carried prisoner to the Court from thence committed to the Tower arraigned at Westminster on the 15th of March and executed on the 11th of April having first heard that no fewer than 50 of his accomplices were hanged in London and Bret with 22 more in several places of Kent It can not be denied but that the restitution of the Reformed Religion was the matter principally aimed at in this Rebellion through nothing but the Match with Spain appeared on the outside of it Which appears plainly by a Book writ by Christopher Goodman associated with John Knox for setting up Presbytery and Rebellion in the Kirk of Scotland in which he takes upon him to shew How far Superioâ—r Magistrates ought ot be obeyed For having filled almost every Chapter of it with railing speeches against the Queen and stirring up the people to rebel against her he falleth amongst he rest upon this expression viz. Wyat did but his duty and it was but the duty of all others that profess the Gospel to have risen with him for maintenance of the same His cause was just and they were all Traytors that took not part with him O Noble Wyat thou art now with God and those worthy men that dyed in that happy enterprise But this Book was written at Geneva where Calvin reigned To whom no pamphlet could be more agreeable than such as did reproach this Queen whom in his Comment upon Amoz he entituleth by the name of Porserpine and saith that she exceeded in her cruelties all the devils in hell Much more it is to be admired that Dr John Poynct the late Bishop of Winchester should be of Counsel in the plot or put himself into their Camp and attend them unto the place where the carriage brake Where when he could not work on Wiat to desist from that unprofitable labour in remounting the Cannon he counselled Vauham Bret and others to shift for themselves took leave of his more secret friends told them that he would pray for their good success and so departed and took ship for Germany where he after died The fortunate suppressing of these insurrections secured the Queen from any fear of the like dangers for the present And thereupon it was advised to make use of the opportunity for putting the Church into a posture when the spirits of the opposite party were so crush'd and broken that no resistance could be looked for Articles therefore are sent into every Diocess and letters writ unto the several and Respective Bishops on the 3d. of March to see them carefully and speedily put in execution The Tenour of which Articles were as followeth 1. That every Bishop and his Officers with all other having Ecclesiastical jurisdiction shall with all speed and dilâ—gence and all manner of ways to them possible put in execution all such Canons and Ecclesiastical Laws heretofore in the time of King Henry the 8th used within this Realm of England and the Dominions of the same not being directly and expresly contrary to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm 2. That no Bishop or any his Officer or other person hereafter in any of their Ecclesiastical writings in processe or other extra-judicial acts do use or put in this clause or Sentence Regia Auhoritate fulcitus 3. That no Bâ—â—â—op nor any his Officers or other person do hereafter exact or demand in the admessien of any person to any Ecclesiastical Promotion Order or Office any Oâ—â—h touching the primacy or succession as of late few years past haâ—h been accâ—stomed and used 4. That every Bishop and his Officers with all other persons have a vigilant eye and use special diligence and foresight that no person be admitted or received to any Ecclesiastical function Benefice or Office being a Sacramentary infected or defamed with any notable kind of Heresie or other great crime and that the said Bishop do stay and cause to be staid as much as lyeth in him that Benefices and Ecclesiastical promotions do not notably decay or take hinderance by passing or confirming of unreasonable Leases 5. That every Bishop and all other persons aforesaid do diligently travail for the reprâ—ssing of Heresies and notable crimes especially in tâ—e Clergy duely correcting and punishing the same 6. That every Bishop and all other persons aforesaid do likewise travail for the condemning and repressing of corrupt and naughty opinions unlawful Books Ballads and other pernitious and hurtful devices engeâ—driâ—g hatred and discord amongst the people And that Schoolmasters Teachers and Preachers do exercise and use their offices and duties without Teaching Preaching or setting forth any evil and corrupt doctrine and that doing the contrary they may be by the Bishop and his said Officers punished and removed 7. That every Bishop and all other person aforesaid proceeding summarily and with all celerity and speed may and shall deprive or declare deprived and remove according to their learning and discretion and such persons from their Benefices and Ecclesiastical promotions who contrary to the state of their Order and the laudable custome of the Church have maried and used women as their wives or otherwise notably and slanderously disordered or abused themselves sequestring also during the sayd processe the fruits and profits of the said Benefices and Ecclesidstical promotions 8. That the said Bishop and other persons aforesaid do use more lenity and clemency with such as have maried whose wives be dead than with others whose women do yet remain alâ—ve And likewise such Priests as with the consent of their wives or women openly in the presence of the Bishop do professe to abstain to be used more favourable In which case after th Penance effectually done the Bishop according to his discretion and wisdome may upon just consideration receive and admit them again to their former administrations so it be not in the same place appointing them such a portion to live upon to be paid out of their Benefice whereof they be deprived by the discretion of the said Bishop or his Officer as he shall think may be spared of the same Benâ—fice 9. That every Bishop and other person aforesaid do foresee that they suffer not any â—â—ligious man having solemly professed chastity to continue with his woman or wife but that all such persons after deprivation of their Benefice or Ecclesiastical promotion be also divorced every one from his said woman and due punishment otherwise taken for the offence therein 10. Item That every Bishop and all other persons aforesaid do take Order and direction with the â—arishioners of every Benefice where Priests do want to repair to the next Parish for divine Service or to appoint for a convenient time till other better provision may be made one Curate â—o serve alienis vicibus in divers Parishes and to allot the said Curaâ—e for his labour some part of the Benefice which he so serveth 11. That all and all manner of Processions in the Church be used frequently and continued after the old Order of the Church
symitry which showed it selfe in all her features and what she carried on that side by that advantage was over-ballanced on the other by a pleasing sprightfulnesse which gained as much upon the hearts of all beholders It was conceived by those Great Critticks in the schooles of Beauty that love which seemed to threaten in the eyes of Queen Jane did only seem to sport it selfe in the eyes of Queen Ann that there was more Majesty in the Gaâ—b of Queen Jane Seimour and more lovelinesse in that of Queen Ann Bollen yet so that the Majesty of the one did excell in Lovelyness and that the Lovelinesse of the other did exceed In majesty Sir John Russell afterwards Earle of Bedford who had beheld both Queens in their greatest Glories did use to say that the richer Queen Jane was in clothes the fairer she appeared but that the other the richer she was apparrelled the worse she looked which showes that Queen Ann only trusted to the Beauties of Nature and that Queen Jane did sometimes help her selfe by externall Ornaments In a word she had in her all the Graces of Queen Ann but Governed if my conjecture doth not faile me with an evener and more constant temper or if you will she may be said to be equally made up of the two last Queens as having in her all the Attractions of Queen Ann but Regulated by the reservednesse of Queen Katharine also It is not to be thought that so many rare perâ—ections should be long concealed from the eye of the King or that love should not worke in him it's accustomed effects of desire and hope In the prosecution whereof he lay so open to discovery that the Queen couâ—d not chuse but take notice of it and intimated her suspitioâ—s to him as appeares by a letter of hers in the Scrinia Sacra Iâ— which she signifies unto him that by hastning her intended death he would be left at liberty both before God and man to follow his affection already setled on the Party for whose sake she was reduced unto that condition and whose name she could some while since have pointed to his Grace not being ignorant of her suspicions And it appeared by the event that she was not much mistaken in the Mark she aimed at For scarce had her lementable death which happened on the nineteenth of May prepared the way for the Legitimating of this new affection but on the morrow after the King was secretly married to Mistress Seimour and openly showed her as his Queen in the Whitsontide following A Marriage which made some alteration in the face of the Court in the advancing of her kindred and discountenancing the Dependants of the former Queen but otherwise produced no change in Affaires of State The King proceeded as before in suppressing Monasteries extinguishing the Popes Authority and â—ltering divers things in the face of the Câ—uâ—ch which tended to that Reformation which after followed For on the eighth of June began the Parliament in which here past an Act for tâ—e finall extinguishing of the Power of the Popes of Rome Cap. 10. And the next day a Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy managed by Sir Thomas Cromwell advanced about that time unto the Title of Lord Cromwell of Wimbledon and made his Majesties Viccar Generall of all Ecclesiast â—all Matâ—ers in the Realme of England By whose Authority a book was published after Mature debate and Deliberation under the name of Articles Devised by the Kings Highness in which mentioned â—ut three Sacraments that is to â—ay Baptisme Penâ—ance and the Lords Supper Besides which book there were some Acts agreed upon in the Convocation for diminishing the superflâ—ous number of Holy dayes especially of such as happened in the time of Harvest Sâ—gnified afterwards to the people in certain Injunctions published in the Kings name by the new Viccar Generall as the first fruits of his Authority In which it was ordained amongst other things that the Curates in every Parish Church should teach the People to say the Lords Prayer the Creed the Ave-Mary and the Ten Commandments in the English Tongue But that which seemed to make most for the Advantage of the new Queen and her Posterity if it please God to give her any was the unexpected death of the Duke of Richmond the Kings naturall Son begotten on the body of the Lady Talboiâ— So dearly cherished by his Father having then no lawful Issuâ—-male that in the sixth yeare of his Age An. 1525. he created him Earl of Nottingham and not long after Duke of Richmond and Sommerset preferred him to the Honourable office of Earle Marshall elected him into the Order of the Garter made him Lord Admirall of the Royall Navy in an expedition against France and finally Affianced him to Mary the daughter of Thomas Howard Duke of Norâ—olk the most â—owerfull Subject in the Kingdom Now were these all the favours intended to him The Crown it selfe being designed him by the King in default of Lawfull Issue to be procreated and begotten of his Royall Body For in the Act of the Succession which past in the Parliament of this year the Crown being first setled upon the Issue of this Queen with the remainder to the Kings issue lawfully begotten on any following wife whatsoever there past this clause in favour of the Duke of Richmond as it was then generally conceived that is to say That for lack of lawfull heires of the Kings body to be procreated or begotten as is afore limitted by this Act it should and might be lawfull for him to confer the same on any such Person or Persons in Possession and Remainder as should please his Highnesse and according to such Estate and after such manner â—orme fashion order and condition as should be expressed declared named and lâ—mitted in his said Letters Patents or by his last Will the Crown to be enjoyed by such person or persons so to be nominated and appointed in as large and ample manner as if such Person or Persons had been his Highnesse Lawfull Heires to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm And though it might please God as it after did to give the King some Lawfull Issue by this Queen yet took he so much care for this naturall son as to enable himselfe by another Clause in the said Act to advance any person or persons of his most Royall Blood by Letters Patents under the Great Seale to any Title Stile or Name of any Estate Dignity or Honour whatsoever it be and to give to them or any of them any Castles Honours Mannours Lands Tenements Liberties Franchiefes or other Hereditaments in â—ee simple or Fee â—tail or for terme of their lives or the life of any of them But all these expectations and Provisions were to no effect the Duke departing this life at the age of 17 yeares or thereabouts within few dayes after the ending of this Session that is to say on the 22th day of July Anno 1536. to the
who were appointed to revise it as before is said In the performance of which service there was great care taken for expunging all such passages in it as might give any scandal or offence to the Popish party or be urged by them in excuse for their not comming to Church and joyning with the rest of the Congregation in Gods publick Worship In the Letany first made and published by King Henry the 8th and afterwards continued in the two Lituâ—gies of King Edward the 6th there was a Prayer to be delivered from the tyranny and all the detestable enormities of the Bâ—shop of Rome which was thought fit to be expunged as giving matter of scandal and dis-affection to all that party or otherwise wisht well to that Religion In the first Liturgie of King Edward the Sacrament of the Lords Body was delivered with this Benediction that is to say The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for the preservation of thy body and sâ—ul to life everlasting The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ c. Which being thought by Calvin and his Disciples to give some countenance to the grosse and carnal Presence of Christ in the Sacrament which passeth by the name of Transâ—bstantiation in the Schools of Rome was altered into this form in the second Liturgy that is to say Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and â—eed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving Take and drink this c. But the Revisors of the Book joyned both Forms together lest under colour of rejecting a Carnal they might be thought also to deny such a Real Presence as was defended in the Writings of the Antient Fathers Upon which ground they expunged also a whole Rubrick at the end of the Communion-service by which it was declared that kneeling at the participation of the Sacrament was required for no other reason than for a signification of the humble and grateful acknowledging of the benefits of Christ given therein unto the worthy Receiver and to avoid that prophanation and disorder which otherwise might have ensued and not for giving any adoration to the Sacramental Bread and Wine there bodily received or in regard of any real and essential presence of Christs body and blood And to come up the closer to those of the Church of Rome it was ordered by the Queens Injunctions that the Sacramental Bread which the Book required onely to be made of the finest flower should be made round in fashion of the Wafers used in the time of Queen Mary She also ordered that the Lords Table should be placed where the Altar stood that the accustomed reverence should be made at the name of Jesus Musick retained in the Church and all the old Festivals observed with their several Eves By which compliances and the expunging of the passages before remembred the Book was made so passable amongst the Papiâ—ts that for ten years they generally repaired to their Parish Churches without doubt or scruple as is affirmed not onely by Sir Edward Coke in his speech againâ—t Gâ—â—net and his Charge given at the Assizes held at Norwich but also by the Queen her self in a Letter to Sir Francis Walsingham then being her Resident or Leiger-Ambassador in the Court of France the same confessed by Sanders also in his Book de Schismate And that the Book might passe the better in both Houses when it came to the Vote it was thought requisite that a Disputation should be held about some points which were most likely to be checked at the Disputants to be five Bishops and four other learned men of the one side and nine of the most learâ—ed men graduated in the Schools on the other side the Disputation to begin on the 30th of March and to be holden in the Church of Westminster in the presence of as many of the Lords of the Council and of the Members of both Houses as were desirous to inform themselves in the state of the Questions The Disputation for that reason to be held in the English Tongue and to be managed for the better avoiding of confusion by a mutual interchange of writings upon every point those writings which were mutually given in upon one day to be reciprocally answer'd on another so from day to day till the whole were ended To all which points the Bishops gave consent for themselves and the rest of their party though they refused to stand unto them when it came to the tryal The points to be disputed on were three in number that is to say That it is against the word of God and the custom of the antient Church to use a Tongue unknown to the people in Common-Praier and in the administration of the Sacâ—aments 2. That every Church hath authority to appoint take away and change Ceremonies and Ecclesiastical Rites so the same be to edification 3. That it cannot be proved by the word of God that there is in the Masse offered up a sacrifice propitiatory for the living and the dead And for the Disputants of each side they were these that follow that is to say first for the Popish party Dr. White Bishop of Winchester Dr. Bayn Bishop of Lichfield Dr. Scot Bishop of Chester and Dr. Watson Bishop of Lincâ—ln Dr. Fecknam Abbot of Westminster Dr. Henry Cole Dean of St. Pauls Dr. Harpâ—field Archdeacon of Canterbury Dr. Chadsey Prebend of St. Paâ—ls and Dr. Langdale Archdeacon of Lewis in Sussex For those of the Protestant perswasion appeared Dr. Scory the late Bishop of Chichester Dr. Cox the late Dean of Westminster Dr. Sandys late Master of Katherine Hal. Mr. Horn the late Dean of Durham Mr. Elmar late Archdeacon of Stow Mr. Whâ—tehead Mr. Gryndal Mr. Gâ—est and Mr. Jewel all of which except onely Whiâ—ehead attained afterwards to some eminent place in the sacred Hieraâ—chy The day being come and the place fitted and accommodated for so great an audience the Lord Keeper Bacon takes the Chair as Moderator not for determining any thing in the points disputed but for seeing good order to be kept and that the Disputation might be managed in the form agreed on When contrary to expectation the Bishops and their party brought nothing in writing to be read publickly in the hearing of all the Auditors but came resolved to try it out by word of mouth and to that end appointed Cole to be their Spokesman For which neglect being reproved by the Lord Keeper they promised a conformity on the Monday following being the second day of April but would not stand unto it them because they would not give their Adversaries so much leisure as a whole nights deliberation to return an answer Desired and pressed by the Lord Keeper to proceed according to the form agreed on for the better satisfaction and contentment of so great an Audience it was most obstinately denyed Wâ—tson and White behaving themselves with so little reverence or so much insolency rather as to threaten the Queen
English Chruch in each of their several congregations Their principal retiring places amongst the last were Arrow Zurick and Geneva and in the first the Cities of Embden Stralsburge and Franckfort In Franckfort they enjoyed the greatest privileges and therefore resorted thither in the greatest numbers which made them the more apt unto Schisms and factions At their first coming to that place which was on the 27th of June Anno 1554. by the power and favour of John Glauberge one of the Senators of that City they were permitted to have the use of one of their Churches which had before been granted to such French exiles as had repaired thither on the like occasion yet so that the French were still to hold their right the English to have the use of it one day and the French another and on the Lords day so to divide the hours between them that the one might be no hinderance unto the other It hath been said also that there was another condition imposed upon them of being conform unto the French in Doctrine and Ceremonies Which condition if it were imposed by the Magistrates not sought by themselves must needs be very agreeable to the temper and complexion of their principal Leaders who being for the most part of the Zuinglian-Gospellers at their going hence became the great promoters of the Puritan faction at their comming home The names of Whittingham Williams Goodman Wood and Sutton who appeared in the head of this congregation declare sufficiently of what Principles and strain they were how willing they would be to lay aside the face of an English Church and frame themselves to any Liturgie but their own On July the 14th they first obtained a grant of their Church and on the 29th took possession of it The interval they spent in altering and disfiguring the English Lyturgie of which they left nothing but the reading of the Psalms and Chapters Those comfortable interlocutories between the Minister and the People were no longer used as savouring in their opinion of some disorder in the course of the ministration the Letany and the Surplice they cast aside as having too much in them of the Church of Rome the Confession they had altered so as they conceived most agreeable to their present condition and for the Hymns which intervened between the Chapters and the Creed they changed them for such Psalms in the English Meerer as had been made by Sternhold and Hopkins in the time of King Edward The Psalm being done the Preacher goes into the Pulpit in which the Minister prayed for the assistance of God's Spirit and so proceeded to the Sermon Which done an other Prayer was made for all orders and estates of men but more particularly for the welfare of the Church of England composed in imitation of the Prayer for the Church Militant here on earth but ending as that did not with the Pater-noster After which most extreamly out of order followed the rehearsal of the Articles of the Christian Faith another Psalm and finally the dismission of the people with The Peace of God This was the form devised for that Congregation for the imposing whereof on all the rest of the English Churches they did then use their best endeavours and for obtruding which on the whole Church of England they raised such tumults and commotions in the following times Growing in love with this fair Babe of their own begetting they write their Letters of the second of August to such of the English as remained at Stralsburge and Zurick inviting them to repair to Franckfort and unite themselves unto that Church which had been there erected with the leave of the Magistrate But they had heard in both places of those Alterations which had been made at Franckfort in the form of Gods publick Service and thereupon refused to accept of the invitation though it seemed to promise them some advantages by the commodious situation of that City in respect of England the great resort of strangers thither at the yearly Marts plenty of Books and other helps in the way of study which were not to be found in the other two Cities From Stralsburge modestly from Zurick resolutely but from both it was plainly signified that they resolved to maintain the Order of the Church of England The like Letter had been writ to the English at Embden of which Congregation Doctor Scory the late Bishop of Chichester was the Super-intendent and we may readily believe that they received the like repulse from his Church at Embden as they had from Gryndal Sandys and Haddon or who had the constituting of the Church of Stralsburge or from Horn Chambers Parkhurst and other of the Students which remained at Zurick The noise of this new Church at Franckfort occasioned Knox who after proved the great incendiary of the Realm and Church of Scotland to leave his Sanctuary in Geneva in hope to make a better market for himself in that Congregation He had not long before published a seditious Pamphlet entituled The first blast of the Trumpet in which he bitterly inveighed against the Government of Women aiming there especially at the three Queen Maries that is to say Mary Queen of England Mary Queen of Scots and Mary of Lorrain Queen Regent of Scotland By which seditious Pamphlet he had made not onely his own Country too hot for him but could assure himself of no safety in France or England To Geneva therefore he retires and from thence removes to Franckfort as the â—itter Scene for his intendments hoping to get as great a name in this new Plantation as Calvin had gotten in the old It was about the end of September that he came to Franckfort where he took the charge of that Church upon him Whittingham and the rest submitting unto his Apostleship This gave a new dis-satisfaction to the English at Stralsburge and Zurick who knew the spirit of the man and feared the dangerous consequents and effects thereof Nor was the condition of affairs much bettered by the coming of Whitehead who afterwards refused the Archbishoprick of Canterbury though far the more moderate of the two New Letters are reciprocated between Franckfort and Zurick from Franckfort on the 15th of November in open defiance as it were to the English Liturgy from Zurick on the 28th in defence thereof and of their constancy and resolution for adhering to it The breach growing every day more wide than other Gryndal and Chambers came from Stralsburge to attone the difference by whom it was proposed unto them That the substance of the English Liturgy being retained there might be a forbearance of some ceremonies and offices in it But Knox and Whittingham were as much bent against the substance of the Book as against any of the circumstantials and extrinsicals which belonged unto it So that no good effect following on this interposition the Agents of the Church of Stralsburge return back to their brethren who by their Letters of the 13th of December expostulate in
also the Calvinian Doctrines to the discredit of the state of the Church of England in King Edwards time the great grief of the Martyrs and other godly men in the reign of Queen Marâ— and to the raising of most unquenchable combustions in all parts of the Church under Queen Elizabeth It was not long after the setling of the Liturgie before Whitehead left the Ministry of the English Congregation which Cox obtained for Mr. Horn whom he knew to be a man both of courage constancy And that being done he left the Congregation and so withdraws himself to â—ralsburge there to enjoy the company of Peter Martyr with whom he was intimately acquainted while he lived in Christ-Church By his departure a new gap is opened to another dissention Some words had passed at a supper intended rather for increase of charity than the breach of friendship betwixt Horn and Ashâ—ey Horn the chief Pastor of the flock and Ashâ—ey a Gentleman of good note in the Lay part of it Some three dayes after being the 16th of January Ashleyâ—is is cited to appear at the house of one of the Elders to answer for some words which he had spoken in contempt of the Ministry But from the Elders he appeals to the Congregation amongst whom he prevails so fat that they send a message by two of their company to the Pastor and Elders requiring them to proceed no further in the cause Horn being backed by Chambers the publick Treasurer excepts against this message as decreed at a private Conventicle not by the general suffrages of the Congregation and thereupon resolves to stand to that Authority which formerly had been conferred on him and the rest of the Elders by the Rules of their Discipline Ashley and his adhâ—rents on the other side declare their former private meeting not to be a â—onventicle protest against the Pastor and Elders as an adverse party and therefore not in a capacity to sit as Judges in the present case and set themselves upon the making of a Book of Discipline for the curbing the exorbitant power for such they thought it of the Pastor and Elders The Pastor and Elders thereupon forsake their Offices and on the 5th of February being the next day of publick meeting take place amongst the rest as private persons The Congregation full but the Pulpit empty which put the rest upon a humour of electing others to take the publick charge upon them The noise of these disorders awakes the Magistrates who command Horn and Chambers to forbear the congregation until further Order and afterwards restoring them to their former authority by publick Edict were contradicted in it by Ashley's party who having got some power into their hands were resolved to keep it In the mean time a Book of Discipline had been drawn and tendered to the Congregation on the â—4th of February According to the Rules whereof the supreme power in all Ecclesi astical causes was put into the hands of the Congregations and the disposing of the publick monies committed to the trust of certain Officers by the name of Deacons This makes the breach wider than before Horn and his party labouring to retain the old the other to establish the new Discipline of their own devising The Magistrates not able to agree the difference dispatch their Letters unto Sâ—ralsburge of the 3d. of April desiring Dr Cox and Dr. Sandys together with Robert Bertie Esq to undertake the closing of the present rupture To their arbitrement each party is content to submit the controversie but differ in conclusion in the terms of their Reference Much talk and no small scandal groweth upon these divisions not made the less by the Pen-combats between Horn and Whitehead In the end a form of reconciliation is drawn up by some of the English who more endeavoured the peace of the Church than the interess of either party But those who stood for the new Discipline being grown the stronger refused to submit themselves to any establishment by which the power of the diffusive body of the Congregation might be called in question Whereupon Horn and Chambâ—rs depart to Stralshurge from whence Chambers writ his Letters to them of the 20th of June and after of the 30th of July but to no effect They had before proceeded to the election of some new Ministers March the 22d Against which though Horn and his opposed yet they concluded it for the present on the 29th and now they mean to stand unto the conclusion let Horn and Chambers go or tarry as best pleased themselves Such were the troubles and disorders in the hurch of Franckfort occasioned first by a dislike of the publick Liturgy before which they preferred the nakedness and simplicity of the French and Genevian Churches and afterwards continued by the opposition made by the general body of the Congregation against such as were appointed to be Pastors and Rulers over them Hence the beginning of the Puritan faction against the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church that of the Presbyterians against the Bishops of Episcopal Government and finally that also of the Independents against the superintendency of the Pastors and Elders The terrible effects whereof will appear hereafter if God shall give me means and opportunity to carry on the History of those disturbances which have been raised by the Pâ—ritans or Presbyterians against the Orders of this Church and the peace of Christendome But sorrows seldome go alone the abberrations from the Government and Form and Worship established in the Church of England drew on and alteration also in point of Doctrine Such of the English as had retired into Geneva imploy themselves in setting out a new Translation of the Bible in the English Tongue which afterwards they published with certain marginal Notes upon it most of them profitable for the understanding of the Text but so that some were heâ—eâ—odox in point of Doctrine some dangerous and seditious in reference to the Civil Magistrate and some as scandalous in respect of Episcopal Government From this time the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination began to be dispersed in English Pamphlets as the only necessary Orthodox and saving truth Knox publisheth a book Against an adversary of God's predestination wherein it is declared That whatsoever the Ethnicks and ignorant did attribute to Fortune by Christians is to be â—ssigned to God's heavenly providence that we 〈◊〉 to judge nothing to come of Fortune but that all cometh by the determinate counsel of God and finally that it would be displeasing unto God if we should esteem any thing to proceed from any other and that we do not only behold him as the principal cause of all things but also the author appointing all things to the one or the other by his only counsel After comes out a Book first written in French and afterwards by some of them translated into English which they called A brief Declaration of the Table of predestination in which it is put down
exercise of his Bulls and Faculties Peitow the new Cardinal Legate puts himself on the way to England when the Queen taking to her self some part of her fathers spirit commands him at his utmost peril not to adventure to set foot upon English ground to which he readily inclined as being more affected unto Cardinal Pole than desirous to shew himself the servant of another mans passion In the end partly by the Queens mediation the intercession of Ormaenete the good successes of the French in the taking of Calais but principally by the death of Peitow in the April following the rupture was made up again and Pole confirmed in the possession of his former powers The fear of running the like hazard for the time to come made him appear more willing to connive at his under Officers in shedding the blood of many godly and religious persons than otherwise he would have been Whereupon followed the burning of ten men in the Diocess of Canterbury on the 15th of January whereof two suffered at Ashford two at Riâ— and the other six in his own Metropolitan City and possibly the better to prepare the Pope towards this Attonement the Queen was moved to issue her Commission of the month of February directed to the Bishop of Ely the Lords Windsor North and seventeen others by which the said Commissioners or any thâ—eâ— or more of them were impowred to enquire of all and singular Heretical opinions Lollardies Heretical and seditious books concealâ—ents contempts conspiracies and all false tales rumours seditious or slanderous words c. As also seize into their hands all manner of Heretical and seditious Books Letters and Writings wheresoever they or any of them should be found as well in Printers houses and shops as elsewhere willing them and every of them to search for the same in all places according to their discretions And finally to enquire after â—ll such persons as obstinately do refuse to receive the blessed Sacrament of the Altar to hear Mass or coâ—e to their Parish Churches and all such as refuse to go on Procession to take holy bread or holy water or otherwise misuse themselves in any Church or hallowed place c. The party so offending to be proceeded against according to the Ecclesiastical Lawes or otherwise by fine or imprisonment as to them seemed best But the Commissioners being many in number persons of honour and imployment for the most part of them there was little or nothing done in pursuance of it especially as to the searching after prohibited books the number whereof increasing every day more and more a Proclamation was set forth on the 6th of June to hinder the continual spreading of so great a mischief Which Proclamation was as followeth viz. Whereas divers books filled with Hersie Sedition and Treason have of late been dayly brought into this Realm out of forein Countries and places beyond the seas and some covertly printed within this Realm and cast abroad in sundry parts thereof whereby not only god is dishonoured but also incouragement given to disobey lawful Princes and Governours the King and Queens Majesties for redress hereof do by their present Proclamation declare and publish to all their subjects that whosoever shall after the Proclamation hereof be found to have any of the said wicked and seditious books or finding them do not forthwith burn the same without shewing or reading the same to any other persons shall in that case be reputed and taken for a rebel and shall without further delay be executed for that offence according to the order of Martial Law Which Proclamation though it were very smart and quick yet there was somewhat of more mercy in it than in another which came out in the very same month at the burning of seven persons in Smithfield published both at Newgate where they were imprisoned and at the stake where they were to suffer whereby it was straightly charged and commanded That no man should either pray for or speak to them or once say God help them A cruelty more odious than that of Domitian or any of the greatest Tyrants of the elder times in hindering all entercourse of speech upon some jealousie and distrusts of State between man and man Which Proclamation notwithstanding Bentham the Minister of one of the London Congregations seeing the fire set to them turning his eyes unto the people cried and said We know they are the people of God and therefore we cannot chuse but wish well to them and say God strengthen them and so boldly he said Almighty God for Christs sake strengthen them With that all the people with one consent cryed Amen Amen the noise whereof was so great and the cryers so many that the Officers knew not whom to seize oâ— or with whom they were to begin their accusation And though peradvâ—nture it may seem to have somewhat of a miracle in it that the Protestants should have a Congregation under Bonner's nose yet so it was that the godly people of that time were so little terrified with the continual thoughts of that bloody Butcher that they maintained their constant meetings for religious offices even in London it self in one of which Congregations that namely whereof Bentham was at this time Minister there assembled seldome under 40. many times 100. and sometimes 200. but more or less as it stood most with their conveniency and safety The Ministers of which successively were Mr Edward Scambler after Bishop of Peterborough Mr Thomas Foule of whom I find nothing but the name Mr John Rough a Scot by Nation convented and condemned by Bonner and suffering for the testimony of a good conscience December 20. After whom followed Mr Augustine Bernher a moderate and learned man And finally Mr Thomas Bentham before mentioned who continued in that charge till the death of Queen Mary and was by Queen Elizabeth preferred to the See of Lichfield Anno 1589. By the encouragement and constant preaching of which pious men the Protestant party did not only stand to their former principle but were resolved to suffer whatsoever could be laid upon them rather than forfeit a good conscience or betray the cause They had not all the opportunity of such holy meetings but they meâ— frequently enough in smaller companies to animate and comfort one another in those great extremities Nor sped the Queen much better in her Proclamation of the sixth of June concerning the suppression of prohibited Books but notwithstanding all the care of her Inquisitors many good Books of true Christian Consolation and good Protestant Doctrine did either find some Press in London or were sent over to their brethren by such learned men as had retired themselves to their several Sanctuaries their places of Retreat which not improperly may be called their Cities of Refuge which we have seen already amongst which I find none but Embden in the Lutheran Countries the rigid Professors of which Churches abominated nothing more than an English Protestant because they
concurred not with them in the monstrous Doctrine of Ubiquity and their device of Consubstantiation Insomuch that Peter Martyr telleth us of a friend of his in the Dukedom of Saxony that he was generally hated by the rest of Country-men for being hospitable to some few of the English Nation who had been forced to abandon their native soil And it is further signified by b Ph. Melancthon with no small dislike in an Epistle of this year that many of those rigid Lutheâ—ans could find no other name but the Devils Martyrs for such as suffered death in England in defence of Religion so that they seemed to act the part of Diotrephes in St John not only prating against us with malicious words and refusing to receive the brethren in the day of their trouble but forbidding and condemning them that would But John Alasco and his company had been lately there where they spoke so reprochfully of Luther the Augustan Confession the Rites and Ceremonies of their Churches as rendred them uncapable of any better entertainment than they found amongst them And by the behaviour of these men coming then from England the rigid Lutherans passed their judgement on the Church it self and consequently on all those who suffered in defence thereof For stopping the course of which uncharitable censures it was thought fit by some of the Divines in Embden that Archbishop Cranmers book about the Sacrament should be translated into Latin and forthwith published in Print which was done accordingly Some of the Lutherans had given out on the former ground that the English had deservedly suffered the greatest hardships both at home and abroad because they writ and spake less reverently of the blessed Sacrament and it was hoped that by the publishing of this book they would find the contrary The like course taken also at Geneva by the English exiles by publishing in the Latin tongue a discourse writ by Bishop Ridley on the self same Argument to the end it might appear unto all the world how much their brethren had been wronged in these odious calumnies An. Reg. Mar. 6º An. Dom. 1558 1559. BUt in the middest of all these sorrowes I see some hope of comfort coming by the death of Queen Mary whose Reign polluted with the blood of so many Martyrs unfortunate by the frequent insurrections and made inglorious by the loss of the Town of Calais was only commendable in the brevity or shortnesse of it For now to bring it to an end a dangerous and contagious Feaver began to rage in most parts of the land insomuch that if the whole Realm had been divided into four parts three parts of the four would have been found infected with it so furiously it raged in the month of August that no former plague or pestilence was thought to have destroyed a greater number so that divers places were left void of Justices and men of worth to govern the Kingdom At which time died also so many Priests that a great number of Parish Churches in divers places were unserved and no â—urats could be gotten for mony Much corn was also lost in the field for want of labourers and workmen to get it in both which together seemed to threaten not onely a spiritual but a temporal famine though God so ordered it that by the death of so many of the present Clergy a door was opened for the preaching of sounder Doctrine with far less envy and displeasure from all sorts of people than it had been otherwise Nor were the heats of the disease abated by the coldness of the winter or the malignity of it mitigated by medicinal courses It took away the Physicians as well as the Patients two of the Queens Doctors dying of it not long before her and spared not more the Prelate than it did the Priest insomuch that within less than the space of a twelvemonth almost the one half of the English Bishops had made void their Sees which with the death of so many of the Priests in several places did much facilitate the way to that Reformation which soon after followed This terrible disease together with the said effects which followed on it and the Queens death which came along with it though not caused by it may seem to have been prognosticated or foretold by a dreadful tempest of thunder hapning on the 11th of July near the Town of Nottingham which Tempest as it came through two Towns beat down all the Houses and Churches the Bells were cast to the outside of the Church-yard and some sheets of Lead four hundred foot into the field wriâ—hen like a pair of gloves The River of Trent running between which two Towns the water with the mud in the bottom was carried a quarter of a mile and cast against the trees the trees plucked up by the roots and from thence cast twelve-score paces also a child was was taken forth of a mans hand and by the fury of it carried an hundred foot two spears length from the ground and so fell down broke its arm and dyed Five or six men thereabouts were slain and neither flesh nor skin perished at what time also there fell some Hailstones that were fifteen inches about c. But neither that terrible disease nor this terrible tempest nor any other publick signe of God's displeasure abated any thing of the fury of the Persecution till he was pleased to put an end unto it by the death of the Queen It was upon the tenth day of November that no fewer than five at once were burned at Canterbury The Cardinal and the Queen both lying on the bed of sickness and both dying within seven days after It had been prayed or prophesied by those five Martyrs when they were at the stake that they might be the last who should suffer death in that manner or on that occasion and by Gods mercy so it proved they being the last which suffered death under the severity of this persecution Which Persecution and the carriage of the Papists in it is thus described by Bishop Jewel You have saith he imprisoned your brethren you have stript them naked you have scourged them with rods you have burnt their hands and arms with flaming torches you have famished them you have drowned them you have summoned them being dead to appear before you out of their graves you have ripped up their buried carcases burnt them and thrown them out upon the Duâ—ghil you took a poor Babe falling from its mothers womb and in most cruel and barbarous manner threw it inâ—o the fire By all which several ways and means the Martyrs in all parts of the Kingdom amounted to the number of two hundred seventy seven persons of all sorts and sexes But more particularly there are said to have perished in these flames five Bishops twenty one Divines eight Gentlemen eighty four Artificers one hundred Husbandmen Servants and Labourers twenty six Wives twenty Widows nine Virgins two Boys and two Infants the one springing
out of his mothers womb as she was at the stake and most unmercifully flung into the fire in the very birth Sixty four more in those furious times were presented for their faith whereof seven were whipped sixteen perished in prison twelve buried in Dunghills and many more lay in captivity condemned which were delivered by the opportune death of Queen Mary and the most auspicious entrance of Queen Elizabeth whose gracious government blotted out the remembrance of all former sufferings the different conditions of whose Reigns with the former two may seem to have somewhat in them of those appearances which were presented to Elijah in the Book of Kings in the first Bâ—ok and ninteenth Chapter wherein we find it written That a great and strong wind rent the mountains and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord but the Lord was not in the wind and after the wind an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake a fire but the Lord was not in the fire and finally after the fire a still small voice in which the Lord spake unto his Prophet So in like manner it may be feared that God was neither in that great and terrible wind which threw down so many Monasteries and Religious houses in the Reign of King Henry nor in that Earthquake which did so often shake the very foundations of the State in the time of King Edward nor in the Fire in which so many godly and religious persons were consumed to ashes in the days of Queen Mary but that he shewed himself in that still small Voice which breathed so much comfort to the souls of his people in the most gracious and fortunate Government of a Virgin-Queen For now it pleased God to hearken to the cry of those his Saints which lay under the Altar and called upon him for an end of those calamities to which their dear brethren were exposed The Queen had inclined unto a Dâ—opsie ever since the time of her supposed being with child which inclination appeared in her more and more when her swelling fell from the right place to her lower parts increasing irrecoverably in despight of Physick till at last it brought her to her death But there are divers other causes which are supposed to have contributed their concurrence in it Philip upon the resignation of his fathers Kingdoms and Estates had many necessary occasions to be out of the Kingdom and yet she thought that he made more occasions than he needed to be absent from her This brought her first into a fancy that he cared not for her which drew her by degrees into a fixed and setled melancholly confirmed if not encreased by a secret whisper that Philip entertained some wandring Loves when he was in Flanders Her Glasses could not so much flatter as not to tell her that she had her fathers feitures with her mothers complexion and she was well enough able to inform her self that the â—everity of her humour had no great charms in it so that on the point she wanted many of those natural and acquired attractions which might have served to invite or reward affection Fixed on this melancholy pin the death of Charls the Emperour which hapned on the 2â— of September comes to help it forward a Prince upon whose countenance and support she had much depended both when she was in disgrace with her father and out of favour with her brother But that which came nearest to her heart was the loss of Calais first lost for want of giving credit to the intelligence which had been sent her by her Husband and secondly by the loss of that opportunity which might have been taken to regain it Monsieur â— ' Termes who was made Governour of the Town had drained it of the greatest part of the Garison to joyn with some other forces for the taking of some Towns in Flanderâ— But in a Battel fought near Graveling on the 13th of July he lost not onely his own liberty but more then five thousand of his men the fortune of the day falling so heavily on the Soldiers of Calais that few of them escaped with life So that if the Queens Navy which had done great service in the fight had showed it self before the Town and Count Egmond who commanded the Flemmings had sate down with his victorious Army to the Landward of it it might have been recovered in as few days as it had been lost This opportunity being neglected she gave her self some hopes of a restitution upon an agreement then in treaty between France and Spain But when all other matters were accorded between those Crowns and that nothing else was wanting to compose all differences but the restoring of this Town the French were absolutely resolved to hold it and the Spaniards could in honor make no Peace without it So the whole Treaty and the deceiptful hopes which she built upon it came at last to nothing And though she had somewhat eased her self not long before by attainting the Lord Wâ—ntworth and certain others for their cowardly quitting of the place which they could not hold yet that served onely like a cup of Strong-waters for the present qualm without removing the just cause of the present distemper And it encreased so plainly in her that when some of her Visitants not knowing the cause of her discomforts applyed their several cordials to revive her spirits she told them in plain tearms that they were mistaken in the nature of her disease and that if she were to be dissected after her death they would find Calais next her heart Thus between jealousie shame and sorrow taking the growth of her infirmity amongst the rest she became past the help of Physick In which extremity she began to entertain some thoughts of putting here sister Elizabeth beside the Crown and setling the Succession of it on her cousen the Queen of Scots and she had done it at the least as much as in her was if some of the Council had not told her That neither the Act of the Succession nor the Last Will and Testament of King Henry the Eighth which was built upon it could otherwise be repealed than by the general consent of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament So that being altogether out of hope of having her will upon her sister of recovering Calais of enjoying the company of her husband and reigning in the good affection of her injured subjects she gave her self over to those sorrows which put an end to her life on the 17th of November some few hours before day when she had reigned five years and four months wanting two days onely Her death accompanied within few howers after by that of the Lord Cardinal-Legat ushered in by the decease of Purefew alias Wharton Bishop of Hereford and Holyman the new Bishop of Bristow and Glyn of Bangor and followed within two or three months after by Hopton Bishop of Norwich and Brooks of Glocester As if it had
22th day of March next following Upon this ground were buâ—lt the Statutes prohibiting all Appeales to Rome and for determining all Ecclesiasticall suites and controversies within the Kingdom 24. Hen. 8. cap. 1â— That for the manner of declaring and consecrating of Arch-Bishops and Bishops 25. Hen. 8. Cap. 20. and the prohibiting the payment of all impositions to the Court of Rome and for obtaining all such dispensations from the see of Canterbury which formerly were procured from the Popes of Rome 25. Hen. 8. Cap. 21. and finally that for declaring the King to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England and to have all Honours and Preheminences and amongst others the first-fruits and tenths of all Ecclesiasticall promotions within the Realm which were annexed unto that Title In the forme of consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops and the rule by which they excercised their Jurisdiction there was no change made but what the transposition of the Supreme Power from the Pope to the King must of necessity infer For whereas the Bishops and Clergy in the Convocation An. 1532. had bound themselves neither to make nor execute any Canons or Constitutions Ecclesiasticall but as they were thereto enabled by the Kings Authority it was by them desired assented to by him and confirmed in Parliament that all such Canons and Constitutions Synodall and Provinciall as were before in use and neither Repugnant to the Word of God the kings Prerogative Royall or the known Lawes of the Land should remaine in force till a review thereof were made by thirty two Persons of the Kings appointment Which review not having been made from that time to this all the said old Canons and Constitutions so restrained and qualified do still remaine in force as before they did For this Consult the Act of Parliament 25. Hen. 8. Cap. 1. And this and all the rest being setled then followed finally the Act for extinguishing the Power of the Pope of Rome 28. Hen. 8 Cap. 10. which before we mentioned In order to a Reformation in points of Doctrine he first directed his Bishops and Clergy in their Convocation Aâ—no 1537. to compile a Book containing The Exposition of the Creed the Lords Prayer the Avemary and the Ten Commandements together with an Explication of the use and nature of the seven Sacraments More cleerely in it self and more agreeable to the Truth of Holy Scripture then in former times which book being called The Institution of a Christian Maâ— was by them presented to the King who liked thereof so well that he sent it by Doctor Barlow Bishop of St. Davids to King James the fifth hoping thereby to induce him to make the like Reformation in the Realm of Scotland as was made in England though therein he was deceived of his expectation But this Book having lien dormant for a certain time that is to say as long as the six Articles were in force was afterwards corrected and explained by the Kings own hand and being by him so corrected was sent to be reviewed by Archâ—Bishop Cranmer by him referred with his own emendations on it to the Bishopâ— and Clergy then Assembled in their Convocation Anno 1543. and by them Approved VVhich care that Godly Prelate took as himselfe confesseth in a Letter to a friend of his bearing date January 25. because the book being to come out by the Kings Censure and Judgement he would have nothing in the same which Momus himselfe could Reprehend VVhich being done it was published shortly after by the name of a Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian man with an Epistle of the Kings Prefixt before it in which it was commended to the Perusall of all his subjects that were Religiously disposed Now as the first book was ushered in by an injunction published in Sâ—ptember An. 1536. by which all Curates were required to Teach the people to say the Lords Prayer the Creed the Aveâ—ary and the Ten Commandements in the English Tongue â—o was the second countenanced by a Proclamation which made way unto it bearing date May the sixth 1541 whereby it was commanded that the English Bible of the Larger Vollumne should publiquely be placed in every Parish-Church of the Kings Dominions And here we are to understand that the Bible having been Translated into the English Tongue by the great paines of William Tyndall who after suffered for Religion in the Reigne of this King was by the Kings Command supprest and the reading of it interdicted by Proclamation the Bishops and other Learned men advising the reâ—traint thereof as the times then stood But afterward the times being changed and the People better fitted for so great a benefit the Bishops and Clergy Assembled in their Convocation Anno 1536. humbly petitioned to the King that the Bible being faithfully Translated and purged of such Prologues and Marginall Notes as formerly had given offence might be permitted from thenceforth to the use of the people According to which Godly motion his Majesty did not only give Order for a new Translation but in the Interim he permitted Cromwell his Viccar Generall to set out an Injunction for providing the whole Bible both in Latine and English after the Translation then in use which was called commonly by the name of Matthews Bible but was no other then that of Tyndall somewhat altered to be kept in every â—arish Church throughout the Kingdome And so it stood but not with such a Generall observation as the case required till the finishing of the new Translation Printed by Grafton countenanced by a learned Preface of Arch-Bishop Cranmer and Authorised by the Kings Proclamation of the sixth of May as before was said Finally that the people might be better made acquainted with the Prayers of the Church it was appointed a little before the Kings going to Bolloigne Anno 1545. that the Lâ—tany being put into the same forme almost in which now it stands should from thenceforth be said in the English Tongue So farr this King had gone in order to a Reformation that it was no hard matter for his Son or for those rather who had the Managing of Affaires during his Minority to go thorough with it In Reference to the Regall State he added to the Royal Stile these three Glorious Attributes that is to say Defender of the Faith The Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England and King of Ireland In what manner he obtained the Title of Supreme Head conferred upon him by the Convocation in the year 1530. and confirmed by Act of Parliament in the 26 yeare of his Reign hath been showne before That of Defender of the Faith was first bestowed upon him by Pope Leo the tenth upon the publishing of a Book against Martin Luther which Book being presented unto the Pope by the hands of Doctor Clark afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells hath been preserved ever since amongst the choisest Rarities of the Vatican Library Certain it is that the Pope was so well pleased
without some intermissions by the King deceased and therefore to be put in Execution with the greater safety For though the young King by Reason of his tender Age could not but want a great proportion of His Father's Spirit for carrying on a work of such weight and moment yet he wanted nothing of that power in Church-concernment which either Naturally was inherent in the Crown Imperial or had been Legally vested in it by Acts of Parliament Neither could His Being in Minority nor the Writings in His Name by the Lord Protectour and the Rest of the Council make any such difference in the Case as to invalidate the Proceedings or any of the Rest which followed in the Reformation For if they did the Objection would be altogether as strong against the Reformation made in the Minority of King Josias as against this in the Minority of the present King That of Josias being made as Josephus telleth us by the Advice of the Elders as this of King EDVVARD the Sixth by the Advice of the Council And yet it cannot be denyed but that the Reformation made under King Iâ—sias by Advice of His Council was no less pleasing unto God nor less valid in the Eys of all His Subjects then those of Jeboshaphat and Hezekiah in their Riper years who perhaps acted singly on the strength of their Own Judgements onely without any Advice Now of Josias we are told by the said Historian That When He grew to be twelve years old He gave manifest Approbation of His Piety and Justice For He drew the People to a conformable Course of Life and to the Detestation and Abolishing of Idols that were no Gods and to the Service of the Onely True God of their Fore-Fathers And considering the Actions of His Predecessours He began to Rectifie them in that wherein they were deficient with no less Circumspection then if He had been an Old Man And that which He found to be Correspondent and Advisedly done by them that did He both maintain and imitate All which things He did both by Reason of His Innated Wisdom as also by the Aâ—moâ—shment and Council of His Elders in following orderly the Laws not onely in matters of Religion but of Civil Politie Which puts the Parallel betwixt the two young Kings in the Case before us above all Exception and the Proceedings of King Edward or His Council rather beyond all Dispute Now whereas Question hath been made whether the twenty fourth Injunction for Labouring on the Holy Day in time of Harvest extend as well to the Lord's Day as the Annual Festivals The matter seems to any well-discerning eye to be out of Question For in the third Chapter of the Statute made in the fifth and sixth years of King Edward the Sixth when the Reformation was much more advanced then it was at the present the Names and Number of such Holy Days as were to be observed in this Church are thus layed down That is to say All Sundaies in the year the Feasts of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Epiphany c. with all the Rest still kept and there named particularly And then it followeth in the Act That it shall and may be lawfull for every Husband-man Labourer Fisher-man and to all and every other person or persons of what Estate Degree or Condition he or they be upon the Holy-Days afore-said in Harvest or at any other times in the year when necessity shall so require to Labour Ride Fish or Work any kind of work at their free-will and Pleasure any thing in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding The Law being such there is no question to be made in point of practice nor consequently of the meaning of the King's Injunction For further opening of which Truth we finde that not the Country onely but the Court were indulged the Liberty of attending business on that day it being Ordered by the King amongst other things That the Lords of the Council should upon Sundays attend the publique Affairs of this Realm dispatch Answers to Letters for good order of State and make full dispatches of all things concluded the Week before Provided alwaies That they be present at Common Prayer and that on every Sunday-Night the King's Secretary should deliver him a Memorial of such things as are to be debated by the Privy Council in the week ensuing Which Order being compared with the words of the Statute may serve sufficiently to satisfie all doubts and scruples touching the true intent and meaning of the said Injunction But as this Question was not startled till the Later Times when the Lord's Day began to be advanced into the Reputation of the Jewish Sabbath so was there nothing in the rest of the said Injunctions which required a Commentary Some words and Passages therein which seem absurd to us of this present Age being then clearly understood by all and every one whom they did concern Published and given in charge by the Commissioners in their several Circuits with great Zeal and Chearfullness and no less readily Obeyed in most parts of the Realms both by Priests and People who observed nothing in them either new or strange to which they had not been prepared in the Reign of the King deceased None forwarder in this Compliance then some Learned men in and about the City of London who not long since had shewed themselves of a contrary Judgement Some of them running before Authority and others keeping even pase with it but few so confident of themselves as to lagg behind It was Ordered in the twenty first That at the time of High Mass the Epistle and Gospel should be read in the English Tongue and That both at the Mattens and Even-Song a Chapter out of the New Testament should be also read And for Example to the rest of the Land the Complime being a part of the Evening Service was sung in the King 's Chapel on Mâ—nday in the Easter-week then falling on the eleventh of April in the English Tongue Doctour Smith Master of Whittington-College in London and Reader in Divinity at the King's-College at Oxford afterwards better known by the name of Christ-Church had before published two Books One of them written In Defence of the Mass The other endeavouring to prove That unwritten Verities ought to be believed under pain of Damnation But finding that these Doctrines did not now beat according to the Pulse of the Times he did voluntarily retract the said Opinions declaring in a Sermon at Saint Paul's Cross on Sunday the fifteenth of May that his said former Books and Teachings were not only erroneous but Heretical The like was done in the Moneth next following by Doctour Pern afterwards Master of Peter-House in Cambridge who having on Saint George's day delivered in the Parish-Church of Saint Andrew Vndershaft for sound Catholick Doctrine That the Pictures of Christ and of the Saints were to be adored upon the seventeenth day of June declared himself in the
is that upon the very first Reports of a Reformation here intended Calvin had offered his Assistance to Arch-Bishop Craenmer as himself confesseth But the Arch-Bishop knew the Man and refused the Offer And it appears in one of Bishop Latimer's Sermons that there was report about this time of Melancthon's coming but it proved onely a Report And though it was thought necessary for the better seasoning of the Vniversities in the Protestant Reformed Religion that Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr two eminent Divines of the Foreign Churches should be invited to come over yet the Arch-Bishop's Letter of Invitation sent to Martin Bucer was not written till the twelfth day of October At what time the Liturgie then in hand being the chief Key to the whole Work of Reformation was in very good forwardness and must needs be compleatly finished before he could so settle and dispose his Affairs in Germany as to come for England And though Peter Martyr being either more at Leasure or less engaged or otherwise more willing to accept of the Invitation came many Moneths before the other yet neither do we finde him here till the end of November when the Liturgie had been approved of by the King and Council if it had not also passed the Approbation of both Houses of Parliament Nor was it likely that they should make use of such a Man in composing a Liturgie wherein they were resolved to retain a great part of the Antient Ceremonies who being made Canon of Christ-Church in Oxford and frequently present at Divine Service in that Church could never be prevailed with to put on the Surplice Being left therefore to themselves they were at the more liberty for following the King 's most Godly and most Wise Directions having in the first place an eye and respect to the most sincere and Pure Religion taught by the Scripture and in the second to the Vsages of the Primitive Church and making out of both one convenient and meet Order Rite and Fashion of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments to be had and used in the Realm of Englâ—nd and the Principality of Wales Which being finished they all subscribed their Names unto it but Day of Chichester who would by no means have his Hand in the Subscription as is related in the Register-Book of the Parish of Petwoâ—th But being subscribed by all the rest it was by them with all due Reverence humbly presented to the King by whom it was received to His great Comfort and Quietness of mind as the Statute telleth us And being by him commended to the Lords and Commons then Assembled in Parliament which Parliament took beginning on the fourth day of November they did not onâ—ly give His Highness most hearty and lowly thanks for his Care therein but on peruâ—aâ— of the Book declared it to be done by the aid of the Holy Ghost And therâ—upoâ— considering the Godly Prayers Orders Rites and Ceremonies in the said Book mentioned and also the reasons of Altering of those things which be altered and the retaining those things which be retained together with the Hoâ—our of God and the great Quietâ—ess which by the Grace of God was likely to ensâ—e on suâ—h an Uâ—iform Order in Common Prayer Rites and External Ceremonies to be used in all England and Wales in Calice and the Marches of the â—ame it was Eâ—acâ—ed That all and singular Ministers in any Cathedral or 〈◊〉 Church or other Place within this Realm of England Wales Calce and the Marches of the same or other the King's Dominions should from and after the Feast of Pentecost next coming that Interval being given for the Printing of it be bounden to say and use the Mattens Even-song Celebration of the Lord's Supper â—â—mmonly caâ—â—ed The Mass and Administration of each of the Sacraments and all their Common and Open Prayer in such Order and Form as is mentioned in the same Book and no otherwise with several Penalties therein mentioned to be imposed on all such in their several places as either should willfully refuse to Officiate by it or hinder the Lawfull Exâ—cution oâ— it or speak any thing in Derogation of the said Book or any thing therein contained The passing of this Act gave great Offence to those of the Romish Paâ—ty not that they could except against it in regard either of the Manner or Matter of it which they acknowledged to be Consonant to the Antient Forms but bâ—cause it was communicated to the People in the Vulgar Tongue And this they charged as a gâ—eat Eâ—rour in those Men who had the chief Hand in the Conduct of that Affâ—iâ— becaâ—se that by the Rules thereof the Scriptures were to be read publâ—ckly in the 〈◊〉 Tongue Which what else was it as they said but the committing so much Heavenly Treasure unto Râ—tten Vessels the trusting so much Excellent 〈◊〉 to such Musty Bâ—ttles And being that there are many things in he Divine Offices of the Church quae secreta esse debent as the Cardinal telleth us which ought to have been kept as Secrets from all Vulgar knowledg it must needs be of very ill Conâ—equence to communicate them to all sorâ—s of People But certainly the Holy Ghost was able to direct the Church in â— betâ—er way then such as should be subject unto Man's Exceptions And he directs the Service of the Church to be Officiated in such a Language to which the ignorant and unlearned may say Amen 1 Cor. xiv 9 16. Upon which Words it is observed by Lyra and Aquinas two as great Clerks as any in the Church of Rome That The Publick Service of the Church in the Primitive Times was in the Common Vulgar Language The like affirmed by Doctour Haâ—aing as great a Stickler for that Church and the Doctrines of it as any other of his Time adding withall That it was necessary in the Primitive Times that it should be so and granting also That it were still better that the People had their Service in their own Vulgar Tongue for their better understanding of it So he in Answer to the Challenge made by Bishop Jewel Art 3. Sect. 28 and 33. And theâ—efore having the confession and acknowledgment of the very Adveâ—saâ—y not onely as to the Antiquity but the Fitness also of Celebrating Divine Offices in the Vulgar Language it may be thought a loss both of Time and Travail to press the Argument any further Which nâ—twithstanding for the more perfect clearing of the Point in question it wâ—ll be found upon a very easie seach that the Jews did Celebrate their Divine Offiâ—es Tractatus and Oblationes as the Father hath it most commonly in the Syriack and sometimes in the Hebrew Tongue the natural Languages of that People as is affirmed by St. Ambrose upon 1 Cor. cap. 14. and out of him by Durand in his Rationale Eckius a great Servant of the Popes affirmeth in his Common Places That the Indians have their Service in the Indian Tongue and
unto that Honour by the King's Letters Patenâ—s As for Ridley we have spoke before and as for Poynet he is affirmed to have been a Man of verâ— good Learning with Reference to his Age and the Time he lived in well studied in the Greek Tongue and of no small Eminence in the Arts and Mathematical Sciences A Change was also made in Cambridg by the Death of Bucer which I finde placed by Fâ—x on the twenty third of December by others with more Truth on the nineteenth of January both in the Compass of this year and by some others with less Reaâ—â—n on the tenth of March But at whâ—t time sover he died certain it is that he was most Solemnly Interred in Saint Marie's Church attended to Fu his â—rave by all the Heads and most of the Graduates in that Vniversity his neâ—al Sermon Preached by Dâ—ctâ—ur Parâ—er â—he first Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in Queen Elizâ—beth'â— Time the Panegyrick made by one of the Haddons a Man of a moâ—â— Fluenâ— and Rhetorical Sâ—yle all that pretended to the Muses in both Vniverâ—ities setting forth his great Worth and their own Loss in him with the best of their Poetry Anno Regni Edw. Sexti 5 o. An. Dom. 1550 1551. WE must begin this year with the Deprivation of Bishop Gardiner whom we left committed to the Tower the last of June in the year 1548. There he remained almost two years without being pressed to any particular Point the yielding unto which might procure his Liberty or the Refusal justifie such a long Imprisonment On the tenth of June this year the Publick Liturgie now being generally executed in all Parts of the Kingdom was offered to his Consideration that some Experiment might be made whether he would put his Hand unto it and promise to advance the Service Upon the fourth day after the Duke of Sommerset with five other of the Lords of the Council was sent unto the Tower to receive his Answer Which he returned to this effect That he had deliberately considered of all the Offices contained in the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book and all the several Branches of it That Though he could not have made it in that Manner had the Matter been referred unto him yet that he found such things therein as did very well satisfie his Conscience and therefore that he would not onely execute it in his own Person but cause the same to be Officiated by all those of his Diocess But this was not the Answer which the Courtiers looked for It was their Hope they should have found him more averse from the King's Proceedings that making a Report of his Perversness he might be lifted out of that Wealthy Bishoprick which if it either were kept Vacant or filled with a more Tractable Person might give them opportunity to enrich themselves by the Spoil thereof Therefore to put him further to it the Lord Treasurer the Earl of Warwick Sir William Herbert Master of the Horse and Mr. Secretary Petre are sent upon the ninth of July with certain Articles which for that end were Signed by the King and the Lords of the Council According to the Tenour hereof he was not onely to testifie his Consent to the Establishing of the Holy-Days and Fasting-Days by the King's Authority the Allowance of the Publick Liturgie and the Abrogating of the Statute for the Six Articles c. but to Subscribe to the Confession of his Fault in his former Obstinacy after such Form and Manner as was there required To which Articles he Subscribed without any great Hesitancy but refused to put his Hand to the said Confession There being no reason as he thought and so he answered those which came unto him from the Court on the Morrow after that he should yield to the Confâ—ssion of a Guilt when he knew himself Innocent He is now faln into the Toil out of which he finds but Little Hope of being set free For presently on the neck of this a Book of Articles is drawn up containing all the Alteration made by the King and His Father as well by Acts of Parliament as their own Injunctions from the first Suppression of the Monasteries to the coming out of the late Form for the Consecration of Arch-Bishops Bishops c. Of all which Doings he is required to signifie his Approbation to make Confession of his Fault with an Acknowledgment that he had deserved the Punishment which was aid upon him Which Articles being tendered to him by the Bishop of London the Master of the Horse Mr. Secretary Petre and Goodrick a Counsellour at Law appeared to him to be of such an hard Digestion that he desir'd first to be set at Liberty before he should be pressed to make a particular Answer This being taken for a Refusal and that Refusal taken for a Contempt the Profits of his Bishoprick are Sequestered from him for three Moneths by an Order of the Council-Table bearing date the nineteenth of the Moneth the said Profits in the mean time to be collected or received by such Person or Persons as the King should thereunto appoint with this Intimation in the Close that if he did not tender his Submission at the end of that Term he should be taken for an Incorrigible Person and unmeet Minister of this Church and Finally to be procceeded against to a Deprivation The Term expired and no such humble Submission or Acknowledgment made as had been required at his Hands a Commission is directed to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of London Ely and Lincoln Sir William Peter c. authorised thereby to proceed against him upon certain Articles in the same contained Convented before whom at Lambeth on the fifteenth of December he received his Charge Which being received he used so many Shifts and found so many Evasions to elude the Business that having appeared six Days before them without coming to a plain and Positive Answer he was upon the fourteenth of February Sentenced to a Deprivation and so remitted to the Tower But Gardiner did not mean to die so tamely and therefore had no sooner heard the Definitive Sentence but presently he Protesteth against the same makes his Appeal unto the King and causeth both his said Appeal and Protestation to be Registred in the Acts of that Court. Of all which he will finde a time to serve himself in the Alâ—eration of Affairs It was presumed that the Report of this Severity against a Man so eminent for his Parts and Place would either bring such other Bishops as had yet stood out to a fit Conformity or otherwise expose both them and their Estates to the like Condemnation But some there were so stiff in their old Opinions that neither Terrour nor Perswasion could prevail upon them either to give their Approbation of the King's Proceedings or otherwise to advance the Service And some there were who though they outwardly complyed with the King's Commands yet was it done so coldly and with such Reluctancy as laâ—'d them open to the
Elizabeth to the See of York as also Doctour Rowland Merick preferred by the same Queen to the See of Bangor though they appeared not visibly in the Information which was made against him In which I finde him charged amongst other things for Celebrating a Marriage without requiring the Married Persons to receive the Communion contrary to the Rubrick in the Common-Prayer-Book for going ordinarily abroad in a Gown and Hat and not in a Square Cap as did the rest of the Clergy for causing a Communion-Table which had been placed by the Official of Caer-marthen in the middle of the Church the High Alltar being then demolished to be carried back into the Chancel and there to be disposed of in or near the place where the Altar stood for suffering many Superstitious Uâ—ages to be retained amongst the people contrary to the Laws in that behalf But chiefly for exercising some Acts of Episcopal Jurisdiction in his own name in derogation of the King's Supremacy and grounding his Commissions for the exercise thereof upon foreign and usurped Authority The Articles fifty six in number but this last as the first in Rank so of more Danger to him then all the reâ—t preferred against him but not prosecuted as long as his great Patron the Duke of Sommerset was in place and Power But he being on the sinking hand and the Bishop too stiff to come to a Compliance with those whom he esteemed beneath him the Suit is followed with more noise and violence then was consistent with the credit of either Party The Duke being dead the four Knights Executed and all his Party in Disgrace a Commission is Issued bearing Date the ninth of March to enquire into the Merit of the Articles which were charged against him On the return whereof he is Indicted of a Prâ—â—munire at the Assizes held in Caer-marthen in the July following committed thereupon to Prison where he remained all the rest of King Edward's time never restored to Liberty till he came to the Stake when all his Sufferings and Sorrows had an end together But this Business hath carried us too far into the next year of this King to the beginning whereof we must now return Anno Regni Edw. Sexti 6o. An. Dom. 1551 1552. WE must begin the sixth year of the King with the fourth Session of Parliament though the beginning of the fourth Session was some days before that is to say on the twenty third day of January being the next day after the Death of that Great Person His Adversaries possibly could not do it sooner and found it very unsafe to defer it longer for fear of being over-ruled in a Parliamentary way by the Lords and Commons There was Summoned also a Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy of the Province of Canterbury to begin upon the next day after the Parliament Much business done in each as may appear by the Table of the Statutes made in the one and the passing of the Book of Articles as the Work of the other But the Acts of this Convocation were so ill kept that there remains nothing on Record touching their Proceedings except it be the names of such of the Bishops as came thither to Adjourn the House Onely I finde a Memorandum that on the twenty ninth of this present January the Bishoprick of Westminster was dissolved by the King's Letters Patents by which the County of Middlesex which had before been laid unto it was restored unto the See of London made greater then in former times by the Addition of the Arch-Deaconry of St. Alban's which at the dissolution of that Monastery had been laid to Lincoln The Lands of Westminster so dilapidated by Bishop Thirlby that there was almost nothing left to support the Dignity for which good service he had been preferred to the See of Norâ—ich in the year foregoing Most of the Lands invaded by the Great men of the Court the rest laid out for Reparation to the Church of St. Paul pared almost to the very quick in those days of Rapine From hence first came that significant By-word as is said by some of Robbing Peter to pay Paul But this was no Business of that Convocation though remembred in it That which most specially doth concern us in this Convocation is the settling and confirming of the Book of Articles prepared by Arch-Bishop Cranmer with the assistance of such Learned men as he thought fit to call unto him in the year last past and now presented to the consideration of the rest of the Clergy For that they were debated and agreed upon in that Convocation appears by the Title of the Book where they are called Aâ—ticuli de quibus in Synodo Londinensi An. Dom. 1552 c. that is to say Articles Agreed upon in the Synod of London An. 1552. And it may be concluded from that Title also that the Convocation had devolved their Power on some Grand Committee sufficiently Authourised to Debate Conclude and Publish what they had Concluded in the name of the rest For there it is not said as in the Articles Published in Queen Elizabeth's time An. 1562. That they were agreed upon by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of both Provinces and the whole-Clergy in the Convocation holden at London but that they were agreed upon in the Synod of London by the Bishops and certain other Learned Men inter Episcopos â—lios Eruditos viros as the Latin hath it Which seems to make it plain enough that the debating and concluding of the Articles contained in the said Book was the Work onely of some Bâ—shops and certain other Learned men sufficiently empowered for that end and purpose And being so empowered to that end and purpose the Articles by them concluded and agreed upon may warrantably be affirmed to be the Acts and Products of that Convocation Confirmed and Published for such by the King's Authority as appears further by the Title in due form of Law And so it is resolved by Philpot Arch-Deacon of Winchester in behalf of the Catechism which came â—ut An. 1553. with the Approbation of the said Bishops and Learned men Against which when it was objected by Doctour Weston Prolocutour of the Convocation in the first of Queen Mary that the said Catechism was not set forth by the Agreement of that House it was Answered by that Reverend and Learned man That The said House had granâ—ed the Authority to make Ecclesiastical Laws unto certain Persons to be appointed by the King's Majesty and therefore whatsoever Ecclesiastical Laws they or the most part of them did set forth according to the Statute in that behalf provided might be well said to be done in the Synod of London And this may also be the Case of the Book of Articles which may be truly and justly said to be the Work of that Convocation though many Members of it never saw the same till the Book was published in regard I still use Philpot's words in the Acts and Mon. Fol.
1282. that they had a Synodal Authority unto them committed to make such Spiritual Laws as to them seemed to be nâ—câ—ssary or convenient for the use of the Church Had it been otherwise King Edward a most Pious and Religious Prince must needs be looked on as a Wicked and most Lewd Impostour in putting such an horrible Cheat upon all His Subjects by Fathering these Articles on the Convocation which begat them not nor ever gave consent unto them And yet it is not altogether improbable but that these Articles being debated and agreed upon by the said Commitee might also pass the Vote of the whole Convocation though we finde nothing to that purpose in the Acts thereof which either have been lost or were never Registred Besides it is to be observed that the Church of England for the first five years of Queen Elizabeth retained these Articles and no other as the publick Tenents of the Church in point of Doctrine which certainly She had not done had they been commended to Her by a less Authority then a Convocation Such hand the Convocation had in canvasing the Articles prepared for them and in concluding and agreeing to so much or so many of them as afterwards were published by the King's Authority in the name thereof But whether they had any such hand in Reviewing the Liturgie and passing their Consent to such Alterations as were made therein is another Question That some necessity appeared both for the Reveiwing of the whole and the altering of some Parts thereof hath been shew'd before And it was shewed before by whose Procurement and Sollicitation the Church was brought to that necessity of doing somewhat to that Purpose But being not sufficiently Authorised to proceed upon it because the King 's sole Authority did not seem sufficient they were to stay the Leasure and Consent of the present Parliament For being the Liturgie then in force had been confirmed and imposed by the King in Parliament with the Consent and Assent of the Lords and Commons it stood with Reason that they should not venture actually on the Alteration but by their permission first declared And therefore it is said expresly in the Act of Parliament made this present year That The said Order of Common Service Entituled The Book of Common-Prayer had been Perused Explained and made fully perfect not single by the King's Authority but by the King with the Assent of the Lords and Commons More then the giving of their Assent was neither required by the King nor desired by the Prelats and less then this could not be fought as the Case then stood The signifying of which Assent enabled the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy whom they had taken for their Assistants to proceed to the Digesting of such Alterations as were before considered and resolved on amongst themselves and possibly might receive the like Authority from the Convocation as the Articles had though no such thing remaining upon Record in the Registers of it But whether it were so or not certain it is that it received as much Authority and Countenance as could be given unto it by an Act of Parliament by which imposed upon the Subject under certain Penalties Imprisonments Pecuniarie Mulcts c. which could not be inflicted on them by Synodical Acts. The Liturgie being thus Settled and Confirmed in Parliament was by the King's Command translated into French for the Use of the Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and such as lived within the Marches and Command of Calais But no such Care was taken for Wales till the fifth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth nor of the Realm of Ireland from that time to this King Henry had so far prepared the Way to a Reformation as His own Power and Profit was concerned in it to which Ends he excluded the Pope's Authority and caused Himself to be declared Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of Ireland by Act of Parliament And by like Acts he had annexed to the Crown the Lands of all Monasteries and Religious Orders together with thetwentieth Part of all the Ecclesiastical Promotions within that Kingdom and caused the like Course to be settled for the Electing and Consecrating of Arch-Bishops and Bishops as had been done before in England Beyond which as he did not go so as it seems King Edward's Council thought not fit to adventure further They held it not agreeable to the Rules of Prudence to have too many Irons in the Fire at once nor safe in Point of Policy to try Conclusions on a People in the King's Minority which were so far tenacionsly addicted to the Superstitions of the Church of Rome and of a Nature not so tractable as the English were And yet that Realm was quiet even to Admiration notwithstanding the frequent Embroilments and Commotions which so miserably disturbed the Peace of England which may be reckoned for one of the greatest Felicities of this King's Reign and a strong Argument of the Care and Vigilancy of such of His Ministers as had the chief Direction of the Irish Affairs At the first Payment of the Money for the Sale rather then the Surrendry of Bulloign eight thousand pounds was set apart for the Service of Ireland and shortly after out of the Profits which were raised from the Mint four hundred men were Levied and sent over thither also with a Charge given to the Governours that the Laws of England should be Carefully and Duly administred and all such as did oppose suppressed by Means whereof great Countenance was given to those who embraced the Reformed Religion there especially within those Counties which are called commonly by the name of the English Pale The Common-Prayer-Book of England being brought over thither and used in most of the Churches of the English Plantation without any Law in their own Parliaments to impose it on them But nothing more conduced to the Peace of that Kingdom then that the Governours for the most part were men of such Choice that neither the Nobility disdained to endure their Commands nor the inferiour sort were oppressed to supply their Wants Besides which as the King drew many men from thence to serve him in his Wars against France and Scotland which otherwise might have disturbed the common Peace so upon notice of some great Preparations which were made in France for the Assistance of the Scots he sent over to guard the Coast of Ireland four Ships four Barks four Pinnaces and twelve Victuallers By the Advantage of which Strength He made good three Havens two on the South-side toward France and one toward Scotland which afterwards made themselves good Booties out of such of the French as were either cast away on the Coast of Ireland or forced to save themselves in the Havens of it For the French making choice rather of their Passage by Saint George's Chanel then by the ordinary Course of Navigation from France to Edenborough fell from one Danger to another and for fear of being
Hoods To give a beginning hereunto Bishop Ridley then Bishop of London obediently conforming unto that which he could not hinder did the same day Officiate the Divine Service of the Morning in his Rochet onely without Cope or Vestment he Preached also at St. Paul's Cross in the afternoon the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Companies in their best Liveries being present at it the Sermon tending for the most part to the setting forth of the said Book of Common-Prayer and to acquaint them with the Reason of such Alterations as were made therein On the same day the New Liturgie was executed also in all the Churches of London And not long after I know not by what strange forwardness in them that did it the Upper Quire in St. Paul's Church where the High-Altar stood was broken down and all the Quiâ—e thereabout and the Communion-Table was placed in the Lower Part of the Quiâ—e where the Priest sang the Dayly Service What hereupon ensued of the Rich Ornaments and Plate wherewith every Church was furnished after its proportion we shall see shortly when the King's Commissioners shall be sent abroad to seise upon them in His Name for their own Commodity About this time the Psalms of David did first begin to be Composed in English Meeter by one Thomas Sternhold one of the Grooms of the Privy-Chamber who Translating no more then thirty seven left both Example and Encouragement to John Hopkins and others to dispatch the rest A Device first taken up in France by one Clement Marot one of the Grooms of the Bed-Chamber to King Francis the First who being much addicted to Poetry and having some acquaintance with those which were thought to have enclined to the Reformation was perswaded by the Learned Vatablus Professour of the Hebrew Tongue in the University of Paris to exercise his Poetical Fancies in Translating some of David's Psalms For whose satisfaction and his own he Translated the first fifty of them and after flying to Geneva grew acquainted with Beza who in some tract of time Translated the other hundred also and caused them to be fitted unto several Tunes which â— hereupon began to be Sung in private houses and by degrees to be taken up in all the Churches of the French and other Nations which followed the Genevian Plat-form Marot's Translation said by Strada to have been ignorantly and perversely done as being but the Work of a man altogether unlearned but not to be compared with that Barbarity and Botching which every where occurreth in the Translation of Sternhold and Hopkins Which notwithstanding being first allowed for private Devotion they were by little and little brought into the use of the Church Permitted rather then Allowed to be Sung before and after Sermons afterwards Printed and bound up with the Common-Prayer-Book and at last added by the Stationers at the end of the Bible For though it be expressed in the Title of those Singing Psalms that they were set forth and allowed to be Sung in all Churches before and after Morning and Evening Prayer and also before and after Sermons yet this Allowance seems rather to have been a Connivance then an Approbation No such Allowance being any where found by such as have been most Industrious and concerned in the search thereof At first it was pretended onely that the said Psalms should be Sung before and after Morning and Evening Prayer and also before and after Sermons which shews they were not to be intermingled in the Publick Liturgie But in some tract of time as the Puritan Faction grew in strength and confidence they prevailed so far in most places to thrust the Te Deum the Benedictus the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis quite out of the Church But of this more perhaps hereafter when we shall come to the Discovery of the Puritan Practices in the Times succeeding Next to the business of Religion that which took up a great part of the Publick Care was the Founding and Establishing of the new Hospital in the late dissolved House of Grey-Friers near New-gate in the City of London and that of St. Thomas in the Borough of Soâ—thwark Concerning which we are to know that the Church belonging to the said House together with the Cloysters and almost all the Publick Building which stood within the Liberties and Precincts thereof had the good Fortune to escape that Ruin which Generally befell all other Houses of that Nature And standing undemolished till the last Times of King Henry it was given by him not many days before His Death to the City of London together with the late dissolved Priory called Little St. Bartholomew's which at the Suppression thereof was valued at 305. pounds 6. s. 7. d. In which Donation there was Reference had to a Double End The one for the Relieving of the Poor out of the Rents of such Messuages and Tenements as in the Grant thereof are contained and specified The other for Constituting a Parish-Church in the Church of the said dissolved Grey-Friers not onely for the use of such as lived within the Precincts of the said two Houses but for the Inhabitants of the Parishes of Saint Nicholas in the Shambles and of Saint Ewines scituate in Warwick-Lane-end near New-gate Market Which Churches with all the Rents and Profits belonging to them were given to the City at the same time also and for advancing the same ends together with five hundred Marks by the year for ever the Church of the Grey-Friers to be from thenceforth called Christ-Church Founded by King Henry the Eighth All which was signified to the City in a Sermon Preached at Saint Paul's Cross by the Bishop of Rochester on the thirteenth of January being no more then a Fortnight before the death of the King so that He wanted not the Prayers of the Poor at the Time of His Death to serve as a Counter-Ballance for those many Curses which the poor Monks and Friers had bestowed upon Him in the Time of His Life In pursuance of this double Design the Church of the said Friers which had before served as a Magazine or Store-house for such French-Wines as had been taken by Reprise was cleansed and made fit for Holy uses and Mass again sang in it on the thirteenth day of January before remembred resorted to by such Parishioners as were appointed to it by the King's Donation After which followed in the first years of King Edward the Sixth the taking down of the said two Churches and building several Tenements on the Ground of the Churches and Church-Yards the Rents thereof to be imployed for the further maintenance and Relief of the poor living and loytering in and about the City to the great Dishonour of the same But neither the first Grant of the King nor these new Additions being able to carry on the work to the end desired it happened that Bishop Ridley preaching before the King did much insist upon the settling of of some constant course for Relief of the Poor Which
rather add to His Afflictions then encrease that Quiet wherewith they had possessed their souls for the stroke of Death that He demanded a Lenitive which would put fire into the Wound and that it was to be feared Her Presence would rather weaken then strengthen Him that He ought to take courage from his Reason and derive constancy from his own heart that if his soul were not firm and setled She could not settle it by Her eyes nor confirm it by Her words that He should do well to remit this Interview to the other World that there indeed Friendships were happy and Unions undesolvable and that theirs would be Eternal if their souls carried nothing with them of Terrestrial which might hinder them from rejoycing All She could do was to give Him a Farewell out of a Window as He passed toward the place of His dissolution which He suffered on the Scaffold on Tower-Hill with much Christian meekness His Dead body being lai'd in a Car and His Head wrapped up in a Linen-cloth were carried to the Chapel within the Tower in the way to which they were to pass under the Window of the Lady Jane where She had given Him His Fare-well A Spectacle sufficient to disanimate a couragious Heart not armed with the Constancy and Resolution of so brave a Vertue The Spectacle endured by Her with the less Astonishment because She knew She was upon the point of meeting with Him in a better Conjuncture where they should never finde the like Intermission of their Joys and Happinesses It was once resolved on by the Court that She should dy on the same Scaffold with Her Husband but it was feared that being both pittied and beloved by the common People some suddain Commotion might be raised if She were publickly brought forth to Her Execution It was therefore held the safer course that a Scaffold should be erected for Her within the Verge of the Tower on which She might satisfie the greatest severity of the Law without any danger to the State Towards which being to be led by Sir John Gage who was then Constable of the Tower he desired Her to bestow some small Gift upon him to be kept as a Memorial of Her To gratifie which desire She gave him Her table-Table-Book in which She had written three Sentences in Greek Latine and English as She saw Her Husband's Body brought unto the Chapel which She besought him to accept as Her last Bequest The Greek to this effect That If His Executed Body should give Testimony against Her before men His most blessed Soul should give an eternal Proof of Her Innocence in the presence of God the Latine added that Humane Justice was against His Body but the Divine Mercy would be for His Soul and then concluded thus in English that If Her fault deserved Punishment Her Youth at least and Her Imprudence were worthy of Excuse and that God and Posterity would shew Her Favour Conducted by Feckman to the Scaffold She gave not much heed unto his Discourses but kept Her Eyes upon a Prayer-Book of Her own And being mounted on the Throne from which She was to receive a more excellent Crown then any which this vile Earth could give Her She addressed Her self in some few words to the standers by letting them know that Her Offence was not for having lay'd Her Hand upon the Crown but for not rejecting it with sufficient Constancy That She had less erred through Ambition then out of Respect and Reverence to Her Parents acknowledging nevertheless that Her Respect was to be accounted as a Crime and such Reverence to deserve a Punishment That She would willingly admit of Death so to give satisfaction to the injured State that by Obedience to the Laws She might voluntarily take off the Scandal which She had given by Her constrained Obedience to Her Friends and Kindred concluding finally that She had justly deserved this Punishment for being made the instrument thugh the unwâ—lliâ—g Instrument of another's Ambition and should leave behind Her an Examplâ— that Innâ—â—ence excuseth not great Mâ—sdeeds if they any way tenâ— to the Destruction of the Commonâ—Wealth Which said and desiring the people to recommend Her in their Prayers to the mercies of God She caused Her self to be disrobed by some of Her Women who with wâ—â— Eyes and heavy Hearts performed that Office which was to Her no more unwelcome then if it had been nothing but the preparation to the Death of Sleep and not unto the Sleep of Death And being now â—eady for the Blâ—ck with the same clear and untroubled Countenance wherewith She had acted all the rest of Her Tragedy She said aloud the Psalm of Miseâ—ere mei â—eus in the English Tongue and so submitted Her pure Neck to the Exâ—cutioner Touching the Bonds Recognâ—scances Grants Conveyances and other Lâ—gal Instruments which â—ad been made in the short Reign of this Queen a doubt was raâ—sed amongâ—â— our Lawyers whither they were good and valid in the Law or not The Reason of which Scruple was because that Interval of time which passed between the Death of King Edward on the sixth of July and the Proclaiming of Queen Mary in all Parts of thâ— Realm was in the Law to be esteemed as a part of Her Reign without any notice to be taken of the interposing of the Lady Jane in the fiâ—st year of whose Reign the said Bonds Recogniscances Grants c. had their several Dates And thereupon it was Enacted in the following Parliament That all Statutes Recogniscances and other Writings whatsoever knoledged or made by or to any Person or Persons Bodies Politick or Corporate being the Queen's Subjects since the sixth day of July last past untill the fiâ—st day of August then next following under the Name of the Reign of any other Person then under the Namâ— of the said â—ueen's Majesty with the Stile appropriated or united to Her Majestie 's Imperial Crown shall be as good and â—ffectual in the Law to all intents purposes coâ—structions and meanings as if upon the mâ—king thereof the Name of the said Queen Mary with Her Stileâ—appropâ—â—ated had been fully and plainly expressed in the same Wâ—â—h a Proviso notwithstanding that all Grants Letters Patents and Commissions made by the said Lady Jane to any Person or Persons whatsoever should be reputed void and of none â—ffâ—ct Whâ—ch Proviso seems to have been added not onâ—ly for the making void of all such Grants of the Crown-Lands as had passed in the Name of the said Queen Jane if any such Grants were ever made but for invalidating the Commiâ—â—â—on granted to the Duke of Northumberland for raising Arms in Her behalf The pleading whereof though it could not be allowed for his Indâ—mnity when he stood at the Bar might possibly have raised some Reproach or Trouble to his Peers and Judges if the Integrity of their Proceedings had been called in Question Such was the end of the short Life but far shorter Reign of the Lady Jane
circumstances and Punctillioes before laid down This stilled the clamour for the present though it brake out again forty years after and was again stilled by the care and industry of the right Reverend Dr. Bâ—amhall Lord Bishop of Derry in a Book Entituled The Church of England defended against some scandalous and fabulous â—â—pâ—tations cast upon her c. Which cavil for it is no better being thus refelled the other objections of the Adversaries will be easily answered though Barlow and Scory were deprived of their Episcopal Sees yet first the justice and legality of their deprivation was not clear in Law and secondly they neither were nor could be deprived of their Episcopal character which remained in them undefaced as before it was And whilst the character remained they were in a capacity of performing all Episcopal Offices to which they should be called by their Metropolitan or any higher Power directing and commanding in all such matters as concerned the Church And as for Suffragans by which title Hodgskins is Commissionated for the Consecration they were no other than the Chore-Epâ—scopi of the Primitive times Subsidiary Bishops ordained for easing the Diocesan of some part of his burthen By means whereof they were enabled to perform such offices belonging to that sacred function not limited to time and place by the ancient Canons by which a Bishop was restrained in some certain acts of Jurisdiction to his proper Diocess Of this sort there were twenty six in the Realm of England distinguished by the names of such principal Towns as were appointed for their title and denomination The names and number whereof together with the jurisdiction and preheminences proportioned to them the Reader may peruse in the Act of Parliament made in the â—6th year of King Henry the 8th No sooner was this solemnity ended but a new mandate comes for the Confirmation of Dr. Barlow in the See of Chichester and Dr Scory to the See of Hereford to which they had been severally elected in August last And though the not restoring of them to their former Sees might seem to juâ—â—ifie the late Queen Mary in their deprivation yet the Queen wanted not good reasons for their present removal not that she did consult therein her own power and profit as is thought by some but studied rather their content and satisfaction than her own concernments For Baâ—low having wasted the revenue of the Church of Wells could not with any comfort behold a place which he had so spoiled and Scory having been deprived of the See of Chichester under pretence of wanting a just title to it desired not to be put upon the hazard of a second ejction But as for Coverdale he did not only wave the acceptation of Oxon but of any other Church then vacant He was now 72 years old and desired rather to enjoy the pleasure of a private life than be disquieted in his old age with the cares of Government And somewhat might be also in it of a disaffection not to the Calling but the Habit which is to be believed the rather because he attended not at the Consecration in his Cope and Rocher as the others did but in a plain black Coat reaching down to his Ankles And now the rest of the Episcopal Sees begin to fill for on the 21 of the same December Dâ— Edmond Gâ—indall was consecrated to the See of London Dr. Râ—chard Cox to that of Ely Dr. Edwin Sandys to the Church of Worcester Dr. Rowland Merick unto that of Bangor On the 21 of January then next following Dr. Nicholas Bullingham was by the like consecration made Bishop of Lincoln the right learned Mr. John Jewel who afterwards accepted the degree of Doctor Bishop of Sarisbury Dr. Thomas Young Bishop of St. Davids and Mr. Râ—chard Davis Bishop of St. Asaph The 24th of March was honoured with the Consecration of three other Bishops that is to say of Mr. Thomas Bentham to the See of Coventry and Lichfield of Mr. Gilbert Barclay to the See of Wâ—lls and of Dr. Edmund Guest to that of Rochester On the 14th of July comes the consecration of Dr. William Alley to the Church of Exon and that of Mr John Parkhurst to the Church of Norwich on the first of September By which account we find no â—ewer than sixteen Sees to be filled with new Bishops within the compass of the year men of ability in matter of learning and suâ—h as had a good report for the integrity of their lives and conversations Nor was it long before the rest of the Episcopal Sees were supplied with new Pastors as shall be shewn hereafter in due time and place The Queens commission of sarvey had not crossed the Trent which possibly may be the reason why we find no new Bishops in the Province of York and Wâ—nchâ—ster must afford one Michaelmas rent more to the Queens Exchequer before the Lord Treasurer could give way to a new incumbent And now we may behold the face of the Church of England as it was first setled and established under Queen Elizabeth The Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops according to the practice of the best and happiest times of Christianity These Bishops nominated and elected according to the Statute in the 26th of King Henry the 8th and consecrated by the Ordinal confirmed by Parliament in the 5th and 6th years of King Edward the 6th never appearing publickly but in their Rochets nor officiating otherwise than in Copes at the Holy Altar The Priests not stirring out of doors but in their square Caps Gowns or Canonical Coats nor executing any divine Office but in their Surplice avestment set apart for Religious services in the Primitive times as may be gathered from St Chrysostome for the Eastern Churches and from St Hierom for the Western The Doctrine of the Church reduced unto its ancient purity according to the Articles agreed upon in Convocation Anno 1552. The Liturgy conform to the Primitive patterns and all the Rites and Ceremonies therein prescribed accommodated to the honour of God and increase of piety The Festivals preserved in their former dignity observed with their distinct Offices peculiar to them and celebrated with a Religious couâ—cuâ—â—â— of all sorts of people the weekly Fasts the holy time of Lent the Embrâ—â—◠〈◊〉 together with the Fast of the Rogation severely kept by a forbearance of all â—ind of flesh not now by vertue of the Statute as in the time oâ— King Edward but as appointed by the Church in her publick Calender before the Book of Common Prayer The Sacrament of the Lords Supper celebrated in most reverend manner the Holy Table seated in the place of the Altar the people making their due reverence at their first entrance into the Church kneeling at the Communion the Confession and the publick Prayers standing up at the Creed the Gospels and the Gloria Patri and using the accustomed reverence at the name of Jesus Musick retained in all such Churches
Archbishops and Bishops repealed in the year first of Queen Mary and now revived by her sister in which there is nothing more memorable than that amongst many other Ceremonies therein directed there is mention of giving the Pall to a new Archbishop that being an Ornament or Habit peculiar only unto those of the highest ranck in the holy Hierarchy And that she might not only take care for the good of the Church without consulting her own safety she caused an Act to pass for the recognition of her own just title to the Crown as before in England All which being done she left the prosecution of the work to her Bishops and Clergy not so well countenanced by power as they were by Law and yet more countenanced by Law than they made good use of For many of them finding how things went in England and knowing that the like alterations would ensue amongst themselves resolved to make such use of the present times as to inrich their friends and kindred by the spoil of their Churches To which end they so dissipated the revenues of their several Bishopricks by long Leases see Farms and plain alienations that to some of their Sees they left no more than a Rent of five Marks per annum to others a bare yearly Rent of 40 shillings to the high displeasure of Almighty God the reproach of Religion the great disservice of the Church and the perpetual ignominy of themselves for that horrible sacrilege It is now time that we hoise sail again for England where we shall find an entertainment made ready for us in a Sermon preached by Reverend Jewel then newly Consecrated Bishop of the Church of Sarisbury The Sermon preached at St. Paul's Cross on the 30th of March being Passion-Sunday or the Sunday fortnight before Easter the Text or Theam of his discourse being taken out of St Paul's 1 Epistle to the Corinthians Chap. 11. Ver 23. That which I delivered to you â— received of the Lord c. Which Text being opened and accommodated to the present times he published that memorable Challenge which so much exercised the pens and studies of the Romish Clergy By whom the Church had been injuriously upbraided with the imputation of novelty and charged with teaching such opinions as were not to be found in any of the ancient Fathers or approved Councils or any other Monument of true Antiquity before Luther's time For the stopping of whose moâ—ths for ever this learned Prelate made this stout and gallant challenge in these following words Bishop Jewel's Challenge If any Learned man of our Adversaries or all the Learned men that be alive be able to bring any one sufficient sentence out of any old Catholick Doctor or Father or General Council or Holy Scripture or any one example in the Primitive Church whereby it may clearly and plainly be proved during the first six hundred years 1. That there was at that time any private Masse in the world 2. Or that there was then any communion ministred unto the people under one kind 3. Or that the people had their Common Prayer in a strange tongue that the people understood not 4. Or that the Bishop of Rome was then called an universal Bishop or the head of the universal Church 5. Or that the people were then taught to beleeve that Christs body is really substantially corporally carnally or naturally in the Sacrament 6. Or that his body is or may be in a thousand places or more at one time 7. Or that the Priest did then hold up the Sacrament over his head 8. Or that the people did then fall down and worship it with godly honour 9. Or that the Sacrament was then or now ought to be hanged up under a Canopy 10. Or that in the Sacrament after the words of Consecration there remain only the accidents and shewes without the substance of Bread and Wine 11. Or that then the Priâ—sts divided the Sacrament into three parts and afterwards received himself all alone 12. Or that whosoever had said the Sacrament is a figure a pledge a token or a remembrance of Christs body had therefore been iudg'd for an Heretick 13. Or that it was lawful then to have thirty twenty fifteen ten or five Masses said in one day 14. Or that images were then set up in the Churches to the intent the people might worship them 15. Or that the lay people were then forbidden to read the word of God in their own tongue 16. Or that it was then lawful for the Priest to pronounce the words of Consecration closely or in private to himself 17. Or that the Priest had then authority to offer up Christ unto his Father 18. Or to communicate and receive the Sacrament for another as they do 19. Or to apply the vertue of Christs death and passion to any man by the means of the Masse 20. Or that it was then thought a sound doctrine to teach the people that Mass ex opere operato that is even for that it is said and done is able to remove any part of our sin 21. Or that any Christian man called the Sacrament the Lord his God 22. Or that the people were then taught to believe that the body of Christ remaineth in the Sacrament as long as the accidents of Bread and Wine remain there without corruption 23. Or that a mouse or any other worm or beast may eat the body of Christ for so some of our Adversaries have said and taught 24. Or that when Christ said hoc est corpus meum the word hoc pointed not the Bread but individuum vagum as some of them say 25. Or that the Accidents or Forms or Shews of Bread and Wine be the Sacraments of Christs body and blood and not rather the very Bread and Wine it self 26. Or that the Sacrament is a sign or token of the body of Christ that lyeth hidden underneath it 27. Or that ignorance is the mother and cause of true Devotion the conclusion is that I shall be then content to yield and subscribe This Challenge being thus published in so great an auditory startled the English Papists both at home and abroad none more than such of the fugitives as had retired to Lovain Doway or St Odomars in the Low Country Provinces belonging to the King of Spain The business first agitated by the exchange of friendly Letters betwixt the said Reverend Prelate and Dr Henry Cole the late Dean of St Pauls more violently followed in a book of Rastal's who first appeared in the lists against the Challenger Followed therein by Dorman and Marshal who severally took up the cudgels to as little purpose the first being well beaten by Nowel and the last by Calfhil in their discourses writ against them But they were only velilations or preparatory skirmishes in reference to the main encounter which was reserved for the Reverend Challenger himself and Dr. John Harding one of the Divines of Lovain and the most learned of the College The
Ploydon whose learned Commentaries do sufficiently set forth his great abilities in that Profession and one Mr. Lovelace of whom we find nothing but the name By them and their Advice the whole pleading chiefly is reduced to these two heads to omit the nicities and punctilioes of lesser moment the first whereof was this That Bonner was not at all named in the indictment by the stile and title of Bishop of London but only by the name Dr. Edmond Bonner Clerk Dr. of the Lawes whereas at that time he was legally and actually Bishop of London and therefore the Writ to be abated as our Lawyers phrase it and the cause to be dismissed our of the Court But Ploydon found here that the Case was altered and that this Plea could neither be allowed by Catiline who was then Chief Justice nor by any other of the Bench and therefore it is noted by Chief Justice Dyer who reports the Case with a Non allocatur The second principle Plea was this That Horn at the time when the Oath was tender'd was not Bishop of Winchester and therefore not impowred by the said Statute to make tender of it by himself or his Chancellor And for the proof of this that he was no Bishop it was alleged that the form of Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops which had been ratified by Parliament in the time of King Edward had been repealed in the first year of Queen Mary and so remained at Horn's pretended consecration The Cause being put off from Term to Term comes at the last to be debated amongst the Judges at Serjeants Inne By whom the cause was finally put upon the issue and the tryal of that issue Ordered to be committed to a Jury of the County of Surry But then withall it was advised that the decision of the Point should rather be referred to the following Parliament for fear that such a weighty matter might miscarry by a contrary Jury of whose either partiality insufficiency there had been some proof made before touching the grants made by King Edward's Bishops of which a great many were made under this pretence that the Granters were not actually Bishops nor legally possessed of their several Sees According to this sound advice the business comes under consideration in the following Parliament which began on the 30th of September where all particulars being fully and considerately discoursed upon it was first declared That their not restoring of that Book to the former power in terms significant and express was but Casus omissus and Secondly That by the Statute 5th and 6th Edw. 6th it had been added to the Book of Common Prayer and administration of the Sacraments as a member of it or at least an appendant to it and therefore by 1. Eliz. was restored again together with the said Book of Common Prayer intentionally at the least if not in terminis But being the words in the said Statute were not cleer enough to remove all doubts they did therefore revive it now and did accordingly Enact that all persons that had been or should be made Ordered or Consecrate Archbishops Bishops Priests Ministers of Gods Holy Word and Sacraments or Deacons after the form and order prescribed in the said Book be in very deed and also by authority hereof declared and enacted to be and shall be Archbishops Bishops Priests Ministers and Deacons rightly made Consecrate and Ordered Any Statute Law Canon or any thing to the contrary notwithstanding Nothing else done in this Parliament which concerned the Church not any thing at all in the Convocation by which it was of course accompanied more than the granting of a Subsidy of six shillings in the pound out of all their Benefices and promotions And as for Bonner who was the other party to the cause in question it was determined that neither he nor any other person or persons should be impeached or molested in regard of any refusal of the said Oath heretofore made and hereafter to be made before the end of that Parliament Which favour was indulged unto them of the Laity in hope of gaining them by fair means to a sence of their duty to Bonner and the rest of the Bishops as men that had sufficiently suffered upon that account by the loss of their Bishopricks By this last Act the Church is strongly setled on her natural pillars of Doctrine Government and Worship not otherwise to have been shaken than by the blind zeal of all such furioâ—s Sampsons as were resolved to pull it on their own heads rather than suffer it to stand in so much glory And here it will be time to conclude this History having taken a brief view of the State of the Church with all the abberrations from its first constitution as it stood at this time when the Puritan faction had began to disturb her Order and that it may be done with a greater certainty I shall speak it in the words of one who lived and writ his knowledge of it at this time I mean John Rastel in his answer to the Bishops challenge Who though he were a Papist and a fugitive Priest yet I conceive that he hath faithfully delivered to many sad truths in these particulars Three books he writ within the compass of three years now last past against Bishop Jewel in one of which he makes this address unto him viz. And though you Mr. Jewel as I have heard say do take the bread into your hands when you celebrate solemnly yet thousands there are of your inferiour Ministers whose death it is to be bound to any such external fashion and your Order of celebrating the Communion is so unadvisedly conceived that every man is left unto his private Rule or Canon whether he will take the bread into his hands or let it stand at the end of the table the Bread and Wine being laid upon the table where it pleases the Sexton or Parish-Clerk to set them p. 28. In the Primitive Church Altars were allowed amongst Christians upon which they offered the unbloody sacrifice of Christs body yet your company to declare what followers they are of antiquity do account it even among one of the kinds of Idolaâ—ry if one keep an Altar standing And indeed you follow a certain Antiquity not of the Catholicks but of desperate Hereticks Optatus writing of the Donatists that they did break raze and remove the Altars of God upon which they offered p. 34. and 165. Where singing is used what shall we say to the case of the people that kneel in the body of the Church yea let them hearken at the Chancel dore it self they shall not be much wiser Besides how will you provide for great Parishes where a thousand people are c p. 50. Then to come to the Apostles where did you ever read that in their external behaviour they did wear Frocks or Gowns or four-cornered Caps or that a company of Lay-men-servants did follow them all in one Livery or that at their Prayers