second him in his Suit He encouraged him to proceed to a second Marriage without more adoe and assured him he would stand by him in it And told him he intended to restrain the payment of Annats to Rome and would ask of the Pope a Redress of that and other Grievances and if it was denied he would seek other Remedies in a Provincial Council An Enterview was proposed between the Pope and Him to which he desired the King go with him and King the was not unwilling to it if he could have assurance that his Business would be finally determined The Pope offered to the King to send a Legate to any indifferent place out of England to form the Process reserving only the giving Sentence to himself And proposed to him and all Princes a General Truce that so he might call a General Council The King answered that such was the present State of the Affairs of Europe that it was not seasonable to call a General Council that it was contrary to his Prerogative to send a Proxy to appear at Rome That by the Decrees of General Councils all Causes ought to be judged on the place and by a Provincial Council and that it was fitter to judge it in Engiand than any where else And that by his Coronation Oath he was bound to maintain the Dignities of his Crown and the Rights of his Subjects and not to appear before any forraign Court So Sir Thomas Elliot was sent over with Instructions to move that the cause might be judged in England Yet if the Pope had real Intentions of giving the King full Satisfaction he was not to insist on that And to make the Cardinal of Ravenna sure he sent him the offer of the Bishoprick of Coventry and Litchfield Nov. 14. The King marries Ann Bolleyn then vacant Soon after this the King married Ann Bolleyn Rowland Lee afterwards Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield did officiate none being present but the Duke of Norfolk and her Father her Mother and her Brother and Cranmer It was thought that the former Marriage being null of it self the King might proceed to another And perhaps they hoped that as the Pope had formerly proposed this Method so he would now approve of it But tho the Pope had joyned himself to France yet he was still so much in fear of the Emperour that he resolved not to provoke him and so was not wrought on by any of the Expedients which Bennet proposed which were either to judge the Cause in England according to the Council of Nice or to refer it to the Arbitration of some to be named by the King and the King of France and the Pope for all these he said tended to the Diminution of the Papal Power A new Citation was issued out for the King to answer to the Queen's Complaints but the King's Agents protested that he was a Soveraign Prince that England was a free Church over which the Pope had no just Authority and that the King could expect no Justice at Rome where the Empeperours Power was so great At this time the Parliament met again and past an Act The Parliament condemns Appeals to Rome condemning all Appeals to Rome In it they set forth That the Crown was Imperial and that the Nation was a compleat Body having full Power to do Justice in all Cases both Spiritual and Temporal And that as former Kings had maintained the Liberties of the Kingdom against the Usurpations of the See of Rome so they found the great Inconveniencies of allowing Appeals in Matrimonial Causes That they put them to great Charges and accasioned many Delayes Therefore they enacted That thereafter those should be all judged within the Kingdom and no regard should be had to any Appeals to Rome or Censures from it But Sentences given in England were to have their full Effect and all that executed any Censures from Rome were to incur the pains of Premunire Appeals were to be from the Arch-deacon to the Bishop and from him to the Archbishop And in the Causes that concerned the King the Appeal was to be to the upper House or Convocation There was now a new Archbishop of Canterbury Cranmer made Archbishop of Canterbury Warham died the former Year He was a great Patron of Learning a good Canonist and wise States-man but was a cruel Persecutor of Hereticks and inclined to believe Fanatical Stories Cranmer was then in Germany disputing in the King's Cause with some of the Emperour 's Divines The King resolved to advance him to that Dignity and sent him word of it that so he might make haste over But a Promotion so far above his Thoughts had not its common Effects on him He had a true and primitive Sense of so great a Charge and instead of aspiring to it he was afraid of it he both returned very slowly to England and used all his Endeavours to be excused from that Advancement But this declining of Preferment being a thing of which the Clergy of that Age were so little guilty discovered That he had Maximes very far different from most Church-men Bulls were sent for to Rome in order to his Consecration which the Pope granted tho it could not be very grateful to him to send them to one who had so publickly disputed against his Power of dispensing all the Composition that was payed for them was but 900 Ducats which was perhaps according to the Regulation made in the Act against Annats There were 9 several Bulls sent over one confirming the King's Nomination a Second requiring him to accept it a Third absolving him from Censures a Fourth to the Suffragan Bishops a Fifth to the Dean and Chapter a Sixth to the Clergy a Seventh to the Laity an Eighth to the Tenants of the See requiring all these to receive him to be their Archbishop a Ninth requiring some Bishops to consecrate him the Tenth gave him the Pall and by the Eleventh the Archbishop of York was required to put it on him The putting all this in so many different Bulls was a good Contrivance for raising the Rents of the Apostolick Chamber On the 30 of March Cranmer was consecrated by the Bishops of Lincoln Exeter and St. Asaph The Oath to the Pope was of hard Digestion So he made a Protestation before he took it that he conceived himself not bound up by it in any thing that was contrary to his Duty to God to his King or Country and he repeated this when he took it so that if this seemed too artificial for a Man of his sincerity yet he acted in it fairly The Convocation condemns the King's Marriage and above Board The Convocation had then two Questions before them the first was Concerning the Lawfulness of the King's Marriage and the Validity of the Pope's Dispensation the other was of Matter of Fact Whether P. Arthur had consummated the Marriage or not For the first the Judgments of 19 Universities were read and after a
other Men's Works to Pilgrimages or Relicts or the saying their Beads which tended to Superstition Images abused by Pilgrimages made to them were to ordered be taken away No Candle was to be before any Image but the Crucifix And they were to teach the People that it was Idolatry to make any other use of Images but meerly to put them in minde of those whom they represented And such as had formerly magnified Images or Pilgrimages were required openly to recant and confess that they had been led into an Errour which Covetousness had brought into the Church All Incumbents were required to keep Registers for Christnings and Marriages and to teach the People that it were good to omit the Suffrages to the Saints in the Litany These struck at some of the main Points of the former Superstition both about Images Pilgrimages and the Invocation of Saints But the free Use of the Scriptures gave the deadliest Blow of all Yet all the Clergy submitted to them without any Murmuring Prince Edward was this Year born Prince Edward born and this very much blasted the Hopes of the Popish Party which were chiefly built on the probability of Lady Mary's succeeding to the Crown which was now set at a greater distance So both Lee Gardiner and Stokesly seemed to vie with the Bishops of the other Party which of them should most zealously execute the Injunctions and thereby insinuate themselves most into the King's Esteem and Favour Gardiner was some Years Ambassadour in France but Cromwel got Bonner to be sent in his room who seemed then to be the most zealous Promoter of the Reformation that was then in England After that Gardiner was sent to the Emperour's Court with Sir Henry Knevet and there he gave some occasion to suspect that he was treating a Reconciliation with the Pope's Legate But the Italian that managed it being sent with a Message to the Ambassadour's Secretary he mistook Knevet's Secretary for Gardiner's and told his Business to him Knevet tried what could be made of it but could not carry it far For the Italian was disowned and put in Prison upon it And Gardiner complained of it as a Trepan laid to ruine him The King continued still to employ him but rather made use of him than trusted him yet Gardiner's Artifices and Flatteries were such that he was still preserved in some Degrees of Favour as long as the King lived but he knew him so well that he neither named him one of his Executors nor one of his Son's Council when he made his Will Gardiner used one Topick which prevailed much with the King that his Zeal against Heresy was the greatest Advantage that his Cause could have over all Europe And therefore he prest him to begin with the Sacramentaries so were those of the Helvetian Confession called and those being condemned by the German Princes he had the less reason to be afraid of imbroiling his Affairs by his Severities against them Lombert is condemned and burnt for denying the Corporal Fresence This meeting so well with the King 's own Perswasions about the Corporal Presence had a great effect on him and an occasion did quickly offer it self to him to declare his Zeal in that matter Lambert was at that time accused before the Archbishop of Canterbury He had been Chaplain to the Factory of Antwerp and there he associated himself to Tindall Afterwards he was seized on coming over to England but upon the changes that followed he was set at Liberty Dr. Taylor had preached on the Corporal Presence in his hearing This offended him and he drew up his Reasons against it and gave them to Taylor He communicated it to Barns who was a hot man and a fierce Lutheran And they thought that the venting that Opinion would stop the Progress of the Reformation give Prejudice to the People and divide them among themselves And therefore they brought this matter before Cranmer who was at that time likewise a Lutheran he dealt with Lambert to retract his Paper but he took a fatal Resolution and appealed to the King Upon which the King resolved to judge him in Person and to manage the Trial with great Solemnity and for that end many of the Nobility and Bishops were sent for When the day came there was a vast Appearance The King's Guards and Cloath of State were all in White to make it look the liker a Divine Service Lambert begun with a Complement acknowledging the King 's great Learning and his Goodness in hearing the Causes of his Subjects The King stop'd him and bad him forbear Flatteries and speak to the matter And he argued against him from Christ's Words that the Sacrament must be his Body Lambert answered in St. Austin's Words That it was his Body in a certain manner but that a Body could not be in two places at once To this the King commanded Cranmer to speak and he argued That since Christ is still in Heaven and yet he appeared to St. Paul that therefore he may be in different places at once Lambert said That was but a Vision and was not the very Body of Christ Tonstall argued That the Divine Omnipotence was not to be measured by our Notions of what was impossible Stokesly argued That one Substance may be changed into another and yet the Accidents remain So Water when it boiled did evaporate in Air and yet its Moisture remained This was received with great Applause tho it was an ill Inference that because there was an accidental Conversion therefore there might be a Substantial one in which one Substance was annihilated and another produced in its place Ten one after another disputed and their Arguments with the stern Words and Looks that the King interposed together with the length of the Action in so publick an Assembly put Lambert in some Confusion and upon his Silence a great Shout of Applause followed In Conclusion the King asked him if he was not convinced and whether he would live or die But he continued firm to his Opinion So Cromwel was commanded to read the Sentence of his Condemnation and not many days after it was executed in a most barbarous manner in Smithfield For there was not Fire enough put under him to consume him suddenly so that his Legs and Thighs were burnt away while he was yet alive He bore it patiently and continued to cry out None but Christ none but Christ He was a Man of considerable Learning and of a very good Judgment The Popish Party improved this and perswaded the King of the good effects it would have on his People who would in this see his Zeal for the Faith and they forgot not to magnify all that he had said as if it had been uttered by an Oracle which proved him to be both Defender of the Faith and Supream Head of the Church All this wrought so much on the King that he resolved to call a Parliament both for the suppressing the Monasteries and the
the Bishop to be proceeded in by him only with the assistance of his Clergy and this fatal errour then committed has not yet met with an effectual regulation Another Act was made against idle Vagabonds An Act against Vagabonds that they should be made slaves for two years by any that should seize on them This was chiefly designed against some Vagrant Monks as appears by the Proviso's in the Act for they went about the Countrey infusing in the People a dislike of the Government The severity of this Act made that the English Nation which naturally abhors slavery did not care to execute it and this made that the other Proviso's for supplying those that were truly indigent and were willing to be imployed had no effect But as no Nation has better and more merciful Laws for the supply of the Poor so the fond pity that many shew to the common Beggars which no Laws have been able to restrain makes that a sort of dissolute and idle Beggars intercept much of that Charity which should go to the relief of those that are indeed the only proper objects of it An Act for dissolving the Changries After this came the Act for giving the King all those Chantries which the late King had not seized on by Vertue of the Grant made to him of them Cranmer opposed this much for the poverty of the Clergy was such that the State of Learning and Religion was like to suffer much if it should not be relieved and yet he saw no probable Fond for that but the preserving these till the King should come to be at Age and allow the selling them for buying in of at least such a share of the Impropriations as might afford some more comfortable subsistence to the Clergy yet though he and seven other Bishops dissented it was past After all other Acts a General Pardon but clogged with some Exceptions came last some Acts were proposed but not past one was for the free use of the Scriptures others were for a Court of Chancery in Ecclesiastical Causes for Residence and for a Reformation of the Courts of Common Law The Convocation fits The Convocation sat at the same time and moved that a Commission begun in the late Reign of thirty two Persons for reforming the Ecclesiastical Laws might be revived and that the inferiour Clergy might be admitted to sit in the House of Commons for which they alledged a Clause in the Bishops Writ and Ancient Custome and since some Prelates had under the former Reign begun to alter the form of the Service of the Church they desired it might be brought to perfection and that some care might be had of supplying the poor Clergy and relieving them from the Taxes that lay on them This concerning the inferiour Clergy's sitting in the House of Commons was the subject of some debate and was again set on foot both under Queen Elizabeth and King James but to no effect Some pretended that they always sat in the House of Commons till the submission made in the former Reign upon the suit of the Praemunire but that cannot be true since in this Convocation 17. years after that in which many that had been in the former were present no such thing was alledged It is not clear who those Proctors of the Clergy that sat in Parliament were if they were the Bishops assistants it is more proper to think they sat in the House of Lords No mention is made of them as having a share in the Legislative Authority in our Records except in the 21. of Richard the 2d In which mention is made both of the Commons the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Proctors of the Clergy concurring to the Acts then made which makes it seem most probable that they were the Clerks of the lower House of Convocation When the Parliament met antiently all in one Body the inferiour Clergy had their Writs and came to it with the other Freeholders but when the two Houses were separated the Clergy became also a distinct body and gave their own Subsidies and medled in all the concerns and represented all the grievances of the Church But now by the Act made upon the submission of the Clergy in the last Reign their power was reduced almost to nothing so they thought it reasonable to desire that either they might have their Representatives in the House of Commons or at least that matters of Religion should not pass without the assent of the Clergy But the raising the Ecclesiastical authority too high in former times made this turn that it was now depressed as much below its just limits as it was before exalted above them as commonly one extreme produces another It was resolved that some Bishops and Divines should be sent to Windsor to finish some Reformations in the publick Offices for the whole lower House of Convocation without a contradictory Vote agreed to the Bill about the Sacrament But it is not known what opposition it met with in the Upper House A Proposition being also set on foot concerning the lawfulness of the Marriage of the Clergy thirty five subscribed to the affirmative and only fourteen held the Negative And thus ended this Session both of Parliament and Convocation And the Protector being now established in his power and received by a Parliament without contradiction took out a new Commission in which besides his former authority he was impowered to substitute one in his room during his absence In Germany the Princes of the Smalcaldick League were quite ruined The affairs of Germany the Duke of Saxe was defeated and taken Prisoner and used with great severity and scorn which he bare with an invincible greatness of mind The Landgrave was perswaded to submit and had assurances of liberty given him but by a trick unbecoming the greatness of the Emperour he was seized on and kept Prisoner contrary to faith given upon this all the Princes and Towns except Magdeburg and Brome submitted and purchased their pardon at what terms the Conquerour was pleased to impose The Bishop and Elector of Colen withdrew peaceably to a retirement in which after four years he died and now all Germany was at the Emperours mercy Some Cathedrals as that at Ausburg were again restored to the Bishops and Mass was said in them A Diet was also held in which the Emperor obtain'd a Decree to pass by which matters of Religion were referred wholly to his care The Pope instead of rejoycing at this blow given the Lutherans was much troubled at it for the Emperour had now in one Year made an end of a War which he hoped would have Imbroiled him his whole life so that Italy was now more at his mercy than ever and it seemed the Emperour intended to inlarge his Conquests there for the Pope's Natural Son being killed by a Conspiracy the Governour of Milan seized on Placentia which gave the Pope some jealousie as if the Emperour had been privy to
on the same piece of Paper it appears he was then privy to the Kings Design of marrying her and intended to advance himself yet higher by his merits in procuring her the Crown This Year he settled his two great Colledges and finding both the King and People much pleased with his converting some Monasteries to such uses he intended to suppress more and to convert them to Bishopricks and Cathedral Churches which the Pope was not willing to grant the Religious Orders making great Opposition to it but Gardiner told him it was necessary and must be done so a power for doing it was added to the Legates Commission At this time the Queen engaged the Emperor to espouse her Interests which he did the more willingly because the King was then in the Interests of France and to help her Business a Breve was either found or forged the last is more probable of the same date with the Bull that dispensed with her Marriage But with stronger Clauses in it to answer those Objections that were made against some defects in the Bull though it did not seem probable that in the same Day a Bull and a Breve would have been granted for the same thing in such different strains The most considerable Variation was That whereas the Bull did only suppose that the Queens Marriage with Prince Arthur was perhaps Consummated the Breve did suppose it absolutly without a perhaps This was thought to prejudice the Queen's Cause as much as the Suspicion of the Forgery did blemish her Agents In October Campegio comes into England Campegio came into England and after the first Complements were over he first advised the King to give over the Prosecution of his Suit and then counselled the Queen in the Pope's Name to enter into a Religious Life and make Vows but both were in vain and he by affecting an Impartiality almost lost both sides But he in great measure pacified the King when he shewed him the Bull he had brought over for annulling the Marriage yet he would not part with it out of his hands neither to the King nor the Cardinal upon which great Instances were made at Rome that Campegio might be ordered to shew it to some of the King's Counsellors and to go on and end the business otherwise Wolsey would be ruined and England lost Yet all this did not prevail on the crafty Pope who knew it was intended once to have the Bull out of Campegio's hands and then the King would leave him to the Emperour's Indignation But tho he positively refused to grant that yet he said he left the Legates in England free to judge as they saw Cause and promised that he would confirm their Sentence The Imperialists at Rome pressed him hard to inhibit the Legates and to recall the Cause that it might be heard before the Consistory The Pope declined this motion and to mollify the King he sent Campana one of his Bed-chamber Campana sent to deceive the King over to England with Complements too high to gain much Credit He assured the King that the Pope would do for him all he could not only in Justice and Equity but in the fulness of his Power And that tho he had reason to be very apprehensive of the Emperour's Resentments yet that did not divert him from his Zeal for the King's Service for if his resigning the Popedome would advance it it should not stick at that He also was ordered to require the Legates to put a speedy end to the business but his secret Instructions to Campegio were of another strain he charged him to burn the Bull and to draw out the matter by all the delayes he could invent Sir Francis Brian and Peter Vannes were dispatched to Rome with new Propositions to try whether if both the King and Queen took Religious Vowes so that their Marriage were upon that annulled the Pope would engage to dispence with the King's Vow or grant him a License for having two Wives Wolsey also offered in the King's Name to settle a Pay for 2000 Men that should be a Guard to the Pope and to procure a Restitution of some of his Towns on which the Venetians had seized But the Pope did not care to have his Guards payed by other Princes which he looked on as a putting himself in their hands He was in fear of every thing that might bring a new Calamity upon him and was now resolved to unite himself firmly with the Emperour by whose means only he hoped to reestablish his Family at Florence The Pope resolved to unite with the Emperour and ever after this all the use he made of the King's Earnestness in his Divorce was only to draw in the Emperour to his Interests on the better Terms The Emperour was also then pressing him hard for a General Council of which besides the aversion that the Court of Rome had to it he had particular reason to be afraid for being a Bastard he was threatned with Deposition as uncapable by the Canons of the Church to hold such a Dignity The Pope proposed a Journey incognito to Spain and desired Wolsey to go with him for obtaining a General Peace But in secret he was making up with the Emperour and gave his Agents Assurances that tho the Legates gave Sentence he would not confirm it So the King 's Correspondents at Rome wrote to him to set on the War more vigorously against the Emperour for he could expect nothing at Rome unless the Emperour's Affairs declined The Pope went on cajoling those the King sent over and gave new Assurances that tho he would not grant a Bull by which the Divorce should be immediately his own Act yet he would confirm the Legates Sentence so he resolved to cast the Load wholly upon them if he said he did it himself a Council would be called by the Emperour's means in which his Bull would be annulled and himself deposed which would bring on a new Confusion and that considering the footing Heresy had got would ruine the Church The Pope inclined more to the dissolving the Marriage by the Queen's taking Vowes as that which could be best defended but the Cardinal gave him notice that the Queen would never be brought to that unless her Nephews advised it At this time The Pope's Sickness the Pope was taken suddenly ill and fell in a great Sickness upon which the Imperialists began to prepare for a Conclave But Farnese and the Cardinal of Mantua opposed them and seemed to have Inclination for Wolsey Whom as his Correspondents wrot to him they reverenced as a Deity Upon this he sent a Courier to Gardiner Wolsey's aspiring then on his way to Rome whith large Directions how to manage the Election It was reckoned that the King of France joyning heartily with the King of which he seemed confident there were only six Cardinals wanting to make the Election sure and besides Summes of Mony and other Rewards that were to be
unlawful in it self The Sorbon declares against the Marriage At Paris the Sorbon made their Determination with great Solemnity after a Mass of the Holy Ghost all the Doctors took an Oath to study the Question and to give their Judgment according to their Consciences and after three Weeks study the greater part agreed in this That the King's Marriage was unlawful and that the Pope could not dispense with it At Orleans Angiers and Tholouse they determined to the same purpose Erasmus had a mind to live in quiet and so he would not give his Opinion nor offend either party Grineus was implored to try what Bucer Zuinglius and Oecolampadius thought of the Marriage Bucer's Opinion was The Opinion of the Reformed Divines about it that the Laws in Leviticus did not bind and were not moral Because God not only dispensed but commanded them to marry their Brother's Wife when he died without Issue Zuinglius and Oecolampadius were of another mind and thought these Laws were moral But were of Opinion that the Issue by a Marriage de facto grounded upon a received Mistake ought not to be Illegitimated Calvin thought the Marriage was null and they all agreed that the Pope's Dispensation was of no force Osiander was imploied to engage the Lutheran Divines but they were affraid of giving the Emperour new grounds of displeasure Melanctthon thought the Law in Leviticus was dispensable and that the Marriage might be lawful and that in those matters States and Princes might make what Laws they pleased And though the Divines of Leipsick after much disputing about it did agree that these Laws were moral yet they could never be brought to justify the Divorce with the subsequent Marriage that followed upon it even after it was done and that the King appeared very inclinable to receive their Doctrine So steadily did they follow their Consciences even against their Interests But the Pope was more compliant for he offered to Cassali to grant the King a Dispensation for having another Wife with which the Imperialists seemed not disatisfied The King's Cause being thus fortified Many of the Nobility write to the Pope by so many Resolutions in his Favours he made many members of Parliament in a Prorogation time sign a Letter to the Pope complaining that notwithstanding the great merits of the King the Justice of his Cause and the Importance of it to the safety of the Kingdom yet the Pope made still new Delayes they therefore pressed him to dispatch it speedily otherwise they would be forced to see for other Remedies tho they were not willing to drive things to Extremities till it was unavoidable The Letter was signed by the Cardinal the Archbishop of Canterbury four other Bishops 22 Abbots 42 Peers and 11 Commoners To this the Pope wrote an answer The Pope's Answer He took notice of the Vehemence of their Stile He freed himself from the Imputations of Ingratitude and Injustice He acknowledged the King's great Merits and said he had done all he could in his Favour He had granted a Commission but could not refuse to receive the Queen's Appeal all the Cardinals with one consent judged that an Avocation was necessary Since that time the delays lay not at his door but at the Kings that he was ready to proceed and would bring it to as speedy an Issue as the Importance of it would admit of and for their Threatnings they were neither agreeable to their Wisdom nor their Religion Things being now in such a Posture November the King set out a Proclamation against any that should purchase bring over or publish any Bull from Rome contrary to his Authority and after that he made an Abstract of all the Reasons and Authorities of Fathers or modern Writers against his Marriage to be published both in Latin and English The main stress was laid on the Laws in Leviticus The Arguments for the Divorce of the forbidden Degrees of Marriage among which this was one not to marry the Brother's Wife These Marriages are called Abominations that defile the Land and for which the Canaanites were cast out of it The Exposition of Scripture was to be taken from the Tradition of the Church and by the Universal Consent of all Doctors those Laws had been still looked on as Moral and ever binding to Christians as well as Jews Therefore Gregory the Great advised Austin the Monk upon the Conversion of the English among whom the Marriages of the Brother's Wife were usual to dissolve them looking on them as grievous Sins Many other Popes as Calixtus Zacharias and Innocent the Third had given their Judgments for the perpetual Obligation of those Laws They had been also condemned by the Councils of Neocesarea Agde and the second of Toledo Among Wickliff's condemned Opinions this was one that the Prohibitions of marrying in such degrees were not founded on the Law of God For which he was condemned in some English Councils and these were confirmed by the General Council at Constance Among the Greek Fathers both Origen Basil Chrysostom and Hesychius and among the Latins Tertullian Ambrose Jerome and St. Austine do formerly deliver this as the belief of the Church in their time that those Laws were Moral and still in force Anselm Hugo de sancto Victore Hildebert and Ivo argue very fully to the same purpose the last particularly writing concerning the King of France who had married his Brothers Wife says it was inconsistent with the Law of God with which none can dispence and that he could not be admitted to the Communion of the Church till he put her away Aquinas and all the School-men follow these Authorities and in their way of reasoning they argue fully for this Opinion and all that writ against Wickliff did also assert the Authority of those Prohibitions in particular Waldensis whose Books were approved by Pope Martin the Fifth All the Canonists did also agree with them as Johannes Andreas Panormitan and Ostiensis so that Tradition being the only sure Expounder of the Scripture the Case seemed clear They also proved that a Consent without Consummation made the Marriage compleat which being a Sacrament that which followed after in the Right of Marriage was not necessary to make it compleat as a Priest saying Mass consummates his Orders which yet were compleat without it Many Testimonies were brought to confirm this from which it was inferred that the Queen's being married to Prince Arthur tho nothing had followed upon it made her incapable of a lawful Marriage with the King And yet they shewed what violent Presumptions there were of Consummation which was all that in such Cases was sought for and this was expressed both in the Bull and Breve tho but dubiously in the one yet very positively in the other After that they examined the Validity of the Pope's Dispensation It was a received Maxime that tho the Pope had Authority to dispense with the Laws of the Church yet he could not
dispense with the Laws of God which were not subject to him And it had been judged in the Rota at Rome when a Dispensation was asked for a King to marry his Wives Sister that it could not be granted and when Precedents were alledged for it it was answered that the Church was to be governed by Laws and not by Examples and if any Pope had granted such Dispensation it was either out of Ignorance or Corruption This was not only the Opinion of the School-men but of the Canonists tho they are much set on raising the Pope's Power as high as is possible And therefore Alexander the third refused to grant a Dispensation in a like case tho the Parent had sworn to make his Son marry his Brother's Widow others went further and said The Pope could not dispense with the Laws of the Church which several ancient Popes had declared against and it was said that the fulness of Power with which the Pope was vested did only extend to the pastoral Care and was not for Destruction but for Edification and that as St. Paul opposed St. Peter to his Face so had mnay Bishops withstood Popes when they proceeded against the Canons of the Church So both Laurence and Dunstan in England had proceeded to Censures notwithstanding the Pope's Authority interposed to the contrary and no Authority being able to make what was a Sin in it self become lawful every Man that found himself engaged in a sinful course of Life ought to forsake it and therefore the King ought to withdraw from the Queen and the Bishops of England in case of refusal ought to proceed to Censures Upon the whole matter Tradition was that upon which all the Writers of Controversy particularly now in the Contests with the Lutherans founded the Doctrine of the Church as being the only infallible Exposition of the doubtful parts of Scripture and that being so clear in this matter there seemed to be no room for any further Debate On the other hand Arguments against it Cajetan was the first Writer that against the stream of former Ages thought that the Laws of Leviticus were only Judiciary Precepts binding the Jews and were not moral his Reasons were that Adam's Children must have married in the Degrees there forbidden Jacob married two Sisters and Judah according to custom gave his two Sons and promised a third to the same Woman Moses also appointed the Brother to marry the Brother's Wife when he died without Issue But a Moral Law is for ever and in all Cases binding and it was also said that the Pope's power reached even to the Laws of God for he dispensed with Oaths and Vows and as he had the Power of determining Controversies so he only could declare what Laws were moral and indispensable and what were not nor could any Bishops pretend to judg concerning the extent of his Power or the validity of his Bulls To all this those that writ for the King answered That it was strange to see Men who pretended such Zeal against Hereticks follow their Method which was to set up private reasonings from some Texts of Scripture in opposition to the received Tradition of the Church which was the bottom in which all good Catholicks thought themselves safe and if Cajetan wrote in this manner against the received Doctrin of the Church in one Particular why might not Luther take the same liberty in other Points They also made distinction in moral Laws between those that were so from the nature of the thing which was indispensable and could in no Case be lawful and to this sort no Degrees but those of Parents and Children could be reduced other Moral Laws were only grounded upon publick Inconveniencies and Dishonesty such as the other Degrees were for the Familiarities that Persons so nearly related live in are such that unless a Terrour were struck in them by a perpetual Law against such mixtures Families would be much defiled But in such Laws tho God may grant a Dispensation in some particular Cases yet an Inferiour Authority cannot pretend to it and some Dispensations granted in the latter Ages ought not to be set up to ballance the Decisions of so many Popes and Councils against them and the Doctrine taught by so many Fathers and Doctors in former times Both sides having thus brought forth the strength of their Cause it did evidently appear That according to the Authority given to Tradition in the Church of Rome the King had clearly the Right on his side and that the Pope's Party did write with little sincerity in this matter being guilty of that manner of arguing from Texts of Scriptures for which they had so loudly charged the Lutherans The Queen continued firm to her Resolution of leaving the matter in the Pope's Hands and therefore would hearken to no Propositions that were made to her for referring the matter to the Arbitration of some chosen on both sides A Session of Parliament followed in January in which the King made the Decisions of the Universities and the Books that were written for the Divorce A Session of Parliament be first read in the House of Lords and then they were carried down by Sir Thomas More and 12 Lords both of the Spirituality and Temporality to the Commons There were twelve Seals of Universities shewed and their Decisions were read first in Latin and then Translated into English There were also an hundred Books shewed written on the same Argument Upon the shewing these the Chancellor desired them to report in their Countries that they now clearly saw that the King had not attempted this matter of his meer will and pleasure but for the discharge of his Conscience and the security of the Succession of the Crown This was also brought into the Convocation who declared themselves satisfied concerning the unlawfulness of the Marriage but the Circumstances they were then in made that their Declaration was not much considered for they were then under the lash All the Clergy of England were sued as in the case of a Premunire for having acknowledged a Forreign Jurisdiction and taken out Bulls and had Suits in the Legatine Court The Kings of England did claim such a Power in Ecclesiastical matters The Laws of England against Bulls from Rome as the Roman Emperours had exercised before the fall of that Empire Anciently they had by their Authority divided Bishopricks granted the Investitures and made Laws both relating to Ecclesiastical Causes Persons When the Popes began to extend their Power beyond the Limits assigned them by the Canons they met with great opposition in England both in the matter of Investitures Appeals Legates and the other Branches of their Usurpations but they managed all the Advantages they found either from the Weakness or ill Circumstances of Princes so steadily that in Conclusion they subdued the World And if they had not by their cruel Exactions so oppressed the Clergy that they were driven to seek Shelter under the Covert
gave the King content the late Act against Annats should not be put in Execution The Cardinal of Ravenna was then considered as an Oracle for Learning in the Consistory Some Cardinals corrupted so the King's Agents resolved to gain him with great Promises but he said Princes were liberal of their Promises till their turn was served and then forgot them so he resolved to make sure work therefore he made Bennet give him a Promise in writing of the Bishoprick of Ely or the first Bishoprick that fell till that was vacant and he also engaged that the King should procure him Benefices in France to the value of 6000 Ducats a Year for the Service he should do him in his Divorce This was an Argument of so great Efficacy with the Cardinal that it absolutely turned him from being a great Enemy to be as great a Promoter of the King's Cause tho very artificially Several other Cardinals were also prevailed with by the same Topicks The King's Agents put in his Plea of Excuse in 28 Articles and it was ordered that three of them should be discussed at a hearing before the Consistory till they should be all examined But that Court sitting once a Week the Imperialists after some of them were heard procured an Order that the rest should be heard in a Congregation or Committee of Cardinals before the Pope for greater Dispatch but Karn refused to obey this and so it was referred back to the Consistory But against this the Imperialists protested and refused to appear any more News were brought to Rome from England that a Priest that had preached up the Pope's Power was cast into Prison and that one committed by the Archbishop for Heresy appealed to the King as supream Head which was received and judged in the King's Courts The Pope made great Complaints upon this but the King's Agents said the best way to prevent the like for the future was to do the King Justice At this time a Bull was granted for suppressing some Monasteries and erecting new Bishopricks out of them Chester was to be one and the Cardinal of Revenna was so pleased with the Revenue designed for it that he laid his hand upon it till Ely should happen to fall vacant In conclusion the Pope seemed to favour the King's Plea Excusatory upon which the Imperialists made great Complaints But this amounted to no more save that the King was not bound to appear in Person Therefore the Cardinals that were gained advised the King to send over a Proxy for answering to the merits of the Cause and not to lose more time in that Dilatory Plea and they having declared themselves against the King in that Plea before the bargain had been made with them could with the better credit serve him in the other So the Vacation coming on it was resolved by the Cardinals neither to admit nor reject the Plea But both the Pope and the Colledg wrote to the King to send over a Proxy for determining the matter next Winter Bonner was also sent to England to assure the King that the Pope was now so much in the French Interest that he might confidently refer his matter to him but whereas the King desired a Commission to judg in partibus upon the place it was said that the Point to be judged being the Pope's Authority to dispense with the King's Marriage that could not be referred to Legates but must needs be judged in the Consistory At this time a new Session of Parliament was called in England The Clergy gave in an Answer to the Complaints made of them by the Commons in the former Sessions A Session of Parliament But when the King gave it to the Speaker he complained that one Temse a Member of their House had moved for an Address to the King that the Queen might be again brought back to the Court The King said it touched his Conscience and was not a thing that could be determined in that House He wished his Marriage were good but many Divines had declared it unlawful He did not make his Suit out of Lust or foolish Appetite being then past the Heats of Youth he assured them his Conscience was troubled and desired them to report that to the House Many of the Lords came down to the House of Commons and told them the King intended to build some Forts on the Borders of Scotland to secure the Nation from the Inroads of the Scots and the Lords approving of this sent them to propose it to the Commons upon which a Subsidy was voted but upon the breaking out of the Plague the Parliament was prorogued before the Act was finished The Oaths which the Bishops swore both to the Pope and the King At that time the King sent for the Speaker of the House of Commons and told him he found that the Prelates were but half Subjects for they swore at their Consecration an Oath to the Pope that was inconsistent with their Allegiance and Oath to the King By their Oath to the Pope they swore to be in no Council against him nor to disclose his Secrets but to maintain the Papacy and the Regalities of S. Peter against all Men together with the Rights and Authorities of the Church of Rome and that they should honourably entreat the Legats of the Apostolick See and observe all the Decrees Sentences Provisions and Commandments of that See and yearly either in Person or by Proxy visit the Thresholds of the Apostles In their Oath to the King they renounced all Clauses in their Bulls contrary to the King 's Royal Dignity and did swear to be faithful to him and to live and die with him against all others and to keep his Counsel acknowledging that they held their Bishopricks only of him By these it appeared that they could not keep both those Oaths in case a Breach should fall out between the King and the Pope But the Plague broke off the Consultations of Parliament at this time Soon after Sir Thomas More seeing a Rupture with Rome coming on so fast More quits his Office desired leave to lay down his Office which was upon that conferred on Sir Tho. Audley He was satisfied with the King 's keeping up the Laws formerly made in Opposition to the Papal Incroachments and so had concured in the Suit of the Premunire but now the matter went further and so he not being able to keep pace with the Counsels returned to a private Life with a Greatness of Mind equal to what the ancient Greeks or Romans had expressed on such Occasions Endeavours were used to fasten some Imputations on him in the Distribution of Justice but nothing could be brought against him to blemish his Integrity An Enterveiw followed between the Kings of France and England to which An Interview between the King of France England Ann Bolleyn now Marchioness of Pembrook was carried In which after the first Ceremonies and Magnificence was over Francis promised Henry to
Journey unless the Pope would promise to give the King Satisfaction The King of France said he was engaged in Honour to go on but assured them he would mind the King 's Concerns with as much Zeal as if they were his own In September the Queen brought forth a Daughter the renowned Queen Elizabeth and the King having before declared Lady Mary Princess of Wales Sept 7. Q. Elizabeth born did now the same for her Tho since a Son might put her from it she could not be Heir Apparent but only the Heir Presumptive to the Crown At Marseilles the Marriage was made up between the Duke of Orleans and the Pope's Neece to whom the Pope gave besides 100000 Crowns many Principalities which he pretended were either Fiefs of the Papacy or belonged to him in the Rights of the House of Medici The Pope's Historian with some Triumph boasted that the Marriage was Consummated that very Night tho it was thought not credible that P. Arthur that was Nine Months older than the new Duke of Orleans afterwards Henry the Second did Consummate his There was a secret Agreement made between the Pope and Francis that if King Henry would refer his Cause to the Consistory excepting only to the Cardinals of the Imperial Faction as partial and would in all other things return to his Obedience to the See of Rome The Pore promises to satisfy K. Henry then Sentence should be given in his Favours but this to be kept secret So Bonner not being trusted with it and sent thither with an Appeal from the Pope to the next General Council made it with great boldness and threatned the Pope upon it with so much Vehemence that the Pope talked of throwing him into a Cauldron of melted Lead or burning him alive And he apprehending some danger fled away privately But when Francis came back to Paris he sent over the Bishop of that City to the King to let him know what he had obtained of the Pope in his Favours and the Terms on which it was promised This wrought so much on the King that he presently consented to them And upon that the Bishop of Paris tho it was now in the middle of Winter took Journey to Rome being sure of the Scarlet if he could be the Instrument of regaining England which was then upon the point of being lost What these Assurances were which the Pope gave is not certain but the Archbishop of York and Tenstal of Duresm in a Letter which they wrote on that Occasion say that the Pope said at Marseilles That if the King would send a Proxy to Rome he would give Sentence for him against the Queen for he knew his Cause was good and just Upon the Bishop of Paris's coming to Rome the matter seemed agreed for it was promised that upon the King 's sending a Promise under his hand to put things in their former state and his ordering a Proxy to appear for him Judges should be sent to Cambray for making the Process and then Sentence should be given Upon the notice given of this and of a Day that was prefixt for the return of the Courier the King dispatched him with all possible hast and now the Business seemed at an end But the Courier had a Sea and the Alps to pass and in Winter it was not easy to observe a limited day so exactly This made that he came not to Rome on the prefixed day upon which the Imperialists gave out that the King was abusing the Pope's Easiness so they prest him vehemently to proceed to a Sentence The Bishop of Paris moved only for a delay of six days which was no unreasonable time in that Season and in favours of such a King who had a Suit depending six Days and since he had Patience so many Years the delay of a few days was no extraordinary Favour But the design of the Imperialists was to hinder a Reconciliation for if the King had been set right with the Pope there would have been so powerful a League formed against the Emperour as would have broke all his Measures And therefore it was necessary for his Designes to imbroil them It was also said That the King was seeking Delayes and Concessions meerly to delude the Pope and that he had proceeded so far in his Design against that See that it was necessary to go on to Censures And the angry Pope was so provoked by them and by the News that he heard out of England that without consulting his ordinary Prudence he brought in the matter to the Consistory and there the Imperialists being the greater number it was driven on with so much Precipitation that they did in on day that which according to Form should have been done in three They gave the final Sentence declaring the King's Marriage with Queen Katherine good and required him to live with her as his Wife 23. March But proceeds hastily to a Sentence otherwise they would proceed to Censures Two days after that the Courier came with the King's Submission in due form He also brought earnest Letters from Francis in the King's Favours This wrought on all the indifferent Cardinals as well as those of the French Faction So they praied the Pope to recall what was done A new Consistory was called but the Imperialists prest with greater Vehemence then ever that they would not give such Scandal to the World as to recall a definitive Sentence past of the validity of a Marriage and give the Hereticks such Advantages by their unsteadiness in matters of that nature And so it was carried that the former Sentence should take place and the Execution of it was committed to the Emperour When this was known in England it determined the King in his Resolutions of shaking off the Pope's Yoke in which he had made so great a Progress that the Parliament had past all the Acts concerning it before he had the News from Rome For he judged that the best way to Peace was to let them at Rome see with what vigour he could make War All the rest of the World lookt on astonished to see the Court of Rome throw off England with so much scorn as if they had been weary of the Obedience and Profits of so great a Kingdom and their Proceedings look'd as if they had been secretly directed by a Divine Providence that designed to draw great Consequences from this Rupture and did so far infatuate those that were most concerned to prevent it that they needlesly drew it on themselves In England they had been now examining the Foundations on which the Papal Authority was built The â—rguments used for rejecting the Pope's Power with extraordinary Care for some Years and several Books being then and soon after written on that Subject the Reader will be able to see better into the Reasons of their Proceedings by a short Abstract of these All the Apostles were made equal in the Powers that Christ gave them and he often condemned
their Contests about Superiority but never declared in St. Peter's Favour St. Paul withstood him to his Face and reckoned himself not inferour to him If the Dignity of a Person left any Authority with the City in which he sat then Antioch must carry it as well as Rome and Jerusalem where Christ suffered was to be prefererd to all the World for it was truly the Mother-Church Christ said to Peter Vpon this Rock will I build my Church The Ancients understood by the Rock either the Confession Peter had made or which is all one upon the matter Christ himself and tho it were to be meant of St. Peter all the rest of the Apostles are also called Foundations that of Tell the Church was by many Doctors of the Church of Rome turned against the Pope for a General Council The other Priviledges ascribed to St. Peter were either only a precedence of Order or were occasioned by his Fall as that Feed my Sheep it being a restoring him to the Apostolical Function St. Peter had also a limited Province the Circumcision as St. Paul had the Uncircumcision that was of far greater extent which shewed that he was not considered as the Universal Pastor In the Primitive Church St. Cyprian and other Bishops wrote to the Bishops of Rome as to their fellow Bishop Colleague and Brother they were against Appeals to Rome and did not submit to their Definition and in plain Terms asserted that all Bishops were equal in Power as the Apostles had been It is true the Dignity of the City made the Bishops of Rome to be much esteemed yet in the first Council of Nice the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch were declared to have the same Authority in the Countries about them that the Bishops of Rome had over those that lay about them It is true the East being over-run with Arrianism from which the West was better preserved the oppressed Eastern Bishops did take shelter in the Protection the Bishops of Rome gave them and as is natural to all People they magnified that Authority which was so useful to them But the second General Council indirectly condemned all Appeals to Rome for it decreed that every Province should be governed by its own Synod and allowed no higher Appeal but to the Bishops of the Diocess Constantinople being made the Imperial City the second and fourth General Council gave it equal Priviledges with Rome because it was new Rome which shews that the Dignity of the Sees flowed from the greatness of the Cities The African Churches condemned all Appeals to Rome and the Popes who complained of that pretended only to a Canon of the Council of Nice for it and then they did not talk of a Divine Right but search being made into all the Copies of the Canons of the Council that was found to be a Forgery When the Emperour Mauricius gave the Title Vniversal Bishop to the Patriarch of Constantinple Gregory the Great complained of the Ambition of that Title which he calls equal to the Pride of Lucifer and since England received the Faith by those whom he sent over it appeared from thence what was the Doctrine of that See at that time and by consequence what where the first Impressions made on the English in that matter It is true Boniface the third got the same Title by Phocas's Grant and Boniface the eighth pretended to all Power both spiritual and temporal but the Progress of their Usurpations and the Wars raised to maintain them were very visible in History The Popes swore at their Consecrations to obey the Canons of the eighth first General Councils which are manifested against Appeals and their Universal Jurisdiction small regard is to be had to the Decrees of latter Councils being Cabals pack'd and managed as the Popes pleased Several Sees as Ravenna Milan and Aquileia pretended Exemption from the Papal Authority Many English Bishops had asserted that the Popes had no Authority against the Canons and to that day no Canon the Popes made was binding till it was received which shewed the Pope's Authority was not believed founded on a divine Authority and the Contests that the Kings of England had with the Pope's concerning Investitures Bishops doing the King Homage Appeals to Rome and the Authority of Papal Bulls and Provisions shewed that the Pope's Power was believed subject to Laws and Custom and so not derived from Christ and St. Peter and as Laws had given them some Power and Princes had bin forced in ignorant Ages to submit to their Usurpations so they might as they saw cause change those Laws and resume their Rights The next Point inquired into was And for the King's Supremacy the Authority that Kings had in matters of Religion and the Church The King of Israel judged in all Causes and Samuel called Saul the Head of the Tribes David made many Rules about the Service at the Temple and declaring to Solomon what his Power was 1 Chron. 28.21 2 Chron. 8.14 15. he told him that the Priests were wholly at his Command and it is also said that Solomon appointed the Priests their Charges in the Service of God and that they departed not from his Commandment in any matter he turned out one High-Priest and put another in his room Jehoshaphat Hezekiah and Josias made also Laws about Ecclesiastical Matters In the New Testament Christ was himself subject to the Civil Powers and charged his Disciples not to affect Temporal Dominion They also wrote to the Churches to be subject to the Higher Powers and call them Supream and charge every Soul to be subject to them so in Scripture the King is called Head and Supream and every Soul is said to be under him which joyn'd together makes up this Conclusion that He is the supream Head over all Persons In the Primitive Church the Bishops only made Rules or Canons but pretended to no compulsive Authority but what came from the Civil Magistrate The Roman Emperours called Councils presided in them and confirmed them and made many Laws concerning Ecclesiastical Matters so did also Charles the Great The Emperours did also either chuse the Popes themselves or confirm their Elections Church-men taking Orders were not thereby discharged from the Obedience they formerly owed their Princes but remained still Subjects And tho the Offices of the Church had peculiar Functions in which the People were subject to them that did not deliver them from their Obedience to the King as a Father's Authority over his Children cuts not off the King's Power over him They found also that in all times the Kings of England had assumed an Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters Ina Alfred Edgar and Canetus had made many Laws about them so had also most of the Kings since the Conquest which appeared particularly in the Articles of Clarendon and the Contests that followed upon them and from the daies of King Ina they had granted Exemptions to Monasteries from the Episcopal Jurisdiction down to William the
Conquerors time besides many other Acts that clearly imported a Supremacy over all Persons and in all Causes But they did at the same time so explain and limit this Power that it was visible they did not intend to subject Religion wholly to the Pleasure of the King for it was declared that his Power was only a Coercive Authority to defend the true Religion to abolish Heresies and Idolatries to cause Bishops and Pastors to do their Duties and in case they were negligent or would not amend their Faults to put others in their room Upon the whole matter they concluded that the Pope had no Power in England and that the King had an intire Dominion over all his Subjects which did extend even to the regulating of Ecclesiastical Matters These things being fully opened in many Disputes The Clergy submitted to it and published in several Books all the Bishops Abbots and Priors of England Fisher only excepted were so far satisfied with them or so much in love with their Preferments that they resolved to comply with the Changes which the King was resolved to make Fisher was in great esteem for Piety and strictness of Life and so much pains was taken on him A little before the Parliament met Cranmer proposed to him that he and any five Doctors he would choose and Stokesly with five on his side should confer on that point and examine he Authorities that were on both sides he accepted of it and Stokesly wrote to him to name time and place but Fisher's Sickness hindered the Progress of that motion The Parliament met the 15th of January A Session of Parliament there were but seven Bishops and twelve Abbots present the rest it seems were unwilling to concur in making this change tho they complied with it when it was made Every Sunday during the Session a Bishop preached at St. Paul's and declared that the Pope had no Authority in England Before this they had only said that a General Council was above him and that the Exactions of that Court and Appeals to it were unlawful but now they went a strain higher to prepare the People for receiving the Acts then in Agitation On the 9th of March The Pope's Power taken away the Commons began the Bill for taking away the Pope's Power and sent it to the Lords on the 14th who past it on the 20th without any dissent In it they set forth the Exactions of the Court of Rome grounded on the Pope's Power of dispensing and that as none could dispense with the Laws of God so the King and Parliament only had the Authority of dispensing with the Laws of the Land and that therefore such Licenses or Dispensations as were formerly in use should be for the future granted by the two Arch-bishops some of these were to be confirmed under the Great Seal and they appointed that thereafter all Commerce with Rome should cease They also declared that they did not intend to alter any Article of the Catholick Faith of Christendome or of that which was declared in the Scripture necessary to Salvation They confirmed all the Exemptions granted to Monasteries by the Popes but subjected them to the King's Visitation and gave the King and his Council power to examine and reform all Indulgences and Priviledges granted by the Pope The Offenders against this Law were to be punished according to the Statutes of Premunire This Act subjected the Monasteries entirely to the King's Authority and put them in no small Confusion Those that loved the Reformation rejoyced both to see the Pope's Power rooted out and to find the Scripture made the Standard of Religion After this Act The Act of the Succession another past in both Houses in six Days time without any Opposition Settling the Succession of the Crown confirming the Sentence of Divorce and the King's Marriage with Queen Anne and declaring all Marriages within the Degrees prohibited by Moses to be unlawful All that had married within them were appointed to be divorced and their Issue illegitimated and the Succession to the Crown was settled upon the King's Issue by the prefent Queen or in default of that to the King 's right Heirs for ever All were required to swear to maintain the Contents of this Act and if any refused to swear to it or should say any thing to the Slander of the King's Marriage he was to be judged guilty of misprision of Treason and to be punished accordingly The Oath is also set down in the Journals of the House of Lords by which they did not only swear Obedience to the King and his Heirs by his present Marriage but also to defend the Act of Succession and all the Effects and Contents in it against all manner of Persons whatsoever by which they were bound to maintain the Divorce both against the Pope's Censures and the Emperour if he went about to execute them At this time An Act regulating the proceedings against Hereticks one Philips complained to the House of Commons of the Bishop of London for using him cruelly in Prison upon Suspicion of Heresy the Commons sent up this to the Lords but received no Answer So they sent some of their Members to the Bishop desiring him to answer the Complaints put in against him But he acquainted the House of Lords with it and they all with one consent voted that none of their House ought to appear or answer to any Complaint at the Bar of the House of Commons So the Commons let this particular Case fall and sent up a Bill to which the Lords agreed regulating the Proceedings against Hereticks That whereas by the Statute made by King Henry the Fourth Bishops might commit Men upon Suspition of Heresy and Heresy was generally defined to be whatever was contrary to the Scriptures or Canonical Sanctions which was liable to great Ambiguity therefore that Statute was repealed and none were to be committed for Heresy but upon a Presentment made by two Witnesses None were to be accused for speaking against things that were grounded only upon the Pope's Canons Bail was to be taken for Hereticks and they were to be brought to their Trials in open Court and if upon Conviction they did not abjure or were Relapses they were to be burnt the King 's Writ being first obtained This was a great check to the Bishop's Tyrrany and gave no smal comfort to all that favoured the Reformation The Convocation sent in a Submission at the same time The Submission of the Clergy by which they acknowledged That all Convocations ought to be assembled by the King 's Writ and promised upon the Word of Priests never to make nor execute any Canons without the King's Assent They also desired That since many of the received Canons were found to be contrary to the King's Prerogative and the Laws of the Land there might be a Committee named by the King of 32 the one half out of both Houses of Parliament and the other
of the Clergy empowered to abrogate or regulate them as they should see Cause This was confirmed in Parliament and the Act against Appeals to Rome was renewed and an Appeal was allowed from the Archbishop to the King upon which the Lord Chancellor was to grant a Commission for a Court of Delegates A Proviso was added that till the Committee of 32 should settle a Regulation of the Canons those then in force should still take place except such as were contrary to the King's Prerogative or the Laws But this last Proviso tho it seemed reasonable to give the Spiritual Courts some Rules till the 32 should finish their Work made that it came to nothing for it was thought more for the Greatness of the King's Authority and it subjected the Bishop's Courts more to the Prohibitions of the Temporal Courts to keep this whole matter in such General Terms than to have brought it to a Regulation that should be fixed and constant Another Act past An Act for the Election of Bishops for regulating the Elections and Consecrations of Bishops condemning all Bulls from Rome and appointing that upon a Vacancy the King should grant a Licence for an Election and should by a missive Letter signify the Person 's Name whom he would have chosen And within twelve Days after these were delivered the Dean and Chapter or Prior and Convent were required to return an Election of the Person named by the King under their Seals The Bishop Elect was upon that to swear Fealty and a Writ was to be issued out for his Consecration in the usual manner After that he was to do Homage to the King upon which both the Temporalities and Spiritualities were to be restored and Bishops were to exercise their Jurisdiction as they had done before All that transgressed this Act were made guilty of a premunire A private Act past depriving Cardinal Campegio and Jerome de Ghinuccii of the Bishopricks of Salisbury and Worcester the Reasons given for it are because they did not reside in their Diocesses for Preaching the Laws of God and keeping Hospitality but lived at the Court of Rome and carried 3000 l. a Year out of the Kingdom The last Act of a publick Nature The Attaindor of the Nun of Kent tho relating only to private Persons of which I shall give an account was concerning the Nun of Kent and her Complices It was the first occasion of shedding any Blood in this Quarrel and it was much cherished by all the Superstitious Clergy that adhered to the Queen's Interests and the Pope's The Nun and many of her Complices came to the Lord's Bar and confessed the whole matter Among the Concealers of this Treason Sir Thomas More and Fisher were named the former wrote upon that a long Letter to Cromwel giving him a particular account of all the Conversation he had at any time with the Nun He acknowledged he had esteemed her highly not so much out of any regard he had to her Prophesies but for the Opinion he conceived of her Holiness and Humility But he adds that he was then convinced That she was the most false dissembling Hypocrite that had been known and guilty of most detestable Hypocrisy and divellish dissembled Falshood He also believed that she had Communication with an evil Spirit Concerning this Letter a curious Discovery has been made In Queen Mary's time More 's Works were published and among them other Letters of his to Cromwel relating to that long one which he wrote concerning the Nun were printed but that was left out of which More kept a Copy and gave it to his Daughter Roper that Copy was in the MS. out of which the rest were published and out of that I have transcribed it The design of suppressing it seems to be this It is probable there might have been some thoughts in Queen Mary's time to Canonize the Nun since she was called a Martyr for her Mother's Marriage and there was no want of Miracles to justify it Therefore a Letter so plain and full against her was thought fit to be kept out of the way This Justification of Mores prevailed so far that his Name was struck out of the Bill The Act contains a Narrative of that whole Story which is in short this Elizabeth Barton of Kent fell in some Trances it seems they were Hysterical Fits and spake such things as made those about her think she was inspired of God The Parson of the Parish Master hoping to draw Advantages from this gave Archbishop Warham notice of it who ordered him to observe her carefully and bring him an account of what should follow But she had forgot all that she said in her Fitts when they were over Yet the Priest would not let it go so but perswaded her that she was inspired and taught her so to counterfeit those Trances that she became very ready at it The matter was much noised about and the Priest intended to raise the credit of an Image of the B. Virgins that was in his Church that so Pilgrimages and Offerings might be made to it by her means He associated to himself one Bocking a Monk of Canterbury and they taught her to say in her Fits that the B. Virgin appeared to her and told her she could not be well till she visited that Image She spake many good Words against ill Life and spake also against Heresy and the King's Suit of Divorce then depending and by many strange motions of her Body she seemed to be inwardly possessed A day was set for her cure and before an Assembly of 2000 People she was carried to that Image and after she had acted her Fitts all over she seemed of a sudden quite recovered which was ascribed to the Intercession of the Virgin and the Virtue of that Image She entered into a Religious Life and Bocking was her Ghostly Father There were wiolent Suspicions of Incontinence between them but the esteem she was in bore them down Many thought her a Prophetess and Warham among the rest A Book was also written of her Revelations and a Letter was shewed all in Letters of Gold pretended to be writ to her from Heaven by Mary Magdalene She pretended that when the King was last at Calais she was carried invisibly beyond Sea and brought back again and that an Angel gave her the Sacrament and that God revealed to her that if the King went on in his Divorce and married another Wife he should fall from his Crown and not live a Month longer but should die a Villain 's Death Many of the Monks of the Charter-House and the Observant Friers with many Nuns and B. Fisher came to give credit to this and set a great value on her and grew very insolent upon it for Frier Peyto preaching in the King's Chappel at Greenwich denounced the Judgments of God upon him and said tho others as lying Prophets deceived him yet he in the name of God told him that Dogs should lick
officious Courtiers are apt to do often without any good Grounds so that Silence was made an Argument of her Guilt and that she could not be defended But perhaps that was an effect of the Wisdom of the Ministers of that time who would not suffer so nice a Point upon which the Queen's Legitimation depended to be brought into dispute The day after Anne Boleyn's Death the King married Jane Scimour who gained more upon him than all his Wives ever did But she was happy that she did not out-live his Love to her Lady Mary was advised upon this turn of Affairs Lady Mary 's Submission oo the King to make her Submission to the King she offered to confess the Fault of her former Obstinacy and in General to give up her Understanding entirely to the King but that would not satisfy unless she would be more particular so at last she was prevailed with to do it in the fullest Terms that could be desired She acknowledged the King to be the Supream Head on Earth under Christ of the Church of England and did renounce the Bishop of Rome's Authority and promised in all things to be obedient to the Laws that were made which she said flowed from her inward Belief and Judgment and in which she would for ever continue and she did also acknowledg that the King's Marriage with her Mother was by God's Law and Man's Law unlawful and incestuous all this she writ with her own Hand and subscribed it upon which she was again received into Favour and an Establishment was made for a Family about her in which 40 l. a quarter was all the Allowance for her Privy Purse so great was the Frugality of that time Lady Elizabeth continued to be educated with great Care and was so forward that before she was four Years old she both wrote a good Hand and understood Italian for there are Letters extant written by her in that Language to Queen Jane when she was with child in which she subscribed Daughter On the 8th of June the Parliament met A Farliament meets which shews that it was summoned before the Justs at Greenwich The Chancellour told them that the King had called them to settle the Succession of the Crown in case he should dye without Children lawfully begotten and to repeal the Act made concerning his Marriage with Queen Anne It seems the Parliament was not at first easily brought to comply with these things and that it was necessary to take some pains to prepare them to it For the Bill of Succession was not put in till the 30th of June but then it was quickly dispatched without any Opposition by it the Attainder of Queen Anne and her Complices is confirmed both the Sentences of Divorces pass'd upon the King 's two former Marriages were also confirmed and the Issue by both was illegitimated and for ever excluded from claiming the Crown by Lineal Descent And the Succession was established on the King's Issue by his present Queen or any whom he might afterwards marry But it not being fit to declare who should succeed in default of that lest the Person so named might be thereby enabled to raise Commotions in Confidence of the King's Wisdom and Affection to his People they left it to him nominate his Successors either by Letters Patents or by his last Will signed by his Hand and promised to obey the Persons so nominated by him It was declared Treason to maintain the Lawfulness of his former Marriages or of his Issue by them and it was made not only Treason but a forfeiture of the Right of Succession if any of those whom the King should name in default of others should endeavour to get before them The Scots complained of this Act and said their Queen Dowager being King Henry's Eldest Sister could not be put by her Right after the King 's lawful Issue But by this the King was now made Master indeed and had the Crown put entirely in his Hands to be disposed of at his Pleasure and his Daughters were now to depend wholly on him He had it also in his Power in a great measure to pacify the Emperour by providing that his Kinswoman might succeed to the Crown Pope Clement the 7th Pope Paul the 3d proposes a Recoaciliation with the King was now dead and Farnese succeeded by the Name of Paul the 3d who after an unsuccesful Attempt which he made for reconciling himself with the King when that was rejected and Fisher was beheaded thundered out a most terrible Sentence of Deposition against him Yet now since both Queen Katherine and Queen Anne upon whose account the Breach was made were out of the way he thought it a fit time to try what might be done and ordered Cassali to let the King know that he had always favoured his Cause when he was a Cardinal that he was driven very much against his Mind to pass Sentence against him and that now it would be easy for him to recover the Favour of the Apostolick See But the King instead of hearkening to the Proposition Acts against the Pope's Power got two Acts to be pass'd The one was for the utter extinguishing the Pope's Authority and it was made a Premunire for any to acknowledg it or to perswade others to it And a strict Charge was given to all Magistrates under severe Penalties to enquire after all Offenders By another all Bulls and all Priviledges flowing from them were declared null and void only Marriages or Consecrations made by virtue of them were excepted All who enjoyed Priviledges by these Bulls were required to bring them into the Chancery upon which the Arch-bishop was to make them a new Grant of them and that being confirmed under the Great Seal was to be of full force in Law Another Act pass'd explaining an Exception that was in the Act for the Residence of all Incumbents by which those who were at the Universities were dispensed with upon which many went and lived idlely there It was therefore now declared that none above the Age of fourty except Heads and publick Readers should have the Benefit of that Proviso and that none under that Age should be comprehended in it except they performed their Exercises Another Act pass'd in Favour of the King's Heirs if they should Reign before they were of full Age that they might any time before they were 24 repeal by Letters Patents all Acts made during their Minority All these things being concluded the Parliament after it had sate six Weeks was dissolved The Convocation examines some points of Religion The Convocation sate at the same time and was much imployed for the House of Lords was oft adjourned because the Spiritual Lords were busy in the Convocation Latimer preached the Latine Sermon he was the most celebrated Preacher of that time the Simplicity of his matter and his Zeal in expressing it being preferred to more elaborate Composures They first confirmed the Sentence of the Divorce of
he was prevailed with by a Pension of 500 Marks to resign The Inferiour Governours had some 30 20 or 10 l. Pensions and the Monks had generally 6 l. or 8 Marks a piece If any Abbot died the new Abbot they being chosen as the Bishops were upon a Conge delire and a Missive Letter was named for that purpose only to resigne the House And all were made to hope for Advancement that should give good Example to others by a quick and cheerful Surrender by these means 121 of those Houses were this Year resigned to the King In most Houses the Visitor made the Monks sign a Confession of their former Vices and Disorders of which there is only one Original Extant that escaped a general Rasure of all such Papers in Queen Mary's time in which they acknowledged in a long Narrative their former Idleness Gluttony and Sensuaality for which the pit of Hell was ready to swallow them up Others acknowledged that they were sensible that the manner of their former pretended Religion consisted in some dumb Ceremonies by which they were blindly led having no true Knowledg of God's Laws but that they had procured Exemption from their Diocesans and had subjected themselves wholly to a Forreign Power that took no care to reform their Abuses and therefore since the most perfect way of Life was revealed by Christ and his Apostles and that it was fit they should be governed by the King their Supream Head they resigned to him Of this sort I have seen six Some resigned in hopes that the King would found them of new these favoured the Reformation and intended to convert their Houses to better Uses for preaching study and Prayer and Latimer prest Cromwell earnestly that two or three Houses might be reserved for such purposes in every County But it was resolved to suppress all and therefore neither could the Intercessions of the Gentry of Oxfordshire nor of the Visitors preserve the Nunnery at Godstow tho they found great Strictness of Life in it and it was the common place of the Education of young Women of Quality in that County The common Preamble to most Surrenders was That upon full Deliberation and of their own proper Motion for just and reasonable Causes moving their Consciences they did freely give up their Houses to the King Some surrendred without any Preamble to the Visitors as Feofees in trust for the King In short they went on at such a rate that 159 Resignations were obtained before the Parliament met and of these the Originals of 154 are yet extant Some thought that these Resignations could not be valid since the Incumbents had not the Property but only the Trust for life of those Houses But the Parliament did afterwards declare them good in Law It was also said that they being of the Nature of Corporations all Deeds under their Seals were valid and that at least by their Resignation and quitting their Houses they forfeited them to the King But this was thought to subsist rather on a Nicety in Law than natural Equity Others were more roughly handled Some Abbots attainted The Prior of Wooburn was suspected of a Correspondence with the Rebels and of favouring the Pope he was dealt with to submit to the King and he was prevailed on to do it but was not easie in it once nor fixed to it He complained that the new Preachers detracted from the Honour due to the Virgin and Saints he thought the Religion was changed and wondered that the Judgments of God on Q. Anne had not terrified others from going on to subvert the Faith When the Rebellion broke out he joined in it as did also the Abbots of Whaley Garvaux and Sawley and the Prior of Burlington all these were all taken and attainted of Treason and executed The Abbots of Glassenbury and Reading had also sent a great deal of their Plate to the Rebels the former to disguise it the better had made one break into the House where the Plate was kept So he was convicted both of Burglary and Treason and at his Execution he confessed his Crime and begged both God's and the King's Pardon for it The Abbot of Colchester was also attainted and executed but the Grounds of it are not known for the Records of their Attaindors are lost These had over and over again taken the Oaths in which they acknowledged the King to be Supream Head of the Church and were present in those Parliaments in which the several Acts about it were pass'd and did not dissent to them and since they made no Opposition when they might safely and legally do it there is no Reason to think they would have done it afterwards when it was more dangerous and criminal So that all those who have represented them as having suffered for denying the King's Supremacy have therein shewed their Unacquaintedness with the Journals of Parliament The Abbot of Reading had complied so far that he was grown into Favour with Cromwell so that in some Contests between Shaxton Bishop of Salisbury and him the Bishop who was a proud ill-natured Man complained that Cromwell supported the Abbot against him and writ upon that a very Insolent Expostulatory Letter to him which Cromwell answered with great strength of Reason and Decency of Stile by which it appears that heighth of his Condition had no other Effect on him but to make him know himself and others better Upon the Attainders of those Abbots their Abbies were seized on and this was thought a great stretch both in Law and Equity for it seemed not reasonable if an Incumbent was faulty for that to seize on his Benefice which upon his Attainder ought to continue entire and pass to the next Successor as if he were really dead But a Clause was put in the Act of Treason 26 Hen. 8 That whatsoever Lands of Estate of Inheritance any that should be convicted of Treason had in Vse or Possession by any Right or manner should be forfeited to the King By which as intailed Estates were certainly comprehended so it seems they applied it likewise to Church-Benefices yet when the Bishop of Rochester was attainted this was not thought on The words Estate of Inheritance seemed to exclude Church-Lands but the mention that was made of Traitors Successors that were cut off as well as their Heirs seemed on the other hand to include Estates to which Successors might come in a Traitor's room as well as those which descended by Inheritance The Words were ambiguous and were stretched to justify those Seizures and therefore in an Act of Treasons made in the next Reign this was more cautiously worded for it was provided that Traitors should forfeit the Estates which they possessed in their own Right But whatsoever Illegality there might be in these Proceedings they were confirmed by the following Parliament in a special Proviso made concerning those Abbies that were seized on by any Attainders of Treason Many of the Carthusians were executed for denying the
three were condemned for some Words which they had spoken against the Mass and upon that were burnt Dr. London and Simonds an Attorney had taken some Informations against several Persons of Quality at Court and intended to have carried the Design very high But a great Pacquet in which all their Project was disclosed by them being intercepted they were sent for and examined about it but they denied it upon Oath not knowing that their Letters were taken and were not a little confounded when their own Hand-writing was shewed them So they were convicted of Perjury and were set on a Pillory and made ride about with their Faces to the Horses Tails and Papers on their Breasts in three several Places which did so affect Dr. London that he died soon after Cranmer 's Ruine is designed The chief thing aimed at by the whole Popish Party was Cranmer's Ruine Gardiner imploied many to infuse it into the King that he gave the chief Encouragement to Heresy of any in England and that it was in vain to lop off the Branches and leave the Root still growing The King till then would never hear the Complaints that were made of him But now to penetrate into the depth of this Design he was willing to draw out all that was to be said against him Gardiner reckoned that this Point being gained all the rest would follow And judged that the King was now alienated from him and so more Instruments and Artifices than ever were now made use of A long Paper of many Particulars both against Cranmer and his Chaplains was put in the King's hands So upon this the King sent for him and after he had complained much of the Heresy in England he said He resolved to find out the chief Promoter of it and to make him an Example Cranmer wished him first to consider well what Heresy was that so he might not condemn those as Hereticks who stood for the Word of God against Humane Inventions Then the King told him franckly That he was the Man complained of as most guilty and shewed him all the Informations that he had received against him Cranmer confessed he was still of the same mind that he was of when he opposed the six Articles and submitted himself to a Trial He confessed many things to the King in particular that he had a Wife but he said he had sent her out of England when the Act of the six Articles past and expressed so great a Sincerity and put so entire a Confidence in the King that instead of being ruined he was now better established with him than formerly The King commanded him to appoint some to examine the Contrivance that was laid to destroy him He answered That it was not decent for him to nominate any to judge in a Cause in which himself was concerned Yet the King was positive so so he named some to go about it and the whole secret was found out It appeared that Gardiner and Dr. London had been the chief Sticklers and had encouraged Informers to appear against him Cranmer did not press the King to give him any Reparation for he was so noted for his readiness to forgive Injuries and to do Good for Evil that it was commonly said that the best way to obtain his Favour was to do him an Injury of this he gave signal Instances at this time both in Relation to some of the Clergy and Laity by which it appeared that he was acted by that meek and lowly Spirit that became all the Followers of Christ but more particularly one that was so great an Instrument in reforming the Christian Religion and did in such eminent Acts of Charity shew that he himself practised that which he taught others to do A Parliament was now called The Act of the Succession in which the great Act of Succession to the Crown past By it the Crown was first provided to Prince Edward and his Heirs or the Heirs by the King 's present Marriage after them to Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth and in case they had no Issue or did not observe such Limitations or Conditions as the King should appoint then it was to fall to any other whom the King should name either by his Letters Patents or by his last Will signed with his Hand An Oath was appointed both against the Pope's Supremacy and for the maintaining Succession according to this Act which all were required to take under the pains of Treason It was made Treason to say or write any thing contrary to this Act or to the Slander of any of the King's Heirs named in it By this tho the King did not Legitimate his Daughters yet it was made Criminal for any to object Bastardy to them Another Act past qualifying the Severity of the Act of the six Articles none were to be imprisoned but upon a Legal Presentment except upon the King's Warrant None was to be challenged for Words but within a Year nor for a Sermon but within 40 Days This was made to prevent such Conspiracies as had been discovered the former Year Another Act past renewng the Authority given to 32 to reform the Ecclesiastical Law which Cranmer promoted much and to set it forward he drew out of the Canon Law a Collection of many things against the Regal and for the Papal Authority with several other very Extravagant Propositions to shew how Indecent a thing it was to let a Book in which such things were continue still in any credit in England But he could not bring this to any good Issue during this Reign Another Act past discharging all the King's Debts and they also required such as had received payment to bring back the Money into the Exchequer This was taxed as a piece of gross Injustice and it was thought strange that since the King had done this once before he could have the credit to raise more Mony and be tempted to do it a second time A General Pardon was granted out of which Heresy was excepted The King was now engaged in a War The King makes War on France and Scotland both with France and Scotland and to make his Treasure hold out the longer he embased the Coin in a very Extraordinary manner The Earl of Hartford was sent with an Army by Sea to Scotland he landed at Grantham a little above Leith He burnt both Leith and Edinburgh but he neither staied to take the Castle of Edinburgh nor did he Fortify Leith but only wasted the Country all the Way from that to Berwick He did too much if it was intended to gain the Hearts of that Nation and too little if it was intended to subdue them for this did only inflame their Spirits more by which they were so united in their Aversion to England that the Earl of Lennox who had been cast off by France and was gone over to the English Interest could make no Party in the West but was forced for his own Preservation to fly into
guilty were to be punished in the same manner The Innocent Party might marry again after a Divorce Desertion or Mortal Enmity or the constant perversness of a Husband might induce a Divorce but little quarrels nor a perpetual Disease might not do it and the separation from Bed and Board except during a Trial was never to be allowed 11. Patrons were charged to give presentations without making bargains to choose the fittest persons and not to make promises till the Livings were vacant The Bishops were required to use great strictness in the Trial of those whom they ordained all Pluralities and Non-residence were condemned and all that were presented were to purge themselves of Simony by Oath The twelfth and thirteenth were concerning the changing of Benefices The fourteenth was concerning the manner of purgation upon common fame all superstitious Purgations were condemned Others followed about Dilapidations Elections and Collations The nineteenth was concerning Divine Offices The Communion was ordered to be every Sunday in Cathedrals and a Sermon was to be in them in the afternoon such as received the Sacrament were to give notice to the Minister the day before that he might examine their Consciences The Catechism was appointed to be explained for an Hour in the afternoon on Holy-days After the Evening Prayer the Poor were to be taken care of Penances were to be enjoyned to scandalous Persons and the Minister was to confer with some of the Ancients of the People concerning the state of the Parish That admonitions and censures might be applied as there was occasion given The twentieth was concerning other Church-Officers A Rural Dean was to be in every Precinct to watch over the Clergy according to the Bishops directions Archdeacons were to be over them and the Bishop over all who was to have yearly Synods and visit every third Year His Family was to consist of Clergymen in imitation of St. Austin and other ancient Bishops these he was to train up for the service of the Church When Bishops became infirm they were to have Co-adjutors Arch-bishops were to do the Episcopal duties in their Diocess and to visit their Province Every Synod was to begin with a Communion and after that the Ministers were to give an account of their Parishes and follow such directions as the Bishop should give them Other heads followed concerning Church-Wardens Tithes Universities Visitations and several sorts of Censures In the thirtieth a large Scheme was drawn of Excommunication which was intrusted to Church-men for keeping the Church pure and was not to be inflicted but for obstinacy in some gross fault all causes upon which it was pronounced were to be examined before the Minister of the Parish a Justice of Peace and some other Church-men It was to be pronounced and intimated with great seriousness and all were to be warned not to keep company with the person censured under the like pains except those of his own Family Upon his continuing forty days obstinate under it a Writ was to be issued out for Commitment till the Sentence should be taken off Such as had the King's Pardon for Capital offences were yet liable to Church censures Then followed the Office of absolving Penitents They were to come to the Church-door and crave admittance and the Minister having brought them in was to read a long discourse concerning Sin Repentance and the Mercies of God Then the Party was to confess his sin and to ask God and the Congregation pardon upon which the Minister was to lay his hands on his Head and to pronounce the Absolution Then a thanksgiving was to be offered to God at the Communion Table for the reclaiming that sinner The other Heads of this work relate to the other parts of the Law of those Courts It is certain that the abounding of Vice and Impiety flows in a great measure from the want of that strictness of censure which was the glory of the Christian Church in the Primitive times and it is a publick connivance at sin that there have not been more effectual ways taken for making sinners ashamed and denying them the Priviledges of Christians till they have changed their ill course of life There were at this time also remedies under consideration The Poverty of the Clergy for the great misery and poverty the Clergy were generally in but the Laity were so much concerned to oppose all these that there was no hope of bringing them to any good effect till the King should come to be of Age himself and endeavour to recover again a competent maintenance for the Clergy out of their hands who had devoured their Revenues Both Heath and Day the Bishops of Worcester and Chichester were this Year deprived of their Bishopricks by a Court of Delegates that were all Lay-men But it does not appear for what offences they were so censured The Bishopricks of Gloucester and Worcester were both united and put under Hooper's care but soon after the former was made an exempted Archdeaconry and he was declared Bishop only of Worcester In every See as it fell vacant the best Mannors were laid hold on by such hungry Courtiers as had the Interest to procure the Grant of them It was thought that the Bishops Sees were so out of Measure enriched that they could never be made poor enough but such hast was made in spoiling them that they were reduced to so low a condition that it was hardly possible for a Bishop to subsist in them If what had been thus taken from them had been converted to good uses such as the supplying the Inferiour Clergy it had been some mitigation of so heinous a robbery But their Lands were snatched up by Laymen who thought of making no Compensation to the Church for the spoils thus made by them This Year the Reformation had some more footing in Ireland than formerly Affairs in Ireland Henry the VIII had assumed to himself by consent of the Parliament of that Kingdom the Title of King of Ireland the former Kings of England having only been called Lords of it The Popes and Emperours have pretended that such Titles could be given only by them The former said all power in Heaven and Earth was given to Christ and by consequence to his Vicar The latter as carrying the Title of Roman Emperour pretended that as they Anciently bestowed those Titles so that devolved on them who retained only the name and shadow of that Great Authority But Princes and States have thought that they may bring themselves under what Titles they please In Ireland though the Kings of England were well obeyed within the English Pale yet the Irish continued barbarous and uncivilised and depended on the heads of their Names or Tribes and were obedient or did rebel as they directed them In Vlster they had a great dependance on Scotland and there were some risings there during the War with Scotland which were quieted by giving the Leading-men Pensions and getting them to come and live within
affairs so well that the Ambassadours that were sent into England published very extraordinary things of him in all the Courts of Europe He had great quickness of apprehension but being distrustful of his Memory he took Notes of every thing he heard that was considerable in Greek Characters that those about him might not understand what he writ which he afterwards Copied out fair in the Journal that he kept His Virtues were wonderful when he was made believe that his Unkle was guilty of conspiring the death of the other Counsellours he upon that abandoned him Barnaby Fitzpatrick was his Favourite and when he sent him to travel he writ oft to him to keep good Company to avoid excess and Luxury and to improve himself in those things that might render him capable of Imployment at his return He was afterwards made Lord of Upper Ossory in Ireland by Queen Elizabeth and did answer the hopes that this excellent King had of him He was very merciful in his nature which appeared in his unwillingness to sign the Warrant for burning the Maid of Kent He took great care to have his debts well paid reckoning that a Prince who breaks his Faith and loses his Credit has thrown up that which he can never recover and made himself liable to perpetual distrust and extreme contempt He took special care of the Petitions that were given him by poor and opprest People But his great zeal for Religion crowned all the rest It was not only an angry heat about it that acted him but it was a true tenderness of conscience founded on the love of God his Neighbors These extraordinary qualities set off with great sweetness and affability made him be universally beloved by all his People Some called him their Josias others Edward the Saint and others called him the Phoenix that rise out of his Mothers ashes and all People concluded that the sins of England must have been very great since they provoked God to deprive the Nation of so signal a blessing as the rest of his Reign would have by all appearance proved Ridley and the other good Men of that time made great lamentations of the Vices that were grown then so common that Men had past all shame in them Luxury Oppression and a hatred of Religion had over-run the higher rank of People who gave a countenance to the Reformation meerly to rob the Church but by that and their other practices were become a great scandal to so good a work The inferiour sort were so much in the power of the Priests who were still notwithstanding their outward Compliance Papists in heart and were so much offended at the spoil they saw made of all good endowments without putting other and more useful ones in their room that they who understood little of Religion laboured under great prejudices against every thing that was advanced by such tools And these things as they provoked God highly so they disposed the People much to that sad Catastrophe which is to be the subject of the next Book BOOK III. Book III 1553. THE LIFE and REIGN OF Queen MARY BY King Edward's death Qu. Mary succeeds the Crown devolved according to Law on his Eldest Sister Mary who was within half a days Journey to the Court when she had notice given her by the Earl of Arundel of her Brother's death and of the Patent for Lady Jane's succession and this prevented her falling into the Trap that was laid for her Upon that she retired to Framlingham in Suffolk both to be near the Sea that she might escape to Flanders in case of a misfortune and because the slaughter that was made of Kets People by Northumberland begat him the hatred of the People in that Neighbourhood Before she got thither she wrote on the 9th of July to the Council and let them know she understood that her Brother was dead by which she succeeded to the Crown but wondred that she heard not from them she knew well what Consultations they had engaged in but she would pardon all that was done to such as would return to their duty and proclaim her Title to the Crown By this it was found that the Kings death could be no longer kept secret so some of the Privy Council went to Lady Jane and acknowledged her their Queen The news of the King's death afflicted her much and her being raised to the Throne rather encreased than lessened her trouble She was a very extraordinary Person both for Body and Mind She had learned both the Greek and Latine Tongues to great perfection and delighted much in study She read Plato in Greek and drunk in the Precepts of true Philosophy so early that as she was not tainted with the levities not to say Vices of those of her Age and condition so she seemed to have attained to the practice of the highest notions of Philosophy for in those sudden turns of her condition as she was not exalted with the prospect of a Crown so she was as little cast down when her Palace was made her Prison The only passion she shewed was that of the Noblest kind in the concern she exprest for her Father and Husband who fell with her and seemingly on her account though really Northumberland's ambition and her Father's weakness ruined her She rejected the offer of the Crown when it was first made her she said she knew that of right it belonged to the late King's Sisters and so she could not with a good Conscience assume it but it was told her that both the Judges and Privy Councellours had declared that it fell to her according to Law This joyned with the Importunities of her Husband who had more of his Father's Temper than of her Philosophy in him made her submit to it Upon this XXI Privy Councellours set their hands to a Letter to Queen Mary letting her know that Queen Jane was now their Soveraign and that the Marriage between her Father and Mother was null so she could not succeed to the Crown and therefore they required her to lay down her Pretensions and to submit to the settlement now made and if she gave a ready obedience to these Commands they promised her much favour The day after this they proclaimed Jane But Lady Jane Gray is proclaimed In it they set forth That the late King had by Patent excluded his Sisters that both were illegitimated by sentences past in the Ecclesiastical Courts and confirmed in Parliament and at best they were only his Sisters by the half blood and so not inheritable by the Law of England There was also cause to fear that they might marry strangers and change the Laws and subject the Nation to the Tyranny of the See of Rome Next to them the Crown fell to the Dutchess of Suffolk and it was provided that if she should have no Sons when the King died the Crown should devolve on her Daughter who was born and married in the Kingdom Upon which
shew no favour All the distinction was that the Lord Stourton was hanged in a silken Rope This was much extolled as an Instance of the Queens Impartial Justice and it was said that since she left her Friends to the Law her Enemies had no cause to complain if it was executed on them The War breaking out between Spain and France The Queen joyns in the War against France King Philip had a great mind to engage England in it The Queen complained often of the kind reception that was given to the fugitives that fled from England to France and it was believed that the French secretly supplied and encouraged them to imbroil her affairs One Stafford had this Year gathered many of them together and landing in Yorkshire he surprised the Castle of Scarborough and published a Manifesto against the Queen that by bringing in strangers to govern the Nation she had forfeited her right to the Crown but few came in to him so he and his Complices were forced to render and four of them were hanged The English Ambassadour in France Dr. Wotton discovered that the Constable had a design to take Calais for he sent his own Nephew whom he had brought over and instructed secretly to him he pretended he was sent from a great Party in that Town who were resolved to deliver it up at which the Constable seemed not a little glad and entred into a long discourse with him of the Methods of taking it yet all this made no great Impression on the Queen All her Council chiefly the Clergy were against engaging for they saw that would oblige them to slacken their severities at home so the King found it necessary to come over himself and perswade her to it He prevailed with her and after a denunciation of War she sent over 80000. Men to his assistance who joyned the Spanish Army consisting of 50000. that was set down before St. Quintin The Constable of France came with a great force to raise the Siege The Battel of S. Quintin but when the two Armies were in view of one another the French by a mistake in the word of command fell in disorder upon which the Spaniards charged them with such success that the whole Army was defeated Many were killed on the place and many were taken Prisoners among whom was the Constable himself and the Spaniards lost only fifty Men. Had Philip followed this blow and marched straight to Paris he had found all France in a great consternation but he sat still before S. Quintin which held out till the terror of this defeat was much over The Constable lost his reputation in it and all looked on it as a curse upon that King for the breach of his Faith The French Troops were called out of Italy upon which the Pope being now exposed to the Spaniards fell in strange fits of rage The Pope recalls Pool particularly he inveighed much against Pool for suffering the Queen to joyn with the Enemies of the Apostolick See and having made a General Decree recalling all his Legates and Nuntio's in the Spanish Dominions he recalled Pool's Legatine power among the rest and neither the Intercessions of the Queen's Ambassadours nor the other Cardinals could prevail with him to alter it only as an extraordinary Grace he consented not to intimate it to him But after this he went further He made Friar Peyto a Cardinal he liked him for his railing against King Henry to his Face and thought that since the Queen had made him her Confessor he would be very acceptable to her He recalled Pool's powers and required him to come to Rome and answer to some Complaints made of him for the favour he shewed to Hereticks He also declared Peyto his Legate for England and writ to the Queen to receive him but the Queen ordered the Bulls and Briefs that were sent over to be laid up without opening them which had been the method formerly practised when unacceptable Bulls were sent over She sent word to Peyto not to come into England otherwise she would sue him and all that owned him in a Praemunire He died soon after Cardinal Pool laid aside the Ensigns of a Legate and sent over Ormaneto with so submissive a Message that the Pope was much mollified by it and a Treaty of Peace being set on foot this storm went over The Duke of Alva marched near Rome which was in no condition to resist him so the Pope in great fury called the Cardinals together and told them he was resolved to suffer Martyrdom without being daunted which they who knew that he had drawn all this on himself by his Ambition and Rage could scarce hear without laughter Yet the Duke of Alva was willing to treat The haughty Pope though he was forced to yield in the chief points yet in the punctilio's of Ceremonies he stood so high upon his honour which he said was Christ's honour that he declared he would see the whole World ruined rather than yield in a Title In that the Duke of Alva was willing enough to comply with him so he came to Rome and in his Master's name asked pardon for Invading the Patrimony of S. Peter and the Pope gave him Absolution in as Insolent a manner as if he had been the Conqueror The news of this Reconciliation were received in England with all the publickest expressions of joy In Scotland the Queen Regent studied to engage that Nation in the War all that favoured the Reformation were for it but the Clergy opposed it The Queen thought to draw them into it whether they would or not and sent in D'oisell to besiege a Castle in England But the Scotch Lords complained much of that and required him to give over his attempt otherwise they would declare him an Enemy to the Nation So after some slight skirmishes on the Borders the matter was put up on both sides This made the Queen Regent write to France pressing them to conclude the Marriage between the Dolphin and the Queen upon which a Message was sent from that Court desiring the Scots to send over Commissioners to treat about the Articles of the Marriage and some of every State were dispatched for setling that matter There was this Year great want of Money in the Exchequer of England and the backwardness of the last Parliament made the Council unwilling to call a new one It was tried what Sums could be raised by Loan upon Privy Seals but so little came in that way that at last one was Summoned to meet in January yet in the mean while advertisements were given them of the ill condition in which the Garrisons of Calais and the neighbouring places were and that the French had a design on them but either they thought there was no danger during the Winter or they wanted Money so much that no care was taken to secure them In Germany Affairs in Germany the Papists did this Year blow up the differences between the Lutherans and