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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	bishop_n	ordination_n	presbyter_n	9,874	5	10.5221	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77889	The abridgment of The history of the reformation of the Church of England. By Gilbert Burnet, D.D.; History of the reformation of the Church of England. Abridgments	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1682 (1682)	Wing B5755A; ESTC R230903	375,501	744

Council and required to do it but he still refusing The Book of Ordinations put out was sent to Prison This was thought hard measure to punish one for not concurring in a thing not yet setled by Law Heath was a Complier who went along with the changes that were made but was ready upon the first favourable conjuncture to return back to the old superstition It was found that in the Ancient Church there was nothing used in Ordinations but Prayer and Imposition of hands the Additions of Anointing and giving consecrated Vestments were afterwards brought in And in the Council of Florence it was declared that the Rite of Ordaining a Priest was the delivering the Vessels for the Eucharist with a power to offer Sacrifices to God for the Dead and Living which was a Novelty invented to support the belief of Transubstantiation So all these additions were cut off and Ordination was restored to a greater simplicity and the form was made almost the same that we still use only then in ordaining a Priest the Bishop was to lay one hand on his Head and with the other to give him a Bible and a Chalice and Bread in it In the Consecration of a Bishop the form was the same that we still retain only then they kept up the custom of giving the Bishop a staff saying these words Be to the Flock of Christ a Shepherd In the middle of the sixth Century the Anointing the Priests hands was begun in France but was not used in the Roman Church for two Ages after that In the eighth Century the Vestments were given with a special blessing impowering Priests to offer Expiatory Sacrifices then their Heads were Anointed and in the tenth Century the belief of Transubstantiation being received the Vessels for the Sacrament were delivered It is evident from the several forms of Ordination that the Church did not believe it self tied to one manner and that the Prayer which in some Ages was the Prayer of Consecration was in other Ages esteemed only a Prayer preparatory to it There were some sponsions promised as a Covenant to which the Ordination was a Seal The first of these was that the Persons that came to receive Orders professed that they believed they were inwardly moved to it by the Holy Ghost If this were well considered it would no doubt put many that thirst after Sacred Offices to a stand who if they examine themselves well dare not pretend to that concerning which perhaps they know nothing but that they have it not and if they make the answer prescribed in the Book without feeling any such motion in their heart they do publickly lye to God and against the Holy Ghost and have no reason to expect a blessing on Orders so obtained But too many consider that only as a Ceremony in Law necessary to make them capable of some Place of Profit and not as the Dedication of their Lives and labours to God and to the gaining of Souls It were happy for the Church if Bishops would not think it enough barely to put these questions but would use great strictness in examining before hand the motives that set on those who come to be Ordained Another sponsion is that the Priests shall teach the People committed to their charge and exhort them both in private and publick and visit the sick By this they plight their faith to God for the care of Souls to be managed by them in person and upon that they must find the Pastoral care to be a load indeed and so will neither desert their Flocks nor hire them out to weak and perhaps scandalous Mercenaries In which the faultiness of some have brought a blemish on this Church and given scandal to many who could not have been so easily perswaded to divide from it if it had not been that they were prejudiced by such gross and publick abuses The Council was now much perplexed with the business of Bulloign and though they had opposed the delivering it up by the Protector yet that end being served in pulling him down they were convinced of the necessity of doing it and so were induced to listen to the proposition that one Guidotti made for a Treaty He was imployed by the Constable Monmorancy and gave them assurances that as soon as that was ended the French King would engage on the behalf of the opprest Princes of the Empire At this time Pope Paul the Third died Pool chosen Pope but lost it In the Conclave that followed Cardinal Farnese set up Cardinal Pool whose wise behaviour at Trent had raised his esteem much it also appeared that though he was of the Emperours faction yet he did not serve him blindly Some loaded him both with the imputations of Lutheranism and of Incontinence The last would not have hindred his advancement much though true yet he fully cleared himself of it But the former lay heavier for in his retirement at Viterbo where he was Legate he had given himself much to the study of Controversies and Tranellius Flaminio and others suspected of Lutheranism had lived in his house and in the Council of Trent he seemed favourable to some of their opinions but the great sufferings both of himself and Family in England seemed to set him above all suspicions When the party for him had almost gained a sufficient number of Suffrages he seemed little concerned at it and did rather decline than aspire to that dignity And expressed a pitch of Philosophy on this occasion that was more suitable to Ancient than Modern patterns When a full number had agreed and came to adore him according to the ordinary Ceremony he received it with his usual coldness and that being done in the night he said God loved light and therefore advised them to delay it till day came The Italians among whom Ambition passes for the Character of a great mind looked on this as an unsufferable piece of dulness so the Cardinals shrunk from him before day and chose de Monte Pope who reigned by the name of Julius the Third His first promotion was very extraordinary for he gave his own Hat to a Servant that kept his Monkey and being askt the reason of it he said He saw as much in his Servant to recommend him to be a Cardinal as the Conclave saw in him to induce them to chuse him Pope But others imputed this to an unnatural affection for him Embassadours were sent over to France the Lord Russel Paget made also a Lord and some others to settle the Treaty of Peace They were ordered in the first place to ask the delivery of the Scottish Queen A Treaty with France and payment of the perpetual Pension but the French would not treat about these their Master intended to marry the Scottish Queen to the Dauphin and would not be tributary to another Prince or pay a perpetual Pension but they offered a sum of money for Bulloign things stuck a little at the razing the Fortifications in

Southampton brought him the Keys of the Town which he took from him and gave them back without the least shew of his being pleased with this expression of that respect done him This not being sutable to the Genius of the Nation that is much taken with the gracious looks of their Princes was thought a sign of vast pride and moroseness The Queen met him at Winchester where they were married he being then in the XXVII and she in the XXXVIII Year of her Age. The Emperour resigned to him his Titular Kingdom of Jerusalem and his more valuable one of Naples so they were proclaimed with a Pompous Enumeration of their Titles The Kings gravity was very unacceptable to the English who love a mean between the stiffness of the Spaniards and the gaiety of the French But if they did not like his temper they were out of measure in love with his Bounty and Wealth for he brought over a vast Treasure with him the greatest part of which was distributed among those who for his Spanish Gold had sold their Countrey and Religion At his coming to London he procured the Pardon of many Prisoners and among others of Holgate Archbishop of York of whom I find no mention made after this It is very likely he changed his Religion otherwise it is not probable that Philip would have interceded for him He also interposed for preserving Lady Elizabeth and the Earl of Devonshire Gardiner was much set against them and thought they made but half work as long as she lived Wiat had accused them in hopes of saving his life but when that did not preserve him he did publickly vindicate them on the Scaffold The Earl of Devonshire to be freed from all jealousie went beyond Sea and dyed a Year after in Italy as some say of Poison Philip at first took care to preserve Lady Elizabeth on a generous account pitying her Innocence and hoping by so acceptable an act of favour to recommend himself to the Nation but Interest did soon after fortifie those good and wise Inclinations for when he grew to be out of hope of issue by the Queen he considered that the Queen of Scotland who was soon after married to the Dolphin was next in succession after Lady Elizabeth so if she should be put out of the way the Crown of England would have become an Accession to the French Crown and therefore he took care to preserve her and perhaps he hoped to have wrought so much on her by the good offices he did her that if her Sister should dye without Children she might be induced to marry him But this was the only grateful thing he did in England He affected so extravagant a state and was so sullen and silent that it was not easie for any to come within the Court and Access to him was not to be had without demanding it with almost as much formality as Ambassadours used when they desired an Audience So that a General discontent was quickly spread into most places of the Kingdom only Gardiner was well pleased for the Conduct of affairs was put entirely in his hands Many malicious reports were spread of the Queen particularly in Norfolk at one of these the Queen was much concerned which was that she was with Child before the King came over but after great examinations nothing could be made out of it The Bishops went to make their Visitations this Summer The Bishops visit their Diocesses to see whether the old Service with all its Rites was again set up they also enquired concerning the lives and labours of the Clergy of their Marriage and their living chastly whether they were suspected of Heresie or of favouring Hereticks whether they went to Taverns or Alehouses whether they admitted any to officiate that had been Ordained schismatically before they were reconciled or to preach if they had not obtained a Licence whether they visited the sick and administred the Sacraments reverently whether they were guilty of Merchandise or Usury and whether they did not once every Quarter at least expound to the People the Elements of the Christian Religion in the Vulgar Tongue They did not proceed steadily in relation to the Ordinations made in King Edward's time for at this time all that they did was to add the Ceremonies that were then left out in the Book of Ordinations but afterwards they carried themselves as if they had esteemed those Orders of no force and therefore they did not degrade those Bishops or Priests that had been ordained by it Nor has the Church of Rome been steady in this matter for though upon some Schisms they have annulled all Ordinations made in them yet they have not annulled the Ordinations of the Greek Church though they esteem the Greeks both Hereticks and Schismaticks Thus there were many questions put in among the Articles of the Visitation yet these were asked only for form the main business was Heresie and the performing all Offices according to the old customes and the least failing in these matters was more severely enquired after and more exemplarily punished than far greater offences Bonner carried himself like a Madman and it was said by his friends to excuse the Violences of his rage that his brains were a little disordered by his long Imprisonment for if either the Bells had not rung when he came near any Church or if he had not found the Sacrament exposed he was apt to break out into the foulest language and not content with that he was accustomed to beat his Clergy when he was displeased with any thing for he was naturally cruel and brutal He took care to have those places of Scripture that had been painted on the Walls of the Churches to be washed off and upon this it was said that it was necessary to dash out the Scripture to make way for Images for they agreed so ill that they could not decently stand together Many mock Poems and Satires were flying up and down but none was more provoking than one that followed on an Accident at Saint Pauls on Easter-Day The custom was to lay the Host in the Sepulchre at Even-Song on Good-Friday and to take it out on Easter Morning and the Quire Sung these words He is risen he is not here when it was taken out but when they lookt to take it out they found it was not there indeed for one had stollen it away but another was quickly brought so a Ballad was made that their God was lost but a new one was put in his room Great pains were taken to discover the Author of this but he was not found The Queens third Parliament met on the 11th of November Another Parliament In the Writ of Summons the Queens Title of Supream Head was left out though she had hitherto not only used the name but had assumed the power Imported by it to a high degree Pool was now suffered to come so near as Flanders and the Temper of the Parliament being quickly found

The Pope promises to satisfy the King ibid But proceeds hastily to a Sentence Pag. 102 Arguments for rejecting the Pope's Power Pag. 103 And for the Kings Supremacy Pag. 106 The Clergy submit to it Pag. 108 1534. The Pope's Power condemned in Parliam Pag. 109 The Act of the Succession Pag. 110 An Act concerning Hereticks Pag. 111 The Submission of the Convocation Pag. 112 An Act for the Election of Bishops Pag. 113 The Attainder of the Nun of Kent Pag. 114 All swear the Oath of Succession Pag. 119 Fisher Bishop of Rochester is in trouble ibid But is very obstinate Pag. 121 More and Fisher refuse the Oath ibid Another Session of Parliament establishes the King's Supremacy Pag. 123 The Progress of the Reformation in Engl. Pag. 125 The Supplication of the Beggars Pag. 127 Frith writes against Purgatory Pag. 128 A Persecution set on by More Pag. 129 Bilney 's Martyrdom ibid Frith 's Sufferings Pag. 133 A stop put to further Cruelties Pag. 135 The Interest the Reformers had at Court Pag. 136 Others oppose them much Pag. 137 The Opinion of some Bishops of a General Council Pag. 138 Heads of a Speech of Cranmer's Pag. 139 The state of England at that time Pag. 141 1535. A General Visitation proposed Pag. 144 Instructions and Injunctions for it ibid The state of the Monasteries in England Pag. 146 Some Houses surrendered to the King Pag. 150 1536. Queen Katherin's Death Pag. 151 The lesser Monasteries suppressed Pag. 152 A Translation of the Bible designed Pag. 153 Queen Ann Boleyn 's Fall Pag. 155 Her Trial Pag. 159 And Execution Pag. 162 Censures past upon it Pag. 164 Lady Mary 's Submission to the King Pag. 165 The Act of the Succession Pag. 167 The Pope desires a Reconciliation with the K. Pag. 168 Acts against the Pope's Power ibid The Convocation examines some Points of Religion Pag. 169 Articles of Religion agreed on Pag. 172 Which are variously censured Pag. 174 Other Alterations proposed Pag. 175 The King protests against all Councils called by the Pope Pag. 178 Card. Pool writes against him Pag. 179 The lesser Monasteries seized on Pag. 181 Which gave a general discontent Pag. 182 Injunctions given by the King Pag. 184 A Rebellion in Lincolnshire Pag. 186 Another in Yorkshire Pag. 187 They are every where quieted Pag. 191 Greater Monasteries surrendered Pag. 193 Some Abbots Attainted Pag. 196 The Impostures of some Images discovered Pag. 200 Becket 's Shrine broken Pag. 201 The Pope thunders against the King Pag. 203 The English Bishops assert the King's Supremacy and explain the Nature of the Power of the Church Pag. 205 The Bible set out in English and new Injunctions Pag. 208 Prince Edward born Pag. 209 Lambert is condemned and burnt for denying the Corporal Presence Pag. 210 Treaties with the German Princes Pag. 213 1539. The Act of the six Articles Pag. 215 Censures past upon it Pag. 219 An Act for the suppressing the Monasteries Pag. 220 An Act for new Bishopricks Pag. 222 An Act for Proclamations Pag. 224 Some Attainted without being heard Pag. 225 The King's kindness to Cranmer Pag. 226 Bishops hold their Sees at the Kings Pleasure Pag. 228 All the Monasteries supprest Pag. 229 A Treaty for a Match with Ann of Cleve Pag. 233 The King marries her but never likes her Pag. 234 The Knights of St. John suppressed Pag. 236 A new Parliament Pag. 235 Cromwel 's Fall Pag. 238 His Attaindor Pag. 240 Censures past upon it Pag. 241 The King's Marriage annull'd Pag. 242 Cromwel 's Death Pag. 246 A Book of Religion set out by the Bishops Pag. 247 The Explanation of Faith Pag. 248 And of the Sacraments Pag. 250 The Book is publisted Pag. 253 Barns ard others fall into Trouble Pag. 255 And burnt Pag. 257 New Sees founded Pag. 260 1541. The Bible set up in Churches Pag. 262 The Affairs of Scotland Pag. 264 A Persecution set on foot in Scotland Pag. 269 The Queen 's ill Life is discovered Pag. 271 1542. A design to suppress the Bible Pag. 274 Bonner's Injunctions ibid The way of Preaching at that time Pag. 275 A War with Scotland Pag. 279 1543. A Parliament called Pag. 280 An Act about Religion ibid Affairs in Scotland Pag. 282 Some burnt at Windsor Pag. 284 Cranmer 's Ruine is designed Pag. 286 1544. The Act of the Succession Pag. 288 The King makes War on France and Scotland Pag. 290 The King takes Bulloign Pag. 291 1545. Wishart burned in Scotland Pag. 292 Cardinal Beaton is murdered Pag. 294 Chantries given to the King Pag. 296 1546. A Peace with France Pag. 297 Ann Aiscough and others burnt Pag. 298 Designs against Cranmer Pag. 300 And against the Queen Pag. 301 The Duke of Norfolk's Fall Pag. 303 1547. The Earl of Surrey executed Pag. 304 The Duke is Attainted in Parliament Pag. 305 The King's Sickness Pag. 307 And Death Pag. 308 His Severities against Papists Pag. 309 The Carthusians in particular Pag. 310 Fisher 's Sufferings Pag. 311 More 's Death and Character Pag. 312 Attainders after the Rebellions Pag. 314 Forrest burnt for Heresy Pag. 315 Cardinal Pool's Friends Attainted Pag. 316 Some Attainted without being heard ibid The Conclusion Pag. 319 BOOK II. Of the Life and Reign of King Edward the Sixth KIng Edward 's Birth and Education Pag. 1 King Henry's Testament Pag. 2 A Protector chosen Pag. 4 Bishops take out Commissions ibid A Creation of Noblemen Pag. 5 Laymen had Ecclesiastical Dignities Pag. 7 Some take down Images Pag. 8 Arguments for and against it Pag. 9 The King's Funeral Pag. 12 Soul Masses examined ibid The Coronation Pag. 14 The Chancellour turned out Pag. 15 Protectors Patent Pag. 17 The Affairs of Germany ibid The Council of Trent Pag. 19 Divisions in England Pag. 20 The Visitation of all Churches Pag. 23 Censures on the Injunctions Pag. 26 The War with Scotland Pag. 28 The Battel of Musselburgh Pag. 31 The Success of the Visitation Pag. 32 A Parliament meets Pag. 35 An Act of Repeal ibid An Act about the Sacrament Pag. 36 An Act concerning the Nomination of Bishops Pag. 37 An Act against Vagabonds Pag. 39 An Act for dissolving the Chantries Pag. 40 The Convocation sits ibid The Affairs of Germany Pag. 43 Differences between the Protector and the Admiral Pag. 45 1548. The M. of Northampton 's Divorce Pag. 48 Some Ceremonies abrogated Pag. 49 A new Office for the Communion Pag. 52 Auricular Confession examined Pag. 54 Gardiner is imprisoned Pag. 56 A new Liturgy composed Pag. 58 The new Offices Pag. 61 Private Communion Pag. 62 Censures past on the Common-Prayer Book Pag. 63 All Preaching was for some time restrained Pag. 64 Affairs in Scotland Pag. 65 Affairs in Germany Pag. 67 1549. A Session of Parliament Pag. 69 An Act for the Marriage of the Clergy ibid An Act confirming the Liturgy Pag. 72 An Act for Fasting Pag. 73 The Admirals Attainder Pag. 74 A new Visitation Pag. 77 Disputes concerning Christs Presence

refuses the See of Canterbury Pag. 343 1559. Bacon made Lord Keeper The Queen is crowned Pag. 344 ibid. A Parliament is called The Peace at Cambray Pag. 345 346 Acts past in Parliament Pag. 347 The Commons pray the Queen to marry ibid. Her Title to the Crown acknowledged Pag. 348 Acts concerning Religion Pag. 349 Preaching without Licence forbidden Pag. 351 A publik Conference about Religion ibid. Arguments for and against Worship in an unknown Tongue Pag. 352 The English Service is again set up Pag. 355 Speeches against it by some Bishops Pag. 356 Many Bishops turned out Pag. 358 The Queen enclined to keep Images in Churches Pag. 360 A general Visitation ibid. The high Commission Court Pag. 362 Parker is very unwillingly made Arch-bishop of Canterbury Pag. 363 The other Bishops consecrated Pag. 365 The Fable of the Nags-Head confuted Pag. 366 The Articles of the Church published Pag. 367 A Translation of the Bible Pag. 368 The Want of Church Discipline Pag. 369 The Reformation in Scotland Pag. 370 It is first set up in St. Johnstown Pag. 372 The Queen-Regent is deposed Pag. 375 The Queen of England assists the Scots Pag. 376 The Queen-Regent dies ibid. A Parliment meets and settles the Reformation Pag. 377 The Q of England the Head of all the Protestants Pag. 378 Both in France and the Netherlands Pag. 379 381 The excellent Administration of Affairs in England ibid. Severities against the Papists were necessary Pag. 285 Sir F. walsingh Account of the steps in which she proceeded ibid. The Conclusion Pag. 386 ERRATA BOOK I. PAge 20. line 5. stop read step Page 45 l. 17. if he said read he said if P. 47. l. 6. dele any P. 60. l. 18. after determine dele l. 19. after same d. P. 61. l. implored r imployed P. 64 l. 9. formerly r. formally P. 81. mar l. 4. after the r. King and the. P. 82. l. 2. enacted r. exacted P. 89. l. 23. King the r. the King P. 92. l. 6. or r. of P. 93. l. 3.9 r. 11. P. 95. l. 8. big a r. a big P. 99. l. 19. new r. now l. 29. after this r. was P. 109. l. 6. he r. the. P. 121. l. 2. after so r. was P. 130. l. 3. for r. but. P. 131. l. 16. after and r. he with P. 133. l. 9. after was r. given P. 135. l. 22. being r. were P. 139. l. 30. after were r. to P. 141. l. ult near r. now at P. 181. mar l. 3. cited in r. seized on P. 184. l. 2. had it r. it had P. 196. l. 26. del once P. 205. l. 12. before the r. as P. 217. l. 11. before the r. this P. 237. l. 31. some r. since P. 242. l. 25. her will r. his will P. 243. l. 5. after for r. since P. 257. l. 14. after Abel r. P. 260. l. 16. del are P. 291. l. 11. corrupting r. reforming Book 2. P. 13. l. 15. had r. been P. 30. l. 34. 20th r. 10th P. 53. l. 22. so r. for P. 103. l. 25. not r. nor P. 111. l. 13. after all r. his P. 188 l. 15. del then P. 199. l. 31. in r. on Book 3. P. 301. l. 20. hew r. new P. 321. l. 16. after most r. part P. 312. l. 2. Peru r. Pern l. some r. the same P. 317. l. 12. 80000 r. 8000. Book 4. P. 354. l. 28. and P. 356. l. 7. Ferknam r. Fecknam AN A BRIDGMENT OF THE History of the Reformation OF THE Church of ENGLAND LIB I. Of the Beginnings of it and the Progress made in it by King Henry the Eighth THe Wars of the two Houses of York and Lancaster The Vnion of the two Houses of York Lancast in K H. VIII had produced such dismal Revolutions and cast England into such frequent and terrible Convulsions that the Nation with great joy received Henry the Seventh Book I. who being himself descended from the House of Lancaster by his marriage with the Heir of the House of York did deliver them from the fear of any more Wars by new Pretenders But the covetousness of his Temper the severity of his Ministers his ill conduct in the Matter of Britaign and his jealousy of the House of York not only gave occasion to Impostors to disturb his Reign but to several Insurrections that were raised in his time By all which he was become so generally odious to his People that as his Son might have raised a dangerous competition for the Crown during his Life as devolved on him by his Mother's death who was indeed the Righteous Heir so his death was little lamented April 22 1509. He disgraces Empson and Dudley And Henry the Eighth succeeded with all the Advantages he could have desired and his disgracing Empson and Dudley that had been the cruel Ministers of his Fathers Designs for filling his Coffers his appointing Restitution to be made of the Sums that had been unjustly exacted of the People and his ordering Justice to be done on those rapacious Ministers gave all People hopes of happy Times under a Reign that was begun with such an Act of Justice that had indeed more Mercy in it than those Acts of Oblivion and Pardon with which others did usually begin And when Ministers by the King's Orders were condemned and executed for invading the Liberties of the People under the Covert of the King's Prerogative it made the Nation conclude that they should hereafter live secure under the Protection of such a Prince and that the violent Remedies of Parliamentary Judgments should be no more necessary except as in this case to confirm what had been done before in the ordinary Courts of Justice The King also either from the Magnificence of his own Temper He is very liberal or the Observation he had made of the ill Effects of his Father's Parsimony did distribute his Rewards and Largesses with an unmeasured Bounty so that he quickly emptied his Treasure 1800000 l which his Father had left the fullest in Christendom But till the ill Effects of this appeared it raised in his Court and Subjects the greatest Hopes possible of a Prince whose first Actions shewed an equal mixture of Justice and Generosity At his first coming to the Crown the Successes of Lewis the Twelth in Italy made him engage as a Party in the Wars with the Crown of Spain His Success in the Wars He went in Person beyond Sea and took both Terwin and Tournay in which as he acquired the Reputation of a good and fortunate Captain so Maximillion the Emperor put an unusual Complement on him for he took his pay and rid in his Troops But a Peace quickly followed upon which the French King married his Younger Sister Mary but he dying soon after Francis the first succeeded and he renewing his Pretensions upon Italy Henry could not be prevailed on to ingage early in the War till the Successes of either Party should discover which of the sides was the

he had done nothing but only pleaded in the King's Name The Clergy pretended they did not prosecute him for his pleading but for some of his Divinity Lectures contrary to the Liberty of the Church which the King was bound to maintain by his Coronation-Oath but the Temporal Lords the Judges and the Commons prayed the King also to maintain the Laws according to his Coronation-Oath and to give Standish his Protection The King upon this being in great perplexity required Veysy afterwards Bishop of Exeter to declare upon his Conscience and Allegiance the truth in that matter His Opinion was against the Immunity so another publick Hearing being appointed Standish was accused for teaching That the Inferiour Orders were not sacred That their Exemption was not founded on a Divine Right but that the Laity might punish them That the Canons of the Church did not bind till they were received and that the study of the Canon Law was useless Of these he denied some and justified other particulars Veysy being required to give his Opinion alledged That the Laws of the Church did only oblige where they were received As the Law of the Celibate of the Clergy received in the West did not bind the Greek Churches that never received it So the exemption of the Clerks not being received did not bind in England The Judges gave their Opinion next which was That those who prosecuted Standish were all in a Premunire So the Court broke up But in another Hearing in the presence of the greatest part of both Houses of Parliament the Cardinal said in the name of the Clergy That tho they intended to do nothing against the King's Prerogative yet the trying of Clerks seemed to be contrary to the Liberty of the Church which they were bound by their Oaths to maintain So they prayed that the matter might be referred to the Pope The King answered that he thought Standish had answered them fully The Bishop of Winchester said he would not stand to his Opinion at his Peril Standish upon that said What can one poor Friar do against all the Clergy of England The Arch-bishop of Canterbury said Some of the Fathers of the Church had suffered Martyrdom upon that account but the Chief-Justice replied That many holy Kings had maintained that Law and many holy Bishops had obeyed it In conclusion the King declared that he would maintain his Rights and would not submit them to the Decrees of the Church otherwise than as his Ancestors had done Warham Arch-bishop of Canterbury desired so long time might be given that they might have an Answer returned from Rome but that was not granted yet a Temper was found Horsey was appointed to be brought to his Trial for Hun's Murder and upon his pleading not guilty no Evidence was to be brought and so he was to be discharged But upon this it was said The Judges were more concerned to maintain their Jurisdiction than to do Justice upon so horrid a Murder so the discontent given by it was raised so much higher and the Crime of a few Murderers was now transferred upon the whole Clergy who had concerned themselves so much in their Preservation and this did very much dispose the Laity to all that was done afterwards for pulling down the Ecclesiastical Tyranny This was the only uneasy stop in this King's Raign The King is much addicted to the Papacy till the suit for his Divorce was commenced In all other points he was constantly in the Pope's Interests who sent him the common Complements of Roses and such other Triffles by which that See had treated Princes so long as Children The King made the Defence of the Popedom an Article in his Leagues with other Princes and Pope Julius having called a General Council to the Lateran in opposition to that which by Lewis the Twelfth's means was held at Pisa The King sent the Bishops of Worcester and Rochester the Prior of St. John's and the Abbot of Winchelcomb to represent the Church of England thereby to give the greater Authority to a pack'd meeting of Italian Bishops and Abbots who assumed to themselves the Title of a Holy and Oecumenical Council But no Complement wrought so much on the King's Vanity as the Title of Defender of Faith sent him by Pope Leo upon the Book which he writ against Luther concerning the Sacraments The Cardinal drew upon himself the hatred of the Clergy Crrdinal Wolsey intends to reform the Clergy by a Bull which impowered him to visit all the Monasteries of England and to dispence with all the Laws of the Church for a Year He also gave out that he intended to reform the Clergy though he forgot that which ought to be the first step of all who pretend to reform others for none could be worse than himself was He lived in great Luxury and in an insolent Affectation of the highest Statepossible many of his Domesticks being men of the first Rank He intended to suppress many Monasteries and thought the best way for doing it with the least Scandal was first to visit them and so to expose their Corruptions But he was afterwards diverted from this yet the design which he laid being communicated to Cromwel that was then his Secretary it was put in Practice toward the end of this Reign when the Monasteries were all suppressed The Convocations were of two sorts The summoning of Convocations some were summoned by the King when Parliaments were called as is in use to this Day only the King did not then prefix a Day but left that to the Arch-bishops Others were called by the Archbishops and were Provincial Synods of which there were but few The Cardinal pretended that the summoning all Convocations belonged to him as Legate so that when Warham had called one he dissolved it after it was met and summoned it of new In that Convocation a great Supply was granted to the King of half a Years Rent of all Benefices payable in five Years for assisting him in his Wars with France and Scotland This was much opposed by the Cardinal's Enemies but it was agreed to at last a Proviso being made that such a heavy tax should never be made a Precedent for the future tho the Grant they made was more likely to become a Precedent than this Proviso to be a Security for the time to come This encreased the Aversion the Clergy had for the Cardinal the Monks were more particularly incensed for they saw he was resolved to suppress their Foundations and convert them to other uses In the days of King Edgar most of the Cathedrals of England were possessed by Secular Priests The State of the Monasteries who were generally married but Dunstan and some other Monks took advantage from the Vices of that Prince to perswade him to make Compensation for them and as he made Laws in which he declared what Compensations were to be made for Sins both by the Rich and Poor so it seems he thought the

founding of Monasteries was the fittest Compensation for a King and he turned out all the married Priests and put Monks in their stead From that time the Credit and Wealth of Monastick Orders continued to encrease for several Ages till the Begging Orders succeeded in the esteem of the World to the place which the Monks formerly had for they decreased as much in true worth as the false appearances of it had now raised their Revenues They were not only ignorant themselves but very jealous of the progress Learning was making for Erasmus and the other Restorers of it treating them with much scorn they look'd on the encrease of it as that which would much lessen them and so not only did not contribute to it but rather detracted from it as that which would make way for Heresy The Cardinal designed two noble Foundations the one at Oxford Cardinal Wolsy suppresses many and the other at Ipswich the place of his Birth both for the encouragement of the Learned and the instruction of Youth and for that end he procured a Bull for suppressing divers Monasteries which being executed their Lands by Law fell to the King and thereupon the Cardinal took out Grants of them and endowed his Colledges with them But we shall next consider the state of Religion in England From the dayes of Wickliff there were many that differed from the Doctrines commonly received The growth of Wickliff's Doctrine He writ many Books that gave great Offence to the Clergy yet being powerfully supported by the Duke of Lancaster they could not have their revenge during his Life but he was after his Death condemned and his Body was raised and burnt The Bible which he translated into English with the Preface which he set before it produced the greatest Effects In it he reflected on the ill Lives of the Clergy and condemned the Worship of Saints and Images and the corporal Presence of Christ in the Sacrament but the most criminal part was the exhorting all People to read the Scriptures where the Testimonies against those Corruptions were such that there was no way to deal with them but to silence them His Followers were not Men of Letters but being wrought on by the easy Conviction of plain Sense were by them determined in their Persuasions They did not form themselves into Body but were contented to hold their Opinions secretly and did not spread them but to their particular Confidents The Clergy sought them out every where and did deliver them after Conviction to the Secular Arm that is to the Fire In the Primitive Church The Cruelty of the Clergy all cruel Proceedings upon the account of Heresy were condemned so that the Bishops who accused some Hereticks upon which they were put to death were excommunicated for it Banishment and Fines with some Incapacities were the highest Severities even upon the greatest Provocations But as the Church grew corrupted in other things so a cruel Spirit being generally the mark of all ill Priests of whatsoever Religion they are they fell under the Influences of it and from the days of the rise of the Albigenses the severities of the Inquisition and Burnings with many other Cruelties were by the means of the Dominicans set up first in France and then in the other parts of Europe A Decree was also made in the Council of the Lateran requiring all Magistrates under the pains of forfeiture and deposition to extirpate Hereticks Burning agreed best with their Cruelty as being the most terrible sort of Death and bearing some resemblance to everlasting Burnings in Hell so they damned the Souls of the Hereticks and burnt their Bodies but the Execution of the former part of the Sentence was not in their power as the latter part was The Canons of that Council being received in England the Proceedings against Hereticks grew to be a part of the Common Law and a Writ for burning them was issued out upon their Conviction But special Statutes were afterwards made The first under Richard the second Laws made in England against Hereticks was only agreed to by the Lords and without its being consented to by the Commons the King assented to it yet all the Severity in it was no more than that Writs should go out to the Sheriffs to hold Hereticks in Prison till they should be judged by the Laws of the Church The Preamble of the Law says They were very numerous that they had a peculiar Habit that they preached in many Churches other Places against the Faith and refused to submit to the Censures of the Church This was sent with the other Acts according to the custom of that Time to all the Sheriffs of England to be proclaimed by them but the Year following in the next Parliament the Commons complained that that Act was published to which they had never consented so an Act passed declaring the former null yet this was suppressed and the former was still esteemed a good Law When Henry the fourth came to the Crown he owing it in great measure to the help of the Clergy passed an Act against all that preached without the Bishop's Licence or against the Faith and it was enacted That all Transgressors of that sort should be imprisoned and within three Months be brought to a Trial If upon Conviction they offered to abjure and were not Relapses they were to be imprisoned and fined at pleasure and if they refused to abjure or were Relapses they were to be delivered to the secular Arm and the Magistrates were to burn them in some publick Place But tho by this Statute no mention is made of sending out a Writ for Execution yet that continued still to be practised And that same Year Sautre a Priest being condemned as a Relapse and degraded by Arundell Arch-bishop of Canterbury a Writ was issued out for it in which Burning is called the Common Punishment which related to the customs of other Nations For this was the first Instance of that kind in England In the beginning of Henry the fifth's Reign there was a Conspiracy against the King discovered tho others that lived not long after say it was only pretended and contrived by the Clergy of Old-Castle and some others of Wickliff's Followers then called Lollards upon which many were condemned both for Treason and Heresy who were first hanged and then burnt and a Law followed that the Lollards should forfeit all that they held in Fee-simple as well as their Goods and Chattels to the King and all Sheriffs and Magistrates were required to take an Oath to destroy all Heresies and Lollardies and to assist the Ordinaries in their proceedings against them Yet the Clergy making ill use of these Laws and vexing all People that gave them any Offence with long Imprisonments the Judges interposed and examined the Grounds of their Commitments and as they saw cause Bailed or Discharged the Prisoners and took upon them to declare what Opinions were Heresies by Law and what were

not Thus the People sought for Shelter under their Protection and found more Mercy at the hands of Common Lawyers than from them who ought to have been the Pastors of their Souls and the Publishers of the most merciful Religion that ever was In the beginnings of this Reign The Prosecution of Lollards before Warham there were several Persons brought into the Bishops Courts for Heresy before Warham Forty eight were accused But of these forty three abjured twenty seven Men and sixteen Women most of them being of Tenterden and five of them four Men and one Woman were condemned some as obstinate Hereticks and others as Relapses and against the common Ties of Nature the Woman's Husband and her two Sons were brought Witnesses against her Upon their Conviction a Certificate was made by the Archbishop to the Chancery upon which since there is no Pardon upon Record the Writs for burning them must have gone out in Course and the Execution of them is little to be doubted for the Clergy were seldom guilty of much Mercy in such Cases having devested themselves of all Bowels as the Dregs of unmortified Nature The Articles objected to them were That they believed that in the Eucharist there was nothing but material Bread That the Sacraments of Baptism Confirmation Confession Matrimony and Extream Unction were neither necessary nor profitable That Priests had no more Power than Laymen That Pilgrimages were not meritorious and that the Mony and Labour spent in them were spent in vain That Images ought not to be worshipped and that they were only Stocks and Stones That Prayers ought not to be made to Saints but only to God That there was no vertue in Holy-water or Holy-bread Those who abjured did swear to discover all that held those Errours or were suspected of them and they were enjoyned to carry a Faggot in Procession and to wear on their Cloaths the Representation of one in Flames as a publick Confession that they had deserved to be burnt There were also four in London that abjured almost the same Opinions and Fox says that six were burnt in Smithfield who might be perhaps those whom Warham had condemned for there is no mention of any that were condemned in the Registers of London By all this it will appear that many in this Nation were prepared to receive those Doctrines which were afterwards preached by the Reformers even before Luther began first to oppose Indulgences The Rise and Progress of his Doctrine are well known The Progress of Luthet's Doctrine the Scandalous extolling of Indulgences gave the first occasion to all that Contradiction that followed between him and his followers and the Church of Rome in which if the Corruptions and Cruelties of the Clergy had not been so visible and scandalous so small a matter could not have produced such a Revolution but any Crisis will put ill humours in Fermentation The Bishops were grosly ignorant they seldom resided in their Diocesses except it had been to riot it at high Festivals and all the Effect their Residence could have was to corrupt others by their ill Example They followed the Courts of Princes and aspired to the greatest Offices The Abbots and Monks were wholly given up to Luxury and Idleness and the unmarried State both of the Seculars Regulars gave infinite Scandal to the World for it appeared that the restraining them from having Wives of their own made them conclude that they had a right to all other Mens The Inferiour Clergy were no better and not having places of retreat to conceal their vices in as the Monks had they became more publick In sum all Ranks of Church-men were so universally despised and hated that the World was very apt to be possessed with prejudice against their Doctrines for the sake of the Men whose Interest it was to support them and the Worship of God was so defiled with much gross Superstition that without great enquiries all Men were easily convinced that the Church stood in great need of a Reformation This was much encreased when the Books of the Fathers began to be read in which the difference between the former and latter Ages of the Church did very evidently appear They found that a blind Superstition came first in the room of true Piety and when by its means the Wealth and Interest of the Clergy was highly advanced the Popes had upon that established their Tyranny under which not only the meaner People but even the crowned Heads had long groaned All these things concurred to make way for the Advancement of the Reformation And so the Books of the Germans being brought into England and Translated many were prevailed on by them Upon this a hot Persecution which is alwayes the Foundation on which a vitious Clergy set up their Rest was vigorously set on foot to such a Degree that six Men and Women were burnt in Coventry in Passion-week only for teaching their Children the Creed the Lord's Prayer and the ten Commandments in English Great Numbers were every where brought into the Bishop's Courts of whom some were burnt but the greater part abjured The King laid hold on this Occasion to become the Church's Champion and wrote against Luther as was formerly told His Book besides the Title of Defender of the Faith drew upon him all that Flattery could invent to extol it yet Luther not daunted with such an Antagonist but rather proud of it answered it and treated him as much below the Respect that was due to a King as his Flatterers had raised him above it Tindal's Translation of the New Testament with some Notes added to it drew a severe Condemnation from the Clergy there being nothing in which they were more concerned then to keep the People unacquainted with that Book Sir Thomas More seconded the King and imployed his Pen in the Service of the Clergy but mixed too much Gall with his Ink. The Cardinal's Behaviour in this matter was unaccountable for he not only acted nothing against the new Preachers but when some Bishops moved for a Visitation of the Universities upon a report of the spreading of Heresy in them he stop'd it yet afterwards he called a Meeting of several Bishops Abbots and Divines before whom two Preachers Bilney and Arthur were brought and Articles of Heresy being objected to them and proved by Witnesses they for a while seemed resolved to seal their Doctrines with their Blood but what through Fear what through Perswasion they were prevailed on first Arthur and Bilney five days after to abjure but tho Bilney was a Relapse yet the Cardinal was gentle to him and Tonstall Bishop of London injoyned him Penance and discharged him So much may suffice to shew the condition of Affairs in England both in Church and State when the Process of the King's Divorce was first set on foot Henry the seventh entered into a firm Alliance with Ferdinand of Spain The King's Marriage and agreed a Match between his Son Prince

dispense with the Laws of God which were not subject to him And it had been judged in the Rota at Rome when a Dispensation was asked for a King to marry his Wives Sister that it could not be granted and when Precedents were alledged for it it was answered that the Church was to be governed by Laws and not by Examples and if any Pope had granted such Dispensation it was either out of Ignorance or Corruption This was not only the Opinion of the School-men but of the Canonists tho they are much set on raising the Pope's Power as high as is possible And therefore Alexander the third refused to grant a Dispensation in a like case tho the Parent had sworn to make his Son marry his Brother's Widow others went further and said The Pope could not dispense with the Laws of the Church which several ancient Popes had declared against and it was said that the fulness of Power with which the Pope was vested did only extend to the pastoral Care and was not for Destruction but for Edification and that as St. Paul opposed St. Peter to his Face so had mnay Bishops withstood Popes when they proceeded against the Canons of the Church So both Laurence and Dunstan in England had proceeded to Censures notwithstanding the Pope's Authority interposed to the contrary and no Authority being able to make what was a Sin in it self become lawful every Man that found himself engaged in a sinful course of Life ought to forsake it and therefore the King ought to withdraw from the Queen and the Bishops of England in case of refusal ought to proceed to Censures Upon the whole matter Tradition was that upon which all the Writers of Controversy particularly now in the Contests with the Lutherans founded the Doctrine of the Church as being the only infallible Exposition of the doubtful parts of Scripture and that being so clear in this matter there seemed to be no room for any further Debate On the other hand Arguments against it Cajetan was the first Writer that against the stream of former Ages thought that the Laws of Leviticus were only Judiciary Precepts binding the Jews and were not moral his Reasons were that Adam's Children must have married in the Degrees there forbidden Jacob married two Sisters and Judah according to custom gave his two Sons and promised a third to the same Woman Moses also appointed the Brother to marry the Brother's Wife when he died without Issue But a Moral Law is for ever and in all Cases binding and it was also said that the Pope's power reached even to the Laws of God for he dispensed with Oaths and Vows and as he had the Power of determining Controversies so he only could declare what Laws were moral and indispensable and what were not nor could any Bishops pretend to judg concerning the extent of his Power or the validity of his Bulls To all this those that writ for the King answered That it was strange to see Men who pretended such Zeal against Hereticks follow their Method which was to set up private reasonings from some Texts of Scripture in opposition to the received Tradition of the Church which was the bottom in which all good Catholicks thought themselves safe and if Cajetan wrote in this manner against the received Doctrin of the Church in one Particular why might not Luther take the same liberty in other Points They also made distinction in moral Laws between those that were so from the nature of the thing which was indispensable and could in no Case be lawful and to this sort no Degrees but those of Parents and Children could be reduced other Moral Laws were only grounded upon publick Inconveniencies and Dishonesty such as the other Degrees were for the Familiarities that Persons so nearly related live in are such that unless a Terrour were struck in them by a perpetual Law against such mixtures Families would be much defiled But in such Laws tho God may grant a Dispensation in some particular Cases yet an Inferiour Authority cannot pretend to it and some Dispensations granted in the latter Ages ought not to be set up to ballance the Decisions of so many Popes and Councils against them and the Doctrine taught by so many Fathers and Doctors in former times Both sides having thus brought forth the strength of their Cause it did evidently appear That according to the Authority given to Tradition in the Church of Rome the King had clearly the Right on his side and that the Pope's Party did write with little sincerity in this matter being guilty of that manner of arguing from Texts of Scriptures for which they had so loudly charged the Lutherans The Queen continued firm to her Resolution of leaving the matter in the Pope's Hands and therefore would hearken to no Propositions that were made to her for referring the matter to the Arbitration of some chosen on both sides A Session of Parliament followed in January in which the King made the Decisions of the Universities and the Books that were written for the Divorce A Session of Parliament be first read in the House of Lords and then they were carried down by Sir Thomas More and 12 Lords both of the Spirituality and Temporality to the Commons There were twelve Seals of Universities shewed and their Decisions were read first in Latin and then Translated into English There were also an hundred Books shewed written on the same Argument Upon the shewing these the Chancellor desired them to report in their Countries that they now clearly saw that the King had not attempted this matter of his meer will and pleasure but for the discharge of his Conscience and the security of the Succession of the Crown This was also brought into the Convocation who declared themselves satisfied concerning the unlawfulness of the Marriage but the Circumstances they were then in made that their Declaration was not much considered for they were then under the lash All the Clergy of England were sued as in the case of a Premunire for having acknowledged a Forreign Jurisdiction and taken out Bulls and had Suits in the Legatine Court The Kings of England did claim such a Power in Ecclesiastical matters The Laws of England against Bulls from Rome as the Roman Emperours had exercised before the fall of that Empire Anciently they had by their Authority divided Bishopricks granted the Investitures and made Laws both relating to Ecclesiastical Causes Persons When the Popes began to extend their Power beyond the Limits assigned them by the Canons they met with great opposition in England both in the matter of Investitures Appeals Legates and the other Branches of their Usurpations but they managed all the Advantages they found either from the Weakness or ill Circumstances of Princes so steadily that in Conclusion they subdued the World And if they had not by their cruel Exactions so oppressed the Clergy that they were driven to seek Shelter under the Covert

their Contests about Superiority but never declared in St. Peter's Favour St. Paul withstood him to his Face and reckoned himself not inferour to him If the Dignity of a Person left any Authority with the City in which he sat then Antioch must carry it as well as Rome and Jerusalem where Christ suffered was to be prefererd to all the World for it was truly the Mother-Church Christ said to Peter Vpon this Rock will I build my Church The Ancients understood by the Rock either the Confession Peter had made or which is all one upon the matter Christ himself and tho it were to be meant of St. Peter all the rest of the Apostles are also called Foundations that of Tell the Church was by many Doctors of the Church of Rome turned against the Pope for a General Council The other Priviledges ascribed to St. Peter were either only a precedence of Order or were occasioned by his Fall as that Feed my Sheep it being a restoring him to the Apostolical Function St. Peter had also a limited Province the Circumcision as St. Paul had the Uncircumcision that was of far greater extent which shewed that he was not considered as the Universal Pastor In the Primitive Church St. Cyprian and other Bishops wrote to the Bishops of Rome as to their fellow Bishop Colleague and Brother they were against Appeals to Rome and did not submit to their Definition and in plain Terms asserted that all Bishops were equal in Power as the Apostles had been It is true the Dignity of the City made the Bishops of Rome to be much esteemed yet in the first Council of Nice the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch were declared to have the same Authority in the Countries about them that the Bishops of Rome had over those that lay about them It is true the East being over-run with Arrianism from which the West was better preserved the oppressed Eastern Bishops did take shelter in the Protection the Bishops of Rome gave them and as is natural to all People they magnified that Authority which was so useful to them But the second General Council indirectly condemned all Appeals to Rome for it decreed that every Province should be governed by its own Synod and allowed no higher Appeal but to the Bishops of the Diocess Constantinople being made the Imperial City the second and fourth General Council gave it equal Priviledges with Rome because it was new Rome which shews that the Dignity of the Sees flowed from the greatness of the Cities The African Churches condemned all Appeals to Rome and the Popes who complained of that pretended only to a Canon of the Council of Nice for it and then they did not talk of a Divine Right but search being made into all the Copies of the Canons of the Council that was found to be a Forgery When the Emperour Mauricius gave the Title Vniversal Bishop to the Patriarch of Constantinple Gregory the Great complained of the Ambition of that Title which he calls equal to the Pride of Lucifer and since England received the Faith by those whom he sent over it appeared from thence what was the Doctrine of that See at that time and by consequence what where the first Impressions made on the English in that matter It is true Boniface the third got the same Title by Phocas's Grant and Boniface the eighth pretended to all Power both spiritual and temporal but the Progress of their Usurpations and the Wars raised to maintain them were very visible in History The Popes swore at their Consecrations to obey the Canons of the eighth first General Councils which are manifested against Appeals and their Universal Jurisdiction small regard is to be had to the Decrees of latter Councils being Cabals pack'd and managed as the Popes pleased Several Sees as Ravenna Milan and Aquileia pretended Exemption from the Papal Authority Many English Bishops had asserted that the Popes had no Authority against the Canons and to that day no Canon the Popes made was binding till it was received which shewed the Pope's Authority was not believed founded on a divine Authority and the Contests that the Kings of England had with the Pope's concerning Investitures Bishops doing the King Homage Appeals to Rome and the Authority of Papal Bulls and Provisions shewed that the Pope's Power was believed subject to Laws and Custom and so not derived from Christ and St. Peter and as Laws had given them some Power and Princes had bin forced in ignorant Ages to submit to their Usurpations so they might as they saw cause change those Laws and resume their Rights The next Point inquired into was And for the King's Supremacy the Authority that Kings had in matters of Religion and the Church The King of Israel judged in all Causes and Samuel called Saul the Head of the Tribes David made many Rules about the Service at the Temple and declaring to Solomon what his Power was 1 Chron. 28.21 2 Chron. 8.14 15. he told him that the Priests were wholly at his Command and it is also said that Solomon appointed the Priests their Charges in the Service of God and that they departed not from his Commandment in any matter he turned out one High-Priest and put another in his room Jehoshaphat Hezekiah and Josias made also Laws about Ecclesiastical Matters In the New Testament Christ was himself subject to the Civil Powers and charged his Disciples not to affect Temporal Dominion They also wrote to the Churches to be subject to the Higher Powers and call them Supream and charge every Soul to be subject to them so in Scripture the King is called Head and Supream and every Soul is said to be under him which joyn'd together makes up this Conclusion that He is the supream Head over all Persons In the Primitive Church the Bishops only made Rules or Canons but pretended to no compulsive Authority but what came from the Civil Magistrate The Roman Emperours called Councils presided in them and confirmed them and made many Laws concerning Ecclesiastical Matters so did also Charles the Great The Emperours did also either chuse the Popes themselves or confirm their Elections Church-men taking Orders were not thereby discharged from the Obedience they formerly owed their Princes but remained still Subjects And tho the Offices of the Church had peculiar Functions in which the People were subject to them that did not deliver them from their Obedience to the King as a Father's Authority over his Children cuts not off the King's Power over him They found also that in all times the Kings of England had assumed an Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters Ina Alfred Edgar and Canetus had made many Laws about them so had also most of the Kings since the Conquest which appeared particularly in the Articles of Clarendon and the Contests that followed upon them and from the daies of King Ina they had granted Exemptions to Monasteries from the Episcopal Jurisdiction down to William the

shake him a little but he said he thought in his Conscience that it would be a Sin in him and offered to take his Oath upon that and that he was not led by any other Consideration The Abbot of Westminster told him he ought to think his Conscience was misled since the Parliament was of another Mind an Argument well becoming a rich ignorant Abbot But More said if the Parliament of England was against him yet he believed all the rest of Christendom was on his side In conclusion both he and Fisher declared that they thought it was in the Power of the Parliament to settle the Succession to the Crown and so were ready to swear to that but they could not take the Oath that was tendred to them for by it they must swear to maintain all the Contents in the Act of Succession and in it the King 's former Marriage was declared unlawful to which they could not assent Cranmer press'd that this might be accepted for if they once swore to maintain the Succession it would conduce much to the Quiet of the Nation but sharper Counsels were more acceptable so they were both committed to the Tower and Pen Ink and Paper was kept from them The old Bishop was also hardly used both in his Cloaths and Diet he had only Rags to cover him and Fire was often denied him which was a Cruelty not capable of any Excuse and was as barbarous as it was imprudent In Winter another Session of Parliament was held the first Act that pass'd Another Session of Parliament declared the King to be the Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England and appointed that to be added to his other Titles and it was enacted that he and his Successors should have full Authority to reform all Heresies and Abuses in the Spiritual Jurisdiction By an other Act they confirmed the Oath of Succession which had not been specified in the former Act tho agreed to by the Lords They also gave the King the first Fruits and Tenthes of Ecclesiastical Benefices as being the Supream Head of the Church for the King being put in the Pope's room it was thought reasonable to give him the Annats which the Popes had formerly exacted The Temporalty were now willing to revenge themselves on the Spiritualty and to tax them as heavily as they had formerly tyrannized over them Another Act past declaring some things Treason one of these was the denying the King any of his Titles or the calling him Heretick Schismatick or Usurper of the Crown By another Act Provision was made for setting up 26 Suffragan Bishops over England for the more speedy Administration of the Sacraments and the better Service of God It is also said they had been formerly accustomed to be in the Kingdom The Bishop of the Diocess was to present two to the King and upon the King 's declaring his choice the Archbishop was to consecrate the Person and then the Bishop was to delegate such parts of his Charge to his Care as he thought fitting which was to last during his Pleasure These were the same that the Ancients called the Chorepiscopi who were at first the Bishops of some Villages but were afterwards put under the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of the next City They were set up before the Council of Nice and continued to be in the Church for many Ages but the Bishops devolving their whole Spiritual Power to them they were put down and a Decretal Epistle was forged in the name of P. Damasus condemning them The great Extent of the Diocesses in England made it hard for one Bishop to govern them with that Exactness that was necessary these were therefore appointed to assist them in the discharge of the Pastoral Care In this Parliament Subsidies were granted payable in three Years with the highest Preamble of their Happiness under the King's Government all those 24 Years in which he had reigned that Flattery could dictate Fisher and More by two special Acts were attainted of Misprision of Treason five other Clerks were in like manner condemned all for refusing to swear the Oath of Succession The See of Rochester was declared void yet it seems few were willing to succeed such a Man for it continued vacant two Years This Severity against them was censured by some as Extream since they were willing to swear to the Succession in other Terms so that it was merely a point of Conscience in which the common Safety was not concerned at which they stuck and it was thought the prosecuting them in this manner would so raise their Credit that it might endanger the Government more than any Opposition which they could make But now that the King entered upon a new Scene The Progress the New Doctrines made in England it will be necessary to open the Progress that the new Opinions had made in England all the time of the King's Suit of Divorce During Wolsey's Ministry those Preachers were gently used and it is probable the King ordered the Bishops to give over their enquiring after them when the Pope began to use him ill for the Progress of Heresy was always reckoned up at Rome among the Mischiefs that would follow upon the Pope's denying the King's Desires But More coming into Favour he offered new Counsels he thought the King 's proceeding severely against Hereticks would be so meritorious at Rome that it would work more effectually than all his Treatnings had done so a severe Proclamation was issued out both against their Books and Persons ordering all the Laws against them to be put in Execution Tindall and some others at Antwerp were every Year either translating or writing Books against some of the received Errors and sending them over to England But his Translation of the New Testament gave the greatest Wound and was much complained of by the Clergy as full of Errors Tonstall then Bp of London being a Man of great Learning and Vertue which is generally accompanied with much Moderation returning from the Treaty of Cambray to which More and he were sent in the King's Name as he came through Antwerp dealt with an English Merchant that was secretly a Friend of Tindall's to procure him as many of his New Testaments as could be had for Mony Tindall was glad of this for being about a more correct Edition he found he would be better enabled to set about it if the Copies of the Old were sold off so he gave the Merchant all he had and Tonstall paying the Price of them got them in his hands and burnt them publickly in Cheapside This was called a burning of the Word of God and it was said the Clergy had reason to revenge themselves on it for it had done them more Mischief than all other Books whatsoever But a Year after this the second Edition being sinished great Numbers were sent over to England and Constantine one of Tindall's Partners hapned to be taken so More believing that some of the

and Industry and so was on all accounts well prepared for that Work to which the Providence of God did now call him And tho he was in some things too much subject to the King 's Imperious Temper yet in the matter of the six Articles he shewed that he wanted not the Courage that became a Bishop in so Critical an Affair as that was Cromwel was his great and constant Friend a man of mean Birth but of excellent Qualities as appeared in his adhering to his Master Wolsey after his fall a rare Demonstration of Gratitude in a Court to a disgraced Favourite And in his greatest height he happening to see a Merchant of Lucca who had pitied and relieved him when he was in Italy but did not so much as know him or pretend to any returns for the small Favours he had formerly shewed him and was then reduced to a low condition treated him with such acknowledgments that it became the Subjects of several Pens which strove who should celebrate it most As these set themselves to carry on a Reformation Others oppose it much there was another Party formed that as vigourously opposed it headed by the Duke of Norfolk and Gardiner and almost all the Clergy went into it They perswaded the King that nothing would give the Pope or the Emperour such Advantages as his making any Changes in Religion and it would reflect much on him if he who had writ so learnedly for the Faith should in spite to the Pope make any Changes in it Nothing would encourage other Princes so much to follow his Example nor keep his Subjects so much in their Duty to him as his continuing stedfast in the Antient Religion These things made great Impressions on him But on the other hand Cranmer represented to him that if he rejected the Pope's Authority it was very absurd to let such Opinions or Practices continue in the Church that had no other Foundation but Papal Decrees and therefore he desired that this might be put to the Trial he ought to depend on God and hope for good Success if he proceeded in this matter according to the Duty of a Christian Prince England was a compleat Body within its self and tho in the Roman Empire when united under one Prince General Councils were easily assembled yet now that was not to be so much depended on but every Prince ought to reform the Church in his Dominions by a National Synod and if in the Antient Church such Synods condemned Heresies and reformed Abuses that might be much more done when Europe was divided into so many Kingdoms It was visible that tho both the Emperour and the Princes of Germany had for 20 Years desired a Ceneral Council it could not be obtained of the Pope he had indeed offered one at Mantua but that was only an Illusion Upon that the Kiug desired some of his Bishops to give their Opinion concerning the Emperour's Power of calling Councils The Opinion of some Bishops of a General Council So Cranmer Tonstall Clark of Bath and Wells and Goodrick of Ely made answer That tho Ancient Councils were called by the Roman Emperours yet that was done by reason of the Extent of their Monarchy that was now ceased but since other Princes had an entire Monarchy within their Dominions Yet if one or more of those Princes should agree to call a Council to a good Intent and desire the Concurrence of the rest they were bound by the Rule of Charity to agree to it They were also of Opinion that none but Bishops and Priests had Right to a definitive Voice in matters of Doctrine Cranmer also made a long Speech at that time Heads of a Speech of Cranmers setting forth the necessity of a Reformation It is probable it was in the House of Peers for it begins My Lords He begun with the Impostures and Deceit used by the Canonists and other Courtiers at Rome Then he speak to the Authority of a General Councils he shewed that it flowed not from the Number of the Bishops but from the matter of their Decisions which were received with an Universal Consent for there were many more Bishops at the Council of Arimini which was condemned than either at Nice or Constantinople which were received Christ had named no Head of the whole Church as God had named no Head of the World but that grew up for Orders sake as there were Arch-bishops set over Provinces yet some Popes were condemned for Heresy as Liberius and others If Faith must be shewed by Works the ill Lives of most Popes of late shewed that their Faith was to be suspected and all the Priviledges which Princes or Synods granted to that See might be recalled Popes ought to submit themselves to General Councils and were be tried by them he shewed what were the present Corruptions of the Pope and his Court which needed Reformation The Pope according to the Decree of the Council of Basil was the Churches Vicar and not Christ's and so was accountable to it The Churches of France declared the Council to be above the Pope which had been acknowledged by many Popes themselves The Power of Councils had also Bounds nor could they judg of the Rights of Princes or proceed to a Sentence against a King nor were their Canons of any force till Princes added their Sanctions to them Councils ought also to proceed moderately even against those that held Errors and ought not to impose things indifferent too severely The Scriptures and not Men's Traditions ought to be the Standards of their Definitions The Divines of Paris held That a Council could not make a new Article of Faith that was not in the Scriptures and all Christ's Promises to the Church were to be understood with this condition if they kept the Faith therefore there was great reason to doubt concerning the Authority of a Council some of them had contradicted others and many others were never received The Fathers had always appealed to the Scriptures as Superiour in Authority to Councils by which only all Controversies ought to be decided yet on the other hand it was dangerous to be wise in ones own Conceit and he thought when the Fathers all agreed in the Exposition of any place of Scripture that ought to be look'd on as flowing from the Spirit of God He shewed how little Regard was to be had to a Council in which the Pope presided and that if any common Error had past upon the World when that came to be discovered every one was at liberty to shake it off even tho they had sworn to maintain that Error this he applied to the Pope's Authority In conclusion he promised to entertain them with another Discourse of the Authority that all Bishops had in their Sees and that Princes had within their Dominions But I could never recover that and probably it is lost This was the state of the Court after King Henry had shaken off the Pope's Power

Brittish Monks were is not well known The State of the Monasteries in England whether they were governed according to the Rules of the Monks of Egypt or France is matter of Conjecture They were in all things obedient to their Bishops as all the Monks of the Primitive Times were But upon the Confusions which the Gothick Wars brought upon Italy Benedict set up a new Order with more Artificial Rules for its Government Not long after Gregory the Great raised the Credit of that Order much by his Books of Dialogues and Austin the Monk being sent by him to convert England did found a Monastery at Canterbury that carried his Name which both the King and Austin exempted from the Arch-bishop's Jurisdiction But there is great reason to suspect that most of those Antient Charters were forged After that many other Abbies were founded and exempted by the Kings of England if Credit is due to the Leiger Books or Chartularies of the Monasteries In the end of the eighth Century the Danes made Descents upon England and finding the most Wealth and the least Resistance in the Monasteries they generally plundered them in so much that the Monks were forced to quit their Seats and they left them to the Secular Clergy so that in King Edgar's time there was scarce a Monk left in all England He was a leud and cruel Prince and Dunstan and other Monks taking Advantage from some horrours of Conscience that he fell under perswaded him that the restoring the Monastick State would be matter of great Merit so he converted many of the Chapters into Monasteries and by the Foundation of the Priory of Worcester it appears he had then founded 47 and intended to raise them to 50 the number of Pardon tho the Invention of Jubilees being so much later gives occasion to believe this was also a Forgery He only exempted his Monasteries from all Payments to the Bishops but others were exempted from Episcopal Jurisdiction In some only the Precinct was exempted in others the Exemption was extended to all the Lands or Churches belonging to them The latest Exemption from Episcopal Jurisdiction granted by any King is that of Battel founded by William the Conquerour After this the Exemptions were granted by the Popes who pretending to an Universal Jurisdiction assumed this among other Usurpations Some Abbies had also the Priviledg of being Sanctuaries to all that fled to them The Foundation of all their Wealth was the belief of Purgatory and of the Virtue that was in Masses to redeem Souls out of it and that these eased the Torments of departed Souls and at last delivered them out of them so it past among all for a piece of Piety to Parents and of care for their own Souls and Families to endow those Houses with some Lands upon condition that they should have Masses said for them as it was agreed on more or less frequently according to the measure of the Gift This was like to have drawn in the whole Wealth of the Nation into those Houses if the Statute of Mortmain had not put some restraint to that Superstition They also perswaded the World that the Saints interceded for them and would take it kindly at their hands if they made great Offerings to their Shrines and would thereupon intercede the more earnestly for them The credulous Vulgar measuring the Court of Heaven by those on Earth believed Presents might be of great Efficacy there and thought the new Favourites would have the most Weight in their Intercessions So upon every new Canonization there was a new Fit of Devotion towards the last Saint which made the elder to grow almost out of request Some Images were believed to have an extraordinary Virtue in them and Pilgrimages to these were much extolled There was also great Rivalry among the several Orders and different Houses of the same Orders every one magnifying their own Saints their Images and Relicks most The Wealth of these Houses brought them under great Corruptions They were generally very dissolute and grosly ignorant Their Priviledges were become a publick Grievance and their Lives gave great Scandal to the World So that as they had found it easy to bear down the Secular Clergy when their own Vices were more secret the begging Friers found it as easy to carry the Esteem of the World from them These under the Appearance of Poverty and course Diet and Cloathing gained much Esteem and became almost the only Preachers and Confessors then in the World They had a General at Rome from whom they received such Directions as the Popes sent them so that they were more useful to the Papacy then the Monks had been They had also the School-Learning in their hands so that they were generally much cherished But they living much in the World could not conceal their Vices so artificially as the Monks had done and tho several Reformations had been made of their Orders yet they had all fallen under great Scandal and a general Disesteem The King intended to erect new Bishopricks and in order to that it was necessary to make use of some of their Revenues He also apprehended a War from the Emperour and for that end he intended to fortify his Harbours and to encourage Shipping and Trade upon which the Ballance of the World began then to turn And in order to that he resolved to make use of the Wealth of those Houses and thought the best way to bring that into his hands would be to expose their Vices that so they might quite lose the Esteem they might yet be in with some and so it might be less dangerous to suppress them Cranmer promoted this much both because these Houses were founded on gross Abuses and subsisted by them and these were necessary to be removed if a Reformation went on The Extent of many Diocesses was also such that one man could not oversee them so he intended to have more Bishopricks founded and to have Houses at every Cathedral for the Education of those who should be imploied in the Pastoral Charge The Visitors went over England and found in many places monstrous Disorders The Sin of Sodom was found in many Houses great Factions and Barbarous Cruelties were in others and in some they found Tools for Coining The Report contained many abominable things that are not fit to be mentioned Some of these were printed but the greatest part is lost only a Report of 144 Houses is yet extant The first House that was surrendered to the King Some Houses surrendered was Langden in Kent the Abbot was found a Bed with a Whore who went in the Habit of a Lay Brother This perhaps made him more willing to give an Example to the rest so he and ten of his Monks signed a Resignation of their House to the King Two other Houses in the same County Folkeston and Dover followed their Example And in the following Year four other Houses made the like Surrenders and these were all that I find

5 Days after the time prefixed should expire leaving only so many as might serve for Baptizing Children or giving the Sacrament to such as died in Penitence He charged all his Subjects to rise in Arms against him and that none should assist him He absolved all other Princes from their Confederacies with him and obtested them to have no more Commerce with him He required all Christians to make War on him and to seize on the Persons and Goods of all his Subjects and make Slaves of them He charged all Bishops to publish the Sentence with due Solemnities and ordained it to be affixed at Rome Tournay and Dunkirk This was first given out the 30 of August 1535 but it had been all this while suspended till the Suppression of the Monasteries and the burning of Becket's Bones did so inflame the Pope that he resolved to forbear going to Extremities no longer So on the 17 of December this Year the Pope published the Bull which he said he had so long suspended at the Intercession of some Princes who hoped that King Henry might have been reclaimed by gentler Methods and therefore since it appeared that he grew still worse and worse he was forced to proceed to his Fulminations By this Sentence it is certain That either the Popes Infallibility must be confessed to be a Cheat put upon the World or if any believe it they must acknowledge that the Power of deposing Princes is really lodged in that Chair For this was not a sudden fit of Passion but was done ex Cathedra with all the Deliberation they ever admit of The Sentence was in some particulars without a Precedent but as to the main Points of deposing the King and absolving his Subjects from their Obedience there was abundance of Instances to be brought in these last 500 Years to shew that this had been all along asserted the Right of the Papacy The Pope writ also to the Kings of France and Scotland with design to inflame them against King Henry And if this had been an Age of Croissades no doubt there had been one undertaken against him for it was held to be as meritorious if not more to make War on him than on the Turk But now the Thunders of the Vatican had lost their force The King got all the Bishops The Bishops of England assert the King's Power and the Nature of Ecclesiastical Offices and Eminent Divines of England to sign a Declaration against all Church-men who pretended to the Power of the Sword or to Authority over Kings and that all that assumed such Powers were Subverters of the Kingdom of Christ Many of the Bishops did also sign another Paper declaring the Limits of the Regal and Ecclesiastical Power that both had their Authority from God for several Ends and different Natures and that Princes were subject to the Word of God as well as Bishops ought to be obedient to their Laws There was also another Declaration made signed by Cromwel the 2 Archbishops 11 Bishops and 20 Divines asserting the Distinction betwen the Power of the Keys and the Power of the Sword The former was not absolute but limited by the Scripture Orders were declared to be a Sacrament instituted by Christ which were conferred by Prayer and Imposition of Hands And that in the New Testament no mention was made of any other Ranks but of Deacons or Ministers and of Priests or Bishops After this the use of all the Inferiour Degrees of Lectures Acolyths c. was laid down These were set up about the beginning of the 3d Century for in the middle of that Age mention is made of them both by Cornelius and Cyprian and they were intended to be degrees of Probation through which Men were to ascend to the higher Functions But the Canonists had found out so many Distinctions of Benefices and that a simple Tonsure qualified a Man for several of them that these Institutions became either a matter of Form only or were made a Colour for Laymen to possess Ecclesiastical Benefices In this and several other Books of that time Bishops and Priests are spoken of as being both one Office In the Ancient Church there were different Ordinations and different Functions belonging to these Offices tho the Superiour was believed to include the Inferiour But in the latter Ages both the School-men Canonists seemed on different grounds to have designed to make them appear to be the same Office and that the one was only a higher degree in the same Order The School-men to magnify Transubstantiation extolled the Office by which that was performed so high and the Canonists to exalt the Pope's Universal Authority deprest the Office of Bishops so low to make them seem only the Pope's Delegates and that their Jurisdiction was not from Christ that by these means these two Offices were thought so near one another that they differed only in degree And this was so well observed at Trent that the Establishing the Episcopal Jurisdiction as founded on a Divine Right was apprehended as one of the fatallest Blows that could have been given to the Papacy This being at this time so commonly received it is no wonder if before that matter came to be more exactly inquired into some of the Reformers writ more carelessly in the Explanations they made of these Offices which is so far from being an Argument that they were upon due enquiry of another mind that it is to be look'd on as a part of the Dregs of Popery flowing from the belief of Transubstantiation and the Pope's Supremacy of which all the Consequences were not so early observed This Year the English Bible was finished The Bible in English and new Injunctions The Translation was sent over to Paris to be printed there for the Workmen in England were not thought able to go about it Bonner was then Embassadour in France and he obtained a Licence of Francis for printing it but upon a Complaint made by the French Clergy the Press was stopt and many of the Copies were seized on and burnt So it was brought over to England and was undertaken and now finished by Grafton Cromwel procured a General Warrant from the King allowing all his Subjects to read it for which Cranmer wrote his thanks to Cromwel and rejoyced to see the day of Reformation now risen in England since the Word of God did shine over it all without a Cloud Not long after this Cromwel gave out Injunctions requiring the Clergy to set up Bibles in their Churches and to encourage all to read them He also exhorted the People not to dispute about the sense of difficult places but to leave that to Men of better Judgments Incumbents were required to instruct the People and teach them the Creed the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments in English And that once every Quarter there should be a Sermon to declare the true Gospel of Christ and to exhort the People to Works of Charity and not to trust to

2. That Christ was entirely in each kind and so Communion in both was not necessary 3. That Priests by the Law of God ought not to marry 4. That Vows of Chastity taken after the Age of 21 ought to be kept 5. That Private Masses were lawful and useful 6. That Auricular Confession was necessary and ought to be retained Such as did speak or write agaist the first of these were to be burned without the benefit of Abjuration and it was made Felony to dispute against the other five and such as did speak against them were to be in a Premunire for the first Offence the second was made Felony Married Priests that did not put away their Wives were to be condemned of Fellony in those that lived incontinently the first Offence was a Premunire and the second Felony Women that offended were to be punished as the Priests were Those that contemned Confession and the Sacrament and abstained from it at the accustomed times were for the first Offence in a Premunire the second was Felony Proceedings were to be made in the Forms of Common Law by Presentments and a Jury and all Church-men were charged to read the Act in their Churches once a Quarter This Act was received with great Joy by all the Popish Party Censures past upon it they reckoned that now Heresy would be extirpated and that the King was as much engaged against it as he was when he writ against Luther this made the Suppression of the Monasteries pass much the easier The poor Reformers were now exposed to the Rage of their Enemies and had no Comfort from any part of it but one that they were not delivered up to the Cruelty of the Ecclesiastical Courts or the Trials ex Officio but were to be tried by Juries yet the denying the benefit of Abjuration was a Severity without a Precedent and was a forcing Martyrdom on them since they were not to be the better for their Apostacy It was some Satisfaction to the married Clergy that the incontinent Priests were to be so severely punished which Cromwell put in and the Clergy knew not how they could decently oppose it Upon the passing the Act the German Ambassadours being set on to it by those that favoured their Doctrine in England desired an Audience of the King and told him of the Grief with which their Masters would receive the News of this Act and therefore earnestly press'd him to stop the Execution of it The King answered that he found it necessary to have the Act made for repressing the Insolence of some People but assured them it should not be put in Execution except upon great Provocation When the Princes heard of the Act they writ to the King to the same purpose they warned him of many Bishops that were about him who in their Hearts loved Popery and all the old Abuses and took this method to force the King to return back to the former Yoke hoping that if they once made him cruel to all those they called Hereticks it would be easy to bring him back to submit to that Tyranny which he had shaken off and therefore they proposed a Conference between some Divines of both sides in order to an Agreement of Doctrine The King was only concerned upon State Maxims to keep up their League in Opposition to the Emperour but they still press'd a Religious as well as a Civil League After the Act of the six Articles An Act for suppressing the Monasteries the Act for suppressing the Monasteries was brought in and tho there were so many Abbots sitting in the House none of them protested against it By it no Monastery was suppressed but only the Resignations made or to be made were confirmed and the King 's Right founded either on their Surrenders Forfeitures or Attainders of Treason was declared good in Law Houses surrendred were to be managed by the Court of Augmentations but those seized on by Attainders were to come to the Exchequer All Persons except the Founders and Donors were to have the same Rights to the Lands belonging to these Houses that they had before this Act was made All Deeds and Leases made for a Year before this to the prejudice of these Houses were annulled and all the Churches belonging to them and formerly exempted were put under the Jurisdiction of the Bishop or of such as should be appointed by the King This last Proviso has produced a great Mischief in this Church for many that purchased Abby-Lands had this Clause put in their Grants that they should be the Visitors of the Churches and by this they continue still exempted from the Episcopal Jurisdiction and this has emboldened many to break out into great Scandals which have been made use of by prejudiced Men to cast an Obloquy on the Church tho this Disorder proceeds only from the want of Authority in the Bishops to censure them A Question was raised upon this Suppression whether the Lands should have reverted to the Donors or been escheated to the Crown By a Judgment of the Roman Senate in Theodosius's time all the Endowments of the Heathenish Temples were given to the Fisc and tho the Heirs of the Donors pretended to them yet it was said that by the Gifts that their Ancestors made they were totally alienated from them and their Heirs When the Order of the Templers was suppressed their Lands went to the Lord by an Escheat This might seem reasonable in Endowments that were simple Gifts without any Conditions But the Grants to Religious Houses were of the nature of Covenants given in consideration of the Masses that were to be said for them and their Families and therefore it was inferred that when the Cheat of redeeming Souls out of Purgatory was discovered and these Houses were suppress'd then the Lands ought to revert to the Heirs of the Donors and upon that account it was thought necessary to exclude them by a special Proviso Another Bill was brought in An Act for new Bishopricks empowering the King to erect new Bishopricks by his Letters Patents it was read three times in one day in the House of Lords The Preamble set forth that the ill Lives of those that were called Religious made it necessary to change thir Houses to better Uses for teaching the Word of God instructing of Children educating of Clerks relieving of old infirm People the endowing of Readers for Greek Latine and Hebrew mending of High-ways and the bettering the Condition of the Parish Priests and for this end the King was empowered to erect new Sees and to assign what Limits and Divisions and appoint them what Statutes he pleased I have seen the first Draught of this Preamble all written with the King 's own Hand and indeed he used extraordinary Care in corecting both Acts of Parliament and Proclamations with his own Hand All Papers in matters of Religion that were set out by publick Authority in this Reign were revised by him and in many places large

could never gain much Ground after this and indeed many hoped that he should be quickly sent after Cromwell some complained of him in the House of Commons and Informations were brought the King that the chief Encouragement that the Hereticks had came from him The Ecclesiastical Committees imployed by the King A Book of Religion set out by Bishops were now at work and gave the last finishing to a Book formerly prepared but at this time corrected and explained in many Particulars They began with the Explanation of Faith which according to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome was thought an implicit believing whatever the Church proposed But the Reformers made it the chief Subject of their Books and Sermons to perswade People to believe in Christ and not in the Church and made great use of those Places in which it was said That Christians are justified by Faith only tho some explained this in such a manner that it gave their Adversaries Advantages to charge them that they denied the necessity of Good Works but they all taught that tho they were not necessary to Justification yet they were necessary to Salvation They differed also in their Notion of Good Works The Church of Rome taught that the Honour done to God in his Images or to the Saints in their Shrines and Relicks or to the Priests were the best sort of Good Works Whereas the Reformers prest Justice and Mercy most and discovered the Superstition of the other The Opinion of the Merit of Good Works was also so highly raised that many thought they purchased Heaven by them This the Reformers did also correct and taught the People to depend meerly upon the Death and Intercession of Christ Others moved subtiller Questions As whether Obedience was an essential part of Faith or only a Consequent of it This was a Nicety scarce becoming Divines that built only on the Simplicity of the Scriptures and condemned the Subtilties of the Schools and it was said that Men of ill Lives abused this Doctrine and thought that if they could but assure themselves that Christ died for them they were safe enough So now when they settled the Notion of Faith The Explanation of Faith they divided it into two sorts The one was a Perswasion of the Truth of the Gospel but the other carried with it a Submission to the Will of God and both Hope Love and Obedience belonged to it which was the Faith professed in Baptism and so much extoll'd by St. Paul It was not to be so understood as if it were a Certainty of our being predestinated which may be only a Presumption since all God's Promises are made to us on Conditions but it was an entire receiving the whole Gospel according to our Baptismal Vows Cranmer took great Pains to state this matter right and made a large Collection of many places all written with his own Hand both out of Antient and Modern Authors concerning Faith Justification and the Merit of Good Works and concluded with this That our Justification was to be ascribed only to the Merits of Christ and that those who are justified must have Charity as well as Faith but that neither of these was the meritorious Cause of Justification After this was stated they made next a large and full Explanation of the Apostles Creed with great Judgment and many excellent practical Inferences the Definition they gave of the Catholick Church runs thus It comprehended all Assemblies of Men in the whole World that received the Faith of Christ who ought to hold an Unity of Love and Brotherly Agreement together by which they became Members of the Catholick Church After this they explained the seven Sacraments In opening these there were great Debates for as was formerly mentioned the method used was to open the Point enquired into by proposing many Queries And of the Sacramenss and every one was to give in his Answer to these with the Reasons of it and then others were appointed to make an Abstract of those things in which they all either agreed or differed The Original Papers relating to these Points are yet preserved which shew with how great Consideration they proceeded in the Changes that were then made Cranmer had at this time some particular Opinions concerning Ecclesiastical Offices That they were delivered from the King as other Civil Offices were and that Ordination was not indispensibly necessary and was only a Ceremony that might be used or laid aside but that the Authority was conveyed to Church-men only by the King's Commission yet he delivered his Opinion in this matter with great Modesty and he not only subscribed the Book in which the contrary Doctrine was established but afterwards published it in a Book which he writ in King Edward's days from whence it appears that he changed his Mind in this Particular Baptism was explained as had been done formerly Penance was made to consist in the Absolution of the Priests which had been formerly declared only to be desirable where it could be had In the Communion both Transubstantiation Private Masses and Communion in one kind were asserted They asserted the Obligation of the Levitical Law about the Degrees of Marriage and the Indissolubleness of that Bond. They set out the Divine Institution of Priests and Deacons and that no Bishop had Authority over another they made a long Excursion against the Pope's Pretensions and for justifying the King's Supremacy They said Confirmation was instituted by the Apostles and was profitable but not necessary to Salvation and they asserted extream Unction to have been commanded by the Apostles for the Health both of Soul and Body Then were the Ten Commandments explained the second was added to the first but the Words For I am the Lord thy God c. were left out It was declared that no Godly Honour was to be done unto Images and that they ought only to be reverenced for their sakes whom they represented therefore the preferring of one Image to another and the making Pilgrimages and Offerings to them was condemned but the censing them or kneeling before them was permitted yet the People were to be taught that these things were done only to the Honour of God Invocation of Saints as Intercessors was allowed but immediate Addresses to them for the Blessings that were prayed for was condemned The strict rest from Labour on the seventh day was declared to be Ceremonial but it was necessary to rest from Sin and Carnal Pleasure and to follow Holy Duties The other Commandments were explained in a very plain and practical way Then was the Lord's Prayer explained and it was asserted that the People ought only to pray in their Vulgar Tongues for exciting their Devotion the more The Angels Salutation to the Virgin was also paraphrased They handled Free-will and defined it to be a Power by which the Will guided by Reason did without constraint discern and choose Good and Evil the former by the help of God's Spirit and

condemned to be burnt as detestable Hereticks in general Words In the same Act by which they were condemned four other were attainted of Treason for being confederated with Reginald Pool and for intending to surprize Calais and as there was a strange mixture in their Condemnation so the like was in their Executions for Abel Featherston and Powell that were attainted in the same Parliament for owning the Pope's Supremacy were executed with them and were coupled together in the Hurdles in which they were carried to Smithfield the King in this affecting an extravagant Appearance of Impartiality in his Justice Barnes being tied to the Stake And burnt went over the Articles of the Creed and declared his Belief of them all and that he abhorred the impious Opinions of some German Anabaptists He asserted the necessity of Good Works but ascribed Justification wholly to the Merits of Christ he professed all due Reverence to the Saints but said he saw no Warrant to pray for them he asked the Sheriff and the People if they knew for what they were condemned and what Heresies they were accused of but none made Answer he prayed God to forgive all that sought their Death and in particular Gardiner if he had done it then prayed for the King and the Prince and expressed his Loyalty to the King that he believed all his just Laws were to be obeyed for Conscience sake and that in no Case it was lawful to resist him he sent some Desires to the King as that he would apply the Abby-Lands to good Uses and the Relief of his poor Subjects that he would punish the Contempt of Marriage that was so common and would put a stop to the Liberty many took of casting off their Wives and living in Whoredom that Swearers might be punished and that since the King had begun to set forth the Christian Religion that he would go on with it for a great deal remained yet to be done he asked the Forgiveness of all People whom he might have at any time offended and so turned and prepared himself for Death then the other two spoke to the same purpose they declared their Faith and exhorted the People to a good Life and mutual Love and they all prayed and embraced one another after that the Fire was set to The Constancy they expressed together with the Gentleness of their Deportment towards their Enemies made great Impressions on the Spectators and cast a heavy Imputation on Gardiner as the Procurer of their Deaths tho he justified himself in an Apology which he printed in which he denied any other Accession to it but giving his Vote to the Bill of Attainder Bonner began now to shew himself in his own Colours He had courted Cromwell more than any Person whatsoever yet the very day after his Disgrace he shewed his Ingratitude for Grafton that had printed the Bible and was much in Cromwell's Favour upon that account meeting Bonner expressed his Sorrow for Cromwell's being sent to the Tower but the other answered that it had been good he had been there much sooner Grafton saw his Error in speaking so freely and went from him but some Verses being printed in Cromwell's Praise Bonner informed the Council what Grafton had said to him and so thought it was probable he had printed them yet he had so many Friends that he was let go He procured many to be indicted upon the Act of the six Articles but an Order came from the King to stop further Proceedings yet he pick'd out one Instance which did equally discover his brutal Cruelty and his want of Judgment One Mekins not above fifteen Years old had said somewhat against the Corporal Presence and in Commendation of Dr. Barnes The Witnesses differed in their Evidence one swore he had said the Sacrament was only a Ceremony the other swore he had said it was only a Signification so two Grand Juries returned an Ignoramus on the Bill upon which he fell into a fit of Cursing and violent Rage and he made the second Grand Jury go aside and consider better of it they being terrified found the Bill and he was condemned to be burnt but hoping to be preserved by what he should say at the Stake he railed at Barnes and praised Bonner much yet that did not save him Two were burnt at Salisbury and two at Lincoln upon the same Statute besides great Numbers that were put in Prison In the end of this Year New Sees founded the King began to endow the new Bishopricks Westminster was the first in which he endowed a Bishoprick a Deanry 12 Prebendaries a Quire and other Officers The Year after this he endowed Chester Glocester and Peterborough but in these Cathedrals he only endowed six Prebendaries two Years after he likewise endowed Oxford and Bristol The Foundations had Preambles are almost the same with that of the Act of Parliament that empowred him to erect them he promoted the Bishops to those Sees by a special Writ tho that was to go thereafter in the way of Election as it was in the other Sees he also converted the Priories of Canterbury Winchester Duresme Worcester Ely Rochester and Carlile into Collegiate Churches consisting of Deans and Prebendaries But as all this came much far short of what the King had at first intended so the Channel in which those Foundations run differed much from what Cranmer had projected whose Interest was so low at Court that his Opinion was not now regarded as it had been formerly He intended to have restored the Cathedrals to what they had been at first to be Colleges and Nurseries for the Diocess and to have set up Readers of the Learned Tongues and of Divinity in them that so a considerable number of young Clerks might have been trained up under the Bishop's Eye both in their Studies and in a Course of Devotion to be by him put afterwards in Livings according to their Merit and Improvements The want of such Houses for the strict Education of those who are to serve in the Church has been the occasion of many fatal Consequences since that time by the Scandals which Men initiated to the Sacred Functions before they were well prepared for them have given the World The Popish Party beyond Sea censured these Endowments both as being a very defective Restitution of the Lands that had been invaded and as an Invasion on the Spiritual Authority when the King divided Diocesses and removed Churches from one Jurisdiction and put them under another To which it was answered That as their Practices against the King had put him to such a charge that he could not execute what he at first intended so both the Roman Emperours and other Christian Kings had regulated and divided the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and made Primates and Patriarchs as they pleased Ely in England was taken out of Lincoln only by the King and his Parliament tho P. Nicolaus did officiously send a Confirmation of it that being an Art of

received the new Opinions Seaton a Dominican the King's Confessor preaching in Lent set out the Nature of true Repentance and the Method to it without mixing the Directions which the Friars commonly gave on that Subject and when another Friar shewed the defectiveness of what he had taught he defended himself in another Sermon and reflected on those Bishops that did not preach and called them dumb Dogs But the Clergy would not meddle with him till they found him in ill Terms with the King and the freedom he used in reproving him for his Vices quickly alienated the King from him upon which they resolved to fall on him but he withdrew into England and wrote to the King taxing the Clergy for their Cruelty and praying him to restrain it One Forrest an ignorant Benedictine was accused for having spoken Honourably of Patrick Hamilton and was put in Prison In Confession to a Friar he acknowledged he thought he was a good Man and that the Articles for which he was condemned might be defended The Friar discovered this and it was received as Evidence and upon it he was condemned and burnt Divers others were brought into the Bishop's Courts of whom the greatest part abjured but two were more resolute one Gourley denied Purgatory and the Pope's Authority another was David Smiton who being a Fisherman had refused to pay the Tithe of his Fish and when the Vicar came to take them he said the Tithe was taken where the Stock grew and therefore he threw the tenth Fish into the Sea For this and other Opinions he was condemned and they were both burnt at one Stake Several others were accused of whom some fled to England and others went over to Germany The Changes made in England raised in all the People a curiosity of searching into matters of Religion and that was always fatal to Superstition Pope Clement the 7th wrote earnestly to the King of Scotland to continue firm to the Catholick Faith Upon which he called a Parliament and made new Laws for maintaining the Pope's Authority and proceeding against Hereticks yet the Pope could not engage him to make War on England King Henry sent Barlow Bishop of St. Davids to him with some Books that were written in Defence of his Proceedings and desired him to examine them Impartially He also proposed the Enterview at York and a Match between him and Lady Mary the King 's eldest Daughter and promised that he should be made Duke of York and Lord Lieutenant of the whole Kingdom Yet the Clergy diverted him from this and perswaded him to go in Person to France and court the Daughter of that King Magdalene He married her in January 1537 but she died in May. She had been bred in the Queen of Navarre's Court and so was well disposed towards the Reformation Upon her Death the King married Mary of Guise she was a Branch of the Family of all Europe that was most zealously addicted to the old Superstition and her Interest joined with the Clergy's engaged the King to become a violent Persecuter of all that were of another mind The King was very expensive both in his Pleasures and Buildings and had a numerous Race of Bastards A Persecution set on foot in Scotland so that he came to want Mony much The Nobility proposed to him the seizing on the Abbey-Lands as his Uncle had done The Clergy on the other hand advised him to proceed severely against all suspected of Heresy By which means according to the Lists they shewed him he might raise 100000 Crowns a Year They also advised him to provide his Children to Abbies and Priories and represented to him That if he continued stedfast in the old Religion he would still have a great Party in England and might be made the Head of a League which was then in Project against King Henry This so far prevailed with him that as he made four of his Sons Abbots and Priors so he gave way to the persecuting Spirit of the Clergy Upon which many were cited to answer for Heresy of these many abjured and some were banisht A Canon Regular a Secular Priest two Friars and a Gentleman were burnt Forrest the Canon Regular had been reproved by his Ordinary the Bishop of Dunkell for meddling with the Scriptures too much He told him he had lived long and had never known what was in the Old or New Testament but contented himself with his Portoise and Pontifical and that he might come to repent it if he troubled himself with such Fancsies The Archbishop of Glasgow was a very moderate Man and disliked cruel Proceedings Russel a Friar and Kennedy a young Man of 18 Years of Age were brought before him they expressed wonderful Joy and a steady Resolution in their Sufferings And after a long dispute between Russel and the Bishop's Divines Russel concluded This is your Hour and the Power of Darkness go on and fill up the Measures of your Iniquities The Archbishop was unwilling to give Sentence he said he thought these Executions did the Church more Hurt than Good But those about him told him He must not take a Way different from the rest of the Bishops and threatned him so that he pronounced Sentence They were burned but they gave such Demonstrations of Patience and Joy as made no small Impression on all that saw it or heard of it Among those that were in trouble George Buchanan was one who at the King's Instigations had writ a very sharp Poem against the Franciscans but was now abandoned by him He made his Escape and lived 20 Years in Forraign Parts and at last returned to do his Country Honour and what by his Immortal Poems what by his History of Scotland he shewed both how great a Master he was in the Roman Tongue and how true a Judge he was both in Wit and in the Knowledge of Human Affairs if Passion had not corrupted him towards the end of his History that he is justly to be reckoned the greatest and best of the Modern Writers So much of the Affairs of Scotland the Author 's Native Country King Henry stayed not long at York The Queen 's ill Life is discovered since his Nephew came not to him He set out a Proclamation there inviting all that had been of late oppressed to come in and make their Complaints and he promised to repair them This was done to cast the Load of all past Errours upon Cromwel The King was mightily wrought on by the Charms of his Wife so that on the First of November he gave publick thanks to God for the happy Choice he had made But this did not last long for the next day Cranmer came and gave him an account of the Queen 's ill Life which one Lassells had revealed to him as having learnt it from his Sister She had been very lewd before her Marriage both with one Deirham and one Mannock Cranmer by the Advice of the other Privy Counsellors put this in Writing

in particular were condemned of Treason for saying that the King was not Supream Head of the Church of England It was then only a Premunire not to swear to the Supremacy but it was made Treason to deny it or speak against it Hall a Secular Priest was at the same time condemned of Treason for calling the King a Tyrant an Heretick a Robber and an Adulterer and saying that he would die as King John or Richard the Third died and that it would never be well with the Church till the King was brought to Pot And that they looked when Ireland and Wales would rise and were assured that three parts of four in England would join with them All these pleaded not Guilty but being condemned they justified what they had said The Carthusians were hanged in their Habits Soon after that three Carthusians were condemned and executed at London two more at York upon the same account for opposing the King's Supremacy Ten other Monks were shut up in their Cells of whom nine died there and one was condemned and hanged These had been all Complices in the Business of the Maid of Kent and tho that was pardoned yet it gave the Government ground to have a watchful Eye over them and to proceed more severly against them upon the first Provocation After these Fisher's Sufferings Fisher and More were brought to their Trials Pope Clements officious Kindness to Fisher in declaring him a Cardinal did hasten his Ruine tho he was little concerned at that Honour that was done him He was tried by a Jury of Commoners and was found guilty of Treason for having spoken against the King's Supremacy but instead of the Common Death in Cases of Treason the King ordered him to be beheaded On the 22th of June he suffered He dressed himself with more then ordinary Care that day for he said it was to be his Wedding-Day As he was led out he opened the New Testament at a Venture and prayed that such a place might turn up as might comfort him in his last Moments The Words on which he cast his Eyes were This is Life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent So he shut the Book and continued meditating on these Words to the last On the Scaffold he repeated the Te Deum and so laid his Head on the Block which was severed from his Body He was a learned and devout Man but much addicted to Superstition and too cruel in his Temper against Hereticks He had been Confessor to the King's Grand-Mother and perswaded her to found two Colledges in Cambridge Christ's and St John's in Acknowledgment of which he was chosen Chancelof the University Henry the Seventh made him Bishop of Rochester He would never exchange that for any other He said his Church was his Wife and he would not part with his Wife because she was Poor He was much esteemed by this King till the Suit of the Divorce was set on foot and then he adhered stifly to the Marriage and the Popes Supremacy and that made him too favourable to the Nun of Kent But the Severities of his long Imprisonment together with this bloody Conclusion of it were universally condemned all the World over only Gardiner imploied his Servile Pen to write a Vindication of the King's Proceedings against him It was writ in Elegant Latin but the Stile was thought too Vehement More 's Death It was harder to find matter against Sir Thomas More for he was very cautious and satisfied his own Conscience by not swearing the Supremacy but would not not speak against it He said the Act had two Edges if he consented to it it would damne his Soul and if he spoke against it it would condemn his Body This was all the Message he sent to Fisher when he desired to know his Opinion about it he had also said the same to the Duke of Norfolk and some Counsellors that came to examine him And Rich then the King's Solicitor coming as a private Friend to perswade him to swear the Oath urged him with the Act of Parliament and asked him if he should be made King by Act of Parliament would not he Acknowledge him He answered he would because a King might be made or deprived by a Parliament But the Matter of the Supremacy was a point of Religion to which the Parliament's Authority did not extend it self All this Rich witnessed against him so these Particulars were laid together as amounting to a Denial of the King's Supremacy and upon this he was judged guilty of Treason He received his Sentence with that equal Temper of Mind which he had shewed in both Conditions of Life He expressed great Contempt of the World and much Weariness in living in it His ordinary Facetiousness remained with him to his last Moment on the Scaffold Some censured that as affected and indecent and as having more of the Stoick than the Christian in it But others said that way of Railery had been so Customary to him that Death did not discompose him nor put him out of his ordinary Humour He was beheaded on the 6th of July in the 52d or 53d Year of his Age. He had great Capacities and eminent Vertues In his Youth he had freer thoughts but he was afterwards much corrupted by Superstition and became fierce for all the Interests of the Clergy He wrote much in Defence of all the old Abuses His Learning in Divinity was but ordinary for he had read little more than some of St. Austin's Treatises and the Canon Law and the Master of the Sentences beyond whom his Quotations do seldom go His Stile was Natural and Pleasant and he could turn things very dextrously to make them look well or ill as it served his Purpose But tho he suffered for denying the Kings Supremacy yet he was at first no Zealot for the Pope For he says of himself That when the King shewed him his Book in Manuscript which he wrote against Luther he advised him to leave out that which he had put in it concerning the Pope's Power for he did not know what Quarrels he might have afterwards with the Pope's and then that would be turned against him But the King was perhaps fond of what he had written and so he would not follow that wise Advice which he gave him There were no Executions after this till the Rebellions of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire gave new Occasions to Severity Attainders after the Rebellion and then not only the Lords of Darcy and Hussy but six Abbots and many Gentlemen the chief of whom was Sir Thomas Piercy Brother to the Earl of Northumberland were attainted They had not only been in the Rebellion but had forfeited the General Pardon by their new Attempts after it was proclaimed Yet some said the King took Advantage on very slight Grounds to break his Indemnity But on the other hand it was no Wonder if he proceeded with the utmost Rigour

the German Princes and yet it was very dangerous to begin a War of such Consequence under an Infant King At present they promised within three Months to send by the Merchants of the Still-yard 50000 Crowns to Hamburgh and resolved to do no more till new Emergents should lead them to new Councels The Nation was in an ill condition for a War Divisions in England with such a mighty Prince labouring under great distractions at home the People generally cried out for a Reformation they despised the Clergy and loved the new Preachers The Priests were for the most part both very ignorant and scandalous in their lives many of them had been Monks and those that were to pay them the pensions that were reserved to them at the destruction of the Monasteries till they should be provided took care to get them into some small Benefice The greatest part of the Parsonages were Impropriated for they belonged to the Monasteries and the Abbots had only granted the Incumbents either the Vicarage or some small Donative and left them the Perquisites raised by Masses and other Offices At the suppression of those Houses there was no care taken to provide the Incumbents better so they chiefly subsisted by Trentals other Devices that brought them in some small relief though the Price of them was scandalously low for Masses went often at 2 d. a Groat was a great bounty Now these saw that a Reformation of those abuses took the Bread out of their mouths so their Interests prevailing more with them than any thing else they were zealously engaged against all changes but that same Principle made them comply with every change that was made rather than lose their Benefices Their poverty made them run into another abuse of holding more Benefices at the same time a Corruption of so crying and scandalous a nature that where ever it is practised it is sufficient to possess the People with great prejudices against the Church that is guilty of it there being nothing more contrary to the plainest impressions of reason than that every Man who undertakes a Cure of Souls whom at his Ordination he has vowed that he would instruct feed govern ought to discharge that trust himself which is the greatest and most important of all others The Clergy were incouraged in their Opposition to all changes by the protection they expected from Gardiner Bonner and Tonstall who were Men of great reputation as well as set in high places and above all Lady Mary did openly declare against all Changes till the King should be of Age. But on the other hand Cranmer whose greatest weakness was his over-obsequiousness to King Henry being now at liberty resolved to proceed more vigorously The Protector was firmly united to him so were the young Kings Tutors and he was as much engaged as could be expected from so young a Person for both his knowledge and zeal for true Religion were above his Age. Several of the Bishops did also declare for a Reformation but Dr. Ridley now made Bishop of Rochester was the Person on whom he depended most Latimer was kept by him at Lambeth and did great service by his Sermons which were very popular but he would not return to his Bishoprick choosing rather to serve the Church in a more disengaged manner Many of the Bishops were very ignorant and poor spirited Men raised meerly by Court-favour who wee little concerned for any thing but their Revenues Cranmer resolved to proceed by degrees and to open the reasons of every advance that was made so fully that he hoped by the blessing of God to possess the Nation of the fitness of what they should do and thereby to prevent any dangerous opposition that might otherwise be apprehended The power of the Privy Council had been much exalted in King Henry's time by Act of Parliament and one Proviso in it was that the King's Council should have the same Authority when he was under Age that he himself had at full Age A Visitation of all the Churches so it was resolved to begin with a General Visitation of all England which was divided into six Precincts and two Gentlemen a Civilian a Divine and a Register were appointed for every one of these But before they were sent out May. there was a Letter written to all the Bishops giving them notice of it suspending their Jurisdiction while it lasted and requiring them to preach no where but in their Cathedrals and that the other Clergy should not preach but in their own Churches without Licence by which it was intended to restrain such as were not acceptable to their own Parishes and to grant the others Licences to Preach in any Church of England The greatest difficulty that the Reformers found was in the want of able and prudent Men the most zealous were too hot and indiscreet and the few they had that were Eminent were to be imployed in London and the Universities Therefore they intended to make those as common as was possible and appointed them to preach as Itinerants and Visitors The only thing by which the People could be universally instructed was a Book of Homilies so the twelve first Homilies in the Book still known by that name were compiled in framing which the chief design was to acquaint the People aright with the nature of the Gospel Covenant in which there were two extreams equally dangerous the one was of those who thought the Priests had an infallible secret of saving their souls if they would in all things follow their directions the other was of those who thought that if they magnified Christ much and depended on his Merits they could not perish which way soever they led their lives So the mean between these was observed and the People were taught both to depend on the sufferings of Christ and also to lead their lives according to the rules of the Gospel without which they could receive no benefit by his death Order was also given that a Bible should be in every Church which though it was commanded by King Henry yet had not been generally obeyed and for understanding the New Testament Erasmus's Paraphrase was put out in English and appointed to be set up in every Church His great reputation and learning and his dying in the Communion of the Roman Church made this Book to be preferred to any other since there lay no prejudice to Erasmus which would have been objected to any other Author They renewed also all the Injunctions made by Cromwel in the former Reign which after his fall were but little looked after as those for instructing the people for removing Images and putting down all other customes abused to superstition perstition for reading the Scriptures and saying the Litany in English for frequent Sermons and Catechising for the Exemplary lives of the Clergy and their labours in visiting the sick and the other parts of their function such as reconciling differences and exhorting their people to Charities and

all who gave Livings by Simoniacal bargains were declared to have forfeited their right of Patronage to the King A great charge was also given for the strict observation of the Lords Day which was appointed to be spent wholly in the service of GOD it not being enough to hear Mass or Mattins in the Morning and spend the rest of the Day in drunkenness and quarrelling as was commonly practised but it ought to be all imployed either in the duties of Religion or in acts of Charity only in time of Harvest they were allowed to work on that and other Festival days Direction was also given for the bidding of Prayers in which the King as Supreme head the Queen and the Kings Sisters the Protector and Council and all the Orders of the Kingdom were to be mentioned they were also to pray for departed souls that at the last day we with them might rest both body and soul There were also Injunctions given for the Bishops that they should preach four times a year in their Diocesses once in their Cathedral and thrice in any other Church unless they had a good excuse to the contrary that their Chaplains should preach often and that they should give Orders to none but those that were duly qualified These were variously censured The Clergy were only impowered to remove the abused Images Censures on ths Injunctions and the People were restrained from doing it but this authority being put in their hands it was thought they would be slow and backward in it It had been happy for this Church if all had agreed since that time to press the Religious observation of the Lords Day without starting needless questions about the Morality of it and the obligation of the fourth Commandment which has occasioned much dispute and heat and when one Party raised the obligation of that duty to a pitch that was not practicable it provoked others to slacken it too much and this produced many sharp reflections on both sides and has concluded in too common a neglect of that day which instead of being so great a bond and instrument of Religion as it ought to be is become generally a day of idleness and loosness The Corruptions of Lay Patrons and Simoniacal Priests have been often complained of but no Laws nor Provisions have ever been able to preserve the Church from this great mischief which can never be removed till Patrons look on their right to nominate one to the charge of Souls as a trust for which they are to render a severe account to God and till Priests are cured of their aspiring to that charge and look on it with dread and great caution The bidding of Prayers had been the custome in time of Popery for the Preacher after he had named his Text and shewed what was to be the method of his Sermon desired the People to joyn with him in a Prayer for a blessing upon it and told them likewise whom they were to pray for and then all the People said their Beads in silence and he kneeling down said his and from that this was called the bidding of the Beads In this new direction for them Order was given to repeat always the Kings Title of Supream Head that so the People hearing it often mentioned might grow better accustomed to it but when instead of a bidding Prayer an immediate one is come generally to be used that enumeration of Titles seems not so decent a thing nor is it now so necessary as it then was The prayer for departed souls was now moderated to be a prayer only for the consummation of their happiness at the last day whereas in King Henry's time they prayed that God would grant them the fruition of his presence which implied a Purgatory The Injunctions to the Bishops directing them to give Orders with great caution pointed out that by which only a Church can be preserved from Errors and Corruptions for when Bishops do easily upon recommendations or emendicated Titles confer Orders as a sort of favour that is at their disposal the ill effects of that must be fatal to the Church either by the Corruptions that those vicious Priests will be guilty of or by the Scandals which are given to some good minds by their means who are thereby disgusted at the Church for their sakes and so are disposed to be easily drawn into those Societies that separate from it The War with Scotland was now in consultation The War with Scotland but the Protector being apprehensive that France would engage in the quarrel sent over Sir Fr. Brian to congratulate with the new King to desire a confirmation of the last Peace and to complain of the Scots who had broken their Faith with the King in the matter of the Marriage of their Queen The French King refused to confirm the Treaty till some Articles should be first explained and so he disowned his Fathers Embassadour and for the Scots he said he could not forsake them if they were in distress The English alledged that Scotland was subject to England but the French had no regard to that and would not so much as look on the Records that were offer'd to prove it and said they would take things as they found them and not look back to a dispute of two hundred years old This made the English Council more fearful of engaging in a War which by all appearance would bring a War on them from France The Castle of St. Andrews was surrendred and all their Pensioners in Scotland were not able to do them great fervice The Scots were now much lifted up for as England was under an Infant King so the Court of France was governed by their Queen Dowagers Brothers The Scots began to make Inroads on England and Descents on Ireland Commissioners were sent to the Borders to treat on both sides and the Protector raised a great Army which he resolved to command in person But the meeting on the Borders was soon broke up for the Scots had no Instructions to treat concerning the Marriage and the English were ordered to treat of nothing else till that should be first agreed to And the Records that were shewed of the Homage done by the Scottish Kings to the English had no great effect for the Scots either said they were forged or forced from some weak Princes or were only Homages for their Lands in England as the Kings of England did Homage to the Crown of France for their Lands there They also shewed their Records by which their Ancestors had asserted that they were free and independent of England The Protector left Commissions of Lieutenancy to some of the Nobility August and devolved his own power during his absence on the Privy Council and came to the Borders by the end of August The Scots had abandoned the Passes so that he found no difficulty in his March and the small Forts that were in his way were surrendred upon Summons When the English advanced to

the Bishop to be proceeded in by him only with the assistance of his Clergy and this fatal errour then committed has not yet met with an effectual regulation Another Act was made against idle Vagabonds An Act against Vagabonds that they should be made slaves for two years by any that should seize on them This was chiefly designed against some Vagrant Monks as appears by the Proviso's in the Act for they went about the Countrey infusing in the People a dislike of the Government The severity of this Act made that the English Nation which naturally abhors slavery did not care to execute it and this made that the other Proviso's for supplying those that were truly indigent and were willing to be imployed had no effect But as no Nation has better and more merciful Laws for the supply of the Poor so the fond pity that many shew to the common Beggars which no Laws have been able to restrain makes that a sort of dissolute and idle Beggars intercept much of that Charity which should go to the relief of those that are indeed the only proper objects of it An Act for dissolving the Changries After this came the Act for giving the King all those Chantries which the late King had not seized on by Vertue of the Grant made to him of them Cranmer opposed this much for the poverty of the Clergy was such that the State of Learning and Religion was like to suffer much if it should not be relieved and yet he saw no probable Fond for that but the preserving these till the King should come to be at Age and allow the selling them for buying in of at least such a share of the Impropriations as might afford some more comfortable subsistence to the Clergy yet though he and seven other Bishops dissented it was past After all other Acts a General Pardon but clogged with some Exceptions came last some Acts were proposed but not past one was for the free use of the Scriptures others were for a Court of Chancery in Ecclesiastical Causes for Residence and for a Reformation of the Courts of Common Law The Convocation fits The Convocation sat at the same time and moved that a Commission begun in the late Reign of thirty two Persons for reforming the Ecclesiastical Laws might be revived and that the inferiour Clergy might be admitted to sit in the House of Commons for which they alledged a Clause in the Bishops Writ and Ancient Custome and since some Prelates had under the former Reign begun to alter the form of the Service of the Church they desired it might be brought to perfection and that some care might be had of supplying the poor Clergy and relieving them from the Taxes that lay on them This concerning the inferiour Clergy's sitting in the House of Commons was the subject of some debate and was again set on foot both under Queen Elizabeth and King James but to no effect Some pretended that they always sat in the House of Commons till the submission made in the former Reign upon the suit of the Praemunire but that cannot be true since in this Convocation 17. years after that in which many that had been in the former were present no such thing was alledged It is not clear who those Proctors of the Clergy that sat in Parliament were if they were the Bishops assistants it is more proper to think they sat in the House of Lords No mention is made of them as having a share in the Legislative Authority in our Records except in the 21. of Richard the 2d In which mention is made both of the Commons the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Proctors of the Clergy concurring to the Acts then made which makes it seem most probable that they were the Clerks of the lower House of Convocation When the Parliament met antiently all in one Body the inferiour Clergy had their Writs and came to it with the other Freeholders but when the two Houses were separated the Clergy became also a distinct body and gave their own Subsidies and medled in all the concerns and represented all the grievances of the Church But now by the Act made upon the submission of the Clergy in the last Reign their power was reduced almost to nothing so they thought it reasonable to desire that either they might have their Representatives in the House of Commons or at least that matters of Religion should not pass without the assent of the Clergy But the raising the Ecclesiastical authority too high in former times made this turn that it was now depressed as much below its just limits as it was before exalted above them as commonly one extreme produces another It was resolved that some Bishops and Divines should be sent to Windsor to finish some Reformations in the publick Offices for the whole lower House of Convocation without a contradictory Vote agreed to the Bill about the Sacrament But it is not known what opposition it met with in the Upper House A Proposition being also set on foot concerning the lawfulness of the Marriage of the Clergy thirty five subscribed to the affirmative and only fourteen held the Negative And thus ended this Session both of Parliament and Convocation And the Protector being now established in his power and received by a Parliament without contradiction took out a new Commission in which besides his former authority he was impowered to substitute one in his room during his absence In Germany the Princes of the Smalcaldick League were quite ruined The affairs of Germany the Duke of Saxe was defeated and taken Prisoner and used with great severity and scorn which he bare with an invincible greatness of mind The Landgrave was perswaded to submit and had assurances of liberty given him but by a trick unbecoming the greatness of the Emperour he was seized on and kept Prisoner contrary to faith given upon this all the Princes and Towns except Magdeburg and Brome submitted and purchased their pardon at what terms the Conquerour was pleased to impose The Bishop and Elector of Colen withdrew peaceably to a retirement in which after four years he died and now all Germany was at the Emperours mercy Some Cathedrals as that at Ausburg were again restored to the Bishops and Mass was said in them A Diet was also held in which the Emperor obtain'd a Decree to pass by which matters of Religion were referred wholly to his care The Pope instead of rejoycing at this blow given the Lutherans was much troubled at it for the Emperour had now in one Year made an end of a War which he hoped would have Imbroiled him his whole life so that Italy was now more at his mercy than ever and it seemed the Emperour intended to inlarge his Conquests there for the Pope's Natural Son being killed by a Conspiracy the Governour of Milan seized on Placentia which gave the Pope some jealousie as if the Emperour had been privy to

besides Adultery as for procuring Abortions treating for another Marriage being guilty of Treason or a Wifes going to Plays without her Husbands leave Nor did the Fathers in those times complain of those Laws This was also allowed by the Canons upon several occasions but after the State of Coelibate came to be magnified out of measure second Marriages were more generally condemned And this was heightned when Marriage was lookt on as a Sacrament Yet though no Divorces were allowed in the Church the Canonists found out many shifts for annulling Marriages from the beginning to those that could pay well for them All these things being considered the Delegates gave sentence confirming the second Marriage and dissolving the first Candlemass and Lent were now approaching Some Ceremonies abrogated so the Clergy and People were much divided with relation to the Ceremonies usual at those times By some Injunctions in K. Henry's Reign it had been declared that Fasting in Lent was only binding by a positive Law Wakes and Plough Moondays were also suppressed and hints were given that other customes which were much abused should be shortly put down The gross Rabble loved these things as matters of diversion and thought Divine Worship without them would be but a dull business But others lookt on these as Relicts of Heathenism since the Gentiles worshipped their Gods with such Festivities and thought they did not become the gravity and simplicity of the Christian Religion Cranmer upon this procured an Order of Council against the carrying of Candles on Candlemass day of Ashes on Ash-Wednesday and Palms on Palm-Sunday which was directed to Bonner to be intimated to the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury and was executed by him But a Proclamation followed against all that should make changes without Authority The creeping to the Cross and taking Holy Bread and Water were by it put down and power was given to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to certifie in the Kings name what Ceremonies should be afterwards laid aside and none were to preach out of their own Parishes without licence from the King or the Visitors the Arch-bishop or the Bishop of the Diocess Some questioned the Councils power to make such Orders the Act that gave authority to their Proclamations being repealed but it was said the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters might well justifie their making such ' Rules Febr. 8. Soon after this a General Order followed for a removal of all Images out of Churches There were every where great contests whether the Images had been abused to Superstition or not Some thought the consecration of them was an abuse common to them all Those also that represented the Trinity as a man with three faces in one head or as an old man with a young man before him and a Dove over his head and some where the Blessed Virgin was represented as assumed into it gave so great scandal that it was no wonder if men as they grew to be better enlightned could no longer endure them The only occasion given to censure in this order was that all Shrines and the Plate belonging to them were appointed to be brought in to the Kings use A Letter was at that time writ to all Preachers requiring them to exhort the people to amend their lives and forsake Superstition but for things not yet changed to bear with them and not to run before those whom they should obey Some hot men condemned this temper as savouring too much of carnal Policy but it was said that though the Apostles by the gift of Miracles had sufficient means to convince the World of their authority Yet they did not all at once change the customes of the Mosaical Law but proceeded by degrees and Christ forbid the pulling up the Tares lest good Wheat should be pulled up with them so it was fit to wean people by degrees from their former superstition and not to run too fast Eighteen Bishops and some Divines were now imployed to examine the Offices of the Church to see which of them needed amendment A new Office for the Communion They began with the Eucharist They proceeded in the same manner that was used in the former Reign For every one gave in his opinion in Writing in answer to the questions that were put to them Some of these are still preserved which were concerning the Priests sole communicating and Masses satisfactory for the dead the Mass in an unknown tongue the hanging it up and exposing it and the Sacrifice that was made in it In most of those Papers it appears that the greatest part of the Bishops were still leavened with the old superstition at least to some degree It was clearly found that the plain Institution of the Sacrament was was much vitiated with a mixture of many Heathenish Rites and Pomps on design to raise the credit of the Priests in whose hands that great performance was lodged This was at first done to draw over the Heathens by those splendid Rites to Christianity but Superstition once begun has no bounds nor measures and ignorance and barbarity encreasing in the darker ages there was no regard had to any thing in Religion but as it was set off with much Pageantry And the belief of the Corporal presence raised this to a great height The Office was in an unknown tongue all the Vessels and Garments belonging to it were consecrated with much devotion a great part of the Service was secret to make it look like a wonderful charm the Consecration it self was to be said very softly for words that were not to be heard agreed best with a change that was not to be seen The many Gesticulations and the magnificent Processions all tended to raise this Pageantry higher Masses were also said for all the turns and affairs of humane life Trentals a custome of having thirty Masses a year on the chief Festivities for redeeming Souls out of Purgatory was that which brought the Priests most Money for these were thought Gods best days in which aecess was easier to him On Saints days in the Mass it was prayed that by the Saints Intercession the Sacrifice might become the more acceptable and procure a larger Indulgence which could not be easily explained if the Sacrifice was the death of Christ besides a numberless variety of other Rites so many of the Relicts of Heathenism were made use of for the corrupting of the holiest institution of the Christian Religion The first step that was now made was a new Office for the Communion that is the distribution of the Sacrament for the Office of Consecration was not at this time touched It differs very little from what is still used In the Exhortation Auricular Confession to a Priest is left free to be done or omitted and all were required not to judge one another in that matter There was also a denunciation made requiring impenitent sinners to withdraw The Bread was to be still of the same form that had been formerly used

In the distribution it was said The Body of our Lord c. preserve thy Body and The Blood of our Lord c. preserve thy Soul This was Printed with a Proclamation requiring all to receive it with such Reverence and Uniformity as might encourage the King to proceed further and not to run to other things before the King gave direction assuring the people of his earnest zeal to set forth Godly Orders and therefore it was hoped they would tarry for it The Books were sent over England and the Clergy were appointed to give the Communion next Easter according to them Many were much offended to find Confession left indifferent Auricular Confession examined so this matter was examined Christ gave his Apostles a power of binding and loosing and S. James commanded all to confess their faults to one another In the Primitive Church all that denied the Faith or otherwise gave scandal were separated from the Communion and not admitted to it till they made publick Confession And according to the degrees of their sins the time and degrees of publick Penitence and their Separation were proportioned Which was the chief subject of the Consultations of the Councils in the fourth and fifth Centuries For secret sins the people lay under no obligation to confess but they went often to their Priests for direction even for these Near the end of the fifth Century they began to have secret Penances and Confessions as well as publick But in the seventh Century this became the general practice In the eighth Century the Commutation of Penance for Money or other Services done the Church was brought in Then the Holy Wars and Pilgrimages came to be magnified Croisadoes against Hereticks or Princes deposed by the Pope were set up instead of all other Penances Priests also managed Confession and Absolution so as to enter into all mens secrets and to govern their Consciences by them but they becoming very ignorant and not so associated as to be governed by Orders that might be sent them from Rome the Friers were every where imployed to hear Confessions and many reserved Cases were made in which the Pope only gave Absolution these were trusted to them and they had the Trade of Indulgences put in their hands which they managed with as much considence as Mountebanks used in selling their Medicines with this advantage that the ineffectualness of their devices was not so easily discovered for the people believed all that the Priests told them In this they grew to such a pitch of confidence that for saying some Collects Indulgences for years and for Hundreds Thousands yea a Million of years were granted so cheap a thing was Heaven made This trade was now thrown out of the Church and private Confession was declared indifferent But it was much censured that no Rules for Publick Penance were set up at this time but what were corrupted by the Canonists The people did not think a Declarative Absolution sufficient and thought it surer work when a Priest said I Absolve thee though that was but a late Invention Others censured the words of distribution by which the Bread was appropriated to the Body and the Cup to the Soul And this was soon after amended only some words relating to it are still in the Collect We do not presume The affairs of State took up the Council Gardiner is imprisoned as much as the matters of Religion imployed the Bishops the War with Scotland grew chargeable and was supported from France but the sale of the Chantry Lands brought the Council in some Money Gardiner was brought into new trouble many complaints were made of him that he disparaged the Preachers sent with the Kings licence into his Diocess and that he secretly opposed all Reformation So being brought before the Council he denied most of the things objected to him and offered to explain himself openly in a Sermon before the King The Protector prest him not to meddle in matters not yet determined particularly the presence of Christ in the Sacrament and to assert the Kings power though he was under age and the Authority of the Council for the Clergy began generally to say that though they acknowledged the Kings Supremacy yet they would not yield it to the Council and seemed to place it in some extraordinary grace conferred on the King by the Anointing in the Coronation So the Protector desired Gardiner to declare himself in those points but when he came to preach on St. Peters day he inveighed against the Popes Supremacy and asserted the Kings but said nothing of the Council nor the Kings power under Age he also justified the suppression of Monasteries and Chantries and the putting down Masses satisfactory as also the removing of Images the Sacrament in both kinds and the new Order for the Communion but did largely assert the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament Upon which there was a noise raised by hot Men of both sides during the Sermon and this was said to be a stirring of sedition and upon that he was sent to the Tower This way of proceeding was thought contrary both to Law and Justice and as all violent courses do this rather weakned than strengthned those that were most concerned in it Cranmer did at this time set out a large Catechism which he dedicated to the King He insisted much on shewing that Idolatry had been committed in the use of Images he asserted the Divine Institution of Bishops and Priests and their authority of Absolving sinners and expressed great Zeal for setting up Penitentiary Canons and exhorted the People to discover the state of their Souls to their Pastors from this it appears that he had changed the opinions he formerly held against the Divine Institution of the Ecclesiastical Offices But now a more general Reformation of the whole Liturgy was under consideration A new Liturgy composed that all the Nation might have an Uniformity in the Worship of God and be no more cantoned to the several Uses of Sarum York Lincoln Hereford and Bangor Anciently the Liturgies were short and had few Ceremonies in them Every Bishop had one for his own Diocess but in the African Churches they began first to put them into a more Regular Form Gregory the Great labour'd much in this yet he left Austin the Monk to his liberty either to use the Roman or French forms in England as he found they were like to tend most to Edification Great Additions were made in every Age for the private Devotions of some that were reputed Saints were added to the Publick offices and mysterious significations were invented for every new Rite which was the chief study of some Ages and all was swelled up to a vast bulk It was not then thought on that praying by the spirit consisted in the inventing new words and uttering them with warmth and it seemed too great a subjection of the People to their Priests that they should make them joyn with them in all their heats

and wished there were more preaching and in a more lively way than he heard was then in England but above all things he prayed him to suppress that Impiety and profanity that as he heard abounded in the Nation In the end of this Year A Session of Parliament a Session of Parliament met but no Bill was finished before February the first was concerning the married Clergy which was finished by the Commons in six days but lay six Weeks before the Lords Nine Bishops and four Temporal Lords protested against it It was declared An Act for the marriage of the Clergy that it were better for Priests to live unmarried free of all worldly cares yet since the Laws compelling it had occasioned great filthiness they were all repealed The pretence of Chastity in the Romish Priests had possessed the World with a high opinion of them and had been a great reflection on the Reformers if the World had not clearly seen through it and been made very sensible of the ill effects of it by the defilement it brought into their own Beds and Families Nor was there any point in which the Reformers had enquired more to remove this prejudice that lay against them In the old Testament all the Priests were not only married but the Office descended by Inheritance In the New Testament Marriage was declared Honourable in all among the qualifications of Bishops and Deacons their being the Husbands of one Wife are reckoned up Many of the Apostles were married and carried their Wives about with them as also Aquila did Priscilla Forbidding to marry is reckoned a mark of the Apostasie that was to follow Some of the first Hereticks inveighed against Marriage but the Orthodox justified it and condemned those Churchmen that put away their Wives which was confirmed by a General Council in the fifth Century In Trullo Paphnutius in the Council of Nice opposed a motion that was made for it Hilary of Poictiers was married Basil and Nazianzen's Fathers were Bishops Heliodorus the first that wrote a Romance moved that Bishops might live singly but till then every one did in that as he pleased and even those who were twice married if the first was before their Conversion might be Bishops which Jerome himself though very partial to celibate justifies all the Canons made against the married Clergy were only positive Laws which might be repealed The Priests in the Greek Church did still live with their Wives at that time In the West the Clergy did generally marry and in Edgar's time they were for the most part married in England In the Ninth Century P. Nicolas prest the Celibate much but was opposed by many In the Eleventh Century Gregory the 7th intending to set up a new Ecclesiastical Empire found that the unmarried Clergy would be the surest to him since the married gave Pledges to the State and therefore he proceeded furiously in it and called all the married Priests Nicolaitans yet in England Lanfranc did only impose the Celibate on the Prebendaries and the Clergy that lived in Towns Anselm imposed it on all without exception but both he Bernard and Petrus Damiani complain that Sodomy abounded much even among the Bishops And not only Panormitan but Pius the 2d wished that the Laws for the Celibate were taken away So it was clear that it was not founded on the Laws of God and it was a sin to force Churchmen to vow that which sometimes was not in their power and it was found by examining the forms of Ordination that the Priests in England had made no such vows and even the vow in the Roman Pontifical to live chastly did not import a tie not to marry since a Man might live Chast in a married state Many lewd stories were published of the Clergy but none seemed more remarkable than that of the Pope's Legate in Henry the second 's time who the very same Night after he had put all the married Clergy from their Benefices was found a-bed with a Whore It was also observed that the unmarried Bishops if they had not Bastards to raise were as much set on advancing their Nephews and Kindred as those that were married could be Nor did any Persons meddle more in secular affairs than the unmarried Clergy and it might be reasonable to restrain the Clergy as was done in the Primitive Church from converting the Goods of the Church which were entrusted to their care to the enriching of their Families None appeared more zealous for procuring this liberty than several Clergy men that never made use of it in particular Ridley and Redmayn Another Act past An Act confirming the Liturgy confirming the Liturgy which was now finished Eight Bishops and three Temporal Lords only protesting against it There was a long preamble setting forth the inconvenience of the former Offices and the pains that had been taken to reform them and that diverse Bishops and Divines had by the aid of the Holy Ghost with an uniform agreement concluded on the new Book therefore they Enacted That by Whitsunday next all Divine Offices should be performed according to it and if any used other Offices for the first offence they should be imprisoned six months lose their Benefices for a second and be imprisoned during life for the third offence Some censured those words that the Book was composed by the Aid of the Holy Ghost but this did not import an Inspiration but a Divine assistance Many wondred to see the Bishops of Norwich Hereford Chichester and Westminster protest against the Act since they had concurred in composing the Book It does not appear whether they were dissatisfied at any thing in it or whether they opposed the imposing it on such severe penalties or if they were displeased at a Proviso that was added for the using of Psalms taken out of the Bible which was intended for the singing Psalms then put in Verse and much used both in Churches and Houses by all that loved the Reformation In the Primitive times the Christians used the Psalter much and the chief devotion of the Monastick Orders consisted in repeating it often Apollinarius put it in Verse and both Nazianzen and Prudentius wrote many devout Hymns in Verse Others though in Prose were much used as the Gloria in Excelsis and the Te Deum afterwards the greatest part of the Offices was put in Latin Rhimes and so now some English Poets turned the Psalter into Verse which was then much esteemed but both our Language and Poetry being since that time much improved this work has now lost its beauty so much that there is great need of a new Version Another Act past about Fasting An Act for Fasting declaring That though all days and meats were in themselves alike yet fasting being a great help to vertue and to the subduing the Body to the mind and a distinction of meats conducing to the advancement of the Fishing trade it was Enacted That Lent and all Fridays and

without consent of the Parliament of Paris and of the States but the Emperor had a more unlimited power in making Treaties As for the business of Bulloign the Bishop of Arras said it was taken after the Emperor's Treaty with England and so was not included in it nor could the Emperor comprehend it within it without breach of his Faith and Treaties with France which was so contrary to the Emperor's honour that it could not be done For the honour of a Prince is a good excuse when he has no mind to engage in a deceitful or unjust War but it is often forgotten when the Circumstances are more favourable Paget after several other Conferences found there was nothing more to be expected of the Emperor so he returned back to England It was upon that proposed in Council whether since by the Treaty with France Bulloign was to be delivered up within a few Years it were not better to prevent a new War and a Siege the issue of which was like to prove very dangerous and to enter into a Treaty for doing it presently and if at the same time it were not more advisable to make an end of the War in Scotland since there was no possibility of compassing the Marriage for which it was first begun Upon this A Faction against the Protector all the Protector 's Enemies took off the Mask and declared themselves against it The Earl of Southampton and the Earl of Warwick were the chief sticklers the one hated him for turning him out of his Office and the other hoped to be the chief Man in business if he should fall Many things concurred to raise the Protector many Enemies his partiality to the Commons provoked the Gentry his cutting off his Brothers head and building a Magnificent Palace in the Strand upon the ruines of some Bishops Houses and Churches and that in a time both of War and Plague disgusted the People The Clergy hated him not only for his promoting the changes made in Religion but for his possessing himself of so many of the Bishops best Mannors his entertaining foreign Troops both Germans and Italians though done by the consent of Council yet gave a general distast and that great advancement he was raised to wrought much both on himself and others for it raised his pride as much as it provoked the envy of others The Privy Counsellors complained that he was become so Arbitrary in his proceedings that he little regarded the opposition that was made by the Majority of the Council to any of his designs All these things concurred to beget him many Enemies and except Cranmer who never forsook his friend and Paget and Smith all turned against him so they violently opposed the proposition for a Treaty with France they also complained that the Places about Bulloign were lost by his carelesness and by his not providing them well and that he had recalled the Garrison out of Hadington and they put him in mind of the conditions upon which he was first made Protector by which he was limited to do nothing but by their advice though he had since that taken out a Patent which cloathed him with a far greater power Upon Pagets return when it was visible that nothing could be expected from the Emperor he prest them much to consent to a Treaty with France but it was said that he had secretly directed Paget to procure no better answer that so he might be furnished with an excuse for so dishonourable an Action therefore they would not give way to it The Protector carried the King to Hampton Court Which turns to a publick breach October and put many of his own Creatures about him which increased the Jealousies so Nine of the Privy Council met at Ely-House and assumed to themselves the Authority of the Council and Secretary Petre being sent by the King to ask an account of their meeting instead of returning joyned himself to them They made a large Declaration of the Protector 's ill government and bad designs and of his engaging the King to set his hand to Letters for raising Men and for dispersing Seditious Papers therefore they resolved to see to the safety of the King and Kingdom Both the City of London and the Lieutenant of the Tower declared for them They also sent Letters all over England desiring the assistance of the Nobility and Gentry Seven more Privy Counsellors came and joyned with them They wrote to the King complaining of the Protector 's obstinacy and his refusing to hearken to their Counsels though the late King had left the Government of his Person and Kingdom to them in common and the Protector was advanced to that dignity by them upon conditions which he had little regarded therefore they desired the King would construct well of their Intentions and proceedings The Protector had removed the King from Hampton Court as being an open place to Windsor which had some more defence about it and had armed some of his own Servants and set them about the King's Person which heightned the Jealousies of him yet seeing himself abandoned by all friends except a few and finding the Party against him was formed to such a strength that it would be in vain to struggle any longer he offered to submit himself to the Council So a Proposition of a Treaty was set on foot and the Lords at London were desired to send two of their number with their Propositions and a Passeport was sent them for their safety Cranmer and the other two writ to the Council to dispose them to an agreement and not to follow Cruel Counsels Many false reports as is usual on such occasions were carried of the Protector as if he had threatned that if they intended to put him to death the King should dye first which served to increase the prejudices against him The Council writ to Cranmer and Paget charging them to look well to the Kings Person that he should not be removed from Windsor and that the Duke of Somerset's Servants might be put from him and his own sworn Servants admitted to wait they also protested that they would proceed with all the moderation and favour towards the Duke of Somerset that was possible The Council understanding that all things were prepared as they had desired sent first three of their number to see that the Duke of Somerset and some of his Creatures Smith Stanhop Thynne Wolf and Cecil should be confined to their Lodgings and on the 12th of October the whole Council went to Windsor and made great protestations of their duty to the King which he received favourably and assured them he took all that they had done in good part The Duke of Somerset with the rest of his friends The Protector 's fall except Cecil who was presently inlarged were sent to the Tower and many Articles were objected to him That he being made Protector with this condition that he should do nothing but by the consent of

Aldernay and Sark two small Islands in the Channel which the French desired and at the delivering up of Roxburgh and Aymouth to the Scots then in the hands of the English The Council ordered their Commissioners to insist on these things and to offer to break up their Conference rather than yield to them but if that had no effect on the French then they were to let them go In Conclusion the English after a Protestation by which they reserved to the King all the rights that he had at the beginning of the War agreed to deliver up Bulloign and all the places about it and all the Ordnance in it except what the English had cast for which the French were to pay them four hundred thousand Crowns All the places which the English had in Scotland were to be delivered up and the Forts razed and six Hostages were to be given on both sides for the performance who were the Sons of the men of the greatest quality So was the Peace fully concluded and the Articles were duly performed on both hands The Council approved of the proceedings of their Plenipotentiaries only the Earl of Warwick who had declared himself much against the delivery of Bulloign pretended sickness and was absent At this time the Earl of Warwick ordered a review to be made of all accounts and brought in much money by the Fines of those who were accused for Malversation The Earl of Arundel was fined in 12000 l. Sir James Thynne in 6000 l. and many others of the Protectors creatures in 3000 l. In February Ridley made Bishop of London Ridley was made Bishop of London and Westminster 1000 l. a year of the Rents of the See were assigned him with licence to hold two Prebends Reps Bishop of Norwich resigned upon which Therleby Bishop of Westminster was removed to Norwich and it was intended to re-unite London and Westminster but though they still remained different Sees yet they were now put under one mans care His Patent was not during pleasure but during life It does not appear that there was any design in this Reign to put down Cathedrals for though Westminster Gloucester and Durham were suppressed the two former being united one to London and another to Worcester and the latter being to be divided in two yet in none of these were the Dean and Chapter Lands fallen on Gardiner continued still in prison During the Protectors Ministry some Privy Counsellors dealt with him Gardiners Process to sue to him for mercy and to declare whether he approved the new Service or not But he said he had done no fault and so would not ask Pardon nor would he declare his opinion while he continued a Prisoner lest his Enemies might say he did it only to be set at liberty Upon the Protectors fall he expected he should have been discharged of his Imprisonment and thought it so near that he made a farewel Feast to the Officers in the Tower Some Privy Counsellours were sent to him with Articles acknowledging former offences approving the Book of Common Prayer and asserting the Kings Power when he was under age and his authority to reform abuses in the Church and that the six Articles were justly abrogated He signed the Paper only he wrote on the Margin that he could not confess former offences for he was not convinced of any fault he had done Upon this it was believed that he was to be quickly let out but another Message was sent him that he must confess that he had been justly punished This he plainly refused to do and said he would never defame himself Ridley was sent to him with a new Paper in which the confession of his faults was more softly worded the rest related to the Popes power the suppressing the Abbies and Chantries Pilgrimages Masses Images the Adoration of the Sacrament Communion in both kinds the abolishing the old Books of Service and setting up the new with the Book of Ordinations and the lawfulness of a married Clergy But he said he would sign no more Articles while he continued in Prison and desired that he might be either tried or set at liberty for he asked not Mercy but Justice And being called before the Council and required to sign those Articles he gave them the same answer He said some of these points were already setled by Law others were not so and in these he was at liberty to do as he pleased Upon this his Bishoprick was sequestred and he was required to conform himself within three months under pain of deprivation and the freedome of the Tower was denied him All this was much censured as contrary to Law and the liberties of English men and it was said that it savoured more of a Court of Inquisition than of a legal way of proceeding The Canon Law was not yet rectified so the King being in the Popes room this way ex Officio was excused as grounded upon the forms of the Spiritual Courts There was a discourse on foot of a Marriage between the King and a Daughter of France which grieved the Reformers who rather wisht him to marry Maximilians Daughter who was believed to favour the Reformation and was esteemed one of the best men of the age Old Latimer preached at Court Latimer preaches at Court and warned the King of the ill effects of bad Marriages which were made up only as bargains without affection between the parties and that they occasioned so much Whoring and so many Divorces He also complained of the luxury and vanity of the Age and of many called Gospellers who were concerned for nothing but Abbey and Chantry Lands he also prest the setting up a Primitive Discipline in the Church He preached this as his last Sermon and so used great freedome He complained that the Kings debts were not paid and yet his Officers grew vastly rich He prayed the King not to seek his pleasures too much and charged all about him to be faithful to him The See of Gloucester fell vacant Hooper made Bishop of Gloucester has scruples concerning the Vestments and Hooper was named to it upon which the heats concerning things indifferent that have since that time so fatally rent the Church had their their first rise He had some scruples about the Episcopal Vestments and thought that all those Garments having been Consecrated with much superstition were to be reckoned among the Elements condemned by S. Paul But Ridley justified the use of them and said the Elements condemned by S. Paul were only the Jewish Ceremonies which though the Apostles condemned when they were imposed as necessary for that imported that the Mosaical Law was not yet abrogated and that the Messiah was not come Yet they themselves used them at other times to gain upon the Jews by that Compliance And if Apostles did such things to gain them Subjects ought much more to obey the Laws in matters indifferent And Superstitious Consecrations was as good an Argument for throwing

down all the Churches as for laying aside those Habits Cranmer desired Bucer's opinion concerning the lawfulness of those Habits and the obligation lying on Subjects to obey the Laws about them His opinion was that every creature of God was good and that no former abuse could make a thing indifferent in its self become unlawful He thought ancient customes ought not to be lightly changed and that there might be a good use made of those Garments that they might well express the purity and candour that became all who ministred in Holy things and that it was a sin to disobey the Laws in such matters Yet since those Garments had been abused to Superstition and were like to become a subject of Contention he wished they might be taken away by Law and that Ecclesiastical Discipline and a more compleat Reformation might be set up and that a stop might be put to the robbing of Churches otherwise they might see in the present State of Germany a dreadful prospect of that which England ought to look for He also writ to the same effect to Hooper and wished that all good men would unite against the greater Corruptions and then lesser abuses would easily be redressed Peter Martyr did also deliver his opinion to the same purpose and was much troubled at Hooper's stiffness and at such contests among the professors of true Religion Hooper was suspended from Preaching but the Earl of Warwick writ to Cranmer to dispense with him in that matter He answered That while the Law continued in force he could not do it without incurring a Praemunire Upon that the King writ to him allowing him to do it and dispensing with the Law Yet this matter was not setled till a year after John à Lasco with some Germans of the Helvetian Confession came this year into England being driven out of Germany by the Persecution there They were erected by Letters Patents into a Corporation and à Lasco was their Superintendent he being a stranger medled too much in English affairs and wrote both against the Habits and against kneeling in the Sacrament Polydore Virgil was this year suffered to go out of England and still to hold the preferments he had in it Pomet was made Bishop of Rochester and Caverdale Co-adjutor to Veysy in Exeter There was now a design set on foot A review of the Common-Prayer-Book for a review of the Common-Prayer-Book In order to which Bucer's opinion was asked He approved the main parts of the former Book he wished there might be not only a denunciation against scandalous persons that came to the Sacrament but a discipline to exclude them That the Habits might be laid aside that no part of the Communion Office might be used except when there was a Sacrament that Communions might be more frequent that the Prayers might be said in a plain voice that the Sacrament might be put in the peoples hands and that there might be no Prayers for the Dead which had not been used in Justin Martyr's time He advised a change of some phrases in the Office of the Communion that favoured Transubstantiation too much and that Baptism might be only in Churches He thought the hallowing the Water the Chrisme and the White garment were too scenical nor did he approve of adjuring the Devil nor of the Godfathers answering in the Childs name He thought Confirmation should be delayed till the person was of Age and came sincerely to renew the Baptismal Covenant He advised Catechizing every Holy-day both of Children and the Adult he disliked private Marriages Extream Unction and offering Chrisomes at the Churching of Women And thought there ought to be greater strictness used in the examining of those who came to receive Orders At the same time he understood that the King expected a New-years gift from him of a Book written particularly for his own use So he made a Book for him concerning the Kingdom of Christ He prest much the setting up a strict discipline the Sanctification of the Lords day Bucer offers some advices to the King the appointing many days of Fasting and that Pluralities and Non-residence might be effectually condemned that Children might be Catechized that the Reverence due to Churches might be preserved that the Pastoral function might be restored to what it ought to be that Bishops might throw off Secular affairs and take care of their Diocesses and govern them by the advice of their Presbyters that there might be Rural Bishops over twenty or thirty Parishes and that Provincial Councils might meet twice a year that Church-lands should be restored and that a fourth part should be assigned to the poor that Marriage without consent of Parents should be annulled that a second Marriage might be declared lawful after a Divorce for Adultery and some other Reasons that care should be taken of the education of youth and for repressing luxury that the Law might be reformed that no Office might be sold but given to the most deserving that none should be put in Prison upon slight offences and that the severity of some Laws as that which made Theft capital might be mitigated The young King was much pleased with these advices The Kings great understanding and upon that began himself to form a Scheme for amending many things that were amiss in the Government which he writ with his own hand and in a stile and manner that had much of a Child in it though the thoughts were manly It appears by it that he intended to set up a Church discipline and settle a method for breeding of youth but the discourse is not finished He also writ a Journal of every thing that past at home and of the news that came from beyond Sea It has clear marks of his own Composing as well as it is written with his own hand He wrote another discourse in French being a Collection of all the places of Scripture against Idolatry with a Preface before it dedicated to the Protector At this time Ridley made his first Visitation of his Diocess Altars put down the Articles upon which he proceeded were chiefly relating to the Service and Ceremonies that were abolished whether any continued to use them or not and whether there were any Anabaptists or others that used private Conventicles He also carried some Injunctions with him against some remainders of the former superstition and for exhorting the people to give Alms and to come oft to the Sacrament and that Altars might be removed and Tables put in their room in the most convenient place of the Chancel In the Ancient Church their Tables were of Wood But the Sacrament being called a Sacrifice as Prayers Alms and all Holy Oblations were they came to be called Altars This gave the rise to the Opinion of Expiatory Sacrifice in the Mass and therefore it was thought fit to take away both the name and form of Altars Ridley only advised the Curates to do this but upon some contests arising

concerning it the Council interposed and required it to be done and sent with their Order a Paper of Reasons justifying it Shewing that a Table was more proper than an Altar especially since the opinion of an Expiatory Sacrifice was supported by it Sermons began to be preached in some Churches on working-days this occasioned great running about and idleness and raised emulation among the Clergy upon which the Council ordered them all to be put down Since that time there has been great contention concerning these they were factiously kept up by some and too violently suppressed by others But now that matter is quieted and they are in many places still continued to the great edification of the people The Government was now free of all disturbance the Coyn was reformed and Trade was encouraged The faction in the Court seemed also to be extinguisht by a Marriage between the Earl of Warwick's Son and the Duke of Somerset's Daughter The Duke of Lunenburgh made a Proposition of Marriage with Lady Mary but the Treaty with the Infant of Portugal did still depend Affairs of Scotland so it was not entertained In Scotland the Governor now made Duke of Chastelherault in France was wholly led by his base Brothers Counsels who though he was Arch-bishop of St. Andrews yet gave himself up without any disguise to his pleasures and kept another mans Wife avowedly by such means were the people more easily disposed to hearken to the new Teachers and prepared for the changes that followed The Queen Mother went to France on design to procure the Government of Scotland to be put in her hands A Diet was called in Germany And Germany the Town of Magdeburg was proscribed But they published a Manifesto expressing their readiness to obey the Emperour according to Law and that they only stood to the defence of their liberties without doing acts of Hostility to others It was now visible that the design of the late War was to extinguish the Protestant Religion and to set up Tyranny It was better to obey God than Man And they were resolved to put all to hazard rather than give up their Religion Tumults were raised in Strasburg and other Towns when the Mass was again set up and all Germany was disposed to a Revolt only they wanted a Head Severe Edicts were also set out in Flanders but the execution of them was stopt at the intercession of the English in Antwerp who were resolved otherwise to remove the Trade to another place The Emperour prest the Diet to submit to the Council when it should be brought back to Trent But Maurice of Saxe to whom all the Protestants joyned refused to do it unless all their former decrees should be reviewed and their Divines heard and admitted to Vote and that the Pope would dispense with the Oath which the Bishops sware to him Yet he so far insinuated himself into the Emperours confidence that he was made General of the Empire for the reduction of Magdeburg and resolved to manage that matter so as to draw great advantages from it The Emperour reckoned that he might well trust him as long as he had John Duke of Saxe in his hands But he had provoked him too much in the matter of the Landgrave of Hesse his Father-in-Law to repose such consequence in him so that this proved a fatal errour to him by which he lost the power he had then in Germany and Maurice proved too hard for him in dissimulation in which he was so great a Master The Popish Clergy did now generally comply to every Change that was made The Popish Clergy comply generally Oglethorp afterwards Bishop of Carlisle being informed against as favouring the old Superstition did under his hand declare that he thought the Order of Religion then setled was nearer the use of the Primitive Church than that which was formerly received and that he condemned Transubstantiation as a late Invention and approved the Communion in both kinds and the Peoples receiving always with the Priest Smith who had written against the Marriage of the Clergy and was upon some complaints put in Prison being discharged by Cranmer's Intercession writ a submission to him acknowledging the mistakes he had committed in his Book and the Arch-bishops gentleness towards him and wished he might perish if he did not write sincerely and called God a witness against his Soul if he lied Day Bishop of Chichester did also preach a Sermon at Court against Transubstantiation The Principle by which most of that Party governed themselves was this they thought they ought to oppose all the changes before they were established by Law yet that being done that they might afterwards comply with them Cranmer was a moderate and prudent Man and willing to accept of any thing they offered reckoning that whether they acted sincerely or not yet their compliance would be a means to quiet the Nation he was also of so compassionate a nature that he would never drive things to extremities against Men that were grown old in their errours and could not be easily weaned from them only Gardiner and Bonner were such deceitful and cruel Men that he thought it might be more excusable to make stretches for ridding the Church of them Martin Bucer dyed in the beginning of this Year of the Stone Bucer's death and griping of the Guts He had great apprehensions of a fatal revolution in England by reason of the ill lives of the People occasioned chiefly by the want of Ecclesiastical Discipline and the neglect of the Pastoral charge Orders were sent from the Court to Cambridge to bury him with all the Publick honour to his Memory that could be devised Speeches and Sermons were made both by Haddon the University Orator and Parker and Redmayn The last of these was one of the most extraordinary Men both for Learning and a true Judgment of things that was in that time he had also in many things differed from Bucer and yet he acknowledged that there was none alive of whom he hoped now to learn so much as he had done by his conversation with him Bucer was inferior to none of all the Reformers in Learning but superior to most of them in an excellent temper of mind and a great zeal for preserving the Unity of the Church a rare quality in that Age in which Melancthon and he were the most eminent He had not that nimbleness of disputing for which Peter Martyr was more admired and the Popish Doctors took advantage from that to carry themselves more insolently towards him Soon after this Gardiner's deprivation Gardiner's Process was put to an end A Commission was issued out to Cranmer and three Bishops and some Civilians to proceed against him for his contempt in refusing to sign the Articles offered to him he complained that all that was done against him was out of malice that he had been long imprisoned and nothing was objected to him that he was resolved to obey the

Laws and Orders of Council but that he would acknowledge no fault not having committed any The things objected to him were that he refused to set out in his Sermon the King's power when he was under Age and had affronted the Preachers whom the King had sent to his Diocess that he had been negligent in executing the King's Injunctions and refused to confess his fault or ask the King pardon and it was said that the Rebellions raised in England might have been prevented if he had timously set forth the King's authority he answered that he was not required to do it by any Order of Council but only in a private discourse yet Witnesses being examined upon those particulars the Delegates proceeded to sentence of deprivation against him notwithstanding his Appeal to the King in Person and he was appointed to lie still in the Tower where he continued till Queen Mary discharged him Nothing was pretended to excuse the severity of these proceedings but that he having taken out a Commission for holding his Bishoprick only during the King's pleasure he could not complain when that was intimated to him and if he had been turned out meerly upon pleasure without the Pomp of a Process the matter might have been better excused Poinet was put in his See and had 2000. Marks in Lands assigned him for his subsistence Story was put in Rochester and upon Veysy's resignation Coverdale was made Bishop of Exeter The scruples that Hooper made were now so far satisfied that he was content both to be consecrated in his Vestments and to use them when he preached before the King or in his Cathedral but he was dispensed with upon other occasions By this time the greater number of the Bishops were Men that heartily received the Reformation The Articles of Religion agreed on so it was resolved now to proceed to a settlement of the Doctrine of the Church many thought that should have been done in the first place But Cranmer judged it was better to proceed slowly in that matter he thought the Corruptions in the Worship were to be begun with since while they remained the addresses to God were so defiled that thereby all People were involved in unlawful compliances he thought speculative Opinions might come last since errours in them were not of such ill consequence and he judged it necessary to lay these open in many Treatises and Disputes before they should proceed to make alterations that so all People might be before-hand satisfied with what should be done So now they framed a Body of Articles which contained the Doctrine of the Church of England they were cast into forty two Articles and afterwards some few alterations being made in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign they were reduced to XXXIX which being in all Peoples hands need not be much inlarged on In the Ancient Church there was at first a great simplicity in their Creeds but afterwards upon the breaking out of Heresies concerning the Person of Christ equivocal senses being put on the terms formerly used new ones that could not be so easily eluded were invented A humour of explaining Mysteries by similies and niceties and of passing Anathema's on all that did not receive these did much over-run the Church and though the Council of Ephesus decreed that no new additions should be made to the Creed yet that did not restrain those who loved to make all their own conceits be received as parts of the Faith The Fathers were carried too far with this curiosity but the Schoolmen went farther and spun the Thread much finer they condemned every thing that differed from their Notions as Heretical Many of the Lutherans had retained much of that peremptoriness and were not easie to those who differed from them In England great care was taken to frame these Articles in the most comprehensive words and the greatest simplicity possible Changes made in the Common-prayer-book When this was setled they went about the review of the Common-prayer-Book In the daily service they added the Confession and Absolution that so the worship of God might begin with a grave and humble Confession conceived in general words but to which every one ought to joyn a secret confession of his particular sins after which a solemn declaration of the mercy of God according to the terms of the Gospel was to be pronounced by the Priest This was thought much better than the giving Absolution in such formal words as I absolve thee which begat in the undiscerning Vulgar an Opinion that the Priest had authority to pardon sin and that made them think of nothing so much as how to purchase it at his hands and it proved as it was managed the greatest Engine that ever was for overthrowing the power of Religion In the Communion-Service they ordered a recital of the Commandments with a short devotion between every one of them judging that till Church-Discipline were restored nothing could more effectually awaken such as came to receive it to a due seriousness in it than the hearing the Law of God thus pronounced with those stops in it to make the People reflect on their offences against it The Chrism the use of the Cross in consecrating the Eucharist Prayers for the Dead and some expressions that favoured Transubstantiation were laid aside and the Book was put in the same Order and Method in which it continues to this day excepting only some inconsiderable variations that have been made since A Rubrick was added to the Office of the Communion explaining the reason of kneeling in it that it was only as an expression of due reverence and gratitude upon the receiving so particular a mark of the favour of God but that no adoration was intended by it and that they did not think Christ was corporally present in it In Queen Elizabeth's time this was left out that such as conformed in other things but still retained the belief of the Corporal Presence might not be offended at such a Declaration It was again put in the Book upon his present Majesties Restoration for removing the Scruples of those who excepted to that posture Christ did at first institute this Sacrament in the ordinary Table-gesture Moses appointed the Paschal Lamb to be eaten by the People standing with staves in their hands they being then to begin their march yet that was afterwards changed by the Jews who did eat it in the posture common at Meals which our Saviour's practice justifies so though Christ in his state of Humiliation did Institute this Ordinance in so familiar a posture yet it was thought more becoming the reverence due to him in his Exaltation to celebrate it with greater expressions of humility and devotion The Ancient Christians received it standing and bowing their Body downward Kneeling was afterwards used as a higher expression of devout worship but great difference is to be made between the adoration practised in the Church of Rome in which upon lifting up the Host all fall down

for though by the Law of England no Peer can be challenged yet by the Law of Nature no Man can well judge where he is a Party The Chancellour though a Peer was left out upon suspicion of a reconciliation which he was making with the Duke He was not well skilled in Law and neither objected to the Indictment nor desired Councel to plead for him but only answered to matters of fact he denied all designs to raise the People or to kill Northumberland if he had talked of it it was in passion without any Intention and it was ridiculous to think that he with a small Troop could destroy the Gendarmoury who were 900. The armed Men he had about him were only for his own defence he had done no mischief to his Enemies though it was once in his power to have done it and he had rendred himself without making any resistance He desired the Witnesses might be brought face to face and objected many things to them chiefly to Palmer but that was not done and their Depositions were only read The King's Councel pleaded upon the Statute against unlawful Assemblies that to contrive the death of Privy Counsellors was Felony and to have Men about him for his defence was also Felony The material defence was omitted for by that Statute those Assemblies were not felonious except being required to disperse themselves they had refused to do it and it does not appear that any such Proclamation had been made in this case The Proofs of his raising Rebellion were insufficient so he was acquitted of Treason which raised a great shout of joy that was heard as far as Charing-Cross but he was found guilty of Felony for intending to imprison Northumberland He carried himself during the Trial with great temper and all the sharpness which the Kings Councel expressed in pleading against him did not provoke him to any undecent passion But when Sentence was given he sunk a little and asked the three Lords that were his Enemies pardon for his ill designs against them and made sute for his life and for his Wife and Children It was generally thought that nothing being found against him but an Intention to imprison a Privy Counsellor that never took effect one so nearly related to the King would not have been put to death on that account It was therefore necessary to raise in the King a great Aversion to him so a story was brought to the King as if in the Tower he had confessed a design to imploy some to Assassinate those Lords and the Persons named for that wicked service were also perswaded to take it on them This being believed by the King he took no more care to preserve him assassination being a crime of so barbarous a nature that it possessed him with a horrour even to his Uncle when he thought him guilty of it and therefore he was given up to his Enemies rage Stanhop Partridge Arundel and Vane were tried next the two first were not much pitied for they had made a very ill use of their Interest in the Duke during his greatness the other two were much lamented Arundels Jury was shut up a whole Day and a Night and those that were for the acquittal yielded to the fury of the rest only that they might save their own Lives and not be starved Vane had done great services in the Wars and carried himself with a Magnanimity that was thought too extravagant they were all condemned and Partridge and he were hanged the other Two were beheaded The Lord Chancellor was become a secret friend to the Duke of Somerset and that was thus discovered he went aside once at Council Rich gives up the Great Seal and it was given to the Bish of Ely and writ a Note giving the Duke notice of what was then in agitation against him and endorsed it only for the Duke and sent it to the Tower but his Servant not having particular directions fansied it was to the Duke of Norfolk and not to Somerset and carried it to him He to make Northumberland his friend sent this to him Rich understanding the mistake in which his Servant had fallen prevented the discovery and went immediately to the King and pretending some indisposition desired to be discharged and upon that took his Bed so it seemed too barbarous to do any thing further against him only the Great Seal was taken from him and was put in the Bishop of Ely's hands This was much censured for all the Reformers had inveighed severely against the secular imployments and high places which Bishops had in the Church of Rome since by these they were taken wholly off from the care of Souls or those spiritual exercises that might dispose them for it and assumed only the name and garb of Churchmen to serve their Ambition and Covetousness and by this the People were much prejudiced against them so upon Goodrick's advancement this was turned against the Reformers it was said they only complained of those things when their Enemies enjoyed them but changed their minds as soon as they fell into the hands of their friends but Goodrick was no Pattern he complied only with the Reformation but turned when Queen Mary succeeded Christ said Who made me a Judge St. Paul left it as a Rule that no Man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life This Saint Cyprian and the other Fathers understood as a perpetual prohibition of Churchmen's medling with secular matters and condemned it severely Many Canons were made against it in Provincial Councils and a very full one was decreed at Chalcedon But as the Bishops of Rome and Alexandria grew rich and powerful they establisht a sort of secular principality in the Church and other Sees as they encreased in wealth affected to imitate them Charles the Great raised this much every where and gave great Territories and Priviledges to the Church upon which the Bishop and Abbots were not only admitted to a share in the Publick Counsels by virtue of their Lands but to all the chief Offices of the State and then Ecclesiastical Preferments were given to Courtiers as Rewards for their services and by these means the Clergy became very corrupt Merit and Learning being no more the standards by which Men were esteemed or promoted and Bishops were only considered as a sort of great Men who went in a peculiar Habit and on great Festivities were obliged to say Mass or perform some other Solemnities but they wholly abandoned the Souls committed to their care and left the spiritual part of their callings to their Vicars and Arch-deacons who made no other use of it but to squeeze the Inferiour Clergy and to oppress the People and it was not easie to perswade the world that those Bishops did much aspire to Heaven who were so indecently thrusting themselves into the Courts of Princes and medling so much in matters that did not belong to them that they neglected those for which they were to account

to God On the 22. The Duke of Somerset's Execution day of January the Duke of Somerset was executed at Tower-Hill the substance of his Speech was a Vindication of himself from all ill designs he confessed his private sins and acknowledged the mercies of God in granting him time to Repent he declared that he had acted sincerely in all he did in matters of Religion while he was in power and rejoyced for his being Instrumental in so good a work he exhorted the People to live sutably to the doctrine received among them otherwise they might look for great Judgments from God As he was going on there was an unaccountable Noise heard which so frighted the People that many run away Sir Anthony Brown came up riding towards the Scaffold which made the Spectators think that he brought a Pardon and this occasioned great shouts of Joy but they soon saw their mistakes so the Duke went on in his Speech He declared his chearful submission to the will of God and desired them likewise to acquiesce in it he prayed for the King and his Council and exhorted the People to continue obedient to them and asked the forgiveness of all whom at any time he had offended Then he turned to his private devotions and fitted himself for the blow which upon the signal given severed his Head from his Body He was a Man of extraordinary Virtues of great candor and eminent Piety he was always a promoter of Justice and a Patron of the oppressed He was a better Captain than a Counsellor and was too easie and open-hearted to be so cautious as such times and such Imployments required It was generally believed all this Conspiracy for which he and the other Four suffered was only a forgery all the other Complices were quickly discharged and Palmer the chief Witness became Northumberlands particular confident and the indiscreet words which the Duke of Somerset had spoken and his gathering armed Men about him was imputed to Palmer's artifices who had put him in fear of his life and so made him do and say those things for which he lost it His four friends did all end their Lives with the most solemn protestations of their Innocence and the whole matter was lookt on as a contrivance of Northumberlands by which he lost the affections of the People entirely Some reflected on the Attainder of the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Surrey's death occasioned likewise by a Conspiracy of their own Servants in which it was thought this Duke was too active He was also much censured for his Brothers death He had raised much of his Estate out of the spoils of Bishops Lands and his Palace out of the Ruines of some Churches and to this some added a remark that he did not claim the benefit of his Clergy which would have saved him and since he had so spoiled the Church they imputed it to a particular Judgment on him that he forgat it But in this they were mistaken for in the Act by which he was condemned it was provided that no Clergy should purge that Felony In Germany The affairs of Germany Maurice began this year to form a great design He enter'd into correspondences not only with the Princes of Germany but also with France and England and having given intimations of his designs for the liberty of Germany and the security of the Protestant Religion to some that had great credit in Magdeburg he brought that Town to a surrender and having made himself sure of the Army he quartered his Troops in the Territories of the Popish Princes by which they were all much alarmed only the Emperour did not apprehend the danger till it was too late for him A quarrel fell in between the Pope and the King of France about Parma The Pope threatned if that King would not restore Parma he would take France from him Upon that the Council being now again opened at Trent the King of France protested against it and declared that he would call a National Council in France and would not obey nor receive their Decrees The Emperor still pressed the Germans to send Embassadours and Divines to Trent The Council began with the points about the Eucharist and it was ordered that these should be handled according to the Scriptures and Ancient Authors the Italians did not like this and said the bringing many quotations was only an Act of Memory and that way would give the Lutherans great advantages The sublime speculations of the Schools together with their terms were much safer Weapons to deal with A Safe-Conduct was demanded from the Council for the Emperours Conduct was not thought sufficient since at Constance John Hus and Jerome of Prague were burnt though they had the Emperours Safe-Conduct The Council of Basil had granted a very full one to the Bohemians so the Lutherans demanded one in the same form but though one was granted yet it was in many things short of that The Elector of Brandenburg sent an Embassadour to Trent who made a general Speech of the respect his Master had for them The Legates answered and thanked him for submitting to their Decrees of which the Embassadour had not said a word but when he expostulated about it the Legates said they answered him according to that he ought to have said and not to that he did say The Council decreed the manner of Christs presence to be ineffable and yet added that Transubstantiation was a fit term for it for that was a notion as unconceivable as any that could be thought on Then they decreed the necessity of Auricular Confession that thereby Priests might keep a proportion between Penances and Sins which was thought a mockery for the trade of slight Penances and easie Absolutions for the greatest sins shewed there was no care taken to adjust the one to the other The Embassadour of the Duke of Wirtemberg came and moved for a Safe-Conduct to their Divines to come and maintain their Doctrine The Legates answered they would enter into no disputes with them but if they came with an humble mind and proposed their scruples they would satisfie them Embassadours from some Towns arrived at Trent and those sent by the Duke of Saxe were on their way upon which the Emperour ordered his Agents to gain time and hinder the Council to proceed in their decisions till those were heard but all he could prevail in was that the Article concerning the Communion in both kinds was postponed till they should come The day after the Duke of Somerset's execution a Session of Parliament was assembled A Session of Parliament The first Act they past was about the Common-Prayer-Book as it was now amended To it only one Earl two Bishops and two Lords dissented The Book was appointed to be every where received after All-hallows next The Bishops were required to proceed by the censures of the Church against such as came not to it they also authorized the Book of Ordinations and

guilty were to be punished in the same manner The Innocent Party might marry again after a Divorce Desertion or Mortal Enmity or the constant perversness of a Husband might induce a Divorce but little quarrels nor a perpetual Disease might not do it and the separation from Bed and Board except during a Trial was never to be allowed 11. Patrons were charged to give presentations without making bargains to choose the fittest persons and not to make promises till the Livings were vacant The Bishops were required to use great strictness in the Trial of those whom they ordained all Pluralities and Non-residence were condemned and all that were presented were to purge themselves of Simony by Oath The twelfth and thirteenth were concerning the changing of Benefices The fourteenth was concerning the manner of purgation upon common fame all superstitious Purgations were condemned Others followed about Dilapidations Elections and Collations The nineteenth was concerning Divine Offices The Communion was ordered to be every Sunday in Cathedrals and a Sermon was to be in them in the afternoon such as received the Sacrament were to give notice to the Minister the day before that he might examine their Consciences The Catechism was appointed to be explained for an Hour in the afternoon on Holy-days After the Evening Prayer the Poor were to be taken care of Penances were to be enjoyned to scandalous Persons and the Minister was to confer with some of the Ancients of the People concerning the state of the Parish That admonitions and censures might be applied as there was occasion given The twentieth was concerning other Church-Officers A Rural Dean was to be in every Precinct to watch over the Clergy according to the Bishops directions Archdeacons were to be over them and the Bishop over all who was to have yearly Synods and visit every third Year His Family was to consist of Clergymen in imitation of St. Austin and other ancient Bishops these he was to train up for the service of the Church When Bishops became infirm they were to have Co-adjutors Arch-bishops were to do the Episcopal duties in their Diocess and to visit their Province Every Synod was to begin with a Communion and after that the Ministers were to give an account of their Parishes and follow such directions as the Bishop should give them Other heads followed concerning Church-Wardens Tithes Universities Visitations and several sorts of Censures In the thirtieth a large Scheme was drawn of Excommunication which was intrusted to Church-men for keeping the Church pure and was not to be inflicted but for obstinacy in some gross fault all causes upon which it was pronounced were to be examined before the Minister of the Parish a Justice of Peace and some other Church-men It was to be pronounced and intimated with great seriousness and all were to be warned not to keep company with the person censured under the like pains except those of his own Family Upon his continuing forty days obstinate under it a Writ was to be issued out for Commitment till the Sentence should be taken off Such as had the King's Pardon for Capital offences were yet liable to Church censures Then followed the Office of absolving Penitents They were to come to the Church-door and crave admittance and the Minister having brought them in was to read a long discourse concerning Sin Repentance and the Mercies of God Then the Party was to confess his sin and to ask God and the Congregation pardon upon which the Minister was to lay his hands on his Head and to pronounce the Absolution Then a thanksgiving was to be offered to God at the Communion Table for the reclaiming that sinner The other Heads of this work relate to the other parts of the Law of those Courts It is certain that the abounding of Vice and Impiety flows in a great measure from the want of that strictness of censure which was the glory of the Christian Church in the Primitive times and it is a publick connivance at sin that there have not been more effectual ways taken for making sinners ashamed and denying them the Priviledges of Christians till they have changed their ill course of life There were at this time also remedies under consideration The Poverty of the Clergy for the great misery and poverty the Clergy were generally in but the Laity were so much concerned to oppose all these that there was no hope of bringing them to any good effect till the King should come to be of Age himself and endeavour to recover again a competent maintenance for the Clergy out of their hands who had devoured their Revenues Both Heath and Day the Bishops of Worcester and Chichester were this Year deprived of their Bishopricks by a Court of Delegates that were all Lay-men But it does not appear for what offences they were so censured The Bishopricks of Gloucester and Worcester were both united and put under Hooper's care but soon after the former was made an exempted Archdeaconry and he was declared Bishop only of Worcester In every See as it fell vacant the best Mannors were laid hold on by such hungry Courtiers as had the Interest to procure the Grant of them It was thought that the Bishops Sees were so out of Measure enriched that they could never be made poor enough but such hast was made in spoiling them that they were reduced to so low a condition that it was hardly possible for a Bishop to subsist in them If what had been thus taken from them had been converted to good uses such as the supplying the Inferiour Clergy it had been some mitigation of so heinous a robbery But their Lands were snatched up by Laymen who thought of making no Compensation to the Church for the spoils thus made by them This Year the Reformation had some more footing in Ireland than formerly Affairs in Ireland Henry the VIII had assumed to himself by consent of the Parliament of that Kingdom the Title of King of Ireland the former Kings of England having only been called Lords of it The Popes and Emperours have pretended that such Titles could be given only by them The former said all power in Heaven and Earth was given to Christ and by consequence to his Vicar The latter as carrying the Title of Roman Emperour pretended that as they Anciently bestowed those Titles so that devolved on them who retained only the name and shadow of that Great Authority But Princes and States have thought that they may bring themselves under what Titles they please In Ireland though the Kings of England were well obeyed within the English Pale yet the Irish continued barbarous and uncivilised and depended on the heads of their Names or Tribes and were obedient or did rebel as they directed them In Vlster they had a great dependance on Scotland and there were some risings there during the War with Scotland which were quieted by giving the Leading-men Pensions and getting them to come and live within

Laws of God and the Practice of the Universal Church to declare their Bishopricks void as they were indeed already void And thus were seven of the Reformed Bishops turned out at a dash It was much censured that those who had married according to a Law then in force which was now only repealed for the future should be deprived for it and this was a new severity for in former times when the Popes were most set against the Marriage of the Clergy it was put to their option whether they would part with their Wives or with their Benefices but none were summarily deprived as was now done The other Bishops without any form of Process or special matter objected to them were turned out by an Act of meer Arbitrary Government And all this was done by vertue of the Queens being Head of the Church which though she condemned as a sinful and sacrilegious power yet she now imployed it against those Bishops whose Sees were quickly filled with Men in whom the Queen confided Goodrick died this Year It seems he complied with the change now made otherwise he that put the Seal to Lady Jane's Patents could not have escaped the being questioned for it He was an ambitious Man and so no wonder if earthly considerations prevailed more with him than a good Conscience Scory that was Bishop of Chichester renounced his Wife and did Penance for his Marriage but soon after he fled beyond Sea and returned in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign so that his Compliance was the effect of his weakness and fears Barlow resigned Bath and Wells and a Book of recantation was published in his name containing severe reflections both on the Reformers and on the Reformation it self but it is not certain whether it was writ by him or was only a forgery put out in his Name for if he turned so heartily as the strain of that Book runs it is not likely that he would have been put from his Bishoprick but he fled beyond Sea yet it seems both Scory and he gave great offence by their behaviour for though they were the only surviving Reformed Bishops when Queen Elizabeth succeeded yet they were so far from being promoted that they were not so much as restored to their former Sees but put in meaner ones By all these deprivations and resignations there were sixteen new Bishops made which made no small change in the face of the English Church Now the Old Service was every where set up in which Bonner made such hast that before the Royal Assent was given to the Bill for it he began the Old Service and Processions The first opening of it was somewhat strange for it being on Saint Katherine's day the Quiristers went up to the Steeple and sung the Anthem there according to the Custom for that Day Great numbers of the Clergy were summarily deprived for being Married they were estimated by Parker to be 12000. and most of them were judged upon common fame without any Process but a Citation and many being then in Prison yet were Censured and put out for Contumacy and held guilty Many Books were written against the Marriage of the Clergy and the accusing them of Impurity and sensuality on that account was one of the chief Topicks used by the Popish Clergy to disgrace the Reformers which made some recriminate too indecently and lay open the filthiness of the Unmarried Clergy and those that were called Religious who led most irregular lives in particular it was said Bonner had no reason to be a friend to that state for he was the Bastard of a Bastard and his Father though a Priest begat him in Adultery On the 2d of April a Parliament met A new Parliament but the most considerable Members were before-hand corrupted by Gardiner who gave them Pensions some 200. and others 100 l. a Year for their Voices The first Act that past was declaratory that all the Prerogatives and Limitations which by Law belonged to the Kings of England were the same whether the Crown fell into the hands of a Male or a Female The secret of this was little known some were afraid there was an ill design in it and that it being declared that she had all the authority which any of her Progenitors ever had it might be inferred from thence that she might pretend to a right of Conquest A proposition to make the Queen absolute and so seize on the Estates of the English as William the Conqueror had done But it was so conceived that the Queen was put under the fame limitations as well as acknowledged to have the same Prerogatives with her Progenitors The secret of this was afterwards discovered A projecting Man that had served Cromwell and loved to meddle much had been deeply engaged both in Lady Jane's business and in the late Insurrection and was now in danger of his life so he made application to the Emperour's Ambassadour and by his means obtained his Pardon He offered a Project that the Queen should declare that she succeeded to the Crown by the Common-Law but was not tied by the Statute-Law which did only bind Kings and therefore a Queen was not obliged by it thus she might pretend to be a Conqueror and rule at pleasure and by this means might restore both Religion and the Abbey-Lands and be under no restraint This the Ambassadour brought to the Queen and prayed her to keep it very secret But she disliked it yet she sent for Gardiner and charged him to give her his Opinion of it sincerely as he would answer to God for it at the Great Day He read it carefully and told her it was a most pernicious contrivance and beg'd her not to listen to such Plat-forms which might be brought her by base Sycophants Upon that she burnt the Paper and charged the Ambassadour not to bring her any more such Projects This gave Gardiner great apprehensions of the mischiefs that Spanish Counsels might bring on the Nation and so he procured the Act to be made by which the Queen was bound by the Law as much as her Ancestors were He also got an Act to be past ratifying the Articles of the Marriage with strong clauses for keeping the Government entirely in the Queen's hands that so Philip might not take it on him as Henry the VII had done when he married the Heir of the House of York for as he set up a Title in his own Name and kept the Government in his own hands so the Spaniards began to reckon a descent from John of Gaunt which made Gardiner the more cautious and it must be confessed that the preserving the Nation out of the hands of the Spaniards was almost only owing to his care and wisdom The Bishoprick of Durham was again restored after a vigorous resistance made by those of Gateside near Newcastle The Attainders of the Duke of Suffolk and Fifty-eight more for the late Rebellion were confirmed The Commons sent up four several Bills

carried in Parliament Gardiners policy in the steps of this change as well as the Court could wish and upon this Gardiner's reputation was much raised for bringing about so great a change in so little time with so little opposition He took much pains to remove all the Objections that were generally made use of they were chiefly two the one was the fear of coming under such Tyranny from Rome as their Ancestors had groaned under and the other was the loss of the Abbey-Lands But to the first he said that all the old Laws against Provisions from Rome should still continue in force and to shew them that Legates should exercise no dangerous authority in England he made Pool take out a Licence under the Great Seal for his Legatine power As for the other he promised both an Act of Parliament and Convocation confirming them and undertook that the Pope should ratifie these as well as his Legate did now consent to them But to all this it was answered that if the Nation were again brought under the old Superstition and the Papal authority established it would not be possible to bridle that power which would be no longer kept within limits if once they became Masters again and brought the World under a blind obedience It was objected that the Church-Lands must be certainly taken back it was not likely the Pope would confirm the alienation of them but though he should do it yet his Successors might annul that as sacrilegious And it was observed in the charge which Pool gave to all to make restitution by the repeal of the statute of Mortmain that it was intended to possess the Nation with an Opinion of the Unlawfulness of keeping those Lands which would probably work much on Men that were near death and could not resist the terrours of Purgatory or perhaps of Hell for the sin of Sacriledge and so would be easily induced to make restitution of them especially at such a time when they were not able to possess them any longer themselves Now the Parliament was at an end Consultations about the way of proceeding against Hereticks and the first thing taken into consideration was what way they ought to proceed against the Hereticks Pool had been suspected to bear some favour to them formerly but he took great care to avoid all occasions of being any more blamed for that and indeed he lived in that distrust of all the English that he opened his thoughts to very few for his chief Confidents were two Italians that came over with him Priuli and Ormaneto Secretary Cecyl who in matters of Religion complied with the present time was observed to have more of his favour than any English Man had Pool was an Enemy to all severe proceedings he thought Churchmen should have the tenderness of a Father and the care of a Shepherd and ought to reduce but not devour the stray sheep he had observed that Cruelty rather inflamed than cured that Distemper he thought the better and surer way was to begin with an effectual Reformation of the manners of the Clergy since it was the scandals given by their ill conduct and Ignorance that was the chief cause of the growth of Heresie so he concluded that if a Primitive Discipline should be revived the Nation would by degrees lay down their prejudices and might in time be gained by gentle methods Gardiner on the other hand being of an abject and cruel temper himself thought the strict execution of the Laws against the Lollards was that to which they ought chiefly to trust if the Preachers were made publick Examples he concluded the People would be easily reclaimed for he pretended that it was visible if King Henry had executed the Act of the six Articles vigorously all would have submitted he confessed a Reformation of the Clergy was a good thing but all times could not bear it if they should proceed severely against scandalous Churchmen the Hereticks would take advantage from that to defame the Church the more and raise a clamour against all Clergymen Gardiner's spite was at this time much whetted by the reprinting of his Books of true Obedience which was done at Strasburg and sent over In it he had called King Henry's marriage with Queen Catherine Incestuous and had justified his Divorce and his second Marriage with his most godly and vertuous Wife Queen Anne This was a severe exposing of him but he had brow enough and bore down these reproaches by saying Peter had denied his Master but others said a Compliance of 25. years continuance was very unjustly compared to a sudden denial that was presently expiated with so sincere a Repentance The Queen was for joining both these Councils together and intended to proceed at the same time both against scandalous Churchmen and Hereticks After the Parliament was over there was a solemn Procession of many Bishops and Priests Bonner carrying the Host to thank God for reconciling the Nation again to Saint Peter's Chair and it having been done on St. Andrew's Day that was appointed to be an Anniversary and was called The Feast of the Reconciliation But soon after began the Persecution Rogers Hooper Taylor Bradford A Persecution set on foot and seven more were brought before the Council and asked one by one if they would return to the Union of the Catholick Church and acknowledge the Pope but they all answered resolutely that they had renounced the Pope's power as all the Bishops had also done they were assured he had no authority but over his own Diocess for the first four Ages so they could not submit to his Tyranny Gardiner told them Mercy was now offered them but if they rejected it Justice would be done next so they were all sent back to Prison except one who had great Friends so he was only asked if he would be an honest man and upon that promise was dismist They began with Rogers whose Imprisonment was formerly mentioned Many had advised him to make his escape and flie to Germany but he would not do it though a Family of Ten Children was a great Temptation Both he and Hooper were brought before Gardiner Rogers and Hooper condemned and burnt Bonner Tonstall and three other Bishops They asked them whether they would submit to the Church or not but they answered that they looked on the Church of Rome as Antichristian Gardiner said that was a reproach on the Queen Rogers said they honoured the Queen and lookt for no ill at her hands but as she was set on to it by them Upon that Gardiner and the other Bishops declared that so far were they from setting on the Queen to the executing of the Law that she commanded them to do it and this was confirmed by two Privy Councellours that were present In conclusion they gave them time till next Morning to consider what they would do and then they continuing firm they declared them obstinate Hereticks and degraded them but they did

stay in England where he had no hopes of making himself Master left her and that increased her Melancholy New Fires were kindled More Hereticks burnt Cardmaker that had been a Prebendary at Bath and Warne a Tradesman were burnt in Smithfield in May. The body of one that suffered for Robbery but at his Execution said somewhat savouring of Heresie was burnt for it Seven were burnt in several parts of Essex They were condemned by Bonner and sent down to be burnt near the places of their abode The Council writ to the Great Men of the County to gather many together and assist at those Spectacles and when they heard that some had come of their own accord to the burnings at Colchester they writ to the Lord Rich to give their thanks to those Persons for their Zeal so dexterously did they study to cherish a spirit of Cruelty among the People Bradford who had been committed soon after he had saved Bourne in the Tumult at Saint Paul's had been condemned with the rest and was preserved till July He was so much considered that Heath Archbishop of York and Day Bishop of Chichester Weston and Harpsfield with the King's Confessor and Alphonsus à Castro went to see if they could prevail on him and had long Conferences with him in Prison but all to no purpose Bourn was made Bishop of Bath and Wells and his Brother was Secretary of State but though Bradford had preserved his life yet he neither came to visit him nor did he interpose for his life on the contrary it was objected to Bradford that by his carriage in suppressing that Tumult it appeared that he had set it on but he appealed to God who saw how unworthily they returned him evil for good and he appealed to Bourn who was sitting among the Bishops that judged him if he had not prayed him for the Passion of Christ to endeavour his preservation and if he had not done it at the hazard of his own Life But Bourn as he was ashamed to accuse him so he had not the honesty nor the courage to vindicate him a young Apprentice was burnt with him whom he encouraged much in his sufferings and in transports of joy he hugged the Faggots that were laid about him Thornton Harpsfield and others set on a Persecution at Canterbury though Cardinal Pool was averse to it but he durst not now discover so much for the Pope had an inveterate hatred to him and was resolved upon the first occasion to recall him and for that end he entred in a Correspondence with Gardiner who hoped thereby to have been made a Cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury and upon the hopes he had of that he still preserved Cranmer for tho' he was now condemned for Heresie yet the See was not esteemed void till he was formally degraded Some said it was fit to begin with him that had been the chief promoter of Heresie in England But Gardiner said it was better to try if it could be possible to shake him for it would be a great blow to the whole Party if he could be wrought on to forsake it whereas if he should be burnt and should dye with such resolution as others expressed it would much raise the spirits of his followers The See of Canterbury was now only sequestred in Pool's hands and he being afraid of falling under the Pope's rage was willing to let the cruel Prebendaries do what they pleased They burnt two Priests and two Laymen at Canterbury and sent a Man and a Woman to be burnt in other Places in Kent Two that belonged to the Dioceses of Winchester and Chichester were condemned by Bonner and were burnt near the places of their abode There were at this time several pretended discoveries of Plots both in Dorsetshire and Essex and Orders were given to draw Confessions from some that were apprehended by Torture but the thing was let fall for it was grounded only on the surmises of the Clergy The Queen was this Year rebuilding the House of the Franciscans at Greenwich Religious Houses set up and had recalled Peyto and Elston of which mention was made Book 1. pag. 117. the one she made her Confessor and the other was to be Guardian of that House The People expressed such hatred of them that as they were passing upon the River some threw stones at them but they that did it could not be discovered More 's Works published Judge Rastall published Sir Tho. More 's Works at this time but as was formerly observed he left out his Letter concerning the Nun of Kent though it lies among his other Letters in that very Manuscript out of which he published them He prefixed nothing concerning Mores Life to his Works which makes it highly probable that he never writ it for this was the proper time and place for publishing it if he had ever writ it So that Manuscript life of Mores pretended to be writ by him out of which many things have been quoted since that time to the disgrace of King Henry and Anne Boleyn must be a later forgery contrived in spite to Queen Elizabeth The Queen did now go on with her Intentions of founding Religious Houses out of those Abbey-Lands that were still in the Crown She recommended it also to the Councils care that every where there might be good Preaching and that there might be a Visitation of the Universities she desired that Justice might be done on the Hereticks in such a manner that the People might be well satisfied about it and prest them to take care that there might be no Pluralities in England and that the Preachers might give good Example as well as make good Sermons The burnings went on Seven were burnt in August in several places six more were burnt in one fire at Canterbury and four were burnt in other places but the particular days are not marked In September five were burnt at Canterbury and seven in other places In October two were burnt at Ely by Shaxton's means who now compleated his Apostasie by his Cruelty The 16th of that month became remarkable by the sufferings of Ridley and Latimer Ridley and Latimer are burnt Three Bishops Lincoln Gloucester and Bristol were sent with a Commission from Cardinal Pool to proceed against them Ridley said he payed great respect to Pool as he was of the Royal Family and esteemed him much for his Learning and Vertues but as he was the Popes Legate he would express no reverence to him nor would uncover himself before any that acted by authority from him The Bishop of Lincoln exhorted him To return to the obedience of the See of S. Peter on whom Christ had founded his Church to which the Ancient Fathers had submitted and which himself had once acknowledged He began his answer with a Protestation That he did not thereby submit to the authority of the Pope or his Legate he said Christ had founded his Church not on St. Peter but on the

proposed to Heath who was still a Privy Councellour and he after some Conference about it with his Brethren accepted of it Nine of a side were to dispute about three Points Worship in an Unknown Tongue the power that every particular Church had to alter Rites and Ceremonies and the Masse's being a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Dead and the Living All was to be given in in Writing The Bishops were to begin in every Point and they were to interchange their Papers and answer them The last of March was the first day of Conference which held in Westminster Abby in the presence of the Privy Council and both Houses of Parliament The Bishop of Winchester pretended there had been some mistake in the Order and that their Paper was not quite finished but that Dr. Cole should deliver in discourse what they had prepared though it was not yet in that order that it could be Copied out The secret of this was The Bishops had resolved openly to Vindicate their Doctrine but not to give any Papers or enter into dispute with Hereticks or so far to acknowledge the Queen's Supremacy as to engage in Conferences at her command Cole was observed to read almost all he said though he affected to be thought only to deliver a discourse so as if most part of it had been Extemporary The substance of it was Arguments for against the Worship in an unknown Tongue that though the Worship in a known Tongue had been appointed in the Scriptures yet the Church had power to change it as she changed the Sabbath and had appointed the Sacrament to be received fasting though it was Instituted after Supper to eat blood was forbid and a Community of goods was set up by the Apostles yet it was in the power of the Church to alter these things he enlarged on the evil of Schism and the necessity of adhering to the Church of Rome Vulgar Tongues changed daily but the Latine was the same was spread over many Countries The People might reap profit from Prayers which they understood not as well as absent Persons The Queen of Ethiopia's Eunuch read Isaiah though he understood him not and Philip was sent to explain that Prophecy to him Horn when this was ended read the Paper drawn by the Reformers he began it with a Prayer and a Protestation of their sincerity They founded their Assertion on Saint Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians in which he enjoyned them to pray with understanding that so the Unlearned might say Amen and that nothing should be spoken that might give an uncertain sound but that all things should be done to edification and though the speaking with strange Tongues was then an extraordinary gift of the Holy Ghost yet he forbids the using it where there was not an Interpreter Things so expresly enjoyned could not be indifferent or fall under the power of the Church The Jews had their Worship in the Vulgar Tongue so had also the most barbarous Nations when converted to Christianity The natural use of Speech was that every thing which was said might be understood Quotations were brought to shew that Psalms were daily sung in the Vulgar Tongue among all Nations When they ended their Paper it was received with a shout of applause and was put in the Lord Keeper's hands signed by them all But the Bishops refused to deliver theirs The next day was appointed for considering the second Point but the Bishops resolved to go no further in the Conference for they saw by the applause of the People that the Audience was more favourable to the other side so the next day of Meeting they offered an answer to the Paper given in the former day by the Reformers The Lord Keeper told them that according to the Order laid down they were first to go through the three Points before they might be suffered to reply but they said Cole had the former day only given his own sense in an Extemporary discourse Their foul dealing in this was condemned by the whole Audience so the Lord Keeper required them to go to the second Point but they refused to begin and moved that the other side should be made to begin and though the Lord Keeper shewed them that this was contrary to the Order agreed on before-hand yet they continued all resolute and would not proceed any further Ferknam only excepted but he said he could do nothing alone since the rest would not joyn with him The Bishops of Winchester and Lincoln said the Faith of the Church ought not to be examined except in a Synod of Divines and it gave too great an encouragement to Hereticks to dispute with them and that both the Queen and her Council deserved to be excommunicated for suffering them to argue against the Catholick Faith before an Unlearned Multitude Upon this they were sent to the Tower and the Conference broke up but the Reformers thought the advantage was much on their side and that things were now carried much more fairly than had been in those Conferences and Disputes that were in the beginning of the former Reign The Papists on the other hand said it was visible the Audience was prepossessed and that the Conference was appointed only to make way for the changes that the Parliament was then about with the Pomp of a Victory and therefore as they blamed the Bishops for undertaking it so they justified them for breaking it off The Book of Common-Prayer was now revised The English Service is again set up the most considerable alteration was that the express Declaration which was made in the second Book set out by King Edward against the Corporal Presence was left out that so none might be driven out of the Communion of the Church upon that account The matter was left undetermined as a speculative Point in which People were left at liberty The Book of Ordination was not specially mentioned in the Act which gave occasion to Bonner afterwards to question the Legality of Ordinations made by it But it had been made a part of the Common-Prayer-Book in the 5th year of King Edward and the whole Book then set out was now confirmed so that by a special Act made some years after this it was declared that that Office was understood to be a part of it When the Bill for the English Service was put in to the House of Lords Speeches made against it by some Bishops Heath and Scot Bishop of Chester and Ferknam made long Speeches against it grounded chiefly on the Authority of the Church the Antiquity of the established Religion and Novelty of the other which was changed every day as appeared in King Edward's time They said the consent of the Catholick Church and the perpetual succession in St. Peter's Chair ought to have more autherity than a few Preachers risen up of late They also enlarged much against the Sacriledge the robbing of Churches and the breaking of Images that had been committed by the

first vented in King James's time above forty Years after this It was then said that the Elect Bishops met at the Naggs Head Tavern in Cheapside and were in great disorder because Kitchin refused to consecrate them upon which Scory made them all kneel down and laid the Bible on their Heads saying Take thou Authority to Preach the Word of God sincerely and that this was all the Ordination that they ever had and to confirm this it was pretended that Neale one of Bonner's Chaplains watched them into the Tavern and saw all that was done through the Key-hole This was given out when all that were concerned in it were dead yet the old Earl of Nottingham who had seen Parker's Consecration was still alive and declared that he saw it done at Lambeth in the Chappel according to the Common-Prayer-Book and both the Records of the Crown and the Registers of the See of Canterbury do plainly confute this The Author did also see the Original Instrument then made describing all the particulars relating to Parker's Consecration preserved still in Corpus Christi Colledge in Cambridge among the other Manuscripts which he left to that House in which he had his Education The first thing that the Bishops set about The Articles of the Church published was the publishing the Doctrine of the Church In order to this a Review was made of those Articles that had been compiled under Edward the VI. and some small alterations were made The most considerable was that a long determination that was made formerly against the Corporal Presence was now left out and it was only said That the Body of Christ was given and received in a spiritual manner and that the means by which it was received was Faith Yet in the Original Subscription of the Articles by both Houses of Convocation still extant there was a full declaration made against it in these words Christ when he ascended into Heaven made his Body Immortal but took not from it the nature of a Body For still it retains according to the Scriptures a true Humane Body which must be always in one definite place and cannot be spread into many or all places at once since then Christ was carried up to Heaven and is to remain there to the end of the World and is to come from thence and from no other place to judge the Quick and the Dead None of the Faithful ought to believe or profess the Real or as they call it the Corporal Presence of his Flesh and Blood in the Eucharist But the design of the Queen's Council was to unite once the whole Nation into the Communion of the Church and it was feared that so express a definition against the Real Presence would have driven many out of the Communion of the Church who might have been otherwise kept in it and therefore it was thought enough to assert only the Spiritual Presence but that it was not necessary to condemn the Corporal Presence in such express words and therefore though the Convocation had so positively determined this matter it was thought more conducing to the publick peace to dash it in the Original Copy and to suppress it in the Printed Copies The next thing they took in hand A Tranflation of the Bible was a new Translation of the Bible Several Books of it were given to several Bishops who were appointed to call for such Divines as were learned in the Greek or Hebrew Tongues and by their assistance they were to translate that parcel that fell to their share and so when one had compleated that which was assigned to him he was to offer it to the Correction of those that were appointed to translate the other parts and after every Book had thus past the Censure of all who were imployed in this matter then it was approved of And so great hast made they in this important work that within two or three years the whole Translation was finished There was one thing yet wanting The want of Church discipline to compleat the Reformation of this Church which was the restoring a Primitive Discipline against scandalous Persons the establishing the Government of the Church in Ecclesiastical hands and the taking it out of Lay-hands who have so long profaned it and have exposed the authority of the Church and of the Censures of it chiefly Excommunication to the contempt of the Nation by which the reverence due to Holy things is in so great a measure lost and the dreadfullest of all Censures is now become the most scorned and despised But upon what reasons it cannot be now known this was not carried on with that Zeal nor brought to that perfection that was necessary The want of Ecclesiastical Discipline set on some to devise many new Platforms for the administration of it in every Parish all which gave great offence to the Government and were so much opposed by it that they came to nothing Other differences were raised concerning the Vestments of the Clergy and some Factions growing up in the Court these differences were heightned by those who intended to serve their own ends by making the several Parties quarrel with so much animosity that it should scarce be possible to reconcile them Since that time the fatal Division of this Nation into the Court and Country party has been the chief occasion of the growth and continuance of those differences so that all the attempts which have been made by moderate Men to compose them have proved ineffectual At this time there was a great revolution of affairs in Scotland The Reformation in Scotland When there was a probability of bringing the Treaty of Cambray to a good effect the Cardinal of Lorrain writ to his Sister the Queen Regent of Scotland and to the Archbishop of St. Andrews and let them know the Resolution that was taken to extirpate Heresie and exhorted them to use their endeavours for that end The Queen Regent saw that by doing this she would not only break her faith to the Lords who had hitherto adhered to her upon the assurance she gave them of her Protection but that the Peace of Scotland would be endangered for as their Party was strong so it was not to be doubted but the Queen of England would support them and so she was not easily brought to follow her Brother 's cruel Counsels But the Bishops shut their eyes upon all dangers and resolved to strike a terror into the People by some severe Executions They began with Walter Mell an old insirm Priest who had preached in some places against many of the Opinions then received he was particularly accused for having asserted the lawfulness of the Marriage of the Clergy and for having condemned the Sacrifice of the Mass and Transubstantiation with some other particulars all which he confessed and upon his refusal to abjure them he was condemned to be burnt Yet so averse were the People from those Cruelties that it was not easie to find any

made between the Duke of Norfolk and the Scots they promised to be the Queen 's perpetual Allies and that after the French were driven out of Scotland The Queen of England assists the Scots they should continue their Obedience to their own Queen upon which 2000. Horse and 6000. Foot were sent to assist the Scots These besieged Lieth during which there were considerable losses on both sides but the losses on the side of the English were more easily made up supplies being nearer at hand The French offered to put Calais again in the Queen of England's hands if she would recall her Forces out of Scotland She answered on the sudden that she did not value that Fish-Town so much as she did the quiet of the Isle of Brittain But she offered to Mediate a Peace between them and the Scots Before this could be effected 〈◊〉 June The Queen Regent dies the Queen Regent of Scotland died she sent for some of the Scottish Lords in her sickness and asked them pardon for the Injuries she had done them She advised them to send both the French and English out of Scotland and prayed them to continue in their Obedience to their Queen She also discoursed with one of their Preachers and declared that she hoped to be saved only by the Merits of Christ She had governed the Nation before the last year of her life with such Justice and Prudence and was so great an Example both in her own Person and in the Order of her Court that if she had died before her Brother's bloody Counsels had involved her in these last passages of her life she had been the most lamented and esteemed Queen that had been in that Nation for many Ages Her own Inclinations were Just and Moderate and she often said that if her Counsels might take place she did not doubt but she should bring all things again to perfect Tranquillity and Peace Soon after a Peace was concluded between England France and Scotland An Oblivion was granted for all that was past The French and English were to be sent out of Scotland and all other things were referred to a Parliament During the Queen's absence the Kingdom was to be governed by a Council of 12. all Natives of these the Queen was to name 7. and the States were to choose 5. So both the English and French were sent out of Scotland and the Parliament met in August In it A Parliament meets and settles the Reformation all Acts for the former way of Religion were repealed and a confession of Faith penned by Knox afterwards inserted among the Acts of Parliament 1567. was confirmed These Acts were opposed only by three Temporal Lords who said they would believe as their Fathers had done but all the Spiritual Lords both Bishops and Abbots consented to them and they did dilapidate the Lands and Revenues of the Church in the strangest manner that was ever known the Abbots converted their Abbies into Temporal Estates and the Bishops though they continued Papists still divided all their Lands among their Bastards or Kindred and procured confirmations of many of the Grants they gave from Rome by which that Church was so impoverished that if King James and King Charles the First had not with much zeal and great endeavours retrieved some part of the Ancient Revenues and provided a considerable maintenance for the Inferiour Clergy all the encouragements to Religion and Learning had been to such a degree withdrawn that Barbarism must have again over-run that Kingdom When these Acts thus agreed on in the Parliament of Scotland were sent over to France they were rejected with great scorn so that the Scots began to apprehend a new War but Francis the second 's death soon after delivered them from all their fears for their Queen having no more the support of so great a Crown was forced to return home and govern in such a manner as that Nation was pleased to submit to Thus had the Queen of England divided Scotland from its ancient dependance on France The Queen of England the Head of all the Protestants and had tied it so to her own Interests that she was not only secure on that side of her Dominions but came to have so great an interest in Scotland that affairs there were for most part governed according to the Directions she sent thither Other Accidents did also concur to give her a great share in all the most Important affairs of Europe In France upon Henry the second 's fatal end great Divisions arose between the Princes of the Blood and the Brothers of the House of Guise Both in France into whose hands the administration of affairs was put during Francis the second 's short Reign It was pretended on the one hand that the King was not of Age till he was 22. and that during his Minority the Princes of the Blood were to Govern by the Advice of the Courts of Parliaments and the Assembly of Estates On the other hand it was said that the King might assume the Government and Imploy whom he pleased at 14. A design was laid in which many of both Religions concurred for taking the Government out of the hands of the strangers and seising on the King's Person but a Protestant moved by a Principle of Conscience discovered it Upon this the Prince of Conde and many others were seised on and if the King had not died soon after they had suffered for it Charles the Ninth succeeding who was under Age the King of Navarre was declared Regent but he though before a Protestant was drawn into the Papist Interest and joyned himself with the Queen Mother and the Constable A severe Edict was made against the Protestants but the Execution of it was like to raise great disorders so another was made in a great Assembly of many Princes of the Blood Privy Councellours and 8. Courts of Parliament allowing the free exercise of that Religion yet after this the Duke of Guise reconciled himself to the Queen Mother and they resolved to break the Edict so the Duke of Guise happening to pass by a Meeting of Protestants his Servants offered violence to them from reproachful words it went to the throwing of stones by one of which the Duke was hurt upon which his Servants killed 60. of the Protestants and wounded 200. and upon this the Edict was every where broken It was said that the Regent's power did not extend so far as that he could break so Publick an Edict and that therefore it was lawful for the Protestants to defend themselves The Prince of Conde set himself at the Head of them and the King of Navarre being killed soon after the breaking out of the War he as the first Prince of the Blood that was of Age ought to have been declared Regent so that the Protestants said their defending themselves was not Rebellion since they had both the Law and the first Prince of the Blood on their side The

Wars lasted near 30. Years for in all that time notwithstanding some Intervals of Peace the seeds of War were never so rooted out but that they were ready to spring up upon every new occasion In this the Queen Interposed and supported the Protestant Party sometimes with Men but oftner with Money so that she had near the half of that Kingdom depending on her In the Netherlands a long continuance of civil Wars almost on the same account gave her the like advantages The King of Spain And in the Netherlands by endeavouring to set up the Courts of Inquisition in those Provinces and by keeping some Spanish Troops among them and other excesses in his Government contrary to the Articles of the Laetus Introitus provoked them so much that they shook off his Yoke and were supported by the Aid and Money which the Queen sent them So that the Queen met with such a Conjuncture of affairs in the Dominions of those Princes that were next her of whom only she had reason to be afraid as scarce any Prince ever had In foreign Parts The excellent administration of affairs in England she was the Arbiter of Christendom and at home things were so happily managed Trade did so flourish and Justice was so equally distributed that she became the wonder of the World She was Victorious in all her Wars with Spain and no wonder for it appeared signally in the ruine of the great Armada which Spain lookt on as Invincible that Heaven fought for her She reigned more absolutely over the Hearts than the Persons of her Subjects She always followed the true Interests of her People and so found her Parliaments always ready to comply with her desires and to grant her Subsidies as often as she called for them and as she never asked them but when the occasion for them was visible so after they were granted if the state of her affairs changed so that she needed them not she readily discharged them Rome and Spain set many Engines on work both against her Person and Government but she still lived and triumphed In the first ten Years of her Reign the Papists were so Compliant that there was no stir made about matters of Religion Pope Pius the fourth condemned the madness of his Predecesfor in that high and provoking Message which he sent her and therefore he attempted a reconciliation with her at two several times and offered if she would joyn her self to the See of Rome that he would annul the sentence against her Mothers Marriage and confirm the English service and the Communion in both kinds But she refused to enter into any Treaty with him Pius the fifth that succeeded him in that Chair resolved to contrive her death Catena as is related by him that writes his Life The unfortunate Queen of Scotland was forced to take Sanctuary in England where it was resolved to use her well and restore her to her Crown and Countrey But her own officious friends and the frequent Plots that were laid for taking away the Queens life brought on her the Calamities of a long Imprisonment that ended in a Tragical death which though it was the greatest blemish of this Reign yet was made in some sort justifiable if not necessary by the many Attempts that the Papists made on the Queen's Life and by the Deposition which Pope Pius the fifth thundred out against Her from which it was inferred that as long as that Party had the hopes of such a Successor the Queen's Life was not safe nor her Government secure This led her towards the end of her Reign Severities against the Papists were necessary to greater severities against those of the Roman Communion of which a Copious Account is given by Sir Francis Walsingham that was for so many Years imployed either in foreign Embassies or in the secrets of State at home that none knew better than he did the hidden springs that moved and directed all Her Councils He writ a long Letter to a French man giving him an account of all the severities of the Queen's Government both against Papists and Puritans The substance of which is Sir Fr. Walsingham's account of the steps in which she proceeded That the Queen laid down two Maximes of State the one was not to force Consciences the other was not to let factious practices go unpunished because they were covered with the pretences of Conscience At first she did not revive those severe Laws past in her Father's time by which the refusal of the Oath of Supremacy was made Treason but left her People to the freedom of their thoughts and made it only Penal to extol a foreign Jurisdiction She also laid aside the word Supream Head and the refusers of the Oath were only disabled from holding Benefices or Charges during their Refusal Upon Pius the Fifth's Excommunicating her though the Rebellion in the North was chiefly occasioned by that she only made a Law against the bringing over or publishing of Bulls and the venting of Agnus Dei's or such other Love-tokens which were sent from Rome on design to draw the Hearts of Her People from her which were no Essential parts of that Religion so that this could hurt none of their Consciences But when after the 20th Year of her Reign it appeared that the King of Spain designed to Invade her Dominions and that the Priests that were sent over from the Seminaries beyond Sea were generally employed to corrupt the Subjects in their Allegiance by which Treason was carried in the Clouds and Infused secretly in Confession Then pecuniary Punishments were inflicted on such as withdrew from the Church and in Conclusion she was forced to make Laws of greater rigour but did often mitigate the severity of them to all that would promise to adhere to her in case of a Foreign Invasion As for the Puritans as long as they only inveighed against some abuses as Pluralities Non residence or the like it was not their Zeal against those but only their Violence that was condemned When they refused to comply with some Ceremonies and questioned the superiority of Bishops and declared for a Democracy in the Church they were connived at with great gentleness But it was observed that they affected Popularity much and the Methods they took to compass their ends were judged dangerous and they made such use of the aversion the Nation had to Popery that it was visible they were in a hazzard of running from one Extream to another They set up a New Model of Church-Discipline which was like to prove no less dangerous to the Liberties of private Men than to the Sovereign Power of the Prince Yet all this was born with as long as they proceeded with those expressions of duty which became Subjects But afterwards when they resolved to carry on their Designs without waiting for the consent of the Magistrate and entred into Combinations when they began to defame the Government by ridiculous Pasquils and

the other Executors had treated with Ambassadours apart had made Bishops and Lord-Lieutenants without their knowledge had held a Court of Requests in his House had embased the Coin had neglected the Places the King had in France had encouraged the Commons in their late Insurrections and had given out Commissions and proclaimed a Pardon without their consent that he had animated the King against the rest of the Council and had proclaimed them Traitors had put his own Servants armed about the King's Person By these it appears the Crimes against him were the effects of his sudden exaltation that had made him too much forget that he was a subject but that he had carried his greatness with much Innocence since no acts of Cruelty Rapine or Bribery were objected to him for they were rather errours and weaknesses than Crimes His embasing the Coin was done upon a common mistake of weak Governments who flye to that as their last refuge in the necessity of their affairs In his Imprisonment he set himself to the study of Moral Philosophy and Divinity and writ a Preface to a Book of Patience which had made great Impressions on him His fall was a great affliction to all that loved the Reformation and that was increased because they had no reason to trust much to the two chief Men of the party against him Southampton and Warwick the one was a known Papist and the other was lookt on as a Man of no Religion and both at the Emperor's Court and in France it was expected that upon this revolution matters of Religion would be again set back into the posture in which King Henry had left them The Duke of Norfolk and Gardiner hoped to be discharged and Bonner lookt to be re-established in his Bishoprick again and all People began to fall off much from the new service but the Earl of Warwick finding the King was zealously addicted to the Reformation quickly forsook the Popish party and seemed to be a mighty promoter of that work A Court of Civilians was appointed to examine Bonner's Appeal and upon their report the Council rejected it and confirmed the Sentence that was past upon him But next The Emperor will not assist them foreign affairs come under their care They suspected that Paget had not dealt effectually with the Emperour to assist them in the preservation of Bulloign so they sent over Sir Tho. Cheyney to try what might be expected from him they took also care of the Garrison and both encreased it and supplied it well Cheyney found the same reception with the Emperour and had the same answer that Paget got The Emperor prest him much that matters of Religion might be again considered and confest that till that were done he could not assist them so effectually as otherwise he would do so now the Council found it necessary to apply to the Court of France for a Peace The Earl of Southampton left the Court in great discontent he was neither restored to his Office of Chancellour nor was he made one of the six Lords that were appointed to have the charge of the King's Person this touched him so much that he died not long after of grief as was believed In November A Session of Parliament a Session of Parliament met in which an Act was past declaring it Treason to call any to the number of Twelve together about any matter of State if being required they did not disperse themselves other Riotous Assemblies were also declared felonious the giving out of Prophecies concerning the King or Council was also made Penal Another Law was made against Vagabonds the former Statute was repealed as too severe and Provisions were made for the relief of the Sick and Impotent and Imploying such as could work The Bishops made a heavy complaint of the growth of Vice and Impiety and that their power was so much abridged that they could not repress it so a Bill was read enlarging their Authority but it was thought that it gave them too much power yet it was so moderated that the Lords past it But the Commons rejected it and instead of it sent up a Bill that impowered XXXII who were to be named by the King the one half of the Temporalty and the other of Spiritualty to compile a body of Ecclesiastical Laws within three years and that these not being contrary to the Common or Statute Law and approved of by the King should have the force of Ecclesiastical Laws of the 32. Four were to be Bishops and as many to be Common Lawyers Six Bishops and six Divines were impowered to prepare a new form of Ordination which being confirmed under the Great Seal should take place after April next Articles were also put in against the Duke of Somerset with a Confession signed by him But some objected that they ought not to proceed The Duke of Somerset fined but restored to favour till they knew whether he had signed it voluntarily or not and some were sent to examine him he acknowledged he had done it freely but protested that his errours had flowed rather from Indiscretion than Malice and denied all treasonable designs against the King or the Realm he was fined in 2000 l. a year in Land and in the loss of all his Goods and Offices He complained of the heaviness of this Censure and desired earnestly to be restored to the Kings favour and promised to carry himself so humbly and obediently that he should make amends for his past follies which was thought a sign of too abject a mind others excused it since the power and malice of his Enemies was such that he was not safe as long as he continued in Prison he was discharged in the beginning of February soon after he had his pardon and did so manage his interest in the King that he was again brought both to the Court and Council in April But if these submissions gained him some favour at Court they sunk him as much in the esteem of the World The Reformation was now A Progress in the Reformation after this confusion was over carried on again with vigour The Council sent Orders over England to require all to conform themselves to the new service and to call in all the Books of the old Offices An Act past in Parliament to the same effect one Earl six Bishops and four Lords only dissenting all the old Books and Images were appointed to be defaced and all prayers to Saints were to be struck out of the Primers published by the late King A Subsidy was granted and the King gave a General Pardon out of which all Prisoners on the account of the State and Anabaptists were excepted In this Session the Eldest Sons of Peers were first allowed to sit in the House of Commons The Committee appointed to prepare the Book of Ordination finished their work with common consent only Heath Bishop of Worcester refused to sign it for which he was called before the

being disappointed he turned back and was forsaken by his men so that a Herauld without using any force apprehended him at Temple-bar It was on Ash-Wednesday and the Queen had shewed such Courage that she would not stir from Whitehall nor would she omit the Devotions of that day and this success was looked on as a reward from Heaven on her Piety This raw and ill formed Rebellion was as lucky for the ends of the Court as if Gardiner had projected it for in a weak Government an ill digested Insurrection raises the power of the Prince and adds as much Spirit to his Friends as it depresses the faction against him and it also gives a handle to do some things for which it were not easie otherwise to find either Colours or Instruments The Popish Authors studied to cast the blame of this on the Reformed Preachers but did not name any one of them that was in it so it appears that what some later Writers have said of Poinet's having been in it is false otherwise his name had certainly been put in the number of those that were Attainted for it Upon this it was resolved to proceed against Lady Jane Gray and her Husband Lady Jane Grays Execution she had lived six Months in the daily Meditations of Death so she was not much surprised at it Fecknam who was sent to prepare her for Death acknowledged that he was astonished at her calm behaviour her great knowledge and the extraordinary sence she had of Religion She writ to her Father to moderate his grief for her death since it was great matter of joy to her that she was so near an end of her Miseries and the enjoyment of Eternal glory One Harding that had been her Fathers Chaplain and a zealous Preacher in King Edward's time had now changed his Religion to him she wrote a long and pathetick Letter setting forth his Apostasie and the Judgments of God which he might expect upon it She sent her Greek New Testament to her Sister with a Letter in Greek recommending the study of that Book to her and chiefly the following it in her practice these were the last exercises of this rare young Person She was at first much moved when she saw her Husband led out to his Execution but recovered her self when she considered how soon she was to follow him and when he desired they might take leave of one another she declined it for she thought it would encrease their Grief and disorder and continued so setled in her temper that she saw his beheaded Body carried to the Chappel in the Tower without expressing any visible concern about it She was carried out next to a Scaffold set up within the Tower to hinder great Crouds from looking on a sight which was like to raise much compassion in the Spectators She confessed her sin in taking an honour that was due to another though it was a thing neither procured nor desired by her and acknowledged her other sins against God that she had loved her self and the World too much and thanked God for making her afflictions a means to her repentance she declared she died a true Christian trusting only to the Merits of Christ then she repeated the LI. Psalm and stretched out her Head on the Block which upon the signal given was cut off Her Death was as much lamented as her Life had been admired It affected Judge Morgan that had pronounced the Sentence so much that he run mad and thought she still followed him The Queen her self was troubled at it for it was rather reason of State than private Resentment that set her on to it Her Father was soon after tried by his Peers and Condemned and Executed Several others suffered He was the less pitied because by his means his Daughter was brought to her untimely end Wiat was brought to his Trial he begged his Life in a most abject manner but he was Condemned and Executed and so were Fifty-eight more Six hundred of the Rabble were appointed to come with Ropes about their Necks and beg the Queen's pardon which was granted them A slander was cast on the Earl of Devonshire and Lady Elizabeth as if they had set on the rising that was intended in the West Wiat in hopes of Life had accused them but he did them Justice at his Death yet they were both put in Prison upon it Sir Nicolas Throgmorton was accused of the same crime but after a long Trial he was acquitted yet his Jury were hardly used and severely fined Sir Jo. Cheek was sought for so he fled beyond Sea but both he and Sir Peter Carew hoping that Philip would be glad to signalize his first coming to England with Acts of Grace rendred themselves to him After that Cheek was again taken in Flanders upon a new suspicion and to deliver himself out of his trouble he renounced his Religion But though he got his Liberty upon that yet he could never recover the quiet of his mind so he languished for some time and dyed There was at this time a base Imposture discovered in London The Imposture of the Spirit In the Wall one seemed to speak out of a Wall in a strange tone of Voice Great numbers flockt about the House and several things both relating to Religion and the State were uttered by it but it was found to be one Elizabeth Crofts who by the help of a Whistle spoke those words through a Hole in the Wall There was no other Complice found but one Drake and they both were made to do Penance for it publickly at S. Pauls Injunctions were now given to the Bishops Injunctions sent to the Bishops to execute such Ecclesiastical Laws as had been in force in K. Henry's time That in their Courts they should proceed in their own Names that the Oath of Supremacy should be no more exacted none suspected of Heresie was to be put in Orders they were required to suppress Heresie and Hereticks and to turn out all married Clergymen and to separate them from their Wives If they left their Wives they might put them in some other Cure or reserve a Pension for them out of their Livings none that had vowed Chastity was to be suffered to live with his Wife those that were ordained by the Book set out in King Edward's time were to be confirmed by all the other Rites then left out and that was declared to be no valid Ordination The Queen gave also a special Commission to Bonner Gardiner Tonstall Day Many Bishops turned out and Kitchin to proceed against the Archbishop of York and the Bishops of St. Davids Chester and Bristoll and to deprive them of their Bishopricks for having contracted Marriage and thereby having broken their Vows and defiled their Function She also authorised them to call before them the Bishops of Lincoln Glocester and Hereford who held their Bishopricks only during their good behaviour and since they had done things contrary to the

that could be obtained It was agreed that at the end of eight Years Calais should either be restored or 500000. Crowns should be payed the Queen yet if during that time she made War either on France or Scotland she was to forfeit her right to Calais Aymouth in Scotland was to be rased and all differences on the Borders there were to be determined by some deputed on both sides this being adjusted a General Peace between the Crowns of England France and Spain was concluded and thus the Queen being freed from the dangerous consultations that the continuance of a War might have involved her in was the more at liberty to settle matters at home The first Bill Acts past in Parliament that was brought to try the Temper of the Parliament was for the Restitution of the Tenths and First-fruits to the Crown against this all the Bishops protested but that was all the opposition made to it By it not only that Tax was of new laid on the Clergy but all the Impropriated Benefices which Queen Mary had surrendred were restored to the Crown After this The Commons pray the Queen to marry the Commons made an Address to the Queen desiring her to choose such a Husband as might make both her self and the Nation happy She received this very kindly since they had neither limited her to time nor Nation but declared that as hitherto she had lived with great satisfaction in a single state and had refused the Propositions that had been made her both in her Brothers and Sisters reign so she had no Inclination to change her course of life If ever she did it she would take care that it should be for the good and to the satisfaction of her People She thought she was married to the Nation at her Coronation and looked on her People as her Children and she would be well contented if her Tombstone might tell Posterity Here lies a Queen that reigned so long and lived and dyed a Virgin There was little more progress made in this matter save that a Committee was appointed by both Houses to consider what should be the Authority of the Person whom the Queen might happen to marry but she sent them a Message to proceed to other affairs and let that alone A Bill for the Recognition of her Title to the Crown was put in Her Title to the Crown acknowledged It was not thought necessary to Repeal the Sentence of her Mothers Divorce for the Crown purged all defects and it was thought needless to look back unto a thing which could not be done without at least casting some reproach on her Father so it was in general words Enacted That they did assuredly believe and declare that by the Laws of God and the Realm she was their lawful Queen and was rightly and lineally descended This was thought a much wiser way than if they examined the Sentence of Divorce that past upon the Confession of a Precontract which must have revived the remembrance of things that were better left in silence Bills were put in for the English Service Acts concerning Religion for reviving King Edward's Laws and for annexing the Supremacy again to the Crown To that concerning the Supremacy two Temporal Lords and nine Bishops with the Abbot of Westminster dissented It was proposed to revive the Law for making the Bishops by Letters-Patents as was in King Edward's time but they choosed rather to revive the Act for Electing them made in the 25. Hen. 8. They revived all Acts made against the Pope's power in King Henry's time and repealed those made by Queen Mary They enacted an Oath for acknowledging the Queen Supream Governour in all causes and over all Persons Those that refused it were to forfeit all Offices that they held either in Church or State and to be under a disability during life If any should advance the authority of a Foreign Power for the first offence they were to be fined or imprisoned for the second to be in a Praemunire and the third was made Treason The Queen was also impowered to give Commissions for Judging and Reforming Ecclesiastical matters who were limited to judge nothing to be Heresie but what had been already so judged by the authority of the Scriptures or the first four General Councils All Points that were not decided either by express words of Scripture or by those Councils were to be referred to the Parliament and Convocation The Title of Supream Head was changed partly because the Queen had some scruples about it and partly to moderate the opposition which the Popish party might otherwise make to it and the refusing the Oath was made no other way Penal but that all Offices or Benefices were forfeited upon it which was a great mitigation of the severity in King Henry's time The Bishops are said to have made several Speeches against this in the House of Lords but that which goes under the name of Heath's Speech must be a forgery for in it the Supremacy is called a new and unheard of thing which could not have flowed from one that had sworn it so often both under King Henry and King Edward Tonstall came not to this Parliament and he was so offended with the Cruelties of the last Reign that he had withdrawn himself into his Diocess where he burnt none himself upon that it was now thought that he was so much alienated from those Methods that some had great hopes of his declaring for the Reformation Heath had been likewise very moderate nor were any burnt under him Upon the power given the Queen to appoint some to Reform and direct all Ecclesiastical matters was the Court called the High Commission Court founded which indeed was nothing but the sharing that authority which was in one Person in King Henry's time into many hands for that Court had no other authority but that which was lodged formerly in Cromwell as the King's Vicegerent and was now thought too great to be trusted to one Man Great complaints were made of seditious Sermons preached by the Popish Clergy Preaching without Licence forbidden upon which the Queen followed the Precedent that her Sister had made and forbid all Preaching excepting only by such as obtained a Licence under the Great Seal for it She likewise sent an Order to the Convocation requiring them under the pains of a Praemunire to make no Canons Yet the lower House in an Address to the upper House declared for the Corporal Presence and that the Mass was a Propitiatory Sacrifice and for the Supremacy and that matters of Religion fell only under the Cognisance of the Pastors of the Church The greatest part of both Universities had also set their hands to all these Points except the last This it seems A publick Conference about Religion was the rather added by the Clerks of Convocation to hinder a publick Conference which the Queen had appointed between the Bishops and the Reformed Divines It was first