of Parliament the Injunctions Proclamations and Homilies the which things most earnestly it behoveth all Preachers in their Sermons to confirm and approve accordingly in other things which be not yet touched it behoveth him to think that either the Prince doth allow them or else suffer them and in those it is the part of a Godly Man not to think himself wiser than the King's Majesty and his Council but patiently to expect and to conform himself thereto and not to intermeddle further to the disturbance of a Realm the disquieting of the King's People the troubling of Mens Consciences and disorder of the King's Subjects These things we have thought good to admonish you of at this time because we think you will set the same so forward in your preaching and so instruct the King's Majesty's People accordingly to the most advancement of the Glory of God and the King's Majesty's most Godly Proceedings that we do not doubt but much profit shall ensue thereby and great conformity in the People the which you do instruct and so we pray you not to fail to do and having a special regard to the weakness of the People what they may bear and what is most convenient for the time in no case to intermeddle in your Sermons or otherwise with Matters in contention or controversion except it be to reduce the People in them also to Obedience and following of such Orders as the King's Majesty hath already set forth and no others as the King's Majesty and our Trust is in you and as you tender his Highness Will and Pleasure and will answer to the contrary at your Peril Fare you well Printed at London June 1. 1548. Number 25. Queries put concerning some Abuses of the Mass with the Answers that were made by many Bishops and Divines to them Quest 1. Whether the Sacrament of the Altar was instituted to be received of one Man for another Ex M. S. Dr. Stillingfleet or to be received of every Man for himself Answers THe Sacrament of the Altar was not instituted to be received of one Man for another Cantuarien but to be received by every Man for himself The Sacrament of the Altar was not instituted to be received of one Man for one other but of every Man for himself Eboracen I think that the Sacrament of Thanks was not instituted to be received of one Man for another London Hereford Cicestren Worcester Norvicen Assaven but of every Man for himself The Sacrament of the Altar was instituted Dunelm to be received of every Man by himself to make him a Member of Christ's Mystical Body and to knit and unite him to Christ our Head as St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 10. Vnus Panis unum Corpus multi sumus omnes qui de uno pane participamus The Sacrament of the Altar was not instituted to be received of one Man for another Sacramentally Sarisburien no more than one Man to be Christened for another notwithstanding the Grace received by him that is Housled or Christened is profitable and available to the whole Mystical Body of Christ and therefore to every lively Member thereof The Sacrament as they call it of the Altar Lincoln was not instituted to be received of one for another but of every Man for himself For Christ the Institutor of this Sacrament saith with manifest words Take eat c. Mat. 26. And also John 6. Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no Life in you Whoso eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood hath eternal Life Nor the receiving of one Man doth avail or profit any other otherwise than by the way of Example whereby the People present are provoked to the imitation of the thing that is good Elien The Sacrament of the Altar was not instituted to be received of one Man for another but of every Man for himself Covent Litchfield I think and suppose that the Sacrament of the Altar was instituted to be received of every Man for himself for so are the words of Christ Comedite bibite speaking to them present and to every one of them Carliolen The Sacrament of the Altar was not ordained or instituted to be received of one Man alone but of all and for all because it is the General and continual Remedy help and succour of all which maketh no let or stop of themselves and their own unfaithful or sinful Life Roffen Of every Man for himself Bristollen The Sacrament of the Altar was not instituted to be received of one Man for another Sacramentally no more than one Man to be Christened for another but every Man to receive it in Faith and cleanliness of Life for himself Meneven The Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ was not instituted that one Man should receive it for another but every Man for himself Probet autem seipsum homo sic de pane illo edat de poculo illo bibat Cor. 11. Dr. Cox The Sacrament of Thanks was instituted to be received of every Man for himself and not of one for another Dr. Tyler Of every Man for himself Quest 2. Whether the Receiving of the said Sacrament of one Man doth avail and profit any other Answers Cantuarien THe Receiving of the said Sacrament by one Man doth avail and profit only him that receiveth the same Eboracen The Receiving of the Sacrament only availeth the Receivers thereof except it be by reason of such Communion as is among the Members of the Mystical Body of Christ London Worcester Hereford Norvicen Cicestren Assaven I think that the Receiving of the said Sacrament doth not avail or profit any other but only as all other good Works done of any Member of Christ's Church be available to the whole Mystical Body of Christ and to every lively Member of the same by reason of mutual Participation and spiritual Communion between them And also it may be profitable to others as an Example whereby others may be stirred to Devotion and to like Receiving of the same The Receiving of the Sacrament of one Man doth profit another Dunelmen as the health and good-liking of one Member doth in part strengthen the Body and other Members of the same for St. Paul saith Multi unum corpus sumus in Christo singuli autem alter alterius membra Rom. 12. 1 Cor. 12. Si gaudet unum membrum cangaudent omnia membra And in a Mystical Body the good living of one Man stirreth another to the same The Oblation made after the Consecration in the Mass Sarisburien is the offering unto the Father of the Body and Blood of Christ by the Minister with the Commemoration of the Passion and with Thanksgiving for the same and with the Prayers of the Minister and People that it may be available to all Christian People The Receiving thereof of one
to a secular course of life had little of a Church-man but the Habit and Name and yet used to rail against Sacriledge in others not considering how guilty themselves were of the same crime enriching their Families with the Spoils of the Church or with the Goods of it which were put into their Hands for better uses And it was no wonder that when Clergy-men had thus abused these Endowments Secular Men broke in upon them observing plainly that the Clergy who enjoyed them made no better use of them than Laicks might do Though in stead of reforming an abuse that was so generally spread they like Men that minded nothing more than the enriching of themselves took a certain course to make the mischief perpetual by robbing the Church of those Endowments and Helps it had received from the Munificence of the Founders of its Cathedrals who were generally the first Christian Kings of this Nation which had it been done by Law would have been a thing of very bad consequence but as it was done was directly contrary to the Magna Charta and to the Kings Coronation Oath But now they that were weary of the Popish Superstitions observing that Arch-bishop Cranmer had so great a share of the young Kings affection and that the Protector and he were in the same Interests began to call for a further Reformation of Religion and some were so full of zeal for it that they would not wait on the slow motions of the State Images removed without Authority out of one Church in London So the Curate and Church-wardens of St. Martins in Ironmonger-lane in London took down the Images and Pictures of the Saints and the Crucifix out of their Church and painted many Texts of Scripture on the Walls some of them according to a perverse Translation as the Complaint has it and in the place where the Crucifix was they set up the Kings Arms with some Texts of Scripture about it Upon this the Bishop and Lord-Major of London complained to the Council And the Curate and Church-wardens being cited to appear answered for themselves That the Roof of their Church being bad they had taken it down and that the Crucifix and Images were so rotten that when they removed them they fell to powder That the charge they had been at in repairing their Church was such that they could not buy new Images That they had taken down the Images in the Chancel because some had been guilty of Idolatry towards them In conclusion they said what they had done was with a good intention and if they had in any thing done amiss they asked pardon and submitted themselves Some were for punishing them severely for all the Papists reckoned that this would be a leading Case to all the rest of this Reign and if this was easily passed over others would be from that remisness animated to attempt such things every where But on the other hand those at Court who had designed to set forward a Reformation had a mind only so far to check the heat of the People as to keep it within compass but not to dishearten their Friends too much Cranmer and his Party were for a general removing of all Images and said that in the late Kings time order being given to remove such as were abused to Superstition Upon that there were great Contests in many Places what Images had been so abused and what not and that these Disputes would be endless unless all were taken away In the purest Times of Christianity they had no Images at all in their Churches One of the first Councils namely that at Elvira in Spain An account of the Progress of Image-worship made a Canon against the painting what they worshiped on the Walls Epiphanius was highly offended when he saw a Vail hanging before the door of a Church with a Picture on it which he considered so little as not to know well whose Picture it was but thought it might be Christs or some other Saints yet he tore it and gave them of that Place Money to buy a new Vail in its room Afterwards with the rest of the pomp of Heathenism Images came to be set up in Churches yet so as that there was no sort of Worship payed to them But in the time of Pope Gregory the first many went into extremes about them some were for breaking them and others worshiped them That Pope thought the middle way best neither to break nor to worship them but to keep them only to put the People in mind of the Saints Afterwards there being subtle Questions started about the Unity of Christs Person and Will the Greek Emperours generally inclined to have the animosities raised by these removed by some comprehensive words to which all might consent which the Interest of State as well as Religion seemed to require for their Empire every day declining all methods for uniting it were thought good and prudent But the Bishops were stiff and peremptory So in the sixth general Council they condemned all who differed from them Upon this the Emperours that succeeded would not receive that Council but the Bishops of Rome ordered the Pictures of all the Bishops who had been at that Council to be set up in the Churches Upon which the Emperours contended against these or any Pictures whatsoever in Churches And herein that happened which is not usual that one Controversie rising occasionally out of another the Parties forsake the first Contest and fall into sharp Conflicts about the occasional differences For now the Emperours and Popes quarrelled most violently about the use of Images and ill Names going a great way tomards the defaming an Opinion the Popes and their Party accused all that were against Images as favouring Judaism or Mahometanism which was then much spread in Asia and Africk The Emperours and their Party accusing the others of Gentilism and Heathenish Idolatry Upon this occasion Gregory the third first assumed the Rebellious Pretension to a Power to depose Leo the Emperour from all his Dominions in Italy There was one General Council at Constantinople that condemned the use or worship of Images and soon after another at Nice did establish it and yet at the same time Charles the Great though not a little linked in Interest to the Bishops of Rome holding both the French and Imperial Crowns by the favour of the Popes wrote or imployed Alcuinus a most learned Country-man of ours as these times went to write in his Name against the Worship of Images And in a Council at Frankfort it was condemned which was also done afterwards in another Council at Paris But in such Ages of Ignorance and Superstition any thing that wrought so much on the senses and imaginations of the People was sure to prevail in conclusion And this had in a Course of seven more Ages been improved by the craft and impostures of the Monks so wonderfully that there was no sign of Divine Adoration that could be invented that was
Judges on the 7th it was read again and joyned to the other Bill about the Sacrament And on the 10th the whole Bill was agreed to by all the Peers except the Bishops of London Hereford Norwich Worcester and Chichester and sent down to the Commons On the 17th a Proviso was sent after it but was rejected by the Commons since the Lords had not agreed to it On the 20th it was sent up agreed to and had afterwards the Royal Assent By it first the value of the Holy Sacrament commonly called the Sacrament of the Altar and in the Scripture the Supper and Table of the Lord was set forth together with its first Institution but it having been of late marvellously abused some had been thereby brought to a contempt of it which they had expressed in Sermons Discourses and Songs in words not fit to be repeated therefore whosoever should so offend after the first of May next was to suffer Fine and Imprisonment at the Kings Pleasure and the Justices of the Peace were to take Information and make Presentments of Persons so offending within three Months after the offences so committed allowing them Witnesses for their own purgation And it being more agreeable to Christs first Institution And the practice of the Church for 500 years after Christ that the Sacrament should be given in both the kinds of Bread and Wine rather than in one kind only Therefore it was Enacted That it should be commonly given in both kinds except necessity did otherwise require it And it being also more agreeable to the first Institution and the primitive Practice that the People should receive with the Priest than that the Priest should receive it alone therefore the day before every Sacrament an Exhortation was to be made to the People to prepare themselves for it in which the benefits and danger of worthy and unworthy receiving were to be expressed and the Priests were not without a lawful cause to deny it to any who humbly askt it This was an Act of great consequence Communion appointed in both kinds since it reformed two abuses that had crept into the Church The one was the denying the Cup to the Laity the other was the Priests communicating alone In the first Institution it is plain that as Christ bad all drink of the Cup and his Disciples all drank of it so St. Paul directed every one to examine himself that he might eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup. From thence the Church for many Ages continued this practice and the Superstition of some who received only in one kind was severely censured and such were appointed either to receive the whole Sacrament or to abstain wholly It continued thus till the belief of the Corporal Presence of Christ was set up and then the keeping and carrying about the Cup in Processions not being so easily done some began to lay it aside For a great while the Bread was given dipt in the Cup to represent a bleeding Christ as it is in the Greek Church to this day In other Places the Laity had the Cup given them but they were to suck it through Pipes that nothing of it should fall to the ground But since they believed that Christ was in every crumb of Bread it was thought needless to give the Sacrament in both kinds So in the Council of Constance the Cup was ordered to be denied the Laity though they acknowledged it to have been instituted and practised otherwise To this the Bohemians would never submit though to compel them to it much Blood was shed in this Quarrel And now in the Reformation this was every where one of the first things with which the People were possessed the opposition of the Roman Church herein to the Institution of Christ being so manifest And all private Masses put down At first this Sacrament was also understood to be a Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ of which many were to be partakers while the fervor of devotion lasted it was thought a scandalous and censurable thing if any had come unto the Christian Assemblies and had not stayed to receive these Holy Mysteries and the denying to give any one the Sacrament was accounted a very great punishment So sensible were the Christians of their ill condition when they were hindred to participate of it But afterwards the former Devotion slackening the good Bishops in the 4th and 5th Centuries complained oft of it that so few came to Receive yet the Custom being to make Oblations before the Sacrament out of which the Clergy had been maintained during the poverty of the Church the Priests had a great mind to keep up the constant use of these Oblations and so perswaded the Laity to continue them and to come to the Sacrament though they did not receive it and in process of time they were made to believe that the Priest received in behalf of the whole People And whereas this Sacrament was the Commemoration of Christs Sacrifice on the Cross and so by a Phrase of Speech was called a Sacrifice they came afterwards to fancy that the Priests consecrating and consuming the Sacrament was an Action of it self expiatory and that both for the Dead and the Living And there rose an infinite number of several sorts of Masses some were for commemorating the Saints and those were called the Masses of such Saints others for a particular Blessing for Rain Health c. and indeed for all the accidents of Humane Life where the addition or variation of a Collect made the difference So that all that Trade of Massing was now removed An Intimation was also made of Exhortations to be read in it which they intended next to set about These abuses in the Mass gave great advantages to those who intended to change it into a Communion But many in stead of managing them prudently made unseemly Jests about them and were carried by a lightness of temper to make Songs and Plays of the Mass for now the Press went quick and many Books were printed this year about matters of Religion the greatest number of them being concerning the Mass which were not written in so decent and grave a style as the matter required Against this Act only five Bishops protested Many of that Order were absent from the Parliament so the opposition made to it was not considerable The next Bill brought into the House of Lords An Act about the Admission of Bishops was concerning the admission of Bishops to their Sees by the Kings Letters Patents Which being read was committed to the Arch-bishop of Canterburies care on the fifth of November and was read the second time on the 10th and committed to some of the Judges and was read the third time on the 28th of November and sent down to the Commons on the 5th of December There was also another Bill brought in concerning the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the Bishops Courts on the 17th of November and pass'd and sent
Christs Flesh and Blood in the Sacrament Upon which many of the Assembly that were indiscreetly hot on both sides cried out some approving and others disliking it Of the Kings Authority under Age and of the Power of the Council in that Case he said not a word and upon that he was imprisoned The occasion of this was the Popish Clergy began generally to have it spread among them that though they had acknowledged the Kings Supremacy yet they had never owned the Councils Supremacy That the Council could only see to the execution of the Laws and Orders that had been made but could not make new ones and that therefore the Supremacy could not be exercised till the King in whose Person it was vested came to be of Age to consider of Matters himself Upon this the Lawyers were consulted who did unanimously resolve that the Supremacy being annexed to the Regal Dignity was the same in a King under Age when it was executed by the Council that it was in a King at full Age and therefore things ordered by the Council now had the same Authority in Law that they could have when the King did act himself But this did not satisfie the greater part of the Clergy Some of whom by the high Flatteries that had been given to Kings in King Henry's time seemed to fancy that there were degrees of Divine Illumination derived unto Princes by the anointing them at the Coronation and these not exerting themselves till a King attained to a ripeness of understanding they thought the Supremacy was to lie dormant while he was so young The Protector and Council endeavoured to have got Gardiner to declare against this but he would not meddle in it How far he might set forward the other Opinion I do not know These Proceedings against him were thought too severe and without Law but he being generally hated they were not so much censured as they had been if they had fallen on a more acceptable Man And thus were the Orders made by the Council generally obeyed many being terrified with the usage Gardiner met with from which others inferred what they might look for if they were refractory when so great a Bishop was so treated The next thing Cranmer set about was the compiling of a Catechisme or large instruction of young Persons in the Grounds of the Christian Religion In it he reckons the two first Commandments but one Cranmer sets out a Catechisme though he says many of the Ancients divided them in two But the division was of no great consequence so no part of the Decalogue were suppressed by the Church He shewed that the excuses the Papists had for Images were no other than what the Heathens brought for their Idolatry who also said they did not worship the Image but that only which was represented by it He particularly takes notice of the Image of the Trinity He shews how St. Peter would not suffer Cornelius and the Angel would not suffer St. John to worship them The believing that there is a vertue in one Image more than in another he accounts plain Idolatry Ezekias broke the Brazen Serpent when abused though it was a Type or Image of Christ made by Gods command to which a miraculous Vertue had been once given So now there was good reason to break Images when they had been so abused to superstition and Idolatry and when they gave such scandal to Jews and Mahometans who generally accounted the Christians Idolaters on that account He asserts besides the two Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper the Power of reconciling Sinners to God as a third and fully owns the Divine Institution of Bishops and Priests and wishes that the Canons and Rites of publick Penitence were again restored and exhorts much to Confession and the Peoples dealing with their Pastors about their Consciences that so they might upon knowledge bind and loose according to the Gospel Having finished this easie but most useful work he dedicated it to the King And in his Epistle to him complains of the great neglect that had been in former times of Catechising and that Confirmation had not been rightly administred since it ought to be given only to these of Age who understood the Principles of the Christian Doctrine and did upon knowledge and with sincere minds renew their Baptismal Vow From this it will appear that from the beginning of this Reformation the Practice of the Roman Church in the matter of Images was held Idolatrous Cranmer's zeal for restoring the Penitentiary Canons is also clear and it is plain that he had now quite laid aside those singular opinions which he formerly held of the Ecclesiastical Functions for now in a Work which was wholly his own without the concurrence of any others he fully sets forth their Divine Institution All these things made way for a greater Work which these selected Bishops and Divines who had laboured in the setting forth of the Office of the Communion were now preparing which was the entire Reformation of the whole Service of the Church In order to this they brought together all the Offices used in England In the Southern Parts A General Reformation of all the Offices of the Church is set about those after the use of Sarum were universally received which were believed to have been compiled by Osmund Bishop of Sarum In the North of England they had other Offices after the use of York In South-Wales they had them after the use of Hereford In North-Wales after the use of Bangor And in Lincoln another sort of an Office proper to that See In the Primitive Church when the extraordinary Gifts ceased the Bishops of the several Churches put their Offices and Prayers into such a Method as was nearest to what they had heard or remembred from the Apostles And these Liturgies were called by the Apostles Names from whose Forms they had been composed as that at Jerusalem carried the Name of St. James and that of Alexandria the Name of St. Mark though those Books that we have now under these Names are certainly so interpolated that they are of no great Authority But in the fourth Century we have these Liturgies first mentioned The Council of Laodicea appointed the same Office of Prayers to be used in the Mornings and Evenings The Bishops continued to draw up new Additions and to put old Forms into other Methods But this was left to every Bishops care nor was it made the Subject of any publick Consultation till St. Austins time when in their dealings with Hereticks they found they took advantages from some of the Prayers that were in some Churches Upon this he tells us it was ordered that there should be no Prayers used in the Church but upon common advice after that the Liturgies came to be more carefully considered Formerly the Worship of God was a pure and simple thing and so it continued till Superstition had so infected the Church that those Forms were thought too naked
be eaten therefore they saw no necessity because of a former abuse to throw away Habits that had so much decency in them and had been formerly in use In the compiling the Offices they began with Morning and Evening Prayer These were put in the same Form they are now only there was no Confession nor Absolution the Office beginning with the Lords Prayer In the Communion Service the Ten Commandements were not said as they are now but in other things it was very near what it is now All that had been in the Order of the Communion formerly mentioned was put into it The Offertory was to be made of Bread and Wine mixed with Water Then was said the Prayer for the state of Christs Church in which they gave thanks to God for his wonderful Grace declared in his Saints in the Blessed Virgin the Patriarchs Apostles Prophets and Martyrs and they commended the Saints departed to Gods Mercy and Peace that at the day of the Resurrection we with them might be set on Christs Right Hand To this the consecratory Prayer which we now use was joyned as a part of it only with these words that are since left out With thy Holy Spirit vouchsafe to Ble †ss and Sanc †tifie these thy Gifts and Creatures of Bread and Wine that they may be unto us the Body and Blood of thy most dearly beloved Son c. To the Consecration was also joyned the Prayer of Thanksgiving now used After the Consecration all Elevation was forbidden which had been first used as a Rite expressing how Christ was lifted up on the Cross but was after the belief of the Corporal Presence made use of to shew the Sacrament that the People might all fall down and worship it And it was ordered That the whole Office of the Communion except the Consecratory Prayer should be used on all Holy-days when there was no Communion to put People in mind of it and of the Sufferings of Christ The Bread was to be unleavened round but no print on it and somewhat thicker than it was formerly And though it was anciently put in the Peoples Hands yet because some might carry it away and apply it to superstitious uses it was ordered to be put by the Priest into their Mouths It is clear that Christ delivered it into the Hands of the Apostles and it so continued for many Ages as appears by several remarkable Stories of Holy Men carrying it with them in their Journeys In the Greek Church where the Bread and Wine were mingled together some began to think it more decent to receive it in little Spoons of Gold than in their Hands but that was condemned by the Council in Trullo Yet soon after they began in the Latin Church to appoint Men to receive it with their Hands but Women to take it in a Linnen Cloath which was called their Dominical But when the belief of the Corporeal Presence was received then a new way of receiving was invented among other things to support it The People were now no more to touch that which was conceived to be the Flesh of their Saviour and therefore the Priests Thumb and Fingers were particularly anointed as a necessary disposition for so holy a Contact and so it was by them put into the Mouths of the People A Letany was also gathered consisting of many short Petitions interrupted by Suffrages between them and was the same that we still use only they had one Suffrage that we have not to be delivered from the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities In Baptism there was besides the Forms which we still retain a Cross at first made on the Childs Forehead and Breast with an adjuration of the Devil to go out of him and come at him no more Then the Priest was to take the Child by the Right Hand and to place him within the Font there he was to be dipt thrice once on the right side once on the left and once on the Breast which was to be discreetly done but if the Child were weak it was sufficient to sprinkle Water on his Face Then was the Priest to put a White Vestment or Chrisome on him for a token of Innocence and to anoint him on the Head with a Prayer for the Unction of the Holy Ghost In Confirmation those that came were to be Catechised which having in it a formal engagement to make good the Baptismal Vow was all that was asked The Catechism then was the same that is now only there is since added an Explanation of the Sacraments This being said the Bishop was to Sign them with the Cross and to lay his Hands on them and say I Sign thee with the Sign of the Cross and lay my Hands on thee in the Name of the Father c. The Sick who desired to be anointed might have the Unction on their Forehead or their Breast only with a Prayer that as their Body was outwardly anointed with Oyl so they might receive the Holy Ghost with Health and victory over Sin and Death At Funerals they recommended the Soul departed to Gods Mercy and prayed that his sins might be pardoned that he might be delivered from Hell and carried to Heaven and that his Body might be raised at the last day They also took care that those who could not come or be brought to Church should not therefore be deprived of the use of the Sacraments The Church of Rome had raised the belief of the indispensable necessity of the Sacraments so high that they taught they did ex opere operato by the very action it self without inward acts justifie and confer Grace unless there were a barr put to it by the Receiver and the first rise of the Questions about Justification seems to have come from this For that Church teaching that Men were justified by Sacramental Actions the Reformers opposed this and thought Men were justified by the Internal Acts of the Mind If they had held at this the Controversie might have been managed with much greater advantages which they lost in a great measure by descending to some minuter subtleties In the Church of Rome pursuant to their belief concerning the necessity of the Sacraments Women were allowed in extream Cases to Baptize and the Midwives commonly did it which might be the beginning of their being licensed by Bishops to exercise that Calling And they also believed that a simple attrition with the Sacraments was sufficient for Salvation in those who were grown up and upon these Grounds the Sacraments were administred to the Sick In the Primitive Church they sent Portions of the Sacrament to those who were sick or in Prison and did it not only without Pomp or Processions but sent it often by the hands of Boys and other Laicks as appears from the famed Story of Serapion which as it shews they did not then believe it was the very Flesh and Blood of Christ so when that Doctrine was received it was
a natural effect of that belief to have the Sacrament carried by the Priest himself with some Pomp and Adoration The Ancients thought it more decent and sutable to the Communion of Saints to consecrate the Elements only in the Church and to send Portions to the Sick thereby expressing their Communion with the rest The Reformers considering these things steered a middle course They judged the Sacraments necessary where they could be had as appointments instituted by Christ and though they thought it more expedient to have all Baptisms done in the Church at the Fonts than in private Houses thereby signifying that the Baptized were admitted to the fellowship of that Church yet since our Saviour had said That where two or three are gathered together he will be in the midst of them they thought it savoured too much of a Superstition to the Walls or Fonts of Churches to tie this Action so to these that where Children either through infirmity or the sharpness of Weather could not be without danger carried to Church they should be denied Baptism But still they thought publick Baptism more expressive of the Communion of the Saints so that they recommended it much and only permitted the other in Cases of necessity This has since grown to a great abuse many thinking it a piece of state to have their Children Baptized in their Houses and so bringing their pride with them even into the most Sacred Performances There may be also a fault in the Ministers who are too easily brought to do it But it is now become so universal that all the endeavours of some of our Bishops have not been able to bring it back to the first design of not Baptizing in private Houses excepting only where there was some visible danger in carrying the Children to Church As for the other Sacrament it was thought by our Reformers that according to the mind of the Primitive Church none should be denied it in their extremities it never being more necessary than at that time to use all means that might strengthen the faith and quicken the devotion of dying Persons it being also most expedient that they should then profess their dying in the Faith and with a good Conscience and in Charity with all Men Therefore they ordered the Communion to be given to the Sick and that before it were so given the Priest should examine their Consciences and upon the sincere profession of their Faith and the confession of such sins as oppressed their Consciences with the doing of all that was then in their power for the compleating of their Repentance as the forgiving injuries and dealing justly with all People he should give them the Peace of the Church in a formal Absolution and the Holy Eucharist But that they might avoid the pomp of vain Processions on the one hand and the indecencies of sending the Sacrament by common Hands on the other they thought it better to gather a Congregation about the Sick Person and there to consecrate and give the Sacrament to that small Assembly where as Christs Promise of being in the midst of two or three that were gathered together in his Name should have put an end to the weak exceptions some have made to these private Communions so on the other hand it is to be feared that the greater part retain still too much of the Superstition of Popery as if the Priests Absolution with the Sacrament and some slight sorrow for sin would be a sure Pass-port for their admittance to Heaven which it is certain can only be had upon so true a Faith as carries a sincere Repentance with a change of Heart and Life along with it for to such only the Mercies of God through the Merits of Jesus Christ are applied in all ordinary Cases To all this they prefixed a Preface concerning Ceremonies The Preface to the Book of Common-Prayer the same that is still before the Common-Prayer-Book In which Preface they make a difference between those Ceremonies that were brought in with a good intent and were afterwards abused and others that had been brought in out of vanity and superstition at first and grew to be more abused The one they had quite rejected the other they had reformed and retained for decency and edification Some were so set on their old Forms that they thought it a great matter to depart from any of them others were desirous to innovate in every thing between both which they had kept a mean The burthen of Ceremonies in St. Austins days was such that he complained of them then as intolerable by which the state of Christians was worse than that of the Jews but these were swelled to a far greater number since his days which did indeed darken Religion and had brought Christians under a heavy Yoke Therefore they had only reserved such as were decent and apt to stir up Mens Minds with some good signification Many Ceremonies had been so abused by superstition and avarice that it was necessary to take them quite away But since it was fit to retain some for decency and order it seemed better to keep those which were old than to seek new ones But these that were kept were not thought equal with Gods Law and so were upon just causes to be altered they were also plain and easie to be understood and not very subject to be abused Nor did they in retaining these condemn other Nations or prescribe to any but their own People And thus was this Book made ready against the next meeting of Parliament In it the use of the Cross was retained Reflections made on the new Liturgy since it had been used by the ancient Christians as a publick declaration that they were not ashamed of the Cross of Christ Though they acknowledged this had been strangely abused in the later Ages in which the bare use of the Cross was thought to have some Magical Vertue in it And this had gone so far that in the Roman Pontifical it was declared that the Crosier Staff was to be worshiped with that supream degree of Adoration called Latria But it was thought fit to retain it in some parts of Worship and the rather because it was made use of among the People to defame the Reformers that they had no Veneration for the Cross of Christ And therefore as an outward expression of that in the Sacrament of Baptism and in the Office of Confirmation and in the consecration of the Sacramental Elements it was ordered to be retained but with this difference that the Sign of the Cross was not made with the opinion of any vertue or efficacy in it to drive away evil Spirits or to preserve one out of dangers which were thought Vertues that followed the use of it in the Roman Church for in Baptism as they used the Sign of the Cross they added an Adjuration to the evil Spirit not to violate it and in the making it said Receive the Sign of the Cross both in
they had now lost all hopes of the Marriage and were almost engaged in a War with France which was like to fall on the King when his Affairs were in an ill condition his People being divided and discontented at home and his Treasure much exhausted by this War The state of Germany was at this time most deplorable The Affairs of Germany The Pope and Emperor continued their quarrelling about the translation of the Council Mendoza at Rome and Velasco at Bologna declared in the Emperors Name that a Council being called by his great and long endeavours for the quieting of Germany and he being engaged in a War to get it to be received and having procured a submission of the Empire to the Council it was upon frivolous and feigned causes removed out of Germany to one of the Popes Towns by which the Germans thought themselves disengaged of their promise which was to submit to a Council in Germany and therefore that he protested against it as an unlawful Meeting to whose Decrees he would not submit and that if they did not return to Trent he would take care of setling Religion some other way But the Pope being encouraged by the French King was not ill pleased to see the Emperor anew embroil himself with the Germans and therefore intended the Council should be continued at Bologna The Emperor being displeased with the Translation of the Council orders the Interim to be drawn Upon this the Emperor ordered three Divines Julius Flugius Bishop of Naumburg Michael Sidonius and Islebius Agricola to draw a Form of Religion The two former had been always Papists and the latter was formerly a Protestant but was believed to be now corrupted by the Emperor that the Name of one of the Ausburg Confession might make what they were to set out pass the more easily They drew up all the Points of Religion in a Book which was best known by the Name of the Interim because it was to last during that Interval till a General Council should meet in Germany In it all the Points of the Romish Doctrine were set forth in the smoothest terms possible only married Men might officiate as Priests and the Communion was to be given in both kinds Feb. Diet at Ausburg The Book being thus prepared a Diet was summoned to Ausburg in Feb. where the first thing done was the solemn Investiture of Maurice in the Electorate of Saxony He had been declared Elector last year by the Emperor before Wittenberg but now it was performed with great Ceremony on the 24th of Feb. which was the Emperors Birth-day Feb. 24. Maurice made Elector of Saxony John Frederick looking on with his usual constancy of mind All he said was Now they triumph in that Dignity of which they have against Justice and Equity spoiled me God grant they may enjoy it peaceably and happily and may never need any assistance from me or my Posterity And without expressing any further concern about it he went to his Studies which were almost wholly employed in the Scriptures The Book of the Interim being prepared the Elector of Brandenburg sent for Martin Bucer who was both a learned and moderate Divine and shewed it him Bucer having read it plainly told him that it was nothing but downright Popery only a little disguised at which the Elector was much offended for he was pleased with it and Bucer not without great danger returned back to Strasburg On the 15th of March March 15. The Interim received in the Diet. the Book was proposed to the Diet and the Elector of Mentz without any order did in all the Princes Names give the Emperor thanks for it which he interpreted as the assent of the whole Diet and after that would not hear any that came to him to stop it but published it as agreed to by the Diet. The Papists offended at it as well as the Protestants At Rome and Bologna it was much condemned as an high attempt in the Emperor to meddle with Points of Religion such as dispensing with the Marriage of Priests and the Communion in both kinds Wherefore some of that Church writ against it And Matters went so high that wise Men of that side began to fear the Breach between the Emperor and them might before they were aware be past reconciling for they had not forgot that the last Popes stiffness had lost England and they were not a little afraid they might now lose the Emperor But if the Pope were offended for the concessions in these two Particulars the Protestants thought they had much greater cause to dislike it since in all other controverted Points it was against them So that several of that side writ likewise against it But the Emperor was now so much exalted with his success that he resolved to go through with it little regarding the opposition of either hand The new Elector of Saxony went home and offered it to his Subjects But they refused to receive it and said as Sir Philip Hobbey Cotton Library Titus B. 2. then Ambassador from England at the Emperors Court writ over that they had it under the Emperors Hand and Seal that he should not meddle with Matters of Religion but only with reforming the Common-wealth and that if their Prince would not protect them in this matter they should find another who would defend them from such oppression An Exhortation for the receiving of it was read at Ausburg but they also refused it Many Towns sent their Addresses to the Emperor desiring him not to oppress their Consciences But none was of such a nature as that from Linda a little Town near Constance which had declared for the Emperor in the former War They returned answer That they could not agree to the Interim without incurring Eternal Damnation but to shew their submission to him in all other things they should not shut their Gates nor make resistance against any he should find though it were to spoil and destroy their Town This let the Emperor and his Council see how difficult a work it would be to subdue the Consciences of the Germans But his Chancellor Granvell pressed him to extream Councils and to make an example of that Town who had so peremptorily refused to obey his Commands Yet he had little reason to hope he should prevail on those who were at liberty when he could work so little on his Prisoner the Duke of Saxe For he had endeavoured by great offers to perswade him to agree to it but all was in vain for he always told them that kept him that his Person was in their Power but his Conscience was in his own and that he would not on any terms depart from the Ausburg Confession Upon this he was severely used his Chaplain was put from him with most of his Servants but he continued still unmoved and as cheerful as in his greatest Prosperity The Lutheran Divines entred into great disputes how far they might comply
lose their Degree in the Church This was soon received over all the Western Church and Arguments were found out afterwards by the Canonists to prove the necessity of continuing it from Davids not being suffered to build the Temple since he was a Man of Blood and from the qualification required by St. Paul in a Bishop That he should be no striker since he seemed to strike that did it either in Person or by one whom he deputed to do it But when afterwards Charles the Great and all the Christian Princes in the West gave their Bishops great Lands and Dominions they obliged them to be in all their Councils and to do them such Services as they required of them by vertue of their Tenures The Popes designing to set up a Spiritual Empire and to bring all Church-lands within it required the Bishops to separate themselves from a dependance on their Princes as much as it was possible And these Laws formerly made about Cases of Blood were judged a Colour good enough why they should not meddle in such Trials so they procured these Cases to be excepted But it seems Cranmer thought his Conscience was under no tie from those Canons and so judged it not contrary to his Function to Sign that Order The Parliament was on the 14th of March Prorogued to the 4th of Nov. the Clergy having granted the King a Subsidy of 6 s. in the Pound to be paid in three Years Subsidies granted by the Clergy and Laity In the Preamble of the Bill of Subsidy they acknowledged the great quietness they enjoyed under him having no Let nor Impediment in the Service of God But the Laity set out their Subsidy with a much fuller Preamble of the great happiness they had by the true Religion of Christ declaring that they were ready to forsake all things rather than Christ as also to assist the King in the Conquest of Scotland which they call a part of his Dominion therefore they give 12 d. in the Pound of all Mens Personal Estates to be paid in three Years But now to look into Matters of Religion there was A New Visitation immediately after the Act of Vniformity pass'd a new Visitation which it is probable went in the same Method that was observed in the former There were two things much complained of the one was that the Priests read the Prayers generally with the same tone of Voice that they had used formerly in the Latin Service so that it was said the People did not understand it much better than they had done the Latin formerly This I have seen represented in many Letters and it was very seriously laid before Cranmer by Martin Bucer The course taken in it was that in all Parish Churches the Service should be read in a plain audible Voice but that the former way should remain in Cathedrals where there were great Quires who were well acquainted with that Tone and where it agreed better with the Musick that was used in the Anthems Yet even there many thought it no proper way in the Letany where the greatest gravity was more agreeable to such humble Addresses than such a modulation of the Voice which to those unacquainted with it seemed light and for others that were more accustomed to it it seemed to be rather use that had reconciled them to it than the natural decency of the thing or any fitness in it to advance the devotion of their Prayers But this was a thing judged of less importance It was said that those who had been accustomed to read in that Voice could not easily alter it but as those dropt off and died others would be put in their places who would officiate in a plainer Voice Some of the old Abuses coninued in the new Service Other Abuses were more important Some used in the Communion-Service many of the old Rites such as kissing the Altar crossing themselves lifting the Book from one place to another breathing on the Bread shewing it openly before the distribution with some other of the old Ceremonies The People did also continue the use of their praying by Beads which was called an Innovation of Peter the Hermite in the 12th Century By it ten Aves went for one Pater Noster and the reciting these so oft in Latin had come to be almost all the devotion of the Vulgar and therefore the People were ordered to leave that unreasonable way of Praying it seeming a most unaccountable thing that the reciting the Angels Salutation to the Blessed Virgin should be such a high piece of Divine Worship And that this should be done ten times for one Prayer to God looked so like preferring the Creature to the Creator that it was not easie to defend it from an appearance of Idolatry The Briests were also ordered to exhort the People to give to the Poor The Curates were required to preach and declare the Catechism at least every sixth Week And some Priests continuing secretly the use of Soul Masses in which for avoiding the censure of the Law they had one to communicate with them but had many of these in one day It was ordered that there should be no selling of the Communion in Trentals and that there should be but one Communion in one Church except on Easter-day and Christmas in which the People coming to the Sacrament in greater numbers there should be one Sacrament in the Morning and another near Noon And there being great abuses in Churches and Church-yards in which in the times of Popery Markets had been held and Bargains made that was forbid chiefly in the time of Divine Service or Sermon Collection Number 33. These Instructions which the Reader will find in the Collection were given in charge to the Visitors Cranmer had also a Visitation about the same time in which the Articles he gave out are all drawn according to the Kings Injunctions By some Questions in them they seem to have been sent out before the Parliament because the Book of Service is not mentioned but the last Question save one being of such as contemned married Priests and refused to receive the Sacrament at their hands I conceive that these were compiled after the Act concerning their Marriage was past but before the Feast of Whit-Sunday following for till then the Common-Prayer-Book was not to be received There were also Orders sent by the Council to the Bishop of London to see that there should be no special Masses in St. Pauls Church which being the Mother-Church in the chief City of the Kingdom would be an example to all the rest and that therefore there should be only one Communion at the great Altar and that at the time when the high Mass was wont to be celebrated unless some desired a Sacrament in the Morning and then it was to be celebrated at the high Altar Bonner who resolved to comply in every thing sent the Councils Letter to the Dean and Residentiaries of St. Pauls to see it obeyed
the Bishoprick of Duresme Upon this the Protector writ a chiding Letter to him To it he writ an Answer so sutable to what became a Bishop who would put all things to hazard rather than do any thing against his Conscience that I thought it might do no small right to his Memory to put it with the Answer which the Protector writ to him in the Collection Collection Numb 59 60. These with many more I found among his Majesties Papers of State in that Repository of them commonly called the Paper-Office To which I had a free access by a Warrant which was procured to me from the King by the Right Honourable the Earl of Sunderland one of the Principal Secretaries of State who very cheerfully and generously expressed his readiness to assist me in any thing that might compleat the History of our Reformation That Office was first set up by the care of the Earl of Salisbury when he was Secretary of State in King James's time which though it is a copious and certain Repertory for those that are to write our History ever since the Papers of State were laid up there yet for the former times it contains only such Papers as that great Minister could then gather together so that it is not so compleat in the Transactions that fall within the time of which I writ There was also a settlement made of the Controversie concerning the Greek Tongue A contest about pronouncing the Greek There had been in King Henry's time a great Contest raised concerning the Pronunciation of the Greek Vowels That Tongue was but lately come to any perfection in England and so no wonder the Greek was pronounced like English with the same sound and apertures of the Mouth To this Mr. Cheek then Reader of that Tongue in Cambridge opposed himself and taught other Rules of Pronunciation Gardiner was it seems so afraid of every Innovation though ever so much in the right that he contended stifly to have the old Pronunciation retained and Cheek persisting in his Opinion was either put from the Chair or willingly left it to avoid the Indignation of so great and so spiteful a Man as Gardiner was who was then Chancellor of the University Cheek wrote a Book in vindication of his way of pronouncing Greek of which this must be said That it is very strange to see how he could write with so much Learning and Judgment on so bare a Subject Redmayn Poinet and other learned Men were of his side yet more covertly but Sir Tho. Smith now Secretary of State writ three Books on the same Argument and did so evidently confirm Cheeks Opinion that the Dispute was now laid aside and the true way of pronouncing the Greek took place the rather because Gardiner was in disgrace and Cheek and Smith were in such Power and Authority So great an Influence had the Interests of Men in supporting the most speculative and indifferent things Soon after this Bonner fell into new troubles Bonner falls into trouble he continued to oppose every thing as long as it was safe for him to do it while it was under debate and so kept his Interest with the Papists but he complied so obediently with all the Laws and Orders of Council that it was not easie to find any matter against him He executed every Order that was sent him so readily that there was not so much as ground for any Complaint yet it was known he was in his Heart against every thing they did and that he cherished all that were of a contrary mind The Council being informed that upon the Commotions that were in England many in London withdrew from the Service and Communion and frequented Masses which was laid to his charge as being negligent in the execution of the Kings Laws and Injunctions they writ to him on the 23d of July to see to the correcting of these things and that he should give good example himself Upon which on the 26th following he sent about a Charge to execute the Order in this Letter which he said he was most willing and desirous to do Yet it was still observed that whatsoever obedience he gave it was against his Heart And therefore he was called before the Council the 11th of August Injunctions are given him There a Writing was deliver'd to him complaining of his remissness and particularly that whereas he was wont formerly on all high Festivals to officiate himself yet he had seldom or never done it since the New Service was set out as also that Adultery was openly practised in his Diocess which he took no care according to his Pastoral Office to restrain or punish therefore he was strictly charged to see these things reformed He was also ordered to preach on Sunday come three weeks at St. Pauls Cross and that he should preach there once a quarter for the future and be present at every Sermon made there except he were sick that he should officiate at St. Pauls at every high Festival such as were formerly called Majus duplex and give the Communion that he should proceed against all who did not frequent the Common-Prayer nor receive the Sacrament once a year or did go to Mass that he should search out and punish Adulterers that he should take care of the reparation of Churches and paying Tythes in his Diocess and should keep his residence in his House in London As to his Sermon he was required to preach against Rebellion setting out the hainousness of it he was also to shew what was true Religion and that external Ceremonies were nothing in themselves but that in the use of them Men ought to obey the Magistrate and joyn true devotion to them and that the King was no less King and the People no less bound to obey when he was in Minority than when he was of full Age. In his Sermon he did not set forth the King Power under Age as he had been required to do On the first of September being the day appointed for him to preach there was a great Assembly gathered to hear him He touched upon the Points that were enjoyned him excepting that about the Kings Age of which he said not one word But since the manner of Christs Presence in the Sacrament was a thing which he might yet safely speak of he spent most of his Sermon on the asserting the Corporal Presence which he did with many sharp reflections on those who were of another mind There were present among others William Latimer and John Hooper soon after Bishop of Glocester who came and informed against him that as he had wholly omitted that about the Kings Age so he had touched the other Points but slightly and did say many other things which tended to stir up disorder and dissention Upon this there was a Commission issued out to Cranmer and Ridley with the two Secretaries of State Rot. Pat. 11. Par. 3. Reg. and Dr. May Dean of St. Pauls to
of these is in French It is a Collection of many Passages out of the Old Testament against Idolatry and the worshiping of Images which he dedicated to his Unkle being then Protector the Original under his own hand lies in Trinity Colledge in Cambridge from whence I copied the Preface and the Conclusion which are printed in the Collection after his Journal Ridley visits his Diocess There was nothing else done of moment this Year in relation to the Church save the Visitation made of the Diocess of London by Ridley their new Bishop But the exact time of it is not set down in the Register It was according to King Edwards Journal some time before the 26th of June for he writes that on that day Sir Jo. Yates the high Sheriff of Essex was sent down with Letters to see the Bishop of Londons Injunctions performed which touched the plucking down of Superaltaries Altars and such like Ceremonies and Abuses so that the Visitation must have been about the beginning of June The Articles of it are in Bishop Sparrows Collection They are concerning the Doctrines and Lives and Labours and Charities of the Clergy viz. Whether they spake in favour of the Bishop of Rome or against the use of the Scripture or against the Book of Common-Prayer Whether they stirred up Sedition or sold the Communion or Trentals or used private Masses any where Whether any Anabaptists or others used private Conventicles with different Opinions and Forms from these established Whether there were any that said the wickedness of the Minister took away the effect of the Sacraments or denied Repentance to such as sinned after Baptism Other Questions were about Baptisms and Marriages Whether the Curates did visit the Sick and bury the Dead and expound the Catechisme at least some part of it once in six weeks Whether any observed abrogated Holy-days or the Rites that were now put down Collection Number 52. To these he added some Injunctions which are in the Collection Most of them relate to the old Superstitions which some of the Priests were still inclinable to practise and for which they had been gently if at all reproved by Bonner Such were washing their Hands at the Altar holding up the Bread licking the Chalice blessing their Eyes with the Patten or Sudary and many other Relicks of the Mass The Ministers were also required to charge the People oft to give Alms and to come oft to the Communion and to carry themselves reverently at Church But that which was most new was that there having been great Contests about the Form of the Lords Board whether it should be made as an Altar or as a Table He orders all Altars to be turned to Tables for the Communion Therefore since the Form of a Table was more like to turn the People from the Superstition of the Popish Mass and to the right use of the Lords Supper he exhorted the Curates and Church-wardens to have it in the fashion of a Table decently covered and to place it in such part of the Quire or Chancel as should be most meet so that the Ministers and Communicants should be separated from the rest of the People and that they should put down all By-Altars There are many Passages among Ancient Writers that shew their Communion-Tables were of Wood and that they were so made as Tables that those who fled into Churches for Sanctuary did hide themselves under them The Name Altar came to be given to these generally because they accounted the Eucharist a Sacrifice of Praise as also a Commemorative Sacrifice of the Oblation which Christ made of himself on the Cross From hence it was that the Communion-Table was called also an Altar But now it came to be considered whether as these terms had been on good reason brought in to the Church when there was no thought of the corruptions that followed so if it was not fit since they did still support the belief of an expiatory Sacrifice in the Mass and the opinion of Transubstantiation and were always but Figurative Forms of Speech to change them and to do that more effectually to change the Form and Place of them Some have fondly thought that Ridley gave this Injunction after the Letter which the Council writ to him in the end of November following But as there was no fit time to begin a Visitation after that time this year so the Stile of the Injunctions shews they were given before the Letter The Injunction only exhorts the Curates to do it which Ridley could not have done in such soft words after the Council had required and commanded him to do it So it appears that the Injunctions were given only by his Episcopal Power And that afterwards the same matter being brought before the Council who were inform'd that in many Places there had been Contests about it some being for keeping to their old Custom and others being set on a change the Council thought fit to send their Letter concerning it to Ridley in the beginning of November following The Letter sets out that Altars were taken away in divers Places upon good and godly considerations but still continued in other Places by whiâ—h there rose much contention among the Kings Subjects therefore for avoiding that they did charge and command him to give substantial order through all his Diocess for removing all Altars and setting up Tables every where for the Communion to be administred in some convenient part of the Chancel And that these Orders might be the better received there were Reasons sent with the Letters which he was to cause discreet Preachers to declare in such Places as he thought fit and that himself should set them out in his own Cathedral if conveniently he could The Reasons were to remove the People from the superstitious Opinions of the Popish Mass and because a Table was a more proper Name than an Altar for that on which the Sacrament was laid And whereas in the Book of Common-Prayer these terms are promiscuously used it is done without prescribing any thing about the Form of them so that the changing the one into the other did not alter any part of the Liturgy It was observed that Altars were erected for the Sacrifices under the Law which ceasing they were also to cease and that Christ had instituted the Sacrament not at an Altar but at a Table And it had been ordered by the Preface to the Book of Common-Prayer that if any doubt arose about any part of it the determining of it should be referred to the Bishop of the Diocess Upon these Reasons therefore was this change ordered to be made all over England which was universally executed this year There began this year a Practice which might seem in itself not only innocent but good Sermons on working days forbidden of preaching Sermons and Lectures on the week days to which there was great running from neighbouring Parishes This as it begat emulation in the Clergy so it was
Addition was also made upon good consideration in the Office of the Communion to which the People were observed to come without due seriousness or preparation therefore for awakening their Consciences more feelingly it was ordered that the Office of the Communion should begin with a solemn pronouncing of the Ten Commandments all the Congregation being on their Knees as if they were hearing that Law a-new and a stop to be made at every Commandment for the Peoples devotion of imploring mercy for their past offences and Grace to observe it for the time to come This seemed as effectual a Mean as they could devise till Church-penitence were again set up to beget in Men deep reflections on their sins and to prepare them thereby to receive that Holy Sacrament worthily The other Changes were the removing of some Rites which had been retained in the former Book such as the use of Oyl in Confirmation and Extream Unction the Prayers for Souls departed both in the Communion-Service and in the Office of Burial the leaving out some Passages in the Consecration of the Eucharist that seemed to favour the Belief of the Corporal Presence with the use of the Cross in it and in Confirmation with some smaller variations And indeed they brought the whole Liturgy to the same Form in which it is now except some inconsiderable variations that have been since made for the clearing of some Ambiguities An Aâ—count of kneeling in the Communion In the Office of the Communion they added a Rubrick concerning the posture of kneeling which was appointed to be still the gesture of Communicants It was hereby declared that that gesture was kept up as a most reverent and humble way of expressing our great sense of the Mercies of God in the death of Christ there communicated to us but that thereby there was no adoration intended to the Bread and Wine which were gross Idolatry nor did they think the very Flesh and Blood of Christ were there present since his Body according to the nature of all other Bodies could be only in one place at once and so he being now in Heaven could not be corporally present in the Sacrament This was by Queen Elizabeth ordered to be left out of the Common-Prayer-Book since it might have given offence to some otherwise inclinable to the Communion of the Church who yet retained the belief the Corporal Presence But since his present Majesties Restoration many having excepted to the Posture as apprehending some thing like Idolatry or Superstition might lie under it if it were not rightly explained that Explication which was given in King Edwards time was again inserted in the Common-Prayer-Book For the Posture it is most likely that the first Institution was in the Table-gesture which was lying along on one side But it was apparent in our Saviours Practice that the Jewish Church had changed the Posture of that Institution of the Passover in whose room the Eucharist came For though Moses had appointed the Jews to eat their Paschal Lamb standing with their Loins girt with Staves in their Hands and Shooes on their Feet yet the Jews did afterwards change this into the Common-Table-Posture of which change though there is no mention in the Old Testament yet we see it was so in our Saviours time and since he complied with the common Custom we are sure that Change was not criminal It seemed reasonable to allow the Christian Church the like Power in such things with the Jewish and as the Jews thought their coming into the Promised Land might be a Warrant to lay aside the Posture appointed by Moses which became Travellers best so Christ being now exalted it seemed fit to receive this Sacrament with higher Marks of outward respect than had been proper in the first Institution when he was in the state of Humiliation and his Divine Glory not yet so fully revealed Therefore in the Primitive Church they received standing and bending their Body in a posture of Adoration But how soon that Gesture of kneeling came in is not so exactly observed nor is it needful to know But surely there is a great want of ingenuity in them that are pleased to apply these Orders of some later Popes for kneeling at the Elevation to our kneeling when ours is not at one such part which might be more liable to exception but during the whole Office by which it is one continued Act of Worship and the Communicants kneel all the while But of this no more needs to be said than is exprest in the Rubrick which occasioned this Digression Thus were the Reformations both of Doctrine and Worship prepared To which all I can add of this Year is Some Orders given to the Kings Chaplains that there were six eminent Preachers chosen out to be the Kings Chaplains in Ordinary two of those were always to attend at Court and four to be sent over England to preach and instruct the People In the first year two of these were to go into Wales and the other two into Lancashire the next year two into the Marches of Scotland and two into York-shire the third year two into Devon-shire and two into Hamp-shire and the fourth year two into Norfolk and two into Kent and Sussex These were Bill Harle Pern Grindal Bradford the Name of the sixth is so dashed in the Kings Journal that it cannot be read These it seems were accounted the most zealous and readiest Preachers of that time who were thus sent about as Itinerants to supply the defects of the greatest part of the Clergy who were generally very faulty The Business of the Lady Mary was now taken up with more heat than formerly The Emperors earnest sute The Lady Mary continued to have Mass said in her Chappel that she might have Mass in her House was long rejected for it was said that as the King did not interpose in the matters of the Emperors Government so there was no reason for the Emperor to meddle in his Affairs Yet the state of England making his friendship at that time necessary to the King and he refusing to continue in his League unless his Kinswoman obtained that favour it was promised that for some time in hope she would reform there should be a forbearance granted The Emperors Ambassadors pressed to have a License for it under the Great Seal It was answered That being against Law it could not be done Then they desired to have it certified under the Kings Hand in a Letter to the Emperor but even that was refused So that they only gave a Promise for some time by word of mouth and Paget and Hobby who had been the Ambassadors with the Emperor declared they had spoke of it to him with the same limitations But the Emperor who was accustomed to take for absolute what was promised only under conditions writ to the Lady Mary that he had an absolute Promise for the free exercise of her Religion and so she pretended this when she
of Marriage But all separation from Bed and Board except during a Trial was to be taken away The 11th was about Admission to Ecclesiastical Benefices Patrons were to consider the choice of the Person was trusted to them but was not to be abused to any sacrilegious or base ends if they did otherwise they were to lose their right for that time Benefices were not to be given or promised before they were void nor let lie destitute above six Months otherwise they were to devolve to the Bishop Clergy-men before their Ordination were to be examined by the Arch-deacons with such other Triers as the Bishop should appoint to be assistant to them and the Bishop himself was to try them since this was one of the chief things upon which the happiness of the Church depended The Candidate was to give an Oath to answer sincerely upon which he was to be examined about his Doctrine chiefly of the whole Points of the Catechisme if he understood them aright and what knowledge he had of the Scriptures they were to search him well whether he held Heretical Opinions None was to be admitted to more Cures than one and all Priviledges for Pluralities were for ever to cease nor was any to be absent from his Cure except for a time and a just cause of which he was to satisfie his Ordinary The Bishops were to take great care to allow no absence longer than was necessary every one was to enter upon his Cure within two Months after he was Instituted by the Bishop Prebendaries who had no particular Cure were to preach in the Churches adjacent to them Bastards might not be admitted to Orders unless they had eminent Qualities But the Bastards of Patrons were upon no account to be received if presented by them Other bodily defects unless such as did much disable them or made them very contemptible were not to be a barr to any Beside the Sponsions in the Office of Ordination they were to swear that they had made no agreement to obtain the Benefice to which they were presented and that if they come to know of any made by others on their account they should signifie it to the Bishop and that they should not do any thing to the prejudice of their Church The 12th and 13th were about the renouncing or changing of Benefices The 14th was about purgation upon common fame or when one was accused for any crime which was proved incompleatly and only by presumptions The Ecclesiastical Courts might not re-examine any thing that was proved in any Civil Court but upon a high scandal a Bishop might require a Man to purge himself otherwise to separate him from Holy things The Form of a Purgation was to swear himself innocent and he was also to have four Compurgators of his own Rank who were to swear that they believed he swore true upon which the Judge was to restore him to his Fame Any that were under suspicion of a Crime might by the Judge be required to avoid all the occasions from which the suspition had risen But all superstitious Purgations were to be rejected The 15th 16th 17th and 18th were about Dilapidations the Letting of the Goods of the Church the confirming the former Rules of Election in Cathedrals or Colledges and the Collation of Benefices And there was to be a Purgation of Simony as there should be occasion for it The 19th was about Divine Offices In the Mornings on Holy-days the Common-Prayer was to be used with the Communion-Service joyned to it In Cathedrals there was to be Communion every Sunday and Holy-day where the Bishop the Dean and the Prebendaries and all maintained by that Church were to be present There was no Sermon to be in Cathedrals in the Morning lest that might draw any from the Parish Churches but only in the Afternoons In the Anthems all Figured Musick by which the Hearers could not understand what they sung was to be taken away In Parish Churches there were only to be Sermons in the Morning but none in the Afternoon except in great Parishes All who were to receive the Sacrament were to come the day before and inform the Minister of it who was to examine their Consciences and their Belief On Holy-days in the Afternoon the Catechism was to be explained for an hour After the Evening-Prayers the Poor were to be looked to and such as had given open scandal were to be examined and publick Penitence was to be enjoyned them and the Minister with some of the Ancients of the Parish were to commune together about the state of the People in it that if any carried themselves indecently they might be first charitably admonished and if that did not prevail subjected to severer Censures but none were to be excommunicated without the Bishop were first informed and had consented to it Divine Offices were not to be performed in Chappels or private Houses lest the Churches should under that pretence be neglected and Errors more easily disseminated excepting only the Houses of Peers and Persons of great Quality who had numerous Families but in these all things were to be done according to the Book of Common-Prayer The 20th was about those that bore Office in the Church Sextons Church-wardens Deacons Priests and Rural Deans This last was to be a Yearly Office he that was named to it by the Bishop being to watch over the manners of the Clergy and People in his Precinct was to signifie the Bishops pleasure to them and to give the Bishop an account of his Precinct every sixth Month. The Arch-deacons were to be general Visitors over the Rural Deans In every Cathedral one of the Prebendaries or one procured by them was thrice a week to expound some part of the Scriptures The Bishops were to be over all and to remember that their Authority was given to them for that end that many might be brought to Christ and that such as had gone astray might be restored by Repentance To the Bishop all were to give obedience according to the Word of God The Bishop was to preach often in his Church was to Ordain none for Rewards or rashly was to provide good Pastors and to deprive bad ones he was to visit his Diocess every third year or oftener as he saw cause but then he was to do it at his own charge he was to have yearly Synods and to confirm such as were well instructed His Family was to consist of Clergy-men whom he should bring up to the Service of the Church so was St. Austins and other Ancient Bishops Families constituted This being a great means to supply the great want of good and faithful Ministers Their Wives and Children were also to avoid all levity or vain dressing They were never to be absent from their Diocesses but upon a publick and urgent cause and when then grew sick or infirm they were to have Coadjutors If they became scandalous or heretical they were to be deprived by the Kings Authority The Arch-bishops
was expected that he should he sent to the Tower that very day These reports being brought to Cranmer some advised him to fly beyond Seas he said he would not diswade others from that course now that they saw a Persecution rising but considering the station he was in and the hand he had in all the Changes that were made he thought it so indecent a thing for him to fly that no entreaties should ever perswade him to it Cranmer's Declaration Coll. Numb 8. So he by Peter Martyr's advice drew up a Writing that I have put in the Collection in Latin as it was at that time translated The substance of it was to this effect That as the Devil had at all times set on his Instruments by Lies to defame the Servants of God so he was now more than ordinarily busie For whereas King Henry had begun the correcting of the abuses of the Mass which his Son had brought to a further perfection and so the Lords Supper was restored to its first Institution and was celebrated according to the pattern of the Primitive Church now the Devil intending to bring the Mass again into its room as being his own invention had stirred up some to give out that it had been set up in Canterbury by his the said Cranmer's Order and it was said that he had undertaken to sing Mass to the Queens Majesty both at King Edwards Funeral at Paul's and other places and though for these twenty years he had despised all such vain and false reports as were spread of him yet now he thought it not fit to lye under such misrepresentations Therefore he protested to all the World that the Mass was not set up at Canterbury by his order but that a fawning hypocritical Monk this was Thornton Suffragan of Dover had done it without his â—nowledge and for what he was said to have undertaken to the Queen her Majesty knew well how false that was offering if he might obtain her Leave for it to maintain that every thing in the Communion Service that was set out by their most innocent and good Ring Edward was according to Christs Institution and the practice of the Apostles and the ancient Church for many Ages to which the Mass was contrary being full of errors and abuses and although Peter Martyr was by some called an ignorant Man he with him or other four or five such as he should choose would be ready to defend not only their Book of Common Prayer and the other Rites of their Service but the whole Doctrine and Order of Religion set forth by the late King as more pure and more agreeable to the Word of God than any sort of Religion that had been in England for a thousand years before it provided that all things should be judged by the Scriptures and that he Reasonings on both sides should be faithfully written down This he had drawn Published without his knowledg with a Resolution to have made a publick use of it but Scory who had bin Bishop of Chichester coming to him he shewed him the Paper and bad him consider of it Scory indiscreetly gave Copies of it and one of these was publickly read in Cheapside on the fifth of September So on the eighth of that month he was called before the Star-Chamber and asked whether he was the Author of that seditious Bill that was given out in his name and if so whether he was sorry for it He answered that the Bill was truly his but he was very sorry it had gone from him in such a manner But owned by him before the Council for he had resolved to have inlarged it in many things and to have ordered it to be affixed to the doors of Pauls and of the other Churches in London with his hand and Seal to it He was at that time contrary to all mens expectation dismissed Gardiner plainly saw he could not expect to succeed him and that the Queen had designed that See for Cardinal Pool so he resolved to protect and preserve Cranmer all he could Some moved that he should be only put from his Bishoprick and have a small Pension assigned him with a charge to keep within a Confinement and not to meddle with matters of Religion He was generally beloved for the gentleness of his temper so it was thought that proceeding severely with him might Alienate some from them and embroil their affairs in the next Parliament Others objected that if he who had been the chief promoter of Heresy was used with such tenderness it would encourage the rest to be more obstinate And the Queen who had forgot the Services he did her in her Father's time remembring rather that he had pronounced the Sentence of Divorce against her Mother was easily induced to proceed severely So on the thirteenth of September both he and Latimer were called before the Council He and Latimer sent to the Tower Latimer was that day committed but Cranmer was respited till next day and then he was sent to the Tower both for matters of Treason against the Queen and for dispersing of seditious Bills Tylor of Hadlee and several other Preachers were also put in Prison and upon an Information brought against Horn Dean of Duresm he was sent for The Forreigners that were come over upon publick Faith and encouragement The Forreigners sent out of England were better used for Peter Martyr was preserved from the rage of his enemies and suffered to go beyond Sea There was also an Order sent to John a Lasco and his Congregation to be gone their Church being taken from them and their Corporation dissolved And an hundred seventy five of them went away in two Ships to Denmark on the seventeenth of September with all their Preachers except two who were left to look to those few which stayed behind and being engaged in Trade resolved to live in England and follow their Consciences in the matters of Religion in private with the Assistance of those Teachers But a Lasco after a long and hard passage arriving at Denmark was as ill received there as if it had heen a popish Country when they understood that he and his Company were of the Helvetian Confession so that though it was December and a very severe Winter they were required to be gone within two days and could not obtain so much as liberty to leave their Wives or Children behind them till they could provide a place for them From thence they went first to Lubeck then to Wismar and Hamburgh where they found the disputes about the manner of Christs Presents in the Sacrament had raised such violent animosities that after much barbarous usage they were banished out of all those Towns and could find no place to settle in till about the end of March that they came to Friseland where they were suffered to plant themselves Many English fly beyond Sea Many in England seeing the Government was set on severe courses so early did
Communion of a Church which they thought had corrupted the chief parts of Worship than in any thing they had said or done It was an unusual and an ungrateful thing to the English Nation that is apt to compassionate all in misery to see four five six seven and once thirteen burning in one Fire and the sparing neither Sex nor Age nor Blind nor Lame but making havock of all equally and above all the barbarity of Gernsey raised that horror in the whole Nation that there seems ever since that time such an abhorrence to that Religion to be derived down from Father to Son that it is no wonder an aversion so deeply rooted and raised upon such grounds does upon every new provocation or jealousie of returning to it break out in most violent and convulsive Symptoms But all those Fires did not extinguish the Light of the Reformation The Reformation spreads for all the Persecution nor abate the love of it They spread it more and kindled new heats in Mens minds so that what they had read of the former Persecutions under the Heathens seemed to be now revived This made those who loved the Gospel meet oft together though the malice of their Enemies obliged them to do it with great caution and secrecy yet there were sometimes at their Meetings about 200. They were instructed and watched over by several faithful Shepherds who were willing to hazard their Lives in feeding this Flock committed to their care The chief of these were Scambler and Bentham afterwards promoted by Queen Elizabeth to the Sees of Peterborough and Litchfield Foule Bernher and Rough a Scotch-man that was afterwards condemned and burnt by Bonner There was also care taken by their Friends beyond Sea to supply them with good Books which they sent over to them for their instruction and encouragement These that fled beyond Sea went at first for the most part to France where though they were well used in opposition to the Queen yet they could not have the free exercise of their Religion granted them so they retired to Geneva and Zurick and Arraw in Switzerland and to Strasburg and Frankfort in the upper Germany and to Emden in the lower At Frankfort an unhappy difference fell in among some of them The Troubles at Frankfort among the English there who had used before the English Liturgy and did afterwards comply with it when they were in England where it had Authority from the Law yet they thought that being in Forreign Parts they should rather accomodate their Worship to those among whom they lived so in stead of the English Liturgy they used one near the Geneva and French Forms Others thought that when those in England who had compiled their Liturgy were now confirming what they had done with their Blood and many more were suffering for it it was an high contempt of them and their sufferings to depart from these Forms This contradiction raised that heat that Dr. Cox who lived in Strasburg with his Friend Peter Martyr went thither and being a Man of great reputation procured an Order from the Senate that the English Forms should only be used in their Church This dissention being once raised went further than perhaps it was at first intended For those who at first liked the Geneva way better that being in Forreign Parts they might all seem to be united in the same Forms now began to quarrel with some things in the English Liturgy and Knox being a Man of a hot temper engaged in this matter very warmly and got his Friend Calvin to write somewhat sharply of some things in the English Service This made Knox and his Party leave Frankfort and go to Geneva Knox had also written indecently of the Emperor which obliged the Senate of Frankfort to require him to be gone out of their Bounds There fell in other Contests about the censuring of offences which some of the Congregation would not leave in the Hands of the Ministers only but would have it shared among the whole Congregation Upon these matters there arose great debates and many Papers were written on both sides to the great grief of Parker and others who lived privately in England and to the scandal of the strangers who were not a little offended to see a company of People fly out of their Country for their Consciences and in stead of spending their time in Fasting and Prayer for their persecuted Brethren at home to fall into such quarrels about matters which themselves acknowledged were not the Substantials of Religion nor Points of Conscience in which certainly they began the Breach who departed from that way of Worship which they acknowledged was both lawful and good but there followed too much animosity on both sides which were the Seeds of all those differences that have since distracted this Church They who reflected on the Contests that the Novatians raised both at Rome and Carthage in Cyprians time and the Heats the Donatists brought into the African Churches soon after the Persecution was over found somewhat parallel both to these Schisms now during the Persecution and to those afterwards raised when it was over Pool is made Arch-bishop of Canterbury I now return to the Affairs of England On the 22d of March the very day after Cranmer was burnt Pool was consecrated Arch-bishop of Canterbury by the Arch-bishop of York the Bishops of London Ely Worcester Lincoln Rochester and St. Asaph He had come over only a Cardinal Deacon and was last Winter made a Priest and now a Bishop It seems he had his Conge d'Elire with his Election and his Bulls from Rome already dispatched before this time The Pope did not know with what face to refuse them being pressed by the Queen on his account though he wanted only a colour to wreak his revenge on him to which he gave vent upon the first opportunity that offered it self It seems Pool thought it indecent to be consecrated as long as Cranmer lived yet his choosing the next day for it brought him under the suspition of having procured his death so that the words of Elijah to Ahab concerning Naboth were applied to him Thou hast killed and taken possession On the 28th of that Month he came in State through London to Bow-Church where the Bishops of Worcester and Ely after the former had said Mass put the Pall about him This was a Device set up by Pope Paschall the second in the beginning of the twelfth Century for the engaging of all Arch-bishops to a more immediate dependance on that See they being after they took the Pall to act as the Popes Legates born as the Phrase was of which it was the Ensign But it was at the first admitted with great contradiction both by the Kings of Sicily and Poland the Archbishops of Palermo and Gnesna being the first to whom they were sent all Men wondring at the novelty of the thing and of the Oath which the Popes required of them at the
on the Dead or cast the burthen of it wholly upon her Sister But she assured them if ever she married she would make such a Choice as should be to the satisfaction and good of her People She did not know what credit she might yet have with them but she knew well she deserved to have it for she was resolved never to deceive them Her People were to her in stead of Children and she reckoned her self married to them by her Coronation They would not want a Successor when she died and for her part she should be well contented that the Marble should tell Posterity HERE LIES A QUEEN THAT REIGNED SO LONG AND LIVED AND DIED A VIRGIN She took their Address in good part and desired them to carry back her hearty thanks for the care the Commons had of her The Journals of the House of Lords are imperfect so that we find nothing in them of this matter yet it appears that they likewise had it before them for the Journals of the House of Commons have it marked that on the fifteenth of February there was a Message sent from the Lords desiring that a Committee of thirty Commoners might meet with twelve Lords to consider what should be the Authority of the Person whom the Queen should marry The Committee was appointed to treat concerning it but it seems the Queen desired them to turn to other things that were more pressing for I find nothing after this entred in the Journals of this Parliament concerning it On the ninth of February the Lords past a Bill for the Recognizing of the Queens Title to the Crown They recognize her Title to the Crown It had been considered whether as Queen Mary had procured a former Repeal of her Mothers Divorce and of the Acts that passed upon it declaring her Illegitimate the like should be done now The Lord Keeper said The Crown purged all defects and it was needless to look back to a thing which would at least cast a reproach on her Father the enquiring into such things too anxiously would rather prejudice than advance her Title So he advised that there should be an Act passed in general words asserting the lawfulness of her descent and her Right to the Crown rather than any special Repeal Queen Mary and her Council were careless of King Henry's Honour but it became her rather to conceal than expose his Weakness This being thought both Wise and Pious Council the Act was conceived in general Words That they did assuredly believe and declare that by the Laws of God and of the Realm she was their lawful Queen and that she was rightly lineally and lawfully descended from the Royal Blood and that the Crown did without all doubt or ambiguity belong to her and the Heirs to be lawfully begotten of her Body after her and that they as representing the Three Estates of the Realm did declare and assert her Title which they would defend with their Lives and Fortunes This was thought to be very wise Council for if they had gone to repeal the Sentence of Divorce which passed upon her Mothers acknowledging a Precontract they must have set forth the force that was on her when she made that Confession and that as it was a great dishonour to her Father so it would have raised discourses likewise to her Mothers prejudice which must have rather weakned than strengthened her Title And as has been formerly observed this seems to be the true reason why in all her Reign there was no Apology printed for her Mother There was another Act passed for the restoring of her in Blood to her Mother by which she was qualified as a private Subject to succeed either to her Grand-fathers Estate or to any others by that Blood But for the matters of Religion the Commons began The Acts that were passed concerning Religion and on the fifteenth of February brought in a Bill for the English Service and concerning the Ministers of the Church On the 21st a Bill was read for annexing the Supremacy to the Crown again and on the 17th of March another Bill was brought in confirming the Laws made about Religion in King Edwards time and on the 21st another was brought in That the Queen should have the Nomination of the Bishops as it had been in King Edwards time The Bill for the Supremacy was past by the Lords on the 18th of March the Archbishop of York the Earl of Shrewsbury the Viscount Mountacute and the Bishops of London Winchester Worcester Landaffe Coventry and Litchfield Exeter Chester and Carlisle and the Abbot of Westminster dissenting But afterwards the Commons annexed many other Bills to it as that about the Queens making Bishops not according to the Act made in King Edwards time but by the old way of Elections as it was Enacted in the 25th Year of her Fathers Reign with several Provisoes which passed in the House of Lords with the same dissent By it all the Acts past in the Reign of King Henry for the abolishing of the Popes Power are again revived and the Acts in Queen Maries time to the contrary are repealed There was also a Repeal of the Act made by her for proceeding against Hereticks They revived the Act made in the first Parliament of King Edward against those that spoke irreverently of the Sacrament and against private Masses and for Communion in both kinds And declared the Authority of Visiting Correcting and Reforming all things in the Church to be for ever annexed to the Crown which the Queen and her Successors might by her Letters Patents depute to any Persons to exercise in her Name All Bishops and other Ecclesiastieal Persons and all in any Civil Imployment were required to swear that they acknowledged the Queen to be the Supream Governour in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within her Dominions that they renounced all Forreign Power and Jurisdiction and should bear the Queen Faith and true Allegiance Whosoever should refuse to swear it was to forfeit any Office he had either in Church or State and to be from thenceforth disabled to hold any Imployment during Life And if within a Month after the end of that Session of Parliament any should either by discourse or in writing set forth the Authority of any Forreign Power or do any thing for the advancement of it they were to forfeit all their Goods and Chattels and if they had not Goods to the value of twenty Pounds they were to be Imprisoned a whole year and for the second offence they were to incur the Pains of a Praemunire and the third offence in that kind was made Treason To this a Proviso was added That such Persons as should be Commissioned by the Queen to Reform and Order Ecclesiastical Matters should judge nothing to be Heresie but what had been already so Judged by the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four General Councils or by any other General Council in which such Doctrines
the Church till they met in a Convocation yet they soon after prepared them And for the present they agreed on a short Profession of their Doctrine which all Incumbents were obliged to read and publish to their People This will be found in the Collection Coll. Num. 11. copied from it as it was then printed In the Articles made in King Edward's Reign which I have put in the Collection the Reader will find on the Margent the differences between those and these marked In the third Article the explanation of Christ's descent to Hell was left out In that about the Scriptures they now added an enumeration of the Canonical and Apocryphal Books declaring that some Lessons were read out of the latter for the Instruction of the People but not for the confirmation of the Doctrine About the Authority of the Church they now added That the Church had power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and had Authority in Controversies of Faith but still subordinate to the Scripture In the Article about the Lord's Supper there is a great deal left out for instead of that large refutation of the Corporal Presence from the impossibility of a Bodies being in more places at once from whence it follows that since Christ's Body is in Heaven the Faithful ought not to believe or profess a Real or Corporal Presence of it in the Sacrament In the new Articles it is said That the Body of Christ is given and received after a Spiritual manner and the means by which it is received is Faith But in the Original Copy of these Articles M.SS. C. Cor. Christ Cant. which I have seen subscribed by the hands of all that sat in either House of Convocation there is a further addition made The Articles were subscribed with that Precaution which was requisite in a matter of such consequence for before the Subscriptions there is set down the number of the Pages and of the Lines in every Page of the Book to which they set their hands In that Article of the Eucharist these words are added Christus in Coelum ascendens corpori suo immortalitatem dedit naturam non abstulit Humanae enim naturae veritatem juxta scripturas perpetuo retinet quam in uno definito loco esse non in multa vel omnia simul loca diffundi oportet Quum igitur Chistus in Coelum sublatus ibi usque ad finem Soeculi sit permansurus atque inde non aliunde ut loquitur Augustinus venturus sit ad judicandum vivos mortuos non debet quisquam fidelium Carnis ejus Sanguinis realem corporalem ut loquuntur praesentiam in Eucharistia vel credere vel profiteri In English thus Christ An Explanation of Christ's Presence in the Sacrament 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 the verity of a humane Body which must be always in one definite place and cannot be spread into many or all places at once Since then Christ being carried up to Heaven is to remain there to the end of the World and is to come from thence and from no place else as says St. Austin to judg 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 this in the Original is dasht over with minium yet so that it is still legible â—uâ— 't is suppresseâ— The Secret of it was this The Queen and her Council studied as hath been already shewn to unite all into the Communion of the Church and it was alleaged that such an express definition against a Real Presence might drive from the Church many who were still of that Perswasion and therefore it was thought to be enough to condemn Transubstantiation and to say that Christ was present after a Spiritual manner and received by Faith to say more as it was judged superfluous so it might occasion Division Upon this these words were by common consent left out And in the next Convocation the Articles were subscribed without them of which I have also seen the Original This shews that the Doctrine of the Church subscribed by the whole Convocation was at that time contrary to the belief of a Real or Corporal Presence in the Sacrament only it was not thought necessary or expedient to publish it Though from this silence which flowed not from their Opinion but the Wisdom of that Time in leaving a Liberty for different Speculations as to the manner of the Presence some have since inferred that the chief Pastors of this Church did then disapprove of the Definition made in King Edward's Time and that they were for a Real Presence For the Translating of the Bible it was divided into many Parcels The Pentateuch was committed to William Alley Bishop of Exeter The Books from that to the second of Samuel were given to Richard Davis who was made Bishop of St. Davids when Young was removed to York All from Samuel to the second Book of Chronicles was assigned to Edwin Sandys then Bishop of Worcester From thence to the end of Job to one whose Name is marked A. P. C. The Book of the Psalms was given to Thomas Bentham Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield The Proverbs to one who is marked A. P. The Song of Solomon to one Marked A. P. E. All from thence to the Lamentations of Jeremy was given to Robert Horn Bishop of Winchester Ezekiel and Daniel to Bentham From thence to Malachi to Grindal Bishop of London The Apocripha to the Book of Wisdom was given to Barlow Bishop of Chichester and the rest of it to Parkhurst Bishop of Norwich The Gospels Acts and Epistle to the Romans were given to Richard Cox Bishop of Ely The Epistles to the Corinthians to one marked G. G. I know not to whom the rest of the New Testament was assigned All these Allotments I gather from the Bible it self as it was afterwards set out by Parker What Method they followed in this Work I cannot discover unless the Rules afterwards given in King James his Time when the Translation was revived Coll. Num. 10. were copied from what was now done which Rules for the curiosity of the thing I shall put in the Collection as I copied it from B. Ravis's Paper They were given with that care that such a matter required There were many Companies appointed for every parcel of the Scripture and every one of a Company was to translate the whole Parcel then they were to compare these together and when any Company had finished their Part they were to communicate it to the other Companies So it is like that at this Time those several Bishops that had undertaken the Translation did associate to themselves Companies with whose assistance they perfected it afterwards and when it was set out at the end
the Arch-Bishop sent the Cords of his own Pavilion for that use When Mill was brought to the Stake he said he would not go up of his own accord because he would not be accessary to his own Death but if they would put their hand to him they should see how chearfully he should do it That being done he went up and said I will go in to the Altar of God He exhorted the People to be no more seduced by the Lyes of their Priests but to depend upon Christ and his Mercy for whose Doctrine as many Martyrs had offered up their Lives so he blessed God that had so honoured him to call him to give this Testimony for whose Glory he most willingly offered up his Life When the Fire was set to him he called to the People to pray for him and continued to cry Lord have mercy on me till he could speak no more His Suffering was much resented by the Inhabitants of St. Andrews The Nation was much provoked by it who raised a great heap of Stones in the place where he was burnt for a Memorial of it and though the Priests scattered them often they renewed them still till a Watch was set about it In all parts of Scotland and especially in the Towns and in the Families of the Nobility and Gentry the Reformation had been received and secretly professed So they began now to consult what to do They had many meetings in several places and finding their Interest was great over the Kingdom they entred into Confederacies to maintain the true Religion Before the Parliament met last Year they had sent a Petition to the Queen Regent That the Worship of God might be in the Vulgar Tongue and the Communion might be given in both Kinds That there should be great care taken in the Election of Ministers that it might be according to the Custom of the Primitive Church and that scandalous Ministers might be removed and more worthy Men put in their Places But the Queen Regent to keep them in hopes till the Dolphin should be acknowledged King of Scotland promised they should not be hindred to have Prayers in their own Tongue so they would keep no publick Assemblies in Edinburgh and Leith In the Parliament they proposed the abrogating of the Laws for Church-mens proceedings against Hereticks and that none should be condemned of Heresy but according to the Word of God with some other Limitations of the Severities against them But the Queen still gave them good hopes only she said she could not agree to those things by reason of the opposition that would be made by the Spiritual Estate But she suffered them to read a Protestation in Parliament declaring their desires of a Reformation and that if upon the denial of it Abuses were removed violently they were not to be blamed who had begun thus in a modest way to Petition for it This Year it was become visible that she resolved to proceed to extremities She ordered all the reformed Preachers to appear at Sterling the 10th of May. When this was done the Earl of Glencarn went to her in the Name of the rest and asked her the reason of that way of proceeding She answered him in passion ' That maugre them and all that would take part with them the Ministers should be banished Scotland though they preached as soundly as St. Paul did Upon this he remembred her of the Promises she had often made them to which she answered ' That the Promises of Princes should be no further strained then seem'd convenient to them to perform Glencarn replied ' if she would keep no Promises they would acknowledge her no more but renounce their Obedience to her A Revolt began at St. Johnstoun â— That very night she heard that in the Town of St. Johnstoun the People had Sermons openly in their Churches Upon that she ordered the Lord Ruthven to go and reduce that Town He answered he could not govern their Consciences Upon which she vowed she would make him and them both repent it The Ministers were coming from all parts accompanied with many Gentlemen to appear on the Day to which they were cited The Queen hearing that sent word to them to go home for she would not proceed in the Citation Many of them upon that returned to their homes but others went to St. Johnstoun Yet upon their not appearing she made them all be declared Rebells contrary to her Promise This made many leave her and go over to them at St. Johnstoun The People began there first to break Images and then they fell into the Houses of the Franciscans and Dominicans where they found much more Wealth than agreed with their pretended Poverty They also pulled down a great House of the Carthusians with so much Hast that within two days there was not one Stone left to shew where it had stood but yet the Prior was suffered to carry away the Plate All that was found in these Houses besides what the Monks carried away was given to the Poor The Queen hearing this resolved to make that Town an Example and sent over all the Kingdom to gather the French Souldiers together with such others as would joyn with her in this Quarrel But the Earl of Glencarn with incredible hast came to their assistance with 2500 Men And there were gathered in all in and about the Town 7000 Men. The Queen seeing it now turned to an open Rebellion employed the Earl of Argile and the Prior of St. Andrews to treat with them An Oblivion for what was past was agreed on The Queen was to come to St. Johnstoun without her French-men and the matters of Religion were to be referred to a Parliament Upon this she went thither but carried French-men with her and put a Garrison in the Town and proceeded to the Fining of many and the Banishing of others Being pressed with her Promise she said The Promises of Princes ought not to be strictly urged and those were not to be kept that were made to Hereticks she declared that she would take it on her Conscience to kill and undo all that Sect and make the best excuse she could when it was done Upon this all the Nation forsook her and in many other places they went on to cleanse the Churches and pull down Monasteries When the News of this came to the Court of France it was at first not rightly understood The Queen Regent represented it as if it had been a Design to shake off the French Power and desired a great Force to reduce them The King then saw too late that the Constable had given him good Advice in diswading the Match with Scotland The French Kind intends to grant Liberty of Religion and fearing to be intangled in a long chargeable War he resolved to send one thither to know the true occasion of these Stirrs So the Constable proposed to him the sending of Melvil by whom he had understood that the Reason of all
not within six or seven hundred Years after Christ Eboracen The accustomed Order that the Priest alone should receive the Sacrament began about the time of Zepherinus who when the common People had left their daily and frequent Communion ordained that they should communicate at the least once in the Year that was at Easter which Ordinance Innocentius the third confirmed London Worcester Herâ—ford Norwich Chichester St. Asaph I know no further Order or Commandment of the Church but what time the devotion of the People was so greatly decayed that they would not come to receive the Sacrament then the Priests were compelled to receive it alone The custom began that the Priest alone should receive the Sacrament of necessity Dunelm when the People falling from Devotion would not come to the Communion but cared more for their worldly Business than for godly receiving the Sacrament for in the beginning they received it daily by fervent Devotion after thrice a Week after on the Sundays only after thrice in the Year at Christmas Easter and Whitsunday after only once in the Year at Easter by coldness of Devotion The time certain is not known most Men ascribe it unto Gregory Lincoln who was more than 600 Years after Christ for that every Bishop of Rome bringing in his Portion some Introitus some Kyrie Eleison some Graduale the Mass in the said Gregory's time was grown to the full quantity it is now of and Mens Inventions began to step before and get ground of Christ's Institution but from the beginning it was not so for Christ did not eat and drink alone at his last Supper but gave the Bread and Cup to all present In the Primitive Church one did not eat alone and the rest look on but they did eat together and drink together as it is to be seen Acts 2. 1 Cor. 11. And Anacletus writes thus Peracta Consecratione omnes communicent qui noluerint Ecclesiasticis caveant liminibus De Conso Dist 1. Cum Episcopus c. The very time I know not but is to be supposed Eli. that that custom crept into the Church by negligence and slackness of the Lay-People who would not so oft receive it as the Priest would for in the beginning the Communion with the Laity was Quotidiane which the Priest observeth still unto this day and not the Laity and there be Canons that bindeth the Priest to the receiving of it as oft as he doth Consecrate and the cause why the Priests did not receive it after they had consecrated should seem to be that there was none to receive it with them which was the occasion of these making of those Canons as I suppose Because Scripture saith Panis quem frangimus Roffen nonne communicatio corporis est c. Likewise de Chalice cui benedicimus and also bibite ex eo omnes And the Canons said to be of the Apostles Can. 10. and 10. and of the Antiochian Council Can. 2. Anacletus in an Epistle commandeth the Sacrament to be received of more than of the Priest alone Dyonise also declareth the same and also long after Chrys St. Ambrose and St. Austin both complain of the slackness of some and earnestly exhorteth the People to the receipt thereof Therefore I suppose that custom that the Priest should receive it alone where it was celebrated openly was not received in the Church of Christ by the space of four or five hundred Years at least after Christ I know no such Order or Commandment of the Church Bristol but what time the Devotion of the People began greatly to decay and would not come to receive the Sacrament then I think the Priests were compelled to receive it alone I suppose not long after the Apostles time Dr. Cox the godly Devotions of the People decaying who at the beginning used to come daily and after that weekly after that thrice in the Year and at last but once in the Year the Priest was forced to receive the Sacrament alone Quest 6. Whether it be convenient that the same Custom continue still within this Realm Answers Cantuarien I Think it more agreeable to the Scripture and Primitive Church that the first usage should be restored again that the People should receive the Sacrament with the Priest London Worcester Hereford Norvicen Cicestren Assaven I would wish that at every Mass there would be some to receive the Sacrament with the Priest Nevertheless if none will come to receive it I think it lawful and convenient that the Priests of this Realm of England may say Mass and receive the Sacrament alone Dunelm It were much convenient that People were exhorted to come to it oftner if they could be brought thereto Nevertheless if none will communicate it is not meet that the Priests stirred to communicate or should forbear for coldness or lack of other Mens Devotion Lincoln Nothing can be better or more wisely devised than Christ did ordain and the Apostles according to his Ordinance did use we ought therefore to captivate our Senses and Understandings to the Wisdom of Christ and think that most convenient that to his Ordinance is most correspondent And as St. Paul notes By eating all of one Bread and drinking all of one Cup we be put in remembrance that we be all one Body in Christ and have received all one Spirit Nevertheless the slackness of some ought not to be prejudicial to the rest nor the refusing of one to be impediment to another Elien If the Lay-Men could be brought to it it were better not to continue but if they cannot it is not convenient that Priests who would communicate for their own comfort should be defrauded by other Mens slackness Roffen I suppose it were best that that Custom should be reformed unto the Rule of Scripture and unto the Patern of the Primitive Church Bristollen I think it were good that at every Mass there were some to receive the Sacrament with the Priest nevertheless if none will come to receive it I think it lawful and convenient that the Priest say Mass and receive the Sacrament alone when he is disposed or by the Christian Congregation desired Dr. Cox I think it not convenient that the said Custom should continue if by any godly Mean the People might be brought to receive the Sacrament with the Priest Quest 7. Whether it be convenient that Masses Satisfactory should continue that is to say Priests hired to sing for Souls departed Answers I Think it not convenient that Satisfactory Masses should continue Cantab. I think that such of the School-men as do write of Masses Satisfactory do define them otherwise than is declared in this Question London Worcester Hereford Norwich Chichester St. Asaph Nevertheless I think that it is not against the Word of God but that Priests praying in the Mass both for the Quick and Dead and doing other things in the Church about
Ex Libro Concilii Fol. 247. THis day the 17th of March the Lord Chancellor and the rest of the King's Council meeting in his Highness Palace of Westminster heard the Report of the Bishop of Ely who by the said Lords and others of the Council was sent to instruct and comfort the Lord Admiral after the hearing whereof consulting and deliberating with themselves of the time most convenient for the execution of the said Lord Admiral now attainted and condemned by the Parliament They did condescend and agree that the said Lord Admiral should be executed the Wednesday next following betwixt the hours of nine and twelve in the forenoon the same day upon Tower-Hill His Body and Head to be buried within the Tower The King's Writ as in such Cases as heretofore hath been accustomed being first directed and sent forth for that purpose and effect Whereupon calling to the Council-Chamber the Bishop of Ely they willed him to declare this their Determination to the said Lord Admiral and to instruct and teach him the best he could to the quiet and patient suffering of Justice and to prepare himself to Almighty God E. Somerset T. Cantuarien R. Rich Cancel W. St. John J. Russel J. Warwick F. Shrewsbury Thomas Southampton William Paget Anthony Wingfield William Petre. A. Denny Edward North. R. Sadler Number 33. Articles to be followed and observed according to the King's Majesty's Injunctions and Proceedings 1. THat all Parsons Vicars and Curats Ex MS. Dr. Johnson omit in the reading of the Injunctions all such as make mention of the Popish Mass of Chantries of Candles upon the Altar or any other such-like thing 2. Item For an Uniformity that no Minister do counterfeit the Popish Mass as to kiss the Lord's Table washing his Fingers at every time in the Communion blessing his Eyes with the Paten or Sudary or crossing his Head with the Paten shifting of the Book from one place to another laying down and licking the Chalice of the Communion holding up his Fingers Hands or Thumbs joined towards his Temples breathing upon the Bread or Chalice shewing the Sacrament openly before the distribution of the Communion ringing or sacrying Bells or setting any Light upon the Lord's Board at any time And finally to use no other Ceremonies than are appointed in the King's Book of Common Prayers or kneeling otherwise than is in the said Book 3. Item That none buy or sell the Holy Communion as in Trentals and such other 4. Item That none be suffered to pray upon Beads and so the People to be diligently admonished and such as will not be admonished to put from the Holy Communion 5. Item That after the Homily every Sunday the Minister exhort the People especially the Communicants to remember the poor Mens Box with their Charity 6. Item To receive no Corpse but at the Church-yard without Bell or Cross 7. Item That the Common-Prayer upon Wednesdays and Fridays be diligently kept according to the King's Ordinances exhorting such as may conveniently come to be there 8. Item That the Curats every sixth Week at the least teach and declare diligently the Catechism according to the Book of the same 9. Item That no Man maintain Purgatory Invocation of Saints the six Articles Bedrolls Images Reliques Lights Holy Bells Holy Beads Holy Water Palms Ashes Candles Sepulchres Paschal creeping to the Cross hallowing of the Font of the Popish manner Oil Chresme Altars Beads or any other such Abuses and Superstitions contrary to the King's Majesty's Proceedings 10. Item That within any Church or Chappel be not used any more than one Communion upon any day except Christmass-day and Easter-day 11. Item That none keep the Abrogate Holy-days other than those that have their proper and peculiar Service 12. Item That the Church-wardens suffer no buying nor selling gaming or unfitting Demeanour in Church or Church-yards especially during the Common-Prayer the Sermon and reading of the Homily 13. Item That going to the Sick with the Sacrament the Minister have not with him either Light or Bells Number 34. A Paper written by Luther to Bucer concerning a Reconciliation with the Zuinglians An Original Ex M S. Col. C. Ch. Cant. PRimo Ut nullo modo concedamus de nobis dici quod neutri neutros ante Intellexerunt Nam isto Pharmaco non medebimur tanto vulneri cum nec ipsi credamus utrimque hoc verum esse alii putabunt a nobis hoc fingi ut ita magis suspectam reddemus causam vel potius per totum dubiam faciemus cum sit communis omnium ut in tantis animorum turbis scrupulis non expedit hoc nomine addere offendiculum Secundo Cum hactenus dissenserimus quod illi signum nos Corpus Christi asseruerimus plane contrarii Nihilominus mihi videtur utile ut mediam ut novam statuamus sententiam qua illi concedant Christum adesse vere nos concedamus panem solum manducari Considerandum certe est quantam hic fenestram aperiemus in re omnibus communi cogitandi Orientium hinc fontes questionum opinionum * Here a word is wanting it is like it should be Occludendi _____ Ut tutius multo sit illos simpliciter manere in suo signo cum nec ipsi suam nec nos nostram partem multo minus utrique totum orbem pertrahemus in eam sententiam Sed potius irritabimus ad varias Cogitationes ideo vellem potius ut sopitum maneret dissidium in duabus istis sententiis quam ut occasio daretur infinitis questionibus ad Epicurismum profuturis Istis salvis nihil est quod a me peti possit nam ut ego hoc dissidium vellem testis est mihi Christus meus redemptum Corpore Sanguine meo Sed quid faciam Ipsi forte Conscientia bona sunt in altera sententia Feramus igitur eos si sinceri sunt liberabit eos Christus Dominus Ego contra captus sum bona mea Conscientia nisi ipsi mihi sum ignotus in meam sententiam ferant me si non possunt mihi accedere Number 35. The Sentence against Joan of Kent with the Certificate made upon it IN Dei Nomine Amen Nos Thomas Regist Cran. Fol. 175. permissione divina Cantuarien Archiepiscopus totius Angliae primas Metrapolitanus Thomas Smith Miles Willielmus Cooke Decanus de Arcubus Hugo Latimer Sacrae Theologiae Professor Richardus Lyell Legum Doctor illustrissimi invictissimi in Christo Principis Domini nostri Domini Edwardi sexti Dei Gratia Angliae c. per Literas suas Regias Patentes dat duodecimo die mensis Aprilis Anno Regni sui tertio contra te Joannam Bocher alias nuncupatam Joannam de Kente coram nobis super haeretica pravitate juxta secundum Commissionem dicti Domini nostri Regis detectam declaratam ac in ea parte apud bonos graves Notorie Publice
Gestures appointed by the Book of Common Prayer and none other so that there do not appear in them any counterfeiting of the Popish Mass Item That none be admitted to receive the Holy Communion but such as will upon request of the Curat be ready with meekness and reverence to confess the Articles of the Creed Item That none make a Mart of the Holy Communion by buying and selling the Receipt thereof for Mony as the Popish Mass in times past was wont to be Item Whereas in divers places some use the Lord's Board after the form of a Table and some of an Altar whereby Dissention is perceived to arise among the unlearned therefore wishing a godly Unity to be observed in all our Diocess and for that the form of a Table may more move and turn the simple from the old superstitious Opinions of the Popish Mass and to the right use of the Lord's Supper We exhort the Curats Church-wardens and Questmen here present to erect and set up the Lord's Board after the form of an honest Table decently covered in such place of the Quire or Chancel as shall be thought most meet by their discretion and agreement so that the Ministers with the Communicants may have their place separated from the rest of the People and to take down and abolish all other by-Altars or Tables Item That the Minister in the time of the Communion immediately after the Offertory shall monish the Communicants saying these words or such-like Now is the time if it please you to remember the poor Mens Chest with your charitable Almes Item That the Homilies be read orderly without omission of any part thereof Item The Common Prayer be had in every Church upon Wednesdays and Fridays according to the King's Grace's Ordinance and that all such as conveniently may shall diligently resort to the same Item That every Curat be diligent to teach the Catechism whensoever just occasion is offered upon the Sunday or Holy-day and at least every six weeks once shall call upon his Parishioners and present himself ready to instruct and examine the Youth of the same Parish according to the Book of Service touching the same Item That none maintain Purgatory Invocation of Saints the Six Articles Bedrowls Images Reliques Rubrick Primars with Invocation of Saints Justification of Man by his own Works Holy Bread Palms Ashes Candles Sepulchre Paschal creeping to the Cross hallowing of the Fire or Altar or any other such-like abuses and superstitions now taken away by the King's Grace's most Godly Proceedings Item That all Ministers do move the People to often and worthy receiving of the Holy Communion Item That every Minister do move his Parishioners to come diligently to the Church and when they come not to talk or walk in the Sermon Communion or Divine Service-time but rather at the same to behave themselves reverently godly and devoutly in the Church and that they also monish the Church-wardens to be diligent Overseers in that behalf Item That the Church-wardens do not permit any buying selling gaming outragious noise or tumult or any other idle occupying of Youth in the Church Church-porch or Church-yard during the time of Common Prayer Sermon or reading of the Homily Item That no Persons use to minister the Sacraments or in open audience of the Congregation presume to expound the Holy Scriptures or to preach before they be first lawfully called and authorized in that behalf God save the King Number 53. Dr. Oglethorp's Submission and Profession of his Faith I Did never Preach or Teach openly any thing contrary to the Doctrine and Religion set forth by the King's Majesty and authorised by his Grace's Laws since the making and publishing of the same I suppose and think his Grace's Proceedings concerning Religion to be good and godly if they be used accordingly as his Grace hath wil'd they should by his Laws and Instructions And further I suppose the Order and Form of Doctrine and Religion now set forth by his Grace and used in many things to be better and much nearer the usage of the Apostolick and Primitive Church than it was before-times if it be used godly and reverently accordingly as I think it to be meant by his Grace's Highness and his most Honourable Council Namely in these things in prohibiting that none should commune alone in making the People whole Communers or in suffering them to Commune under both kinds in the Catechisation of young Chaplains in the Rudiments of our Faith in having the Common Prayer in English in setting forth the Homilies and many other things which I think very good and Godly if they be used as is aforesaid The lately received Doctrine concerning the Sacrament and namely the Attribute of Transubstantiation I do not like and I think it not consonant to the Scriptures and Ancient Writers although I suppose that there is a certain and an ineffable presence of Christ's Body there which I can neither comprehend nor express because it so far passes the compass and reach of my Wit and Reason wherefore I think it ought to be both ministred and received with a godly and reverent fear and not without great premeditation and examination aforesaid as well of the Minister as of the Receiver 1550. Your Grace's poor well-willer with his Prayer and Service as he is bound Owing Oglethorp Number 54. A Letter from Dr. Smith to Arch-Bishop Cranmer An Original Right honourable and my special good Lord. Ex MS. Col. Cor. C. Cant. I Commend me to your Grace most humbly giving to the same thanks as I am bound for your Grace's kindness toward my Sureties for the which you have and shall whiles I live my good Word and Prayer Ignatii Epistolae adhuc extant in Gymnasio Magdalenae If it might please your Lordship I would very gladly see some part of your Collection against my Book De Caelibatu Sacerdotum which I wrote then to try the truth out not to the intent it should be printed as it was against my Will Would God I had never made it because I took then for my chief Ground That the Priests of England made a Vow when they were made which now I perceive is not true My Lord I received my Cap-case c. Sed tribus nummorum meorum partibus sublatis Quod damnum aequo animo est ferendum quod furti revinci non possit qui abstulit My Lord I am glad that your Grace is reported both gentle and merciful of all such which have had to do with you for Religion of this University For my part if ever I may do your Graces basest Servant any pleasure I will do it indeed Si aliter atqui sentio loquor dispeream Ignoscat haec Honoranda Dominatio tam diutinum silentium mihi quippe quod crebrioribus literis posthac pensabo Deus optimus maximus tuam amplitudinem diu servet incolumem Christianae Pietati propagandae ac provehendae Oxonii 28. Tibi addictissimus Richardus Smithaeus
two several times that is to say the Sundays next following Easterday and St. Michael the Arch-Angel or on some other Sunday within one month after those Feasts immediately after the Gospel FOrasmuch as it appertaineth to all Christian Men but especially to the Ministers and the Pastors of the Church being Teachers and Instructers of others to be ready to give a Reason of their Faith when they shall be thereunto required I for my part now appointed your Parson Vicar or Curat having before my Eyes the Fear of God and the Testimony of my Conscience do acknowledg for my self and require you to assent to the same I. First That there is but one living and true God of infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness the maker and preserver of all Things And that in Unity of this God-head there be three Persons of one Substance of equal Power and Eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost II. I believe also whatsoever is contained in the Holy Canonical Scriptures In the which Scriptures are contained all things necessary to Salvation by the which also all Errors and Heresies may sufficiently be reproved and convicted and all Doctrine and Articles necessary to Salvation established I do also most firmly believe and confess all the Articles contained in the Three Creeds The Nicene Creed Athanasius Creed and our Common Creed called the Apostles Creed for these do briefly contain the principal Articles of our Faith which are at large set forth in the Holy Scriptures III. I do acknowledg also that Church to be the Spouse of Christ wherein the Word of God is truly taught the Sacraments orderly ministred according to Christ's Institution and the Authority of the Keys duly used And that every such particular Church hath authority to institute to change clean to put away Ceremonies and other Ecclesiastical Rites as they be superfluous or be abused and to constitute other making more to Seemliness to Order or Edification IV. Moreover I confess That it is not lawful for any Man to take upon him any Office or Ministry either Ecclesiastical or Secular but such only as are lawfully thereunto called by their High Authorities according to the Ordinances of this Realm V. Furthermore I do acknowledg the Queen's Majesty's Prerogative and Superiority of Government of all Estates and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within this Realm and other her Dominions and Countries to be agreable to God's Word and of right to appertain to her Highness in such sort as is in the late Act of Parliament expressed and sithence by her Majesty's Injunctions declared and expounded VI. Moreover touching the Bishop of Rome I do acknowledg and confess that by the Scriptures and Word of God he hath no more Authority than other Bishops have in their Provinces and Diocesses And therefore the Power which he now challengeth that is to be the Supream Head of the Universal Church of Christ and so to be above all Emperors Kings and Princes is an usurped Power contrary to the Scriptures and Word of God and contrary to the Example of the Primitive Church and therefore is for most just Causes taken away and abolished in this Realm VII Furthermore I do grant and confess That the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Holy Sacraments set sorth by the Authority of Parliament is agreeable to the Scriptures and that it is Catholick Apostolick and most for the advancing of God's Glory and the edifying of God's People both for that it is in a Tongue that may be understanded of the People and also for the Doctrine and Form of ministration contained in the same VIII And although in the Administration of Baptism there is neither Exorcism Oil Salt Spittle or hallowing of the Water now used and for that they were of late Years abused and esteemed necessary Where they pertain not to the substance and necessity of the Sacrament they be reasonably abolished and yet the Sacrament full and perfectly ministred to all intents and purposes agreeable to the Institution of our Saviour Christ IX Moreover I do not only acknowledg that Privat Masses were never used amongst the Fathers of the Primitive Church I mean publick Ministration and receiving of the Sacrament by the Priest alone without a just number of Communicants according to Christ's saying Take ye and eat ye c. But also that the Doctrine that maintaineth the Mass to be a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Quick and the Dead and a mean to deliver Souls out of Purgatory is neither agreeable to Christ's Ordinance nor grounded upon Doctrine Apostolick But contrary-wise most ungodly and most injurious to the precious Redemption of our Saviour Christ and his only-sufficient Sacrifice offered once for ever upon the Altar of the Cross X. I am of that mind also That the Holy Communion or Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ for the due obedience to Christ's Institution and to express the vertue of the same ought to be ministred unto the People under both kinds And that it is avouched by certain Fathers of the Church to be a plain Sacrilege to rob them of the Mystical Cup for whom Christ hath shed his most precious Blood seeing he himself hath said Drink ye all of this Considering also That in the time of the Ancient Doctors of the Church as Cyprian Hierom Augustine Gelasius and others six hundred Years after Christ and more both the Parts of the Sacrament were ministred to the People Last of all As I do utterly disallow the extolling of Images Reliques and feigned Miracles and also all kind of expressing God Invisible in the form of an Old Man or the Holy Ghost in form of a Dove and all other vain worshipping of God devised by Man's fantasy besides or contrary to the Scriptures As wandering on Pilgrimages setting up of Candles praying upon Beads and such-like Superstition which kind of Works have no promise of Reward in Scripture but contrary-wise Threatnings and Maledictions So I do exhort all Men to the Obedience of God's Law and to the Works of Faith as Charity Mercy Pity Alms devout and fervent Prayer with the affection of the Heart and not with the Mouth only Godly Abstinence and Fasting Chastity Obedience to the Rulers and Superior Powers with such-like Works and godliness of Life commanded by God in his Word which as St. Paul saith hath Promises both of this Life and of the Life to come and are Works only acceptable in God's sight These things above-rehearsed though they be appointed by common Order yet do I without all compulsion with freedom of Mind and Conscience from the bottom of my Heart and upon most sure persuasion acknowledg to be true and agreeable to God's Word And therefore I exhort you all of whom I have Cure heartily and obediently to embrace and receive the same That we all joining together in unity of Spirit Faith and Charity may also at length be joined together in the Kingdom of God and that