a Park there what they did should be no prejudice to him There was also a Commission issued out to enquire about Inclosures and Farms and whether those who had purchased the Abbey-Lands kept Hospitality to which they were bound by the Grants they had of them and whether they encouraged Husbandry But I find no effect of this And indeed there seemed to have been a general design among the Nobility and Gentry to bring the Inferior sort to that low and servile state to which the Peasants in many other Kingdoms are reduced In the Parliament an Act was carried in the House of Lords for imparking Grounds but was cast out by the Commons yet Gentlemen went on every where taking their Lands into their own Hands and enclosing them Many are easily quieted In May the Commons did rise first in Wilt-shire where Sir William Herbert gathered some resolute Men about him and dispersed them and slew some of them Soon after that they rose in Sussex Hamp-shire Kent Glocester-shire Suffolk Warwick-shire Essex Hartford-shire Leicester-shire Worcester-shire and Rutland-shire but by fair perswasions the fury of the People was a little stopt till the matter should be represented to the Council The Protector said he did not wonder the Commons were in such distempers they being so oppressed that it was easier to die once than to perish for want and therefore he set out a Proclamation contrary to the mind of the whole Council against all new Inclosures with another indempnifying the People for what was past so they carried themselves obediently for the future Commissions were also sent every where with an unlimited Power to the Commissioners to hear and determine all Causes about Inclosures High-ways and Cottages The vast Power these Commissioners assumed was much complained of the Landlords said it was an Invasion of their Property to subject them thus to the pleasure of those who were sent to examine the Matters without proceeding in the ordinary Courts according to Law The Commons being encouraged by the favour they heard the Protector bore them and not able to govern their heat or stay for a more peaceable issue did rise again but were anew quieted Yet the Protector being opposed much by the Council he was not able to redress this Grievance so fully as the People hoped So in Oxford-shire and Devon-shire they rose again and also in Norfolk and York-shire Those in Oxford-shire were dissipated by a Force of 1500 Men led against them by the Lord Gray Some of them were taken and hanged by Martial Law as being in a state of War the greatest part ran home to their Dwellings In Devon-shire the Insurrection grew to be better formed But those of Devon-shire grew formidable for that County was not only far from the Court but it was generally inclined to the former superstition and many of the old Priests run in among them They came together on the 10th of June being Whit-Munday and in a short time they grew to be 10000 strong At Court it was hoped this might be as easily dispersed as the other Risings were but the Protector was against running into extremities and so did not move so speedily as the thing required He after some days at last sent the Lord Russel with a small Force to stop their Proceedings And that Lord remembring well how the Duke of Norfolk had with a very small Army broken a formidable Rebellion in the former Reign hoped that time would likewise weaken and dis-unite these and therefore he kept at some distance and offered to receive their Complaints and to send them to the Council But these delays gave advantage and strength to the Rebels who were now led on by some Gentlemen Arundel of Cornwall being in chief Command among them and in answer to the Lord Russel they agreed on fifteen Articles the Substance of which was as follows 1. That all the General Councils Their Demands and the Decrees of their Forefathers should be observed 2. That the Act of the Six Articles should be again in force 3. That the Mass should be in Latin and that the Priests alone should receive 4. That the Sacrament should be hanged up and worshiped and those who refused to do it should suffer as Hereticks 5. That the Sacrament should only be given to the People at Easter in one kind 6. That Baptism should be done at all times 7. That Holy Bread Holy Water and Palms be again used and that Images be set up with all the other ancient Ceremonies 8. That the new Service should be laid aside since it was like a Christmas Game and the old Service again should be used with the Procession in Latin 9. That all Preachers in their Sermons and Priests in the Mass should pray for the Souls in Purgatory 10. That the Bible should be called in since otherwise the Clergy could not easily confound the Hereticks 11. That Dr. Moreman and Crispin should be sent to them and put in their Livings 12. That Cardinal Pool should be restored and made of the Kings Council 13. That every Gentleman might have only one Servant for every hundred Marks of yearly Rent that belonged to him 14. That the half of the Abbey and Church-Lands should be taken back and restored to two of the chief Abbeys in every County and all the Church Boxes for seven years should be given to such Houses that so devout Persons might live in them who should pray for the King and the Common-wealth 15. And that for their particular grievances they should be redressed as Humphrey Arundel and the Major of Bodmyn should inform the King for whom they desired a safe conduct These Articles being sent to the Council the Arch-bishop of Canterbury was ordered to draw an Answer to them which I have seen corrected with his own Hand Cranmer drew an Answer to them Ex MS. Col. C. C. Cantab. The Substance of it was That their Demands were insolent such as were dictated to them by some seditious Priests they did not know what General Councils had decreed nor was there any thing in the Church of England contrary to them though many things had been formerly received which were so and for the Decrees they were framed by the Popes to enslave the World of which he gave several Instances For the Six Articles he says They had not been carried in Parliament if the late King had not gone thither in Person and procured that Act and yet of his own accord he slackened the execution of it To the third it was strange that they did not desire to know in what terms they worshiped God and for the Mass the ancient Canons required the People to communicate in it and the Prayers in the Office of the Mass did still imply that they were to do it For the hanging up and adoring the Host it was but lately set up by Pope Innocent and Honorius and in some Places it had never been received For the fifth the Ancient
with a hot Iron on their Breast A great many Provisoes follow concerning Clerks so convict which shew that this Act was chiefly levelled at the idle Monks and Friars who went about the Country and would betake themselves to no employment but finding the People apt to have compassion on them they continued in that course of life Which was of very ill consequence to the State For these Vagrants did every where alienate the Peoples Minds from the Government and perswaded them that things would never be well setled till they were again restored to their Houses Some of these came often to London on pretence of suing for their Pensions but really to practise up and down through the Country To prevent this there was a Proclamation set out on the 18th of September requiring them to stay in the Places where they lived and to send up a Certificate where they were to the Court of Augmentations who should thereupon give order for their constant payment Some thought this Law against Vagabonds was too severe and contrary to that common liberty of which the English Nation has been always very sensible both in their own and their Neighbours particulars Yet it could not be denied but extream Diseases required extream Remedies and perhaps there is no punishment too severe for Persons that are in health and yet prefer a loitering course of life to an honest employment There followed in the Act many excellent Rules for providing for the truly poor and indigent in the several Places where they were born and had their abode Of which this can only be said That as no Nation has laid down more effectual Rules for the supplying the Poor than England so that indeed none can be in absolute want so the neglect of these Laws is a just and great reproach on those who are charged with the execution of them when such numbers of poor Vagabonds swarm every where without the due restraints that the Laws have appointed On the 6th of December the Bill for giving the Chantries to the King was brought into the House of Lords An Act giving the Chantries to the King It was read the second time on the 12th the third time on the 13th and the fourth time on the 14th of that Month. It was much opposed both by Cranmer on the one hand and the Popish Bishops on the other The late Kings Executors saw they could not pay his Debts nor satisfie themselves in their own pretensions formerly mentioned out of the Kings Revenue and so intended to have these to be divided among them Cranmer opposed it long For the Clergy being much empoverished by the Sale of the impropriated Tithes that ought in all reason to have return'd into the Church but upon the dissolution of the Abbies were all sold among the Laity he saw no probable way remaining for their supply but to save these Endowments till the King were of Age being confident he was so piously disposed that they should easily perswade him to convert them all to the bettering of the Condition of the poor Clergy that were now brought into extream misery And therefore he was for reforming and preserving these Foundations till the Kings full Age. The Popish Bishops liked these Endowments so well that upon far different Motives they were for continuing them in the state they were in But those who were to gain by it were so many that the Act passed the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of London Duresme Ely Norwich Hereford Worcester and Chichester dissenting So it being sent down to the House of Commons was there much opposed by some Burgesses who represented that the Boroughs for which they served could not maintain their Churches and other publick Works of the Guilds and Fraternities if the Rents belonging to them were given to the King for these were likewise in the Act. This was chiefly done by the Burgesses of Linn and Coventry who were so active that the whole House was much set against that part of the Bill for the Guild-Lands Therefore those who managed that House for the Court took these off by an assurance that their Guild-Lands should be restored to them And so they desisted from their opposition and the Bill passed on the promise given to them which was afterwards made good by the Protector In the Preamble of the Act it is set forth That the great superstition of Christians rising out of their ignorance of the true way of Salvation by the death of Christ in stead of which they had set up the vain conceits of Purgatory and Masses satisfactory was much supported by Trentals and Chantries And since the converting these to godly uses such as the endowing of Schools Provisions for the Poor and the augmenting of Places in the Universities could not be done by Parliament they therefore committed it to the care of the King And then reciting the Act made in the 37th year of his Fathers Reign they give the King all such Chantries Colledges and Chappels as were not possessed by the late King and all that had been in being any time these five years last past as also all Revenues belonging to any Church for Anniversaries Obits and Lights together with all Guild-Lands which any Fraternity of Men enjoyed for Obits or the like and appoint these to be converted to the maintenance of Gramar-Schools or Preachers and for the encrease of Vicarages After this followed the Act giving the King the Customs known by the Name of Tonnage and Poundage besides some other Laws of Matters that are not needful to be remembred in this History Last of all came the Kings general Pardon with the common mon Exceptions among which one was of these who were then Prisoners in the Tower of London in which the Duke of Norfolk was included So all business being ended the Parliament was Prorogued from the 24th of December to the 20th of April following Acts that were proposed but not carried But having given this account of these Bills that were passed I shall not esteem it an unfruitful piece of History to shew what other Bills were designed There were put into the House of Lords two Bills that were stifled The one was for the use of the Scriptures which came not to a second reading The other was a Bill for erecting a new Court of Chancery for Ecclesiastical and Civil Causes which was committed to some Bishops and Temporal Lords but never more mentioned The Commons sent up also some Bills which the Lords did not agree to One was about Benefices with Cure and Residence It was committed but never reported Another was for the Reformation of divers Laws and of the Courts of Common-Law and a third was that married Men might be Priests and have Benefices To this the Commons did so readily agree that it being put in on the 19th of December and read then for the first time it was read twice the next day and sent up to the Lords on the 21st But
should be sent to the Admiral before the Bill should be put in against him to see what he could or would say All this was done to try if he could be brought to a Submission So the Lord Chancellor the Earls of Shrewsbury Warwick and Southampton and Sir John Baker Sir Tho. Cheyney and Sir Anth. Denny were sent to him He was long obstinate but after much perswasion was brought to give an Answer to the first three Articles which will be found in the Collection at the end of the Articles and then on a sudden he stopt and bade them be content for he would go no further and no entreaties would work on him either to answer the rest or to set his Hand to the Answers he had made On the 25th of Feb. the Bill was put in for attainting him The Bill passed in both Houses and the Peers had been so accustomed to agree to such Bills in King Henry's time that they did easily pass it All the Judges and the Kings Council delivered their Opinions that the Articles were Treason Then the Evidence was brought many Lords gave it so fully that all the rest with one Voice consented to the Bill only the Protector for natural pities sake as is in the Council-Book desired leave to withdraw On the 27th the Bill was sent down to the Commons with a Message That if they desired to proceed as the Lords had done those Lords that had given their Evidence in their own House should come down and declare it to the Commons But there was more opposition made in the House of Commons Many argued against Attainders in absence and thought it an odd way that some Peers should rise up in their Places in their own House and relate somewhat to the slander of another and that he should be thereupon attainted therefore it was pressed that it might be done by a Trial and that the Admiral should be brought to the Barr and be heard plead for himself But on the fourth of March a Message was sent from the King that he thought it was not necessary to send for the Admiral and that the Lords should come down and renew before them the Evidence they had given in their own House This was done and so the Bill was agreed to by the Commons in a full House judged about 400 and there were not above ten or twelve that voted in the negative The Royal Assent was given on the 5th of March. On the 10th of March the Council resolved to press the King that Justice might be done on the Admiral and since the Case was so heavy and lamentable to the Protector so it is in the Council-Book though it was also sorrowful to them all they resolved to proceed in it so that neither the King nor he should be further troubled with it After Dinner they went to the King the Protector being with them The King said he had well observed their Proceedings and thanked them for their great care of his safety and commanded them to proceed in it without further molesting him or the Protector and ended I pray you my Lords do so Upon this they ordered the Bishop of Ely to go to the Admiral and to instruct him in the things that related to another Life and to prepare him to take patiently his deserved Execution And on the 17th of March he having made report to them of his attendance on the Admiral the Council Signed a Warrant for his Execution which will be found in the Collection Collection Number 32. to which both the Lord Protector and the Arch-bishop of Canterbury set their Hands And on the 20th his Head was cut off March 20. The Admiral beheaded What his behaviour was on the Scaffold I do not find Thus fell Tho. Lord Seimour Lord high Admiral of England a Man of high thoughts of great violence of temper and ambitious out of measure Censures past upon it The Protector was much censured for giving way to his Execution by those who looked only at that relation between them which they thought should have made him still preserve him But others who knew the whole Series of the Affair saw it was scarce possible for him to do more for the gaining his Brother than he had done Yet the other being a Popular Notion that it was against Nature for one Brother to destroy another was more easily entertain'd by the Multitude who could not penetrate into the Mysteries of State But the way of Proceeding was much condemned since to attaint a Man without bringing him to make his own defence or to object what he could say to the Witnesses that were brought against him was so illegal and unjust that it could not be defended Only this was to be said for it that it was a little more regular than Parliamentary Attainders had been formerly for here the Evidence upon which it was founded was given before both Houses And on Cranmers signing the Warrant for his Execution One Particular seemed a little odd that Cranmer Signed the Warrant for his Execution which being in a Cause of Blood was contrary to the Canon Law In the Primitive Times Church-men had only the Cure of Souls lying on them together with the reconciling of such differences as might otherwise end in Suits of Law before the Civil Courts which were made up of Infidels When the Empire became Christian these Judgments which they gave originally on so charitable an account were by the Imperial Laws made to have great Authority but further than these or the care of Widows and Orphans they were forbid both by the Council of Chalcedon and other lesser Councils to meddle in Secular Matters Among the Endowments made to some Churches there were Lands given where the Slaves according to the Roman Law came within the Patrimony of these Churches and by that Law Masters had Power of Life and Death over their Slaves Laws against Church-mens medling in Matters of Blood In some Churches this Power had been severely exercised even to maiming and death which seemed very indecent in a Church-man Besides there was an Apprehension that some severe Church-men who were but Masters for life might be more profuse of the Lives of such Slaves than those that were to transmit them to their Families Therefore to prevent the wast that would be made in the Churches Patrimony it was agreed on that Church-men should not proceed capitally against any of their Vassals or Slaves And in the Confusions that were in Spain the Princes that prevailed had appointed Priests to be Judges to give the greater reputation to their Courts This being found much to the prejudice of the Church it was decreed in the fourth Council of Toledo that Priests who were chosen by Christ to the Ministry of Salvation should not judge in Capital Matters unless the Prince should swear to them that he would remit the punishment and such as did otherwise were held guilty of Blood-shedding and were to
what the Popes had sacrilegiously taken from them And now that we are upon the utter extirpation of Popery let us not retain this Relique of it And I pray God to inspire and direct His Majesty and His two Houses of Parliament effectually to remove this just and for ought I know only great scandal of our English Reformation A fifth Prejudice which seems to give ill impressions of our Reformation is that the Clergy have now no interest in the Consciences of the People nor any inspection into their manners but they are without yoke or restraint All the Ancient Canons for the publick Pennance of scandalous offenders are laid aside and our Clergy are so little admitted to know or direct the Lives and Manners of their Flocks that many will scarce bear a reproof patiently from them Our Ecclesiastical Courts are not in the Hands of the Bishops and their Clergy but put over to the Civilians where too often Fees are more strictly look'd after than the correction of Manners I hope there is not cause for so great a Cry but so it is these Courts are much complained of and publick vice and scandal is but little enquired after or punished Excommunication is become a kind of Secular Sentence and is hardly now considered as a Spiritual Censure being judged and given out by Lay-men and often upon Grounds which to speak moderately do not merit so severe and dreadful a Sentence There are besides this a great many other Abuses brought in in the worst Times and now purged out of some of the Churches of the Roman Communion which yet continue and are too much in use among us such as Pluralities Non-residencies and other things of that nature so that it may be said that some of the manifest corruptions of Popery where they are recommended by the advantages that accompany them are not yet throughly purged out notwithstanding all the noise we have made about Reformation in matters much more disputable and of far less consequence This whole Objection when all acknowledged as the greatest part of it cannot be denied amounts indeed to this that our Reformation is not yet arrived at that full perfection that is to be desired The want of publick Pennance and Penitentiary Canons is indeed a very great defect our Church does not deny it but acknowledges it in the Preface to the Office of Commination It was one of the greatest Glories of the Primitive Church that they were so governed that none of their number could sin openly without publick Censure and a long separation from the Holy Communion which they judged was defiled by a promiscuous admitting of all Persons to it Had they consulted the Arts of Policy they would not have held in Converts by so strict a way of proceeding lest their discontent might have driven them away at a time when to be a Christian was attended with so many discouragements that it might seem dangerous by so severe a Discipline to frighten the World out of their Communion But the Pastors of that time resolved to follow the Rules delivered them by the Apostles and trusted God with the success which answered and exceeded all their expectations for nothing convinced the World more of the truth of that Religion than to see those trusted with the care of Souls watch so effectually over their Manners that for some sins which in these loose Ages in which we live pass but for common effects of humane frailty Men were made to abstain from the Communion for many years and did cheerfully submit to such Rules as might be truly medicinal for curing those Diseases in their Minds But alas the Church-men of the latter Ages being once vested with this Authority to which the World submitted as long as it saw the good effects of it did soon learn to abuse it and to bring the People to a blind subjection to them It was one of the chief Arts by which the Papacy swelled to its height for Confessors in stead of bringing their Penitents to open Penance set up other things in the room of it pretending they could commute it and in the Name of God accept of one thing for another and they accepted of a Penitents going either to the Holy War or which was more Holy of the two to one of the Popes Wars against Hereticks or deposed Princes and gave full Pardons to those who thus engaged in their designs Afterwards when the Pope had no great occasion to kill Men or the People no great mind to be killed in his Service they accepted of Money as an Alms to God and so all publick Penance was laid down and Murder or Merchandise was set up in its room This being the state of things at the Keformation it is no wonder if the People could not be easily brought to submit to publick Pennance which had been for some Ages entirely laid aside and there was reason why they should not be forward to come under the Yoke of their Priests lest they should have raised upon that Foundation such a Tyrannical Dominion over them as others had formerly exercised This made some Reformed Churches beyond Sea bring in the Laity with them into their Courts which if they had done meerly as a good Expedient for removing the jealousie which the World then had of Ecclesiastical Tyranny there was no great Objection to have been made to it but they made the thing liable to very great exception when they pretended a Divine Institution for those Lay-Elders Here in England it is plain the Nation would not bear such Authority to be lodged with the Clergy at first but it will appear in the following Work that a Platform was made of an Ecclesiastical Discipline though the Bishops had no hope of reducing it into practise till the King should come to be of Age and pass a Law for the authorizing of it but he dying before this was effected it was not prosecuted with that zeal that the thing required in Queen Elizabeths time and then those who in their Exile were taken with the Models beyond Seas contending more to get it put in the method of other Churches than to have it set up in any other Form that contention begat such heat that it took Men off from this and many other excellent designs and whereas the Presbyters were found to have had anciently a share in the Government of the Churches as the Bishops Council and Assistants some of them that were of hot tempers demanding more than their share they were by the immoderate use of the Counterpoise kept out of any part of Ecclesiastical Discipline and all went into those Courts commonly called the Spiritual Courts without making distinction between those Causes of Testaments Marriages and such other sutes that require some learning in the Civil and Canon Law and the other Causes of the Censures of the Clergy and Laity which are of a more Spiritual Nature and ought indeed to be tried only by the Bishops and Clergy
condemn the Clergy Those in the City charge the Country and the Country complains of the City every one finds out somewhat wherein he thinks he is least concerned and is willing to fix on that all the Indignation of Heaven which God knows we our selves have kindled against our selves It cannot be denied since it is so visible that universally the whole Nation is corrupted and that the Gospel has not had those effects among us which might have been expected after so long and so free a course as it has had in this Island Our wise and worthy Progenitors reformed our Doctrine and Worship but we have not reformed our Lives and Manners what will it avail us to understand the right Methods of worshiping God if we are without true Devotion and coldly perform publick Offices without sense and affection which is as bad as a Bead-roll of Prayers in what ever Language they be pronounced What signifies our having the Sacraments purely administred among us if we either contemptuously neglect them or irreverently handle them more perhaps in compliance with Law than out of a sense of the Holy Duties incumbent on us for what end are the Scriptures put in our hands if we do not read them with great attention and order our lives according to them and what does all preaching signifie if Men go to Church meerly for Form and hear Sermons only as set Discourses which they will censure or commend as they think they see cause but are resolved never to be the better for them If to all these sad Considerations we add the gross sensuality and impurity that is so avowedly practised that it is become a fashion so far it is from being a reproach the oppression injustice intemperance and many other immoralities among us what can be expected but that these abominations receiving the highest aggravation they are capable of from the clear light of the Gospel which we have so long enjoyed the just Judgments of Heaven should fall on us so signally as to make us a reproach to all our Neighbours But as if all this were not enough to fill up the measure of our iniquities many have arriv'd at a new pitch of Impiety by defying Heaven it self with their avowed Blasphemies and Atheism and if they are driven out of their Atheistical Tenets which are indeed the most ridiculous of any in the World they set up their rest on some general Notions of Morality and Natural Religion and do boldly reject all that is revealed and where they dare vent it alas where dare they not do it they reject Christianity and the Scriptures with open and impudent scorn and are absolutely insensible of any obligation of Conscience in any thing whatsoever and even in that Morality which they for decencies sake magnifie so much none are more bare-facedly and grosly faulty This is a direct attempt against God himself and can we think that he will not visit for such things nor be avenged on such a Nation And yet the hypocrisie of those who disguise their flagitious Lives with a Mask of Religion is perhaps a degree above all though not so scandalous till the Mask falls off and that they appear to be what they truly are When we are all so guilty and when we are so allarumed by the black Clouds that threaten such terrible and lasting Storms what may be expected but that we should be generally struck with a deep sense of our crying sins and turn to God with our whole Souls But if after all the loud awakenings from Heaven we will not hearken to that Voice but will still go on in our sins we may justly look for unheard-of Calamities and such miseries as shall be proportioned to our offences and then we are sure they will be great and wonderful Yet if on the other hand there were a general turning to God or at least if so many were rightly sensible of this as according to the proportion that the Mercies of God allow did some way ballance the wickedness of the rest and if these were as zealous in the true methods of imploring Gods favour as others are in procuring his displeasure and were not only mourning for their own sins but for the sins of others the Prayers and Sighs of many such might dissipate that dismal Cloud which our sins have gathered and we might yet hope to see the Gospel take root among us since that God who is the Author of it is merciful and full of compassion and ready to forgive and this holy Religion which by his Grace is planted among us is still so dear to him that if we by our own unworthiness do not render our selves incapable of so great a Blessing we may reasonably hope that he will continue that which at first was by so many happy concurring Providences brought in and was by a continued Series of the same indulgent care advanc'd by degrees and at last raised to that pitch of perfection which few things attain in this World But this will best appear in the ensuing History from which I fear I may have too long detained the Reader 10. September 1680. THE CONTENTS OF THIS VOLUME BOOK I. OF the Life and Reign of King Edward the Sixth Pag. 1. BOOK II. Of the Life and Reign of Queen Mary Page 233. BOOK III. Of the Settlement of the Reformation in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign Page 373. COLLECTION OF RECORDS King Edwards Journal and Remains Page 1. Ad Librum Primum Page 89. Ad Librum Secundum Page 239. Ad Librum Tertium Page 327. An APPENDIX concerning the Errors and Falshoods in Sanders's Book of the English Schism Page 383. ERRATA PAge 10. Line 22. usual r. unusual p. 20. l. 15. levy Taxes hand r. heavy Taxes laid p. 36. l. 47. after it r. did p. 31. l. 31. dele of p. 40. Marg. l. 7. after In r. Cor. p. 82. l. 43. dele the Marginal Note Ibid. l. ult run used to r. used to run p. 94. l. 38. for in r. the. p. 136. l. 20. for when r. where l. 41. ad Marg. r. Collection Numb 42. so the Numbers 42 43 44 45. are for Numb 43 44 45 46. p. 155. Alesse r. Alesse p. 166. l. 20. Pactors r. Pastors p. 205. Marg. 23. r. 3. p. 219. l. 44. for John r. Richard p. 220. l. 7. the same error p. 237. l. 42. Suffolk r. Sussex p. 249. l. 21 Ring r. King p. 252. l. 1. Sanders r. Sandy p. 253. l. penult no r. on p. 283 284 285 286. r. 267 268 269 270. p. 273. Marg. deserve r. severe p. 274. Marg. dele two p. 275. l. ult Wales r. Wells p. 277. l. 28. racked r. raked p. 304. Marg. considered r. censured p. 305. l. ult dele be p. 307. l. 44. before where r. Fathers house l. 49. dele Fathers house p. 319. Marg. Numb 24. r. 23. the error in the Number continues to the end of the Book p. 320 l. 16. before that r. few l.
down on the 13th of December But both these Bills were put in one and sent up by the Commons on the 20th of that Month and assented to by the King By this Act it was set forth That the way of choosing Bishops by Conge d'Eslire was tedious and expenceful that there was only a shadow of Election in it and that therefore Bishops should thereafter be made by the Kings Letters Patents upon which they were to be consecrated And whereas the Bishops did exercise their Authority and carry on Processes in their own Names as they were wont to do in the time of Popery and since all Jurisdiction both Spiritual and Temporal was derived from the King that therefore their Courts and all Processes should be from henceforth carried on in the Kings Name and be sealed by the Kings Seal as it was in the other Courts of Common-Law after the first of July next excepting only the Arch-bishop of Canterbury's Courts and all Collations Presentations or Letters of Orders which were to pass under the Bishops proper Seals as formerly Upon this Act great advantages were taken to disparage the Reformation as subjecting the Bishops wholly to the pleasure of the Court. At first The ancient ways of electing Bishops Bishops were chosen and ordained by the other Bishops in the Countries where they lived The Apostles by that Spirit of discerning which was one of the extraordinary gifts they were endued with did ordain the first Fruits of their Labours and never left the Election of Pastors to the discretion of the People Indeed when they were to ordain Deacons who were to be trusted with the distribution of the publick Alms they appointed such as the People made choice of but when St. Paul gave directions to Timothy and Titus about the choice of Pastors all that depended on the People by them was that they should be blameless and of good report But afterwards the poverty of the Church being such that Church-men lived only by the free bounty of the People it was necessary to consider them much so that in many Places the choice began among the People and in all Places it was done by their approbation and good liking But great disorders followed upon this as soon as by the Emperors turning Christians the Wealth of Church-benefices made the Pastoral Charge more desirable and the vast numbers of those who turned Christians with the Tide brought in great Multitudes to have their Votes in these Elections The inconvenience of this was felt early in Phrygia where the Council of Laodicea made a Canon against these Popular Elections Yet in other parts of Asia and at Rome there were great and often Contests about it In some of these many Men were killed In many Places the inferior Clergy chose their Bishops But in most Places the Bishops of the Province made the choice yet so as to obtain the consent of the Clergy and People The Emperors by their Laws made it necessary that it should be confirmed by the Metropolitans They reserved the Elections of the great Sees to themselves or at least the Confirmation of them Thus it continued till Charles the Great 's time But then the nature of Church-employments came to be much altered For though the Church had Predial Lands with the other Rights that belonged to them by the Roman Law yet he first gave Bishops and Abbots great Territories with some branches of Royal Jurisdiction in them who held these Lands of him according to the Fewdal Laws This as it carried Church-men off from the humility and abstraction from the World which became their Function so it subjected them much to the Humours and Interests of those Princes on whom they had their dependance The Popes who had made themselves Heads of the Hierarchy could not but be glad to see Church-men grow rich and powerful in the World but they were not so well pleased to see them made so much the more dependent on their Princes and no doubt by some of those Princes that were thus become Patrons of Churches the Bishopricks were either given for Money or charged with reserved Pensions Upon this the Popes filled the World with the complaints of Simony and of enslaving Church-men to court Interests and so would not suffer them to accept of Investitures from their Princes but set up for free Elections as they called them which they said were to be confirmed by the See-Apostolick So the Canons Secular or Regular in Cathedral Churches were to choose the Bishops and their Election was to be confirmed at Rome yet Princes in most Places got some hold of those Elections so that still they went as they had a mind they should Which was oft complained of as a great slavery on the Church and would have been more universally condemned if the World had not been convinced that the matter would not be much the better if there should have been set up either the Popular or Synodical Elections in which Faction was like to sway all King Henry had continued the old way of the Elections by the Clergy but so as that it seemed to be little more than a mockery but now it was thought a more ingenuous way of proceeding to have the thing done directly by the King rather than under the thin covert of an involuntary Election For the other Branch about Ecclesiastical Courts The Causes before them concerning Wills and Marriages being matters of a mixed nature and which only belong to these by the Laws of the Land and being no parts of the Sacred Functions it was thought no Invasion of the Sacred Offices to have these tried in the Kings Name But the Collation of Benefices and giving of Orders which are the chief parts of the Episcopal Function were to be performed still by the Bishops in their own Names Only Excommunication by a fatal neglect continued to be the punishment for contempts of these Courts which belonging only to the Spiritual Cognisance ought to have been reserved for the Bishop with the assistance of his Clergy But the Canonists had so confounded all the Ancient Rules about the Government of the Church that the Reformers being called away by Considerations that were more obvious and pressing there was not that care taken in this that the thing required And these errors or oversights in the first concoction have by a continuance grown since into so formed a strength that it is easier to see what is amiss than to know how to rectifie it On the 29th of November the Bill against Vagabonds was brought in An Act against Vagabonds By this it was Enacted That all that should any where loiter without work or without offering themselves to work three days together or that should run away from work and resolve to live idly should be seized on and whosoever should present them to a Justice of Peace was to have them adjudged to be his Slaves for two years and they were to be marked with the Letter V. imprinted
examine that matter They or any two of them had full power by this Commission to suspend imprison or deprive him as they should see cause They were to proceed in the Summary way called in their Courts De plano On the 10th of September Bonner was summoned to appear before them at Lambeth He is proceeded against As he came into the place where they sate he carried himself as if he had not seen them till one pulled him by the sleeve to put off his Cap to the Kings Commissioners upon which he protested he had not seen them which none of them could believe He spake slightingly to them of the whole matter and turned the discourse off to the Mass which he wished were had in more reverence When the Witnesses were brought against him Regist Bonner he jeered them very undecently and said the one talked like a Goose and the other like a Woodcock and denied all they said The Arch-bishop asked him whether he would refer the matter in proof to the People that heard him and so asked whether any there present had heard him speak of the Kings Authority when under Age His insolent behaviour Many answered No No. Bonner looked about and laughed saying Will you believe this fond People Some he called Dunces and others Fools and behaved himself more like a Mad-man than a Bishop The next day he was again brought before them Then the Commission was read The Arch-bishop opened the Matter and desired Bonner to answer for himself He read a Protestation which he had prepared setting forth that since he had not seen the Commission he reserved to himself power to except either to his Judges or to any other Branch of the Commission as he should afterwards see cause In this he called it a pretended Commission and them pretended Judges which was taxed as irreverent but he excused it alledging that these were terms of Law which he must use and so not be precluded from any Objections he might afterwards make use of The Bill of Complaint was next read and the two Informers appeared with their Witnesses to make it good But Bonner objected against them that they were notorious Hereticks and that the ill Will they bore him was because he had asserted the true Presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar that Hooper in particular had in his Sermon that very day on which he had preached denied it and had refuted and mis-recited his Sayings like an Asse as he was an Asse indeed so ill did he govern his Tongue Upon this Cranmer asked him whether he thought Christ was in the Sacrament with Face Mouth Eyes Nose and the other Lineaments of his Body and there passed some words between them on that Head but Cranmer told him that was not a time and place to dispute they were come to execute the Kings Commission So Bonner desired to see both it and the denunciation which were given him and the Court adjourned till the 13th Secretary Smith sate with them at their next Meeting which he had not done the former day though his Name was in the Commission Upon this Bonner protested that according to the Canon Law none could act in a Commission but those who were present the first day in which it was read But to this it was alledged that the constant practice of the Kingdom had been to the contrary that all whose Names were in any Commission might sit and judge though they had not been present at the first opening of it This Protestation being rejected he read his Answer in writing to the Accusation He first objected to his Accusers His Defences that they were Hereticks in the matter of the Sacrament and so were according to the Laws of the Catholick Church under Excommunication and therefore ought not to be admitted into any Christian Company Then he denied that the Injunctions given to him had been signed either with the Kings Hand or Signet or by any of his Council But upon the whole matter he said he had in his Sermon condemned the late Rebellion in Cornwall Devon-shire and Norfolk and had set forth the Sin of Rebellion according to several Texts of Scripture He had also preached for obedience to the Kings Commands and that no Ceremonies that were contrary to them ought to be used in particular he had exhorted the People to come to Prayers and to the Communion as it was appointed by the King and wondered to see them so slack in coming to it which he believed flowed from a false opinion they had of it And therefore he taught according to that which he conceived to be the duty of a faithful Pastor the true Presence of Christs Body and Blood in the Sacrament which was the true Motive of his Accusers in their prosecuting him thus But though he had forgot to speak of the Kings Power under Age yet he had said that which necessarily inferred it for he had condemned the late Rebels for rising against their lawful King and had applied many Texts of Scripture to them which clearly implied that the Kings Power was then entire otherwise they could not be Rebels These are rejected But to all this it was answered That it was of no great consequence who were the Informers if the Witnesses were such that he could not except against them besides they were impow'red by their Commission to proceed ex Officio so that it was not necessary for them to have any to accuse He was told that the Injunctions were read to him in Council by one of the Secretaries and then were given to him by the Protector himself that afterwards they were called for and that Article concerning the Kings Power before he came to be of Age being added they were given him again by Secretary Smith and he promised to execute them He was also told that it was no just excuse for him to say he had forgot that about the Kings Power since it was the chief thing pretended by the late Rebels and was mainly intended by the Council in their Injunctions so that it was a poor shift for him to pretend he had forgot it or had spoken of it by a consequence The Court adjourned to the 16th day And then Latimer and Hooper offered to purge themselves of the Charge of Heresie since they had never spoken nor written of the Sacrament but according to the Scripture and whereas Bonner had charged them that on the first of September they had entred into consultation and confederacy against him they protested they had not seen each other that day nor been known to one another till some days after Bonner upon this read some Passages of the Sacrament out of a Book of Hoopers whom he called that Varlet But Cranmer cut off the discourse and said it was not their business to determine that Point and said to the People that the Bishop of London was not accused for any thing he had said about the Sacrament Then
the Girl whom he maintained among the Nuns was an English-man's Daughter to whom he had assigned an allowance Caraffa prevailed little and the next night the number was compleat so that the Cardinals came to adore him and make him Pope but he receiving that with his usual coldness said it was night and God loved light better than darkness therefore he desired to delay it till day came The Italians who what ever Judges they may be about the qualifications of such a Pope as is necessary for their Affairs understood not this temper of mind which in better times would have recommended one with the highest advantages shrunk all from him and after some intrigues usual on such occasions chose the Cardinal de Monte afterwards Pope Julius the third who gave a strange Omen of what advancements he intended to make when he gave his own Hat according to the custom of the Popes who bestow their Hats before they go out of the Conclave on a mean Servant of his who had the charge of a Monkey that he kept and being asked what he observed in him to make him a Cardinal he answered as much as the Cardinals had seen in him to make him Pope But it was commonly said that the secret of this Promotion was an unnatural affection to him Upon this occasion I shall refer the Reader to a Letter which I have put in the Collection Collection Number 47. written by Cardinal Woolsey upon the death of Pope Adrian the sixth to get himself chosen Pope it sets out so naturally the Intrigues of that Court on such occasions that though it belongs to the former Volume yet having fallen upon it since I published it I thought it would be no unacceptable thing to insert in this Volume though it does not belong to it It will demonstrate how likely it is that a Bishop chosen by such Arts should be the infallible Judge of Controversies and the Head of the Church And now to return to England A Treaty between the English and French it was resolved to send Ambassadors to France who were the Lord Russel Paget now made a Lord Secretary Petre and Sir John Mason Their Instructions will be found in the Collection The Substance of them was they were not to stick about the Place of Treaty Collection Number 48. Instructions given to the English Ambassadors but to have it at Calais or Bulloigne if it might be they were to agree to the delivery up of Bulloigne but to demand that the Scotch Queen should be sent back for perfecting the Marriage formerly agreed on That the Fortifications of Newhaven and Blackness should be ruinated That the perpetual Pension agreed to King Henry should still be payed together with all Arrears that were due before the Wars they were only to insist on the last if they saw the former could not be obtained They were to agree the time and manner of the delivery of Bulloigne to be as honourable as might be For Scotland they being also in War with the Emperor the King of England could not make Peace with them unless the Emperor his Ally who had made War on them upon his account were also satisfied All Places there were to be offered up except Roxburgh and Aymouth If the French spoke any thing of the Kings marrying their Kings Daughter Elizabeth they were to put it off since the King was yet so young They were also at first to agree to no more but a Cessation So they went over on the 21st of January the French Commissioners appointed to treat with them were Rochpot Chastilion Mortier and de Sany who desired the Meeting might be near Bulloigne though the English endeavoured to have brought it to Guisnes Upon the English laying out their Demands the French answered them roundly that for delivering up the Queen of Scots they would not treat about it nor about a perpetual Pension since as the King was resolved to marry the Scotch Queen to the Dolphin so he would give no perpetual Pension which was in effect to become a tributary Prince but for a Sum of Money they were ready to treat about it As to Scotland they demanded that all the Places that had been taken should be restored as well as Roxburgh and Aymouth as Lauder and Dunglasse The latter two were soon yielded to but the Commissioners were limited as to the former There was also some discourse of razing the Fortifications of Alderney and Sark two small Islands in the Channel that belonged to England the latter was in the Hands of the French who were willing to yield it up so the Fortifications both in it and Alderny were razed Upon this there were second Instructions sent over from the Council which are in the Collection that they should so far insist on the keeping of Roxburgh Collection Number 49. and Aymouth as to break up their Conference upon it but if that did not work on the French they should yield it rather than give over the Treaty They were also instructed to require Hostages from the French till the Money were all payed and to offer Hostages on the part of England till Bulloigne was delivered and to struggle in the matter of the Isles all they could but not to break about it Between the giving the first and second Instructions the Lord St. John was created Earl of Wilt-shire as appears by his Subscriptions The Commissioners finished their Treaty about the end of February Articles of the Treaty on these Articles On condition that all Claims of either side should be reserved as they were at the beginning of the War This was a temper between the English demand of all the Arrears of King Henry's Pension and the French denial of it for thus the King reserved all the right he had before the War Bulloigne was to be delivered within six Months with all the Places about it and the Ordnance except what the English had and was to have 1000 l. a year of the Rents of the Bishoprick and for his further Supply was dispensed with to hold a Prebendary of Canterbury and Westminster It was thought needless to have two Bishopricks so near one another and some gaping after the Lands of both procured this Union But I do not see any reason to think that at any time in this Reign the suppression of the Deanries and Prebends in Cathedrals was designed For neither in the suppression of the Bishopricks of Westminster Glocester or Duresme was there any attempt made to put down the Deanries or Prebendaries in these Places so that I look on this as a groundless conceit among many others that pass concerning this Reign For Thirleby of Westminster there was no cause given to throw him out for he obeyed all the Laws and Injunctions when they came out though he generally opposed them when they were making So to make way for him William Reps the Bishop of Norwich was prevailed with to resign and he was promoted
of Marriage But all separation from Bed and Board except during a Trial was to be taken away The 11th was about Admission to Ecclesiastical Benefices Patrons were to consider the choice of the Person was trusted to them but was not to be abused to any sacrilegious or base ends if they did otherwise they were to lose their right for that time Benefices were not to be given or promised before they were void nor let lie destitute above six Months otherwise they were to devolve to the Bishop Clergy-men before their Ordination were to be examined by the Arch-deacons with such other Triers as the Bishop should appoint to be assistant to them and the Bishop himself was to try them since this was one of the chief things upon which the happiness of the Church depended The Candidate was to give an Oath to answer sincerely upon which he was to be examined about his Doctrine chiefly of the whole Points of the Catechisme if he understood them aright and what knowledge he had of the Scriptures they were to search him well whether he held Heretical Opinions None was to be admitted to more Cures than one and all Priviledges for Pluralities were for ever to cease nor was any to be absent from his Cure except for a time and a just cause of which he was to satisfie his Ordinary The Bishops were to take great care to allow no absence longer than was necessary every one was to enter upon his Cure within two Months after he was Instituted by the Bishop Prebendaries who had no particular Cure were to preach in the Churches adjacent to them Bastards might not be admitted to Orders unless they had eminent Qualities But the Bastards of Patrons were upon no account to be received if presented by them Other bodily defects unless such as did much disable them or made them very contemptible were not to be a barr to any Beside the Sponsions in the Office of Ordination they were to swear that they had made no agreement to obtain the Benefice to which they were presented and that if they come to know of any made by others on their account they should signifie it to the Bishop and that they should not do any thing to the prejudice of their Church The 12th and 13th were about the renouncing or changing of Benefices The 14th was about purgation upon common fame or when one was accused for any crime which was proved incompleatly and only by presumptions The Ecclesiastical Courts might not re-examine any thing that was proved in any Civil Court but upon a high scandal a Bishop might require a Man to purge himself otherwise to separate him from Holy things The Form of a Purgation was to swear himself innocent and he was also to have four Compurgators of his own Rank who were to swear that they believed he swore true upon which the Judge was to restore him to his Fame Any that were under suspicion of a Crime might by the Judge be required to avoid all the occasions from which the suspition had risen But all superstitious Purgations were to be rejected The 15th 16th 17th and 18th were about Dilapidations the Letting of the Goods of the Church the confirming the former Rules of Election in Cathedrals or Colledges and the Collation of Benefices And there was to be a Purgation of Simony as there should be occasion for it The 19th was about Divine Offices In the Mornings on Holy-days the Common-Prayer was to be used with the Communion-Service joyned to it In Cathedrals there was to be Communion every Sunday and Holy-day where the Bishop the Dean and the Prebendaries and all maintained by that Church were to be present There was no Sermon to be in Cathedrals in the Morning lest that might draw any from the Parish Churches but only in the Afternoons In the Anthems all Figured Musick by which the Hearers could not understand what they sung was to be taken away In Parish Churches there were only to be Sermons in the Morning but none in the Afternoon except in great Parishes All who were to receive the Sacrament were to come the day before and inform the Minister of it who was to examine their Consciences and their Belief On Holy-days in the Afternoon the Catechism was to be explained for an hour After the Evening-Prayers the Poor were to be looked to and such as had given open scandal were to be examined and publick Penitence was to be enjoyned them and the Minister with some of the Ancients of the Parish were to commune together about the state of the People in it that if any carried themselves indecently they might be first charitably admonished and if that did not prevail subjected to severer Censures but none were to be excommunicated without the Bishop were first informed and had consented to it Divine Offices were not to be performed in Chappels or private Houses lest the Churches should under that pretence be neglected and Errors more easily disseminated excepting only the Houses of Peers and Persons of great Quality who had numerous Families but in these all things were to be done according to the Book of Common-Prayer The 20th was about those that bore Office in the Church Sextons Church-wardens Deacons Priests and Rural Deans This last was to be a Yearly Office he that was named to it by the Bishop being to watch over the manners of the Clergy and People in his Precinct was to signifie the Bishops pleasure to them and to give the Bishop an account of his Precinct every sixth Month. The Arch-deacons were to be general Visitors over the Rural Deans In every Cathedral one of the Prebendaries or one procured by them was thrice a week to expound some part of the Scriptures The Bishops were to be over all and to remember that their Authority was given to them for that end that many might be brought to Christ and that such as had gone astray might be restored by Repentance To the Bishop all were to give obedience according to the Word of God The Bishop was to preach often in his Church was to Ordain none for Rewards or rashly was to provide good Pastors and to deprive bad ones he was to visit his Diocess every third year or oftener as he saw cause but then he was to do it at his own charge he was to have yearly Synods and to confirm such as were well instructed His Family was to consist of Clergy-men whom he should bring up to the Service of the Church so was St. Austins and other Ancient Bishops Families constituted This being a great means to supply the great want of good and faithful Ministers Their Wives and Children were also to avoid all levity or vain dressing They were never to be absent from their Diocesses but upon a publick and urgent cause and when then grew sick or infirm they were to have Coadjutors If they became scandalous or heretical they were to be deprived by the Kings Authority The Arch-bishops
afraid of burdening her Conscience by assuming that which belonged to them and that she was unwilling to enrich her self by the spoils of others But they told her all that had been done was according to the Law to which all the Judges and Counsellors had set their Hands This joined with their Persuasions and the Importunities of her Husband who had more of his Fathers temper than of her Philosophy in him at length prevailed with her to submit to it Of which her Father-in-Law did afterwards say in Council She was rather by enticement of the Counsellors and force made to accept of the Crown then came to it by her own seeking and request Upon this order was given for proclaiming her Queen the next day And an Answer was writ to Queen Mary signed by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Lord Chancellor the Dukes of Suffolk and Northumberland the Marquesses of Winchester and Northampton the Earls of Arundel Shrewsbury Huntington Bedford and Pembrook the Lords Cobham and Darcy Sir Thomas Cheyney Sir Robert Cotton Sir William Petre Sir William Cecil Sir John Cheek Sir John Mason Sir Edward North and Sir Robert Bowes in all one and twenty Council writes to Q. Mary letting her know That Queen Jane was now their Soveraign according to the Ancient Laws of the Land and the late King's Letters Patents to whom they were now bound by their Allegiance They told her That the Marriage between her Father and Mother was dissolved by the Ecclesiastical Courts according to the Laws of God and of the Land That many noble Universities in Christendom had consented to it That the Sentence had been confirmed in Parliaments and she had been declared illegitimate and uninheritable to the Crown They therefore required her to give over her Pretences and not to disturb the Government and promised that if she shewed her self Obedient she should find them all ready to do her any Service which in Duty they could The day following they proclaimed Queen Jane Lady Jane proclaimed Queen Collection Number 1. The Proclamation will be found in the Collection It sets forth That the late King had by his Letters Patents limited the Crown that it should not descend to his two Sisters since they were both illegitimated by Sentences in the Spiritual Courts and Acts of Parliament and were only his Sisters by the Half-Blood who though it were granted they had been legitimate are not inheritable by the Law of England It was added That there was also great cause to fear that the King's Sisters might marry Strangers and so change the Laws of the Kingdom and subject it to the Tyranny of the Bishops of Rome and other Forreign Laws For these Reasons they were excluded from the Succession and the Lady Frances Dutchess of Suffolk being next the Crown it was provided that if she had no Sons at the death of the King the Crown should devolve immediately on her eldest Daughter Jane and after her and her Issue to her Sisters since she was born within the Kingdom and already married in it Therefore she was proclaimed Queen promising to be most benign and gracious to all her People to maintain God's Holy Word and the Laws of the Land requiring all the Subjects to obey and acknowledg her When this was proclaimed great multitudes were gathered to hear it but there were very few that shouted with the Acclamations ordinary on such Occasions And whereas a Vintner's Boy did some-way express his scorn at that which was done it was ordered that he should be made an Example the next day by being set on a Pillory and having his Ears nail'd to it and cut off from his Head which was accordingly done a Herauld in his Coat reading to the multitude that was called together by sound of Trumpet the nature of his Offence Censures past upon it Upon this all People were in great distraction The Proclamation opening the new Queen's Title came to be variously descanted on Some who thought the Crown descended by right of Blood and that it could not be limited by Parliament argued that the King having his Power from God it was only to descend in the natural way of Inheritance therefore they thought the next Heir was to succeed And whereas the King 's two Sisters were both by several Sentences and Acts of Parliament declared Bastards and whether that was well judged or not they were to be reputed such as the Law declared them to be so long as it stood in force therefore they held that the Queen of Scotland was to succeed who though she pretended this upon Queen Mary's Death yet did not claim now because by the Papal Law the Sentence against Queen Mary was declared Null Others argued that though a Prince were named by an immediate appointment from Heaven yet he might change the course of Succession as David did preferring Solomon before Adonijah But this it was said did not belong to the King 's of England whose right to the Crown with the extent of their Prerogative did not come from any Divine Designation but from a long Possession and the Laws of the Land and that therefore the King might by Law limit the Succession as well as he and other Kings had in some Points limited the Prerogative which was clearly Sir Thomas More 's Opinion and that therefore the Act of Parliament for the Succession of the King's Sisters was still strong in Law It was also said That if the Kinâ—'â— Sisters were to be excluded for Bastardy all Charles Brandon's Issue were in the same predicament since he was not lawfully married to the French Queen his former Wife Mortimer being then alive and his Marriage with her was never dissolved for though some English Writers say they were divorced yet those who wrote for the Queen of Scots Title in the next Reign denied it But in this the difference was great between them since the King's Sisters were declared Bastards in Law whereas this against Charles Brandon's Issue was only a Surmise Others objected That if the Blood gave an Indefeasible Title How came it that the L. Jane's Mother did not Reign It is true Maud the Empress and Margaret Countess of Richmond were satisfied that their Sons Henry the Second and Henry the Seventh should reign in their Rights but it had never been heard of that a Mother had resigned to her Daughter especially when she was yet under Age. But this was imputed to the Duke of Suffolk's weakness and the Ambition of the Duke of Northumberland That Objection concerning the Half-Blood being a Rule of Common Law in the Families of Subjects to cut off from Step-Mothers the Inclinations and Advantages of destroying their Husbands Children was not thought applicable to the Crown Nor was that of Ones being born out of the Kingdom which was hinted at to exclude the Queen of Scotland thought pertinent to this Case since there was an Exception made in the Law for the King's Children which was thought to
of a Communion In these it may be easily imagined he did every thing with a very lively sorrow since as he had loved the King beyond expression so he could not but look on his Funeral as the Burial of the Reformation and in particular as a step to his own On the 12th of August The Queen declares she will force no Man's Conscience the Queen made an open declaration in Council that although her Conscience was staied in the Matters of Religion yet she was resolved not to compel or strain others otherwise than as God should put into their Hearts a persuasion of that Truth she was in and this she hoped should be done by the opening His Word to them by godly vertuous and learned Preachers Now all the deprived Bishops looked to be quickly placed in their Sees again Bonner went to St. Pauls on the 13th of August being Sunday where Bourn that was his Chaplain preached before him He spake honourably of Bonner with sharp Reflections on the Proceedings against him in the Time of King Edward This did much provoke the whole Audience who as they hated Bonner so could not hear any thing said that seemed to detract from that King A Tumult at Pauls Cross Hereupon there was a great Tumult in the Church some called to pull him down others flung Stones and one threw a Dagger towards the Pulpit with that force that it stuck fast in the timber of it Bourn by stooping saved himself from that danger and Rogers and Bradford two eminent Preachers and of great credit with the People stood up and gently quieted the heat and they to deliver Bourn out of their hands conveyed him from the Pulpit to a House near the Church This was such an Accident as the Papists would have desired for it gave them a colour to proceed more severely and to prohibit Preaching which was the first step they intended to make There was a Message sent to the Lord Mayor to give a strict charge that every Citizen should take care of all that belonged to him and see that they went to their own Parish Church and kept the Peace as also to acquaint them with what the Queen had declared in Council on the 13th of August And on the 18th there was published an Inhibition in the Queen's Name to this effect That she An Inhibition of all preaching considering the great Danger that had come to the Realm by the Differences in Religion did delare for her self that she was of that Religion that she had professed from her Infancy and that she would maintain it during her time and be glad that all her Subjects would charitably receive it Yet she did not intend to compel any of her Subjects to it till publick Order should be taken in it by common Assent requiring all in the mean while not to move Sedition or Unquietness till such Order should be setled and not to use the Names of Papist or Heretick but to live together in Love and in the Fear of God but if any made Assemblies of the People she would take care they should be severely punished and she straitly charged them that none should preach or expound Scripture or print any Books or Plays without her special License And required her Subjects that none of them should presume to punish any on pretence of the late Rebellion but as they should be authorised by her Yet she did not thereby restrain any from informing against such Offenders She would be most sorry to have cause to execute the severity of the Law but she was resolved not to suffer such Rebellious Doings to go unpunished but hoped her Subjects would not drive her to the extream execution of the Laws When this was published which was the first thing that was set out in her Name since she had come to the Crown it was much descanted on Censures pâ—st upon it The Profession she made of her Religion to be the same it had been from her Infancy shewed it was not her Father's Religion but entire Popery that she intended to restore It was also observed that whereas before she had said plainly she would compel none to be of it now that was qualified with this till publick Order should be taken in it which was till they could so frame a Parliament that it should concur with the Queen's Design The equal forbidding of Assemblies or ill Names on both sides was thought intended to be a Trap for the Reformed that they should be punished if they offended but the others were sure to be rather encouraged The restraint of preaching without License was pretended to be copied from what had been done in King Edward's Time Yet then there was a Liberty left for a long time to all to Preach in their own Churches only they might preach no where else without a License And the power of Licensing was also lodged at first with the Bishops in their several Diocesses and at last with the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury as well as with the King whereas now at one stroke all the Pulpits of England that were in the hands of the Reformed were brought under an Interdict for they were sure to obtain no Licenses But the cunningest part of these Inhibitions was the declaring that the Queen would proceed with rigour against all that were guilty of the late Rebellion if they should provoke her many about London had some way or other expressed themselves for it and these were the hottest among the Reformed So that here was a sharp threatning hanging over them if they should express any more Zeal about Religion She requites the Service of the Men of Suffolk ill When this was put out the Queen understanding that in Suffolk those of that Profession took a little more liberty than their Neighbours presuming on their great Merit and the Queen's Promises to them there was a special Letter sent to the Bishop of Norwich's Vicar himself being at Brussels to see to the execution of these Injunctions against any that should preach without License Upon this some came from Suffolk to put the Queen in mind of her Promise This was thought insolent and she returned them no other answer But that they being Members thought to rule her that was their Head but they should learn that the Members ought to obey the Head and not to think to bear Rule over it One of these had spoken of her Promise with more confidence than the rest his Name was Dobbe so he was ordered to stand three days in the Pillory as having said that which tended to the defamation of the Queen And from hence all saw what a severe Government they were to come under in which the claiming of former Promises that had been made by the Queen when she needed their Assistance was to be accounted a Crime But there was yet a more unreasonable Severity shewed to Bradford and Rogers who had appeased the Tumult the Sunday before and rescued the
the loss of things they buy but the most part of true Gentlemen I mean not these Farming Gentlemen nor Clarking Knights have little or nothing increased their Rents yet their House-keeping is dearer their Meat is dearer their Liveries dearer their Wages greater which thing at length if speedy Remedy be not had will bring that State into utter Ruin Quod absit The Artificers work falsly the Clothiers use deceit in Cloth the Masons in Building the Clockmakers in their Clocks the Joiner in his working of Timber and so forth all other almost to the intent they would have Men oftner come to them for amending their Things and so have more Gain although at the beginning they take out of measure The Merchants adventure not to bring in strange Commodities but loiter at home send forth small Hoyes with two or three Mariners occupy exchange of Mony buy and sell Victual steal out Bullion Corn Victual Wood and such-like things out of the Realm and sell their Ware unreasonably The Husbandmen and Farmers take their Ground at a small Rent and dwell not on it but let it to poor Men for triple the Rent they take it for and sell their Flesh Corn Milk Butter c. at unreasonable prices The Gentleman constrained by Necessity and Poverty becometh a Farmer a Grasier or a Sheep-master The Grasier the Farmer the Merchants become Landed-men and call themselves Gentlemen though they be Churls yea the Farmer will have ten Farms some twenty and will be a Pedlar-Merchant The Artificer will leave the Town and for his more Pastimes will live in the Country yea and more than that will be a Justice of Peace and will think scorn to have it denied him so Lordly be they now-a-days for now they are not content with 2000 Sheep but they must have 20000 or else they think themselves not well they must have twenty mile square their own Land or full of their Farms and four or five Crafts to live by is too little such Hell-hounds be they For Idle Persons there were never I think more than be now the Wars Men think is the cause thereof such Persons can do nothing but Rob and Steal but slack execution of the Laws hath been the chiefest sore of all the Laws have been manifestly broken the Offenders banished and either by Bribery or foolish Pity escaped punishment The Dissention and Disagreement both for private Matters and also in Matters of Religion hath been no little cause but the principal hath been the disobedient and contentious talking and doing of the foolish and fond People which for lack of teaching have wandered and broken wilfully and disobediently the Laws of this Realm The Lawyers also and Judges have much offended in Corruption and Bribery Furthermore they do now-a-days much use to forestall not only private Markets of Corn and Victual whereby they enhaunce the price thereof but also send to the Sea too aboard Ships and take the Wine Sugar Dates or any other Ware and bring it to London where they sell at double the price What shall I say of those that buy and sell Offices of Trust that impropriate Benefices that destroy Timber that not considering the sustaining of Men of their Corn turn Till Ground to Pasture that use excess in Apparel in Diet and in building of Inclosures of Wastes and Commons of those that cast false and seditious Bills but that the thing is so tedious long and lamentable to entreat of the Particulars that I am weary to go any further in the Particulars wherefore I will cease having told the worst because the best will save it self Now I will begin to entreat of a Remedy The Ill in this Common-Wealth as I have before said standeth in deceitful working of Artificers using of Exchange and Usury making vent with Hoyes only into Flanders conveying of Bullion Lead Bell-mettle Copper Wood Iron Fish Corn and Cattel beyond Sea inhauncing of Rents using no Arts to live by keeping of many Sheep and many Farms idleness of People disobedience of the lower sort buying and selling of Offices Impropriations Benefices turning Till Ground to Pasture exceeding in Apparel Diet and Building enclosing of Commons casting of ill and seditious Bills These Sores must be cured with these Medicines or Plaisters 1. Good Education 2. Devising of good Laws 3. Executing the Laws justly without respect of Persons 4. Example of Rulers 5. Punishing of Vagabonds and idle Persons 6. Encouraging the Good 7. Ordering well the Customers 8. Engendring Friendship in all parts of the Common-Wealth These be the chief Points that tend to order well the whole Common-Wealth And for the first as it is in order first so it seemeth to be in dignity and degree for Horace saith very wisely Quo est muta recens servabit odorem Testa diu With whatsoever thing the New Vessel is imbued it will long keep the savour saith Horace meaning That for the most part Men be as they be brought up and Men keep longest the favour of their first bringing up Wherefore seeing that it seemeth so necessary a thing We will shew our device herein Youth must be brought up some in Husbandry some in Working Graving Gilding Joining Printing making of Clothes even from their tenderest Age to the intent they may not when they come to Man's Estate loiter as they do now adays and neglect but think their Travail sweet and honest And for this purpose would I wish that Artificers and others were either commanded to bring up their Sons in like Trade or else had some Places appointed them in every good Town where they should be Apprentices and bound to certain kind of Conditions Also that those Vagabonds that take Children and teach them to beg should according to their demerits be worthily punished This shall well ease and remedy the deceitful working of Things disobedience of the lower Sort casting of Seditious Bills and will clearly take away the Idleness of People 2. Devising of good Laws I have shewed my Opinion heretofore what Statutes I think most necessary to be enacted this Sessions nevertheless I would wish that beside them hereafter when time shall serve the superfluous and tedious Statutes were brought into one Sum together and made more plain and short to the intent that Men might the better understand them which thing shall much help to advance the profit of the Common-Wealth 3. Nevertheless when all these Laws be made established and enacted they serve to no purpose except they be fully and duly executed By whom By those that have authority to execute that is to say the Noblemen and the Justices of Peace Wherefore I would wish that after this Parliament were ended those Noblemen except a few that should be with Me went to their Countries and there should see the Statutes fully and duly executed and that those Men should be put from being Justices of Peace that be touched or blotted with those Vices that be against these new Laws to be established for
and ordain to be our Counsellors and of our Council the most Reverend Father in God Thomas Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and our right Trusty and well-beloved William Lord St. John Great Master of our Houshold and President of our Council John Lord Russel Keeper of our Privy-Seal and Our trusty and right well-beloved Cousins William Marquess of Northampton John Earl of Warwick Great Chamberlain of England Henry Earl of Arundel our Lord Chamberlain Thomas Lord Seymour of Sudley High Admiral of England the Reverend Father in God Cuthbert Bishop of Duresm and Our right trusty and well-beloved Richard Lord Rich Sir Thomas Cheyney Knight of our Order and Treasurer of our Houshold Sir John Gage Knight of our Order and Comptroller of our Houshold Sir Anthony Brown Knight of our Order Master of our Horses Sir Anthony Wingfield Knight of our Order our Vicechamberlain Sir William Paget Knight of our Order Our chief Secretary Sir William Petre Knight one of Our two principal Secretaries Sir Ralph Sadler Knight Master of our Great Wardrobe Sir John Baker Kt. Dr. Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York Sir Anthony Denny and Sir William Herbert Kts. Gentlemen of our Privy-Chamber Sir Edward North Kt. Chancellor of our Court of Augmentations and Revenues of our Crown Sir Edward Montague Kt. Chief Justice of our Common-Pleas Sir Edward Wotton Kt. Sir Edmund Pekham Kt. Cofferer of our Houshold Sir Thomas Bromley Kt. one of the Justices for Pleas before us to be holden and Sir Richard Southwell Kt. And furthermore We are contented and pleased and by these Presents do give full Power and Authority to our said Uncle from time to time untill We shall have accomplished and be of the full Age of eighteen Years to call ordain name appoint and swear such and as many other Persons of our Subjects as to him our said Uncle shall seem meet and requisite to be of our Council and that all and every such Person or Persons so by our said Uncle for and during the time aforesaid to be called named ordained appointed and sworn of our Council and to be our Counsellor or Counsellors We do by these Presents name ordain accept and take our Counsellor and Counsellors and of our Council in like manner and form as if he they and every of them were in these Presents by Us appointed named and taken to be of our Council and our Counsellor or Counsellors by express Name or Names And that also of our forenamed Counsellors or of any others which our said Uncle shall hereafter at any time take and chuse to be our Counsellor or Counsellors or of our said Council he our said Uncle shall may and have Authority by these Presents to chuse name appoint use and swear of Privy-Council and to be our Privy-Counsellor or Counsellors such and so many as he from time to time shall think convenient And it is Our further pleasure and also We will and grant by these Presents for Us our Heirs and Successors That whatsoever Cause Matter Deed Thing or Things of what Nature Quality or Condition soever the same be yea though the same require or ought by any Manner Law Statute Proclamation or other Ordinance whatsoever to be specially or by Name expressed or set forth in this Our present Grant or Letters Patents and be not herein expressed or mentioned specially which Our said Uncle or any of our Privy-Counsellor or Counsellors with the Advice Consent or Agreement of Our said Uncle have thought necessary meet expedient decent or in any manner-wise convenient to be devised done or executed during our Minority and until We come to the full Age of eighteen Years for the Surety Honour Profit Health or Education of our Person or for the Surety Honour Profit Weal Benefit or Commodity of any of our Realms Dominions or Subjects and the same have devised done or executed or caused to be devised executed or done at any time since the Death of Our most Noble Father of most famous memory We are contented and pleased and will and grant for Us our Heirs and Successors by these Presents that the same Cause Matter Deed Thing and Things and every of them shall stand remain and be until such time our said Uncle with such and so many of Our foresaid Counsellors as he shall think meet to call unto his assistance shall revoke and annihilate the same good sure stable vailable and effectual to all Intents and Purposes without offence of Us or against Us or of or against any of our Laws Statutes Proclamations or other Ordinances whatsoever and without incurring therefore into any Danger Penalty Forfeit Loss or any other Encumbrance Penalty or Vexation of his or their Bodies Lands Rents Goods or Chattels or of their or of any of their Heirs Executors or Administrators or of any other Person or Persons whatsoever which have done or executed any Cause Matter Deed Thing or Things now or any time since the Death of Our said Father by the Commandment or Ordinance of Our said Uncle or any of our Counsellors with the Advice Consent or Agreement of Our said Uncle And further We are contented and pleased and will and grant for Us our Heirs and Successors by these Presents that whatsoever Cause Matter Deed Thing or Things of what Nature Quality or Condition soever the same be or shall be yea though the same require or ought by any Manner Law Statute Proclamation or other whatsoever Ordinance to be specially and by name expressed and set forth in this our present Grant and Letters Patents and be not herein specially named or expressed which our said Uncle shall at any time during our Minority and until We shall come to the full Age of eighteen Years think necessary meet expedient decent or in any wise convenient to be devised had made executed or done in our Name for the Surety Honour Profit Health or Education of our Person or which our said Uncle with the Advice and Consent of such and so many of our Privy-Council or of our Counsellors as he shall think meet to call unto him from time to time shall at any time until We come unto the full Age of eighteen Years think necessary meet decent expedient or in any-wise convenient to be devised had made executed or done in our Name for the Surety Honour Profit Weal Benefit or Commodity of any of our Realms Dominions or Subjects or any of them he Our said Uncle and Counsellors and every of them and all and every other Person or Persons by his Our said Uncle's Commandment Direction Appointment or Order or by the Commandment Appointment Direction or Order of any of Our said Counsellors so as Our said Uncle agree and be contented to and with the same shall and may do or execute the same without displeasure to Us or any manner of Crime or Offence to be by Us our Heirs or Successors laid or imputed to him Our said Uncle or any Our said Counsellors or any other Person
that the said Clergy according to the Tenour of the King 's Writ and the Ancient Laws and Customs of this Noble Realm might have their Room and Place and be associated with the Commons in the Nether House of this present Parliament as Members of the Common-Wealth and the King 's most humble Subjects And if this may not be permitted and granted unto them that then no Statutes nor Laws concerning the Christian Religion or which shall concern especially the Persons Possessions Rooms Livings Jurisdictions Goods or Chattels of the said Clergy may pass nor be enacted the said Clergy not being made privy thereunto and their Answers and Reasons not heard The said Clergy do most humbly beseech an Answer and Declaration to be made unto them what the said most Reverend Father in God and all other the Bishops have done in this their humble Suit and Request to the end that the said Clergy if need be may chuse of themselves such able and discreet Persons which shall effectually follow the same Suit in the Name of them all And whereas in a Statute ordained and established by Authority of Parliament at Westminster in the 25th Year of the Reign of the most excellent Prince King Henry the 8th The Clergy of this Realm submitting themselves to the King's Highness did knowledg and confess according to the Truth That the Convocations of the same Clergy have been and ought to be assembled by the King 's Writ and did promise farther in Verbo Sacerdotii that they never from thenceforth would presume to attempt alledg claim or put in use or enact promulge or execute any new Canons Constitutions Ordinances Provincials or other or by whatsoever other Name they shall be called in the Convocation unless the King 's most Royal Assent and License may to them be had to make promulge and execute the same And his Majesty to give his most Royal Assent and Authority in that behalf upon pain of every one of the Clergy doing the contrary and being thereof Convict to suffer Imprisonment and make Fine at the King 's Will. And that no Canons Constitutions or Ordinances shall be made or put in execution within this Realm by Authority of the Convocation of the Clergy which shall be repugnant to the King's Prerogative Royal or the Customs Laws or Statutes of this Realm which Statute is eft-soons renewed and established in the 27th Year of the Reign of the most noble King as by the Tenour of both Statutes more at large will appear The said Clergy being presently assembled in Convocation by Authority of the King 's Writ do desire that the King's Majesty's License in writing may be for them obtained and granted according to the effect of the said Statutes authorising them to attempt entreat and commune of such Matters and therein freely to give their Consents which otherwise they may not do upon pain and peril premised Also the said Clergy desireth that such Matters as concerneth Religion which be disputable may be quietly and in good order reasoned and disputed among them in this House whereby the Verities of such Matters shall the better appear and the Doubts being opened and resolutely discussed Men may be fully perswaded with the quietness of their Consciences and the time well spent Number 18. A Paper offered to Q. Elizabeth and afterwards to K. James concerning the Inferior Clergies being brought to the House of Commons Reasons to induce her Majesty that Deans Arch-Deacons and some other of her grave and wise Clergie may be admitted into the Lower House of Parliament 1. IN former Times when Causes Ecclesiastical were either not at all Ex M.S. Dr. Borlace or else very rarely treated of in that Assembly the Clergy were thought Men most meet to consult and determine of the Civil Affairs of this Realm 2. The Supream Authority in Church Causes is not newly granted but reunited and restored to the Crown and an Order is by Law already established how all Abuses in the Church are to be reformed so as no cause concerning Religion may be handled in that House without her Majesty's special leave but with the manifest impeaching of her Prerogative Royal and contempt of the said Order 3. If it shall please her Highness to give way to this Course that Church-Matters be there debated and in part concluded How much more necessary is it now than it was in former Times that some of the Clergy should be there present at the same * In the same Paper written over to be presented to K. James this Article is thus varied It is thought the Clergie falling into a Premunire and so not in the King's Protection it did afterwards please the King to pardon them but not to restore them So began this Separation as far forth as can be collected then the Wisdom of a great Politician meeting with the Ambition of as great a Prelat wrought the continuance of the said Separation under this pretence That it should be most for the Honour of him and his Clergie to be still by themselves in two Assemblies of Convocation answerable in proportion to the two Houses of Parliament There are many other inconsiderable Amendments made by Bishop Ravis 's own hand It doth not appear why they were excluded but as it is thought either the King offended with some of them did so grievously punish the whole Body or else the Ambition of one of them meeting with the subtilty of an undermining Politick did occasion this causeless Separation 5. They are yet to this day called by several Writs directed into their several Diocesses under the Great Seal to assist the Prince in that High Court of Parliament 6. Though the Clergy and the Universities be not the worst Members of this Common-Wealth yet in that respect they are of all other in worst condition for in that Assembly every Shire hath their Knights and every incorporate Town their Burgesses only the Clergy and the Universities are excluded 7. The Wisdom and Justice of this Realm doth intend That no Subject should be bound to that Law whereunto he himself after a sort hath not yielded his Consent but the Clergy and the Universities may now be concluded by Law without their Consent without their just Defence without their Privity 8. The many Motions made so prejudicial to the State and being of the Clergy and Universities followed now with so great eagerness in that House would then be utterly silenced or soon repressed with the sober and sufficient Answers of the Clergy present 9. It would much repair the Reputation and Credit of the Clergy which now is exposed to great contumely and contempt as generally abroad in this Land so particularly in that House And whoso is religious and wise may observe That the Contempt of the Clergy is the high way to Atheism and all Prophaneness Men are Flesh and not Spirit led by ordinary outward Means and not usually overwrought by extraordinary Inspirations and therefore do easily
the poor Man and his Heirs put from their Right which his Majesty wisheth to be considered And albeit he thinketh that the King your Master being under Age cannot himself by the order of the Law conclude upon any thing now in his Minority that shall be of due force and strength able to bind him and his Country when he shall come to his perfect Age. Yet taking that his Tutors being authorised thereto by the common Assent of your Parliament may go through and conclude upon these or like things in his Name his Majesty thinketh it will do well when his Subjects shall be recompenced of the Wrongs they have hitherto sustained that some order be devised for the administration of Justice hereafter in like Cases As touching the Confirmation of the Treaty considering that the same was first made between the Emperor and King Henry the Eighth and not ratified by the King your Master since his Father's Death his Majesty thinketh that he hath most cause to require the same Wherefore because as I told you even now he thinketh that these things the King himself should conclude upon during his Minority cannot be of sufficient force if his Tutors shall be by the Authority of your Parliament enabled thereto his Majesty is content the Treaty be confirmed by them in the King's Name and by the Prince of Spain in such form as shall be thought best for both Parties As to the comprehension of Bulloign ye must know that we have a Treaty with France as well as with you which the Emperor cannot without some touch of his Honour break without just Grounds And albeit his Majesty would be loath to see the King his good Brother forgoe either that Peece or any other Jot of his Right yet can he not enter this Defence unless he would break with France out of hand which in respect of his other Affairs he cannot yet do howbeit he will gladly assist his good Brother in any other thing the best he may and will not fail to shew him all the Pleasure he can with regard to his Honour but with Bulloign he cannot meddle at this time And here he staying Is this the Emperor's resolute and full Answer Monsieur d' Arras quoth I. Yea quoth he wherewith he prayeth the King his good Brother to rest satisfied and take it in good part Albeit quoth I I have no Commission to make any Reply thereto because it was not known to your Grace what the Emperor's Resolution should be yet in the way of talk I will be bold to say my mind herein We have Monsieur d' Arras quoth I always esteemed the Emperor's Friendship and desired the observation of the Treaties and the entertainment of the Amity as a thing necessary and common to both the Parties for the better establishment whereof and that now and in this time some good Fruit to the benefit of both might appear to the World to follow of the same I was sent hither which was the chiefest cause of my coming And because that the Amity between both Princes might be the firmer and that all Doubts being taken away no cause of Quarrel shall be left we thought best to put you in mind of the Confirmation and Revisitation of the Treaty to the intent that by the one the World might see an establishment of our Friendship by our deed and that by the other one of us might understand another and consider whether any thing were to be added for the Commodity of both Parties which I suppose standeth you as much upon to desire as it doth us And whereas ye say that the King's Majesty because he is under Age cannot conclude or go through with any thing that shall be of sufficient force I must needs tell you plainly That ye touch his Majesty's Honour over-near herein for we think that the Majesty of a King is of such efficacy that he hath even the same Authority and full Power at the first hour of his Birth that he hath thirty Years after And what your Laws are I know not but sure I am that by our Laws whatsoever is done by the King in his Minority or by his Ministers in his Name is of no less force and strength than if it had been done in time of his full Age and Years if once the Great Seal of his Realm have passed there is no Remedy but needs must he stand thereto Marry let the Ministers take heed what they do and look that they may be able to discharge themselves towards him of their Doings if he shall require account of them when he cometh to Age for it is they must answer him but he must needs stand to whatsoever they have counselled him to agree unto during his Minority And to prove that our Laws giveth him the same Authority now that he shall have when he cometh to his perfect Age if any Man either for instruction of Learning or any other Cause should presume to lay hands on or touch his Majesty in way of correction he should by Law be taken for a Traitor And if the Matter were as ye take it we should then be in a strange and evil case for neither might we conclude Peace League or Treaty nor make Laws or Statutes during the King's Minority that should be of sufficient force to bind him and his to the observation of the same But ye mistake the Matter much and therefore if the Emperor mind to proceed to this Confirmation he may or otherwise do as it shall please him And as touching my Case quoth I ye must understand I did not move it without some just ground for remembring that all your Commissioners and all ours being together at Vtrecht for the Esclarcisement of the Treaty although the words of the Treaty were plain enough and could receive none other interpretation than was there plainly written yet would ye needs understand the Article for common Enmity in case of Invasion after your own minds And whereas by the words of the Treaty no mention is made of any number and therefore with howsoever few in number the Invasion be made ought the Invaders to be taken for common Enemies Your Commissioners did nevertheless interpret the Matter at their pleasure and would needs prescribe a number of 8000 Men under which number of Invasion were made the Treaties in this case should not stand to any force And like-as ye put a doubt here where none was to be found so thought I ye might do in other things were they never so plain and that moved me to put this case to see whether ye understood this Point as ye ought to do after the literal sense and partly to know your minds therein because perhaps the Matter hath been already in ure This I say was the occasion why I put further this Question and not for any mistrust of the Emperor's Friendship whom I must confess we have always found our Well-willer and so we doubt not he will continue and
therefore I need not grope his mind herein neither did I mean any such thing hereby As to your Answer to the order of Justice I see not that the Emperor hath so much cause to complain of lack of Justice in his Subjects Cases as ye seem to set forth for hitherto there hath not any Man complained in our Country and required Justice unto whom the same hath been denied And although some Man abiding the order of our Law or having had some Sentence that pleased him not hath complained hither of delay or lack of Justice ye must not therefore by and by judg that he saith true or that there is not uprightness or equity used in our Country for we have there as ye have here and else-where Ministers that are wise and well-learned in our Law and Men of honesty and good Conscience who deal and proceed justly as the order of the Law leadeth them without respect to favour or friendship to any Man And as for the Jewellers Case that ye moved ye must understand that as ye have Laws here in your Country for the direction of your Common-Wealth so have we also in ours whereby amongst the rest we do forbid for good respect the bringing in or transporting forth of certain Things without the King 's safe conduct or License And although as ye alleadged before the Treaty giveth liberty to the Subjects of either Prince to traffique into the others Country it is not for all that meant hereby that they shall not be bound to observe the Law and Order of the Country whereunto they Traffique for this liberty is only granted for the security of their Persons to go and come without impeachment and maketh them not for all that Lawless And whereas further it is provided by our Law that in certain things to be granted by the King the same Grant must pass under the Great Seal Then if any of those things pass under any other Seal they be not of due force until they have also passed the Great Seal of England wherefore if the Jeweller either by negligence or covetousness of himself or of those he put in trust did not observe this Order but thereto contrary for sparing a little Cost did presume to bring in his Jewels before his License came to the Great Seal me thinketh neither he nor any other can have just cause to say that he was wronged if according to our Laws he were sentenced to lose the same and yet after he was thus condemned more to gratify the Emperor than for that I took it to be so reasonable I my self was a Suitor to my Lord Protector 's Grace for some Recompence to be made to the Jeweller's Wife whom we knew and none other to be Party for she followed the Suit she presented the Petitions in her Name were they made and finally she and none others was by the Emperor's Ambassador commended unto us I have seen the Sentence quoth he and do mislike nothing so much therein as that the Man is condemned and named to have been present at the time of his Condemnation when indeed he was dead a good while before He was present quoth I in the Person of his Wife who was his Procurator and represented himself and I know that those before whom this Matter passed are Men both Learned and of good Conscience and such as would not have done herein any thing against Right and Order of Law The Sentences that are given in our Country by the Justices and Ministers they are just and true and therefore neither can we nor will we revoke them for any Man's pleasure after they have once passed the Higher Court from whence there is no further appellation no more than you will here call back such final Order as hath been in any case taken by your High Court of Brabant And the cause why we for our part misliked not this order of Justice was for the better establishment of the Amity and to avoid the continual Arrests that are made on our poor Men to the end also that this sort of Suiters might be the sooner dispatched without troubling either my Lord Protector in England or you here when you are busied in other Affairs of more importance And as concerning the Comprehension of Bulloign in good Faith because we thought that if the same should happen to be taken from the King's Majesty by force as I trust it shall not the loss should be common and touch the Emperor almost as near as us We thought good for the better security thereof to move this Comprehension which we take to be as necessary for the Emperor as us And though we are not so wise and well seen in your things as your selves are yet do we look towards you and guess of your Affairs afar off and perhaps do somewhat understand the state of the same whereof I could say more than I now intend But ye say this is the Emperor's Resolution herein We take it as an Answer and shall do accordingly Marry whereas you stick so much upon your Honour in breaking your Treaties with the French I remember Monsieur Granvela your Father at my being with him did not let to say That he had his Sleeve full of Quarrels against the French whensoever the Emperor list to break with them Yea so have we indeed quoth he but the time is not yet come we must temporize our things in this case as the rest of our Affairs lead us Ye say well quoth I ye have reason to regard chiefly the well-guiding of your own things and yet me thinketh some respect ought to be given to Friends But seeing this is your Answer I will reply no more thereto Yet one thing Monsieur d' Arras quoth I I moved to your Father which ye make no mention of and I would gladly know your mind in which is the granting of safe Conducts to the common Enemy which the Treaty by plain and express words forbideth either Prince to do Indeed Monsieur Ambassadeur quoth he the words of the Treaty are as ye say plain enough and yet the Matter were very strait if it should be taken in such extremity for hereafter in time of War ye might happen to have need of Wood Canvas or Wine and we of the like and other necessaries and if in such Cases the Princes should not have Prerogative to grant safe Conducts it shall be a great inconvenience and a thing not hereafter seen howbeit the Emperor for his part will not I think stick much hereupon but observe the plain meaning of the Treaty Nevertheless I cannot say any thing expresly on his behalf herein because Monsieur Granvela spake nothing thereof And yet did we move him of it quoth I and he bad us grant none and the Emperor for his part would not grant any No more hath he done quoth he sithence his coming into this Country nor intendeth not hereafter He needeth not quoth I for those that have been
That against Law he held a Court of Request in his House and did enforce divers to answer there for their Freehold and Goods and did determine of the same 8. That being no Officer without the advice of the Council or most part of them he did dispose Offices of the King's Gift for Mony grant Leases and Wards and Presentations of Benefices pertaining to the King gave Bishopricks and made sales of the King's Lands 9. That he commanded Alchimie and Multiplication to be practised thereby to abase the King's Coin 10. That divers times he openly said That the Nobility and Gentry were the only cause of Dearth whereupon the People rose to reform Matters of themselves 11. That against the mind of the whole Council he caused Proclamation to be made concernig Inclosures whereupon the People made divers Insurrections and destroyed many of the King's Subjects 12. That he sent forth a Commission with Articles annexed concerning Inclosures Commons High-ways Cottages and such-like Matters giving the Commissioners authority to hear and determine those causes whereby the Laws and Statutes of the Realm were subverted and much Rebellion raised 13. That he suffered Rebels to assemble and lie armed in Camp against the Nobility and Gentry of the Realm without speedy repressing of them 14. That he did comfort and encourage divers Rebels by giving them Mony and by promising them Fees Rewards and Services 15. That he caused a Proclamation to be made against Law and in favour of the Rebels that none of them should be vexed or sued by any for their Offences in their Rebellion 16. That in time of Rebellion he said That he liked well the Actions of the Rebels and that the Avarice of Gentlemen gave occasion for the People to rise and that it was better for them to die than to perish for want 17. That he said The Lords of the Parliament were loath to reform Inclosures and other things therefore the People had a good cause to reform them themselves 18. That after declaration of the Defaults of Bulloign and the Pieces there by such as did survey them he would never amend the same 19. That he would not suffer the King's Pieces of Newhaven and Blackness to be furnished with Men and Provision albeit he was advertised of the Defaults and advised thereto by the King's Council whereby the French King was emboldned to attempt upon them 20. That he would neither give Authority nor suffer Noblemen and Gentlemen to suppress Rebels in time convenient but wrote to them to speak the Rebels fair and use them gently 21. That upon the 5th of October the present Year at Hampton-Court for defence of his own private Causes he procured seditious Bills to be written in counterfeit Hands and secretly to be dispersed into divers parts of the Realm beginning thus Good People intending thereby to raise the King's Subjects to Rebellion and open War 22. That the King's Privy-Council did consult at London to come to him and move him to reform his Government but he hearing of their Assembly declared by his Letters in divers places that they were high Traitors to the King 23. That he declared untruly as well to the King as to other young Lords attending his Person That the Lords at London intended to destroy the King and desired the King never to forget but to revenge it and desired the young Lords to put the King in remembrance thereof with intent to make Sedition and Discord between the King and his Nobles 24. That at divers times and places he said The Lords of the Council at London intended to kill me but if I die the King shall die and if they famish me they shall famish him 25. That of his own head he removed the King so suddenly from Hampton-Court to Windsor without any provision there made that he was thereby not only in great fear but cast thereby into a dangerous Disease 26. That by his Letters he caused the King's People to assemble in great numbers in Armour after the manner of War to his Aid and Defence 27. That he caused his Servants and Friends at Hampton-Court and Windsor to be apparelled in the King's Armour when the King's Servants and Guards went unarmed 28. That he intended to fly to Gernsey or Wales and laid Post-horses and Men and a Boat to that purpose Number 47. A Letter written by the Council to the Bishops to assure them That the King intended to go forward in the Reformation By the KING RIght Reverend Father in God Right trusty and well-beloved Regist Cran. Fol. 56. we greet you well Whereas the Book entituled the Book of Common Prayers and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church after the use of the Church of England was agreed upon and set forth by Act of Parliament and by the same Act commanded to be used of all Persons within this our Realm Yet nevertheless we are informed that divers unquiet and evil-disposed Persons sithence the apprehension of the Duke of Somerset have noised and bruited abroad That they should have again their old Latin Service their Conjured Bread and Water with such-like vain and superfluous Ceremonies as though the setting forth of the said Book had been the only Act of the said Duke We therefore by the advice of the Body and State of our Privy-Council not only considering the said Book to be our Act and the Act of the whole State of our Realm assembled together in Parliament but also the same to be grounded upon the Holy Scripture agreeable to the Order of the Primitive Church and much to the re-edifying of our Subjects to put away all such vain expectation of having the Publick Service the Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies again in the Latin Tongue which were but a preferment of Ignorance to Knowledg and Darkness to Light and a preparation to bring in Papistry and Superstition again have thought good by the advice aforesaid to require and nevertheless straitly do command and charge you That immediately upon the receipt hereof you do command the Dean and Prebendaries of your Cathedral Church the Parsons Vicar or Curat and Church-wardens of every Parish within your Diocess to bring and deliver unto you or your Deputy any of them for their Church or Parish at such convenient place as you shall appoint all Antiphonals Missals Graylles Processionals Manuels Legends Pies Portasies Journals and Ordinals after the use of Sarum Lincoln York or any other private use And all other Books of Service the keeping whereof should be a lett to the using of the said Book of Common Prayers and that you take the same Books into your hands or into the hands of your Deputy and them so to deface and abolish that they never after may serve either to any such use as they were provided for or be at any time a lett to that godly and uniform Order which by a common Consent is now set forth And if
you shall find any Person stubborn or disobedient in not bringing in the said Books according to the tenour of these our Letters that then ye commit the said Person to Ward unto such time as you have certified us of his misbehaviour And we will and command you that you also search or cause search to be made from time to time whether any Book be withdrawn or hid contrary to the tenour of these our Letters and the same Book to receive into your Hands and to use all in these our Letters we have appointed And further whereas it is come unto our knowledg that divers froward and obstinate Persons do refuse to pay towards the finding of Bread and Wine for the Holy Communion according to the Order prescribed in the said Book by reason whereof the Holy Communion is many times omitted upon the Sunday These are to will and command you to convent such obstinate Persons before you and then to admonish and command to keep the Order prescribed in the said Book and if any shall refuse so to do to punish them by Suspension Excommunication or other Censures of the Church Fail you not thus to do as you will avoid our Displeasure Westminst Decemb. 25. Regni tertio Thom. Cantuarien Rich. Chanc. Will. St. John J. Russel H. Dorset W. Northampton Number 48. Cardinal Woolsey's Letters to Rome for procuring the Popedom to himself upon Pope Adrian's death Ex MS. Col. Cor. C. Cant. MY Lord of Bath Mr. Secretary and Mr. Hannibal I commend me unto you in my right hearty manner letting you wit That by Letters lately sent unto me from you my Lord of Bath and Mr. Hannibal dated at Rome the 14th day of September Which Letters I incontinently shewed unto the King's Grace his Highness And I have been advertised to our great discomfort That the said 14th day it pleased Almighty God to call the Pope's Holiness unto his Infinite Mercy whose Soul Jesu pardon News certainly unto the King's Grace and to me right heavy and for the universal weal or quiet of Christendom whereunto his Holiness like a devout and virtuous Father of Holy Church was very studious much displeasant and contrarious Nevertheless conforming our selves to the Pleasure of Almighty God to whose Calling we all must be obedient the Mind and Intention of the King's Highness and of me both is to put some helps and furtherances as much as conveniently may be that such a Successor unto him may now by the Holy College of Cardinals be named and elected as may with God's Grace perform atchieve and fulfil the good and vertuous Purposes and Intents concerning the Pacification of Christendom whereunto our said late Holy Father as much as the brevity of the time did suffer was as it should seem minded and inclined which thing how necessary it is to the state of Christs Religion now daily more and more declining it is facil and easie to be consider'd and surely amongst other Christian Princes there is none which as ye heretofore have perfectly understood that to this purpose more dedicated themselves to give Furtherance Advice and Counsel than the Emperor and the King's Grace who as well before the time of the last Vacation as sithence by Mouth and by Letters with Report of Ambassadors and otherwise had many sundry Conferences Communications and Devices in that behalf In which it hath pleased them far above my merits or deserts of their goodness to think judg and esteem me to be meet and able for to aspire unto that Dignity persuading exhorting and desiring me that whensoever opportunity should be given I should hearken to their Advice Counsel and Opinion in that behalf and offering unto me to interpone their Authorities Helps and Furtherances therein to the uttermost In comprobation whereof albeit the Emperor now being far distant from these Parts could not nor might in so brief time give unto the King's Grace new or fresh confirmation of his Purpose Desire and Intent herein Yet nevertheless my Lady Margaret knowing the inclination of his mind in this same hath by a long discourse made unto me semblable Exhortation offering as well on the Emperor's behalf as on her own that as much shall by them be done to the furtherance thereof as may be possible Besides this both by your Letters and also by particular most loving Letters of the Cardinal 's de Medicis Sanctorum Quatuor Campegius with credence show'd unto me on their behalf by their Folks here resident I perceive their good and fast minds which they and divers other their Friends owe unto me in that matter And finally the King's Highness doth not cease by all the gracious and comfortable means possible to insist that I for manifold notable urgent and great respects in any wise shall consent that his Grace and the Emperor do set forth the thing with their best manner The Circumstances of whose most entire and most firm mind thereunto with their bounteous godly and beneficial Offers for the Weal of Christendom which his Grace maketh to me herein is too long to rehearse For which Causes albeit I know my self far unmeet and unable to so high a Dignity minding rather to live and die with his Grace in this his Realm doing Honour Service Good or Pleasure to the same than now mine old days approaching to enter into new things yet nevertheless for the great zeal and perfect mind which I have to the exaltation of the Christian Faith the honour weal and surety of the King's Grace and the Emperor and to do my Duty both to Almighty God and to the World I referring every thing to God's disposition and pleasure shall not pretermit to declare unto you such things as the King's Highness hath specially willed me to signify unto you on his Grace's behalf who most effectually willeth and desireth you to set forth the same omitting nothing that may be to the furtherance thereof as his special trust is in you First Ye shall understand that the mind and entire desire of his Highness above all earthly things is That I should attain to the said Dignity having his perfect and firm hope that of the same shall ensue and that in brief time a general and universal Repose Tranquillity and Quietness in Christendom and as great Renown Honour Profit and Reputation to this Realm as ever was besides the singular comfort and rejoice that the King's Grace with all his Friends and Subjects should take thereof who might be well assured thereby to compone and order their great Causes and Affairs to their high Benefit Commodity and most Advantage For this and other great and urgent Causes the Pleasure of his Highness is That like-as ye my Lord of Bath and Mr. Hannibal have right prudently and discreetly begun so ye all or as many of you as be present in the Court of Rome and continue your Practices Overtures Motions and Labours to bring and conduce this the King 's inward Desire to perfect end
and Blood and Country might not more weigh with some Men than Godliness and Reason but the truth is Country in this Matter whatsoever some Men do suggest unto your Grace shall not move me and that your Grace shall well perceive for I shall be as ready as any other first thence to expel some of my own Country if the Report which is made of them can be tried true And as for that your Grace saith of Flesh and Blood that is the favour or fear of Mortal Man Yea marry Sir that is a Matter of weight indeed and the truth is alas my own feebleness of that I am afraid but I beseech your Grace yet once again give me good leave wherein here I fear my own frailty to confess the Truth Before God there is no Man this day leaving the King's Majesty for the Honour only excepted whose favour or displeasure I do either seek or fear as your Grace's favour or displeasure for of God both your Grace's Authority and my bound Duty for your Grace's Benefits bind me so to do So that if the desire of any Man's favour or fear of displeasure should weigh more with me than Godliness and Reason Truly if I may be bold to say the Truth I must needs say that I am most in danger to offend herein either for desire of your Grace's favour or for fear of your Grace's displeasure And yet I shall not cease God willing daily to pray God so to stay and strengthen my frailty with holy Fear that I do not commit the thing for favour or fear of any Mortal Man whereby my Conscience may threaten me with the loss of the favour of the Living God but that it may please him of his gracious Goodness howsoever the World goes to blow this in the Ears of my Heart Deus dissipavit ossa eorum qui Hominibus placuerint And this Horrendum est incidere in manus Dei viventis And again Nolite timere eos qui occidunt corpus Wherefore I most humbly beseech your Grace for God's Love not to be offended with me for renuing of this my Suit unto your Grace which is that whereunto my Conscience cannot well agree if any such thing chance in this Visitation I may with your Grace's Favour have license either by mine absence or silence or other-like means to keep my Conscience quiet I wish your Grace in God honour and endless felicity From Pembrook-Hall in Cambridg June 1. 1549. Your Grace's humble and daily Orator Nich. Roffen Number 60. The Protector 's Answer to the former Letter Ex Chartophylac Kegio AFter our right hearty Commendations to your Lordship we have received your Letters of the first of June again replying to those which we last sent unto you And as it appeareth ye yet remaining in your former Request desires if things do occur so that according to your Conscience ye cannot do them that you might absent your self or otherwise keep silence We wâ—uld be loth any thing should be done by the King's Majesty's Visitors otherwise than Right and Conscience might allow and approve And Visitation is to direct things to the better not to the worse to ease Consciences not to clog them Marry we would wish that Executors thereof should not be scrupulous in Conscience otherwise than Reason would Against your Conscience it is not our will to move you as we would not gladly do or move any Man to that which is against Right and Conscience and we trust the King's Majesty hath not in this Matter And we think in this ye do much wrong and much discredit the other Visitors that ye should seem to think and suppose that they would do things against Conscience We take them to be Men of that Honour and Honesty that they will not My Lord of Canterbury hath declared unto us that this maketh partly a Conscience unto you that Divines should be diminished That can be no cause for first the same was met before in the late King's Time to unite the two Colleges together as we are sure ye have heard and Sir Edward North can tell And for that cause all such as were Students of the Law out of the new-erected Cathedral Church were disappointed of their Livings only reserved to have been in that Civil College The King's Hall being in manner all Lawyers Canonists were turned and joined to Michael-House and made a College of Divines wherewith the number of Divines was much augmented Civillians diminished Now at this present also if in all other Colleges where Lawyers be by the Statutes or the King's Injunctions ye do convert them or the more part of them to Divines ye shall rather have more Divines upon this change than ye had before The King's College should have six Lawyers Jesus College some the Queen's College and other one or two apiece And as we are informed by the late King's Injunctions every College in Cambridg one at the least all these together do make a greater in number than the Fellows of Clare-Hall be and they now made Divines and the Statutes in that reformed Divinity shall not be diminished in number of Students but encreased as appeareth although these two Colleges be so united And we are sure ye are not ignorant how necessary a Study that Study of Civil Law is to all Treaties with Forreign Princes and Strangers and how few there be at this present to do the King's Majesty's Service therein For we would the encrease of Divines as well as you Marry Necessity compelleth us also to maintain the Science and we require you my Lord to have consideration how much you do hinder the King's Majesty's Proceedings in that Visitation if now you who are one of the Visitors should thus draw back and discourage the other ye should much hinder the whole Doings and peradventure that thing known maketh the Master and Fellows of Clare-Hall to stand the more obstinate wherefore we require you to have regard of the King's Majesty's Honour and the quiet performings of that Visitation most to the Glory of God and Benefit of that University the which thing is only meant in your Instructions To the performing of that and in that manner we can be content you use your Doings as ye think best for the quieting of your Conscience Thus we bid you right-heartily farewel From Richmond the 10th of June 1549. Your loving Friend E. Somerset Number 61. A Letter of Cranmer's to King Henry the 8th concerning a further Reformation and against Sacrilege Ex Chartophylac Regio IT may please your Highness to be advertised that forasmuch as I might not tarry my self at London because I had appointed the next day after that I departed from your Majesty to be at Rochester to meet the next Morning all the Commissioners of Kent at Sittingbourn therefore the same Night that I returned from Hampton-Court to Lambeth I sent for the Bishop of Worcester incontinently and declared unto him all your Majesty's Pleasure in
King Edward the 6th by the same Act limited and appointed to remain to the Lady Mary his eldest Daughter and to the Heirs of her Body lawfully begotten And for default of such Issue the Remainder thereof to the Lady Elizabeth by the Name of the Lady Elizabeth his second Daughter and to the Heirs of her Body lawfully begotten with such Conditions as should be limited and appointed by the said late King of worthy memory King Henry the 8th our Progenitor our Great Uncle by his Letters Patents under his Great Seal or by his last Will in writing signed with his Hand And forasmuch as the said Limitation of the Imperial Crown of this Realm being limited as is afore-said to the said Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth being illegitimate and not lawfully begotten for that the Marriage had between â—he said late King King Henry the 8th our Progenitor and Great Uncle and the Lady Katherine Mother to the said Lady Mary and also the Marriage had between the said late King King Henry the 8th our Progenitor and Great Uncle and the Lady Ann Mother to the said Lady Elizabeth were clearly and lawfully undone by Sentences of Divorce according to the Word of God and the Ecclesiastical Laws and which said several Divorcements have been severally ratified and confirmed by Authority of Parliament and especially in the 28th Year of the Reign of King Henry the 8th our said Progenitor and Great Uncle remaining in force strength and effect whereby as well the said Lady Mary as also the said Lady Elizabeth to all intents and purposes are and been clearly disabled to ask claim or challenge the said Imperial Crown or any other of the Honours Castles Manours Lordships Lands Tenements or other Hereditaments as Heir or Heirs to our said late Cousin King Edward the 6th or as Heir or Heirs to any other Person or Persons whatsoever as well for the Cause before rehearsed as also for that the said Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth were unto our said late Cousin but of the half Blood and therefore by the Ancient Laws Statutes and Customs of this Realm be not inheritable unto our said late Cousin although they had been born in lawful Matrimony as indeed they were not as by the said Sentences of Divorce and the said Statute of the 28th Year of the Reign of King Henry the 8th our said Progeâ—â—â—or and Great Uncle plainly appeareth And forasmuch also as it is to be thought or at the least much to be doubted that if the said Lady Mary or Lady Elizabeth should hereafter have or enjoy the said Imperial Crown of this Realm and should then happen to marry with any Stranger born out of this Realm that then the said Stranger having the Government and Imperial Crown in his Hands would adhere and practise not only to bring this Noble Free Realm into the Tyranny and Servitude of the Bishops of Rome but also to have the Laws and Customs of his or their own Native Country or Countries to be practised and put in ure within this Realm rather than the Laws Statutes and Customs here of long time used whereupon the Title of Inheritance of all and singular the Subjects of this Realm do depend to the peril of Conscience and the uttersubversion of the Common-Weal of this Realm Whereupon our said late dear Cousin weighing and considering within himself which ways and means were most convenient to be had for the stay of the said Succession in the said Imperial Crown if it should please God to call our said late Cousin out of this transitory Life having no Issue of his Body And calling to his remembrance that We and the Lady Katharine and the Lady Mary our Sisters being the Daughters of the Lady Frances our natural Mother and then and yet Wife to our natural and most loving Father Henry Duke of Suffolk and the Lady Margaret Daughter of the Lady Elianor then deceased Sister to the said Lady Frances and the late Wife of our Cousin Henry Earl of Cumberland were very nigh of his Graces Blood of the part of his Fathers side our said Progenitor and great Uncle and being naturally born here within the Realm And for the very good Opinion our said late Cousin had of our said Sisters and Cousin Margarets good Education did therefore upon good deliberation and advice herein had and taken by his said Letters Patents declare order assign limit and appoint that if it should fortune himself our said late Cousin King Edward the Sixth to decease having no Issue of his Body lawfully begotten that then the said Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Confines of the same and his Title to the Crown of the Realm of France and all and singular Honours Castles Prerogatives Privileges Preheminencies and Authorities Jurisdictions Dominions Possessions and Hereditaments to our said late Cousin K. Edward the Sixth or to the said Imperial Crown belonging or in any wise appertaining should for lack of such Issue of his Body remain come and be to the eldest Son of the Body of the said Lady Frances lawfully begotten being born into the World in his Life-time and to the Heirs Males of the Body of such eldest Son lawfully begotten and so from Son to Son as he should be of vicinity of Birth of the Body of the said Lady Frances lawfully begotten being born into the World in our said late Cousins Life-time and to the Heirs Male of the Body of every such Son lawfully begotten And for default of such Son born into the World in his life-time of the Body of the said Lady Frances lawfully begotten and for lack of Heirs Males of every such Son lawfully begotten that then the said Imperial Crown and all and singular other the Premises should remain come and be to us by the Name of the Lady Jane eldest Daughter of the said Lady Frances and to the Heirs Males of our Body lawfully begotten and for lack of such Issue then to the Lady Katherine aforesaid our said second Sister and the Heirs Male of her Body lawfully begotten with divers other Remainders as by the same Letters Patents more plainly and at large it may and doth appear Sithence the making of our Letters Patents that is to say on Thursday which was the 6th day of this instant Month of July it hath pleased God to call unto his infinite Mercy our said most dear and entirely beloved Cousin Edward the Sixth whose Soul God pardon and forasmuch as he is now deceased having no Heirs of his Body begotten and that also there remaineth at this present time no Heirs lawfully begotten of the Body of our said Progenitor and great Uncle King Henry the Eighth And forasmuch also as the said Lady Frances our said Mother had no Issue Male begotten of her Body and born into the World in the life-time of our said Cousin King Edward the Sixth so as the said Imperial Crown and other the Premises to the same belonging or in any wise appertaining
now be and remain to us in our Actual and Royal Possession by Authority of the said Letters Patents We do therefore by these Presents signify unto all our most loving faithful and obedient Subjects That like-as we for our part shall by God's Grace shew our Self a most gracious and benign Soveraign Queen and Lady to all our good Subjects in all their just and lawful Suits and Causes and to the uttermost of our Power shall preserve and maintain God's most Holy Word Christian Policy and the good Laws Customs and Liberties of these our Realms and Dominions so we mistrust not but they and every of them will again for their parts at all Times and in all Cases shew themselves unto Us their natural Liege Queen and Lady most faithful loving and obedient Subjects according to their bounden Duties and Allegiance whereby they shall please God and do the things that shall tend to their own preservation and sureties willing and commanding all Men of all Estates Degrees and Conditions to see our Peace and accord kept and to be obedient to our Laws as they tender our Favour and will answer for the contrary at their extream Perils In witness whereof we have caused these our Letters to be made Patents Witness our Self at our Tower of London the tenth day of July in the first Year of our Reign God save the Queen Number 2. A Letter sent by Queen Katherine to the Lady Mary her Daughter Ex MS. Norfolcianis in Col. Cresham DAughter I heard such tidings this day that I do perceive if it be true the time is near that Almighty God will provide for you and I am very glad of it for I trust that he doth handle you with a good Love I beseech you agree to his Pleasure with a merry Heart and be you sure that without fail he will not suffer you to perish if you beware to offend him I pray God you good Daughter to offer your self to him if any pangs come to you shrive your self first make your self clean take heed of his Commandments and keep them as near as he will give you Grace to do for then are you sure armed And if this Lady do come to you as it is spoken if she do bring you a Letter from the King I am sure in the self-same Letter you shall be commanded what you shall do Answer you with few words obeying the King your Father in every thing save only that you will not offend God and lose your Soul and go no further with Learning and Disputation in the Matter and wheresoever and in whatsoever Company you shall come obey the King's Commandments speak few words and meddle nothing I will send you two Books in Latin one shall be de Vita Christi with the Declaration of the Gospels and the other the Epistles of St. Hierome that he did write always to Paula and Eustochium and in them trust you shall see good things And sometimes for your Recreation use your Virginals or Lute if you have any But one thing specially I desire you for the love that you owe unto God and unto me to keep your Heart with a chaste Mind and your Body from all ill and wanton Company not thinking nor desiring any Husband for Christ's Passion neither determine your self to any manner of living until this troublesome time be past for I dare make you sure that you shall see a very good end and better than you can desire I would God good Daughter that you did know with how good a Heart I do write this Letter unto you I never did one with a better for I perceive very well that God loveth you I beseech him of his goodness to continue it And if it shall fortune that you shall have no Body to be with you of your Acquaintance I think it best you keep your Keys your self for whosoever it is so shall be done as shall please them And now you shall begin and by likelihood I shall follow I set not a rush by it for when they have done the uttermost they can then I am sure of the amendment I pray you recommend me unto my good Lady of Salisbury and pray her to have a good Heart for we never come to the Kingdom of Heaven but by Troubles Daughter wheresoever you become take no pain to send to me for if I may I will send to you By your loving Mother Katherine the Queen Number 3. A humble Submission made by Queen Mary to her Father Anno 1536. An Original MOst humbly prostrate before the Feet of your most excellent Majesty your most humble faithful and obedient Subject Cotton Libr. Otho C. 20. which hath so extreamly offended your most gracious Highness that mine heavy and fearful Heart dare not presume to call you Father nor your Majesty hath any cause by my deserts saving the benignity of your most blessed Nature doth surmount all Evils Offences and Trespasses and is ever merciful and ready to accept the Penitent calling for Grace in any convenient time Having received this Thursday at Night certain Letters from Mr. Secretary as well advising me to make my humble submission immediately to your Self which because I durst not without your gracious License presume to do before I lately sent unto him as signifying that your most merciful Heart and fatherly Pity had granted me your Blessing with condition that I should persevere in that I had commenced and begun and that I should not eft-soons offend your Majesty by the denial or refusal of any such Articles and Commandments as it may please your Highness to address unto me for the perfect trial of my Heart and inward Affection For the perfect declaration of the bottom of my Heart and Stomach First I acknowledg my self to have most unkindly and unnaturally offended your most excellent Highness in that I have not submitted my self to your most just and vertuous Laws And for mine Offences therein which I must confess were in me a thousand fold more grievous than they could be in any other living Creature I put my self wholly and entirely to your gracious Mercy at whose hand I cannot receive that punishment for the same that I have deserved Secondly To open mine Heart to your Grace in these things which I have heretofore refused to condescend unto and have now written with mine own hand sending the same to your Highness herewith I shall never beseech your Grace to have pity and compassion of me if ever you shall perceive that I shall privily or apertly vary or alter from one piece of that I have written and subscribed or refuse to confirm ratify or declare the same where your Majesty shall appoint me Thirdly As I have and shall knowing your excellent Learning Vertue Wisdom and Knowledg put my Soul into your direction and by the same hath and will in all things from henceforth direct my Conscience so my Body I do wholly commit to your Mercy and fatherly Pity
Jurisdiction against Hereticks Schismaticks and their Fautors in as large and ample manner as they were in the first Year of King Henry the Eighth 5. And that the Premises may be the better executed by the presence of Beneficed Men in their Cures the Statutes made Anno 21. of Henry the Eighth concerning Pluralities of Benefices and Non-residence of Beneficed Men by reason whereof a larger Liberty or License is given to a great multitude of Priests and Chaplains to be absent from their Benefices with Cure than was ever permitted by the Canon Laws and all other Statutes touching the same may be repealed void and abolished and that the Bishops and other Ordinaries may call all Beneficed Men to be resident upon their Cures as before the making of that Act they might have done 6. Item That the Ordinaries do from time to time make Process for punishment of all Simoniacal Persons of whom it is thought there were never so many within this Realm And that not only the Clerks but also the Patrons and all the Mediators of such Pactions may be punish'd Wherein we think good that Order were taken that the Patrons should lose their Patronage during their natural Lives according to the Ecclesiastical Constitutions of this Realm 7. Item That the ancient Liberty Authority and Jurisdiction be restored to the Church of England according to the Article of the great Charter called Magna Charta at the least wise in such sort as it was in the first Year of Henry the Eighth and touching this Article we shall desire your Lordships to be with us most humble Suitors to the King 's and Queen's Majesty and to the Lord Legat for the remission of the importable Burdens of the First-Fruits Tenths and Subsidies In which Suit whatsoever advancement your Lordships shall think good to be offered unto their Majesties for the same we shall therein be always glad to do as shall be thought good 8. Item That no Attachment of Premunire be awarded against any Bishop or other Ordinary Ecclesiastical from henceforth in any Matter but that a Prohibition be first brought to the same and that it may please the King 's and Queen's Majesty to command the Temporal Judges of this Realm to explicate and declare plainly all and singular Articles of the Premunire and to make a certain Doctrine thereof 9. Item That the Statutes of the Provisors be not drawn by unjust Interpretation out of their proper Cases nor from the proper sense of the words of the same Statutes 10. Item That the Statute of Submission of the Clergy made Anno 25. of Henry the Eighth and all other Statutes made during the time of the late Schism in derogation of the Liberties and Jurisdictions of the Church from the first Year of King Henry the Eighth may be repealed and the Church restored in integrum 11. Item That the Statute made for finding of great Horses by Ecclesiastical Perâ—â—ns may likewise be repealed 12. Item That Usurers may be punish'd by the Common Laws as in times past hath been used 13. Item That those which lay violent Hands upon any Priest or other Ecclesiastical Minister being in Orders may be punish'd by the Canon Laws as in times past hath been used 14. Item That all Priests Deacons and Sub-Deacons and all other having Prebends or other Ecclesiastical Promotions or Benefices from henceforth use such Priest-like Habit as the quality of his State and Benefice requireth 15. Item That Married Priests may be compelled to forsake their Women whom they took as their Wives 16. Item That an Order may be taken for the bringing up of Youth in good Learning and Vertue and that the School-Masters of this Realm may be Catholick Men and all other to be removed that are either Sacramentaries or Hereticks or otherwise notable Criminous Persons 17. Item That all exempt and peculiar Places may from henceforth be immediately under the Jurisdiction of that Arch-Bishop or Bishop and Arch-Deacon within whose several Diocess and Arch-deaconry the same are presently constitute and scituate And whereas divers Temporal Men by reason of late Purchases of certain Abbies and exempt Places have by their Letters Patents or otherwise granted unto them Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the said Places That from henceforth the said Jurisdiction be devolv'd to the Arch-Bishop or Bishop and Arch-Deacon within whose Diocess and Arch-deaconry the same now be 18. Item Where the Mayor of London by force of a Decree made Anno of Henry the Eighth hath attributed unto him the Cognition of Causes of Tythes in London that from henceforth the same Cognition and Jurisdiction may utterly cease and be reduced immediately to the Bishop of London Ordinary there 19. Item That Tythes may be henceforth paid according to the Canon Laws 20. Item That Lands and Places impropriated to Monasteries which at the time of Dissolution and Suppression thereof were exempt from payment of Tythes may be now allotted to certain Parishes and there chargeable to pay like Tythes as other Parishoners do 21. Item That there be a streight Law made whereby the reparations of Chancels which are notoriously decay'd through the Realm may be duly repaired from time to time by such as by the Law ought to do the same and namely such as be in the King 's and Queen's Hands and that the Ordinaries may lawfully proceed in Causes of Dilapidations as well of them as of all other Parsonages Vicarages and other Ecclesiastical Benefices and Promotions 22. Item That Order be taken for the more speedy payment of Pensions to all Priests Pentionaries and that they may have the same without long Suits or Charges 23. Item That an Order be taken for payment of Personal Tythes in Cities and Towns and elsewhere as was â—sed in Anno 21. of Henry the Eighth 24. Item That such Priests as were lately married and refuse to reconcile themselves to their Order and to be restored to Ministration may have some special Animadversion whereby as Apostates they may be discern'd from other 25. Item That Religious Women which be married may be divorced 26. Item That in Divorces which are made from Bed and Board Provision may be made that the Innocent Woman may enjoy such Lands and Goods as were hers before the Marriage or that happened to come to her use at any time during the Marriage and that it may not be lawful for the Husband being for his Offence divorced from the said Woman to intermeddle himself with the said Lands or Goods unless his Wife be to him reconciled 27. Item That Wardens of Churches and Chappels may render their Accounts before the Ordinaries and may be by them compell'd to do the same 28. Item That all such Ecclesiastical Persons as lately have spoiled Cathedral Collegiat and other Churches of their own heads and temerity may be compelled to restore all and singular things so by them taken away or the true value thereof and farther to re-edify such things as by them are destroy'd and defac'd
Answer can come from England hither and if his Revocation should be once known in England what would come of it I doubted Therefore I besought his Holiness not to suffer it to pass for if it be once known abroad it shall be a great comfort to the Wicked and discomfort to the good whereby many Inconveniences might ensue Then he said that that is done cannot be undone I said That his Holiness had not so far gone in his Decree but that he might moderate it that it need not extend to England And then I told him that he had shewed me that in all his Proceedings he would have your Majesty's Realm of England separated from all other the King's Majesty's Realms and now had set it as far further as any of the other therefore I said his Holiness should consider it and that the Decree in no wise should extend thither Then he said That it could not stand with the Majesty of the Place that he sat in to revoke any part of the Decree solemnly given in the Consistory in the presence of all the Cardinals I said That his Holiness with his Honour might well do it considering that when he gave the Decree he was not informed of such Inconveniences that might ensue thereof and now being informed by me his Holiness had not only a just cause to revoke it but also of congruence ought to do it considering that his Holiness had the Cure of all Mens Souls and if any Inconveniency should follow through his Holiness Doings it could not be chosen but his Holiness must answer for it where his Holiness suffering all things to proceed in his due course as it hath been begun all Dangers that have been before rehearsed might be avoided therefore now his Holiness had a good Cause to stay his Decree in that behalf All which he took in good part and said thus I must needs do for that Realm what I can and therefore to morrow is the Congregation of the Inquisition and then the Matter shall be propounded where he said he would do what he could and willed me to resort to the Cardinal St. Jacobo to inform him that he might procure it there I said I would indeed I had been with the said Cardinal before and had informed him fully nevertheless I went to him again to shew him the Pope's Pleasure therein who said he would do his Duty therein Indeed that Matter occupied the Pope and the Cardinals all that Congregation time The next morrow as the Cardinals said the Conclusion was That the Pope would make answer to me himself Indeed he thought to take Counsel of the said Congregation before I had been with them about the same Decree but not to revoke any part thereof but to have their advice in framing of it So that if I had not gone to him the Decree had gone forth with the intimation thereof and the inhibition but being with his Holiness this Evening to know what was to be had herein his Holiness after a long Oration in commendation of you the Queens Majesty he said That in case your most Excellent Majesty would write to him for the continuance of his Legat for such Causes as should seem good to the same the Legat to be yet expedient therein he would appoint my Lord's Grace there to continue but he could in no wise revoke his Decree made in open Consistory I laid many things that his Holiness might do it and that divers of his Predecessors had done it upon Causes before not known with divers Examples that I shewed him in Law that at the last he said plainly He would not revoke his Decree but for because of my Suit he said he was content to stay and to go no further till your Majesty's Letters do come and charged the Datary and his Secretary Berigno that they send forth no intimation of his Decree of the said Revocation without his special Commandment where-else he said the Intimation had been sent forth with an Inhibition also And so all is staied that nothing here-hence shall go forth till your Pleasure the Queen's Majesty be known therein which the Pope doth look for Until which Intimation the Legacy there doth continue Occurrents here be no other but that the 10th of this the late made Duke of Paleano departed here-hence towards the Duke's Camp which doth lie yet in the Siege of Civitella within your Majesty's Realm of Naples They that seem to bear their good Wills here towards your Majesty do say here that they may lie there long before they take it for they cannot hurt it much with Battery And they say the Counts de Sancto Flore and de Sarme be within the Town with two thousand Souldiers many of the Frenchmen be slain there Nevertheless others do say that it standeth in danger of taking for because the Frenchmen have gotten a Hill from the which they do beat sore into the Town and have withdrawn certain Waters from them of the Town and do undermine it the most part here thinketh they shall lose their labour for it is very strong The Gallies of Marseilles arrived at Civita Vechia six or seven days past and brought twelve Ensigns more of French Souldiers to reinforce the French Army and as far as I can learn they return again to fetch more always to refresh their Camp with fresh Souldiers in the lieu of such as be perished Of the which twelve Ensigns the French Ambassador chose out three which he hath sent to the Duke of Guise well furnished the rest he discharged but all the other that came be gone to the Camp to such Captains as will retain them there for such of the other as be slain or otherwise perished Don Antonio de Carraffa doth as yet return to the Camp neither intendeth to go as I hear I heard say That the Duke of Alva was within sixteen miles of the Frenchmen with a great Army of Horsemen and Footmen what he doth is not spoken of here for there is none that can pass to them or from them hither there is such strait keeping and dangerous passing Here be ill News from Piedmont for they say here the Frenchmen in those Parts have taken Cherasto a very strong Town in Piedmont which I trust be not true The common Report is here That if the Frenchmen be not withstanded in time they will do much hurt in Italy The Pope doth set forth a Bull for Money that one of every hundred shall be paid of the value of all the Lands that be within the Churches Dominions which they say will draw to Two or three Millions if it be paid And having no other at this present I beseech Almighty God to conserve both your most Excellent Majesties in long and most prosperous Life together From Rome the 15th of May 1557. Your Majesties most humble Subject and Poor Servant Edward Carne Number 35. The Appeal of Henry Chichely Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to a General Council from the
And lest in giving just offence to the little Ones in setting a Trap of Errors for the Ignorant and digging a Pit for the Blind to fall into we should not only be guilty of the Blood of our Brethren and deserve the wrathful Vae and Vengeance of God but also procure to our reclaiming Consciences the biting Worm that never dieth for our endless confusion For in what thing soever we may serve your Excellent Majesty not offending the Divine Majesty of God we shall with all humble Obedience be most ready thereunto if it be even to the loss of our Life for so God commandeth of us Duty requireth of us and we with all conformity have put in proof And as God through your gracious Government hath delivered unto us innumerable Benefits which we most humbly acknowledg and with due Reverence daily give him Thanks So we do not doubt but that of his Mercy He will happily finish in your Majesty that good Work which of His free Favour He hath most graciously begun that following the Examples of the Godly Princes which have gone before you may clearly purge the polluted Church and remove all occasions of Evil. And for so much as we have heretofore at sundry times made Petition to your Majesty concerning the Matter of Images but at no time exhibited any Reasons for the removing of the same Now lest we should seem to say much and prove little to alleage Consciences without the Warrant of God and unreasonably require that for the which we can give no Reason we have at this time put in writing and do most humbly exhibit to your gracious Consideration those Authorities of the Scriptures Reasons and pithy Persuasions which as they have moved all such our Brethren as now bear the Office of Bishops to think and affirm Images not expedient for the Church of Christ so will they not suffer us without the great offending of God and grievous wounding of our own Consciences which God deliver us from to consent to the erecting or retaining of the same in the place of Worshipping and we trust and most earnestly ask it of God that they may also persuade your Majesty by your Regal Authority and in the Zeal of God utterly to remove this Offensive Evil out of the Church of England to God's great Glory and our great Comfort Here follow the Reasons against them of which I have given a full Abstract in the History and therefore do not set them down here for they are very large The Address concludes in these words Having thus declared unto your Highness a few Causes of many which do move our Consciences in this Matter we beseech your Highness most humbly not to strain us any further but to consider that God's Word doth threaten a terrible Judgment unto us if we being Pastors and Ministers in His Church should assent unto the thing which in our Learning and Conscience we are persuaded doth tend to the confirmation of Error Superstition and Idolatry and finally Heb. 13. 1 Pet. 5. to the ruins of the Souls committed to our Charge for the which we must give an account to the Prince of Pastors at the last Day We pray your Majesty also not to be offended with this our Plainness and Liberty which all good and Christian Princes have ever taken in good part at the hands of Godly Bishops St. Ambrose writing to Theodosius the Emperor uses these words Sed neque Imperiale est libertatem dicendi negare Epist lib. 5. Epist 29. neque Sacerdotale quod sentiat non dicere And again In causa vero Dei quem audies si Sacerdotem non audies Ibidem cujus Majore peccatur periculo Quis tibi verum audebit dicere si Sacerdos non audeat These and such-like Speeches of St. Ambrose Theodosius and Valentinianus the Emperors did take in good part and we doubt not but your Grace will do the like of whose not only Clemency but also Beneficence we have largely tasted We beseech your Majesty also in these and such-like Controversies of Religion to refer the discusement and deciding of them to a Synod of the Bishops and other Godly Learned Men according to the Example of Constantinus Magnus and other Christian Emperors that the Reasons of both Parties being examined by them the Judgment may be given uprightly in all doubtful Matters And to return to this present Matter We most humbly beseech your Majesty to consider That besides weighty Causes in Policy which we leave to the Wisdom of the Honourable Counsellors the establishing of Images by your Authority shall not only utterly discredit our Ministries as builders of the thing which we have destroyed but also blemish the Fame of your most Godly Brother and such notable Fathers as have given their Lives for the Testimony of God's Truth who by publick Law removed all Images The Almighty and Everliving God plentifully endue your Majesty with His Spirit and Heavenly Wisdom and long preserve your most gracious Reign and prosperous Government over us to the advancement of his Glory to the overthrow of Superstition and to the Benefit and Comfort of all your Hignesses loving Subjects Amen Number 7. The Queen's Commissions to the Visitors that were sent to the Northern Parts ELizabetha Dei Gratia Angliae Franciae Hiberniae Regina Fidei Defensor c. Charissimis Consanguineis Consiliariis nostris Francisco Comiti Salop. Domino Praesidenti Consilii nostri in partibus Borealibus Edwardo Comiti de Darbia ac charissimo consanguineo nostro Thomae Comiti Northumb. Domino Guardiano sive custodi Marchiarum nostrarum de Le East March midle March versus Scotiam ac perdilecto fideli nostro Willielmo Domino Evers ac etiam dilectis fidelibus nostris Henrico Piercy Thomae Gargrave Jacobo Crofts Henrico Gates Militibus necnon dilectis nobis Edwino Sandys Sacrae Theologiae Professori Henrico Harvy Legum Doctori Richardo Bowes Georgio Brown Chistophero Estcot Richardo Kingsmell Armigeris Salutem Quoniam Deus Populum suum Anglicanum imperio nostro subjecit cujus regalis suscepti muneris rationem perfecte reddere non possumus nisi veram religionem sincerum numinis divini cultum in omnibus Regni nostri partibus propagaverimus Nos igitur regalis absolutae potestatis nostrae nobis in hoc Regno nostro commissae respectu quoniam utrumque Regni nostri statum tam Ecclesiasticum quam Laicum visitare certas pietatis ac virtutis regulas illis praescribere constituimus praefatum Franciscum Comitem Salop. Edwardum Comitem de Darbia Thomam Comitem Northumb Willielmum Dominum Evers Henricum Piercy Thomam Gargrave Jacobum Crofts Henricum Gates Milites Edwinum Sandys Henricum Harvy Georgium Brown Christophorum Estcot Richardum Bowes Richardum Kingsmell Armigeros ad infrascriptum vice nomine Authoritate nostris exequendum vos quatuor tres aut duo vestrum ad minimum deputavimus substituimus ad
two several times that is to say the Sundays next following Easterday and St. Michael the Arch-Angel or on some other Sunday within one month after those Feasts immediately after the Gospel FOrasmuch as it appertaineth to all Christian Men but especially to the Ministers and the Pastors of the Church being Teachers and Instructers of others to be ready to give a Reason of their Faith when they shall be thereunto required I for my part now appointed your Parson Vicar or Curat having before my Eyes the Fear of God and the Testimony of my Conscience do acknowledg for my self and require you to assent to the same I. First That there is but one living and true God of infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness the maker and preserver of all Things And that in Unity of this God-head there be three Persons of one Substance of equal Power and Eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost II. I believe also whatsoever is contained in the Holy Canonical Scriptures In the which Scriptures are contained all things necessary to Salvation by the which also all Errors and Heresies may sufficiently be reproved and convicted and all Doctrine and Articles necessary to Salvation established I do also most firmly believe and confess all the Articles contained in the Three Creeds The Nicene Creed Athanasius Creed and our Common Creed called the Apostles Creed for these do briefly contain the principal Articles of our Faith which are at large set forth in the Holy Scriptures III. I do acknowledg also that Church to be the Spouse of Christ wherein the Word of God is truly taught the Sacraments orderly ministred according to Christ's Institution and the Authority of the Keys duly used And that every such particular Church hath authority to institute to change clean to put away Ceremonies and other Ecclesiastical Rites as they be superfluous or be abused and to constitute other making more to Seemliness to Order or Edification IV. Moreover I confess That it is not lawful for any Man to take upon him any Office or Ministry either Ecclesiastical or Secular but such only as are lawfully thereunto called by their High Authorities according to the Ordinances of this Realm V. Furthermore I do acknowledg the Queen's Majesty's Prerogative and Superiority of Government of all Estates and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within this Realm and other her Dominions and Countries to be agreable to God's Word and of right to appertain to her Highness in such sort as is in the late Act of Parliament expressed and sithence by her Majesty's Injunctions declared and expounded VI. Moreover touching the Bishop of Rome I do acknowledg and confess that by the Scriptures and Word of God he hath no more Authority than other Bishops have in their Provinces and Diocesses And therefore the Power which he now challengeth that is to be the Supream Head of the Universal Church of Christ and so to be above all Emperors Kings and Princes is an usurped Power contrary to the Scriptures and Word of God and contrary to the Example of the Primitive Church and therefore is for most just Causes taken away and abolished in this Realm VII Furthermore I do grant and confess That the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Holy Sacraments set sorth by the Authority of Parliament is agreeable to the Scriptures and that it is Catholick Apostolick and most for the advancing of God's Glory and the edifying of God's People both for that it is in a Tongue that may be understanded of the People and also for the Doctrine and Form of ministration contained in the same VIII And although in the Administration of Baptism there is neither Exorcism Oil Salt Spittle or hallowing of the Water now used and for that they were of late Years abused and esteemed necessary Where they pertain not to the substance and necessity of the Sacrament they be reasonably abolished and yet the Sacrament full and perfectly ministred to all intents and purposes agreeable to the Institution of our Saviour Christ IX Moreover I do not only acknowledg that Privat Masses were never used amongst the Fathers of the Primitive Church I mean publick Ministration and receiving of the Sacrament by the Priest alone without a just number of Communicants according to Christ's saying Take ye and eat ye c. But also that the Doctrine that maintaineth the Mass to be a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Quick and the Dead and a mean to deliver Souls out of Purgatory is neither agreeable to Christ's Ordinance nor grounded upon Doctrine Apostolick But contrary-wise most ungodly and most injurious to the precious Redemption of our Saviour Christ and his only-sufficient Sacrifice offered once for ever upon the Altar of the Cross X. I am of that mind also That the Holy Communion or Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ for the due obedience to Christ's Institution and to express the vertue of the same ought to be ministred unto the People under both kinds And that it is avouched by certain Fathers of the Church to be a plain Sacrilege to rob them of the Mystical Cup for whom Christ hath shed his most precious Blood seeing he himself hath said Drink ye all of this Considering also That in the time of the Ancient Doctors of the Church as Cyprian Hierom Augustine Gelasius and others six hundred Years after Christ and more both the Parts of the Sacrament were ministred to the People Last of all As I do utterly disallow the extolling of Images Reliques and feigned Miracles and also all kind of expressing God Invisible in the form of an Old Man or the Holy Ghost in form of a Dove and all other vain worshipping of God devised by Man's fantasy besides or contrary to the Scriptures As wandering on Pilgrimages setting up of Candles praying upon Beads and such-like Superstition which kind of Works have no promise of Reward in Scripture but contrary-wise Threatnings and Maledictions So I do exhort all Men to the Obedience of God's Law and to the Works of Faith as Charity Mercy Pity Alms devout and fervent Prayer with the affection of the Heart and not with the Mouth only Godly Abstinence and Fasting Chastity Obedience to the Rulers and Superior Powers with such-like Works and godliness of Life commanded by God in his Word which as St. Paul saith hath Promises both of this Life and of the Life to come and are Works only acceptable in God's sight These things above-rehearsed though they be appointed by common Order yet do I without all compulsion with freedom of Mind and Conscience from the bottom of my Heart and upon most sure persuasion acknowledg to be true and agreeable to God's Word And therefore I exhort you all of whom I have Cure heartily and obediently to embrace and receive the same That we all joining together in unity of Spirit Faith and Charity may also at length be joined together in the Kingdom of God and that
is thought and of these I must confess my self to your Lordship to be one And God is my Judg whether it be for any other respect in this World but that I suppose and verily believe it may prove best for her Majesty 's own quietness during her time And here I must before open to your Lordship indeed her Majesty's true State she presently stands in which though it may be granted the former Advice the better way yet how hardly it layeth in her Power to go thorow withal you shall easily judg For it must be confessed That by the taking into her protection the King and the Faction she must enter into a War for it And as the least War being admitted cannot be maintained without great Charge so such a War may grow France or Spain setting in foot as may cause it to be an intollerable War Then being a War it must be Treasure that must maintain it That she hath Treasure to continue any time in War surely my Lord I cannot see it And as your Lordship doth see the present Relief for Mony we trust upon which either failing us or it rising no more than I see it like to be not able long to last Where is there further hope of help hereafter For my own part I see none If it be so then my Lord that her Majesty's present estate is such as I tell you which I am sure is true How shall this Counsel stand with security by taking a Party to enter into a War when we are no way able to maintain it for if we enter into it once and be driven either for Lack or any other way to shrink what is like to follow of the Matter your Lordship can well consider the best is we must be sorry for that we have done and per-chance seek to make a-mends where we neither would nor should This is touching the present State we stand in Besides we are to remember what already we have done how many ways even now together the Realm hath been universally burdened First For the keeping of new bands after the furnishing of Armour and therein how continually the Charge sooner hath grown than Subsidies payed And lastly the marvellous charge in most Countries against the late Rebellion with this Loan of Mony now on the neck of it Whether this State doth require further cause of imposition or no I refer to your Lordship And whether entring into a further Charge than her Majesty hath presently wherewithal to bear it will force such a Matter or no I refer to wiser to judg And now my Lord I will shew you such Reasons as move me to think as I do In Worldly Causes Men must be governed by Worldly Policies and yet so to frame them as God the Author of all be chiefly regarded From him we have received Laws under which all Mens Policies and Devices ought to be Subject and through his Ordinance the Princes on the Earth have Authority to give Laws by which also all Princes have the Obedience of the People And though in some Points I shall deal like a Worldly Man for my Prince yet I hope I shall not forget that I am a Christian nor my Duty to God Our Question is this Whether it be meeter for our Soveraign to maintain the young King of Scotland and his Authority or upon Composition restore the Queen of Scots into her Kingdom again To restore her simply we are not of Opinion for so I must confess a great over-sight and doubt no better Success than those that do Object most Perils thereby to ensue But if there be any Assurances in this World to be given or any Provision by Worldly Policy to be had then my Lord I do not see but Ways and Means may be used with the Queen of Scots whereby her Majesty may be at quiet and yet delivered of her present great Charge It is granted and feared of all sides that the cause of any trouble or danger to her Majesty is the Title the Queen of Scotland pretends to the Crown of this Realm The Danger we fear should happen by her is not for that she is Queen of Scotland but that other the great Princes of Christendom do favour her so much as in respect of her Religion they will in all Causes assist her and specially by the colour of her Title seem justly to aid and relieve her and the more lawfully take her and her Causes into their Protection Then is the Title granted to be the chief Cause of danger to our Soveraign If it be so Whether doth the setting up the Son in the Mothers Place from whence his Title must be claimed take away her Title in the Opinion of those Princes or no notwithstanding she remain Prisoner It appeareth plainly No for there is continual Labour and means made from the greatest Princes our Neighbours to the Queen's Majesty for restoring the Queen of Scotland to her Estate and Government otherwise they protest open Relief and Aid for her Then though her Majesty do maintain the young King in his present Estate yet it appears that other Princes will do the contrary And having any advantage how far they will proceed Men may suspect And so we must conceive that as long as this Difference shall continue by the maintaining of these two so long shall the same Cause remain to the trouble and danger of the Queen's Majesty And now to avoid this whilst she lives What better Mean is there to take this Cause away but by her own consent to renounce and release all such Interest or Title as she claimeth either presently or hereafter during the Life of her Majesty and the Heirs of her Body Albeit here may two Questions be moved First Whether the Scots Queen will renounce her Title or no Secondly If she will do so What Assurance may she give for the performance thereof To the first It is most certain she hath and presently doth offer wholly and frankly to release and renounce all manner of Claims and Titles whatsoever they be to the Crown of this Realm during her Majesty's Life and the Heirs of her Body And for the second She doth likewise offer all manner of Security and Assurances that her Majesty can devise and is in that Queen 's possible Power to do she excepteth none Then must we consider what may be Assurances for here is the difficulty For that Objections be that Princes never hold Promises longer than for their own Commodity and what Security soever they put in they may break if they will All this may be granted but yet that we must grant also that Princes do daily Treat and deal one with another and of necessity are forced to trust to such Bonds and Assurances as they contract by And as there is no such Surety to be had in Worldly Matters but all are subject to many Casualties yet we see such Devices made even among Princes as doth tie them to perform that which