you shall find any Person stubborn or disobedient in not bringing in the said Books according to the tenour of these our Letters that then ye commit the said Person to Ward unto such time as you have certified us of his misbehaviour And we will and command you that you also search or cause search to be made from time to time whether any Book be withdrawn or hid contrary to the tenour of these our Letters and the same Book to receive into your Hands and to use all in these our Letters we have appointed And further whereas it is come unto our knowledg that divers froward and obstinate Persons do refuse to pay towards the finding of Bread and Wine for the Holy Communion according to the Order prescribed in the said Book by reason whereof the Holy Communion is many times omitted upon the Sunday These are to will and command you to convent such obstinate Persons before you and then to admonish and command to keep the Order prescribed in the said Book and if any shall refuse so to do to punish them by Suspension Excommunication or other Censures of the Church Fail you not thus to do as you will avoid our Displeasure Westminst Decemb. 25. Regni tertio Thom. Cantuarien Rich. Chanc. Will. St. John J. Russel H. Dorset W. Northampton Number 48. Cardinal Woolsey's Letters to Rome for procuring the Popedom to himself upon Pope Adrian's death Ex MS. Col. Cor. C. Cant. MY Lord of Bath Mr. Secretary and Mr. Hannibal I commend me unto you in my right hearty manner letting you wit That by Letters lately sent unto me from you my Lord of Bath and Mr. Hannibal dated at Rome the 14th day of September Which Letters I incontinently shewed unto the King's Grace his Highness And I have been advertised to our great discomfort That the said 14th day it pleased Almighty God to call the Pope's Holiness unto his Infinite Mercy whose Soul Jesu pardon News certainly unto the King's Grace and to me right heavy and for the universal weal or quiet of Christendom whereunto his Holiness like a devout and virtuous Father of Holy Church was very studious much displeasant and contrarious Nevertheless conforming our selves to the Pleasure of Almighty God to whose Calling we all must be obedient the Mind and Intention of the King's Highness and of me both is to put some helps and furtherances as much as conveniently may be that such a Successor unto him may now by the Holy College of Cardinals be named and elected as may with God's Grace perform atchieve and fulfil the good and vertuous Purposes and Intents concerning the Pacification of Christendom whereunto our said late Holy Father as much as the brevity of the time did suffer was as it should seem minded and inclined which thing how necessary it is to the state of Christs Religion now daily more and more declining it is facil and easie to be consider'd and surely amongst other Christian Princes there is none which as ye heretofore have perfectly understood that to this purpose more dedicated themselves to give Furtherance Advice and Counsel than the Emperor and the King's Grace who as well before the time of the last Vacation as sithence by Mouth and by Letters with Report of Ambassadors and otherwise had many sundry Conferences Communications and Devices in that behalf In which it hath pleased them far above my merits or deserts of their goodness to think judg and esteem me to be meet and able for to aspire unto that Dignity persuading exhorting and desiring me that whensoever opportunity should be given I should hearken to their Advice Counsel and Opinion in that behalf and offering unto me to interpone their Authorities Helps and Furtherances therein to the uttermost In comprobation whereof albeit the Emperor now being far distant from these Parts could not nor might in so brief time give unto the King's Grace new or fresh confirmation of his Purpose Desire and Intent herein Yet nevertheless my Lady Margaret knowing the inclination of his mind in this same hath by a long discourse made unto me semblable Exhortation offering as well on the Emperor's behalf as on her own that as much shall by them be done to the furtherance thereof as may be possible Besides this both by your Letters and also by particular most loving Letters of the Cardinal 's de Medicis Sanctorum Quatuor Campegius with credence show'd unto me on their behalf by their Folks here resident I perceive their good and fast minds which they and divers other their Friends owe unto me in that matter And finally the King's Highness doth not cease by all the gracious and comfortable means possible to insist that I for manifold notable urgent and great respects in any wise shall consent that his Grace and the Emperor do set forth the thing with their best manner The Circumstances of whose most entire and most firm mind thereunto with their bounteous godly and beneficial Offers for the Weal of Christendom which his Grace maketh to me herein is too long to rehearse For which Causes albeit I know my self far unmeet and unable to so high a Dignity minding rather to live and die with his Grace in this his Realm doing Honour Service Good or Pleasure to the same than now mine old days approaching to enter into new things yet nevertheless for the great zeal and perfect mind which I have to the exaltation of the Christian Faith the honour weal and surety of the King's Grace and the Emperor and to do my Duty both to Almighty God and to the World I referring every thing to God's disposition and pleasure shall not pretermit to declare unto you such things as the King's Highness hath specially willed me to signify unto you on his Grace's behalf who most effectually willeth and desireth you to set forth the same omitting nothing that may be to the furtherance thereof as his special trust is in you First Ye shall understand that the mind and entire desire of his Highness above all earthly things is That I should attain to the said Dignity having his perfect and firm hope that of the same shall ensue and that in brief time a general and universal Repose Tranquillity and Quietness in Christendom and as great Renown Honour Profit and Reputation to this Realm as ever was besides the singular comfort and rejoice that the King's Grace with all his Friends and Subjects should take thereof who might be well assured thereby to compone and order their great Causes and Affairs to their high Benefit Commodity and most Advantage For this and other great and urgent Causes the Pleasure of his Highness is That like-as ye my Lord of Bath and Mr. Hannibal have right prudently and discreetly begun so ye all or as many of you as be present in the Court of Rome and continue your Practices Overtures Motions and Labours to bring and conduce this the King 's inward Desire to perfect end
repealed and it was Enacted That from the first of May none should eat Flesh on Fridays Saturdays Ember-days in Lent or any other days that should be declared Fish-days under several Penalties A Proviso was added for excepting such as should obtain the Kings Licence or were sick or weak and that none should be indicted but within three Months after the Offence Christ had told his Disciples that when he should be taken from them then they should fast Accordingly the Primitive Christians used to fast oft more particularly before the Anniversary of the Passion of Christ which ended in a high Festivity at Easter Yet this was differently observed as to the number of days Some abstained 40 days in imitation of Christs Fast others only that Week and others had only an entire Fast from the time of Christs death till his Resurrection On these Fasts they eat nothing till the Evening and then they eat most commonly Herbs and Roots Afterwards the Fridays were kept as Fasts because on that day Christ suffered Saturdays were also added in the Roman Church but not without contradiction Ember-weeks came in afterwards being some days before those Sundays in which Orders were given And a General Rule being laid down that every Christian Festival should be preceded by a Fast thereupon the Vigils of Holy-days came though not so soon into the Number But this with the other good Institutions of the Primitive times became degenerate even in St. Austins time Religion came to be placed in these observances and anxious Rules were made about them Afterwards in the Church of Rome they were turned into a Mockery for as on Fast-days they dined which the Ancients did not so the use of the most delicious Fish drest in the most exquisite manner with the richest Wines that could be had was allowed which made it ridiculous So now they resolved to take off the severities of the former Laws and yet to keep up such Laws about Fasting and Abstinence as might be agreeable to its true end which is to subdue the Flesh to the Spirit and not to gratifie it by a change of one sort of diet into another which may be both more delicate and more inflaming So fond a thing is Superstition that it will help Men to deceive themselves by the slightest Pretences that can be imagined It was much lamented then and there is as much cause for it still that carnal Men have taken advantages from the abuses that were formerly practised to throw off good and profitable Institutions since the frequent use of Fasting with Prayer and true Devotion joyned to it is perhaps one of the greatest helps that can be devised to advance one to a spiritual temper of Mind and to promote a holy course of Life And the mockery that is discernable in the way of some Mens Fasting is a very slight excuse for any to lay aside the use of that which the Scriptures have so much recommended Some Bills were rejected There were other Bills put in into both Houses but did not pass One was for declaring it Treason to marry the Kings Sisters without consent of the King and his Council but it was thought that King Henry's Will disabling them from the Succession in that case would be a stronger restraint and so it was laid aside Another Bill was put in for Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Great Complaints were made of the abounding of Vices and Immoralities which the Clergy could neither restrain nor punish and so they had nothing left but to preach against them which was done by many with great freedom In some of these Sermons the Preachers expressed their apprehensions of signal and speedy Judgments from Heaven if the People did not repent but their Sermons had no great effect for the Nation grew very corrupt and this brought on them severe punishments The Temporal Lords were so jealous of putting power in Church-mens hands especially to correct those vices of which themselves perhaps were most guilty that the Bill was laid aside The pretence of opposing it was that the greatest part of the Bishops and Clergy were still Papists in their Hearts so that if Power were put into such Mens hands it was reasonable to expect they would employ it chiefly against those who favoured the Reformation and would vex them on that score though with Pretences fetched from other things A design for digesting the Common Law into a Body There was also put into the House of Commons a Bill for reforming of Processes at Common Law which was sent up by the Commons to the Lords but it fell in that House I have seen a large Discourse written then upon that Argument in which it is set forth that the Law of England was a barbarous kind of Study and did not lead Men into a finer sort of Learning which made the Common Lawyers to be generally so ignorant of Forreign Matters and so unable to negotiate in them therefore it was proposed that the Common and Statute Laws should be in imitation of the Roman Law digested into a Body under Titles and Heads and put in good Latin But this was too great a Design to be set on or finished under an Infant King If it was then necessary it will be readily acknowledged to be much more so now the Volume of our Statutes being so much swell'd since that time besides the vast number of Reports and Cases and the Pleadings growing much longer than formerly yet whether this is a thing to be much expected or desired I refer it to the learned and wise Men of that Robe The only Act that remains of this Session of Parliament The Admirals Attainder about which I shall inform the Reader is the Attainder of the Admiral The Queen Dowager that had married him died in September last not without suspition of Poison She was a good and vertuous Lady and in her whole Life had done nothing unseemly but the marrying him so indecently and so soon after the Kings death There was found among her Papers a Discourse written by her concerning her self entituled The Lamentation of a Sinner which was published by Cecil who writ a Preface to it In it she with great sincerity acknowledges the sinful course of her Life for many years in which she relying on External Performances such as Fasts and Pilgrimages was all that while a Stranger to the Internal and True Power of Religion which she came afterwards to feel by the study of the Scripture and the calling upon God for his Holy Spirit She explains clearly the Notion she had of Justification by Faith so that Holiness necessarily followed upon it but lamented the great scandal given by many Gospellers So were all these called who were given to the reading of the Scriptures She being thus dead The Queen Dowager dying he courted the Lady Eliz. the Admiral renewed his Addresses to the Lady Elizabeth but in vain for as he could not expect that his Brother and the Council
if they might conveniently chuse they would not And in this Matter of the Queen of Scotland since she doth offer both to leave the cause of the difference that is between the Queen's Majesty and her and also to give all Surety that may be by our selves devised to observe the same I do not see but such means may be devised to tie her so strongly as though she would break yet I cannot find what advantage she shall get by it For beside that I would have her own simple Renunciation to be made by the most substantial Instrument that could be devised The assent of some others should confirm the same also Her own Parliaments at home should do the like with the full Authority of the whole Estates They should deliver her Son and such other principal Noblemen of her Realm for Hostages as the Queen's Majesty should name She should also put into her Majesty's Hands some one piece or two of her Realm and for such a time as should be thought meet by her Majesty except Edinburgh The Queens Majesty might also by ratifying this by a Parliament here make a Forfeiture if the Queen of Scotland should any way directly or indirectly go about to infringe this Agreement of all such Titles and Claims that did remain in the Queen of Scotland after her Majesty and her Issue never to be capable of any Authority or Soveraignty within this Realm These I would think to be sufficient Bonds to bind any Prince specially no mightier than she is And this much more would I have that even as she shall be thus bound for the relief of her Title to the Queen's Majesty and her Issue So shall she suffer the Religion received and established in Scotland already to be confirmed and not altered In like sort the Amity between these two Realms to be such and so frankly united as no other League with any Forreign Prince should stand in force to break it For I think verily as the first is chiefest touching her Majesty's own Person so do I judg the latter I mean the confirmation of the Religion already there received to be one of the assuredst and likeliest means to hold her Majesty a strong and continual Party in Scotland The trial hereof hath been already sufficient when her Majesty had none other Interest at all but only the maintenance of the True Religion the same Cause remaining still the same affection in the same Persons that do profess it I trust and it is like will not change And thougn the Scots Queen should now be setled in her Kingdom again yet is she not like to be greater or better esteemed now than heretofore when both her Authority was greater and her good will ready to alter this Religion but could not bring it to pass No more is it like these further Provisions being taken she shall do it now And the last Cause also is not without great hope of some good Success for as the oppression of Strangers heretofore had utterly wearied them of that Yoke so hath this peaceable time between them and us made them know the Liberty of their own and the Commodity of us their Neighbours This my Lord doth lead me to lean to this Opinion finding thereby rather both more surety and more quietness for my Soveraign's present time having by the contrary many occasions of trouble cut off and the intolerable Charge eschewed which I cannot find by any possible means her Majesty able to sustain for any long time Thus hastily I am driven to end my long cumbersome Letter to your Lordship though very desirous to impart my mind herein to your Lordship Number 13. The Bull of Pope Pius the Fifth Deposing Queen Elizabeth absolving her Subjects from the Oaths of Allegiance and Anathematising such as continued in their Obedience Pius Episcopus Servus Servorum Dei ad futuram rei memoriam REgnans in Excelsis cui data est omnis in Coelo in Terra Potestas Potestas Petri unam Sanctam Catholicam Apostolicam Ecclesiam extra quam nulla est Salus uni soli in Terris videlicet Apostolorum Principi Petro Petrique Successori Romano Pontifici in potestatis plenitudine tradidit gubernandam Hunc unum super omnes gentes omnia Regna Principem constituit qui evellat destruat disperdat plantet edificet ut fidelem populum mutuae charitatis nexu constrictum in unitate Spiritus contineat salvumque incolumem suo exhibeat Salvatori Quo quidem in munere obeundo nos ad praedictae Ecclesiae gubernacula Dei benignitate vocati nullum laborem intermittimus omni opere contendentes ut ipsa Unitas Catholica Religio quam illius autor ad probandum suorum fidem correctionem nostram tantis procellis conflictare permisit integra conservetur Sed impiorum numerus tantum potentia invaluit Elizabethae Flagitia ut nullus jam in Orbe locus sit relictus quem illi pessimis doctrinis corrumpere non tentarint adnitente inter caeteros flagitiorum Serva Elizabetha praetensa Angliae Regina ad quam veluti ad asylum omnium infestissimi profugium invenerunt Haec eadem Regno occupato Supremi Ecclesiae capitis locum in omni Anglia ejusque praecipuam autoritatem atque Jurisdictionem monstrose sibi usurpans Regnum ipsum jam tum ad fidem Catholicam bonam frugem reductum rursus in miserum exitium revocavit Usu namque verae Religionis quam ab illius desertore Henrico Octavo olim eversam clarae memoriae Maria Regina legitima hujus sedis praesidio reparaverat potenti manu inhibito Secutisque amplexis Haereticorum erroribus Regium Consilium ex Anglica Nobilitate confectum diremit illudque obscuris hominibus Haereticis complevit Catholicae Fidei cultores oppressit improbos Concionatores atque impietatum administros reposuit Missae Sacrificium Preces Jejunia ciborum delectum Coelibatum Ritusque Catholicos abolevit libros manifestam Haeresim continentes toto Regno proponi impia mysteria instituta ad Calvini praescriptum a se suscepta observata etiam a subditis servari mandavit Episcopos Ecclesiarum Rectores alios Sacerdotes Catholicos suis Ecclesiis Beneficiis ejicere ac de illis aliis rebus Ecclesiasticis in Haereticos homines disponere deque Ecclesiae causis decernere ausa Prelatis Clero Populo ne Romanam Ecclesiam agnoscerent neve ejus praeceptis Sanctionibusque Canonicis obtemperarent interdixit plerosque in nefarias leges suas venire Romani Pontificis autoritatem atque obedientiam abjurare seque solam in Temporalibus Spiritualibus Dominam agnoscere jurejurando coegit poenas supplicia eis qui dicto non essent audientes imposuit easdemque ab iis qui in unitate fidei predicta obedientia perseverarunt exegit Catholicos Antistites Ecclesiarum Rectores in vincula conjecit ubi multi diuturno languore tristitia
what the Popes had sacrilegiously taken from them And now that we are upon the utter extirpation of Popery let us not retain this Relique of it And I pray God to inspire and direct His Majesty and His two Houses of Parliament effectually to remove this just and for ought I know only great scandal of our English Reformation A fifth Prejudice which seems to give ill impressions of our Reformation is that the Clergy have now no interest in the Consciences of the People nor any inspection into their manners but they are without yoke or restraint All the Ancient Canons for the publick Pennance of scandalous offenders are laid aside and our Clergy are so little admitted to know or direct the Lives and Manners of their Flocks that many will scarce bear a reproof patiently from them Our Ecclesiastical Courts are not in the Hands of the Bishops and their Clergy but put over to the Civilians where too often Fees are more strictly look'd after than the correction of Manners I hope there is not cause for so great a Cry but so it is these Courts are much complained of and publick vice and scandal is but little enquired after or punished Excommunication is become a kind of Secular Sentence and is hardly now considered as a Spiritual Censure being judged and given out by Lay-men and often upon Grounds which to speak moderately do not merit so severe and dreadful a Sentence There are besides this a great many other Abuses brought in in the worst Times and now purged out of some of the Churches of the Roman Communion which yet continue and are too much in use among us such as Pluralities Non-residencies and other things of that nature so that it may be said that some of the manifest corruptions of Popery where they are recommended by the advantages that accompany them are not yet throughly purged out notwithstanding all the noise we have made about Reformation in matters much more disputable and of far less consequence This whole Objection when all acknowledged as the greatest part of it cannot be denied amounts indeed to this that our Reformation is not yet arrived at that full perfection that is to be desired The want of publick Pennance and Penitentiary Canons is indeed a very great defect our Church does not deny it but acknowledges it in the Preface to the Office of Commination It was one of the greatest Glories of the Primitive Church that they were so governed that none of their number could sin openly without publick Censure and a long separation from the Holy Communion which they judged was defiled by a promiscuous admitting of all Persons to it Had they consulted the Arts of Policy they would not have held in Converts by so strict a way of proceeding lest their discontent might have driven them away at a time when to be a Christian was attended with so many discouragements that it might seem dangerous by so severe a Discipline to frighten the World out of their Communion But the Pastors of that time resolved to follow the Rules delivered them by the Apostles and trusted God with the success which answered and exceeded all their expectations for nothing convinced the World more of the truth of that Religion than to see those trusted with the care of Souls watch so effectually over their Manners that for some sins which in these loose Ages in which we live pass but for common effects of humane frailty Men were made to abstain from the Communion for many years and did cheerfully submit to such Rules as might be truly medicinal for curing those Diseases in their Minds But alas the Church-men of the latter Ages being once vested with this Authority to which the World submitted as long as it saw the good effects of it did soon learn to abuse it and to bring the People to a blind subjection to them It was one of the chief Arts by which the Papacy swelled to its height for Confessors in stead of bringing their Penitents to open Penance set up other things in the room of it pretending they could commute it and in the Name of God accept of one thing for another and they accepted of a Penitents going either to the Holy War or which was more Holy of the two to one of the Popes Wars against Hereticks or deposed Princes and gave full Pardons to those who thus engaged in their designs Afterwards when the Pope had no great occasion to kill Men or the People no great mind to be killed in his Service they accepted of Money as an Alms to God and so all publick Penance was laid down and Murder or Merchandise was set up in its room This being the state of things at the Keformation it is no wonder if the People could not be easily brought to submit to publick Pennance which had been for some Ages entirely laid aside and there was reason why they should not be forward to come under the Yoke of their Priests lest they should have raised upon that Foundation such a Tyrannical Dominion over them as others had formerly exercised This made some Reformed Churches beyond Sea bring in the Laity with them into their Courts which if they had done meerly as a good Expedient for removing the jealousie which the World then had of Ecclesiastical Tyranny there was no great Objection to have been made to it but they made the thing liable to very great exception when they pretended a Divine Institution for those Lay-Elders Here in England it is plain the Nation would not bear such Authority to be lodged with the Clergy at first but it will appear in the following Work that a Platform was made of an Ecclesiastical Discipline though the Bishops had no hope of reducing it into practise till the King should come to be of Age and pass a Law for the authorizing of it but he dying before this was effected it was not prosecuted with that zeal that the thing required in Queen Elizabeths time and then those who in their Exile were taken with the Models beyond Seas contending more to get it put in the method of other Churches than to have it set up in any other Form that contention begat such heat that it took Men off from this and many other excellent designs and whereas the Presbyters were found to have had anciently a share in the Government of the Churches as the Bishops Council and Assistants some of them that were of hot tempers demanding more than their share they were by the immoderate use of the Counterpoise kept out of any part of Ecclesiastical Discipline and all went into those Courts commonly called the Spiritual Courts without making distinction between those Causes of Testaments Marriages and such other sutes that require some learning in the Civil and Canon Law and the other Causes of the Censures of the Clergy and Laity which are of a more Spiritual Nature and ought indeed to be tried only by the Bishops and Clergy
Principality which his Unkle George had left him only on condition that he turned Papist notwithstanding which he got him to be possessed of it was made use of by the Emperor as the best Instrument to work his ends To him therefore he promised the Electoral Dignity with the Dominions belonging to the Duke of Saxe if he would assist him in the War against his Kinsman the present Elector and gave him assurance under his Hand and Seal That he would make no change in Religion but leave the Princes of the Ausburg Confession the free exercise of their Religion And thus the Emperor singled out the Duke of Saxe and the Landgrave from the rest reckoning wisely that if he once mastered them he should more easily overcome all the rest He pretended some other quarrels against them as that of the Duke of Brunswick who having begun a War with his Neighbours was taken Prisoner and his Dominions possessed by the Landgrave That with some old Quarrels was pretended the ground of the War Upon which the Princes published a Writing to shew that it was Religion only and a secret design to subdue Germany that was the true cause of the War and those alledged were sought Pretences to excuse so infamous a breach of Faith and of the publick Decrees that the Pope who designed the destruction of all of that Confession had set on the Emperor to this who easily laid hold on it that he might master the liberty of Germany Therefore they warned all the Princes of their danger The Emperors Forces being to be drawn together out of several Places in Italy Flanders Burgundy and Boheme they whose Forces lay nearer had a great advantage if they had known how to use it 1546. June The Elector and Landgrave arm For in June they brought into the Field 70000 Foot and 15000 Horse and might have driven the Emperor out of Germany had they proceeded vigorously at first But the divided Command was fatal to them for when one was for Action the other was against it So they lost their opportunity and gave the Emperor time to gather all his Forces about him which were far inferior to theirs in strength but the Emperor gained by time whereas they who had no great Treasure lost much All the Summer and a great deal of the Winter was spent without any considerable Action though the two Armies were oft in view one of another 1546. Jul. 20. Duke of Saxe and Landgrave proscribed But in the beginning of the Winter the Emperor having proscribed the Duke of Saxe and promised to bestow the Principality on Maurice he fell into Saxony and carried a great many of the Cities which were not prepared for any such impression Nov. 23. The Elector returns into Saxony This made the Duke separate his Army and return to the defence of his own Country which he quickly recovered and drove Maurice almost out of all his own Principality The States of Boheme also declared for the Elector of Saxony This was the state of Affairs there The Princes thought they had a good Prospect for the next Year having mediated a Peace between the Crowns of England and France 1546. Jan. 7. Peace concluded between England and France whose Forces falling into Flanders must needs have bred a great distraction in the Emperors Councils But King Henry's death gave them great apprehensions and not without cause For when they sent hither for an Aid in Money to carry on the War the Protector and Council saw great dangers on both hands if they left the Germans to perish the Emperor would be then so lifted up that they might expect to have an uneasie Neighbour of him on the other hand it was a thing of great consequence to engage an Infant King in such a War Therefore their Succours from hence were like to be weak and very slow Howsoever the Council ordered Paget to assure them that within three or four Months they should send 50000 Crowns to their assistance which was to be covered thus The Merchants of the Still-yard were to borrow so much of the King and to engage to bring home Stores to that value they having the Money should send it to Hamburg and so to the Duke of Saxe But the Princes received a second Blow in the loss of Francis the first of France Who having lived long in a familiarity and friendship with King Henry not ordinary for Crowned Heads was so much affected with the news of his death that he was never seen cheerful after it He made Royal Funeral Rites to be performed to his memory in the Church of Nostredame to which the Clergy who one would have thought should have been glad to have seen his Funerals Celebrated in any fashion were very averse But that King had emancipated himself to a good degree from a servile subjection to them and would be obeyed He out-lived the other not long 1557. Mar. 31. Francis I. died for he died the last of March He was the chief Patron of Learned Men and advancer of Learning that had been for many Ages He was generally unsuccessful in his Wars and yet a great Commander At his death he left his Son an Advice to beware of the Brethren of Lorain and to depend much on the Councellors whom he had employed But his Son upon his coming to the Crown did so deliver himself up to the charms of his Mistress Diana that all things were ordered as Men made their Court to her which the Ministers that had served the former King scorning to do and the Brothers of the House of Lorain doing very submissively the one were discharged of their employments and the other governed all the Councils Francis had been oft fluctuating in the business of Religion Sometimes he had resolved to shake off the Popes Obedience and set up a Patriarch in France and had agreed with Henry the 8th to go on in the same Councils with him But he was first diverted by his Alliance with Clement the 7th and afterwards by the Ascendant which the Cardinal of Tournon had over him who engaged him at several times into severities against those that received the Reformation Yet he had such a close Eye upon the Emperors motions that he kept a constant good understanding with the Protestant Princes and had no doubt assisted them if he had lived But upon his death new Councils were taken the Brothers of Lorain were furiously addicted to the Interests of the Papacy one of them being a Cardinal who perswaded the King rather to begin his Reign with the recovery of Bulloine out of the hands of the English So that the state of Germany was almost desperate before he was aware of it And indeed the Germans lost so much in the death of these two Kings upon whose assistance they had depended that it was no wonder they were easily over-run by the Emperor Some of their Allies the Cities of Vlm and Frankfort and the Duke of
Judges on the 7th it was read again and joyned to the other Bill about the Sacrament And on the 10th the whole Bill was agreed to by all the Peers except the Bishops of London Hereford Norwich Worcester and Chichester and sent down to the Commons On the 17th a Proviso was sent after it but was rejected by the Commons since the Lords had not agreed to it On the 20th it was sent up agreed to and had afterwards the Royal Assent By it first the value of the Holy Sacrament commonly called the Sacrament of the Altar and in the Scripture the Supper and Table of the Lord was set forth together with its first Institution but it having been of late marvellously abused some had been thereby brought to a contempt of it which they had expressed in Sermons Discourses and Songs in words not fit to be repeated therefore whosoever should so offend after the first of May next was to suffer Fine and Imprisonment at the Kings Pleasure and the Justices of the Peace were to take Information and make Presentments of Persons so offending within three Months after the offences so committed allowing them Witnesses for their own purgation And it being more agreeable to Christs first Institution And the practice of the Church for 500 years after Christ that the Sacrament should be given in both the kinds of Bread and Wine rather than in one kind only Therefore it was Enacted That it should be commonly given in both kinds except necessity did otherwise require it And it being also more agreeable to the first Institution and the primitive Practice that the People should receive with the Priest than that the Priest should receive it alone therefore the day before every Sacrament an Exhortation was to be made to the People to prepare themselves for it in which the benefits and danger of worthy and unworthy receiving were to be expressed and the Priests were not without a lawful cause to deny it to any who humbly askt it This was an Act of great consequence Communion appointed in both kinds since it reformed two abuses that had crept into the Church The one was the denying the Cup to the Laity the other was the Priests communicating alone In the first Institution it is plain that as Christ bad all drink of the Cup and his Disciples all drank of it so St. Paul directed every one to examine himself that he might eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup. From thence the Church for many Ages continued this practice and the Superstition of some who received only in one kind was severely censured and such were appointed either to receive the whole Sacrament or to abstain wholly It continued thus till the belief of the Corporal Presence of Christ was set up and then the keeping and carrying about the Cup in Processions not being so easily done some began to lay it aside For a great while the Bread was given dipt in the Cup to represent a bleeding Christ as it is in the Greek Church to this day In other Places the Laity had the Cup given them but they were to suck it through Pipes that nothing of it should fall to the ground But since they believed that Christ was in every crumb of Bread it was thought needless to give the Sacrament in both kinds So in the Council of Constance the Cup was ordered to be denied the Laity though they acknowledged it to have been instituted and practised otherwise To this the Bohemians would never submit though to compel them to it much Blood was shed in this Quarrel And now in the Reformation this was every where one of the first things with which the People were possessed the opposition of the Roman Church herein to the Institution of Christ being so manifest And all private Masses put down At first this Sacrament was also understood to be a Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ of which many were to be partakers while the fervor of devotion lasted it was thought a scandalous and censurable thing if any had come unto the Christian Assemblies and had not stayed to receive these Holy Mysteries and the denying to give any one the Sacrament was accounted a very great punishment So sensible were the Christians of their ill condition when they were hindred to participate of it But afterwards the former Devotion slackening the good Bishops in the 4th and 5th Centuries complained oft of it that so few came to Receive yet the Custom being to make Oblations before the Sacrament out of which the Clergy had been maintained during the poverty of the Church the Priests had a great mind to keep up the constant use of these Oblations and so perswaded the Laity to continue them and to come to the Sacrament though they did not receive it and in process of time they were made to believe that the Priest received in behalf of the whole People And whereas this Sacrament was the Commemoration of Christs Sacrifice on the Cross and so by a Phrase of Speech was called a Sacrifice they came afterwards to fancy that the Priests consecrating and consuming the Sacrament was an Action of it self expiatory and that both for the Dead and the Living And there rose an infinite number of several sorts of Masses some were for commemorating the Saints and those were called the Masses of such Saints others for a particular Blessing for Rain Health c. and indeed for all the accidents of Humane Life where the addition or variation of a Collect made the difference So that all that Trade of Massing was now removed An Intimation was also made of Exhortations to be read in it which they intended next to set about These abuses in the Mass gave great advantages to those who intended to change it into a Communion But many in stead of managing them prudently made unseemly Jests about them and were carried by a lightness of temper to make Songs and Plays of the Mass for now the Press went quick and many Books were printed this year about matters of Religion the greatest number of them being concerning the Mass which were not written in so decent and grave a style as the matter required Against this Act only five Bishops protested Many of that Order were absent from the Parliament so the opposition made to it was not considerable The next Bill brought into the House of Lords An Act about the Admission of Bishops was concerning the admission of Bishops to their Sees by the Kings Letters Patents Which being read was committed to the Arch-bishop of Canterburies care on the fifth of November and was read the second time on the 10th and committed to some of the Judges and was read the third time on the 28th of November and sent down to the Commons on the 5th of December There was also another Bill brought in concerning the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the Bishops Courts on the 17th of November and pass'd and sent
Translation into some Town of the Popes to which it was not likely the Imperialists would follow them and so at least the Council would be suspended if not dissolved For this Remove they laid hold on the first colour they could find One dying of a malignant Feaver it was given out and certified by Physicians that he died of the Plague so in all hast they translated the Council to Bologna Apr. 21. The first Session of Bologna The Imperialists protested against it but in vain for thither they went The Emperor was hereby quite disappointed of his chief design which was to force the Germans to submit to a Council held in Germany and therefore no Plague appearing at Trent he pressed the return of the Council thither But the Pope said it was the Councils act and not his and that their Honour was to be kept up that therefore such as stayed at Trent were to go first to Bologna and acknowledge the Council and they should then consider what was to be done So that now all the hope the Germans had was that this difference between the Pope and Emperor might give them some breathing and time might bring them out of these extremities into which they were then driven Upon these disorders the Forreign Reformers who generally made Germany their Sanctuary were now forced to seek it elsewhere So Peter Martyr in the end of November this Year was brought over to England by the Invitation which the Arch-bishop of Canterbury sent him in the Kings Name He was born in Florence where he had been an Augustinian-Monk He was learned in the Greek and the Hebrew which drew on him the envy of the rest of his Order whose Manners he inveighed oft against So he left them and went to Naples where he gathered an Assembly of those who loved to Worship God more purely This being made known he was forced to leave that Place and went next to Lucca where he lived in society with Tremellius and Zanchius But being also in danger there he went to Zurick with Bernardinus Ochinus that had been one of the most celebrated Preachers of Italy and now forsook his former Superstitions From Zurick he went to Basil and from thence by Martin Bucers means he was brought to Strasburg where Cranmers Letter found both him and Ochinus The Latter was made a Canon of Canterbury with a Dispensation of Residence and by other Letters Patents 40 Marks were given yearly to him and as much to Peter Martyr There had been this Year some differences between the English and French concerning the Fortifications about Bulloigne The French quarrel about Bulloigne The English were raising a great Fort by the Harbour there This being signified to King Henry by Gaspar Coligny afterwards the famous Admiral of France then Governour of the neighbouring Parts to Bulloigne it was complained of at the Court of England It was answered That this was only to make the Harbour more secure and so the Works were ordered to be vigorously carried on But this could not satisfie the French who plainly saw it was of another sort than to be intended only for the Sea The King of France came and viewed the Country himself and ordered Coligny to raise a Fort on a high Ground near it which was called the Chastilion Fort and commanded both the English Fort and the Harbour But the Protector had no mind to give the French a colour for breaking with the English so there was a Truce and further Cessation agreed on in the end of September These are all the considerable Forreign Transactions of this Year in which England was concerned But there was a secret contrivance laid at home of a high nature which though it broke not out till the next Year yet the beginnings of it did now appear The Protectors Brother Thomas Seimour was brought to such a share in his Fortunes The Breach between the Protector and the Admiral that he was made a Baron and Lord Admiral But this not satisfying his ambition he endeavoured to have linked himself into a nearer relation with the Crown by marrying the Kings Sister the Lady Elizabeth But finding he could not compass that he made his Addresses to the Queen Dowager Who enjoying now the Honour and Wealth the late King had left her resolved to satisfie her self in her next Choice and entertained him a little too early for they were married so soon after the Kings death that it was charged afterwards on the Admiral that if she had brought a Child as soon as might have been after the Marriage it had given cause to doubt whether it had not been by the late King which might have raised great disturbance afterwards But being thus married to the Queen he concealed it for some time till he procured a Letter from the King recommending him to her for a Husband upon which they declared their Marriage with which the Protector was much offended Being thus possessed of great Wealth and being Husband to the Queen Dowager he studied to engage all that were about the King to be his Friends and he corrupted some of them by his Presents and forced one on Sir John Cheek That which he designed was That whereas in former times the Infant Kings of England had had Governours of their Persons distinct from the Protectors of their Realms which Trusts were divided between their Unkles it being judged too much to joyn both in one Person who was thereby too great whereas a Governour of the Kings Person might be a check on the Protector he would therefore himself be made Governour of the Kings Person alledging that since he was the Kings Unkle as well as his Brother he ought to have a proportioned share with him in the Government About Easter this Year he first set about this design and corrupted some about the King who should bring him sometimes privately through the Gallery to the Queens Lodgings and he desired they would let him know when the King had occasion for Money and that they should not always trouble the Treasury for he would be ready to furnish him and he thought a young King might be taken with this So it happened that the first time Latimer preached at Court the King sent to him to know what Present he should make him Seimour sent him 40 l. but said he thought 20 enough to give Latimer and the King might dispose of the rest as he pleased Thus he gained ground with the King whose sweet nature exposed him to be easily won by such Artifices It is generally said that all this difference between the Brothers was begun by their Wives and that the Protectors Lady being offended that the younger Brothers Wife had the precedence of her which she thought belonged to her self did thereupon raise and inflame the differences But in all the Letters that I have seen concerning this Breach I could never find any such thing once mentioned Nor is it reasonable to imagine that the
them but if their Divines had any scruple in which they desired satisfaction with a humble and obedient mind they should be heard And for a safe Conduct he thought it was a distrusting the Council to ask any other than what was already granted Soon after this there arrived Ambassadors from Strasburg and from other five Cities and those sent from the Duke of Saxe were on their Journey so the Emperor ordered his Ambassadors to study to gain time till they came and then an effectual course must be taken for compassing that about which he had laboured so long in vain to bring it to a happy conclusion And thus this Year ended The Parliament was opened on the 23d of January 1552. A Session of Parliament and sate till the 15th of April So I shall begin this Year with the account of the Proceedings in it The first Act that was put into the House of Lords was for an Order to bring Men to Divine Service which was agreed to on the 26th and sent down to the Commons who kept it long before they sent it back On the 6th of April when it was agreed to the Earl of Darby the Bishops of Carlisle and Norwich and the Lords Sturton and Windsor dissented The Lords afterwards brought in another Bill for authorizing a new Common-Prayer-Book according to the Alterations which had been agreed on the former Year This the Commons joyned to the former and so put both in one Act. By it was first set forth That an Order of Divine Service being published An Act authorizing the new Common-Prayer-Book many did wilfully abstain from it and refused to come to their Parish-Churches therefore all are required after the Feast of All-hallows next to come every Sunday and Holy-day to Common-Prayers under pain of the Censures of the Church And the King the Lords Temporal and the Commons did in Gods Name require all Arch-bishops Bishops and other Ordinaries to endeavour the due execution of that Act as they would answer before God for such Evils and Plagues with which he might justly punish them for neglecting that good and wholesome Law and they were fully authorized to execute the Censures of the Church on all that should offend against this Law To which is added That there had been divers doubts raised about the manner of the Ministration of the Service rather by the curiosity of the Ministers and Mistakers than of any other worthy Cause and that for the better explanation of that and for the greater perfection of the Service in some places where it was fit to make the Prayer and fashion of Service more earnest and fit to stir Christian People to the true honouring of Almighty God therefore it had been by the Command of the King and Parliament perused explained and made more perfect They also annexed to it the Form of making Bishops Priests and Deacons and so appointed this new Book of Service to be every where received after the Feast of All-Saints next under the same Penalties that had been enacted three years before when the former Book was set out Which was much censured It was upon this Act said by the Papists That the Reformation was like to change as oft as the Fashion did since they seemed never to be at a Point in any thing but new Models were thus continually framing To which it was answered That it was no wonder that the corruptions which they had been introducing for above a thousand years were not all discovered or thrown out at once but now the business was brought to a fuller perfection and they were not like to see any more material Changes Besides any that would take the pains to compare the Offices that had been among the Papists would clearly perceive that in every Age there was such an encrease of additional Rites and Ceremonies that though the old ones were still retained yet it seemed there would be no end of new improvements and additions Others wondred why the execution of this Law was put off so long as till the end of the Year All the account I can give of this is that it was expected that by that time the new Body of the Ecclesiastical Laws which was now preparing should be finished and therefore since this Act was to be executed by the Clergy the day in which it was to be in force was so long delayed till that Reformation of their Laws were concluded An Act concerning Treasons On the 8th of February a Bill of Treasons was put in and agreed to by all the Lords except the Lord Wentworth It was sent down to the Commons where it was long disputed and many sharp things were said of those who now bore the sway that whereas they who governed in the beginning of this Reign had put in a Bill for lessening the number of such offences now they saw the change of Councils when severer Laws were proposed The Commons at last rejected the Bill and then drew a new one which was passed By it they Enacted That if any should call the King or any of his Heirs named in the Statute of the 35th of his Fathers Reign Heretick Schismatick Tyrant Infidel or Usurper of the Crown for the first offence they should forfeit their Goods and Chattels and be imprisoned during pleasure for the second should be in a Praemunire for the third should be attainted of Treason but any who should advisedly set that out in printing or writing was for the first offence to be held a Traitor And that those who should keep any of the Kings Castles Artillery or Ships six days after they were lawfully required to deliver them up should be guilty of Treason that Men might be proceeded against for Treasons committed out of the Kingdom as well as in it They added a Proviso That none should be Attainted of Treason on this Act unless two Witnesses should come and to their face averr the Fact for which they were to be tried except such as without any violence should confess it and that none should be questioned for any thing said or written but within three Months after it was done This Proviso seems clearly to have been made with relation to the Proceeding against the Duke of Somerset in which the Witnesses were not brought to averr the Evidence to his Face and by that means he was deprived of all the benefit and advantage which he might have had by cross examining them It is certain that though some false Witnesses have practised the Trade so much that they seem to have laid off all shame and have a brow that cannot be daunted yet for the greatest part a bright serenity and cheerfulness attends Innocence and a lowring dejection betrays the Guilty when the Innocent and they are confronted together On the 3d of March a Bill was brought into the Lords for Holy-days and Fasting days and sent down to the Commons on the 15th of March An Act about Fasts and Holy-days by
of Marriage But all separation from Bed and Board except during a Trial was to be taken away The 11th was about Admission to Ecclesiastical Benefices Patrons were to consider the choice of the Person was trusted to them but was not to be abused to any sacrilegious or base ends if they did otherwise they were to lose their right for that time Benefices were not to be given or promised before they were void nor let lie destitute above six Months otherwise they were to devolve to the Bishop Clergy-men before their Ordination were to be examined by the Arch-deacons with such other Triers as the Bishop should appoint to be assistant to them and the Bishop himself was to try them since this was one of the chief things upon which the happiness of the Church depended The Candidate was to give an Oath to answer sincerely upon which he was to be examined about his Doctrine chiefly of the whole Points of the Catechisme if he understood them aright and what knowledge he had of the Scriptures they were to search him well whether he held Heretical Opinions None was to be admitted to more Cures than one and all Priviledges for Pluralities were for ever to cease nor was any to be absent from his Cure except for a time and a just cause of which he was to satisfie his Ordinary The Bishops were to take great care to allow no absence longer than was necessary every one was to enter upon his Cure within two Months after he was Instituted by the Bishop Prebendaries who had no particular Cure were to preach in the Churches adjacent to them Bastards might not be admitted to Orders unless they had eminent Qualities But the Bastards of Patrons were upon no account to be received if presented by them Other bodily defects unless such as did much disable them or made them very contemptible were not to be a barr to any Beside the Sponsions in the Office of Ordination they were to swear that they had made no agreement to obtain the Benefice to which they were presented and that if they come to know of any made by others on their account they should signifie it to the Bishop and that they should not do any thing to the prejudice of their Church The 12th and 13th were about the renouncing or changing of Benefices The 14th was about purgation upon common fame or when one was accused for any crime which was proved incompleatly and only by presumptions The Ecclesiastical Courts might not re-examine any thing that was proved in any Civil Court but upon a high scandal a Bishop might require a Man to purge himself otherwise to separate him from Holy things The Form of a Purgation was to swear himself innocent and he was also to have four Compurgators of his own Rank who were to swear that they believed he swore true upon which the Judge was to restore him to his Fame Any that were under suspicion of a Crime might by the Judge be required to avoid all the occasions from which the suspition had risen But all superstitious Purgations were to be rejected The 15th 16th 17th and 18th were about Dilapidations the Letting of the Goods of the Church the confirming the former Rules of Election in Cathedrals or Colledges and the Collation of Benefices And there was to be a Purgation of Simony as there should be occasion for it The 19th was about Divine Offices In the Mornings on Holy-days the Common-Prayer was to be used with the Communion-Service joyned to it In Cathedrals there was to be Communion every Sunday and Holy-day where the Bishop the Dean and the Prebendaries and all maintained by that Church were to be present There was no Sermon to be in Cathedrals in the Morning lest that might draw any from the Parish Churches but only in the Afternoons In the Anthems all Figured Musick by which the Hearers could not understand what they sung was to be taken away In Parish Churches there were only to be Sermons in the Morning but none in the Afternoon except in great Parishes All who were to receive the Sacrament were to come the day before and inform the Minister of it who was to examine their Consciences and their Belief On Holy-days in the Afternoon the Catechism was to be explained for an hour After the Evening-Prayers the Poor were to be looked to and such as had given open scandal were to be examined and publick Penitence was to be enjoyned them and the Minister with some of the Ancients of the Parish were to commune together about the state of the People in it that if any carried themselves indecently they might be first charitably admonished and if that did not prevail subjected to severer Censures but none were to be excommunicated without the Bishop were first informed and had consented to it Divine Offices were not to be performed in Chappels or private Houses lest the Churches should under that pretence be neglected and Errors more easily disseminated excepting only the Houses of Peers and Persons of great Quality who had numerous Families but in these all things were to be done according to the Book of Common-Prayer The 20th was about those that bore Office in the Church Sextons Church-wardens Deacons Priests and Rural Deans This last was to be a Yearly Office he that was named to it by the Bishop being to watch over the manners of the Clergy and People in his Precinct was to signifie the Bishops pleasure to them and to give the Bishop an account of his Precinct every sixth Month. The Arch-deacons were to be general Visitors over the Rural Deans In every Cathedral one of the Prebendaries or one procured by them was thrice a week to expound some part of the Scriptures The Bishops were to be over all and to remember that their Authority was given to them for that end that many might be brought to Christ and that such as had gone astray might be restored by Repentance To the Bishop all were to give obedience according to the Word of God The Bishop was to preach often in his Church was to Ordain none for Rewards or rashly was to provide good Pastors and to deprive bad ones he was to visit his Diocess every third year or oftener as he saw cause but then he was to do it at his own charge he was to have yearly Synods and to confirm such as were well instructed His Family was to consist of Clergy-men whom he should bring up to the Service of the Church so was St. Austins and other Ancient Bishops Families constituted This being a great means to supply the great want of good and faithful Ministers Their Wives and Children were also to avoid all levity or vain dressing They were never to be absent from their Diocesses but upon a publick and urgent cause and when then grew sick or infirm they were to have Coadjutors If they became scandalous or heretical they were to be deprived by the Kings Authority The Arch-bishops
David that we may shew forth Gods Praises which cannot be done if it is in a strange Tongue Prayer is the offering up of our desires to God which we cannot do if we understand not the Language they are in Baptisme and the Lords Supper are to contain Declarations of the Death and Resurrection of Christ which must be understood otherwise why are they made The use of Speech is to make known what one brings forth to another The most Barbarous Nations perform their Worship in a known Tongue which shews it to be a Law of Nature It is plain from Justin Martyrs Apology that the Worship was then in a known Tongue which appears also from all the Ancient Liturgies and a long Citation was brought out of St. Basil for the singing of Psalms duly weighing the Words with much attention and devotion which he says was practised in all Nations They concluded wondering how such an abuse could at first creep in and be still so stifly maintained and whâ—â—â—hose who would be thought the Guides and Pastors of the Church were so unwilling to return to the Rule of St. Paul and the Practise of the Primitive Times There was a great shout of Applause when they had done They gave their Paper signed with all their Hands to the Lord Keeper to be delivered to the other side as he should think fit But he kept it till the other side should bring him theirs The Papists upon this said they had more to add on that Head which was thought disingenuous by those that had heard them profess they had nothing to add to what Cole had said Thus the Meeting broke up for that day being Saturday and they were ordered to go forward on Munday and to prepare what they were to deliver on the other two Heads The Papists though they could complain of nothing that was done except the applause given to the Paper of the Reformers yet they saw by that how much more acceptable the other Doctrine was to the People and therefore resolved to go no further in that matter At the next meeting they desired that their Answer to the Paper read by the Reformed might be first heard To this the Lord Keeper said That they had delivered their mind the former day and so were not to be heard till they had gone through the other Points and then they were to return on both sides to the answering of Papers They said that what Cole had delivered the former day was Ex tempore and of himself but it had not been agreed on by them This appeared to all the Assembly to be very foul dealing so they were required to go on to the second Point Then they pressed that the other side might begin with their Paper and they would follow for they saw what an advantage the others had the former day by being heard last The Lord Keeper said the Order was that they should be heard first as being Bishops now in Office But both Winchester and Lincoln refused to go any further if the other side did not begin Upon which there followed a long debate Lincoln saying that the first Order which was that all should be in Latin was changed and that they had prepared a Writing in Latin But in this not only the Counsellors among whom sate the Arch-bishop of York but the rest of his own Party contradicted him In conclusion all except Fecknam refused to read any more Papers he said he was willing to have done it but he could not undertake such a thing alone and so the Meeting broke up But the Bishops of Winchester and of Lincoln said The Conference between the Papists and Protestants breaks up the Doctrine of the Catholick Church was already established and ought not to be disputed except it were in a Synod of Divines that it was too great an encouragement to Hereticks to hear them thus discourse against the Faith before the unlearned Multitude and that the Queen by so doing had incurred the Sentence of Excommunication and they talked of excommunicating her and her Council Upon this they were both sent to the Tower The Reformed took great advantage from the Issue of this Debate to say their Adversaries knew that upon a fair hearing the Truth was so manifestly on their side that they durst not put it to such hazard The whole World saw that this Disputation was managed with great Impartiality and without noise or disorder far different from what had been in Queen Maries time so they were generally much confirmed in their former belief by the Papists flying the Field They on the other hand said they saw the rude Multitude were now carried with a Fury against them the Lord Keeper was their professed Enemy the Laity would take on them to judge after they had heard them and they perceived they were already determined in their minds and that this Dispute was only to set off the changes that were to be made with the Pomp of a Victory and they blamed the Bishops for undertaking it at first but excused them for breaking it off in time And the Truth is the strength of their Cause in most Points of Controversie resting on the Authority of the Church of Rome that was now a thing of so odious a sound that all Arguments brought from thence were not like to have any great effect Upon this whole matter there was an Act of State made and Signed by many Privy Counsellors giving an account of all the steps that were made in it which will be found in the Collection Collection Number 5. This being over the Parliament was now in a better disposition to pass the Bill for the Uniformity of the Service of the Church Some of the Reformed Divines were appointed to review King Edwards Liturgie and to see if in any Particular it was fit to change it The only considerable Variation was made about the Lords Supper of which somewhat will appear from the Letter of Sandys to Parker It was proposed to have the Communion Book so contrived that it might not exclude the belief of the Corporal Presence for the chief design of the Queens Council was to unite the Nation in one Faith and the greatest part of the Nation continued to believe such a Presence Therefore it was recommended to the Divines to see that there should be no express definition made against it that so it might lie as a Speculative Opinion not determined in which every Man was left to the Freedom of his own Mind Hereupon the Rubrick that explained the reason for kneeling at the Sacrament That thereby no Adoration is intended to any Corporal Presence of Christs natural Flesh and Blood because that is only in Heaven which had been in King Edwards Liturgy was now left out And whereas at the delivery of the Elements in King Edwards first Liturgy there was to be said The Body or Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ Preserve thy Body and Soul to Everlasting Life which words
assurance of a great Army if it was necessary and charged the Lord Gray not to quit the Seige till the French were gone Ships were also sent to lye in the Frith to block them up by Sea The French apprehending the total loss of Scotland sent over Monluc Bishop of Valence to London to offer to restore Calais to the Queen of England if she would draw her Forces out of Scotland She gave him a quick Answer on the sudden her self that she did not value that Fish-Town so much as she did the quiet of Brittain But the French desiring that she could mediate a Peace between them and the Scots she undertook that and sent Secretary Cecil and D. Wotton into Scotland to conclude it As they were on the Way the Queen Regent died The Queen Regent of Scotland dies in the Castle of Edinburgh on the 10th of June She sent for some of the chief Lords before her Death and desired to be reconciled to them and asked them pardon for the Injuries she had done them She advised them to send both the French and English Souldiers out of Scotland and prayed them to continue in their Obedience to their Queen She also sent for one of their Preachers Willock and discoursed with him about her Soul and many other things and said unto him that she trusted to be saved only by the Death and Merits of Jesus Christ and so ended her Days which if she had done a Year sooner before these last Passages of her Life she had been the most universally lamented Queen that had been in any time in Scotland For she had governed them with great Prudence Justice and Gentleness and in her own Deportment and in the order of her Court she was an Example to the whole Nation but the Directions sent to her from France made her change her Measures break her Word and engage the Kingdom in War which rendred her very hateful to the Nation Yet she was often heard to say that if her Counsels might take place she doubted not to bring all things again to perfect Tranquillity and Peace The Treaty between England France and Scotland A Peace is concluded was soon after concluded The French were to be sent away within Twenty Days an Act of Oblivion was to be confirmed in Parliament the Injuries done to the Bishops and Abbots were referred to the Parliament Strangers and Church-men were no more to be trusted with the chief Offices a Parliament was to meet in August for the confirming of this During the Queen's absence the Nation was to be governed by a Council of Twelve of these the Queen was to name seven and the States five the Queen was neither to make Peace nor War but by the Advice of the Estates according to the Ancient Custom of the Kingdom The English were to return as soon as the French were gone and for the matter of Religion that was referred to the Parliament and some were to be sent from thence to the King and Queen to set forth thier desires to them and the Queen of Scotland was no more to use the Arms and Title of England All these Conditions were agreed to on the 8th of July and soon after both the French and English left the Kingdom In August thereafter the Parliament Reformation is setled in Scotland by Parliament met where four Acts passed one for the abolishing of the Pope's Power A second For the repealing of all Laws made in favour of the former Superstition A third For the punishing of those that said or heard Mass And the fourth was A Confirmation of the Confession of Faith which was afterwards ratified and inserted in the Acts of Parliament held Anno 1567. It was penned by Knox and agrees in almost all things with the Geneva Confession Of the whole Temporalty none but the Earl of Athol and the Lords Somervile and Borthick dissented to it They said they would believe as their Fathers had done before them The Spiritual Estate said nothing against it The Abbots struck in with the Tyde upon assurance that their Abbies should be converted to Temporal Lordships and be given to them Most of the Bishops seeing the Stream so strong against them complied likewise and to secure themselves and enrich their Friends or Bastards did dilapidate all the Revenues of the Church in the strangest manner that has ever been known and yet for most of all these Leases and Alienations they procured from Rome Bulls to confirm them pretending at that Court that they were necessary for making Friends to their Interest in Scotland Great numbers of these Bulls I my self have seen and read So that after all the noise that the Church of Rome had made of the Sacriledge in England they themselves confirmed a more entire waste of the Churches Patrimony in Scotland of which there was scarce any thing reserved for the Clergy But our Kings have since that time used such effectual endeavours there for the recovery of so much as might give a just encouragement to the Labours of the Clergy that universally the inferior Clergy is better provided for in no Nation than in Scotland for in Glebe and Tythes every Incumbent is by the Law provided with at least 50 l. Sterling a Year which in proportion to the cheapness of the Country is equal to twice so much in most parts of England But there are not among them such Provisions for encouraging the more Learned and deserving Men as were necessary When these Acts of the Scotish Parliament were brought into France to be confirmed they were rejected with much scorn so that the Scots were in fear of a new War Francis the 2d died But the King of France dying in the beginning of December all that Cloud vanished their Queen being now only Dowager of France and in very ill tearms with her Mother-in-Law Queen Katherine de Medici who hated her because she had endeavoured to take her Husband out of her Hands and to give him up wholly to the Counsels of her Uncles So she being ill used in France was forced to return to Scotland and govern there in such manner as the Nation was pleased to submit to Thus had the Queen of England separated Scotland entirely from the Interests of France and united it to her own And being engaged in the same Cause of Religion she ever after this had that influence on all Affairs there that she never received any disturbance from thence during all the rest of her glorious Reign In which other Accidents concurred to raise her to the greatest Advantages in deciding Forreign Contests that ever this Crown had In July after she came to the Crown Henry the Second of France The Civil Wars of France was unfortunately wounded in his Eye at a Tilting the Beaver of his Helmet not being let down so that he died of it soon after His Son Francis the Second succeeding was then in the 16th Year of his Age and assumed
removed and the Penalty of the refusal thereof turned only to disablement to take any Promotion or to exercise any Charge and yet of liberty to be reinvested therein if any Man should accept thereof during his Life But after when Pius Quintus excommunicated her Majesty and the Bulls of Excommunication were published in London whereby her Majesty was in a sort proscribed and that thereupon as upon a principal Motive or Preparative followed the Rebellion in the North yet because the ill Humours of the Realm were by that Rebellion partly purged and that she feared at that time no Foreign Invasion and much less the Attempt of any within the Realm not back'd by some potent Power and Succour from without she contented her self to make a Law against that special case of bringing in and publishing of any Bulls or the like Instruments Whereunto was added a Prohibition upon pain not of Treason but of an inferior degree of Punishment against the bringing of the Agnus Dei's and such other Merchandice of Rome as are well known not to be any essential part of the Romanish Religion but only to be used in practice as Love-Tokens to inchant and bewitch the peoples Affections from their Allegiance to their Natural Soveraign In all other Points her Majesty continued her former Lenity but when about the 20th Year of her Reign she had discovered in the King of Spain an intention to Invade her Dominions and that a principal part of the Plot was to prepare a Party within the Realm that might adhere to the Forreigner and that the Seminaries began to blossom and to send forth daily Priests and professed Men who should by Vow taken at Shrift reconcile her Subjects from their Obedience yea and bind many of them to attempt against her Majesty's Sacred Person and that by the Poison which they spread the Humours of most Papists were altered and that they were no more Papists in Conscience and of Softness but Papists in Faction Then were there new Laws made for the punishment of such as should submit themselves to such Reconcilements or Renunciation of Obedience And because it was a Treason carried in the Clouds and in wonderful secrecy and come seldom to light and that there was no presuspicion thereof so great as the Recusancy to come to Divine Service because it was set down by their Decrees that to come to Church before Reconciliation was to live in Schism but to come to Church after Reconcilement was absolutely heretical and damnable Therefore there were added Laws containing Punishment pecuniary videlicet such as might not enforce Consciences but to enfeeble and impoverish the means of those about whom it resteth indifferent and ambiguous whether they were reconciled or not and when notwithstanding all this Provision the Poison was dispersed so secretly as that there was no means to stay it but by restraining the Merchants that brought it in Then lastly There was added a Law whereby such seditious Priests of new Erection were exiled and those that were at that time within the Land shipped over and so commanded to keep hence upon pain of Treason This hath been the proceeding though intermingled not only with sundry Examples of her Majesty's Grace towards such as in her Wisdom she knew to be Papists in Conscience and not Faction and Singularity but also with extraordinary mitigation towards the Offenders in the highest Degree committed by Law if they would but protest that if in case this Realm should be invaded with a Forreign Army by the Pope's Authority for the Catholick Cause as they tearm it they would take part with her Majesty and not adhere to her Enemies For the other Party which have been offensive to the State though in another Degree which named themselves Reformers and we commonly call Puritans this hath been the proceeding towards them A great while when they enveighed against such Abuses in the Church as Pluralities Non-residence and the like their Zeal was not condemned only their Violence was sometime censured When they refused the use of some Ceremonies and Rites as Superstitious they were tolerated with much connivancy and gentleness yea when they called in question the superiority of Bishops and pretended to a Democracy into the Church yet their Propositions were here considered and by contrary Writings debated and discussed Yet all this while it was perceived that their Course was dangerous and very popular as because Papistry was odious theretofore it was ever in their Mouths that they sought to purge the Church from the Reliques of Papistry a thing acceptable to the people who love ever to run from one extream to another Because multitude of Rogues and Poverty was an Eye-sore and a dislike to every Man therefore they put into the peoples head that if Discipline were planted there should be no Vagabonds nor Beggars a thing very plausible and in like manner they promised the people many of the impossible Wonders of their Discipline besides they opened to the people a way to Government by their Consistory and Presbytery a thing though in consequence no less prejudicial to the Liberties of private Men than to the Soveraignty of Princes yet in first shew very popular Nevertheless this except it were in some few that entred into extream contempt was born with because they pretended in dutiful manner to make Propositions and to leave it to the Providence of God and the Authority of the Magistrate But now of late Years when there issued from them that affirmed the consent of the Magistrate was not to be attended when under pretence of a Confession to avoid Slander and Imputations they combined themselves by Classes and Subscriptions when they descended into that vile and base means of defacing the Government of the Church by ridiculous Pasquills when they begun to make many Subjects in doubt to take Oaths which is one of the Fundamental parts of Justice in this Land and in all Places when they began both to vaunt of their strength and number of their Partizans and Followers and to use Cominations that their Cause would prevaile though Uproar and Violence then it appeared to be no more Zeal no more Conscience but meer Faction and Division And therefore though the State were compelled to hold somewhat a harder hand to restrain them than before yet was it with as great moderation as the Peace of the State or Church could permit And therefore Sir to conclude consider uprightly of these Matters and you shall see her Majesty is no more a Temporizer in Religion It is not the Success Abroad nor the Change of Servants here at Home can alter her only as the things themselves alter she applyed her Religious Wisdom to Methods correspondent unto them still retaining the two Rules before mentioned in dealing tenderly with Consciences and yet in discovering Faction from Conscience and Softness from Singularity Farewel Your loving Friend F. Walsingham THUS I have prosecuted what I at first undertook the Progress of the
Bargain made with the Foulcare for about 60000 l. that in May and August should be payed for the defraying of it 1. That the Foulcare should put it off for 10 in the 100. 2. That I should buy 12000 Marks weight at 6 s. the ounce to be delivered at Antwerp and so conveyed over 3. I should pay 100000 Crowns for a very fair Jewel of his four Rubies marvelous big one Orient and great Diamond and one great Pearl 27. Mallet the Lady Mary's Chaplain apprehended and sent to the Tower of London 30. The Lord Marquess of Northampton appointed to go with the Order and further Commission of Treaty and that in Post having joined with him in Commission the Bishop of Ely Sir Philip Hobbey Sir William Pickering and Sir John Mason Knights and two other Lawyers Smith that was Secretary c. May. 2. There was appointed to go with my Lord Marquess the Earls of Rutland Worcester and Ormond the Lords Lisle Fitzwater and Bray Barguenny and divers other Gentlemen to the number of thirty in all 3. The Challenge at running at the Ring performed at the which first came the King sixteen Footmen and ten Horsemen in black Silk Coats pulled out with white Taffety then all the Lords having three Men likewise apparelled and all Gentlemen their Footmen in white Fustian pulled out with black Taffety The other side came all in yellow Taffety at length the yellow Band took it thrice in 120 courses and my Band touched often which was counted as nothing and took never which seemed very strange and so the Prize was of my Side lost After that Tournay followed between six of my Band and six of theirs 4. It was appointed that there should be but four Men to wait on every Earl that went with my Lord Marquess of Northampton three on every Lord two on every Knight or Gentleman Also that my Lord Marquess should in his Diet be allowed for the loss in his Exchange 5. The Muster of the Gendarmoury appointed to be the first of June if it were possible if not the 8th 6. The Testourn cried down from 12 d. to 9 d. and the Groat from 4 d. to 3 d. 9. One Stewart a Scotchman meaning to poison the young Queen of Scotland thinking thereby to get Favour here was after he had been a while in the Tower and Newgate delivered on my Frontiers at Calais to the French for to have him punished there according to his deserts 10. Divers Lords and Knights sent for to furnish the Court at the coming of the French Ambassadour that brought hither the Order of St. Michael 12. A Proclamation proclaimed to give warning to all those that keep any Farms multitudes of Sheep above the number limited in the Law viz. 2000 decayed Tenements and Towns Regratters Forestalling Men that sell dear having plenty enough and put Plough Ground to Pasture and Carriers over-Sea of Victual That if they leave not these Enormities they shall be streightly punished very shortly so that they should feel the smart of it and to command execution of Laws made for this purpose before 14. There mustered before Me an hundred Archers two Arrows apiece all of the Guard afterward shot together and they shot at an inch Board which some pierced quite and stuck in the other Board divers pierced it quite thorow with the Heads of their Arrows the Boards being very well-seasoned Timber So it was appointed there should be ordinarily 100 Archers and 100 Halbertiers either good Wrestlers or casters of the Bar or Leapers or Runners or tall Men of Personage 15. Sir Philip Hobbey departed toward France with ten Gentlemen of his own in Velvet Coats and Chains of Gold 16. Likewise did the Bishop of Ely depart with a Band of Men well furnished 20. A Proclamation made That whosoever found a Seditious Bill and did not tear and deface it should be a partaker of the Bill and punished as the Maker 21. My Lord Marquess of Northampton had Commission to deliver the Order and to treat of all things and chiefly of Marriage for Me to the Lady Elizabeth his Daughter First To have the Dote 12000 Marks a Year and the Dowry at least 800000 Crowns The Forfeiture 100000 Crowns at the most if I performed not and paying that to be delivered and that this should not impeach the former Covenants with Scotland with many other Branches 22. He departed himself in Post 24. An Earthquake was at Croidon and Blechinglee and in the most part of Surrey but no harm was done 30. Whereas before Commandment was given that 160000 l. should be Coined of three ounces in the Pound fine for discharge of Debts and to get some Treasure to be able to alter all now was it stopped saving only 80000 l. to discharge my Debts and 10000 Mark weight that the Foulcare delivered in the last Exchange at four ounces in the pound 31. The Musters defered till after Midsummer June 2. It was appointed that I should receive the Frenchmen that came hither at Westminster where was made preparation for the purpose and four garnish of new Vessels taken out of Church Stuff as Miters and Golden Missals and Primers and Crosses and Reliques of Plessay 4. Provision made in Flanders for Silver and Gold Plate and Chains to be given to these Strangers 7. A Proclamation set forth that Exchange or Re-exchange should be made under the Punishment set forth in King Henry the Seventh's Time duly to be executed 10. Monsieur Mareschal departed from the Court to Bulloigne in Post and so hither by Water in his Galleys and Foists In this Month and the Month before was great Business for the City of Parma which Duke * It should be Octavio Horatio had delivered to the French King for the Pope ascited him as holding it in capite of him whereby he could not alienate it without the Pope's Will but he came not at his Day for which cause the Pope and Imperialists raised 8000 Men and took a Castle on the same River side Also the French King sent Monsieur de Thermes who had been his General in Scotland with a great piece of his Gendarmory into Italy to help Duke Horatio Furthermore the Turks made great preparation for War which some feared would at length burst out 21. I was elected of the Company of St. Michael in France by the French King and his Order 13. Agreement made with the Scots for the Borders between the Commissioners aforesaid for both the Parties In this month Dragute a Pirat escaped Andrea Doria who had closed him in a Creek by force of his Galley-Slaves that digged another way into the Sea and took two of Andrea's Galleys that lay far into the Sea 14. Pardon given to those Irish Lords that would come in before a certain day limited by the Deputy with Advertisement to the Deputy to make sharp War with those that would resist and also should administer my Laws every-where 18. Because of my Charges in
Duke refuse to agree hereunto we must think him to remain in his naughty and detestable determination The Protectorship and Governance of your most Royal Person was not granted him by your Father's Will but only by agreement first amongst us the Executors and after of others Those Titles and special Trust was committed to him during Your Majesty's Pleasure and upon condition he should do all things by advice of Your Council Which condition because he hath so many times broken and notwithstanding the often speaking to without all hope of amendment we think him most unworthy those Honours or Trust Other particular things too many and too long to be written to Your Majesty at this time may at our next access to Your Royal Presence be more particularly opened consulted upon and moderated for the conservation of Your Majesty's Honour Surety and good Quiet of Your Realms and Dominions as may be thought most expedient Number 44. Letters from the Lords at London to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Sir William Paget c. MY Lords after our most hearty Commendations Ex Libro Concilii we have received your Letters by Mr. Hobbey and heard such Credence as he declared on the King's Majesty's and your behalfs unto us The Answers whereunto because they may at more length appear to you both by our Letters to the King's Majesty and by report also of the said Mr. Hobbey we forbear to repeat here again most heartily praying and requiring your Lordships and every of you and nevertheless charging and commanding you in the King's Majesty's Name to have a continual earnest watch respect and care to the surety of the King's Majesty our natural and most gracious Soveraign Lord's Person and that he be not removed from his Majesty's Castle of Windsor as you tender your Duties to Almighty God and his Majesty and as you will answer for the contrary at your uttermost perils We are moved to call earnestly upon you herein not without great cause and amongst many others we cannot but remember unto you That it appeareth very strange unto us and a great wonder unto all true Subjects that you will either assist or suffer his Majesty's most Royal Person to remain in the Guard of the Duke of Somerset's Men sequestred from his own old sworn Servants It seemeth strange that in his Majesty's own House Strangers should be armed with his Majesty's own Armour and be nearest about his Highness Person and those to whom the ordinary Charge is committed sequestred away so as they may not attend according to their sworn Duties If any ill come hereof you can consider to whom it must be imputed once the Example is very strange and perilous And now my Lords if you tender the preservation of his Majesty and the State join with us to that end we have written to the King's Majesty by which way things may soon be quietly and moderately compounded In the doing whereof we mind to do none otherwise than we would be done to and that with as much moderation and favour as honourably we may We trust none of you have just cause to note any one of us and much less all of such cruelty as you so many times make mention of One thing in your Letters we marvel much at which is that you write that you know more than we know If the Matters come to your knowledg and hidden from us be of such weight as you seem to pretend or if they touch or may touch his Majesty or the State we think you do not as you ought in that you have not disclosed the same unto us being the whole State of the Council And thus praying God to send you the Grace to do that may tend to the surety of the King's Majesty's Person and tranquility of the Realm we bid you heartily farewel c. Number 45. An Answer to the former Letter An Original Ex Libro Concilii IT may like your good Lordships with our most hearty Commendations to understand That this morning Sir Philip Hobbey hath according to the Charge given him by your Lordships presented your Letters to the King's Majesty in the presence of us and all the rest of his Majesty's good Servants here which was there read openly and also the others to them of the Chamber and of the Houshold much to their Comforts and ours also and according to the Tenours of the same we will not fail to endeavour our selves accordingly Now touching the marvel of your Lordships both of that we would suffer the Duke of Somerset's Men to guard the King's Majesty's Person and also of our often repeating this word Cruelty although we doubt not but that your Lordships have been throughly informed of our Estates here and upon what occasion the one hath been suffered and the other proceeded yet at our convening together which may be when and where pleaseth you we will and are able to make your Lordships such an account as wherewith we doubt not you will be satisfied if you think good to require it of us And for because this Bearer Master Hobbey can particularly inform your Lordships of the whole discourse of all things here we remit the report of all other things to him saving that we desire to be advertised with as much speed as you shall think good whether the King's Majesty shall come forthwith thither or remain still here and that some of your Lordships would take pains to come hither forthwith For the which purpose I the Comptroller will cause three of the best Chambers in the great Court to be hanged and made ready Thus thanking God that all things be so well acquieted we commit your Lordships to his tuition From Windsor the 10th of Octob. 1549. Your Lordships assured loving Friends T. Cant. William Paget T. Smith Number 46. Articles objected to the Duke of Somerset 1. THat he took upon him the Office of Protector upon express condition That he should do nothing in the King's Affairs but by assent of the late King's Executors or the greatest part of them 2. That contrary to this condition he did hinder Justice and subvert Laws of his own Authority as well by Letters as by other Command 3. That he caused divers Persons Arrested and Imprisoned for Treason Murder Man-slaughter and Felony to be discharged against the Laws and Statutes of the Realm 4. That he appointed Lieutenants for Armies and other Officers for the weighty Affairs of the King under his own Writing and Seal 5. That he communed with Ambassadors of other Realms alone of the weighty Matters of the Realm 6. That he would taunt and reprove divers of the King 's most honourable Councellors for declaring their Advice in the King 's weighty Affairs against his Opinion sometimes telling them that they were not worthy to sit in Council and sometimes that he â—eed not to open weighty Matters to them and that if they were not agreeable to his Opinion he would discharge them 7.
and effect And because it is not to be doubted but that before the receipt of these my Letters ye having former Instructions shall have far entred your Devices in this Matter wherein the King's Grace trusteth ye do lose no time or opportunity that possibly may be had I shall therefore briefly and compendiously touch such this things as the King's Highness would ye should substantially note in this behalf One is That albeit ye both before and also now know the King's mind and desire herein as is aforesaid taking that for your Foundation yet nevertheless forasmuch as it appeareth by your said Letters and otherwise that the Cardinal de Medicis whose preferment if this may not be had both the King's Grace and I tendereth above all other mindeth to experiment what may be done for himself great policy and dexterity is in your Labours and Communications to be used so that ye may first by great ensearch and enquiry perfectly understand as nigh as may be the Disposition Mind Affection and Inclination as well of the said Cardinal de Medicis as of all the residue if it be possible which thing well known well ponder'd and consider'd ye shall thereby have a great light to the residue of your Business wherein always ye must so order your selves that the Matter appearing unto you much doubtful and uncertain your particular practices the desired Intent peradventure failing shall not be cause of displeasure or unkindness to be noted by any that may be elected and for your introduction herein the King's Grace sendeth unto you at this time two Commissions under his great Seal the one couch'd under general words without making mention of any particular Person and in the other his Highness hath made mention of me by special Name Besides that ye shall receive herewith two Letters from his Grace to the College of Cardinals with the Copies of the same the one in special recommendation of me and the other in favour of the Cardinal de Medicis beside such other particular Letters in my recommendation to certain Cardinals and other as by the Copies of them herewith enclosed ye shall now perceive After the receipt thereof if the Cardinals before that time shall not be entred into the Conclave ye taking your Commodity as by your Wisdom shall be thought most expedient shall deliver unto the Cardinal de Medicis the King's Letters and mine to him addressed shewing unto him with as good words and manner as ye can that for his great Virtue Wisdom Experience and other commendable Merits with the entire love and favour which the King's Grace and I bear unto him thinking and reputing him most meet and able to aspire unto the Papal Dignity before all other Ye have Commandment Commission and Instruction specially and most tenderly to recommend him unto the whole College of Cardinals having also the King 's and my Letters to them in his favour upon which Declaration ye shall perceive his Answer to be made unto you in that behalf whereupon and by knowledg of the Disposition of the Residue ye may perceive how to govern your selves in the delivery of the rest of your said Letters for in case it may evidently appear unto you that any of the Cardinals to whom the King's Letters be directed have firmly establish'd their minds upon the said Cardinal de Medices the more circumspection is to be used with any such in the delivery to him of the King's Letters and overture of the secretness of your minds touching me considering that if the King's Intent might in no wise take effect for me his Grace would before all other advance and further the said Cardinal de Medicis Nevertheless if either by his Answer to be made unto you or by other good knowledg ye shall perceive that he hath so many Enemies herein that of likelihood he cannot attain the same ye may be the more bold to feel his mind how he is inclin'd towards me saying as indeed the King's Grace hath written unto him That in case he should fail thereof the King's Highness would insist as much as to his Grace were possible for me which ye may say were in manner one thing considering that both the Cardinal de Medices and I bear one mind zeal and study to the Weal and Quiet of Christendom the Increase and Surety of Italy the Benefit and Advancement of the Emperor's and the King's Majesty's Causes and I being Pope he in a manner whom I above all Men love trust and esteem were Pope being sure to have every thing according to his mind and desire and as much Honour to be put unto him his Friends and Family as might be devised in such wise That by these and other good words and demonstrations ye may make him sure as I think he be that failing for himself he with all his Friends do their best for me and seeing no likelihood for him ye may then right-well proceed to your particular labour and practices for me delivering the King's Letters both to the College of Cardinals and to the other apart as ye shall see the case then to require and solliciting them by secret labours alleadging and declaring unto them my poor Qualities and how I having so great experience of the Causes of Christendom with the entire Favour which the Emperor and the King's Grace bear unto me the knowledg also and deep Acquaintance of other Princes and of their great Affairs the studious mind that I have ever been in both to the Surety and Weal of Italy and also to the Quiet and Tranquility of Christendom not lacking thanked be God either Substance or Liberality to look largely upon my Friends besides the sundry great Promotions which by election of me should be vacant to be disposed unto such of the said Cardinals as by their true and fast Friendship had deserved the same the loving Familiarity also which they should find in me and that of my Nature I am not in great disposed to rigour or austereness but can be contented thanked be God frankly pleasantly and courteously to participate dispose and bestow such things as I have or shall come to my disposition not having any such Faction Family or Kinsman to whom I might shew any partiality in bestowing the Promotions and Goods of the Church and which is highest to be regarded that is likely and in manner sure that by my means not only Italy shall be put in perfect surety for ever but also a final rest peace and quiet now most necessary established betwixt all Christian Princes whereupon the greatest and most notable Expedition might be made against the Infidels that hath been heard of many Years For the King's Highness in that case would be contented and hath fully promised God willing to come in Person when God shall send time unto Rome whither also I should not doubt to bring many more of the Christian Princes being determined if God should send me such Grace to expone mine own Person in
in all things with Authority sufficient to execute Justice as well in Causes Criminal as in Matters of Controversy between Party and Party his Majesty hath commanded and appointed two Commissions to be made out under his Grace's Great Seal of England by virtue whereof they shall have full Power and Authority in either Case to proceed as the Matter occurrent shall require And for the more speedy expedition to be used in all causes of Justice his Majesty's Pleasure is That the said Lord President and Council shall cause every Complainant and Defendant that shall have to do before them to put and declare their whole Matter in their Bill of Complaint and Answer without Replication Rejoinder or other Plea or Delay to be had or used therein which Order the said L. President and Council shall manifest unto all such as shall be Councellors in any Matter to be intreated and defined before them charging and commanding the said Councellors and Pleaders to observe this Order upon such Penalties as they shall think convenient as they will eschew the danger of the same and not in any ways to break it without the special License of the said Lord President and that only in some special Causes And further his Highness by these Presents doth give full Power and Authority to the said Lord President and Council as well to punish such Persons as in any thing shall neglect contemn or disobey their Commandments or the Process of the Council as all other that shall speak seditious Words invent Rumors or commit such-like Offences not being Treason whereof any Inconvenience might grow by Pillory cutting their Ears wearing of Papers Imprisonment or otherwise at their Discretions And the said L. President and Council at their discretions shall appoint Counsellors and other Requisites to poor Suitors having no Mony without paying Fees or other things for the same And his Highness giveth full Power and Authority to the said L. President Council being with him or four of them at the least whereof the said L. President Sir John Hind Sir Edmond Molineux Sir Robert Bowes Sir Leonard Becquith Sir Anthony Nevill Sir Thomas Gargrave Knights Robert Mennell and Robert Chaloner to be two with the Lord President to assess Fines of all Persons that shall be convict or indicted of any Riot how many soever they be in number unless the Matter of such Riot shall be thought unto them of such importance as the same shall be meet to be signified unto his Majesty to be punished in such sort by the Order of his Council attending upon his Grace's Person as the same may be noted for an Example to others And his Grace giveth full Power and Authority to the said Lord President and Council or four of them at the least whereof the Lord President and two others bound to continual Attendance to be three to Award and Assess Costs and Dammages as well to the Plaintiffs as to the Defendants by their discretions and to award execution of their Decrees and Orders and to punish the breakers of the same being Parties thereunto by their discretions All which Decrees and Orders the Secretary shall be bound incontinently upon the promulgation of the same to write or cause to be written in one fair Book which shall remain in the hands and custody of the said Lord President And to the intent it may appear to all Persons there what Fees shall be paid and taken for all Processes and Writings to be used by the said Council his Majesty therefore appointeth that there shall be a Table affixed in every place where the said Lord President and Council shall sit at any Sessions and a like Table to hang openly that all Men may see it in the Office where the said Secretary and the Clerks shall commonly sit and expedite the said Writings wherein shall be declared what shall be paid for the same That is to say For every Recognisance wherein one alone or more standeth bounden 12 d. for the cancelling of every like Recognisance 12 d. For the entring of every Decree 6 d. for the Copy of the same if it be asked 6 d. For every Letter Commission Attachment or other Precept or Process sent to any Person 4 d. For every Dismission before the said Council if it be asked 4 d. For the Copies of Bills and Answers and other Pleas for every ten lines reasonably writ 1 d. for the Examination of every Witness 4 d. And his Grace's Pleasure is That the Examination of Witnesses produced in Matters before the said Council shall be examined by such discreet Person and Persons as shall be thought convenient and meet by the said Lord President and two of the said Council bound to continual Attendance and that the said Lord President with such-like two of the said Council shall reform appoint and allow such Persons to write Bills Answers Copies or other Process in that Court as they shall think convenient over and beside the said Secretary and his two Clerks which Clerks also the said Lord President and Council shall reform and correct as they shall have cause and occasion In which Reformation and Appointments the said Lord President shall have a Voice Negative And for the more certain and brief determination of Matters in those parts his Majesty by these Presents ordaineth that the said Lord President and Council shall keep four general Sittings or Sessions in the Year every of them to continue by the space of one whole Month whereof one to be at York another at Kingston upon Hull one at New-Castle and another at Duresme within the limits whereof the Matters rising there shall be ordered and decreed if they conveniently so may be And they shall in every of the same Places keep one Goal Delivery before their departure from thence his Grace nevertheless referring it to their Discretions to take and appoint such other Place and Places for their said four general Sittings as they or the said Lord President with three of the Council bounden to continual Attendance shall think most convenient for the time and purpose so that they keep the full term of one Month in every such place if they may in any wise conveniently so do And forsomuch as a great number of his Majesty's Tenants and Farmers have been heretofore retained with sundry Persons by Wages Livery Badg or Connysance by reason whereof when his Grace should have had service of them they were rather at Commandment of other Men than according to their Duties of Allegiance of his Highness of whom they have their Livings his Majesty's Pleasure and express Commandment is That none of his said Council nor others shall by any means retain or entertain any of his Graces Tenants or Farmers in such sort as they or any of them should account themselves bounden to do him or them any other Service than as to his Highness Officers having Office or being appointed in Service there unless the same Farmers and Tenants be continually
attendant in the House of him that shall retain them And the said Lord President and Council shall in every their General Sittings give special notice and charge That no Nobleman nor other shall retain any of the said Tenants and Farmers otherwise than is aforesaid Charging also the said Farmers and Tenants upon pain of the forfeiture of their Farms and Holds and incurring of his Majesty's further Displeasure and Indignation in no wise to agree to any such Retainers other than is before-said but wholly to depend upon his Highness and upon such as his Highness hath or shall appoint to be Officers Rulers or Directors over them And his Grace's Pleasure further is That in every such Sitting and in all other Places where the said Lord President and Council shall have any notable Assemblies before them they shall give strait Charge and Commandment to the People to conform themselves in all things to the observation of such Laws Ordinances and Determinations as be made passed and agreed upon by his Grace's Parliament touching Religion and the most Godly Service set forth in their own Mother Tongue for their Comforts And likewise to the Laws touching the abolishing of the usurped and pretended Power of the Bishop of Rome whose Abuses they shall so beat into their Heads by continual inculcation as they may smell and understand the same and may perceive the same to be declared with their Hearts and not with their Tongues only for a form And likewise they shall declare the Order and Determination taken and agreed upon for the Abrogation of certain vain Holy Days being appointed by the Bishop of Rome to blind the World and to persuade the same that they might make Saints at their pleasures and thereby through idleness do give occasion of the increase of many and great Vices and Inconveniences which Points his Majesty doth earnestly require and straitly commmand the said Lord President and Council to set forth with all dexterity and to punish extreamly for example all Offenders in the same And his Majesty willeth the said Council as he doubteth not but they will most earnestly set forth all such other Things and Matters as for the confirmation of the People in those Matters and other the King's Majesty's Proceedings and things convenient to be remembred be or shall be set forth or devised and sent unto them for that purpose Further his Highness Pleasure is That the said Lord President and Council shall from time to time make diligent inquisition of the wrongful taking in and inclosing of Commons and other Grounds and who be extream therein and in taking and exacting of unreasonable Fines and Gressomes and overing or raising of Rents and to call the Parties that have so evil used themselves therein before them and leaving all Respects and Affections apart they shall take such order for the Redresses of Enormities used in the same as the poor People be not oppressed but that they may live after their Sorts and Qualities And if it shall chance that the said Lord President and Council shall vary in Opinion either in the Law or for any Order to be taken in any Matter or Fact before them if the case be of very great Weight and Importance then the Opinion of the greater or more part of the number of Counsellors appointed to give continual attendance shall take place and determine the Doubt and if they be of like like number of Counsellors bounden to continual Attendance then that Party whereunto the Lord President shall give his Assent shall be followed and take place And if the Case and Matter be of great Importance and the Question of the Law then the Lord President and Council shall signify the Case and Matter to the Judges at Westminster who shall with diligence advertise them again of their Opinions therein And if the Matter be of great Importance and an Order to be taken upon the Fact then the said Lord President and Council attendant upon his Person upon the same whereupon they shall have knowledg again how to use themselves in that behalf And the said Lord President and Council shall take special regard upon complaint of Spoil Extortions or Oppressions to examine the same speedily that the Party grieved may have due and undelayed Remedy and Restitution And for want of Ability in the Offenders thereunto they to be punished to the Example of others And if any Man of what degree soever he be shall upon a good lawful and reasonable Cause or Matter and so appearing to the Lord President and Council by Information or otherwise demand Surety of Peace or Justice against any great Lord or Nobleman of that Country the said Lord President and Council shall in that case grant the Petition of the poorest Man against the richest or greatest Lord being of the Council or no as they should grant the same being lawfully asked against Men of the meanest sort degree and behaviour And forasmuch as it may chance the said Lord President to be sometime diseased that he shall not be able to travel for the direction of such Matters as then shall occur or to be called to the Parliament or otherwise to be imploied in the King's Majesty's Affairs or about other Business for good Reformation or Order within his Rule or for other reasonable cause by his discretion To the intent therefore that the said Council may be and remain ever full and perfect and that they may be at all times in the same one Person to direct and use all things in such and the same order sort and form as the said Lord President should and might do by virtue of the afore-said's Commissions and these Instructions his Majesty's Pleasure is That when the said Lord President shall be so diseased absent or letted as is before-said that he cannot conveniently supply his room himself that then he shall name and appoint one of the said Commissioners being appointed to give continual attendance to supply his Room for that season during his said Disease Absence or Lett and shall deliver the Signet to the Person so appointed to keep during the same time And the King's Highness during the same time giveth unto the said Person so appointed the Name of Vice-President which Name nevertheless he shall no longer continue than during the time that the said Lord President shall so be sick absent or letted as is before-said And his Majesty's Pleasure is That for the time only that any of the said Council as is before-said shall occupy the said Room and Place as a Vice-President that all the rest of the Council shall in all things use him in like sort and with like reverence as they be bound by those Injunctions to use the Lord President himself whereunto his Grace doubteth not but every of them will conform themselves accordingly And further his Majesty by these Presents giveth full Power and Authority to the said Lord President and Council That when the Condition of any Recognisance
clam Autographum surripuerat 5. Septemb. Anno Dom. 1553. Number 9. The Conclusion of Cardinal Pool's Instructions to Mr. Goldwell sent by him to the Queen An Original Cotton Libr. Titus B. 2. FOr the conclusion of all that is comprised in your Instruction as that the which containeth the whole Sum of my poor Advice and Counsel it pleaseth her Grace to ask of me you shall say That my most humble desire is that in all deliberation her Grace shall make touching the maintenance of her State the same will ever well ponder and consider what the Providence of God hath shewed therein above that which hath been shewed in her Predecessors Kings of this Realm in this one Point which is to have the Crown not only as a King's Daughter and Heir but hath ordered that this Point of right Inheritance shall depend as it doth of the Authority he hath given to his Church and of the See of Rome which is the See Apostolick approving her Mother to be Legitimate Wife of King Henry the Eighth whereby she is bound afore God and Man as she will show her self the very Daughter of the said King Henry the Eighth right Heir of the Crown so also to show her self right Daughter of the Church and of them that be resident in the See Apostolick who be the right Heirs of Peter to whom and his Successors Christ chief Head of the Church in Heaven and in Earth hath given in Earth to bear his Place touching the Rule of the same Church and to have the Crown thereof which well considered and pondered her Grace shall soon see how in her Person the Providence of God hath joined the Right she hath by her Father in the Realm with the Right of the Church that she cannot prevail by the one except she join the other withal and they that will separate these two take away not only half her Right but her whole Right being not so much Heir because she is King Henry's only Daughter without Issue Male as she is his lawful Daughter which she hath by the Authority of the Church Which thing prudently and godly considered she cannot but see what faithful counsel this is That above all Acts that in this Parliament shall be made doth advertise her Grace to establish that the which pertaineth to the establishing of the Authority of the Church and the See of the same what rendering to him that is right Successor to Peter therein his right Title of Head in the Church in Earth without the which she cannot be right Head in the Realm and this established all Controversy is taken away and who will repine unto this he doth repine unto her right of the Crown Wherefore this is my first Advice That this Point above all other should be entreated and enacted in the Parliament and so I know her Graces full mind was and is that it should be But she feareth Difficulties and hereupon dependeth that her Grace asketh my poor Advice how these Difficulties may be taken away Unto this you may say That they must be taken away by the help of him that by his high Providence above Man's expectance hath given her already the Crown Which will have as well this second Act known of the maintainance thereof to depend of him as the first in attaining thereto And to have his help the mean is by humble Prayer wherein I would advertise her Highness not only to give her self to Prayer but also by Alms to the needy excitate the Minds of others to Prayer these be the means of most efficacy and with this to take that ardent Mind to establish the Authority of the Church casting away all fear of Man that she to be to have her Crown and not so much for her own sake as for the Honour of God which gave her the Crown And if any Difficulty should be feared in the Parliament herein leave the honour to take away the difficulty thereof to none other but assume that person to her self as most bound thereto and to propone that her self which I would trust to be of that efficacy that if inwardly any Man will repugn outwardly the Reasons be so evident for this part that joined with the Authority of her Person being proponent none will be so hardy temerarious nor impious that will resist And if in this deliberation it should seem strange to put forth these Matters in the Parliament as I have said in the Instructions without communicating the same with any of her Council I would think it well her Grace might confer it with two of the chiefest that be counted of the People most near her favour one Spiritual and another Temporal with declaring to them first how touching her Conscience afore God and her Right afore the World she can never be quiet until this Matter be stablished touching the Authority of the Church requiring their uttermost help in that as if she should fight for the Crown her Majesty may be sure she putting the same forth with that earnest manner they will not lack to serve her and they may serve quietly in the Parliament after her Grace hath spoken to prosecute and justify the same with efficacy of words to give all others example to follow her Grace leaving this part unto them That if the Name of Obedience to the Pope should seem to bring as it were a Yoke to the Realm or any other kind of servitude beside that it should be profitable to the Realm both afore God and Man that her Grace that bringeth it in again will never suffer it nor the Pope himself requireth no such thing And herein also that they say That my Person being the Mean to bring it in would never agree to be an Instrument thereof if I thought any thraldom should come thereby they shall never be deceived of me And if they would say beside I would never have taken this Enterprize upon me except I thought by the same to bring great Comfort to the Country wherein the Pope's Authority being accepted I would trust should be so used that it might be an Example of Comfort not only to that Country but to all other that hath rejected it afore and for that cause hath been ever since in great misery This is the sum of all my poor Advice at this time in this Case whereof I beseech Almighty God so much may take effect as shall be to his Honour and Wealth to her Grace and the whole Realm besides Amen Number 10. A Copy of a Letter with Articles sent from the Queens Majesty unto the Bishop of London and by him and his Officers at her gracious Commandment to be put in speedy execution with effect in the whole Diocess as well in places exempt as not exempt whatsoever according to the Tenour and Form of the same Sent by the Queen's Majesty's Commandment in the Month of March Anno Dom. 1553. By the QUEEN RIght Reverend Father in God Right trusty and well-beloved We
you four three or two of you full Power and Authority to call before you if ye shall think so good the said John Tailour John Hooper and John Harley and every of them And thereupon either by Order of the Ecclesiastical Laws or of the Laws of our Realm or of both proceed to the declaring the said Bishopricks to be void as they be already indeed void To the intent some such other meet Personages may be elected thereunto as for their godly Life Learning and Sobriety may be thought worthy the Places In Witness c. Apud Westm 15 die Martii Number 13. Bonner's Certificate that Bishop Scory had put away his Wife Regist Bonn. Fol. 347. EDmundus permissione Divina London Episcopus Universis singulis Christi fidelibus ad quos praesentes literae nostrae testimoniales pervenerint ac eis praesertum quos infra scripta tangunt seu tangere poterint quomodolibet in futurum salutem in Auctore salutis fidem indubiam praesentibus adhibere Quia boni Pastoris officium tunc nos rite exequi arbitramur cum ad exemplar Christi errantes oves ad caulam dominici gregis reducimus Ecclesiae Christi quae redeunti gremium non claudit restituimus quia dilectus Confrater noster Joannes nuper Cicestrien Episcopus in Dioc. jurisdictione nostris London ad praesens residentiam moram faciens qui olim laxatis Pudicitiae castitatis habenis contra Sacros Canones Sanctorum Patrum decreta ad illicitas prohibitas convolavit nuptias se ea ratione non solum Ecclesiastic Sacrament pertractand omnino indignum verum etiam a publica officii sui pastoralis functione privatum suspensum reddens transactae licentiosae vitae valde poenitentem deplorantem plurimis Argumentis se declaravit ac pro commissis poenitentiam alias per nos sibi injunctam salutarem aliquo temporis tractu in cordis sui amaritudine animi dolore peregit vitam hactenus degens laudabilem spemque faciens id se in posterum facturum atque ob id ad Ecclesiasticae ac Pastoralis Functionis statum saltem cum quodam temperamento justitia exigente reponend hinc est quod nos praemissa ac humilem dicti confratris nostri petitionem pro reconciliatione sua habenda obtinenda considerantes ejus precibus favorabiliter inclinati eundem Confratrem nostum ad publicam Ecclesiastici Ministerii Officii sui Pastoralis Functionem Executionem infra Dioc. nostram London exercend quatenus de jure possumus absque cujusque praejudicio restituimus rehabilitavimus redintegravimus prout tenore praesentium sic restituimus rehabilitamus redintegramus Sacrosanctae Ecclesiae clementia Christianae Charitate id exigentibus Vobis igitur universis singulis supradictis praefatum confratrem nostrum sic ut praemittitur restitutum rehabilitatum reintegratum fuisse esse ad omnes effectus supradictos significamus notificamus per praesentes sigillo nostro sigillat Dat. in Manerio nostro de Fulham die mensis Julii Anno Dom. 1554. nostrae Transla Anno 15. Number 14. A Letter of the Queen's to the Justices of the Peace in Norfolk MARY the Queen TRusty and well-beloved We greet you well And whereas We have heretofore signified our Pleasure both by our Proclamation general and by our Letters to many of you particularly for the good Order and Stay of that our County of Norfolk from Rebellions Tumults and Uproars and to have a special regard to Vagabonds and to such as did spread any vain Prophesies seditious false or untrue Rumors and to punish them accordingly We have nevertheless to Our no small grief sundry Intelligences of divers and sundry lewd and seditious Tales forged and spread by certain malicious Persons touching the Estate of our Person with many other vain and slanderous Reports tending to the moving of Sedition and Rebellion whose Fault and passing unpunished seemeth either to be winked at or at least little considered which is to Us very strange We have therefore thought good eftsoons to require and command you to be not only more circumspect in the good ordering of that our County according to our Trust conceived of you but also to use all the best means and ways ye can in the diligent examining and searching out from Man to Man the Authors and Publishers of these vain Prophesies and untrue Bruits the very foundation of all Rebellions and the same being found to punish them as the quality of their Offence shall appear to you to deserve whereby the malicious sort may be the more feared to attempt the like and Our good loving Subjects live in more quiet And for Our better service in this behalf We think good that ye divide your selves unto several parts of that our County so that every of you have some part in charge whereby ye may the better butt out the malicious and yet nevertheless to meet often together for the better conferring herein And that ye signify your Doings and the state of that Shire by your general Letters once every month at least to our Privy Council And like-as We shall consider such of you to your advancements whose diligence shall set forwards our Service in this Part so shall We have good cause to note great negligence and fault in them that shall omit their Duty in this behalf Given under our Signet at our Mannor of St. James the 23d of May in the first Year of our Reign Number 15. The Title of Bonner 's whole Book Articles to be enquired of in the General Visitation of Edmund Bishop of London exercised by him in the Year of our Lord 1554. in the City and Diocess of London and set forth by the same for his own discharge towards God and the World to the Honour of God and his Catholick Church and to the Commodity and Profit of all those that either are good which he would were all or delighteth in goodness which he wisheth to be many without any particular grudg or displeasure to any one good or bad within this Realm which Articles he desireth all Men of their Charity especially those that are of his Diocess to take with as good intent and mind as the said Bishop wisheth and desireth which is to the best And the said Bishop withal desireth all People to understand That whatsoever Opinion good or bad hath been received of him or whatsoever usage or custom hath been heretofore his only intent and purpose is to do his Duty charitably and with that love favour and respect both towards God and every Christian Person which any Bishop should shew to his Flock in any wise Article 1. VVHether the Clergy to give example to Laity have in their Living in their Teaching and in their Doing so behaved themselves that they in the judgment of indifferent Persons have declared themselves to search principally the Honour of God and his Church the Health of
nos justitiam ejus Causae perpendentes c. doth make as much and more for the maintenance of that shall be done in your Highness Cause then if the Commission Decretal being in Cardinal Campegius's Hands should be shewed and this your Highness at your liberty to shew to whom of your Council it shall please your Grace thinking in my poor Opinion that it were not the best therefore to move the Pope in that Matter again in this adverse Time I most humbly desire your Majesty that I may be a Suitor to the same for the said Mr. Gregory so as by your most gracious Commandment payment may be made there to his Factors of such Diets as your Highness alloweth him for omitting to speak of his true faithful and diligent Service which I have heretofore and do now perceive in him here I assure your Highness he liveth here sumptuously and chargeably to your Highness Honour and in this great Scarcity must needs be driven to Extremity unless your Highness be a gracious Lord unto him in that behalf Thus having none other Matter whereof privately to write unto your Majesty besides that is contained in our common Letters to my Lord Legat's Grace desiring your Highness that I may know your Pleasure what to do in case none other thing can be obtained here I shall make an end of these Letters praying Almighty God to preserve your most noble and royal Estate with a short expedition of this Cause according to your Highness Purpose and Desire From Rome the 21 day of April Your Highness most humble Subject Servant and daily Orator Stephen Gardiner Number 27. The Writ for the burning of Cranmer PHILIP and MARY c. Rot. Pat. 2 3 Phil. Mar. 2. par TO Our right trusty Nicholas Arch-Bishop of York Lord Chancellor of England Greeting We Will and Command you that immediately upon the sight hereof and by Warrant of the same ye do cause to be made a Writ for the Execution of Thomas Cranmer late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the same so made to Seal with our Great Seal of England being in your Custody according to the Tenor and Form hereafter following PHilippus Maria Dei Gratia c. Majori Ballivis Civitatis Oxon. Salutem Cum Sanctissimus Pater noster Paulus Papa ejusdem Nominis Quartus per sententiam definitivam juris Ordine in ea parte requisito in omnibus observato juxta canonicas sanctiones judicialiter definitive Thomam Cranmer nuper Cantuariensem Archiepiscopum fore Haeresiarchum Anathematizatum Haereticum manifestum propter suos varios nefandos Errores manifestos damnabiles Haereses detestandas pessimas Opiniones Fidei nostrae Catholicae Vniversalis Ecclesiae determinationi obviantes repugnantes praedict Thomam Cranmer multis modis contract comiss dict affirmat perpetrat publice pertinaciter tent defens judicavit declaravit pronunciavit condemnavit eadem causa idem Sanctissimus Pater noster Papa Paulus quartus Iudicialiter definitive more solito praedictum Thomam Cranmer a praedicto Archiepiscopatu aliis Praelaturis dignitatibus Officiis Beneficiis deprivavit abjudicavit prout cunctam inde habemus noticiam Cumque etiam Reverendus in Christo Pater Edmundus Londini Episcopus Thomas Elien Episcopus Authoritate ejusdem Sanctissimi nostri Patris Papae praedictum Thomam Cranmer ab omni Ordine Gradu Officio Dignitate Ecclesiastica tanquam Haeresiarcham Haereticum manifestum realiter degradaverunt Vigore cujus idem Thomas Cranmer in presenti Haereticus Haeresiarcha juste legitime Canonice Iudicatus condemnatus degradatus existit Et cum etiam Mater Ecclesia non habet quod ulterius in hac parte contra tam putridum detestabile membrum heresiarchum faciat aut facere debeat Iidem Reverendi Patres eundem Thomam Cranmer damnatum Haereticum Haeresiarcham brachiis potestati nostris secularibus tradiderunt commiserunt reliquerunt prout per Literas Patentes eorundem Reverendorum Patrum superinde confect nobis in Cancellaria nostra Certificatum est Nos igitur ut Zelatores Iusticiae Fidei Catholicae Defensores volentesque Ecclesiam Sanctam ac Iuxa Libertates ejusdem Fidem Catholicam manutenere defendere hujusmodi Haereses Errores ubique quantum in nobis est eradicare extirpare praedictum Thomam Heresiarcham ac convictum damnat degradat animadversione condigna punire Attendentesque hujusmodi Heretic Heresiarch in forma praedicta convict damnat degradat juxta Leges consuetudines Regni nostri Angliae in hac parte consuetas ignis incendio comburi debere Vobis Praecipimus quod dictum Thomam Cranmer in custodia vestra existen in Loco publico aperto infra Libertatem dicti Civitatis nostrae Oxon. ex causa praedicta coram Populo igni Committi ac ipsum Thomam Cranmer in eodem igne realiter comburi facietis in hujusmodi Criminis detestationem aliorum Christianorum exemplum manifestum Et hoc sub paena periculo incumbente ac prout nobis subinde respondere volueritis nullatenus Omittatis Test nobis ipsis apud Westmonasterium Vicesimo quarto Februarii Annis Regis Reginae secundo ac tertio And this Bill signed with the hand of Us the said Queen shall be your sufficient Warrant and Discharge for the same Number 28. A Commission to Bonner and others to search and raze Records PHILIP and MARY c. TO the Right Reverend Father in God Rot. Pat. 3 4 Phil. Mar. 12. Pars. Edmond Bishop of London and to Our trusty and well-beloved Henry Cole Doctor of Divinity and Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul London and Thomas Marten Esq Doctor of the Civil Law Greeting Where is come to Our knowledg and understanding that in the time of the late Schism divers and sundry Accompts Books Scroles Instruments and other Writings were practised devised and made concerning Professions against the Pope's Holiness and the See Apostolick And also sundry and divers infamous Scrutinies were taken in Abbeys and other Religious Houses tending rather to subvert and overthrow all good Religion and Religious Houses than for any Truth contained therein which Writings and other the Premises as We be informed were delivered to the Custody and Charge of divers and sundry Registers and other Officers and Ministers of this Our Realm of England to be by them kept and preserved And minding to have the said Writings and other the Premises brought to knowledg whereby they may be considered and ordered according to Our Will and Pleasure And trusting in your Fidelities Wisdoms and Discretions We have appointed and assigned you to be Our Commissioners and by these presents do give full Power and Authority unto you or two of you to call before you or two of you all and singular the said Registers and other Officers and Ministers within this Our
moreover We will and Command all and singular Justices of Peace Mayors Sheriffs Bailiffs Constables and all other our Officers Ministers and faithful Subjects to be aiding helping and assisting to you at your commandment in the due execution hereof as they tender Our Pleasure and will answer to the Costs at their utmost Perils And We Will and Grant That these Our Letters Patents shall be a sufficient Warrant and Discharge for you and any of you against Us Our Heirs and Successors and all and every other Person or Persons whatsoever they be of for or concerning the Premises or any parcel thereof or for the execution of this Our Commission or any part thereof In Witness whereof We have caused these Our Letters to be made Patents and to continue and endure for one whole Year next coming after the Date hereof Witness our Self at Wistminster the 8th day of February the third and fourth Years of Our Reign Number 33. A Letter writ by the Council expressing their Jealousies of the Lady Elizabeth An Original Cotton Libr. Titus B. 2. Mr. Pope after our very hearty Commendations ye shall understand That amongst divers other devilish Practices attempted from time to time by Dudly Aston and other Traitors in France for the disturbance of the Quiet of the Realm they have now lately sent over one Cleyberdo who if I the Lord Chancellor be not deceived in the Man was whilst I was President in Wales indicted of a Burglary and should have been if he had not escaped by the means of certain his Complices who took him from the Sheriffs Man as well for the said Burglary as for divers other notable Robberies and other Offences made sure enough from attempting this Enterprize now This Man being sent by the foresaid Traitors into the extream parts of Essex and Suffolk where naming himself to be Earl of Devonshire he hath by spreading abroad of slanderous Letters Proclamations abused the Lady Elizabeth's Graces Name pronouncing thereby as much as in him lay to stir the King 's and Queen's Majesties Subjects in those parts to Rebellion as by the Copies of the said Letters and Proclamations which we send unto you herewith may at better length appear unto you And albeit the People there have shewed themselves so true and obedient Subjects as immediately upon the understanding of this Enterprize they did of themselves and without any Commandment apprehend as many of the Attempters of this devilish Practice as they could come by whereby their good-will and truth to the King and Queen's Majesties doth well appear Yet because this Matter is spread already abroad and that peradventure many Constructions and Discourses will be made thereof we have thought meet to signify the whole Circumstances of the Cause unto you to be by you opened unto the Lady Elizabeth's Grace at such time as ye shall think convenient to the end it may appear unto her how little these Men stick by falshood and untruth to compass their Purpose not letting for that intent to abuse the Name of her Grace or any others which their Devises nevertheless are God be thanked by his Goodness discovered from time to time to their Majesties preservance and confusion of their Enemies And so bid you heartily well to fare From Eltham the 30th of July 1556. Your Loving Friends Nichol. Eborac Canc. Arundel Thomas Ely R. Rochester Henry Jernegam Number 34. A Letter from Sir Edward Carne concerning the suspension of Cardinal Pool's Legatine Power An Original PLeaseth it your most Excellent Majesties Ex Chartophylac Regio according as I advertised your Highness in my Letters of the 8th of this So I have informed all the Cardinals that be here of the Congregation of the Inquisition as the most Reverend Lord Cardinal Morone advised me informing them of the good Proceedings and Reformations made by the most Reverend Lord Cardinal's Grace there as well in Clero as in Populo not only in things pertaining ad cultum Dei but also in other pertaining to the Common-Weal of Christ's Church in such sort as Christ's Religion doth so prosper there that there is good hope all things should come to their perfection in time And for that purpose his Grace had called there a Synod of the Clergy of the Realm where many good Ordinances for the maintenance of the Premises been past already and many ready in hand for to pass and not fully ended nor perfected which should be staid in case the Legacy should be there-hence revoked which might turn to the great danger and dammage of many in that your Majesty's Realm in case due Reformation throughout and perfectly were not made Therefore I desired them that when the Matter were moved amongst them so to weigh it as such a good beginning that through your Majesty's Goodness hath been there be not brought by their doings here into no worse terms then your Majesties with no little pain hath always travelled to bring it unto Adding besides divers Cases that daily might fall which could not be holpen without the Authority of this See And that Men newly reduced to the Unity of the Church would rather stand in their naughty Doings whose Examples might be noisome to many than repair hither for any help But having the Legate there would gladly seek help at his hands being present amongst them And likewise for reduction of your Majesty's Realm of Ireland to the Unity of the Church which whether it were past or no I doubted and ended throughly And if it were yet were it most expedient that there should be Reformation as well in Clero as in Populo which could not well be in case the Legacy continue not there This is the effect of the Points that I informed them upon who all thought it most expedient that the Legacy should continue there and would not fail to stay as much as might lie in them for these Considerations above rehearsed and thought being of such importance that if my Lord's Grace were not there already it were most expedient that he should be sent thither rather than to be revoked and hereof as well Cardinal Morone as all the other would needs I should move his Holiness Whereupon the 12th of this I went to the Pope himself upon pretence to give him thanks for the Provision of the Church of Chichester and of the most gracious and honourable Report that he made in the Consistory the same time of your Highness my Soveraign Lady the Queen where his Holiness declared so much Goodness and Vertue of your Majesty that he and this See could not he said shew so much favour to any of yours as the same required As undoubtedly as far as I could hear he doth whensoever he hath occasion to speak of your Majesty so reverently as more could not be who prevented me and said that he was glad that I was come unto him and trusted that God had sent me thither for there had been with him the day before
the Writings of the Disciples and of the Prophets are read as much as may be Afterwards when the Reader doth cease the Head-Minister maketh an Exhortation exhorting them to follow so honest things After this we rise all together and offer Prayers which being ended as we have said Bread Wine and Water are brought forth then the Head-Minister offereth Prayers and Thanksgivings as much as he can and the People answereth Amen These words of Justin who lived about 160 Years after Christ considered with their Circumstances declare plainly That not only the Scriptures were read but also that the Prayers and Administration of the Lord's Supper were done in a Tongue understood Both the Liturgies of Basil and Chrysostom declare That in the Celebration of the Communion the People were appointed to answer to the Prayer of the Minister sometimes Amen sometimes Lord have mercy upon us sometimes And with thy Spirit and We have our Hearts lifted up unto the Lord c. Which Answers they would not have made in due time if the Prayers had not been made in a Tongue understood And for further proof Basil Epist 63. let us hear what Basil writeth in this Matter to the Clerks of Neocesarea Caeterum ad Objectum in Psalmodiis crimen quo maximè simpliciores terrent Calumniatores c. As touching that is laid to our charge in Psalmodies and Songs wherewith our Slanderers do fray the Simple I have this to say That our Customs and Usage in all Churches be uniform and agreeable For in the Night the People with us riseth goeth to the House of Prayer and in Travel Tribulation and continual Tears they confess themselves to God and at the last rising again go to their Songs or Psalmodies where being divided into two parts sing by course together both deeply weighing and confirming the Matter of the Heavenly Saying and also stirring up their Attention and Devotion of Heart which by other means be alienated and pluck'd away Then appointing one to begin the Song the rest follow and so with divers Songs and Prayers passing over the Night at the dawning of the Day all together even as it were with one Mouth and one Heart they sing unto the Lord a new Song of Confession every Man framing to himself meet words of Repentance If ye will flee us from henceforth for these things ye must flee also the Egyptians and both the Lybians ye must eschew the Thebians Palestines Arabians the Phenices the Syrians and those which dwell besides Euphrates And to be short all those with whom Watchings Prayers and common singing of Psalms are had in honour These are sufficient to prove that it is against God's Word and the Use of the Primitive Church to use a Language not understood of the People in Common Prayer and Ministration of the Sacraments Wherefore it is to be marvelled at not only how such an Untruth and Abuse crept at the first into the Church but also how it is maintained so stifly at this Day And upon what ground these that will be thought Guides and Pastors of Christ's Church are so loath to return to the first Original of St. Paul's Doctrine and the Practice of the Primitive Catholick Church of Christ J. Scory D. Whithead J. Juel J. Almer R. Cox E. Grindal R. Horn. E. Gest. The God of Patience and Consolation give us Grace to be like minded one towards another in Christ Jesus that we all agreeing together may with one mouth praise God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen Number 4. The Answer of Dr. Cole to the first Proposition of the Protestants at the Disputation before the Lords at Westminster Est contra Verbum Dei consuetudinem veteris Ecclesioe Linguâ Populo ignotâ uti in publicis precibus Administratione Sacramentorum Most Honourable Ex MS. Col. Cor. C. Cant. VVHereas these Men here present have declared openly That it is repugnant and contrary to the Word of God to have the Common Prayers and Ministration of the Sacraments in the Latin Tongue here in England and that all such Common Prayer and Ministration ought to be and remain in the English Tongue Ye shall understand that to prove this their Assertion they have brought in as yet only one place of Scripture taken out of St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians Cap. 14. with certain other places of the Holy Doctors whereunto answer is not now to be made But when the Book which they read shall be delivered unto us according to the appointment made in that behalf then God willing we shall make answer as well to the Scripture as other Testimonies alledged by them so as all good Men may evidently perceive and understand the same Scripture to be misconstrued and drawn from the native and true sense And that it is not St. Paul's mind there to treat of Common Prayer or Ministration of any Sacraments And therefore we now have only to declare and open before you briefly which after as opportunity serves in our Answer shall appear more at large causes which move us to persist and continue in the order received and to say and affirm that to have the Common Prayer or Service with the Ministration of the Sacraments in the Latin Tongue is convenient and as the state of the Cause standeth at this present necessary Second Section 1. And this we affirm first because there is no Scripture manifest against this our Assertion and Usage of the Church And though there were any yet it is not to be condemn'd that the Church hath receiv'd Which thing may evidently appear in many things that were sometime expresly commanded by God and his Holy Apostles 2. As for Example to make the Matter plain ye see the express Command of Almighty God touching the observation of the Sabbath-Day to be changed by Authority of the Church without any Word of God written for the same into the Sunday The Reason whereof appeareth not to all Men and howsoever it doth appear and is accepted of all good Men without any Controversy of Scripture yea without any mention of the Day saving only that St. John in his Apocalyps nameth it Diem Dominicam In the change whereof all Men may evidently understand the Authority of the Church both in this cause and also in other Matters to be of great weight and importance and therein esteemed accordingly 3. Another Example we have given unto us by the Mouth of our Saviour himself who washing the feet of his Disciples said I have herein given you an Example that as I have done even so do you Notwithstanding these express words the Holy Church hath left the thing undone without blame not of any Negligence but of great and urgent Causes which appeareth not to many Men and yet universally without the breach of God's Commandment as is said left undone Was not the Fact also and as it seemeth the express Commandment of Christ our Saviour changed and altered by the Authority
of the Church in the highest Mystery of our Faith the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar For he ministreth the same as the Scripture witnesseth after Supper And now if a contentious Man would strain the Fact to the first Institution St. Augustine answereth not by Scripture for there is none to improve it but indeed otherwise even as the Apostles did Visum est Spiritui sancto ut in honorem tanti Sacramenti in os Christiani hominis prius intret Corpus Dominicum quam exteri cibi It is determin'd saith St. Augustine by the Holy Ghost that in the honour of so great a Sacrament the Body of our Lord should enter first into the Mouth of a Christian Man before other external Meats So that notwithstanding it was the Fact of Christ himself yet the Church moved by the Holy Ghost as is said hath changed that also without offence likewise By the which Sentence of St. Augustine manifestly appeareth that this Authority was deriv'd from the Apostles unto this Time the which same Authority according to Christ's Promises doth still abide and remain with his Church 4. And hereupon also resteth the Alteration of the Sacrament under one kind when-as the multitude of the Gentiles entred the Church instructed by the Holy Ghost understood Inconveniencies and partly also Heresy to creep in through the Ministration under both kinds and therefore as in the former Examples so in this now the Matter nothing diminished neither in it self nor in the Receivers and the thing also being received before by a common and uniform Consent without contradiction the Church did decree that from henceforth it should be received under the form of Bread only and whosoever should think and affirm that Whole Christ remained not under both kinds pronounc'd him to be in Heresy 5. Moreover we read in the Acts whereas it was determined in a Council holden at Hierusalem by the Apostles that the Gentiles should abstain from Strangled an◠Blood in these words Visum est Spiritui Sancto Nobis c. It is decreed by the Holy Ghost and Vs say the Apostles that no other burden be laid upon you than these necessary things That ye abstain from things offered up unto Idols and from Blood and from that is strangled and from Fornication This was the Commandment of God for still it is commanded upon pain of damnation to keep our Bodies clean from Fornication and the other join'd by the Holy Ghost with the same not kept nor observed at this day 6. Likewise in the Acts of the Apostles it appeareth That among them in the Primitive Church all things were common They sold their Lands and Possessions and laid the Mony at the Feet of the Apostles to be divided to the People as every Man had need insomuch that Ananias and Saphira who kept back a part of their Possession and laid but the other part at the Apostles Feet were declared by the Mouth of St. Peter to be tempted by the Devil and to lye against the Holy Ghost and in example of all other punish'd with sudden Death By all which Examples and many other it is manifest that though there were any such Scripture which they pretend as there is not yet the Church wherein the Holy Ghost is alway resident may order the same and may therein say as truly Visum est Spiritui Sancto Nobis as did the Apostles For Christ promised unto the Church That the Holy Ghost should teach them all Truth and that He himself would be with the same Church unto the Worlds end And hereupon we do make this Argument with St. Augustine which he writeth in his Epistle ad Januarium after this sort Ecclesia Dei inter multam paleam multaque Zizania constituta multa tolerat tamen quae sunt contra fidem vel bonam vitam non approbat nec tacet nec facit To this Major we add this Minor But the Catholick Church of God neither reproveth the Service or Common Prayer to be in the Learned Tongue nor yet useth it otherwise Therefore it is most lawful and commendable so to be Third Section Another Cause that moveth us to say and think is That otherwise doing as they have said there followeth necessarily the breach of Unity of the Church and the Commodities thereby are withdrawn and taken from us there follows necessarily an horrible Schism and Division In alteration of the Service into our Mother Tongue we condemn the Church of God which hath been heretofore we condemn the Church that is present and namely the Church of Rome To the which howsoever it is lightly esteemed here among us the Holy Saint and Martyr Ireneus saith in plain words thus Ad hanc Ecclesiam propter potentiorem principalitatem necesse est omnes alias Ecclesias convenire hoc est omnes undique Fideles It is necessary saith this Holy Man who was nigh to the Apostles or rather in that time for he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostolorum that all Churches do conform themselves and agree with the See or Church of Rome all Churches that is to say as he declareth himself all Christian and Faithful Men. And he alleadgeth the Cause why it is necessary for all Men to agree therewith propter potentiorem principalitatem for the greater Preeminence of the same or for the mightier Principality From this Church and consequently from the whole Universal Church of Christ we fall undoubtedly into a fearful and dangerous Schism and therewith into all Incommodities of the same That in this doing we fall from the Unity of the Church it is more manifest than that we need much to stand upon St. Augustine Contra Cresconium Grammaticum putting a difference between Heresis and Schisma saith Schisma est diversa sequentium secta Heresis autem Schisma inveteratum To avoid this horrible Sin of Schism we are commanded by the words of St. Paul saying Obsecro vos ut id ipsum dicatis omnes non sint in vobis Schismata And that this changing of the Service out of the Learned Tongue is doing contrary to the Form and Order universally observed is plain and evident to every Man's Eye They are to be named Hereticks saith he which obstinately think and judg in Matters of Faith otherwise than the rest of the Church doth And those are called Schismaticks which follow not the Order and Trade of the Church but will invent of their own Wit and Brain other Orders contrary or diverse to them which are already by the Holy Ghost universally establish'd in the Church And we being declin'd from God by Schism note what follows There is then no Gift of God no Knowledg no Justice no Faith no Works and finally no Vertue that could stand us in stead though we should think to glorify God by suffering Death as St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 13. Yea there is no Sacrament that availeth to Salvation in them that willingly fall into Schism that without fear
Hostages though that Assurance might be good to preserve her from Violence in Scotland yet it may be doubted how the same will be sufficient to keep her from escaping or governing a-again seeing for her part she will make little Conscience of the Hostages if she may prevail and the punishing of the Hostages will be a small satisfaction to the Queen's Majesty for the Troubles that may ensue And for the doubt of her escape or of Rebellion within this Realm it may be said That if she should not be well guarded but should be left open to practise then her Escape and the other Perils might be doubted of but if the Queen's Majesty hold a stricter hand over her and put her under the Care of a fast and circumspect Man all practice shall be cut from her and the Queen's Majesty free from that Peril And more safe it is for the Queen to keep the Bridle in her own Hand to restrain the Scottish Queen than in returning her home to commit that trust to others which by Death composition or abusing of one Person may be disappointed And if she should by any means recover her Estate the doubt of Rebellion there is not taken away but rather to be feared if she have ability to her Will And if she find strength by her own or Forreign Friends she is not far off to give Aid upon a main Land to such as will stir for her which so long as she is here they will forbear lest it might bring most Peril to her self being in the Queen's Hands The like respect no Doubt will move Forreign Princes to become Requesters and no Threatners for her delivery And where it is said That the Queen's Majesty cannot be quiet so long as she is here but it may breed danger to her Majesty's Health That is a Matter greatly to be weighed for it were better to adventure all than her Majesty should inwardly conceive any thing to the danger of her Health But as that is only known to such as have more inward Acquaintance with her Majesty's disposition than is fit for some other to have So again it is to be thought that her Majesty being wise if the Perils like to follow in returning her Home were laid before her and if she find them greater than the other she will be induced easily to change her Opinion and thereby may follow to her Majesty's great satisfaction and quietness Cautions if she be retained To remove her somewhat nearer the Court at the least within one days Journey of London whereby it shall be the more easie to understand of her Doings To deliver her in custody to such as be thought most sound in Religion and most void of practice To diminish her number being now about forty Persons to the one half to make thereby the Queen's Charges the less and to give her the fewer means of Intelligence To cut from her all Access Letters and Messages other than such as he that shall have the Charge shall think fit To signify to all Princes the occasion of this streight Guard upon her to be her late practice with the Duke of Norfolk which hath given the Queen cause to doubt further assuring them that she shall be used honourably but kept safely from troubling the Queen's Majesty or this State That she be retained here until the Estate of Scotland be more setled and the Estate of other Countries now in garboil be quieted the Issue whereof is like to be seen in a Year or two Number 12. A Letter written by the Earl of Leicester to the Earl of Sussex concerning the Queen of Scots taken from the first Draught of it written with his own hand MY good Lord I received your Letter in the answer of mine Ex M. SS Nob. D. Evelyn and though I have not written sooner again to your Lordship both according to your desire and the necessity of our Cases at this time yet I doubt not but you are fully advertised of her Majesty's Pleasure otherwise For my own part I am glad your Lordship hath prospered so well in your Journey and have Answered in all Points the good Opinion conceived of you And touching her Majesty's further Resolution for these Causes my Lord I assure you I know not well what to write First I see her Majesty willing and desirous as Reason is to work her own Security and the quietness of her State during her time which I trust in God shall be far longer than we shall live to see end of And herein my Lord there be sundry Minds and among our selves I must confess to your Lordship we are not fully agreed which way is best to take And to your Lordship I know I may be bold beside the Friendship I owe you the Place you hold presently doth require all the understanding that may be to the furtherance of her Majesty's good Estate wherefore I shall be the bolder even to let you know as much as I do and how we rest among us Your Lordship doth consider for the State of Scotland her Majesty hath those two Persons being divided to deal with the Queen of Scotland lately by her Subjects deprived and the young King her Son Crown'd and set up in her Place Her Majesty of these two is to chuse and of necessity must chuse which of them she will allow and accept as the Person sufficient to hold the principal Place And here groweth the Question in our Council to her Majesty Which of these two are most fit for her to maintain and join in Amity with To be plain with your Lordship The most in number do altogether conceive her Majesty's best and surest way is to maintain and continue the young King in this his Estate and thereby to make her whole Party in Scotland which by the setling of him with the cause of Religion is thought most easiest most safest and most probable for the perpetual quieting and benefit to her own Estate and great assurance made of such a Party and so small Charges thereby as her Majesty may make account to have the like Authority and assured Amity in Scotland as heretofore she had in the time of the late Regent The Reasons against the other are these shortly The Title that the Queen claimeth to this Crown The overthrow of Religion in that Country The impossibility of any assurance for the observing of any Pact or Agreement made between our Soveraign and her These be Causes your Lordship sees sufficient to dissuade all Men from the contrary Opinion And yet my Lord it cannot be denied upon indifferent looking into the Matter on both sides but the clearest is full enough of Difficulties And then my Lord is the Matter disputable and yet I think verily not for Argument-sake but even for Duty and Conscience-sake to find out Truth and safest means for our Soveraign's best doing And thus we differ The first you have heard touching the young King On the other side this it
is thought and of these I must confess my self to your Lordship to be one And God is my Judg whether it be for any other respect in this World but that I suppose and verily believe it may prove best for her Majesty 's own quietness during her time And here I must before open to your Lordship indeed her Majesty's true State she presently stands in which though it may be granted the former Advice the better way yet how hardly it layeth in her Power to go thorow withal you shall easily judg For it must be confessed That by the taking into her protection the King and the Faction she must enter into a War for it And as the least War being admitted cannot be maintained without great Charge so such a War may grow France or Spain setting in foot as may cause it to be an intollerable War Then being a War it must be Treasure that must maintain it That she hath Treasure to continue any time in War surely my Lord I cannot see it And as your Lordship doth see the present Relief for Mony we trust upon which either failing us or it rising no more than I see it like to be not able long to last Where is there further hope of help hereafter For my own part I see none If it be so then my Lord that her Majesty's present estate is such as I tell you which I am sure is true How shall this Counsel stand with security by taking a Party to enter into a War when we are no way able to maintain it for if we enter into it once and be driven either for Lack or any other way to shrink what is like to follow of the Matter your Lordship can well consider the best is we must be sorry for that we have done and per-chance seek to make a-mends where we neither would nor should This is touching the present State we stand in Besides we are to remember what already we have done how many ways even now together the Realm hath been universally burdened First For the keeping of new bands after the furnishing of Armour and therein how continually the Charge sooner hath grown than Subsidies payed And lastly the marvellous charge in most Countries against the late Rebellion with this Loan of Mony now on the neck of it Whether this State doth require further cause of imposition or no I refer to your Lordship And whether entring into a further Charge than her Majesty hath presently wherewithal to bear it will force such a Matter or no I refer to wiser to judg And now my Lord I will shew you such Reasons as move me to think as I do In Worldly Causes Men must be governed by Worldly Policies and yet so to frame them as God the Author of all be chiefly regarded From him we have received Laws under which all Mens Policies and Devices ought to be Subject and through his Ordinance the Princes on the Earth have Authority to give Laws by which also all Princes have the Obedience of the People And though in some Points I shall deal like a Worldly Man for my Prince yet I hope I shall not forget that I am a Christian nor my Duty to God Our Question is this Whether it be meeter for our Soveraign to maintain the young King of Scotland and his Authority or upon Composition restore the Queen of Scots into her Kingdom again To restore her simply we are not of Opinion for so I must confess a great over-sight and doubt no better Success than those that do Object most Perils thereby to ensue But if there be any Assurances in this World to be given or any Provision by Worldly Policy to be had then my Lord I do not see but Ways and Means may be used with the Queen of Scots whereby her Majesty may be at quiet and yet delivered of her present great Charge It is granted and feared of all sides that the cause of any trouble or danger to her Majesty is the Title the Queen of Scotland pretends to the Crown of this Realm The Danger we fear should happen by her is not for that she is Queen of Scotland but that other the great Princes of Christendom do favour her so much as in respect of her Religion they will in all Causes assist her and specially by the colour of her Title seem justly to aid and relieve her and the more lawfully take her and her Causes into their Protection Then is the Title granted to be the chief Cause of danger to our Soveraign If it be so Whether doth the setting up the Son in the Mothers Place from whence his Title must be claimed take away her Title in the Opinion of those Princes or no notwithstanding she remain Prisoner It appeareth plainly No for there is continual Labour and means made from the greatest Princes our Neighbours to the Queen's Majesty for restoring the Queen of Scotland to her Estate and Government otherwise they protest open Relief and Aid for her Then though her Majesty do maintain the young King in his present Estate yet it appears that other Princes will do the contrary And having any advantage how far they will proceed Men may suspect And so we must conceive that as long as this Difference shall continue by the maintaining of these two so long shall the same Cause remain to the trouble and danger of the Queen's Majesty And now to avoid this whilst she lives What better Mean is there to take this Cause away but by her own consent to renounce and release all such Interest or Title as she claimeth either presently or hereafter during the Life of her Majesty and the Heirs of her Body Albeit here may two Questions be moved First Whether the Scots Queen will renounce her Title or no Secondly If she will do so What Assurance may she give for the performance thereof To the first It is most certain she hath and presently doth offer wholly and frankly to release and renounce all manner of Claims and Titles whatsoever they be to the Crown of this Realm during her Majesty's Life and the Heirs of her Body And for the second She doth likewise offer all manner of Security and Assurances that her Majesty can devise and is in that Queen 's possible Power to do she excepteth none Then must we consider what may be Assurances for here is the difficulty For that Objections be that Princes never hold Promises longer than for their own Commodity and what Security soever they put in they may break if they will All this may be granted but yet that we must grant also that Princes do daily Treat and deal one with another and of necessity are forced to trust to such Bonds and Assurances as they contract by And as there is no such Surety to be had in Worldly Matters but all are subject to many Casualties yet we see such Devices made even among Princes as doth tie them to perform that which
Subject But in the new Office of the Communion the Idolatry of worshipping carrying about or exposing the Sacrament was laid aside The trade of particular Masses for private Occasions the Prayers to the Saints the denying the People the Chalice with a great many of the Rites and Gesticulations formerly used were all laid aside so that there were great changes made Every thing was not done at once but they began with the Abuses that did most require a Reformation and went on afterwards to the changing of lesser things 22. He says Ibid. Sir Ralph Sadler took the Wife of one Matthew Barrow so upon pretence of his being dead his Wife married Sadler but her first Husband coming home he sought to have his Wife again It was brought into the Parliament in King Henry's Time and now it was enacted that she should be Sadler's Wife he being the richer and greater Man So against the Laws of the Gospel a Wife while her Husband was yet alive was adjudged to a second Husband This is as far as I can learn a Forgery from the beginning to the end and it seems Sadler that was a Privy Counsellor in Queen Elizabeth's Time did somewhat that so provoked Sanders that he resolved to be revenged of him and his Family by casting such an aspersion on him I find no Foot-steps of any such Story sure I am there is nothing concerning it in the Records of this Parliament And for the Business of the Dissolution of Marriages for Adultery Absence or any other Cause there was so great and so strict an enquiry made into it after the Parliament was ended in the Case of the Marquess of Northampton that it is clear it was the first of that sort that was examined and might perhaps after it was confirmed in Parliament in the 5th Year of this Reign have been made a Precedent for other Cases but this of Sadler in the first Parliament is a Contrivance of our Authors It is not improbable that when afterwards it was judged that the Marriage-Bond was dissolved by Adultery they might likewise declare it dissolved upon voluntary and long absence since St. Paul had said That a Brother or a Sister were not under Bondage in such Cases 22. He says Gardiner Bonner Tonstal Heath and Day Pag. 196. were much grieved at the Changes that were made yet they complied in many things till being required to deliver some Blasphemous Doctrines in their Sermons they refusing to give Obedience in that were deprived but were afterwards condemned to perpetual Imprisonment under Queen Elizabeth all which were the Effects of God's Displeasure on them for complying with K. Henry in his Schism I shall grow tedious if I insist on all the Falsities that do occur in this Period First Only Gardiner and Bonner were questioned and deprived for their Sermons Tonstall was deprived for Misprision of Treason Heath and Day were judged by Lay-Delegates so it is like their Offences were also against the State 2. There was nothing enjoined Bonner or Gardiner to preach upon which they were censured but that the King's Authority was the same when he was under Age that it was afterwards which is a Point that belongs only to the Laws and Constitution of this Government and so there was just reason to impute their Silence in that particular when they were commanded to touch upon it in their Sermons to an ill Design against the State 3. Three of these Bishops did concur in all the Changes that were made the first four Years of this King's Reign and both preached and wrote for them and even Bonner and Gardiner did not only give Obedience to every Law or Injunction that came out but recommended them much in their Sermons 4. These did not suffer perpetual Imprisonment under Queen Elizabeth Gardiner and Day died before she reigned and so were not imprisoned by her Heath was never put in Prison by her but lived at his own Country House and Tonstal lived at Lambeth in as much ease and was treated with as much respect as if it had been his own House so that Bonner was the only Man that was kept in Prison but that was believed to be done in kindness to him to preserve him from the Affronts which otherwise he might have met with from the Friends of those he had butchered Pag. 197. 24. He says The Lady Mary never departed from her Mothers Faith and Constancy It appears by many of her Letters that she complyed with every thing that had been done by her Father so it seems she was dispenced with from Rome to dissemble in his time for otherwise her constancy had very likely been fatal to her but she presumed on the mildness of her Brother's Government to be more refractory afterwards Pag. 198. 25. He says The King was sorry when he understood how hardly his Sister had been used by the Council It was so far otherwise that when the Council being much pressed by the Emperor to connive at her having Mass were resolved to give way to it the King himself was so averse to it thinking it a sin in him to consent to the practice of Idolatry that the Council employed the Bishops to work on him and they could hardly induce him to tolerate it Pag. 200. 26 He says The Visitors carried with them over England Bibles of a most corrupt Translation which they ordered to be set up in all the Churches of England In King Henry's Time it had been ordered that there should be a Bible in every Church so this was not done by the Visitors in this Reign as may appear by the Injunctions that were given them which have been often printed 27. He says The Visitors did every-where enquire Ibid. Whether all the Images were broken down and if the Altars were taken away and Communion Tables were put in their rooms and if all the old Offices were destroyed Here he confounds in one Period what was done in several Years In the first Year the Images that had been abused by Pilgrimages were ordered to be removed In the second Year all Images were taken down without exception In the third Year the old Books of the former Offices were ordered to be destroyed And in the fourth Year the Altars were turned to Communion Tables so ignorantly did this Author write of our Affairs 28. He say Page 201. The Visitors did every where encourage the Priests to Marry and looked on such as did not Marry as inclined to Popery The Marriage of the Clergy was not so much as permitted till near the beginning of the third Year of this Reign and then it was declared that an unmarried State was more honourable and decent so that it was recommended and the other was only tolerated and so far were they from suspecting Men to be firm to the Reformation that were married that Ridley and Latimer the most esteemed next to Cranmer were never married nor was any ever vexed for his not
aliorum Militum detrimento in sede ejus gradui Nobilitatis apta accomoda secundum veterem modum vestes recipiet quas vulgo dicunt Anglice The Mantel the Cirtel and the Hood his vestibus indutus audiet preces divinas in sede illi constituta simul cum substituto coadjutoribus Communionem recipiens 12. Post preces absolutas recipiet hoc jusjurandum se pro viribus velle sustinere defendere omnes honores titulos querelas Dominia Regis Angliae Ordinis Praefecti velle etiam quantum in se est protegere amare colere Divini Verbi studiosos velle deponere humanas Traditiones augere Gloriam Honorem Dei. 13. Ille ordo qui institutus fuit olim de insignibus gladiis galaeis armis reponendis in cellis aut sedibus maneat in priori forma 14. Adhaec cum Dedicatio Ordinis auferatur a divo Georgio si tempus anni non sit idoneum ad multos homines cogendos ex patria accersendos praesertim vero ne ipsam dedicationem Verbis auferentes re videremur retinere idcirco statutum est caetum caelebratum fore ut olim in Anglia die Divi Georgii sic nunc primo Die Sabbati primo Die Dominico in mense Decembris nisi forte primus dies mensis Decembris sit dies Dominicus tunc autem celebrabitur primo Die Sabbati secundo die Dominico 15. Primo vero Die Sabbati Milites qui adsunt omnes autem adesse debent nisi forte habeant licitam excusationem audient preces Vespertinas institutas Autoritate Parliamenti vestibus Ordinis induti sedentes quisque in sede constituta Miles autem electus non collocatus in sede stabit directe versus eum locum ubi collocabitur 16. Die Dominico sequenti in aurora audient supradicti Milites preces qui se paratos facere possint Communionem recipient vesperi etiam audient preces vespertinas 17. Milites autem absentes tenebuntur eadem facere in suis aedibus toto hoc tempore vestibus Ordinis induti 18. Praeterea Milites qui adsunt vestibus Ordinis induti prandebunt omnes ab uno latere sedentes in eodem gradu quo collocantur Windesorae in cellis in caetum etiam intrabunt hoc die ut si quid faciendum sit perficiant 19. Cantatores Praebendarii fruentur suis possessionibus durante Vita post mortem autem eorum conferentur in Concionatores in castro Windesorae 20. Pauperes autem qui in eodem Collegio manent habebunt omnia sua pristino more loci autem conferentur in Milites vulneratos aut admodum senes viros solum privabuntur superstitiosis vanis Caeremoniis quibus uti sunt soliti ut Oratione pro defunctis c. Quemadmodum vero soliti sunt missae adesse sic jam adsint in precibus constitutis 21. Sunt autem certae summae Argenti quae solent impendi cum moriantur Milites Ordinis  l. s. d. A Rege Angliae 08 06 8 A Rege peregrino 06 13 4 A Principe 05 16 8 A Duce 05 00 0 A Marchione 03 13 0 A Comite 02 10 0 A Vice Counte 02 01 8 A Barone 01 13 4 A Milite 00 16 8 Baccalaureo Adhaec cum Milites eligantur solvendae sunt hae summae Peccuniae  l. s. d. A Rege Angliae 30 00 0 A Rege peregrino 20 00 0 A Principe 13 06 8 A Duce 10 00 0 A Marchione 08 06 8 A Comite 06 13 8 A Vice Comite 05 16 8 A Barone 05 00 0 A Milite 03 06 8 Hae praedictae summae Argenti colligantur quotannis pauperibus destribuantur ut interdum solitum est fieri 22. Rex Angliae exsolvat Pecuniam quam peregrini Principes debebunt propter articulum supradictum 23. Sed quia difficile est omnia haec sine Ministris idoneis fieri igitur constitutum est fore quatuor Ordinis hujus Ministros Cancellarius Annotator sive Register Praecessor qui nigram virgam gestabit praecipuus Rex armorum qui ab Ordine nomen obtinebit Garter 24. Sigillum Ordinis habebit ex uno latere Arma Angliae Franciae simul cum Armis Ordinis circumligata hac circumscriptione Verbum Domini manet in aeternum ex altera parte equitem sculptum ut Milites gestabunt circumligatum fascia sive Garterio 25. Hoc sigillo Cancellarius sigillabit omnia decreta licentias constitutiones literas reliqua omnia quae ad ordinem praedictum pertinent aut ullo modo debent pertinere 26. Annotator in magno Libro Annotabit Latine quibus temporibus quisque miles fuerit electus quibus mortuus quaenam sancita erant decreta quaenam dissoluta si quae erunt alia pertinentia ad Ordinem supradictum hunc autem librum relinquet in Castro Windesorae suo successori in eodem officio 27. Rex Heraoldorum insignium Garter servabit nomina cognomina arma insignia cujusque Militis electi eundem librum relinquens suo successori si quae sit ambiguitas de armis ipse dijudicabit 28. Praecessor Ordinis gestans virgam nigram praeibit ordinem ostium custodiet eandem autoritatem habebit qua antehac usus est Quod siquis Militum contumeliose graviter offenderit ejus criminis in cetu fuerit convictus Praecessor Ordinis cum Rege Heroaldorum eum exuent catena Garterio 29. Adhaec cum aliquis peregrinus Rex in Militum numerum substituatur eligatur Caeremoniis hujus Ordinis non detinebitur sed prout placuerit 30. Post electionem vero praefectus Ordinis mittet duos Milites ejusdem Ordinis qui post preces in ejus patria vulgares induent eum vestibus illis quae solent gestari viz. Anglice The Mantel the Cirtel and the Hood In collum etiam imponent catenam rosarium cum equite sculpto appendente fascia vulgo dicto Garterio 31. Postea per procuratorem in sede collocabitur nullum omnino juramentum recipiens nec preces unquam alias quam solitas audiens 32. Quod Rex Angliae possit dispensare veniam dare omittendi ullas Caeremonias si causa postulet 33. Quod hi articuli ut monumenta decreta Leges Ordinis reponentur in Collegio Windesorae omnes autem his contrariae penitus abrogabuntur FINIS A Paper concerning a Free Mart in England Number 4. The Reasons and Causes why it is now most necessary to have a Mart in England 1. BEcause our vent of Clothes might be open in all Wars 2. Because our Merchants Goods might be out of danger of Strangers without fear of arresting for every light Cause 3. Because it would much enrich the Realm for as a Market enricheth a Town so doth a Mart enrich a Realm 4. Because for at a need round Sums of Mony might be of them borrowed that haunt the
Mart. 5. Because we should have a great multitude of Ships strangers to serve in the Wars 6. Because all strangers Goods when War is made should be in our danger 7. Because we should buy all things at the first hand of Strangers whereas now the Spaniards sell to the Flemings their Wares and the Flemings to us 8. Because the Towns toward the Sea-side should be much more populous 9. Because whereas now they bring Tapestry Points Glasses and Laces they would then bring in Bullion and other substantial Merchandice to the intent to have our Cloth and our Tin 10. Because we should take from our Enemies their Power and make that they should borrow no Mony of Merchants but when we list at least no great Sum of Mony The Causes why this Time is most Commodious to erect a Mart in 1. The Wars between the French King and the Emperor and the Ships of either side maketh the Italians Genoa's Portugals and Spaniards to forbear their Trade to Antwerp 2. The Frenchmen the Stadts the Sprusses and Ships of Eastland being against the Emperor will not come neither 3. The French King invading Lorrain and fearing Flanders 4. And the Almains lying on the River of Rhene stopeth the Course of Merchants out of Italy to Antwerp and also Frankfort 5. The putting of Men of War in the Town maketh the Merchants to forbear their Traffique and to look to their Lives 6. The breach of the last Tempest is like they say to make the Channel uncertain and the Haven naught 7. The stop of the Exchange to Lions will make many Flemings Bankrupts These things will decay the Marts of Antwerp and Frankfort But these Nations cannot live without a Vent therefore they will now most willingly come hither if they had a Free Mart. 2. It were an easier matter to come to Southampton for the Spaniards Britanes Vascoins Lombards Geneoese Normands and Italians than to go to Antwerp 3. It were easier for the Merchants of the Eastland the Sprusses the Danes Swedens and Norvegians to come to Hull than to Antwerp 4. Southampton is a better Port than Antwerp 5. The Flemings have allured Men to make a Mart there with their Privileges having but very little Commodities much easier shall we do it having Cloth Tin Seacoal Lead Bellmettal and such other Commodities as few Realms Christian have the like nor they when they began had no such opportunity How the Mart will be brought to pass 1. Our Merchants are to be staied from a Mart or two under pretence that they abstain because of the Imposition 2. Then Proclamation must be made in divers places of the Realm where Merchants resort That there shall be a free Mart kept at Southampton with these Liberties and Customs 1. The time of the Mart to begin after Whitsontide and to hold on five weeks by which means it shall not let St. James's Fair at Bristol nor Bartholomew Fair at London 2. All Men coming to the Mart shall have free going and free coming without Arresting except in cases of Treason Murder or Felony 3. For the time of the Mart all sorts of Men shall pay but half the Custom they do in other places of the Realm 4. No Shipping shall be from any other place from South-Wales to Essex during that time 5. In the Shires of Hampshire Wiltshire Sussex Surrey Kent Dorsetshire That no Bargain shall be made of Wares during that time but in the Mart Town 6. A Court to correct Offenders with Liberties thereto 7. Some one Commodity must be assigned to the Mart or some one kind of Cloth 8. The Merchants of the Staple must be bargained withal and contented with some honest Offer to the intent by their Liberties they may not let the Mart. 9. Some more Liberties must be given to the Inhabitants of Southampton and if Mony may be spared some must be lent them to begin their Trade withal 10. Our Ships on the Sea must look as well as they may observing the Treaties to the safeguard of the Merchants when they come 11. If this prove well then may another be made at Hull to begin after Stowrbridg-Fair to the intent they may return before the great Ices come to their Seas The Discommodities and Let ts to the Mart to be kept in England 1. BEcause Strangers lack access hither by Land which they have at Antwerp 2. The ill-working of our Cloths which maketh them less esteemed 3. The abundance of our Cloths in Flanders will make them less sought for here 4. The Merchants have established their dwelling-places at Antwerp 5. That other Nations will stay their coming hither for a while by the Emperor's Commandment 6. The denial of the Request of the Merchants of the Stiliard will somewhat let the Mart if it be not looked to 7. The poverty and littleness of the Town of Southampton 8. The goodliness of the Rhine The Remedies and Answers thereunto To the first Point 1. At this time when the Mart should begin at Southampton the French King and the Almains shall stop the entercourse by Land so that nothing shall come that way but in great danger 2. When War shall be made against us then our Navy may defend them 3. As the Town of Southampton lacketh the Commodity of the Access of Merchandise by Land so it hath this Commodity that there can be no access of Enemies by Land which may be at Antwerp and Men think will be this Year which is a great safety to the Merchants 4. The Traffique that cometh by Land will not much diminish the Mart for it is only almost the Venetians Traffique who shall much easilier come hither by Sea than to Antwerp and with less danger of the Seas To the second Point 1. The ill-making of our Clothes will be meet to be looked on this Parliament and order thereupon to be given The Matter is come to some ripeness already the Upper House hath one Bill and the Nether House hath another in good forwardness 2. As ill as they be made the Flemings do at this time desire them wonderfully offering rather to pay the Imposition of the Emperor than to lack them To the third Point 1. It were very necessary that the Ships that shall be hereafter going were staied till the Mart were come to some ripeness 2. The Clothes hereafter might be bought up with our Mony here and conveied to Southampton to be there uttered at the Mart time and so it should help the Mart very well To the fourth Point 1. The danger of their Lives which they now fear very much will make them seek another Harbor to rest in more safely 2. They came from Bruges to Antwerp only for the English Commodities although they were setled at Bruges 3. They have a great Commodity to come to Southampton and a great fear of spoiling to drive them from Antwerp 4. The Merchants never assign to themselves such a Mansion but for more gain they will leave that and take