all other points that were material he had set up the Doctrine of the Ausburg Confession and there was good ground to hope that the Evidence of at least two of these would have brought over the King to a fuller Agreement and firmer Union with them But the Bishop of Hereford's death gave a great blow to that design For though that party thought they had his room well
recovered the Lands which their Ancestors had superstitiously given away and the Surrenders which Religious persons made to the Crown could not have cut off their Title But this Act did that effectually It is true many of the greatest of them were of Royal Foundation and these would have returned to the Crown without Dispute On the 23 of May in this Session of Parliament a Bill was brought in by Cromwel for giving the King Power to Erect new Bishopricks by his Letters Patents It was read that day for the first second and third time and sent down to the Commons The Preamble of it was That it was known what slothful and ungodly Life had been led by those who were called Religious But that these Houses might be converted to better uses that Gods word might be better set forth Children brought up in Learning Clarks nourished in the Universities and that old decayed Servants might have Livings poor people might have Alms-Houses to maintain them Readers of Greek Hebrew and Latine might have good Stipend daily Alms might be Ministred and Allowance might be made for mending of the high-ways and Exhibition for Ministers of the Church for these ends if the King thought fit to have more Bishopricks or Cathedral Churches erected out of the Reat of these Houses full Power was given to him to erect and found them and to make Rules and Statutes for them and such Translations of Sees or divisions of them as he thought fit But on this Act I must adde a singular Remark The Preamble and material parts of it were drawn by the King himself and the first draught of it under his hand is yet extant which shows his extraordinary application and understanding of business But in the same Paper there is a List of the Sees which he intended to found of which what was done afterwards came so far short that I know nothing to which it can be so reasonably imputed as the declining of Cranmers Interest at Court who had proposed the Erecting of new Cathedrals and Sees with other things mentioned in the Preamble of the Statute as a great mean for Reforming the Church The Sees which the King then designed with the Abbies out of which they were to be Erected follow as it is in the Paper under the Kings own hand Essex Waltham Hartford St. Albans Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire Dunstable Newenham Clowstown Oxford and Berkshire Osnay and Tame Northampton and Huntington Peterborough Middlesex Westminster Leicester and Rutland Leicester Glocestershire St. Peters Lancashire Fountaines and the Arch-deaconry of Richmond Suffolk Edmonds-bury Stafford and Salop. Shrewsbury Nottingham and Derby Welbeck Werksop Thurgarton Cornwall Lanceston Bedmynne Wardreth Over these is written The Bishopricks to be made In another corner of the Page he writes as follows Christ's Church in Canterbury St. Swithins Ely Duresm Rochester with a part of Leeds Worcester and all others having the same Then a little below Places to be altered into Colledges and Schools Burton super Trent More is not written in that Paper But I wonder much that in this List Chester was forgotten Yet it was Erected before any of them For I have seen a Commission under the Privy Seal to the Bishop of Chester to take the Surrender of the Monastery of Hamond in Shropshire bearing date the 24th of August this year So it seems the See of Chester was Erected and endowed before the Act passed though there is among the Rolls a Charter for Endowing and founding of it afterwards Bristow is not mentioned in this Paper though a See was afterwards Erected there It was not before the end of the next year that these Sees were founded and there was in that Interval so great a Change made both of the Counsels and Ministers that no wonder the things now designed were never accomplished Another Act passed in this Parliament concerning the obedience due to the Kings Proclamations There had been great exceptions made to the Legality of the Kings proceedings in the Articles about Religion and other Injunctions published by his authority which were complained of as contrary to Law since by these the King had without consent of Parliament altered some Laws and had laid Taxes on his Spiritual Subjects Upon which an Act passed which sets forth in the preamble the contempt and disobedience of the Kings Proclamations by some who did not consider what a King by his Royal power might do which if it continued would tend to the disobedience of the Laws of God and the dishonour of the Kings Majesty who may full ill bear it Considering also that many occasions might require speedy Remedies and that delaying these till a Parliament met might occasion great prejudices to the Realm and that the King by his Royal power given of God might do many things in such cases Therefore it is Enacted That the King for the time being with advice of his Council might set forth Proclamations with pains and penalties in them which were to be obeyed as if they were made by an Act of Parliament But this was not to be so extended that any of the Kings Subjects should suffer in their Estates Liberties or Persons by vertue of it Nor that by any of the Kings Proclamations Laws or Customs were to be broken and subverted Then follow some Clauses about the publishing of Proclamations and the way of prosecuting those who contemned and disobeyed them It is also added That if any offended against them and in further contempt went out of the Realm he was to be adjudged a Traitor This also gave power to the Counsellours of the Kings Successor if he were under age to set forth Proclamations in his name which were to be obeyed in the same manner with these set forth by the King himself This Act gave great power to the Judges since there were such Restrictions in some branches of it which seemed to lessen the great extent of the other parts of it so that the Expositors of the Law had much referred to them upon this Act were the great changes of Religion in the Non-age of Edward the 6th grounded There is another Act which but collaterally belongs to Ecclesiastical affairs and therefore shall be but slightly touched It is the Act of the Precedency of the Officers of State by which the Lord Vice-gerent has the Precedence of all persons in the Kingdom next the Royal Family and on this I must make one Remark which may seem very improper for one of my profession especially when it is an animadversion on one of the greatest men that any age has produced the most Learned Mr. Selden He in his Titles of Honour sayes That this Statute was never printed in the statute-Statute-Book and but incorrectly by another and that therefore he infers it Literally as is in the Record In which there are two mistakes For it is Printed in the Statute-Book that was set down in that Kings Reign though left out in some latter Statute-Books
He declared that he died in the Catholick Faith not doubting of any Article of Faith or of any Sacrament of the Church and denied that he had been a Supporter of those who believed ill opinions He confessed he had been seduced but now died in the Catholick Faith and desired them to pray for the King and for the Prince and for himself and then prayed very fervently for the remission of his past sins and admittance into Eternal Glory and having given the Sign the Executioner cut off his Head very barbarously Thus fell that great Minister that was raised meerly upon the strength of his natural parts For as his Extraction was mean so his Education was low All the learning he had was that he had got the new-Testament in Latine by heart His great wisdom and dexterity in business raised him up through several steps till he was become as great as a Subject could be He carryed his greatness with wonderful temper and moderation and fell under the weight of popular Odium rather than Guilt The disorders in the Suppression of Abbeys were generally charged on him Yet when he fell no Bribery nor cheating of the King could be fastned on him though such things came out in swarms on a disgraced Favourite when there is any ground for them By what he spoke at his death he left it much doubted of what Religion he dyed But it is certain he was a Lutheran The term Catholick-Faith used by him in his last speech seemed to make it doubtful but that was then used in England in its true sense in Opposition to the Novelties of the See of Rome as will afterwards appear on another occasion So that his Profession of the Catholich-Faith was strangely perverted when some from thence Concluded that he dyed in the Communion of the Church of Rome But his praying in English and that only to God through Christ without any of these tricks that were used when those of that Church died shewed he was none of theirs With him the Office of the Kings Vice-gerent in Ecclesiastical affairs died as it rose first in his person and as all the Clergy opposed the seting up a new Officer whose Interest should oblige him to oppose a Reconciliation with Rome so it seems none were fond to succeed in an Office that proved so fatal to him that had first carryed it The King was said to have lamented his death after it was too late but the fall of the new Queen that followed not long after and the miseries which fell also on the Duke of Norfolk and his Family some years after were looked on as the Scourges of Heaven for their cruel prosecution of this unfortunate Minister With his fall the progress of the Reformation which had been by his endeavours so far advanced was quite stopt For all that Cranmer could do after this was to keep the ground they had gained But he could never advance much further And indeed every one expected to see him go next For as one Gostwick Knight for Bedfordshire had named him in the House of Commons as the Supporter and Promoter of all the Heresie that was in England so the Popish party reckoned they had but half done their work by destroying Cromwel and that it was not finished till Cranmer followed him Therefore all possible endeavors were used to make discoveries of the Encouragement which as was believed he gave to the Preachers of the condemned Doctrines And it is very probable that had not the Incontinence of Katherine Howard whom the King declared Queen on the 8th of August broken out not long after he had been Sacrificed the next Session of Parliament But now I return to my proper business to give an account of Church-matters for this year with which these great Changes in Court had so great a Relation that the Reader will excuse the digression about them Upon Cromwels fall Gardiner and those that followed him made no doubt but they should quickly recover what they had lost of late years So their greatest attempt was upon the Translation of the Scriptures The Convocation Books as I have been forced often to lament are lost so that here I cannot stir but as Fuller leads me who assures the World that he Copied out of the Records with his own Pen what he published And yet I doubt he has mistaken himself in the year and that which he calls the Convocation of this year was the Convocation of the year 1542. For he tells us that their 7th Session was the 10th of March. Now in this year the Convocation did not sit down till the 13th of April but that year it sate all March So likewise he tells us of the Bishops of Westminster Glocester and Peterborough bearing a share in this Convocation whereas these were not Consecrated before Winter and could not sit as Bishops in this Synod And besides Thirleby sate at this time in the lower House as was formerly shewn in the Process about Anne of Cleves Marriage So that their attempt against the new Testament belongs to the year 1542. But they were now much better employed though not in the way of Convocation For a select number of them sate by vertue of a Commission from the King confirmed in Parliament Their first work was to draw up a Declaration of the Christian Doctrine for the necessary erudition of a Christian man They thought that to speak of Faith in general ought naturally to go before an Exposition of the Christian Belief and therefore with that they began The Church of Rome that designed to keep her Children in ignorance had made no great account of Faith which they generally taught consisted chiefly in an Implicite Believing whatever the Church proposed without any explicite knowledg of particulars So that a Christian Faith as they had explained it was a Submission to the Church The Reformers finding that this was the Spring of all their other errors and that which gave them colour and Authority did on the other hand set up the strength of their whole Cause on an Explicite believing the truth of the Scriptures because of the Authority of God who had revealed them And said that as the great Subject of the Apostles Preaching was Faith so that which they every-where taught was to read and believe the Scriptures Upon which followed nice Disputing what was that saving Faith by which the Scriptures say we are Iustified They could not say it was barely crediting the Divine Revelation since in that sense the Devils believed Therefore they generally placed it at first in their being assured that they should be saved by Christs dying for them In which their design was to make Holiness and all other Graces necessary requisites in the Composition of Faith though they would not make them formally parts of it For since Christs death has its full vertue and effect upon none but those who are regenerate and live according to his Gospel none
often reproved him boldly for it he grew weary of him The Clergy perceiving this were resolved to fall upon him So he withdrew to Berwick but wrote to the King that if he would hear him make his defence he would return and justifie all that he had taught He taxed the cruelty of the Clergy and desired the King would restrain their Tyranny and consider that he was obliged to protect his Subjects from their severity and malice But receiving no satisfactory answer he lived in England where he was entertain'd by the Duke of Suffolk as his Chaplain Not long after this one Forrest a simple Benedictin Monk was accused for having said that Patrick Hamilton had died a Martyr yet since there was no sufficient proof to convict him a Frier one Walter Lainge was sent to confess him to whom in Confession he acknowledged he thought Hamilton was a good man and that the Articles for which he was condemned might be defended This being revealed by the Frier was taken for good evidence So the poor man was condemned to be burnt as an Heretick As he was led out to his Execution he said Fie on falshood fie on Friers revealers of Confession Let never man trust them after me they are despisers of God and deceivers of men When they were considering in what place to burn him a simple man that attended the Arch-bishop advised to burn him in some low Cellar for said he the smoak of Mr. Patrick Hamilton has infected all those on whom it blew Soon after this Abbot Hamiltons Brother and Sister were brought into the Bishops Courts but the King who favoured this Brother perswaded him to absent himself His Sister and six others being brought before the Bishop of Ross who was deputed by the Arch-Bishop to proceed against them the King himself dealt with the Woman to abjure which she and the other six did Two others were more resolute The one was Normand Gowrlay who was charged with denying the Popes Authority in Scotland and saying there was no Purgatory The other was David Straiton He was charged with the same Opinions They also alledged that he had denied that Tithes were due to Church-men and that when the Vicar came to take the Tith out of some Fish-boats that belonged to him he alledged the Tith was to be taken where the stock grew and therefore ordered the tenth fish to be cast into the Sea and bade the Vicar to seek them there They were both judged obstinate Hereticks and burnt at one Stake the 27th of August 1534. Upon this persecution some others who were cited to appear fled into England Those were Alexander Alesse Iohn Fife Iohn Mackbee and one Mackdowgall The first of these was received by Cromwel into his Family and grew into great favour with King Henry and was commonly called his Scholar of whom see what was said Page 214. But after Cromwels death he took Fife with him and they went into Saxony and were both Professors in Leipsick Mackbee was at first entertained by Shaxton Bishop of Salisbury but he went afterwards into Denmark where he was known by the name of Doctor Maccabeus and was Chaplain to King Christian the second But all these violent proceedings were not effectual enough to quench that light which was then shining there Many by searching the Scriptures came to the knowledg of the Truth and the noise of what was then doing in England awakned others to make further enquiries into matters of Religion Pope Clement the 7th apprehending that King Henry might prevail on his Nephew to follow his example wrote Letters full of earnest exhortations to him to continue in the Catholick Faith Upon which King Iames called a Parliament and there in the presence of the Popes Nuncio declared his zeal for that Faith and the Apostolick See The Parliament also concurred with him in it and made acts against Hereticks and for maintaining the Popes authority That same Pope did afterwards send to desire him to assist him in making war against the King of England for he was resolved to divide that Kingdom among those who would assist him in driving out King Henry But the firm peace at that time between the King of England and the French King kept him quiet from any trouble which otherwise the King of Scotland might have given him Yet King Henry sent the Bishop of St. Davids with the Duke of Norfolks Brother Lord William Howard to him so unexpectedly that they came to him at Sterlin before he had heard of their being sent The Bishop brought with him some of the Books that had been writ for the justifying King Henry's proceeding and desired that King would impartially examine them But he put them into the hands of some about him that were addicted to the interests of Rome who without ever reading them told him they were full of pestilent Doctrine and Heresie The secret business they came for was to perswade that King to concur with his Uncle and to agree an Interview between them and they offered him in their Masters name the Lady Mary in Marriage and that he should be made Duke of York and Lord Lieutenant of all England But the Clergy diverted him from it and perswaded him rather to go on in his design of a match with France And their Counsels did so prevail that he resolved to go in person and fetch a Queen from thence On the first of Ianuary 1537. he was married to Magdalen daughter to Francis the First But she being then gone far in a Consumption died soon after he had brought her home on the 28th of May. She was much lamented by all persons the Clergy only excepted for she had been bred in the Queen of Navarres Court and so they apprehended she might incline the King to a Reformation But he had seen another Lady in France Mary of Guise whom he then liked so well that after his Queens death he sent Cardinal Beaton into France to treat for a match with her This gave the Clergy as much joy as the former marriage had raised fear for no Family in Christendome was more devoted to the interests of the Papacy than that was And now the King though he had freer thoughts himself yet was so engaged to the pretended old Religion that he became a violent persecutor of all who differed from it The King grew very expensive he indulged himself much in his pleasures he built four noble Palaces which considering that Kingdom and that Age were very extraordinary Buildings he had also many natural Children All which things concurred to make him very desirous of Money There were two different parties in the Court The Nobility on the one hand represented to him the great wealth that the Abbots had gathered and that if he would do as his Uncle had done he would thereby raise his Revenue to the triple of what it was and provide plentifully for his Children The Clergy on
the Army was ill advised so his giving a Commissâ—on to Oliver Sinclar â—hat was his Minion to command in Chief did extreamly disgust the Nobility They loved not to be commanded by any but their King and were already weary of the insolence of that Favourite who being but of ordinary birth was despised by them so that they were beginning to separate And when they were upon that occasion in great disorder a small body of English not above 500 Horse appeared But they apprehending it was the Duke of Norfolks Army refused to fight and fell in confusion Many Prisoners were taken the chief of whom were the Earls of Glencairn and Cassillis the Lords Maxwell Sommervell Oliphant Gray and Oliver Sinclar and about 200 Gentlemen and 800 souldiers and all the Ordnance and Baggage was also taken The news of this being brought to the King of Scotland encreased his former disorders and some few days after he dyed leaving an infant Daughter but newly born to succeed him The Lords that were taken Prisoners were brought to London where after they had been charged in Council how unkindly they had used the King they were put in the keeping of some of the greatest quality about Court But the Earl of Cassillis had the best luck of them all For being sent to Lambâ—th where he was a Prisoner upon his parole Cranmer studied to free him from the darkness and fetters of Popery in which he was so successful that the other was afterwards a great Promoter of the Reformation in Scotland The Scots had been hitherto possessed with most extraordinary prejudices against the Changes that had been made in England which concurring with the ancient Animosities between the two Nations had raised a wonderful ill opinion of the Kings proceedings And though the Bishop of St. Davids Barlow had been sent into Scotland with the Book of the Institution of a Christian Man to clear these ill impressions yet his endeavours were unsuccessful The Pope at the instance of the French King and to make that Kingdom sure made David Beaton Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews a Cardinal which gave him great Authority in the Kingdom so he with the rest of the Clergy diverted the King from any correspondence with England and assured him of Victory if he would make War on such an Heretical Prince The Clergy also offered the King 50000 Crowns a-year towards a War with England and possessed all the Nation with very ill thoughts of the Court and Clergy there But the Lords that were now Prisoners chiefly the Earl of Cassillis who was best instructed by his Religious Host conceived a better opinion of the Reformation and carried home with them those seeds of knowledg which produced afterwards a very fruitful Harvest On all these things I have dwelt the longer that it might appear whence the inclination of the Scotish Nobility to Reform did take its first rise though there was afterwards in the Methods by which it was advanced too great a mixture of the heat and forwardness that is natural to the Genius of that Countrey When the news of the King of Scotlands death and of the young Queens birth that succeeded him came to the Court the King thought this a very favourable conjuncture to unite and settle the whole Island But that unfortunate Princess was not born under such happy Stars though she was Mother to him in whom this long-desired Union took effect The Lords that were then Prisoners began the motion and that being told the King he called for them to Hampton-Court in the Christmas-time and said now an opportunity was put in their hands to quiet all troubles that had been between these two Crowns by the Marriage of the Prince of Wales to their young Queen In which he desired their assistance and gave them their Liberty they leaving hostages for the performance of what was then offered by them They all promised their Concurrence and seemed much taken with the greatness of the English Court which the King always kept up not without affectation they also said they thought God was better served there than in their own Countrey So on New-years-day they took their journey towards Scotland but the sequel of this will appear afterwards A Parliament was summoned to meet the two and twentieth of Ianuary which sate to the 12th of May. So the Session begun in the 34th and ended in the 35th year of the Kings Reign from whence it is called in the Records the Parliament of the 34th and 35th year Here both the Temporality and Spirituality gave great Subsidies to the King of six shillings in the Pound to be paid in three years They set forth in their Preambles The expence the King had been at in his War with Scotland and for his other great and urgent occasions by which was meant a War with France which broke out the following Summer But with these there passed other two Acts of great importance to Religion The Title of the first was An Act for the advancement of True Religion and abolishment of the contrary The King was now entring upon a War so it seemed reasonable to qualifie the severity of the late Acts about Religion that all might be quiet at home Cranmer moved it first and was faintly seconded by the Bishops of Worcester Hereford Chichester and Rochester who had promised to stick to him in it At this time a League was almost finished between the King and the Emperour which did again raise the Spirits of the Popish Faction They had been much cast down ever since the last Queens fall But now that the Emperor was like to have an Interest in English Councils they took heart again and Gardiner opposed the Arch-Bishops motion with all possible earnestness And that whole Faction fell so upon it that the timorous Bishops not only forsook Cranmer but Heath of Rochester and Skip of Hereford were very earnest with him to stay for a better opportunity But he generously preferred his Conscience to those arts of Policy which he would never practise and said he would push it as far as it would go So he plied the King and the other Lords so earnestly that at length the Bill passed though clogg'd with many Provisoes and very much short of what he had designed The Preamble set forth that there being many dissensions about Religion the Scriptures which the King had put into the hands of his People were abused by many seditious persons in their Sermons Books Playes Rithmes and Songs from which great Inconveniences were like to arise For preventing these it was necessary to establish a Form of sincere Doctrine conformable to that which was taught by the Apostles Therefore all the Books of the Old and New Testament of Tindals Translation which is called Crafty False and Vntrue are forbidden to be kept oâ— used in the Kings Dominions with all other Books contrary to the Doctrine set forth in the year 1540. with
in the suppression of Monasteries and expressed a particular zeal in removing all Images and Relicks which had been abused to Superstition did now upon Cromâ—els fall apply himself to Gardiner by whose means he was made a Prebendary there And to shew how dextrously he could make his Court both ways or to make compensation for what he had formerly done he took care to gather a whole Book of Informations against these in Windsor who favoured the New Learning which was the modest phrase by which they termed the Reformation He carried this Book to Gardiner who moved the King in Council that a Commission might be granted for searching suspected Houses at Windsor in which it was Informed there were many Books against the six Articles The King granted the Warrant for the Town but not for the Castle So those before named were seized on and some of these Books were found in their houses Dr. Hains Dean of Exceter and Prebendary of Windsor being informed against was also put in Prison so was likewise Sir Philip Hobby But there were likewise some Papers of Notes on the Bible and of a Concordance in English found in Marbecks house written with his own hand and he being an Illiterate man they did not doubt but these were other mens works which he was writing out So they began with him and hoped to draw discoveries from him He was frequently examined but would tell nothing that might do hurt to any other person But being Examined who wrote these Notes he said they were his own for he read all the Books he could light on and wrote out what every man had written on any place of Scripture And for his Concordance he told them that being a poor man he could not buy one of the Bibles when they came first out in English but set himself to write one out by which another perceiving his Industry suggested to him that he would do well to write a Concordance in English but he said he knew not what that was so the other person explaining it to him he got a Latin Concordance and an English Bible and having learned a little Latin when he was young he by comparing the English with the Latin had drawn out a Concordance which he had brought to the Letter L. This seemed so extravagant a thing to Gardiner and the other Bishops that examined him that they could by no means believe it But he desired they would draw out any words of the letter M. and give him the Latin Concordance with the English Bible and after a little time they should see whether he had not done the rest So the Trial was made and in a dayes time he had drawn out three sheets of Paper upon those words that were given him This both satisfyed and astonished the Bishops wondering at the Ingeniousness and diligence of so poor a man It was much talked of and being told the King he said Marbeck employed his time better than those that examined him For the others they were kept in Prison at London till the 24th of Iuly that the King gave orders to try them at Windsor There was a Court held there on the 27th of Iuly where Capoâ— Bishop of Saâ—um and Franklin Dean of Windsor and Fachel Parson of Reading and three of the Judges sate on those four men They were Endited for some words spoken against the Mass. Marbeck only for writing out an Epistle of Calvins against it which he said he copied before the Act of the six Articles was made The Jury was not called out of the Town for they would not trust it to them but out of the Farms of the Chappel They were all found guilty and so condemned to be burnt which was Executed on three of them the next day only Marbeck was recommended to the Bishop of Winchesters care to procure his Pardon which was obtained The other three expressed great composure of mind in their Sufferings and dyed with much Christian Resolution and Patience forgiving their persecutors and committing themselves to the Mercies of God through Iesus Christ. But in their Tryal Doctor London and Symonds a Lawyer and an Informer had studied to fish out accusations against many of the Kings Servants as Sir Philip Hobby and Sir Thomas Cardine with their Ladies and several others who had favoured those men With these Informations Okam that had been the Clerk of the Court was sent to Gardiner But one of the Queens servants who had discovered the design was before him at Court. Upon the advertisement which he had brought Okam was seized on at his coming to Court and all his Papers were examined in which they discovered a Conspiracy against those Gentlemen with other Plots that gave the King great Offence but the particulars are not mentioned So Doctor London and Simmonds were sent for and examined upon this desertion But they not knowing that their Letters were intercepted denyed there was any such Plot and being put to their Oaths swore it Then their own hand-writing was produced against them Upon which they being thus Perjured were ordered to be carryed on Horse-back with their faces to the Horse tailes and Papers on their Foreheads for their perjury and then to be set in the Pillory both in Windsor Reading and Newbury where the King was at that time This was accordingly executed on them but sunk so deep in Doctor Londons heart that he dyed soon after From all this it will appear what sort of men the Persecutors at that time were But this was a small part of what Gardiner had Projected For he looked on these as persons unworthy of his displeasure Cranmer was chiefly aimed at by him And therefore all that party were still infusing it into the Kings mind that it was great Injustice to prosecute poor men with so much severity and let the chief Supporter of Heresie stand in so eminent a degree and in such favour about him At length the King to discover the bottom of their designs seemed to give ear to their accusations and desired to hear what particulars could be objected against him This gave them great encouragement for till that time the King would let nothing be said against Cranmer So they concluded he would be quickly ruined since the King had opened his ear to their Informations Therefore many particulars were quickly laid together and put into the Kings hands who a little after that going to divert himself on the River ordered his â—argemâ—n to Row towardâ— Lambâ—th which being perceived bâ— some of the Arch-Bishops â—ervants they acquainted him with it who hasted down to his stairs to do his duty to the King When the King saw him he called him into the Barge and they being alone the King lamented the growth of Heresie and the dissensions and confusions that were like to follow upon it and said he intended to find out the chief Encourager and â—avourer of these Heresies and make him an Example to the
Guilty to the Endictment shews no extraordinary resolution so the account that is given by them of one Hall a Secular Priest that died with them is so false that there is good reason to suspect all He is said to have suffered on the same account but the Record of his Attaindor gives a very different relation of it He and Robert Feron were endited at the same time for having said many spiteful and Treasonable things as that the King was a Tyrant an Heretick a Robber and an Adulterer that they hoped he should die such a death as King Iohn and Richard the 3d died that they looked when those in Ireland and Wales should invade England and they were assured that three parts of four in England would be against the King they also said that they should never live merrily till the King and the Rulers were plucked by the Pates and brought to the Pot and that it would never be well with the Church till that was done Hall had not only said this but had also written it to Feron the 10th of March that year When they were brought to the Bar they at first pleaded Not Guilty but full proof being brought they themselves confessed the Enditement before the Jury went aside and put themselves on the Kings mercy upon which this being an imagining and contriving both War against the King and the Kings death judgment was given as in cases of Treason but no mention being made of Ferons death it seems he had his pardon Hall suffered with the four Carthusians who were hanged in their habits They proceeded no further in Easter-Term but in Trinity-Term there was another Commission of Oyer and Terminer by which Humphrey Middlemore William Exmew and Sebastian Nudigate three Monks of the Charter-house near London were Endited of Treason for having said on the 25 of May that they neither could nor would consent to be obedient to the Kings Highness as true lawful and obedient Subjects to take him to be Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England They all pleaded not-Guilty but were found Guilty by the Jury and Judgment was given When they were condemned they desired that they might receive the body of Christ before their death But as Judge Spelman writ the Court would not grant it since that was never done in such cases but by Order from the King Two dayes after that they were Executed Two other Monks of that same Order Iohn Rochester and Iames Wolver suffered on the same account at York in May this year Ten other Carthusian Monks were shut up within their Cells where nine of them dyed the tenth was hanged in the beginning of August Concerning those persons I find this said in some Original Letters that they had brought over into England and vented in it some Books that were written beyond Sea against the Kings Marriage and his other proceedings which being found in their house they were pressed to peruse the Books that were written for the King but obstinately refused to do it they had also been involved in the business of the Maid of Kent for which though all the Complices in it except those whom suffered for it were pardoned by Act of Parliament yet such as had been concerned in it were still under jealousie and it is no wonder that upon new provocations they met with the uttermost rigor of the Law These Tryals made way for two others that were more Signal of the Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas More The first of these had been a Prisoner above a year and was very severely used he complained in his Letters to Cromwell that he had neither Cloaths nor fire being then about fourscore This was understood at Rome and upon it Pope Clement by an Officious kindness to him or rather in spite to King Henry declared him a Cardinal and sent him a Red-hat When the King knew this he sent to Examine him about it but he protested he had used no endeavours to procure it and valued it so little that if the Hat were lying at his feet he would not take it up It never came nearer him than Picardy yet this did precipitate his ruin But if he had kept his opinion of the Kings Supremacy to himself they could not have proceeded further He would not do that but did upon several occasions speak against it so he was brought to his Tryal on the 17th of Iune The Lord Chancellor the Duke of Suffolk and some other Lords together with the Judges sate upon him by a Commission of Oyer and Terminer He pleaded not-Guilty but being found Guilty Judgment was passed on him to die as a Traitor but he was by a Warrant from the King beheaded Upon the 22d of Iune being the day of his Execution he dressed himself with more than ordinary care and when his man took notice of it he told him he was to be that day a Bridegroom As he was led to the place of Execution being stopt in the way by the croud he opened his new Testament and prayed to this purpose that as that Book had been his companion and chief comfort in his imprisonment so then some place might turn up to him that might comfort him in his last passage This being said he opened the Book at a venture in which these words of St. Iohns Gospel turned up This is Life eternal to know thâ—e the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent So he shut the Book with much saisfaction and all the way was repeating and meditating on them When he came to the Scaffold he pronounced the Te Deum and after some other devotions his head was cut off Thus dyed Iohn Fisher Bishop of Rochester in the 80th year of his Age. He was a Learned and devout man but much addicted to the superstitions in which he had been bred up And that led him to great severities against all that opposed them He had been for many years Confessor to the Kings Grand-Mother the Countess of Richmonâ— and it was believed that he perswaded her to these Noble designs for the advancement of Learning of Founding two Colledges in Cambridge St. Iohns and Christs Colledge and Divinity Professors in both Universities And in acknowledgment of this he was chosen Chancellor of the University of Cambridge Henry the 7th gave him the Bishoprick of Rochester which he following the rule of the Primitive Church would never change for a better he used to say his Church was his Wife and he would never part with her because she was poor He continued in great favour with the King till the business of the Divorce was set on foot and then he adhered so firmly to the Queens cause and the Popes Supremacy that he was carryed by that headlong into great Errors as appears by the business of the Maid of Kent Many thought the King ought to have proceeded against him rather upon that which was a point of State than upon
The Laws made in England against Hereticks p. 25. Vnder Richard the 2d ibid. Vnder Henry the 4th ibid. And Henry the 5th p. 26 Heresie declared by the Kings Iudges p. 27 Warhams proceeding against Hereticks ib. The Bishop of London's proceedings against them p. 29 The Progress of Luthers Doctrine p. 30 His Books were Translated into English p. 31 The King wrote against him ibid. He replyed ibid. Endeavours to suppress the New Testament p. 32 Sir Thomas More writes against Luther ibid. Bilney and others proceeded against for Heresie ibid. BOOK II. Of the Process of Divorce between King Henry and Queen Katherine and of what passed from the 19th to the 25th year of his Reign in which he was declared Supream Head of the Church of England THe beginning of the Sute of Divorce p. 34 Prince Arthur Marryed the Infanta ibid. And died soon after p. 35 A Marriage proposed between Henry and her ibid. It is allowed by the Pope ibid. Henry Protested against it p. 36 His Father disswaded it ibid. Being come to the Crown he Marries her ibid. Shâ— bore some Children but only the Lady Mary lived ibid. Several Matches proposed for her p. 37 The Kings Marriage is questioned by Forreigners ibid. Anno 1527. He himself has Scruples concerning it ib. The Grounds of these p. 38 All his Bishops except Fisher condemn it ibid. The reasons of State against it p. 39. Wolsey goes into France ibid. The Kings fears and hopes ibid. Arguments against the Bull p. 40 Calumnies cast on Anne Boleyn p. 41 They are false and ill-contrived p. 42 Her Birth and Education p. 43 She was contrâ—cted to the Lord Piercy p. 44 The Divorce moved for at Rome ibid. The first Dispatch concerning it ibid. Anno 1528. The Pope granted it p. 47 And gave a Bull of dispensation p. 48 The Popes craft and policy ibid. A subtile method proposed by the Pope p. 49 Staphileus sent from England p. 50 The Cardinals Letters to the Pope p. 57 A fuller Bull is desired by the King ibid. Gardiner and Fox are sent to Rome p. 52 The Bull desired by them ibid. Wolsey's earnestness to procure it p. 53 Campegio declared Legate p. 54 He delaies his Iourney ibid. The Pope grants the Decretal Bull p. 55 Two Letters from Anne Boleyn to Wolsey ibid. Wolsey desires the Bull may be seen by some of the Kings Council p. 56 The Emperor opposes the Kings business p. 57 A Breve is found in Spain ibid. It was thought to be forged ibid. Campegio comes to England p. 58 And lets the King see the Bull ibid. But refuses to shew it to others ibid. Wolsey moves the Pope that some might see it ibid. But in vain p. 59 Campana is sent by the Pope to Engl. p. 60 The King offers the Pope a Guard ibid. The Pope inclines to the Emperor ibid. Threatnings used to him p. 61 Anno 1529. HE repents the sending over a Bull ibid. But feeds the King with Promises p. 62 The Popes sickness p. 63 Wolsey aspires to the Papacy Ibid. Instructions for promoting him p. 64 New motions for the Divorce p. 65 The Pope Relapses dangerously ibid. A new Dispatch to Rome p. 66 Wolseys Bulls for the Bishoprick of Winton p. 67 The Emperor Protests against the Legates ib. Yet the Pope promises not to recal it ibid. The Legates write to the Pope p. 68 Campegio led an ill life p. 69 The Emperor moves for an Avocation ibid. The Popes Dissimulation p. 70 Great contests about the Avocation ibid. The Legates begin the Process p. 72 A severe charge against the Queen ibid. The King and Queen appear in Court ibid. The Queens speech p. 73. The King declares his scruples ibid. The Queen Appeals to the Pope p. 74 Articles framed and witnesses examined ib. An Avocation prest at Rome ibid. The Pope joyns with the Emperor p. 75 Yet is in great perplexities ibid. The Avocation is granted p. 76 The Proceedings of the Legates ibid. Campegio adjourns the Court p. 77 Which gave great offence ibid. Wolseys danger ibid. Anne Boleyn returns to Court p. 78 Cranmers Opinion about the Divorce p. 79 Approved by the King p. 80 Cardinal Wolsey's fall ibid. The meanness of his temper p. 81 He is Attached of Treason ibid. He dies his Character p. 82. A Parliament called ibid. Complaints against the Clergy p. 83 The Kings debts are discharged ibid. The Pope and the Emperor unite p. 84 The Womens peace ibid. Anno 1530. The Emperor is Crowned at Bononia ib. The Vniversities consulted in the Kings sute of Divorce p. 85 The answers from Oxford and Cambridge p. 86. D. Crook Imployed in Venice p. 87 Many in Italy wrote for the Divorce p. 88 It was opposed by the Pope and the Emperor p. 89 No Money given by the Kings Agents ibid. Great Rewards given by the Emperor p. 90 It is determined for the King at Bononia Padua Ferrara and Orleance p. 91 At Paris Bourges and Tholose p. 92 The Opinions of some Reformers ibid. And of the Lutherans p. 94 The King will not appear at Rome ibid. Cranmer offers to defend the Divorce p. 95 The Clergy Nobility and Gentry write to the Pope for the Divorce ibid. The Popes answer to them p. 96 A Proclamation against Bulls ibid. Books written for the Divorce p. 97 Reasons out of the Old and New Testament ibid. The Authorities of Popes and Councils p. 98 And the Greek and Latine Fathers p. 99 And Canonists p. 100 Marriage is Compleat by Consent ibid. Violent Presumptions of the Consummation of the former Marriage ibid. The Popes Dispensation of no force p. 101. Bishops are not to obey his Decrees p. 102 The Authority of Tradition ibid. The Reasons against the Divorce p. 103 Answers made to these p. 104 The Queen is intractable p. 105 Anno 1531. A Session of Parliament ibid. The Clergy found in a Premunire p. 106 The Prerogatives of the Kings of England in Ecclesiastical affairs ibid. The Encroachments of Popes ibid. Statutes made against them p. 107 The Popes endeavoured to have those repealed p. 109 But with no effect p. 111 The Clergy excused themselves p. 112 Yet they submit and acknowledg the King Supream Head of the Church ibid. The King Pardons them p. 113 And with some difficulty the Laity ibid. One Attainted for Poysoning ibid. The King leaves the Queen p. 114 A disorder among the Clergy ibid. The Pope turns to the French p. 115 And offers his Niece to the Duke of Orleance ibid. The Turk invades the Empire p. 116 Anno 1532. THe Parliament complains of the Spiritual Courts ibid. They reject a Bill concerning Wards p. 117 An Act against Annates ibid. The Pope writes to the King p. 118 The Kings answer ibid. Sir Edward Car sent to Rome p. 119 His Negotiation there p. 120 He corrupts the Cardinal of Ravenna ibid. The Process against the King at Rome p. 121 A Bull for new Bishopricks ibid. The Pope desires
the King would submit to him p. 122 A new Session of Parliament ibid. A Subsidy is voted p. 123 The Oaths the Clergy swore to the Pope and to the King ibid. Chancellor More delivers up his Office p. 124 The King meets with the French King ibid. Eliot sent to Rome p. 125 The King Marries Anne Boleyn p. 126 New Overtures for the Divorce ibid. Anno 1533. A Session of Parliament ibid. An Act against Appeals to Rome ibid. Arch-Bishop Warham dies p. 127 Cranmer succeeds him ibid. His Bulls from Rome p. 128 His Consecration ibid. The Iudgment of the Convocation concerning the Divorce p. 129 Endeavours to make the Queen Submit p. 130 But in vain ibid. Cranmer gives Iudgment p. 131 Censures that pass upon it ibid. The Pope united to the French King p. 133 A Sentence against the Kings proceedings ibid. Queen Elizabeth is born p. 134 An Enterview between the Pope and the French King ibid. The King submits to the Pope ibid. The Imperialists oppose the agreement p. 135 And procure a definitive Sentence p. 136 The King resolves to abolish the Popes Power in England ibid. It was long disputed ibid. Arguments against it from Scripture p. 137 And the Primitive Church p. 138 Arguments for the Kings Supremacy p. 140 From Scripture and the Laws of England p. 141 The Supremacy explained p. 142 Pains taken to satisfie Fisher p. 143 Anno 1534. A Session of Parliament ibid. An Act for taking away the Popes Power p. 144 About the Succession to the Crown p. 145 For punishing Hereticks p. 147 The Submission of the Clergy ibid. About the Election of Bishops p. 148 And the Maid of Kent p. 149 The Insolence of some Friers p. 151 The Nuns speech at her death p. 152 Fisher is dealt with Gently p. 153 The Oath for the Succession taken by many p. 154 More and Fisher refuse it p. 155 And are proceeded against p. 156 Another Session of Parliament p. 157 The Kings Supremacy is Enacted ibid. An Act for Suffragan Bishops ibid. A Subsidy is granted p. 158 More and Fisher are Attainted ibid. The Progress of the Reformation p. 159 Tindal and others at Antwerp send over Books and the New Testament ibid. The Supplication of the Beggars p. 160 More answers and Frith replyes p. 161 Cruel proceeding against Reformers p. 162 Bilney's Sufferings p. 163 The Sufferings of Byfield p. 164 And Bainham p. 165 Articles abjured by some ibid. Tracy's Testament p. 166 Frith's Sufferings p. 167 His Arguments against the Corporal presence in the Sacrament ibid. His Opinion of the Sacrament and Purgatory for which he was condemned p. 169 His Constancy at his death p. 170 A stop put to Cruel proceedings p. 171 The Queen favoured the Reformers ibid. Cranmer Promoted it ibid. And was Assisted by Cromwell p. 172. A strong party against it ibid. Reasons used against it ibid. And for it p. 173. The Iudgment of some Bishops concerning a General Council p. 174 A speech of Cranmers of it ibid. BOOK III. Of the other Transactions about Religion and Reformation during the rest of the Reign of King Henry the 8th Anno 1535. THe rest of the Kings Reign was troublesome p. 179 By the practises of the Clergy p. 180 Which provoked the King much ibid. The Bishops swear the Kings Supremacy p. 181. The Franciscans only refuse it p. 182 A Visitation of Monasteries ibid. The Instructions of the Visitors p. 184 Injunctions sent by them p. 185 The State of the Monasteries in England and their Exemptions p. 186 They were deserted but again set up by King Edgar p. 187 Arts used by the Monks ibid. They were generally corrupt p. 188 And so grew the Friers p. 189 The Kings other reasons for suppressing Monasteries ibid. Cranmers design in it p. 190 The Proceedings of the Visitors ibid. Some Houses resigned to the King p. 191 Anno 1536. QVeen Katherine dies ibid. A Session of Parliament in which the lesser Monasteries were suppressed p. 193 The reasons for doing it ibid. The Translation of the Bible in English designed p. 194 The reasons for it ibid. The opposition made to it p. 195 Queen Anns fall driven on by the Popish party p. 196 The King became jealous p. 197 She is put in the Tower p. 198 She confessed some Indiscreet words p. 199 Cranmers Letters concerning her p. 200 She is brought to a Tryal p. 201 And Condemned p. 202 And also Divorced p. 203 She prepares for Death p. 204 The Lieutenant of the Tower's Letters about her ibid. Her Execution p. 205 The Censures made on this ibid. Lady Mary is reconciled to her Father and makes a full Submission p. 207 Lady Elizabeth is well used by the King p. 208 A Letter of hers to the Queen p. 209 A New Parliament is called ibid. An Act of the Succession p. 210 The Pope endeavours a reconciliation p. 211 But in vain ibid. The Proceedings of the Convocation p. 213 Articles agreed on about Religion p. 215 Published by the Kings Authority p. 217 But variously censured p. 218 The Convocation declared against the Council Summoned by the Pope p. 219 The King publishes his reasons against it p. 220 Cardinal Pool writes against the King ibid. Many Books are written for the King p. 221 Instructions for the dissolution of Monasteries p. 222 Great discontents among all sorts p. 223 Endeavours to qualifie these ibid. The people were disposed to Rebel p. 224 The Kings Injunctions about Religion p. 225 They were much censured p. 226 A Rising in Lincoln-shire p. 227 Their Demands and the Kings Answer ibid. It was quieted by the Duke of Suffolk p. 228 A great Rebellion in the North ibid. The Duke of Norfolk was sent against them p. 230 They advance to Doncaster ibid. Their Demands p. 231 The Kings Answer to them p. 232 Anno 1537. THe Rebellion is quieted p. 233 New risings soon dispersed p. 234 The chief Rebels Executed ibid. A New Visitation of Monasteries p. 235 Some great Abbots resign ibid. Confessions of horrid crimes are made p. 237 Some are Attainted p. 238 And their Abbies Suppressed p. 240 The Superstition and Cheats of these Houses discovered p. 242 Anno 1538. SOme Images publickly broken ibid. Thomas Beckets shrine broken p. 243 New Injunctions about Religion p. 245 Inâ—ectives against the King at Rome ibid. The Popes Bulls against the King ibid. The Clergy in England declared against these p. 248 The Bible is Printed in English p. 249 New Injunctions ibid. Prince Edward is born p. 250 The Complyance of the Popish party p. 251 Lambert appealed to the King p. 252 And is publickly tryed ibid. Many Arguments brought against him p. 253 He is condemned and burnt p. 254 The Popish party gain ground ibid. A Treaty with the German Princes p. 255 Bonners dissimulation ibid. Anno 1539. A Parliament is called p. 256 The six Articles are proposed ibid. Arguments against them p. 257 An Act passed for them p. 258 Which is variously
or Monk of this House have any Child or Boy laying or privily accompanying with him or otherwise haunting unto him other than to help him to Mass. Also that the Brethren of this House when they be sick or evil at ease be seen unto and be kept in the Infirmary duly as well for their sustenance of Meat and Drink as for their good keeping Also that the Abbot or President keep and find in some University one or two of his Brothers according to the Ability and Possessions of this House which Brethren after they be learned in good and holy Letters when they return home may instruct and teach their Brethren and diligently preach the Word of God Also that every day by the space of one hour a Lesson of Holy Scripture be kept in this Covent to which all under pain by this said President to be moderated shall resort which President shall have Authority to dispense with them that they with a low and treatable voice say their long hours which were wont to be sung Also that the Brethren of this House after Divine Service done read or hear somewhat of Holy Scripture or occupy themself in some such like honest and laudable exercise Also that all and every Brethren of this House shall observe the Rule Statutes and laudable Customs of this Religion as far as they do agree with Holy Scripture and the Word of God And that the Abbot Prior or President of this Monastery every day shall expound to his Brethren as plainly as may be in English a certain part of the Rule that they have professed and apply the same always to the Doctrine of Christ and not contrariwise and he shall teach them that the said Rule and other their Principles of Religion so far as they be laudable be taken out of Holy Scripture and he shall show them the places from whence they were derived and that their Ceremonies and other observances of Religion be none other things than as the first Letters or Principles and certain Introductions to true Christianity or to observe an order in the Church And that true Religion is not contained in Apparel manner of going shaven Heads and such other marks nor in silence fasting up-rising in the night singing and such other kind of Ceremonies but in cleanness of mind pureness of living Christ's Faith not feigned and brotherly Charity and true honouring of God in Spirit and Verity And that those above-said things were instituted and begun that they being first exercised in these in process of time might ascend to those as by certain steps that is to say to the chief point and end of Religion and therefore let them be diligently exhorted that they do not continually stick and surcease in such Ceremonies and Observances as tho they had perfectly fulfilled the chief and outmost of the whole true Religion but that when they have once past such things they endeavour themselves to higher things and convert their minds from such external Matters to more inward and deeper Considerations as the Law of God and Christian Religion doth teach and show And that they assure not themselves of any Reward or Commodity any wise by reason of such Ceremonies and Observances except they refer all such to Christ and for his sake observe them and for that they might thereby the more easily keep such things as he hath commanded as well to them as to all Christian People Also that the Abbot and President of this Place shall make a full and true reckoning and accompt of his Administration every year to his Brethren as well of his Receipts as Expences and that the said Accompt be written in a great Book remaining with the Covent Also that the Abbot and President of this House shall make no waste of the Woods pertaining to this House nor shall set out unadvisedly any Farmes or Reversions without the consent of the more part of the Convent Also that there be assigned a Book and a Register that may copy out into that Book all such Writings word by word as shall pass under the Convent-Seal of this House Also that no Man be suffered to profess or to wear the Habit of Religion in this House e're he be 24 years of Age compleat And that they entice nor allure no Man with suasions and blandyments to take the Religion upon him Item that they shall not shew no Reliques or feigned Miracles for encrease of Lucre but that they exhort Pilgrims and Strangers to give that to the Poor that they thought to offer to their Images or Reliques Also that they shall suffer no Fairs or Markets to be kept or used within the limits of this House Also that every Brother of this House that is a Priest shall every day in his Mass pray for the most happy and most prosperous estate of our Sovereign Lord the King and his most noble and lawful Wife Queen Ann. Also that if either the Master or any Brother of this House do infringe any of the said Injunctions any of them shall denounce the same or procure to be denounced as soon as may be to the King's Majesty or to his Visitor-General or his Deputy And the Abbot or Master shall minister spending Mony and other Necessaries for the way to him that shall so denounce Other Spiritual Injunctions may be added by the Visitor as the place and nature of the Comperts shall require after his discretion Reserving Power to give more Injunctions and to examine and discuss the Comperts to punish and reform them that be convict of any notable Crime to search and try the Foundations Charters Donations Appropriations and Muniments of the said Places and to dispose all such Papistical Escripts as shall be there found to the Right Honourable Mr. Thomas Cromwell General-Visitor to the King 's said Highness as shall seem most expedient to his high wisdom and discretion III. Some Particulars relating to the Dissolution of Monasteries Section I. The Preamble of the Surrender of the Monastery of Langden OMnibus Christi fidelibus c. Willielmus Dyer Abbas Monasterii Beatae Mariae Virginis S. Thomae Martyris de Langden in Com. Kent ejusdem loci Conventus Ordinis Praemonstrat capitulum dictae domus plene facientes ejusdemque domus quae in suis fructibus redditibus provenien even emolumen non mediocriter deteriorata est quasi in totum diminuta ingentique aere alieno obruta oppressa gravata extitit statum usque adeo matura deliberatione diligenti tractatu considerantes ponderantes pensantes quod nisi celeri remedio regia provisione huic Monasterio sive Prioratui quippe quod de ejus fundatione personatu existit brevi succuratur provideatur funditus in Spiritualibus Temporalibus annihiletur per praesentes damus concedimus c. The rest follows in the ordinary form of Law but the ordinary Preamble in most Surrenders is Omnibus Christi fidelibus c. Nos Salutem Sciatis
to say the one half by you and the other half by them Item That you shall discourage no Man privily or apertly from the reading or hearing of the said Bible but shall expresly provoke stir and exhort every Person to read the same as that which is the very lively Word of God that every Christian Man is bound to embrace believe and follow if he look to be saved admonishing them nevertheless to avoid all contention altercation therein and to use an honest sobriety in the inquisition of the true sense of the same and refer the explication of the obscure places to Men of higher judgment in Scripture Item That ye shall every Sunday and Holy-day through the Year openly and plainly recite to your Parishioners twice or thrice together or oftner if need require one particle or sentence of the Pater Noster or Creed in English to the intent they may learn the same by Heart And so from day to day to give them one little lesson or sentence of the same till they have learned the whole Pater Noster and Creed in English by rote And as they be taught every sentence of the same by rote ye shall expound and declare the understanding of the same unto them exhorting all Parents and Housholders to teach their Children and Servants the same as they are bound in Conscience to do And that done ye shall declare unto them the Ten Commandments one by one every Sunday and Holy-day till they be likewise perfect in the same Item That ye shall in Confessions every Lent examine every Person that cometh to Confession unto you whether they can recite the Articles of our Faith and the Pater Noster in English and hear them say the same particularly wherein if they be not perfect ye shall declare to the same That every Christian Person ought to know the same before they should receive the blessed Sacrament of the Altar and monish them to learn the same more perfectly by the next year following or else like-as they ought not to presume to come to God's Board without perfect knowledg of the same and if they do it is to the great peril of their Souls so ye shall declare unto them that ye look for other Injunctions from the King's Highness by that time to stay and repel all such from God's Board as shall be found ignorant in the Premisses whereof ye do thus admonish them to the intent they should both eschew the peril of their Souls and also the worldly rebuke that they might incur after by the same Item That ye shall make or cause to be made in the said Church and every other Cure ye have one Sermon every quarter of the year at least wherein ye shall purely and sincerely declare the very Gospel of Christ and in the same exhort your Hearers to the Works of Charity Mercy and Faith especially prescribed and commanded in Scripture and not to repose their trust or affiance in any other Works devised by Mens fantasies beside Scripture as in wandring to Pilgrimages offering of Mony Candels or Tapers to Images or Reliques or kissing or licking the same over saying over a number of Beads not understanded or minded on or in such-like superstition for the doing whereof ye not only have no promise of reward in Scripture but contrariwise great threats and maledictions of God as things tending to Idolatry and Superstition which of all other Offences God Almighty doth most detest and abhor for that the same diminisheth most his honour and glory Item That such feigned Images as ye know in any of your Cures to be so abused with Pilgrimages or Offerings of any thing made thereunto ye shall for avoiding of that most detestable offence of Idolatry forthwith take down and without delay and shall suffer from henceforth no Candles Tapers or Images of Wax to be set afore any Image or Picture but only the Light that commonly goeth a-cross the Church by the Rood-loft the Light before the Sacrament of the Altar and the Light about the Sepulchre which for the adorning of the Church and Divine Service ye shall suffer to remain still admonishing your Parishioners that Images serve for none other purpose but as to be Books of unlearned Men that ken no Letters whereby they might be otherwise admonished of the lives and conversation of them that the said Images do represent which Images if they abuse for any other intent than for such remembrances they commit Idolatry in the same to the great danger of their Souls And therefore the King's Highness graciously tendring the weal of his Subjects Souls hath in part already and more will hereafter travail for the abolishing of such Images as might be an occasion of so great an offence to God and so great a danger to the Souls of his loving Subjects Item That all in such Benefices or Cures as ye have whereupon ye be not your self Resident ye shall appoint such Curats in your stead as can both by their hability and also promptly execute these Injunctions and do their duty otherwise that ye are bounden in every behalf accordingly and may profit them no less with good Examples of living than with declaration of the Word of God or else their lack and defaults shall be imputed unto you who shall straitly answer for the same if they do otherwise Item That ye shall admit no Man to preach within any your Benefices or Cures but such as shall appear unto you to be sufficiently licensed thereunto by the King's Highness or his Grace's Authority by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of this Diocess and such as shall be so licensed ye shall gladly receive to declare the Word of God without any resistance or contradiction Item If ye have heretofore declared to your Parishioners any thing to the extolling or setting forth of Pilgrimages feigned Reliques or Images or any such superstitions that you shall now openly afore the same recant and reprove the same shewing them as the truth is that ye did the same upon no ground of Scripture but as one led and seduced by a common Error and Abuse crept into the Church through the sufferance and avarice of such as felt profit by the same Item If ye do or shall know any Man within your Parish or elsewhere that is a Letter of the Word of God to be read in English or sincerely preached or of the execution of these Injunctions or a favourer of the Bishop of Rome's pretensed Power now by the Laws of this Realm justly rejected and extirped ye shall detect and present the same to the King's Highness or his honourable Council or to his Vice-gerent aforesaid or the Justice of Peace next adjoining Item That you and every Parson Vicar or Curat within this Diocess shall for every Church keep one Book or Register wherein he shall write the day and year of every Wedding Christening and Burying made within your Parish for your time and so every Man succeeding you
likewise and also there insert every Person 's Name that shall be so wedded christened and buried and for the safe keeping of the same Book the Parish shall be bound to provide of their common charges one sure Coffer with two Locks and Keys whereof the one to remain with you and the other with the Wardens of every such Parish wherein the said Book shall be laid up which Book ye shall every Sunday take forth and in the presence of the said Wardens or one of them write and record in the same all the Weddings Christenings and Buryings made the whole week afore and that done to lay up the Book in the said Coffer as afore And for every time that the same shall be omitted the Party that shall be in the fault thereof shall forfeit to the said Church 3 s. 4 d. to be employed on the reparation of the said Church Item That ye shall every quarter of a year read these and the other former Injunctions given unto you by the Authority of the King's Highness openly and deliberately before all your Parishioners to the intent that both you may be the better admonished of your duty and your said Parishioners the more incited to ensue the same for their part Item Forasmuch as by a Law established every Man is bound to pay the Tithes no Man shall by colour of duty omitted by their Curats detain their Tithes and so redouble one wrong with another or be his own Judg but shall truly pay the same as hath been accustomed to their Parsons and Curats without any restraint or diminution and such lack or default as they can justly find in their Parsons and Curats to call for reformation thereof at their Ordinaries and other Superiors hands who upon complaint and due proof thereof shall reform the same accordingly Item That no Person shall from henceforth alter or change the order and manner of any Fasting-day that is commanded and indicted by the Church nor of any Prayer or of Divine Service otherwise than is specified in the said Injunctions until such time as the same shall be so ordered and transported by the Kings Highness's Authority The Eves of such Saints whose Holy-days be abrogâ—ted be only excepted which shall be declared henceforth to be no Fasting-days excepted also the commemoration of Thomas Becket some-time Arch-Bishop of Canterbury which shall be clean omitted and in the stead thereof the Ferial Service used Item That the knolling of the Avies after Service and certain other times which hath been brought in and begun by the pretence of the Bishop of Rome's pardon henceforth be left and omitted lest the People do hereafter trust to have pardon for the saying of their Avies between the said knolling as they have done in times past Item Where in times past Men have used in divers places in their Processions to sing Ora pro nobis to so many Saints that they had no time to sing the good Suffrages following as Parce nobis Domine and Libera nos Domine it must be taught and preached that better it were to omit Ora pro nobis and to sing the other Suffrages All which and singular Injunctions I minister unto you and your Successors by the King's Highness Authority to me committed in this part which I charge and command you by the same Authority to observe and keep upon pain of Deprivation Sequestration of your Fruits or such other coercion as to the King's Highness or his Vice-gerent for the time being shall seem convenient These are also in the Bp. of London's Register Fol. 29 30. with Bonner's Mandate to his Arch-Deacons for observing them 30 Sept. 1541. Anno Regn. 32. XII Injunctions given by Thomas Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to the Parsons Vicars and other Curats in his Visitation kept sede vacante within the Diocess of Hereford Anno Domini 1538. I. FIrst That ye and every one of you shall with all your diligence and faithful obedience observe and cause to be observed all and singular the King's Highness Injunctions by his Graces Commissaries given in such places as they in times past have visited II. Item That ye and every one of you shall have by the first day of August next coming as well a whole Bible in Latin and English or at the least a New Testament of both the same Language as the Copies of the King's Highness Injunctions III. Item That ye shall every day study one Chapter of the said Bible or New Testament conferring the Latin and English together and to begin at the first part of the Book and so to continue until the end of the same IV. Item That ye or none of you shall discourage any Lay-Man from the reading of the Bible in English or Latin but encourage them to that admonishing them that they so read it for reformation of their own Life and knowledg of their Duty and that they be not bold or presumptuous in judging of Matters afore they have perfect knowledg V. Item That ye both in your Preaching and secret Confession and all other works and doings shall excite and move your Parishioners unto such Works as are commanded expresly of God for the which God shall demand of them a strict reckoning and all other Works which Men do of their own Will or Devotion to teach your Parishioners that they are not to be so highly esteemed as the other and that for the not doing of them God will not ask any accompt VI. Item That ye nor none of you suffer no Friar or Religious Man to have any Cure or Service within your Churches or Cures except they be lawfully dispensed withal or licensed by the Ordinary VII Item That ye and every one of you do not admit any young Man or Woman to receive the Sacrament of the Altar which never received it before until that he or she openly in the Church after Mass or evening Song upon the Holy-day do recite in the vulgar Tongue the Pater Noster the Creed and the Ten Commandments VIII Item That ye and every one of you shall two times in a quarter declare to your Parishioners the Band of Matrimony and what great danger it is to all Men that useth their Bodies but with such Persons as they lawfully may by the Law of God And to exhort in the said Times your Parishioners that they make no privy Contracts as they will avoid the extream pain of the Laws used within the King's Realm by his Graces Authority XIII A Letter of Cromwell's to the Bishop of Landaff directing him how to proceed in the Reformation An Original AFter my right hearty Commendations to your Lordship ye shall herewith receive the King's Highness Letters addressed unto you to put you in remembrance of his Highness travels and your duty touching order to be taken for Preaching to the intent the People may be taught the Truth and yet not charged at the beginning with over-many Novelties the publication whereof unless the same be tempered and
in him did not only erect and advance the same Thomas unto the State of an Earl and enriched him with many-fold Gifts as well of Goods as of Lands and Offices but also him the said Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex did erect and make one of your most trusty Counsellors as well concerning your Grace's Supream Jurisdictions Ecclesiastical as your most high secret Affairs Temporal Nevertheless your Majesty now of late hath found and tried by a large number of Witnesses being your faithful Subjects and Personages of great Honour Worship and Discretion the said Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex contrary to the singular trust and confidence which your Majesty had in him to be the most false and corrupt Traitor Deceiver and Circumventor against your most Royal Person and the Imperial Crown of this your Realm that hath been known seen or heard of in all the time of your most noble Reign Insomuch that it is manifestly proved and declared by the Depositions of the Witnesses aforesaid That the same Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex usurping upon your Kingly Estate Power Authority and Office without your Grace's Commandment or Assent hath taken upon him to set at liberty divers Persons being convicted and attainted of Misprision of High Treason and divers other being apprehended and in Prison for Suspection of High Treason and over that divers and many times at sundry places in this your Realm for manifold Sums of Mony to him given most traiterously hath taken upon him by several Writings to give and grant as well unto Aliens as to your Subjects a great number of Licenses for conveighing and carrying of Mony Corn Grain Beans Beer Leather Tallow Bells Mettals Horses and other Commodities of this your Realm contrary to your Highness's most Godly and Gracious Proclamations made for the Common-Wealth of your People of this your Realm in that behalf and in derogation of your Crown and Dignity And the same Thomas Cromwell elated and full of pride contrary to his most bounden Duty of his own Authority and Power not regarding your Majesty Royal And further taking upon him your Power Sovereign Lord in that behalf divers and many times most traiterously hath constituted deputed and assigned many singular Persons of your Subjects to be Commissioners in many your great urgent and weighty Causes and Affairs executed and done in this your Realm without the assent knowledg or consent of your Highness And further also being a Person of as poor and low degree as few be within this your Realm pretending to have so great a stroak about you our and his natural Sovereign Liege Lord that he letted not to say publickly and declare That he was sure of you which is detestable and to be abhorred amongst all good Subjects in any Christian Realm that any Subject should enterprize or take upon him so to speak of his Sovereign Liege Lord and King And also of his own Authority and Power without your Highness's consent hath made and granted as well to Strangers as to your own Subjects divers and many Pass-ports to pass over the Seas with Horses and great Sums of Mony without any search And over that most Gracious Soveraign Lord amongst divers other his Treasons Deceits and Falshoods the said Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex being a detestable Heretick and being in himself utterly disposed to sett and sow common Sedition and Variance among your true and loving Subjects hath secretly set forth and dispersed into all Shires and other Territories of this your Realm and other your Dominions great numbers of false Erroneous Books whereof many were printed and made beyond the Seas and divers other within this Realm comprising and declaring amongst many other Evils and Errors manifest Matters to induce and lead your Subjects to diffidence and refusal of the true and sincere Faith and Belief which Christian Religion bindeth all Christian People to have in the most Holy and Blessed Sacrament of the Altar and other Articles of Christian Religion most graciously declared by your Majesty by Authority of Parliament And certain Matters comprised in some of the said Books hath caused to be translated into our maternal and English Tongue And upon report made unto him by the Translator thereof that the Matter so translated hath expresly been against the said most Blessed and Holy Sacrament Yet the same Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex after he had read the same Translation most heretically hath affirmed the same material Heresie so translated to be good and further hath said that he found no fault therein and over that hath openly and obstinately holden Opinion and said That it was as lawful for every Christian Man to be a Minister of the said Sacrament as well as a Priest And where also your most Royal Majesty being a Prince of Vertue Learning and Justice of singular Confidence and Trust did constitute and make the same Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex your Highness's Vicegerent within this your Realm of England and by the same gave unto him Authority and Power not only to redress and reform all and all manner of Errors and Erroneous Opinions insurging and growing among your loving and obedient Subjects of this your Realm and of the Dominions of the same but also to order and direct all Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Causes within your said Realm and Dominions the said Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex not regarding his Duty to Almighty God and to your Highness under the Seal of your Vicegerent hath without your Grace's assent or knowledg licensed and authorized divers Persons detected and suspected of Heresies openly to teach and preach amongst your most loving and obedient Subjects within this your Realm of England And under the pretence and colour of the said great Authorities and Cures which your Majesty hath committed unto him in the Premisses hath not only of his corrupt and damnable Will and Mind actually at some time by his own Deed and Commandment and at many other times by his Letters expresly written to divers worshipful Persons being Sheriffs in sundry Shires of this your Realm falsly suggesting thereby your Grace's Pleasure so to have been caused to be set at large many false Hereticks some being there indicted and some other being thereof apprehended and in ward and commonly upon complaints made by credible Persons unto the said Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex of great and most detestable Heresies committed and sprung in many places of this your Realm with declaration of the Specialities of the same Heresies and the Names of the Offenders therein the same Thomas Cromwel Earl of Essex by his crafty and subtil means and inventions hath not only defended the same Hereticks from Punishment and Reformation but being a fautor maintainer and supporter of Hereticks divers times hath terribly rebuked divers of the said credible Persons being their Accusers and some others of them hath persecuted and vexed by Imprisonment and otherwise So that thereby many of your Grace's true and loving Subjects have been in much
of ancient Authors to shew that a Bishop or a Priest may Excommunicate open deadly sinners continuing in obstinacy with contempt I have read in Histories also that a Prince hath done the same Opinor Episcopum aut Presbyterum Excommunicare posse tanquam ministrum os Ecclesiae ab eadem mandatum habens Utrum vero id juris nulli nisi Sacerdotibus in mandatis dari possit non satis scio Excommunicandum esse opinor pro hujuscemodi criminibus qualia recenset Paulus 1 Cor. 5. si is qui frater nominatur est fornicator aut avarus aut idolis serviens aut maledicus aut ebriosus aut rapax cum hujusmodi ne cibum sumere c. A Bishop or a Priest as a publick Person appointed to that Office may excommunicate for all publick Crimes And yet it is not against God's Law for others than Bishops or Priests to Excommunicate A Bishop or a Priest may Excommunicate by God's Law for manifest and open Crimes Also others appointed by the Church tho they be no Priests may exercise the power of Excommunication Non solum Episcopus Excommunicare potest sed etiam tota Congregatio idque pro lethalibus criminibus ac publicis ê quibus scandalum Ecclesiae provenire potest Non tamen pro re pecuniaria uti olim solebant They may Excommunicate as appeareth 1 Cor. 5. 1 Tim. 1. and that for open and great Crimes whereby the Church is offended and for such Crimes as the Prince and Governours determine and thinketh expedient Men to be excommunicate for as appeareth in nonnullis Constitutionibus Iustiniani Whether any other may pronounce the Sentence but a Bishop or a Priest I am uncertain A Bishop or a Priest only may excommunicate a notorious and grievous Sinner or obstinate Person from the Communion of Christian People because it pertaineth to the Jurisdiction which is given to Priests Io. 26. Quorum Remiseritis c. et Quorum retinetis c. There is one manner of Excommunication spoken of 1 Cor. 5. which private Persons may use Si is qui frater nominatur inter vos est fornicator aut avarus aut idolis ferviens c. cum hujusmodi ne cibum quidem capiatis Excluding filthy Persons covetous Persons Braulers and Quarrellers out of their Company and neither to eat nor drink with them Whosoever hath a place under the Higher Power and is assigned by the same to execute his Ministry given of God he may Excommunicate for any Crime as it shall be seen to the High Power if the same Crime be publick A Bishop and Priest may Excommunicate by Scripture as touching for what Crimes I say for every open deadly sin and disobedience And as touching Whether only the Priest may Excommunicate I say not he only but such as the Church authorizes so to do To the sixteenth I say that a Bishop or a Priest having License and Authority of the Prince of the Realm may excommunicate every obstinate and inobedient Person for every notable and deadly sin And further I say That not only Bishops and Priests may Excommunicate but any other Man appointed by the Church or such as have authority to appoint Men to that Office may Excommunicate A Bishop or a Priest may Excommunicate an obstinate Person for publick Sins Forsomuch as the Keys be given to the whole Church the whole Congregation may Excommunicate which Excommunication may be pronounced by such a one as the Congregation does appoint altho he be neither Bishop nor Priest Menevens Herefordens Thirleby Dayus Leightonus Coxus Symmons Coren concedunt authoritatem excommunicandi etiam Laicis modo a Magistratu deputentur Eboracens Edgworth prorsus negant datum Laicis sed Apostolis eorum successoribus tantum Roffensis Redmanus Robertsonus ambigunt num detur Laicis Londinens non respondet Quaestioni Oglethorpus Thirliby aiunt Ecclesiae datam esse potestatem Excommunicandi Idem Treshamus In the sixteenth Of Excommunication they do not agree The Bishops of York Duresme and Dr. Edgworth say That Lay-men have not the authority to Excommunicate but that it was given only unto the Apostles and their Successors The Bishops of Hereford St. Davids Westminster Doctors Day Coren Leighton Cox Symmons say That Lay-men may Excommunicate if they be appointed by the High Ruler My Lord Elect of Westminster Dr. Tresham and Dr. Oglethorp say further That the Power of Excommunication was given to the Church and to such as the Church shall institute 17. Question Whether Unction of the Sick with Oil to remit Venial Sins as it is now used be spoken of in the Scripture or in any ancient Authors Answers UNction of the Sick with Oil to remit Venial Sins as it is now used is not spoken of in the Scripture nor in any ancient Authors T. Cantuarien This is mine Opinion and Sentence at this present which I do not temerariously define but do remit the judgment thereof wholly unto your Majesty To the seventeenth Of Unction of the Sick with Oil and that Sins thereby be remitted St. Iames doth teach us but of the Holy Prayers and like Ceremonies used in the time of the Unction we find no special mention in Scripture albeit the said St. Iames maketh also mention of Prayer to be used in the Ministry of the same Edward Ebor. To the seventeenth I think that albeit it appeareth not clearly in Scripture whether the usage in extream Unction now be all one with that which was in the beginning of the Church Yet of the Unction in time of Sickness and the Oil also with Prayers and Ceremonies the same is set forth in the Epistle of St. Iames which place commonly is alledged and so hath been received to prove the Sacrament of extream Unction Ita mihi Edmundo Londinensi Episcopo pro hoc tempore dicendum videtur salvo judicio melius sentientis cui me prompte humiliter subjicio In Unction of them that be Sick with Oil and praying for them for remission of Sins is plainly spoken of in the Epistle of St. Iames but after what form or fashion the said Inunction was then used the Scripture telleth not Written on the back of the Paper The Bishop of Rochester's Book Extream Unction is plainly set out by St. Iames with the which maketh also that is written in the 6 th of St. Mark after the mind of right good ancient Doctors Robert Carliolen De Unctione Infirmorum nihil reperio in Scripturis praeter id quod scribitur Marc. 6. Jacob. 5. Thomas Robertson T. Cantuarien Unction of the Sick with Oil consecrat as it is now used is not spoken of in Scripture Richardus Cox Unction of the Sick with praying for them is found in Scripture George Day Opiniones non Assertiones De Unctione Infirmorum cum oleo adjecta Oratione expressa mentio est in
whosesoever Daughter she was she should be his Wife and upon that Sir Thomas instructed his Daughter how she should hold the King in her toils Sir Thomas must have thought the King had an ill memory if he had forgot such a Story but the one part of this makes him afraid that the King should marry his Daughter and the other part makes him afraid they should miss their hopes in it Not to mention how little likely it is that a King of such high vanity would have done that which the privatest Person has an aversion to I mean the marrying the Daughter of one whom they know to be a common Prostitute 23. He says Wolsey before his return from France sent Gambara to the Pope desiring him to name himself Vicar of the Papacy during his captivity This was not done till almost a year after this and the motion was sent by Staphileus Dean of the Rota for which see pag. 50. 24. He says None but ill Men and ignorant Persons wrote against the Marriage but all learned and good Men wrote for it The whole Doctors of the Church in all Ages were against it and no Doctor ancienter than Cajetan could ever be found to have writ for it 25. He says That tho great endeavours were used to perswade Sir Tho. More of the unlawfulness of the marriage all was in vain Is it probable that the King would have made him Lord Chancellor when he was so earnest in this business if he had not known that he would have gone along with him in it By one of his Letters to Cromwel out of the Tower it appears that he approved the Divorce and had great hopes of success in it as long as it was prosecuted at Rome and founded on the defects in the Bull. And in the 22 d year of the King's Reign when the Opinions of the Universities and the Books of Learned Men were brought to England against the Marriage he carried them down to the House of Commons and made read them there after which he desired they would report in their Country what they had heard and seen and then all Men would openly perceive that the King had not attempted this matter of his Will and Pleasure but only for the discharge of his Conscience More was a Man of greater integrity than to have said this if he had thought the Marriage good so that he has either afterwards changed his mind or did at this time dissemble too artificially with the King 26. After a long flourish about the King 's secret fears and apprehensions and the perplexities the Cardinal was in which must pass for a piece of his Wit that is to say Lying for he knew none of their thoughts He says That Gardiner and Sir Francis Brian were sent to the Pope together Gardiner being then Secretary of State In this there are only three gross mistakes First Gardiner was not sent with the first Message to the Pope Secretary Knight carried it 2. Sir Francis Brian went never to Rome with Gardiner It is true a year after the commencing the Sute Sir Francis Brian was sent to Rome and about a month after him Gardiner was also sent so tho they were both together at Rome yet they were not sent thither together 3. Gardiner was not Secretary of State but was Wolsey's Secretary when he went first to Rome and was made a Privy Counsellor when he was sent thither the second time and was not Secretary of State till some months after his return from his Journey the last time 27. He says They made the Pope believe that the Queen would willingly retire into a Monastery This was on the contrary a contrivance of the Popes who thought it the easiest way to bring the Matter to a good issue but in England they had no hopes of it and so always diverted the motion when it was proposed by the Pope 28. He says ' The Pope said he would consult with some Cardinals and Divines and do all that he could lawfully do to give the King satisfaction Upon the first motion of it the Pope frankly granted the King's desire and gave a Bull with a Commission upon it And only consulted some Cardinals about the methods of doing it And did assure the King that he would not only do every thing that could be granted in Law or Justice but whatsoever he could grant out of the fulness of his Power It is true afterwards when the Pope changed his measures and resolved to agree with the Emperor he pretended he understood not these things himself but would needs turn it over upon the Cardinals and Divines 29. He says All the Cardinals were of a mind that the Marriage was good Cardinal Sanctorum Quatuor by the force of that mighty Argument of 4000 Crowns changed his mind All the other Cardinals were forward in granting the King's desires for which he wrote them a Letter of Thanks 30. He says The Pope granted the Commission to the two Legats not doubting but it was true that had been told him of the Queens readiness to go into a Monastery The Pope knew she would not yield to any such thing but when he granted that Commission he sent with Campegio a Decretal Bull annulling the Marriage and sent afterwards a promise never to avocate the Process but to confirm what Sentence the Legats should give tho soon after he broke his promise most signally And since he had often dispensed with others for breaking their Faith he might think that it was hard to deny him the same priviledg for himself 31. He says The Pope understanding that the Queen did not consent to the Propositions that were made and that he had been abused sent after Campegio when he was on his Journey that he should not proceed to a Sentence without a new order The Pope sent Campana to England after Campegio to assure the King he would do every thing for him that he could do out of the fulness of his Power And ordered the same Person to charge Cardinal Campegio to burn the Decretal Bull which he had sent by him In all which the Pope as appears by the Original Letters was only governed by politick Maxims and considered nothing but the dangers himself was like to fall in tho Sanders would perswade us he was ready to run the hazard of all these 32. He says The King by his Letters to the Pope did at the same time that he was moving scruples about his own Marriage transact about a Dispensation for a marriage betwixt his own natural Son the Duke of Richmond and his Daughter the Lady Mary Tho the whole Dispatches at that time both to and from Rome be most happily preserved there is not the least mention of any such design and can any body think that if any such motion had been made the Pope would not have taken great advantages from it and that these Letters would not
have been afterwards published But this Sanders thought was a pretty embellishment of his Fable and of a piece with this is his next 33. He says The King did under his own hand confess he had known Boleyn's Sister Mary and desired the Pope would dispence with his marrying Ann notwithstanding that The falshood of this appears from the recital of it And how came it that these Letters were not published Nor is there any mention of this in all the Dispatches I have seen And it is not possible that in so many conferences which the English Ambassadors had with the Pope these two things should never have been discoursed of And can it be thought credible that at the same time when the King pretended such scruples and troubles of Consciences he could be guilty of so much folly and impudence as to put himself thus in the Pope's Mercy by two such demands This was a forgery of Cardinal Pole's which Sanders greedily catched to dress up the Scene 34. From page 34 to 42 there is a trifling account given of the Reasons brought against the Marriage which Sanders answers manfully and fights couragiously against the Man of Straw he had set up But if that be compared with what has been opened in the History it will appear how lame and defective his account is 35. He says Clarke Bishop of Bath and Wells Tonstal Bishop of London and West Bishop of Ely writ for the lawfulness of the King's marriage All the Bishops except Fisher had a year before this given it under their Hands and Seals that the King's marriage was unlawful and in all the Memorials of that time Fisher is the only Bishop I find mentioned to have writ for it Tonstall was also soon after translated to Duresme which none that have considered that King's temper will think could have been done if he had interposed in so tender a Point against what the King so vehemently desired 36. He says That Abel Powel Fetherston and Ridley also writ for the marriage This is not likely of the second and third for they being afterwards attainted of Treason no such Books were objected to them but the Crime charged on them was only that they said the King's marriage with Q. Katharine was good 37. He says All things appeared clear in the Trial before the Legats in behalf of the Marriage so that they could give no Sentence against such full evidence as was brought for it This is said without any regard to Truth for all the Matter of Fact that had been alledged was clearly proved for the contrary side It was proved that Prince Arthur married the Queen violent presumptions appeared of his consummating the Marriage It was also proved that the King was under age when the Bull was obtained and that the Petitions given in his Name upon which the Bull was granted were false That the King had not desired it but when he came of Age he had protested against it And that there was no hazard of a War between Spain and England the preventing which was the chief reason set down in the Bull that permitted it So that all that had been informed at Rome as to matter of Fact was fully proved before the Legats by clear Instruments and many and noble Witnesses 38. He puts a long bold speech in Campegio's Mouth who was far from assuming such freedom but lived licentiously in England in all manner of disorders of which both he and his Bastard Son were guilty And by dissembling and other Arts perswaded the King to delay the Process from day to day giving him full assurances that in conclusion he should obtain what he desired and by such means he gain'd time and drew out the Trial till the Pope had ended his Treaty with the Emperor and then he served him an Italian trick by adjourning the Court. 39. He says Some Doctors being corrupted with the King's Mony declared for him but those were none of the most learned The King ordered those he sent not to give or promise any thing to any Person till they had delivered their Opinion freely upon which some of them wrote to him that they would answer upon their heads that they had followed his Orders in that particular 40. He says These Determinations were published in the names of the Universities to deceive the World by a false representation of so great Authorities Were the publick Seals of the Universities put to their determinations after a long debate all being required to deliver their Consciences upon Oath and done with the unanimous consent of the whole faculty in some places false representations This was done in Italy in Padua Bononia Ferrara and Millan under the Pope and the Emperors Eye and within their Dominions 41. He says Endeavours were used to corrupt the University of Colen and some others in Germany for which great sums were offered and that the King was at a vast expence in it Crooks accompts shew that his expence in Italy was very inconsiderable And who can imagine that when Paris Padua and Bononia had declared for the King he would be much concerned for Colen or any other University in Germany Those who will believe Sanders and such Authors as he quotes Cochleus and an unknown Bishop of Brasile may if they will 42. He says In Oxford the King not being able to obtain a satisfactory answer in that Matter eight Students of the University broke into the place where the Seal was laid and put it to an Answer which passed for the determination of the University The Lord Herbert says there was an Original Instrument passed which he saw by which the University did appoint a Committee of 33 Doctors and Batchelors of Divinity to examine the Questions proposed by the King and to set the Seal of the University to any Answer that they should agree on and these did afterwards give a Resolution against the lawfulness of the Marriage 43. He tells a long Story of the King's endeavours to gain Reginald Pole and that he came over to England and being much pressed by his Kindred to comply with the King he went to him fully purposed to have done it but could not speak a word to him till he resolved to talk to him in another stile and then he found his tongue and spake very freely to the King who put his hands sometimes to his Poynard intending to have killed him but was overcome with the simplicity and humility of his Discourse and so the King continued his Pension to him and gave him leave to go back to Padua This is another pretty adventure of one of the Hero's of the Romance but has this misfortune in it that it is all without any proof for as none of the Books of that time ever mention it so neither did Pole himself pretend to have carried so in his Book tho written with the most provoking insolence that was possible In it he mentions
his going over to England but not one word of any such discourse with the King And King Henry was not a Man of such a temper as to permit one of Pole's quality to go out of England and live among his Enemies and continue his Pensions to him if he had to his face opposed him in a Matter he laid so much to heart 44. He says Fisher of Rochester and Holman Bishop of Bristol wrote for the Marriage There was no Bishoprick nor Bishop of Bristol at that time nor thirteen years after 45. Many are reckoned up who wrote for the Marriage in all Nations These are neither to be compared in number nor authority to those who wrote against it an hundred Books were shewed in Parliament written by Divines and Lawyers beyond Sea besides the determinations of twelve of the most celebrated Universities in Europe The Emperor did indeed give so great Rewards and such good Benefices to those who wrote against the King that it is a wonder there were not more Writers of his side 46. He says That upon Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury's death the Earl of Wiltshire told the King that he had a Chaplain who was at his House that would certainly serve the King in the matter of his Divorce upon which Cranmer was promoted Cranmer was no stranger to the King at this time he was first recommended by the King to the Earl of Wiltshire to be kept in his House but was in Germany when Warham died and made no haste over but delayed his Journey some months It is true he was of the mind that the King ought to be divorced but this was not out of servile compliance for when the King pressed him in other things that were against his Conscience he expressed all the courage and constancy of mind which became so great a Prelate 47. He say's That Cranmer being to swear the Oath of Obedience to the Pope before he was consecrated did protest to a Publick Notary that he took it against his will and that he had no mind to keep his Faith to the Pope in prejudice to the King's Authority He did not protest that he did it unwillingly nor was it only to a Notary but twice at the high Altar he repeated the Protestation that he made which was to this effect That he intended not thereby to oblige himself to any thing contrary to the Law of God the King's Prerogative or the Laws of the Land nor to be restrained from speaking advising or consenting to any thing that should concern the Reformation of the Christian Faith the Government of the Church of England and the Prerogative of the Crown and Kingdom 48. He says Cranmer did in all things so comply with the King's Lusts that the King was wont to say he was the only Man that had never contradicted him in any thing he had a mind to Cranmer was both a good Subject and a modest and discreet Man and so would obey and submit as far as he might without sin yet when his Conscience charged him to appear against any thing that the King pressed him to as in the matter of the six Articles he did it with much resolution and boldness 49. He says The King going over to Calais carried Ann Boleyn secretly with him He carried her over in great state having made her Marchioness of Pembroke and in the publick Interview between him and Francis she appeared with all possible splendor 50. He says After the King's return from France he brought the Action of Premunire against all the Clergy This is an Error of two years for so long before this Voyage to France was that action begun and the Clergy about 28 months before had made their submission and obtained their pardon in March 1531 which appears by the printed Statutes and the King went over to France in September 1532 so that it is clear Sanders never looked for any verification of what he wrote 51. He says The King by an unheard-of Tyranny and a new Calumny brought this Charge against the Clergy These Laws upon which the Charge was founded had been oft renewed they were first made under Edward the First by reason of the Papal Encroachments that gave the rise to them they were oft confirmed by Edward the Third Richard the Second Henry the Fourth and Henry the Fifth with the concurrence of their Parliaments so the Charge was neither new nor tyrannical 52. He says The Clergy submitted to the King being betrayed by their Metropolitanes Cranmer and Lee. The submission was made two years before Cranmer was Arch-Bishop in March 1531 and Cranmer was Consecrated in March 1533. but at that time Warham sate in Canterbury as for Lee he opposed it for some time 53. He says The whole Clergâ— petitioned the King to forgive their Crime according to that Supreme Power which he had over all the Clergy and Laity within his Kingdom from whence the King's Counsellors took occasion afterwards to call him Supreme Head The Clergy did in the Title of their Submission call the King in formal terms Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England as far as by the Law of Christ is lawful to which Fisher with the rest of the Convocation subscribed And all this was done when More was Chancellor 54. He says When the King went to marry Ann Boleyn he perswaded Rowland Lee made soon after Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield to officiate in it assuring him he had obtain'd a Bull for it from Rome which was then lying in his Cabinet Upon which Lee giving credit to what he said did marry them This is another trial of Sander's wit to excuse Lee who tho at this time he complied absolutely with the King yet did afterwards turn over to the Popish Party therefore to make him look a little clean this Story must be forged But at that time all the World saw that the Pope and the Emperor were so linked together that Lee could not but know that no such thing was possible And he was so obsequious to the King that such Arts were needless to perswade him to any thing the King had a mind to 55. For five pages he runs out in repetition of all those foul Lyes concerning Ann Boleyn by which he designed both to disgrace the Reformers who were supported by her and to defame her Daughter Queen Elizabeth which have been before confuted after that he says Queen Katharine with three Maids and a small Family retired into the Country She had both the respect of a Princess Dowager and all the Jointure contracted to her by Prince Arthur so she could not be driven to that straitness but this must go for an Ornament in the Fable 56. He says It was concluded that Cranmer might be more free to pass Sentence that there should be an Oath imposed on the Clergy for paying the same Obedience to the King that they had paid the Pope
contrivance of theirs who had instructed her to play such tricks as was proved by their own Confessions and other Evidences 68. He says They all died very constantly and on the Margent calls them seven Martyrs The Nun her self acknowledged the Imposture at her death and laid the heaviest weight of it on the Priests that suffered with her who had taught her the Cheat so that they died both for Treason and Imposture And this being Sander's Faith as appeared by his Works they were indeed Martyrs for it 69. He says More and Fisher having examined her could see no ground to think she was acted by a Fanatical Spirit as it was given out It was not given out that she was acted by a Fanatical Spirit for that had been more honest but her Spirit was cheating and knavery More cleared himself and looked on her as a weak Woman and commonly called her the Silly Maid But Fisher did disown her when the Cheat was discovered though he had given her too much encouragement before 70. He says The thing she prophesied came to pass which was that Mary should be Queen of England The thing for which She and her Complices were attainted of Treason was that she said If the King married Ann Boleyn he should not be a King a month longer and not an hour longer in the sight of God and should die a Villains death But it did not serve Sander's ends to tell this 71. He says The day she suffered many of the Nobility came and swore to the Succession of the Issue of the King's marriage with Queen Ann before the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Lord Chancellor and Cromwel Both Houses of Parliament did in the House of Lords take that Oath on the day of their Prorogation which was the 30 th of March as appears by the second Act of the next Session and the Nun with her Complices did not suffer till the 21 of April after 72. He says The Franciscans of the Observance chiefly two Fathers in London Elston and Payton did both in their Sermons and publick Disputes justifie the King's marriage with Q. Katharine Elston and Payton were not of London but of Greenwich They compared the King to Achab and said in the Pulpit to his face The Dogs should lick his Blood with many other such virulent Expressions But to rail at a Prince with the most spiteful reproaches that could be was a part of Sanders's Faith and so no wonder those pass for Confessors when Elizabeth Barton and her Complices are reckoned Martyrs 73. He says Tonstal Bishop of Duresme was ordered by the King's Messengers not to come to the Session of Parliament 26 Regni in which the King's Supremacy was established In this he is safer than in some other Stories for the Journals of that Session are lost so the falshood of this cannot be demonstrated yet it is not at all likely that he who justified all that was done in the former Session in which the Pope's Power was put down the nomination of Bishops annexed to the Crown a Reformation of Ecclesiastical Laws appointed to be made in defence of all which he wrote afterwards was now so scrupulous as to be ordered to stay at home But Tonstal suffering imprisonment in Edward the Sixth's time it was fit to use some art to shew that he was unwillingly brought to comply with the King 74. He to shew God's Judgments on the chief Instruments that served the King says That the Duke of Norfolk was by the King condemned to perpetual imprisonment This bewrays palpable ignorance since he was attainted of High Treason the very day before the King's death and should have suffered the next day if the King's death had not prevented it But since he will descant on the Providence of God he should rather have concluded that his escaping so narrowly was a sign of God's great care of him 75. In the Session of Parliament that met the third of November as he describes it which was the 26 th year of the King's Reign he says Mary the King's Daughter was illegitimated and all her honours were transferred on Elizabeth and the Pope's Power put down This shews he never looked on our publick Statutes otherwise he had seen that these Acts passed in the former Session 76. He says When the King sent his Ambassadours to the French Court Francis would not so much as hear them give a justification of the King's proceedings How true this can be the World may judg since these two Kings continued in a firm Alliance eight years after this And Francis did often treat both with him and the Princes of Germany about these things and was inclined to do almost all that he did 77. He says The Lutherans did so abominate the grounds of his separation from Rome that they could never be induced to approve it for which he cites Cochleus an Author of his own kidney They did condemn the King's first marriage as unlawful and thought the Pope's Dispensation had no force and so far they approved it But they had this singular Opinion that he should have continued unmarried as long as Q. Katharine lived Yet in that they were so modest that they only desired to be excused as to the second Marriage which considering that Queen Ann favoured their Doctrine and that by an absolute compliance with what the King had done they might have secured his Protection to themselves whom otherwise they provoked highly is an evidence of a strict adhering to what their Consciences dictated that cannot be sufficiently commended 78. He says The King made many write Apologies for what he did which some did willingly being tainted with Heresie others unwillingly and for fear as Gardiner and Tonstall In this he shews how little judgment he had of the nature of things when he thinks to excuse their writing for the King as extorted by force To have done it thorough Error and Mistake was much the softer excuse but to make them Men of such prostituted Consciences as not only to subscribe and swear but to write with Learning and Zeal and yet against their Consciences represents them guilty of unexpressible baseness Indeed Gardiner was a Man like enough to write any thing that might please the King but Tonstall was a Man of greater probity than to have done so unworthy a thing upon any account whatsoever But since he mentioned Writers he should have named Longland Bishop of Lincoln Stokeley Bishop of London and above all Bonner who did officiously thrust himself into the debate by writing a Preface to Gardiner's Book with the greatest vehemence that could be But the Blood he shed afterwards did so endear him to this Author that all past Faults were forgiven and to be clean forgotten 79. He says Five Martyrs suffered because they would not swear the King's Supremacy according to the Law that was then passed There was no such Law made at that time nor
Herbert The Arguments against the Bull. Wolsey's advice to the King 1527. Aug. 1. Sanders his story about Anne Bolâ—yn examined For this he ciâ—es Rastal's life of Sir Tho. Moor a Book that was never seen by any body else Anti-Sanderus 1501. March 10. 1509. Feb. 12. 1511 1514. Septemb. 23 6 to Regn. 1515. Cambd. Iâ— apparatâ— ad Hiâ—t Eliz. Reg. 1528. Her Birth 1514. and Breeding Her coming to England L. Herbert Title and Duplex Cavendish says she was very young Camden She is contracted to the Lord Piercy Cavendish Life of Wolsey 1527. L. Herbert 1527. The King moved for his Divorce at Rome The first dispatch about it Collect. Numb 3 d. The Pope grants it when he was in Prison Collect. Numb 4th Pope escaped Decemb. 9. And being at liberty gives a Bull for it The Pope's craft policy And the measures that governed them 1528. Collect. Numb 5th The method proposed by the Pope Collect. Numb 6th Staphileus sent from England His Instructions Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 10. Ian. 8. Duplicates corrected by the Cardinal's Hand The Cardinals Letterâ— by him A Larger Bull desired by the King Gardiner and Fox sent to Rome With Letters from the King Collect. Numb 7th and the Cardinal Collect. Numb 8th Collect. Numb 9th The substance of the Bull desired by them Collect. Numb 10th 1527. Rot. Paâ— 2 dâ— Pars. Regn. 10. The Cardinals Earnestness in this matter Collect. Numb 11th Collect. Numb 12. Campegio declared Legate Collect. Numb 10. Wolsey writes to him to haste over May 7. May 23. The Pope grants a Decretal Bull Anti-Sanderus L. Herbert Two Letters of Anne Boleyn's to Wolsey A Postscript of the Kings to him 1528. Collect. Numb 14th The Cardinal's Colledges finished Octob. 30. More Monasteries were to be suppressed The Emperor opposâ—s the Kings suit A Breve found out in Spain Collect. Numb 15th Presumptions of its being forged Campegio comes into England And showes the King the Bull But refuses to let it be seen to the Council * Collect. Numb 16th Collect. Numb 17th Wolsey's endeavour at Rome that it might be showed But all in vain The Pope sends Campana to England Collect. Numb 18th New Ambassadors sent to Rome With other overtures Collect. Numb 19th A Guard of 2000 men offered to the Pope The Pope resolved to unite himself to the Emperor Being frightned with the threats of the Imperialists 1529. Ian. 3. Repents his granting the Decretal Kings Letter to the Cardinal Ian. 8th Ian. 9. 1529. Ian. 15. But feeds the King with high promises The Pope sickens Ian. 27. Cardinal Wolsey's intrigues for the Papacy Feb. 6th Collect. Numb 20. The Kings Instructions for the Election Numb Feb. 20. New propositions about the Divorce Collect. Numb 21. The Popes relapse April 6. another Dispatch to Rome Collect. Numb 2.2 1528. 1529. The Cardinals Bulls for the Bishoprick of Winchester The Pope inclines to joyn with the Emperor Who protests against the Legates Commission May 15. Collect Numb 23. The Pope promised not to recal but to confirm it The Legates write to the Pope Collect. Numb 24. Campegio's ill life Pelerin In glese April 6. The Emperor presses for an Avocation Which the Kings Ambassadors oppose much The Popes deep dissimulation Collect. Numb 25th Collect. Numb 26th The Pope complains of the Florentines Iune 5. Iune 13. Great Contests about the Avocation Iune 23. Collect. Numb 27. Iune 28. The Legateâ— sit in England Orig. Iourn Cott. Libr. Vitel B. 12. A severe charge against the Queen Quod stulte facit si contendit cum Rege quod â—ale illi successit in faetibus de Brevi acsuspicione falsitatis The King and Queen appear in Court * Fidelis servi insideli subdito Responsio Collect. Numb 28. The Queen's Speech The King gives the account of his Scruples The Queens Appeal Articles drawn by the 〈◊〉 Upon which witnesses are examined The proâ—eâ—dings at 〈…〉 〈◊〉 this is 〈◊〉 from 〈…〉 Iune 2â— and 30. Iuly 8 and 9. The Pope agrees with the Emperor Collect. Numb 29th Yet is in great perplexities Iuly 26. The Avocation is granted Collect. Numb 30th The proceedings of the Legates All things are ready foâ— a Sentence Campegio Adjourned the Court. Which gives great offence Wolsey's danger Aug. 4. Sept. 23 in a Letter from the Cardinal Secetary to Cromwell Anne Boleyn returns to Court Cranmers proposition about the Kings Divorce Approved by the King The meanness of his Temper The King still â—avoured him He is afterwards attached for Treasoâ— And dies His Character A Parliament called Hall The House of Commons complains of the Bishop of Rochester Some Bills past reforming the abuses of the Clergy One Act discharging the King of his debts Collect. Numb 31. The Pope and the Emperor firmly united Iâ—n 20. The womens peace Aug. 5. 1530. The Emperors Coronation at Bononia Florence taken Aug. 9. Popes Nephew made Duke of it Iuly 17. 1531. Siege of Vienna rais'd Octob. 13. 1529. Emperor Crown'd King of Lombardy Feb. 22. 1530. Rom. Emp. Feb. 2. The King consults his Universities about his Divorce Lord Herbert out of the Record April 4. 1530. v. Wood. p. 8.257 Lib. 1 0. p. 225. Collect. Numb 32. And at Cambridge Feb. Though with great difficulty Crooke employed in Venice Crooks Negotiation taken from many of his Original Letters Cott. Libr. Vitel B. 13. Many â—n Italy write for the Kings cause Feb. 18. Though the Pope and Emperor discourâ—ged them Iuly 4. Aug. 7. Septemb. 16. Iuly 28. Aug. 5. No Money nor bribes given for subscriptions 〈◊〉 7. Fâ—b 8. Only some small acknowledgments Feb. 22. Feb. 9. Septemb. 16. But great Rewards given by the Emperor Septemb. 29. Feb. 18. March 29. 1530. May 26. Iâ—nâ— 2â— They Determined for the King at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1â—th At Padua Iuly 1st Collect. Numb 33. And Ferrara Sept. 29th And in Orleance April 7. At Paris of the Canonists May 25th Of the Soâ—bon Iâ—ly 2d At Angiers May 7th At Bourges Iune 10th And Tâ—â—lose Octob. 1st Collect. Numb 34. Ian. 28th his Orig. Let. Cott. Libr. Otho C. 10. Pelerine Iâ—glise Grineus employed amongst the Reformed in Switzerland Whose Letters are in a MSS. in R. Smiths Libr. The Opinions of Oâ—colompadius Bâ—cer Phrygion Zuinglius And Calvin Epist. 384. Lord Herb. from an Orig. Let. Sept. 18. 1530. The opinion of the Lutheran Divines Instructions sent by Dr. Barns to Cromwel Cott. Lib. Vâ—tel B. 13. They condemn the Kings first Marriage but are against a second Collect. Numb 35. Fox The King refuses to appear at Rome Cranmer offers to maintain the Kings cause The Nobility Clergy and Commons of England write to the Pope In the life of Wolseâ— This Letter and the answer are Printed by the Lord Herbert The Popes answer A Proclamation against Bulls from Rome Lord Herb. Books written for the Kings cause Otho C. â—0 ibidem Visp B. 5. Coâ—lect Numb 36. The grounds of it in the old Testament Lev. 18 20· Lev. 18.2 4.5.6.21 v. 17.24.26 v. 24.25 Lâ—v.
things are declared Treason An Act for Suffragan Bishops Collect. Numb 51. Act 26. Roâ— Parl. A Subsidy granted More and Fisher attainted Act. 3. and 4. Rot. Parl. The Proceedings against them variously censured The progress of the Reformation Fox Tindal and others at Antwerp Hall The New Tâ—stament burnt The last Paper in Sr. Henry Spâ—lmans 2d vol. Supplication of the Beggars Morâ— answerâ— it Frith replieâ— The cruel proceedings against the Reformers More Tindal Bilneys Tryal Latimers Sermons The things objected to him Fox It is given out that he abjured The falshood of which afterwards appeared Fox The manner of his Suffering Byfield's Sufferings And Tewksburies Bainham's Sufferings Fox Regist. Tonst Articles which some abjured 〈◊〉 Testament Regist Fitz 〈◊〉 Regist. Stokâ—s Fol. 72. Harding's Sufferings Fox 1533. Friths Sufferings His Arguments against the Corporal presence Register Stokâ—s Fol. 71. and a Letter of his in Fox His Opinioâ— of the Sacrament And of Purgatory He is Condemned His Constancy in his Sufferings Pâ—ilâ—ip's Sufferings A stop is puâ— to these crueâ— proceedings The Queen favoured the Reformers Cranmer promoted the Reformation Assisted by Cromwell The Duke of Norfolk and Gardiner Opposed it Reasons against the Reformation Reasons for it Hall A resolution of some Bishops about the calling of a general Council Ex MSS. D.D Sâ—â—llingfleet A Speech of Cranmers abouâ—â— Geneâ—al Council Ex MSS. D.D Stillingfleet 1535. Thâ— râ—â—â— of the Kingâ— Reign 〈◊〉 troublesome By the practises of the Monks and Friars Which provoked the King to great severities The Bishops swear the Kings supremacie Antiâ— Oxon. Lib. 1. Pag. 258 The Original Letter is in Cutt. Lib. Clâ—â— E. 4. Fâ—b 15. The Francis can Friars refuse it A General visitation of Monasteries is designed Orig. Cott. Lib. E. 4. Cranmer makeâ— his Metropolitical visitation Rot. Pat. Regn. 26. Part. 1st Regist. Stoks Folio 44. The Kings Visitation begun In MSS. D G. Pierpoint Cott. Lib. Câ—â—op E. 4. Instructions for the Visitation See Collect. Nâ—â—b 1st Injunctions for all Religious Houses See Collect. Numb 2 d. An account of the Progress of the Monastical state in England The Exemptions of Monasteries See Monasticon Monasteries generally wasted and deserted Antiquit. Britan But are again set up by King Edgar Arts used by the Monks for enriching their Houses They became generally corrupted Upon which the Begging Friars grew much in credit The Kings secret motives for dissolving these Houses Câ—anmers design in it First Monastery that was dissolved Act. 10. Rot. Parl. Regn. 25. The Proceedings of the Visitors Cott. Lib. Cleop. E. 4. Ibid. Some Houseâ— resigned up to the King Collect. Numb 3. Sect. 1. The Original of these Resignations are in the Augmentation Office and enrolled Rot. Claus. Part. â—st Regn. 27. 1536. The death of Queen Katharine Originals Otho C. 10. Cott. Lib. 1536. A new Session of Parliament The lesser Monasteries are suppressed Reasons for doing it The Translation of the Bible in English designed The reasons for it The Opposition made to it The fall of Queen Anne The whole Popish party drove it on 1535. The Kings jealousie of her The Letters about this Cott. Lib. Otho C. 10. She is put in the Tower and pleads her Innocency But confessed some indiscreet words 1536. Cranmers Letter to the King about her Cott. Lib. She is brought to a Tryal Upon an extorted Confession is divorced Her Prâ—paration for Death The Lieutenant of the Towers Letter Her Execution The several Censures that were then passed on those proceedings Collect. Numb 4 th The Lady Mary endeavours a reconciliation with her Father Her submission under her own hand Cott. Lib. Otho C. 10. She is restored to his favour The Lady Elizabeth well used by the King and Queen Her Letter to the Queen when not Four years of Age. A new Parliament called Iournal Procerum The Act of Succession The Pope endeavoured a reconciliation with the King But in vain The Proceedings in the Convocation Fuller Antiq. Britt in vita Cranm. Act 17.27 Regni Articles agreed on about Religion Printed by Fuller Published by the Kings Authority And variously censured The Convocation declares against the Council called by the Pope Collect Numb 5. The King publishes his reasons against it Fox Cardinal Pool opposes the Kings proceedings And writes his Book against him Many Books are written for the King Collect 〈◊〉 6. Instâ—uctions about the disâ—â—â—tion of Monasteries Great discontents among all sorts of people Endeavors are used to quiet these Collect Numb 3. sect 2. Yet people generally encline to Rebel The Kings injunctions about Religion Collect Numb 7. Which were much censured A Rebellion in Lincolnshire Their Demands The Kings answer It 's quieted by the Duke of Suffolk â— new Reâ—â—on in the 〈◊〉 Which grew very formidable The Duke of Norfolk and others sent against them They advance to Doncaster The 〈…〉 them by delays Their Demands The Kings answer to them 1537. The Rebellion is quieted 1537. New risings but soon dispersed The chief of the Rebels executed A new Visitation of Monasteries Some of the great Abbots surrender their Houses 1538. Confessions of horrid Crimes made in several Houses Collect Numb 3. sect 4. The form of most surrenders Collâ—ct Numb 3. Sect. 1. Collect. Numb 3. Sect. 3. Divers opinions about these Some Abbots attainted of Treason 1537. Collect. Numb 8. 1536. The Superstition and cheats of these Houses discovered Images publickly broken 1538. Pelerine â—â—glese Thomas Beckâ—t's shrine broken Soâ—meâ—s Antiquities of Canterbury New Articles about Religion published Invectives against the King Printed at Rome Collect. Numb 9. The Popes Bulls against the King Lesley Hist. Scot. The Clergy in England declared against these Collect. Numb 10. The Bible Printed in English New injunctions set out by the King Collect. Numb 11. Prince Edward born Great Compliances by the Popish party Gardiner stirs up the King against those called Sacramentaries And Lambâ—rt in particular Who had appealed to the King And was publickly tryed at Westminster Arguments brought against him He is condemned And Burned The Popish party gain ground at Court The Kings correspondence with the German Princes Bonners dissimulation Coll. Numb â—2 Coll. Numb 13. A new Parliament The 6 Articles are proposed 1539. Reasons against them An Act past for them which is variously censured An Act about the Suppression of the greater Monasteries Another about the Erecting new Bishopricks The Kings design about these An Act about the Kings Proclamations An Act about Precedence Some Acts of Attainders The Kings care of Cranmer Antiq. Brit. in vita Cran. Cranmer writes his reasons against the six Articles 1538. Proceedings upon that Act. 1539. Collect. Numb 1â— Dissolution of the great Abbies Collect. Numb 3. Sect. 5. Some Hospitals surrendred The Abbeys sold or given away A project of a Semminarâ— for Ministers of State 〈…〉 D. D. 〈…〉 A Proclamation about the free use of the Scriptures Collect. Numb 15. The King designs to Mary Anne of Cleve 1538. Who comes
his Book if I had considered them all I have therefore only singled out these Passages which I had in the former History demonstrated to be false and these are both so many and so important that I am sure enough is said to destroy the credit of that Author and of his Book which has too long deceived the the World And what is performed in this first part will I hope dispossess the Reader of any ill Impressions the following parts of that Work have made on him concerning the succeeding Reigns of which an account shall be given as soon as it possibly can be made ready I shall esteem my time to have been well imployed and my pains rightly placed if my endeavours have so good an effect as to take off the unjust Prejudices which some may have conceived at the changes that were then made in Religion or at the beginnings of them which being represented by this Author and upon his testimony by many other Writers in such odious Characters to the World are generally so ill looked on The Work it self was so good done upon so much reason managed with such care directed by such wisdom and tempered with so great moderation that those who intended to blast it did very wisely to load it with some such Prejudices for if without these the thing it self be examined by Men of a candid temper and solid judgment the Opposers of it know well where the Truth lies and on whose side both the Scriptures and the best Ages of the Primitive Church have declarâ—d But it was not fit to put a Question of such importance on so doubtful and so dangerous an issue therefore it was well considered by them that some popular and easily understood Calumnies to disgrace the beginnings of it and the Persons that were most imployed in it were to be fastned on them and if these could be once generally received then Men might be alienated from it by a shorter way than could be done by the dull and unsuccessful methods of Reason Therefore as the Cause of our Church hath been often vindicated by the learned Books that have been published in it and never with more success and a clearer victory than of late in the elaborate Writings which are never to be mentioned but with honour of the renowned Dr. Stillingfleet so I judged it might not be an unuseful and unacceptable Work which tho it be of a lower form and so most suitable to my genius yet will be of general use to employ the leisure I enjoy and the small Talent committed to me in examining and opening the Transactions of those Times And if these who read it are dispossessed of their prejudices and inclined to consider things as they are now set before them in a truer light I have gained my end in it The Truths of Religion need no support from the Father of Lyes A Religion made up of Falshoods and Impostures must be maintained by means suitable to it self So Sanders's Book might well serve the ends of that Church which has all along raised its greatness by publick Cheats and Forgeries such as the Donation of Constantine and the Book of the Decretals Besides the vast number of Miracles and Visions that were for many Ages made use of by them of which even the most disingenuous of their own Writers begin to be now ashamed But the Reformation of Religion was a Work of Light and needs none of the Arts of Darkness to justify it by A full and distinct Narrative of what was then done will be its Apology as well as its History There is no need of Artifice but only of Industry and sincerity to gather together all the remains of that Time and put them in good order I am now beginning to look towards the next and indeed the best part of this Work Where in the first Reign we shall observe the active endeavours of those Restorers of Religion The next Reign affords a sadder prospect of that Work laid in Ruins and the Authors of it in Ashes but the Fires that consumed them did rather spread than extinguish that Light which they had kindled And what is fabled of the Phoenix will be found true of our Church That she rose new out of these Ashes into which she seemed consumed Towards the perfecting this History I hope all that love the Subject of it will contribute their Endeavours and furnish every thing that is in their power which may make it fuller or clearer So I end with that desire which I made in the Preface that any who have in their hands any Papers relating to these times will be pleased to communicate them and what-ever assistance they give to it shall be most thankfully owned and acknowledged The end of the Appendix ADDENDA Numb I. ARTICLES about Religion set out by the Convocation and published by the Kings Authority AN ORIGINAL HENRY the Eight by the Grace of God King of England and of France Defender of the Faith and Lord of Ireland and in Earth Supream Head of the Church of England to all and singular our most loving faithful and obedient Subjects greeting Amongst other cures committed unto this our Princely Office whereunto it hath pleased God of his infinite mercy and goodness to call us we have always esteemed and thought as we also yet esteem and think this to be most chief most ponderous and of most weight that his Holy Word and Commandments may sincerely without let or hinderance be of our Subjects truly believed and reverently kept and observed and that unity and concord in opinions namely in such things as does concern our Religion may encrease and go furthward and all occasion of dissent and discord touching the same be repressed and utterly extinguished for the which cause we being of late to our great regret credibly advertised of such diversity in opinions as have grown and sprongen in this our Realm as well concerning certain Articles necessary to our Salvation as also touching certain honest and commendable Ceremonies rites and usages in our said Church for an honest policy and decent order heretofore of long time used and accustomed minding to have that unity and agreement established through our said Church concerning the premisses and being very desirous to eschew not only the dangers of Souls but also the outward inquietness which by occasion of the said diversity in opinions if remedy had not been provided might perchance have ensued have not only in our own person in any times taken great pain study labour and travails but also have caused our Bishops and other the most discreet and best learned men of our Clergy of this our whole Realm to be assembled in our Convocation for the full debatement and quiet determination of the same where after long and mature deliberation and disputations had of and upon the premisses finally they have concluded and agreed upon the said matters as well those which be commanded of God and are