with the suppression of such Bishopricks and Collegiate Churches as either lay â—urthest off or might best be spared In reference whereunto it was concluded in a Chapter held at Westminster by the Knights of the Garter That from thenceforth the said most noble Order of the Garter should be no longer entâ—tuled by the Name of St. George but that it should be called the Oâ—der of the Garter onely and that the Feast of the said Order should be celebrated upon Whitson-Eve Whitson-day and Whitson-Monday and not on St. George's day as before it was And to what end was this concluded and what else was to follow upon this Conclusion but the dissolving of the Free-Chapel of St. George in the Castle of Windsor and the transferring of the Order to the Chapel of King HENRY the Seventh in the Abbey of Westminster Which had undoubtedly been done and all the Lands thereof converted to some powerful Courtiers under pretence of laying them to the Crown if the King's Death which happened within four Moneths after had not prevented the Design and thereby respited that Ruin which was then intended The like preservation happened at the same time also in the Church of Durham as liberally endowed as the most and more amply priviledged then the best in the King's Dominions The Bishops hereof by Charter and long Prescription enjoyed and exercised all the Rights of a County Palatine in that large Tract of Ground which lyes between the Tees and the Tine best known in those Parts by the Name of the Bishoprick the Diocess containing also all Northumberland of which the Bishops and the Percies had the greatest shares No sooner was Bishop Tonstal committed to the Tower which was on the Twentieth of December 1551. but presently an Eye was cast upon his Possessions Which questionless had followed the same fortune with the rest of the Bishopricks if one more powerful then the rest had not preserved it from being parcelled out as the others were on a â—â—rong Confidence of getting it all unto himself The Family of the Percies was then reduced to such a point that it seemed to have been quite expired a Family which first came in with the Norman Conquerour by whom enriched with most of the forfeited Estates of Morchar Gospatrick and Waltheof the three last Earls of Northumberland of the Saxon Race But this Line ending in the latter times of King HENRY the First Josseline of Lorain descended from the Emperour CHARLES the Great and one of the younger Brothers of Adeliza the last Wife of the King enrich'd himself by Marriage with the Heir-General of this House upon condition that keeping to himself the Arms of his own Family he should assume the Name of Percy to remain always afterward unto his Posterity Advanced in that respect by the Power and Favour of John of Gaunt to the Rank and Title of the Earls of Northumberland at the Coronation of King Richard the Second They held the same with great Power and Honour the short interposing of the Marquess Mountacute excepted onely till toward the latter end of King Henry the Eighth At what time it happened that Henry Lord Peircy the sixth Earl of this House had incurred the heavy displeasure of that King First for an old affection to the Lady Ann Bollein when the King began first to be enamoured of her excellent Beauties and afterwards for denying to confess a Precontract to have been formerly made between them when the King now as weary of her as before he was fond was seeking some fair Pretences to divorce himself from her before she was to lose her Head He had no Children of his own and Thâ—mas his Brother and next Heir was to his greater grief attainted of Treason for being thought to have a chief hand iâ— the Northern Rebellion Anno 1536. In both respects he found himself at such a loss and the whole Family without hope of a Restitution to its antient splendour that to preserve himself from running into further danger he gave unto the King the greatest part of that fair Inheritance and dying not long after left his Titles also to the King 's disposing The Lands and Titles being thus fallen into the Crown continued undisposed of till the falling of the Duke of Somerset when Dudley Earl of Warwick having some projections in his Head beyond the greatness of a Subject advanced himself unto the Title of Duke of Northumberland not doubting but he should be able to possess himself in short time also of all the Landâ— of that Family which were then remaining in the Crown To which Estate the Bishoprick of Duâ—ham and all the Lands belonging to it could not but be beheld as a fair Addition if at the least it might be called an addition which was of more value then the Patrimony to which it was to have been added He had long Reigned without a Crown suffering the King for some years to enjoy that Title which was to be transferred if all Contrivances had held good upon one of his Sons whom He designed in Marriage to the eldest Daughter of the House of Suffolk And then how easie was it for him having a King of his own begetting a Queen of his own making the Lords of the Council at his beck and a Parliament to serve his turn for all occasions to incorporate both the Lands of the Peircies and the Patrimony of that Church into one Estate with all the Rights and Privileges of a County Palatine Count Palatine of Durham Prince Palatine of Northumberland or what else he pleased must be the least he could have aimed at in that happy Conjuncture happy to him had the Even been answerable unto his Projections but miserable enough to all the rest of the Kingdom who should not servilely submit to this Glorious Upstart Upon which Grounds as the Bishoprick of Durham was dissolved by Act of Parliament under pretence of patching up the King's Revenue so the greatest part of the Lands thereof had been kept together that they might serve for a Revenue to the future Palatine But all these Projects failing in the death of the King and his own Attaindure not long after the Peircies were restored by Queen Mary to their Lands and Honours as the Bishop was unto his Liberty and to most of his Lands it being almost impossible that such a fair Estate should fall into the hands of the Courtiers and no part of it be left sticking in those Glutinous Fingers For to begin the Year withall the King was taken with a very strong Cough in the Moneth of January which at last ended in a Consumption of the Lungs the Seeds of which Malignity were generally supposed to have been sown in the last Summer's Progress by some over-heatings of himself in his Sports and Exercises But they that looked more narrowly into the matter observed some kind of decayings in him from the time that Sir Robert Dudley the third Son of Northumberland was admitted into a place
with the present as to receive the same in a Sollemn Assembly of the Cardinalls and Court of Rome expressing the contentment which he took therein by a fluent Oration the Copy whereof we have in Speed Fol. 991. And whereas in former times the French were Honoured with the Title of Most Christian and the Spaniard lately with the Title of The Catholick King This Pope in due acknowledgement of so great a Merit bestowes on Henry the more Glorious Attribute of The Defender of the Faith Which Bull being dated on the tenth of Octob. Anno 1521. is to be found exemplified in The Titles of Honour and thither I referr the Reader for his satisfaction Twenty three yeares the King enjoyed this Title by no other Grant then the Donation of Pope Leo. But then considering with himselfe that it was first Granted by that Pope as a Personall favour and not intended to descend upon his Posterity as also that the Popes by the reason of such differences as were between them might possibly take a time to deprive him of it he resolved to stand no longer on a ground of no greater certainty And therefore having summoned his High Court of Parliament to Assemble on the 29th of March Anno 1544. he procured this Title to be assured unto his Person and to be made perpetuall to his Heires and Successors for all times succeeding For which Consult the Statute 35. Hen. 8. Cap. 3. And by the Act it was ordained that whosoever should malitiously diminish any of his Majesties Royall Titles or seek to deprive him of the same should suffer death as in case of Treason and that from thenceforth the Stile Imperiall should no otherwise be exprest then in this forme following that is to say N. N. by the Grace of God King of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and on Earth of the Churches of England and Ireland the Supreme Head By vertue of which Act Queen Mary still retained this Title though she disclaimed the other of Supreme Head by Act of Parliament in the first yeare of her Reign as being incompetible with her submission and Relations to the See of Rome As for the Title of King of Ireland it was first given unto this King by a Parliament there holden in the Month of June 1541. under Sir Anthony Saint-Leiger being then Lord Deputy The Acts whereof being transmitted to the King and by him confirmed he caused himselfe to be first Proclaimed King of Ireland on the 23th of January then next following Which though it added somewhat to him in point of Title yet it afforded him no advantage in point of Power but that the name of King was thought to carry more respect and awe with it amongst the Irish then the Title of Lord which only till that time had been assumed by the Kings of England For otherwise the Kings of England from the first Conqâ—est of the Country by King Henry the second enjoyed and exercised all manner of Royalties and Preheminences which do or can belong to the greatest Kings Governing the same by their Vice-Gerâ—nts to whom sometimes they gave the Title of Lord Lieutenants sometimes Lord Deputies of Ireland then whom no Vice-Roy in the VVorld comes nearer to the Pomp and splendor of a Soveraign Prince And though they took no other Title to themselves then Lords of Ireland yet they gave higher Titles to their Subjects there many of which they advanced to the Honour and Degree of Earles And at the same time when King Richard the second contented himselfe with no Higher Stile then Lord of Ireland he exalted his great Favourite Robert d' Vere the tenth Earle of Oxon of that Family first to the Dignity and Stile of Marquesse of Dublin and after to the invidious Appellation of Duke of Ireland which he enjoyed unto his death The Countrey at the same time changed it's Title also being formerly no otherwise called in our Records then Terra Hiberniea or the Land of Ireland but from henceforth to be called upon all occasions in Acts of Parliament Proclamations and Letters Patents by the name of Regnum Hiberniae or the Realm of Ireland At the assuming of which new Title by this King the Scots were somewhat troubled but the Pope much more The Scots had then some footing in the North parts of that Iland and thought the taking of that Title by the Kings of England to tend to the endangering of their possession or at least to bring them under a Subjection of a Foreign Prince And on the other side it was complained of in the Court of Rome as a great and visible encroachment on the Pâ—pall Power to which it only appertained to erect new Kingdomes and that the injury was the greater in the present case because the King holding that Iland by no other Title as it was then and there pretended then by the Donation of Pope Adrian to King Henry the second was not withâ—ut the Popes consent to assume that Title But the King cared as little for the Pope as he did for the Scots knowing how able he was to make good all his Actings against them both and not only for enjoying this Title for the rest of his life but for the leaving of it to his Heires and Successors though afterward Queen Mary accepted a new Grant of it from the Pope then being Having thus setled and confirmed the Regall Style his next care was for setling and preventing all disputes and quarrells which might be raised about the Succession of the Crown if the Prince his son should chance to dye without lawfull issue as he after did In which as he discharged the trust reposed in him so he waved nothing of the Power which he had took unto himself by Act of Parliament made in that behalfe in the 35 year of his Reign as before wasnoted In pursuance whereof finding himself sensibly to decay but having his wits and understanding still about him he framed his last Wil and Testament which he caused to be signed and attested on the 30 of December Anno 1546 being a full Month before his death First published by Mr. Fuller in his Church History of Brittain Lib. 5. Fol. 243 244. And out of him I shall crave leave to transcribe so much thereof as may suffice to show unto posterity the sence he had of his own condition the vile esteem he had of his sinfull body what pious but unprofitable care he took for the Decent Interment of the same in what it was wherein he placed the hopes of Eternall life and finally what course he was pleased to take in the intailing of the Crown after his decease by passing over the line of Scotland and setling the Reversion in the House of Suffolk if his own children should depart without lawfull Issue as in fine they did In which and in some other points not here summed up the Reader may best satisfie himselfe by the words and tenour of the VVill which are
said Church to have been deceived in that what he before had taught them and to be sorry for delivering such Doctrine to them But these men might pretend some Warrant from the King's Injunctions which they might conceive it neither fit nor safe to oppose and therefore that it was the wisest way to strike Sail betimes upon the shooting of the first Warning-Piece to bring them in But no man was so much before hand with Authority as one Doctour Glasier who as soon as the Fast of Lent was over and it was well he had the Patâ—ence to stay so long affirmed publickly in a Sermon at Saint Paul's Cross That The Lent was not ordained of God to be Fasted neither the Eating of Flesh to be forborn but that the same was a Politick Ordinance of men and might therefore be broken by men at their pleasures For which Doctrine as the Preacher was never questioned the Temper of the Times giving Incouragement enough to such Extravagancies so did it open such a Gap to Carnal Liberty that the King found it necessary to shut it up again by a Proclamation on the sixteenth of January commanding Abstinence from all Flesh for the Lent then following But there was something more then the Authority of a Minour King which drew on such a General Conformity to these Injunctions and thereby smoothed the way to those Alterations both in Doctrine and Worship which the Grandees of the Court and Church had began to fashion The Lord Protectour and his Party were more experienced in Affairs of State then to be told That All great Counsels tending to Innovation in the Publick Government especially where Religion is concerned therein are either to be back'd by Arms or otherwise prove destructive to the Undertakers For this cause he resolves to put himself into the Head of an Army as well for the security of His Person and the Preservation of his Party as for the carrying on of the Design against all Opponents And for the Raising of an Army there could not be a fairer Colour nor a more popular Pretence then a War in Scotland not to be made on any new emergent Quarrel which might be apt to breed suspicion in the Heads of the People but in Pursuit of the great Project of the King deceased for Uniting that Realm by the Marriage of their young Queen to His onely Son to the Crown of England On this pretense Levies are made in all parts of the Kingdom great store of Arms and Ammunition drawn together to advance the service considerable Numbers of Old Souldiers brought over from Bulloign and the Peeces which depended on it and good Provision made of Shipping to attend the Motions of the Army upon all occasions He entertained also certain Regiments of Walloons and Germanes not out of any great Opinion which he had of their Valour though otherwise of good Experience in the Wars but because they were conceived more likely to enforce Obedience if his Designs should meet with any Opposition then the Natural English But in the first place Care was taken that none of the neighbouring Princes should either hinder his Proceedings or assist the Enemy To which end Doctour Wotton the first Dean of Canterbury then Resident with the Queen Dowager of Hungary who at that time was Regent of the Estates of Flanders for Charls the Fifth was dispatched unto the Emperour's Court there to succeed in the place of Doctour Bonner Bishop of London who together with Sir Francis Bryan had formerly been â—ent Embassadours thâ—ther from King Henry the Eighth The Principal part of his Employment besides such matters as are incident to all Ambassadours was to divert the Emperour from concluding any League with France contrary to the Capitulations made between the Emperour and the King deceased but to deal with him above all things for declaring himself an Enemy to all of the Scotish Nation but such as should be Friends to the King of England And because some Remainders of Hostility did still remain between the English and the French notwithstanding the late peace made between the Crowns it was thought fit to sweeten and oblige that People by all the acts of Correspondence and friendly Neighbourhood In Order whereunto it was commanded by the King's Proclamation That Restitution should be made of such Ships and Goods which had been taken from the French since the Death of King Henry Which being done also by the French though far short in the value of such Reprisals as had been taken by the English there was good hope of coming to a better understanding of one another and that by this Cessation of Arms both Kings might come in short time to a further Agreement But that which seemed to give most satisfaction to the Court of France was the performance of a solemn Obsequie for King Francis the First who left this Life on the twenty second day of March and was Magnificently Interred amongst His Predecessours in the Monastery of Saint Dennis not far from Paris Whose Funerals were no sooner Solemnized in France but Order was given for a Dirige to be sung in all the Churches in London on the nineteenth of June as also in the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul in the Quire whereof being hung with black a sumptuous Herse had been set up for the present Ceremony For the next day the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury assisted with Eight other of the Bishops all in their Rich Mitres and other their Pontificals did sing a Mass of Requiem the Funeral Sermon being preached by Doctour Ridley Lord Elect of Rochester who if he did his part therein as no doubt he did could not but magnifie the Prince for His Love to Learning Which was so great and eminent in Him that He was called by the French L' pere des Arts des Sciences and The Father of the Muses by some Writers of other Nations Which Attributes as He well deserved so did He Sympathize in that Affection as he did in many other things with King Henry the Eighth of whose Munificence for the Encouragements of Learning we have spoke before This great Solemnity being thus Honourably performed the Commissioners for the Visitation were dispatched to their several Circuits and the Army drawn from all parts to their Rendez-vous for the War with Scotland Of which two Actions that of the Visitation as the easiest and meeting with a People which had been long trained up in the Schole of Obedience was carried on without any shew of Opposition submitted to upon a very small Dispute even by some of those Bishops who were conceived most likely to have disturbed the business The first who declared his aversness to the King's Proceedings was Dr. Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester who stomaching his being left out of the Lift of the Council appeared more cross to all their doings then other of his Order For which being brought before their Lordships and not giving them such satisfaction as they looked for from
Shrewsbury and Pembroke served as principal Mourners the Funeral Sermoâ— Preached by Doctour Day then shortly to be re-established in the See of Chichester And if the Dead â—e capable of any Felicity in this present Woald He might be said to have had a special part thereof in this particular viz. That as He had caused all Divine Offices to be Celebrated in the English Tongue according to the Reformation which was made in the time of His Life so the whole Service of the Day together with the Form of Burial and the Communion following on it were Officiated in the English Tongue according to the same Model on the Day of his Obsequies But whilest these things were Acting on the Câ—urch of Westminster Queen Mary held a more beneficial Obsequie for Him as She then imagined in the Tower of London where She caused a Solemn Dirige in the Latine Tongue to be Chanted in the Afternoon and the next Day a Mass of Requiem to be sung for the good of His Sonl At which both She and many of Her Ladies made their accustomed Offerings according to the Form and Manner of the Church of Kome Such was the Life and such the Death of this Excellent Prince whose Character I shall not borrow from any of our own English Writers who may be thought to have been byassed by their own Affections in speaking more or less of Him then He had deserved But I shall speak Him in the words of that Great Philosopher Hierome Cardanus an Italian born and who professing the Religion of the Church of Rome cannot be rationally accused of Partiality in his Character of Him There was in Him saith he a towardly Disposition and pregnancie apt to all Humane Literature as who being yet a Childe had the knowledg of divers Tongues First of the English His own Natural Tongue of the Latine also and of the French Neither was He ignorant as I hear of the Greek Italian and Spanish Tongues and of other Languages peradventure more In His own in the French and in the Latine Tongue singularly perfect and with the like facility apt to receive all other Neither was He ignorant in Logick in the Principles of Natural Philosophie or in Musick There was in Him lacking neither Humanity a Princely Gravity and Majesty for any kind of towardliness beseeming a Noble King Briefly it might seem A Miracle of Nature to behold the Excellent Wit and Forwardness that appeared in Him being yet but a Childe And this saith he I speak not Rhetorically to amplifie things or to make them more then Truth is nay the Truth is more then I do utter So He in reference to His Perâ—onal Abâ—lities and Qualifications And for the rest that is to say His Piety to Almighty God His Zeal to the Reformation of Religion His Care for the well-ordering of the Common-Wealth and other Qualities belonging to a Christian King so far as they could be found in such tender years I leave them to be gathered from the Passages of His Life as before lai'd down Remembring well that I am to play the Part of an Historian and not of a Panegyrist or Rhetorician As for the manner of His Death the same Philosopher leaves it under a suspicion of being like to fall upon Him by some dangerous Practise For whether He divined it by his ART in Astrologie having Calculated the Scheme of His Nativity or apprehended it by the Course and Carriage of Business he made a dangerous Prediction when he fore-saw that the KING should shortly dye a violent Death and as he reporteth fled out of the Kingdom for fear of further danger which might follow on it Of any Publick Works of Piety in the Reign of this KING more then the Founding and Endowing of the Hospitals before-remembred I finde no mention in our Authours which cannot be affirmed of the Reign of any of His Predecessours since their first receiving of the Gospel But their Times were for building up and His unfortunate Reign was for pulling down Howsoever I finde His Name remembred amongst the Benefactours to the University of Oxford and by that Name required to be commemorated in all the Prayers before such Sermons as were Preached ordinarily by any of that Body in Saint Marie's Church or at Saint Paul's Cross or finally in the Spittle without Bishops-Gate on some solemn Festivals But possibly it is that his Beneficence did extend no further then either to the Confirmation of such Endowments as had been made unto that University by King Henry the Eight or to the excepting of all Colleges in that and the other University out of the Statute or Act of Parliament by which all Chantries Colleges and Free-Chapels were conferred upon Him The want of which Redemption in the Grant of the said Chantries Colleges Free-Chapels to King Henry the Eight strook such a Terrour unto the Students of both Universities that they could never think themselves secure till the Expiring of that Statute by the Death of the King notwithstanding a very Pious and Judicious Letter which had been written to the King in that behalf by Doctour Richard Cox then Dean of Christ-Church and Tâ—â—our to His Son Prince Edward But not to leave this Reign without the Testimony of some Work of Piety I cannot but remember the Foundation of the Hospital of Christ in Abindon as a Work not onely of this Time but the King 's own Act. A Guild or Brother-hood had been there founded in the Parish-Church of Saint Hellens during the Reign of King Henry the Sixth by the procurement of one Sir John Gollafrie a near Neighbouring Gentleman for Building and Repairing certain Bridges and High-waies about the Town as also for the Sustenance and Relief of thirteen poor People with two or more Priests for performing all Divine Offices unto those of the Brother-hood Which being brought within the Compass of the Act of Parliament by which all Chantries Colleges and Free-Chappels were conferred on the Crown the Lands hereof were seized on to the use of the King the Repairing of the Waies and Bridges turned upon the Town and the Poor left Destitute in a manner of all Relief In which Condition it remained till the last Year of the King when it was moved by Sir John Mason one of the Masters of Requests a Town-born Childe and one of the poorest mens Children in it to erect an Hospital in the same and to Endow it with such of the Lands belonging to the former Brother-hood as remained in the Crown and to charge it with the Services and Pious Uses which were before incumbent on the old Fraternity The Suitour was too powerfull to be denyed and the Work too Charitable in it self to be long demurr'd on so that he was easily made Master also of this Request Having obtained the King's Consent he caused a handsome Pile of Building to be Erected near the Church distributed into several Lodgings for the Use of the Poor and one convenient Common-Hall
AFFAIRS OF CHURCH and STATE IN ENGLAND During the Life and Reign OF QUEEN MARY Heb. 11. 35 36 37. 35. Some of them were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection 36. And others had triall of cruell mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment 37. They were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword they wandred about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented c. Vell. Paterc Lib. 2. Hujus temporis fortunam ne deflere quidem quispiam satis dignè potuit nemo exprimere verbis potest Tantum Relligio potuit suadere malorum LONDON Printed for H. Twyford T. Dring J. Place and W. Palmer Anno 1660 The Parentage Birth and first Fortunes of the Princesse MARY The Eldest Daughter of K. Henry the Eighth before her comming to the CROWN With a brief Narrative of her Mother's Misfortunes from the first Agitating of the Divorce till the time of her Death and that which followed thereupon MARY the eldest Daughter of King Henry the Eighth and of Katherine his first wife daughter of Ferdinand and Issabella Kings of Spain was born at Greenwich on the 18 th day of February Anno 1516. Her Mother had before been married to Arthur Prince of Wales the elder Brother of King Henry but whether bedded by him or not more than as to some old Formalities of Court on the like occasions was not commonly known But he dying within few months after King Henry the Seventh the father of the deceased Prince was secretly dealt with by the Agents of the said Ferdinand and â—ssabella to proceed unto a second Marriage between Henry Duke of York his now onely son and their daughter Katherine To which King Henry readily condescendeth upon divers reasons partly to be assured of the assistance of the Kings of Spain against all practises of the French and partly that so great a Treasure as the Rents and Profits of the Princesse's Joynture might not be carried out of the Kingdom as needs must be if she should be married to a Prince of another Nation This being agreed on by the Parents of either side Pope Julius the 2 d. is sollicited for a Dispensation to the Grant whereof he willingly yielded knowing how necessary it was to the Peace of Christendom that those Kings should be united in the strictest Leagues of Love and Amity Which comming to the knowledge of the Princesse Katherine who understood her own condition better than her father or mother she caused those words vel forsan coâ—nitam to be inserted into the Bull or Dispensation and this she did for the preventing of all such disputes as might arise about the validity of the Marriage in case the consummation of it should be openly known though afterwards those words were used as the shrewdest Argument for the invalidating of the Marriage when it came in question And some such thing was thought to have prevailed with King Henry the seventh for deferring the advancement of Henry his second son to the Style Title and Dignity of Prince of Wales that he might first be well assued that no child was likely to be born of the former Marriage to whom that Title might more properly and of right belong The Dispensation being thus granted Prince Henry being then eleven years of age or thereabouts is solemnly contracted to the Princesse Katherine who must needs have a very great stock as well of Christian-Prudence as of Virgin-Modesty to wait the growing up of a Husband being then a child and one of whose affection to her when he should come to Man's estate she had no assurance and so it proved in the event For Henry had no sooner finished the fourteenth year of his age when either by the compunction of conscience the perswasion of some that wish'd him well or upon consideration of the disproportion of age which was then between them the Princesse being eight years the elder he resolved upon the breaking and annulling of the said Contract in which his Parents had engaged him To which end making his addresse to Doctor Richard Fox then Bishop of Winchester he openly renounceth the said Contract not by word onely but by the subscription of his name to a Legall Instrument containing the effect of that Renunciation his Resolution never to proceed any further in it and his Reasons for it Which Instrument he published in the presence of John Read a publick Notary the Bishop sitting then at Richmond as in Court or Consistory and witnessed unto by Miles Daâ—benâ—y Lord Chamberlain to King Henry the seventh and father of Henry Earl of Bridgwater Sir Charls Sommerset Banneret created afterwards Earl of Worcester Dr. Nicolas West after Bishop of Elâ— Dr. Thâ—mas Rowthall after Bishop of Durham and Sir Henry Mainiâ— The Instrument it self extant in the History of John Speed may be there consulted And in pursuance of this Act he waived the Consummation of the Marriage from one time to another till the death of his father which happened on the 22 of April An. 1509. he being then within two months of the age of eighteen years But being now come unto the Crown by the death of his father Reason of State prevailed so far beyond that of Conscience that he consented to the consummation of the Marriage which before he had solemnly renounced and did accordingly celebrate those unhappy Nuptialls the cause of so much trouble both to him and others on the second of June and caused her to be Crown'd with him on the 24 th of the same month This Marriage was blest within the year by the birth of a son whom the King caused to be Christned by the name of Henry and five years after with another who lived not long enough to receive his Baptism But Henry the first-born not living to be two months old the King remained childlesse till the birth of this daughter Mary the presumptive Heir of his Dominions committed in her Infancy to the care and charge of the Lady Margaret daughter of George Duke of Clarence and by the King in reference to her discent from the house of the Montacutes advanced unto the Style and Title of Countesse of Sarisbury An 1513. And herein it was thought that the Queen had a particular aim beyond that of the King and that she rather chose to commit her daughter to the care of that Lady than of any other in the Kingdom to the end that some affection growing to her by any of the Countesse's sons her daughter's Title to the Crown might be corroborated by the Interesse of the House of Clarence And so far her design succeeded that the Princesse Mary always carried such a dear affection to Reginald Pâ—le her second son best known by the name of Cardinal Pole in the following times that when she came unto the Crown she would have made choice of him for her husband before any other if the necessity of her affairs and
unquietness in her people by interpreting the Laws of this Realm after their brains and fantasies but quietly to continue for the time till 〈◊〉 before is said further Order may be taken and therefore willeth and strâ—ightly chargeth and commondeth all her good loving subjects to live together in quiet sort and Christian Charity leaving those new found devilish terms of Papist and Heretick and such like and applying their whole care study and travail to live in the fear of God exercising their conversations in such charitable and Godly doing as their lives may indeed express the great hunger and thirst of God's glory which by rash talk and words many have pretended And in so doing they shall best please God and live without danger of the Laws and maintain the tranquility of the Realm Whereof as her highness shall be most glad so if any man shall rashly presume to make any assemblies of people or at any publick assemblies or otherwise shall go about to stir the people to disorder or disquiet she mandeth according to her duty to see the same most severely reformed and punished according to her Highnese's Lawes And furthermore for asmuch as it is well known that sedition and false rumours have been nourished and maintained in this Realâ— by the subtilty and malice of some evil-disposed persons which take upon them without sufficient authority to preach and to interpret the word of God after their own brains in Churches and other places both publick and private and also by playing of Interludes and Printing of false fond Books and Ballads Rimes and other lewd Treatises in the English Tongue conteining Doctrine in matter now in question and controversies touching the high points and mysteries in Christian Religion which Books Ballads Rimes and Treatises are chiefly by the Printers and Stationers set out to sale to her Graces subjects of an evil zeal for lucre and covetousnesse of vile gain Her Highnesse therefore streightly chargeth and commandeth all and every of her said subjects of whatsoever state condition or degree they be that none of them presume from henceforth to preach or by way of reading in Châ—rches or other publick or prâ—vate places except in Schools of the University to interpret or teach any Scriptures or any manner of points of Doctrine concerning Religion Neither also to Print any Boâ—k Matâ—er Ballad Rime Enterlude Processe or Treatise nor to play any Enterlude except they have her Graces special Licence in writing for the same upon pain to incur her Highnesse indignation and displeasure It cannot be denied but that this Proclamation was very cautiously and cunningly penned giving encouragement enough to those which had a mind to outrun the Law or otherwise to conform themselves to the Queen's Religion to follow their own course therein without dread or danger and yet commanding nothing contrary to the Lawes established which might give trouble or offence to the other party For hereupon many of the people shewed themselves so ready for receiving their old Religion that in many places of the Realm before any Law was made for the same they erected again their Altars and used the Masse and Latin Service in such sort as was wont to be in King Henry's time Which was so well taken by the Queen that all such as stood upon the Lawes which were made to the contrary before had a mâ—â—k of displeasure set upon them Which being observed by some of the Clergy they were as forward as the rest in setting up the Pageants of St Catherine and St Nicholas formerly erected in the Chancels and to set forth their Processions which they celebrated in the Latin tounge with their old solemnities contrary to the Lawes and Ordinances of King Edward's time All which irregular activities in the Priest and People were sheltred under the name of setting forward the Queens proceedings And by that name the official of the Arch-Deacon of Ely gave it in charge amongst the Articles of his visitation that the Church Wardens should present all such as did disturb the Queen's proceedings in letting the Latin Service setting up of Altars saying of Mass c. But more particularly at Cambridge the Vicechancellor challenged one Pierson on the 3d. of October for officiating the communion in his own Parish Church in the English tounge and on the 26. displaced Dr Madew Master of Clare Hall for being maried though they had both as much authority on their side as the Lawes could give them In like manner some of the Popish party in King's Colledge not tarrying the making of any Law on the 28th of the same officiated the Divine Service in the Latin tounge and on the 6th of November then next following a Sermon is preached openly at St Michaels contrary to the Lawes in that behalf not as then repealed Not altogether so eager on the scent at Oxon as they were at Cambridge though with more difficulty brought at first to the Reformation Only it pleased Dr Tresham one of the Canons of Christ Church of the last foundation to cause the great bell there to be new cast and christned by the name of Mary much comforting himself with the melodious found thereof when it toll'd to Mass which Marshall the new Dean by his help and counsel had again restored But these were only the Essays of those alterations which generally were intended in all parts of the Church assoon as the times were ripe for them and the people fitted to receive them in order whereunto it was not thought sufficient to displace the Bishopâ— and silence the Old Protestant Preachers also unless they brought them under some exemplary punishment that others might be terrified from the outward profession of that truth out of which they could not be disputed Of Ridley's being brought prisoner to the Tower and of Coxe's committing to the Marshalâ—ey we have spoke before On the 22d of August Letters are sent from the Lords of the Council commanding Bishop Coverdale and Bishop Hooper to appear before them By whom after two or three appearances committed to their several Prisons the one reserved for the stake the other sent upon request to the King of Denmark On the 5th of September the like Letters are dispatched to old Bishop Latimer committed close prisoner to the Tower on the 8th day after followed the next morning by Archbishop â—ranmeâ— whose Story doth require a more particular account of which more anon Harley of Hereâ—ord to which he had been conâ—ecrated in May foregoing and â—aylor of Lincoln another of the lâ—â—t of King Edward's Bishops were present at the opening of the Parliament on the 10th of October But no sooner was the Mass began though not then restoâ—ed by any Law than they left the Church For which the Bishop of Lincoln being first examined and making profession of his Faith prevented the malice of his enemies by a timely death And Harley upon information of his marriage was presently exâ—luded from the Parliament House and not long after
from his Bâ—shopâ—ick also Which being observed by Bishop Barlow of Wells and Scory of Chiâ—hâ—ster they withdrew themselves beyond the Seas followed not long after by Bishop Point of Winchester But Barlow made not so muâ—h haste as not to be committed to the Fleâ—t by the Lords of the Council from whence upon some satisfaction given to the Lord Chancellor Gardiner by his discreet and moderate Answers he was not long after set at liberty and so crossed the seas resolved to trust himself no more â—o a second hazard having with so much difficulty escaped the first How it succeeded with the rest we shall see hereafter Upon which smiting of the Shepherds it is not to be wondred at iâ— their floâ—ks 〈◊〉 sâ—attered Now as concerning the Archbishop the substance of his story is briefly â—his He had been a chief instrument in King Henry's time of setting forward the divorce and in King Edward's of advancing the Reformation The Queen conceived hereupon such a high displeasure It had been malice in another against the man that nothing but his death could appease the same His death is therefore fully resolved upon by Gardiner Banner and the rest of the Popish Prelates Of which the first had pâ—osecuted the Divorce as far as any and the second was as forward as the best in the Reformation as long as Cromwel lived to perfer and countenance him But their standings out and sufferings for it in King Edward's time were thought sufficient explations for their former errors when the good Offices which Cranmer had done for her in her Fathers tiâ—e were worn out of memory Die then he must but by what law he was to die proved a knot more difficult than could be speedily untied It was advised to charge him with High Treason as being privy to the plot of the Duke of Northumberland for excluding the Queen from the succession But against this it was objected that he was the last of the Council who subseribed unto it and that the Council would be wary of making that a Capital offence in him of which they were all equally guilty In the next place it was propounded to proceed against him in case of Heresie that being the most likely way to content the Pâ—pe whose favour was to be procured by all means immaginable But the worst was that the Statutes made in the time of King Richard 2d and King Henry 4th for putting Hereticks to death had been abrogated in the time of king Henry 8th as that of the six Articles more terrible than either of the other two had been repealed by the late King Edward the 6th No better course therefore than to find some occasion for laying him up in some safe prison and when they had him there to proceed against him as time and opportunity should administer some fit matter for it About this time a bruit was raised that Cranmer to ingratiate himself with the Queen had promised to celebrate the Exequies of the deceased King according to the Româ—sh manner To clear himself of which reproach he drew up a Manifest declaring in the same that he was ready to maintain the Articles of Religion set forth by his procurement in the time of King Edward to be consonant to the word of God the Doctrine of the Apostles and the practice of the best and pâ—rest times These papers lying in the window in his private chamber were seen and liked by Bishop Scory by whom they were transcribed and communicated to many others Coming at last unto the knowledge of the Council the Archbishop is commanded to appear before them Interrogated about the papers and prompted by Bishop Heath who was then amongst them to let them know whether he were not sorry for it To which the Archbishop made reply that as he did not deny himself to be the author of those papers so he must needs confesse himself to be sorry that they went from him in such sort as they did For I had purposed saith he to set out the Manifest in a more large and ample manner and to have it set upon St Paul's door and the doors of all the Churches in London with my own Seal affixed unto it Upon which stout and honest answer they thought fit to dismiss him for the present it being conceived by some of the more moderate spirits that it would be punishment enough to deprive him only of his Bishoprick and to assign him sufficient maintenance upon the exhibiting of a true Inventory of his whole estate with a commandment to keep his house without medling in matters of Religion But those who better understood the mind of the Queen so ordered it that on the 14th of September he was sent to the Tower where he remained prisoner till the 3d. of November At what time he was arraigned in the Guild Hall of London together with the Lord Guilford Dadley the late Queen Jane his wife and others all of them being attainted and condemned of Treason as before was said And he lay under this attainture till the year next following when the old Statutes for putting Hereticks to death were revived in Parliament Which having furnished his adversaries with a better ground to proceed upon to the contentment of the Pope and the Queen together they waved the prosecuting of the Attaindure to an Execution and wholly fixed themselves on the point of Heresie At the hearing whereof he was right well pleased because the case was not now his own but Christs not the Queens but the Churches The severity of this beginning against the Natives gave a sufficient warning to all such strangers who had tool sanctuary here in the time of King Edward to provide betimes for their departure Amongst whom none more openly aimed at than Peter Marâ—yr because none of them had given wider wounds than he to the Catholick Cause Tresham a senior Canon of Christ Church had held some points against him at his first coming thither and now he took the benefit of the times in causing both that house and many others in the University to put some publick scorn upon him Not finding any safety there he retires to Lambeth where he was sure of as much safety as that place could give him A consultation had been held by some of the more fiery spirits for his commitment unto prison But he came hither as it was well known on the publick Faith which was not to be violated for the satisfaction of some private persons It was thought fit therefore to discharge him all further imployment and to licence him to depart in peace none being more forward to furnish him with all things necessary for his going hence than the new Lord Chancellor whether in honour to his Learning or out of a desire to send him packing shall not now be questioned But less humanity was shewed unto him in his wife whose body having been buried in the Church of St Frideswide was afterwards by publick order taken out of the
of the Court that for the better attaining of the Queens good grace they furnished the same at their own costs with new beds bedding and other necessary furniture in a very ample manner In which condition it continueth to this very day the Mastership of the Hospital being looked on as a good preferment for any well deserving man about the Court but for the most part given to some of their Majesties Chaplains for the encouragement of learning and the reward of their service How far the Queens example seconded by the Ladies about the Court countenanced by the King and earnestly insisted on by the Pope then being might have prevailed on the Nobility and Gentry for doing the like either in restoring their Church Lands or assigning some part of them to the like Foundations it is hard to say most probable it is that if the Queen had lived some few years longer either for love to her or for fear of gaining the Kings displeasure who was now grown too great to be disputed with if the point were questioned or otherwise out of an unwillingnesse to incur the Popes curse and the Churches censures there might have been very much done that way though not all at once For so it was that Philip having past over to Calais in the month of September Anno 1555. And the next day departing to the Emperors Court which was then at Brussels where he found his father in a resolution of resigning to him all his Dominions and Estates except the Empire or the bare title rather of it which was to be surrendred to his brother Ferdinand not that he had not a design to settle the Imperial Dignity on his Successors in the Realm of Spain for the better attaining of the Universal Monarchy which he was said to have aspired to over all the West but that he had been crossed in it by Maxiâ—ilian the eldest son of his brother Ferdinand who succeeded to his father in it and left the same hereditary in a manner to the Princes of the House of Austria of the German Rate For Charls grown weary of the world broken with warrs and desirous to apply himself to â—ivine meditations resolved to discharge himself of all civil employments and spend the remainder of his life in the Monastery of St. Justus situate among the Mountains of Extremadura a Province of the Realm of Castile In pursuance whereof having called before him the principal of the Nobility and great men of his several Kingdoms and Estates he made a Resignation of all his hereditary Dominions to King Philip his son on the 25th of October Anno 1555. having then scarce attained to the 55 year of his life to the great admiration of all the world After which act he found himself so abandoned by all his followers that sitting up laâ—e at night in conference with Seldiuâ— his brothers Embassador he had not a servant within call to light the Gentleman down stairs Which being observed by the Emperor he took the candle into his hands and would needs in his own person perform that offiâ—e and having brought him to the top of the stairs he said unto him Remember Seldius that thou hast known the Emperour Charls whom thou hast seen in the heâ—d of so many Armies reduced to such a low estate as to perform the office of an ordinary servant to his Brothers Minister Such was the greatness to which Philip had attained at the present time when the Queen was most intent on these new foundations As for the Pope he had published a Bull in print at the same time also in which he threatned Excommunication to all manner of persons without exception as kept any Church Lands unto themselves as also to all Princes Noblemen and Magistrates as did not forthwith put the same in execution Which though it did not much edifie at the present in the Realm of England yet it found more obedience and conformity in that of Ireland in which a Parliament being called toward the end of this year that is to say in the month of June Anno 1557. there past a Statute for repealing all Acts Articles and Provisions made against the See Apostolick since the 20th year of King Henry the 8th and for abolishing of several Eccelesiastical possessions conveyed to the Laity as also for the extinguishment of First-fruits and Twentieth parts no more than the yearly payment of the twentieth part having been laid by Act of Parliament on the Irish Clergy in the first and last clause whereof as they followed the example of the Realm of England so possibly they might have given a dangerous example to it in the other point if by the Queens death following shortly after as well K. Philip as the Pope had not lost all their power influence on the English Nation by means whereof there was no farther progresse in the restitution of the Abbey-Lands no more re-edifying of the old Religious Houses and no intention for the founding of any new Such as most cordially were affected to the interest of the Pope of Rome and otherwise were very perfect at their Ave Maria might love their Pater nâ—ster well but their Penny better Thus have we seen how zealously the Queen proceeded in her way towards the re-establishing of the Papal greatness Let us next look on the proceedings of the Cardinal Legat not as a Legat a latere from the Pope of Rome but as Legatus natus a Metropolitan or Archbishop of the Church of England As Cardinal-Legat he had been never forward in the shedding of blood declaring many ways his aversnesse from that severity which he saw divers of the English Bishops but especially the Butcher of London were so bent upon And when he came to act as Metropolitan he was very sparing in that kind as far as his own person was concerned therein though not to be excused from suffering the under Officers of his Diocess to be too prodigal of the blood of their Christian brethren He had been formerly suspected for a favourer of the Lutheran Doctrins when he lived at Rome and acted for the Pope as one of his Legats in the Council of â—rent Gardiner and Bonner and the rest of the sons of Thunder who called for nothing less than fire though not from heaven were willing to give out that he brought the same affections into England also and therefore somewhat must be done to keep up his authority and reputation both at home and abroad To which end he inserteth some particulars amongst the printed Articles of his Visitation to witnesse for him to the world that he had as great a care for suppressing the growth of Heresie as any Prelate in the Kingdom who would be thought more zealous because more tyrannical of which sort are the 14 15 and 17th Articles which concerned the Clergy that is to say Whether any of them do teach or preach erronious doctrine contrary to the Catholick faith and the Unity of the
tempore existentes according to the Laws of the Land which were thâ—n in force whether by Purchase or by Gift or in the way of Exchange which are the words of the Decree And secondly If the said Lands were warranted and confirmed unto them by Letters Patents from the two last Kings qui per literas Patentes easdem Terras Warâ—antizâ—runt as is declared in the Second of the following Reasons For which Consult the Book Entituled No Sacrilege nor Sin to purchase Cathedrâ—l-Lands c. page 52. Where still observe that nothing made a Lawful Title in the Pope's Opinion but the King's Letters Patents grounded on the Laws of the Land as is expressed more clearly in the former Passages But this can no way serve the Turn of some present Purchasers though much insisted on by one of that number to justifie his defacing of an Episcopal Palace and his pretensions to the Wealthy Borough which depended on it For certainly there must needs be a vast disproportion between such Contracts as were founded upon Acts of Parliament Legally passed by the King's Authority with the Consent and Approbation of the Three Estates and those which have no other Ground but the bare Votes and Orders of both Houses onely and perhaps not that And by this Logick he may as well justifie the late horrid Murther committed on the most incomparable Majesty of King CHARLES the First as stand upon the making good of such Grants and Sates as were Contracted for with some of those very Men who Voted to the setting up of the High Court of Justice as most ridiculously they were pleased to call it When I shall see him do the one I must bethink my self of some further Arguments to refute the other And so Queen MARY makes Her Exit and leaves the Stage to Queen ELIZABETH Her younger Sister A Princess which had long been trained up in the Schole of Experience and knew the Temper of the People whom She was to Govern who having generally embraced the Reformed Religion in the Time of Her Brother most passionately desired the Enjoyment of it under Her Protection And She accordingly resolved to satisfie the Piety of their Desire as soon as She had Power and Opportunity to go thorough with it In Prosecution of which Work She raised Her whole Fabrick on the same Foundation which had been lay'd by the Reformers in the Reign of King EDWARD that is to say the Word of God the Practise of the Primitive Times the General Current of the Fathers and the Example of such Churches as seemed to retain most in them of the Antient Forms But then She added thereunto such an equal mixture both of Strengâ—h and Beauty as gave great Lustre to the Church and drew along with it many rare Felicities on the Civil State both Extraordinary in themselves and of long Continuance as the most Excellent King IAMES hath right-well observed So that We may affirm of the Reformation of the Church of England as the Historian doth of the Power and Greatness of the Realm of Macedon that is to say that The same Arts by which the first Foundations of it were laid by PHILIP were practised in the Consummation and Accomplishment of it by the Care of ALEXANDER For in the first Year of Her Reign the Liturgie being first Reviewed and qualified in some Particulars was confirmed by PARLIAMENT in Her first Year the Articles of Religion were agreed upon the Convocation and in the Eight the Government of the Church by Arch-Bishops and Bishops received as strong a Confirmation as the Laws could give it And for this last We are beholden unto BONNER the late Bishop of LONDON who being called upon to take the OATH of Supremacie by HORN of Winton refused to take the OATH upon this Account because HORNs Consecration was not good and valid by the Laws of the Land Which he insisted on because the Ordinal Established in the Reign of King EDWARD by which both HORN and all the rest of Queen ELIZABETH's Bishops received Consecrationâ— had been discharged by Queen MARY and not restored by any Act of Parliament in the present Reign Which being first declared by PARLIAMENT in the Eighth of this Queen to be Casus omissus or rather that the Ordinal was looked upon as a part of the Liturgie which had been solemnly confirmed in the first of this Queen's Reign they next Enacted and Ordained That all such Bishops as were Consecrated by that Ordinal in the Times precedent or should be Consecrated by it in the time to come should be reputed to be lawfully Ordained and Consecrated to all Intents and Purposes in the Law whatever Which added as much Strength to the Episcopal Government as the Authority of Man and an Act of Parliament could possibly Conferr upon it This made the Queen more constant to Her former Principles of keeping up the Church in its Power and Purity without subjecting it to any but Her Self alone She looked upon Her Self as the Sole Fountain of both Jurisdictions which She resolved to keep in their proper Chanels neither permitting them to mingle Waters upon any occasion nor suffering either of them to invade and destroy the other And to this Rule She was so constant that when one Morrice being then Attorney of the Dutchy of Lancaster had offered a Bill ready drawn to the House of Commons in the Thirty Fifth of Her Reign for the Retrenching of the Ecclesiastical Courts in much Narrower Bounds She first commanded Coke then Speaker and afterwards successively Chief Justice of either Bench not to admit of any such Seditious Bills for the time to come And that being done She caused the person of the said Attorney to be seized upon deprived him of his Place in the Dutchy-Court disabled him from Practising as a Common-Lawyer and finally shut him up in Tutbury-Castle where he continued till his Death By which Severity and keeping the like Constant Hand in the Course of Her Government She held so great a Curb on the Puritan Faction that neither Her Parliaments nor Her Courts of Justice were from thenceforth much troubled with them in the rest of Her Reign This is the Sum and Method of the following History in the Particulars whereof thou wilt finde more to satisfie thy Curiosity and inform thy Judgment then can be possibly drawn up in this General View As for my Self and my performance in this Work in the first place I am to tell thee that towards the raising of this Fabrick I have not borrowed my Materials onely out of Vulgar Authors but searched into the Registers of the Convocation consulted all such Acts of Parliament as concerned my Purpose advised with many Foreign Writers of great Name and Credit exemplified some Records and Charters of no common Quality many rare Pieces in the famous Cottonian Library and not a few Debates and Orders of the Council-â—able which I have lai'd together in as good a Form and beautified it with a
cast his eye on the Lands of Bishoppricks though there were some who thought the time long till they fell upon them Concerning which there goes a story that after the Court-Harpies had devoured the greatest part of the spoyle which came by the suppression of Abbyes they began to seek some other way to satiate that greedy Appetite which the division of the former booty had left unsatisfied and for the satisfying whereof they found not any thing so necessary as the Bishops Lands This to effect Sir Thomas Seimour is imployed as the fittest man as being in favour with the King as brother to Queen Jane his most and best beloved wife and having the opportunity of accesse unto him as being one of the Gentlemen of his Privy Chamber And he not having any good affection to Arch-Bishop Cranmer desired that the experiment should be tryed on him and therefore took his time to informe the King that my Lord of Canterbury did nothing but fell his woods letting long leases for great fines and making havock of the Royalties of his Arch-Bishopprick to raise thereby a fortune to his wife and children withall he did acquaint the King that the Arch-Bishop kept no hospitality in respect of such a large Revenue and that in the opinion of many wise men it was more meet for the Bishops to have a sufficient yearely Stipend out of the Exchequer then to be so encumbred with temporall Royalties being so great a hindrance to their Studies and Pastorall Charge and that the said Lands and Royalists being taken to his Majesties use would afford him besides the said Annuall Stipends a great yearly Revenue The King soon smelt out the Device and shortly after sent him on an Errand to Lambeth about dinner time where he found all the tables in the great Hall to be very bountifully furnished the Arch-Bishop himselfe accompanied at dinner with divers persons of Quality his Table exceeding plentifully served and all things answerable to the Port of so great a Prelate Wherewith the King being made acquainted at his coming back he gave him such a Ratle for his false information and the design which visibly depended on it that neither he nor any other of the Courtiers durst stir any further in the suite whilest King Henry lived But the King considering further of it could not think fit that such a plausible Proposition as taking to himselfe the Lands of the Bishops should be made in vaine Only he was resolved to prey further off and not to fall upon the spoyle two neere the Court for feare of having more partakers in the Booty then might stand with his profit And to this end the deales with Hâ—lgate preferred not long before from Landâ—ff to the See of Yorke from whom he takes at one time no fewer then seventy Mannors and Town-ships of good old Rents given him in exchange to the like yearly value certain Impropriations Pensions Tithes and Portions of Tithes but all of an extended Rent which had accrued unto the Crown by the fall of Abbyes Which Lands he â—aid by Act of Parliament to the Dutchy of Lancaster For which see 37 Hen. 8. Câ—p 16. He dismembred also by these Acts certain Mannors from the See of Loâ—don in favâ—ur of Sir William Petie and others in the like manner from the See of Canterbury but not without some reasonable compensation or allowance for them And though by reason of his death which folâ—owed within short time after there was no further alienation made in his time of the Churches Patrimoney yet having opened such a Gap and discovered this secret that the sacred Patrimony might be alienated with so little trouble the Courtieâ—s of King Edwards time would not be kept from breaking violently into it and making up their own fortune in the spoyle of the Biâ—hopricks Of which we may â—peak more hereafter in it's proper place So impossible a thing it is for the iâ—l example of Great Princes not to finde followers in all ages especially where profit or preferment may be furthered by it But then it cannot be deâ—ied but that King Henry left the Church in many Respects in a better condition then he found it not only in order to the Reformation of Religion which none but such a Masculine Prince durst have undertaken but also in the Polity and endowments of it The Mâ—nâ—steries and Religious Houses might possibly be looked upon no otherwise then as so many excrescences upon the body of the Church exempt for the most part from the Episcopall Jurisdiction wholly depending on the Pope and such as might be taken away without any derogation to the Church in Power or Patrimony But Bishopricks being more essentiall to the constitution of the same he did not only preserve as before he found them but increased their number Such of the old Cathedralls as were founded on a Prior and Covent he changed into a Corporation of secular Priests consisting of a Deane and Prebendarles according to the proportion of their yearely rents of which sort were the Churches of Canterbury Winton Durham Elie Rochester Norwich and Carlile Six of the wealthier Monasteries he turned into Episcopall Sees that is to say the Abbyes of Westminster Peter Borough Bristoll Glocester and Chester with that of Oâ—sney for the See of the Bishop of Oxon assigning to every new Episcopall See its Deane and Chapter and unto every such Cathedrall a competent number of Quiremen and other Officers all of them liberally endowed and provided for And that the Church might be continually furnished with sufficient Seminaries he sounded a Grammer Schoole in every one of his Cathedralls either old or new with Annuall pensions to the Master and some allowance to be made to the children yearely and ordained also that in each of the two Universities there should be publick Readers in the faculties of Divinity Law and Physick and in the Greek and Hebrew Tongues all which he pensioned and endowed with lâ—berall Saâ—aries as the times then were Besides which publique benefactions he confirmed Cardinall Wolsies Colledge in Oxon by the name of Kings Colledge first and of Christ church afterwards and erected that most beautifull piâ—e of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge those being the two faâ—rest and most magnificent foundations in the Christian World As for the Polity of the Church he setled it in such a manner that Arch-bishops and Bishops might be chosen confirmed and consecrated and all the Subjects be relieved in their suits and Grievances without having such Recourse to the Court of Rome as formerly had drained the Realm of so much Treasure For having by his Proclamation of the 19th of September Anno 1530. prohibited all addresses and Appeales to the Popes of Rome he prevailed so farr upon his Bishops and Clergy intangled by the Cardinalls fall in a Premunire that they acknowledged him in their Convocation to be the Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England and signified as much in a Publick Instrument bearing date the
name of Treason and Felony because in all Treasons the intent and purpose is as Capital as the Act it self if once discovered either by word or deed or any other material Circumstance though it go no further But though Treason made the loudest noise it was the Felony which was especially relied upon for his Condemnation Two Statutes were pretended for the Ground of the whole Proceedings The first made in the time of King Henry the Seventh by which it was Enacted to be Felony for any inferiour Person to contrive the death of a Lord of the Council The second that of the last Session of Parliament By which it was Declared to be Treason for any Twelve Persons or more to Assemble together with an intent to murther any of the Lords of the Council if after Proclamation made they dissolved not themselves within the space of an hour The Indictment being Read and the Confessions of Palmer and the rest being produced and urged by the King's Council who spared not to press them as is accustomed in such Cases to the best advantage The Duke though much dismayed returned this Answer to the Branches of his Accusation viz. That He never intended to raise the North Parts of this Realm but that upon some bruits he apprehended a Fear which made him send to Sir William Herbert to remain his Friend That He determined not to kill the Duke of Northumberland nor any other Lord but spake of it onely and determined the contrary That It had been a mad enterprise with his hundred men to assail the Gens d' Arms consisting of nine hundred which in case he had prevailed would nothing have advanced the pretended purpose That Therefore this bâ—ing senseless and absurd must needs discredit other matters which otherwise might have been believed That At London he never projected any stir but ever held it a good place for his security That For having men in his Chamber at Greenwich it was manifest that he meant no harm because when he might have done it he did not And further against the persons of them whose Examinations had been read he objected many things desiring that They might be brought to his face which in regard of his Dignity and Estate he conceived to be reasonable And so it happened unto him as with many others that hoping to make his fault seem less by a fair Confession he made it great enough to serve for his Condemnation For presently upon these words the Council thinking they had matter enough from his own Confession to convict him of Felony insisted chiefly on that Point and flourished out their Proofs upon it to their best Advantage But so that they neglected not to aggravate his Offence in the Treason also that his Peers might be under some necessity of finding him guilty in the one if they should finde themselves unsatisfied for passing their Verdict in the other And though neither the one nor the other were so clear in Law as to make him liable to a Sentence of Condemnation if either the Statute in the Contents had been rightly opened or the Opinion of the Judges demanded in them yet what cannot the Great Wit of some Advocates do when they have a mind to serve their Turn upon a Statâ—te contrary to the Mind and Meaning of them that made it The Duke of Northumberland thereupon with a Counterfeit Modesty conceiving that he had him fast enough in Respect of the Felony desired their Lordships that no Act against his life might be brought within the Compass of Treason and they who understood his meaning at half a Word after a full hearing of the Evidence withdrew themselves into a Room appointed for them and after some Conference amongst themselves acquitting him of Treâ—son they pronounced him guilty of the Felony onely which being returned for their Verdict by all the Lords one after another in their Rank and Order and nothing objected by the Duke that Judgement should not pass upon him the Lord High Steward with a seeming Sorrow gave Sentence That he should be had to the Place from whence he came from thence to the Place of Execution and there to hang while he was dead which is the Ordinary Form of condemning Felons A Matter not sufficiently to be admired that the Duke should either be so ignorant or ill advised so destitute of present Courage or so defective in the Use of his Wit and Judgment as not to crave the common Benefit of his Clergy which had he done it must have been allowed him by the Rules of the Court whether it were that of his own Misfortunes might render him uncapable of laying hold on such Advantages as the Laws admitted or that he thought it better to die once for all then living in a perpetual Fear of dying daily by the malicious Practises and Devises of his powerfull Adversaries or that he might presume of a Pardon of Course in regard of the nature of the Offence in which neither the King nor the Safety of the Kingdom was concerned and that the Law by which it was found guilty of Felony had never been put in Execution upon a man of his Quality if perhaps at all or finally whether it were some secret Judgment on him from above as some men conceived that he who had destroyed so many Churches invaded the Estate of so many Cathedrals deprived so many Learned Men of their Means and Livelyhood should want or rather not desire the Benefit of the Clergy in his greatest extremity In stead whereof he suffered Judgment of death to pass upon him gave thanks unto the Lords for his gentle Tryall craved Pardon of the Duke of Northumberland the Marquess of North-hampton and the Earl of Pembroke for his ill Meaning towards them concluding with an humble Suit for his Life and Pity to be shewed to his Wife and Children It is an antient Custome in the Triall of all great Persons accused of Treason that the Ax of the Tower is carried before them to the Bar aâ—d afterwards at their Return from thence on the Pronouncing of the Sentence of Condemnation Which Ceremony not being performed at his going thence in regard he was condemned of the Felony onely gave an occasion unto such as had thronged into the Hall and knew not otherwise how things passed to conceive that he had been acquitted absolutely of the whole Indictment And thereupon so loud a Shout was made in the lower end of the Hall that the noise thereof was heard beyond Charing-Cross to the great Terrour and Amazement of his guilty Adversaries But little pleasure found the Prisoner in these Acclamations and less the People when they understood of his Condemnation so that departing thence with grief they left the way open for the Prisoner to be carried by water to the Cranes in the Viâ—etry and from thence peaceably conveyed to the Tower again Not long after followed the Arraignment of Sir Michael Stanhop Sir Thomas Arundel Sir Ralph Vane and Sir
more inclinable to the Lutheran but where his profit was concerned in the spoil of Images then thâ—â— Zuinglian Doctrines so well beloved in general by the Common People that divers dipt their Handkerchiefs in his Blood to keep them in perpetual Remembrance of him One of which being a sprightly Dame about two years after when the Duke of Northumberland was led through the City for his opposing the Title of Queen Mary ran to him in the Streets and shaking out her bloody Handkerchief before him Behold said she the Blood of that worthy man that good Vncle of that Excellent King which shed by thy malicious Practice doth now begin apparently to revenge it self on thee The like Opinion also was conceived of the business by the most understanding men in the Court and Kingdom though the King seemed for the present to be satisfied in it In which opinion they were exceedingly confirmed by the Enlargment of the Earl of Arundel and restoring of Crane and his Wife to their former Liberty but most especially by the great Endearments which afterwards appeared between the Duke of Northumberland and Sir Thomas Palmer and the great confidence which the Duke placed in him for the Advancement of his Projects in behalf of the Duke of Suffolk of which more hereafter But the Malice of his Enemies stayed not here extending also to his Friends and Children after his Decease but chiefly to the eldest Son by the second Wife in favour of whom an Act of Parliament had been passed in the thirty second year of the late King Henry for the entailing on his Person all such Lands Estates and Honours as had been or should be purchasâ—d by his Father from the twenty fifth day of May then next foregoing Which Act they caused to be repealed at the end of the next Session of Parliament which began on the morrow after the Death of the Duke whereby they strip'd the young Gentleman being then about thirteen years of Age of his Lands and Titles to which he was in part restored by Queen Elizabeth who in pity of his Father's Suffâ—rings and his own Misfortunes created him â—arl of Hertford Viscount Beauchamp c. Nor did the Duke's Fall end it self in no other ruin then that of his own house and the Death of the four Knights which suffered on the same account but drew along with it the â—emoval of the Lord Rich from the Place and Office of Lord Chancellour For so it happened that the Lord Chancellour commiserating the Condition of the Duke of Sommerset though formerly he had shewed himself against him dispatched a Letter to him concerning some Proceedings of the Lords of the Council which he thought fit for him to know Which Letter being hastily superscribed To the Duke with no other Title he gave to one of his Servants to be carried to him By whom for want of a more particular direction it was delivered to the hands of the Duke of Norfolk But the Mistake being presently found the Lord Chancellour knowing into what hands he was like to fall makes his Address unto the King the next morning betimes and humbly prays that in regard of his great Age he might be discharged of the Great Seal and Office of Chancellour Which being granted by the King though with no small difficulty the Duke of Northumberland and the Earl of Pembroke forward enough to go upon such an Errand are sent on the twenty first of December to receive the Seal committed on the morrow after to Doctour Thomas Goodwin Bishop of Ely and one of the Lords of the Privy Council Who afterwards that is to say on the two and twentieth of January was sworn Lord Chancellour the Lord Treasurer Paulet giving him the Oath in the Court of Chancery Next followed the Losses and Disgraces suffered by the Lord Paget on the Duke's account To whom he had continued faithfull in all his Troubles when Sir William Cecil who had received greater Benefits from him and most of the Dependants on him had either deserted or betrayed him His House designed to be the place in which the Duke of Northumberland and the rest of the Lords were to be murthered at a Banquet if any credit may be given to the Informations for which Committed to the Tower as before is said But having no sufficient Proof to warrant any further Proceeding to his Condemnation an Enquiry is made not long after into all his Actions In the return whereof it was suggested That he had sold the King's Lands and Woods without Commission That he had taken great Fines for the King's Lands and applyed them to his proper use and That he had made Leases in Reversion for more then one and twenty years Which Spoyl is to be understood of the Lands and Woods of the Dutchy of Lancaster of the which he was Chancellour and for committing whereof he was not onely forced to resign that Office but condemned in a fine of six thousand pounds not otherwise to be excused but by paying of four thousand pounds within the year This Punishment was accompanied with a Disgrace no less grievous to him then the loss both of his Place and Money He had been chosen into the Society of the Garter An. 1548. when the Duke of Sommerset was in Power and so continued till the fifteenth of April in the year next following Anno 1552. At what time Garter King of Aâ—ms was sent to his Lodging in the Tower to take from him the Garter and the George belonging to him as a Knight of that most Noble Order Which he suffered willingly to be done because it was His Majestie 's Pleasure that it should so be More sensible of the Affront without all question then otherwise he would have been because the said George and Garter were presently afâ—er sent by the King to John Earl of Warwick the Duke of Northumberland's eldest Son Admitted thereupon into that Society So prevalent are the Passions of some Great Persons that they can neither put a measure upon their Hatred nor an end to their Malice Which two last Passages though more properly belonging to the following year I have thought fit to place in this because of that dependance which they have on the Fall of Sommerset The like Ill-Fortune happened at the same time also to Doctour Robert Farrar Bishop of St. David's who as he had his Preferments by him so he suffered also in his Fall not because Guilty of the Practice or Conspiracy with him as the Lord Paget and the rest were given out to be but because he wanted his Support and Countenance against his Adversaries A Man he was of an unsociable disposition rigidly self-willed and one who looked for more Observance then his place required which drew him into a great dislâ—ke with most of his Clergy with none more then the Canons of his own Cathedral The Faction headed amongst others by Doctour Thomas Young then being the Chantour of that Church and afterwards advanced by Queen
and so Subscribed it with the rest Onely Sir James Hales one of the Justices of the Common-Pleas carried the Honour of a Resolute and Constant Man not onely from those of his own Rank but even from all the Lords of the Council and almost all the Peers of the Realm to boot who being a man observed to be both Religious and upright did very worthily refuse to Subscribe and was afterwards as unworthily requited by Queen Mary for it Yet notwithstanding all these Rubs the Project was driven on so fâ—st by the haâ—ty Duke that by the one and twentieth of June the Letters Patents were made ready to pass the Seal which was about a fortnight before the Death of the King During which Interval he had another Game to Pay which was the getting into his Power the Princess Mary whom of all others he most feared as the most likely Person to destroy his whole Contrivance For well he knew that if She stood upon Her Right as no doubt She would She was not onely sure of a strong Party in the Realm who still remained in good Affections to the Church of Rome but that Her Party heâ—e would be Backed and Countenanced by Her Alliances abâ—â—ad wâ—o câ—â—ld â—ot but Prefer and Support Her Interess against all Pretenders 〈◊〉 â—ust make sure of Her or else account all Void and Frâ—stiate which was done already Aâ—d that he might make sure of Her he so prevailed that Letters were directed to â—er in the King's Name from the Lords of the Couâ—cil Willing Her foâ—l wâ—â—h to resort to the Kâ—ng as well to be a comfort to Him in His 〈◊〉 as to see all Matters well Ordered about Him The Lady suspecting to 〈◊〉 Mischief addressed Her Self with all speâ—d to the 〈…〉 gâ—eaâ— Joy that either Her Company or Her Service shâ—uld be esteem'd Needfull to the King But as She was upon the way and 〈…〉 half a Daâ—'s Journey of the Court She received Advice both of the King 's desperate Estate and of the Duke's Designs against Her whereupon She 〈◊〉 in haâ—t to Her House at Hoveden where in a very short time She hâ—ard the Sad Nâ—ws of Her Brother's Death who dyed upon the sixth of July as before was saâ—d Which being the same day of the Moneth on which King Henryâ—ad â—ad taken off the Head of Sir Thomas More for his Adhesion to the Pope the Interess of Queen Katharine Dowager and the Princess Mary gave an occasion unto â—hose of the Râ—mish Party to look upon it as a Piece of Divine Retrâ—bution in taking away the 〈◊〉 of His onely Son on the same day also Two days the Death of the King was by Special Order kept so secret that it was known to very fâ—w about the Court. And it concerned them so to do partly in expectation of the coming of the Princess Mary whâ—m thâ—y knâ—w to be upon the way and partly to make sure of the City of London the Favour and Fidelity whereof was of great Importance for the carrying on of the Design But understanding by their Espiâ—ls that the Princess Mary was retired a Message was sent on Saturday the eighth of July to Sir George Barns the Lord Mayour of London requiring him in the Name of the Lords of the Council to give his Attendance at the Court and bring with him six of the Principal Aldermen six Merchants of the Staple and as many of the Company of Merchant-Adventurers No haste was wanting on their parts And coming at the time appointed they were privily informed by some of the Council but in the Name of all the rest that the King was dead and that He had Declared by His Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England subscribed by all the Lords of the Council and almost all the Peers of the Realm that His Cousin the Lady Jane Gray was to Succeed Him in the Crowns of England and Ireland as the most True Certain and Undoubted Heir of all His Dominions Which being signified unto them it was no hard matter to obtain their Consent to that which they were not able to deny And so upon a Promise of their best Assistance to Promote the Cause and to keep secret the King's Death untill further Order they were dismissed unto their Houses It is an Antient Custom of the Kings of England immediately on the Death of their Predecessours to provide their Lodgings in the Tower Taking possession as it were by that Royal Fortress of the rest of the Kingdom and from thence passing in a Solemn and Magnificent manner through the Principal Streets of London to their Coronation According to which Antient Custom the Lodgings in the Tower being fitted and prepared for the Queen's Reception the Lords of the Council passed over from Greenwich on Munday the tenth of the same Moneth A Letter had been brought the night before from the Princess Mary who had received Advertisement of Her Brother's Death notwithstanding all their Care and Diligence in labouring to conceal it from His nearest Servants which made them meet the earlier and in greater numbers to return an Answer thereunto The Princess knew Her own Right and the Wrong which was intended to Her both which She signified unto Them in these following words My LORDS WE Greet You well and have received sure Advertisement that Our Dearest Brother the King Our late Sovereign Lord is departed to God's Mercy Which News how wofull they be unto Our Heart He onely knoweth to whose Will and Pleasure We must and do humbly submit Vs and Our Wills But in this so lamentable a Case that is to wit after His Majestie 's Departure and Death concerning the Crown and Governance of this Realm of England with the Title of France and all things thereto belonging what hath been provided by Act of Parliament and the Testament and Last Will of Our Dearest Father besides other Circumstances Advancing Our Right You know the Realm and the whole World knoweth the Rolls and Records appear by the Authority of the King Our said Father and the King Our said Brother and the Subjects of this Realm So that We verily trust that there is no good true Subject that is can or would pretend to be ignorant thereof And of Our part We have of Our Selves caused and as God shall aid and strengthen Vs shall cause Our Right and Title in this behalf to be Published and Proclaimed accordingly And albeit this so Weighty a Matter seemeth strange that the Dying of Our said Brother upon Thursday at night last past We hitherto had no knowledge from You thereof yet We consider Your Wisdom and Prudence to be such that having eftsoons amongst You Debated Pondred and well Weighed this present Case with Our Estate Your Own Estate the Common-Wealth and all Our Honours We shall and may conceive Great Hope and Trust with much assurance in Your Loyalty and Service and therefore for the time interpret and take things not to the worst that Ye yet will like
offered to which She could pretend no Right whilest the Queen was living And if Examples of that Nature should pass unpunished no Prince could possibly be safe nor Tiâ—les valid as long as any Popular Spirit could pretend a Colour to advance some other to the Throne Upon which Reason of State She was brought to Her Trial at the Guild-Hall in London on the third of November accompanied with Her Husband the Lord Guilford Dudly his Company never till that Hour unwelcome to Her together with Arch-Bishop Cranmer the Lord Ambrose Dudly the second Son then living to the Duke of Northumberland Sentence of Death passed upon them all though at that time not executed upon any of them The Lord Ambrose was reserved unto better Fortunes as the Arch-Bishop was to a more miserable but more Glorious Death And for Her self and Her dear Husband it was conceived that now the Law had done its part in their Condemnation the Queen in pitty of their Youth and Innocence would have gone no further But as they were first brought under this Affliction by the inordinate Ambition of the Duke of Northumberland so shall they shortly finde an end of all their Troubles by the rash and unadvised Attempts of the Duke of Suffolk For upon Wyaâ—'s breaking out in Kent and the Earl of Devon-Shire in the West the Duke had been prevailed with amongst many others to apâ—ear in the Action To which he unadvisedly yielded caused Proclamation to be made in some Towns of Leicester-Shire against the Queen's intended Marriage with the Prince of Spain and drew together many of his Friends and followers to oppose that Match And though he was discomfited within few days after yet the Queen saw that she could promise Her self neither Peace nor Safety as long as the Lady Jane was preserved alive Whose Restitution to the Throne must be the matter chieflly aimed at in these Insurrections though other Colours were devised to disguise the Business Her Death is now resolved upon but first She must be practised with to change Her Religion as the Great Duke of Northumberland had done before To which end Fecknam is employed not long before made Dean of Saint Paul's and not long after Abbot of Westminster a Man whose great Parts promised him an easie Victory over a poor Lady of a broken and dejected Spirit but it proved the contrary For so well had She studied the Concernments of Her own Religion and managed the Conference with him with such a readiness of Wit such constancy of Resolution and a Judgment so well-grounded in all helps of Learning that She was able to make Answer to his strongest Arguments as well to Her great Honour as his Admiration The Substance of which Conference he that â—â—sts to see may finde it in the Acts and Monuments fol. 1290. So that not able to prevail with Her in the Change of Religion he made offer of his Service to prepare Her for Death which though She thankfully accepted of as finding it to proceed from a good Affection yet soon he found that She was also before hand with him in those Preparations which are fit and necessary for a dying Christian. Friday the ninth of February was first designed for the Day of Her Execution but the Desire of gaining Her to the Church of Rome procured Her the short Respite of three Days more On Sundayâ—night â—night being the Eve unto the 〈◊〉 of Her Translation She wrote a Letter in the Greek Tongue at the end of the Testament which She bequeathed as a Legacy to Her Sister the Lady Katharine which being such a lively Picture of the Excellent Lady may well deserve to be continually kept in Remembrance of Her and is this that followeth I have here sent you Good Sister Katharine a Book which although it be not outwardly trimmed with Gold yet inwardly it is more worth then pretious Stones It is the Book Dear Sister of the Law of the Lord. It is his Testament and last Will which he bequeathed unto us Wretches which shall lead you to the path of eternal Joy and if you with a good mind read it and with an earnest mind do purpose to follow it it shall bring you to an immortal and everlasting Life It shall teach you to live and learn you to die It shall win you more then you should have gained by the possession of your wofull Father's Lands For as if God had prospered him you should have inherited his Lands so if you apply diligently this Book seeking to direct your Life after it you shall be an inheritour of such Riches as neither the Covetous shall withdraw frâ—m you neither Thief shall steal neither yet the Moths corrupt Desire with David Good Sister to understand the Law of the Lord God Live still to die that you by Death may purchase eternal Life and trust not that the tenderness of your Age shall lengthen your Life for as soon if God calls goeth the young as the old and labour always to learn to die Defie the World Deny the Divel and Despise the Flesh and Delight your self onely in the Lord. Be penitent for your Sins and yet Despair not Be strong in Faith and yet presume not and desire with Saint Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ with whom â—ven in Death there is Life Be like the good Servant and even at Midnight be waking lest when Death cometh and stealeth upon you like a Thief in the night you be with the evil Servant â—ound sleeping and lest for lack of Oyl you be found like the five foolish Women and like him that had not on the Wedding-Garment and then ye be cast out from the Marriage Rejoyce in Christ as I do Follow the Steps of your Master Christ and take upon you your Cross. Lay your Sins on his Back and always embrace him And as touching my Death rejoyce as I do good Sister that I shall be delivered of this Corruption and put on Incorruption For I am assured that I shall for losing of a mortal Life win an immortal one The which I pray God to grant you and send you of his Grace to live in his Fear and to die in the true Christian Faith from the which in God's Name I exhort you that you never swerve neither for Hope of Life nor for Fear of Death For if you will deny his Truth to lengthen your Life God will deny you and yet shorten your Days and if you will â—leave unto him he will prolong your Days to your Comfort and to his Glory To the which Glory God bring me now and you hereafter when it pleaseth him to call you Fare you well Good Sister and put your onely trust in God who onely must help you The Fatal Morning being come the Lord Guilford earnestly desired the Officers that He might take His Farewell of Her Which though they willingly permitted yet upon notice of it She Advised the contrary assuring Him That such a meeting would
there was no evidence against her but the confession of Smeton and the calumnies of the Lady Rochfort of which the one was fooled into that confession by the hope of life which notwithstanding was not pardoned and the other most deservedly lost her head within few years after for being accessary to the Adulteries of Queen Katherine Howard And yet upon this Evidence she was arraigned in the great Hall of the Tower of London on the 15th of May and pronounced guilty by her Peers of which her own father which I cannot but behold as an act of the highest tyranny was compelled to be one The Lord Rochfort and the rest of the prisoners were found guilty also and suffered death on the 17th day of the same month all of them standing stoutly to the Queens and their own integrity as it was thought that Smeton also would have done but that he still flattered himself with the hopes of life till the loss of his head disabled him from making the retractation The like death suffered by the Queen on the second day after some few permitted to be present rather as witnesses than spectators of her final end And it was so ordered by the advice of Sir William Kingston who signified in his Letters to one of the Council that he conceived it best that a reasonable number onely should be present at the Execution because he found by some discourse which he had had with her that she would declare her self to be a good woman for all men but for the King at the hour of death Which declaration she made good going with great cheerfulness to the Scaffold praying most heartily for the King and standing constantly on her innocence to the very last So dyed this great and gallant Lady one of the most remarkable mockeries and disports of fortune which these last ages have produced raised from the quality of a privat Lady to the bed of a King crowned on the Throne and executed on the Scaffold the fabrick of her power and glories being six years at the least in building but cast down in an instant the splendor and magnificence of her Coronation seeming to have no other end but to make her the more glorious Sacrifice at the next alteration of the Kings affections But her death was not the onely mark which the King did aim at If she had onely lost her head though with the loss of her honor it would have been no bar to her daughter Elizabeth from succeeding her father in the Throne and he must have his bed left free from all such pretensions the better to draw on the following mariage It was thought necessary therefore that she should be separated from his bed by some other means than the Axe or Sword and to be legally divorced from her in a Court of Judicature when the sentence of death might seem to have deprived her of all means as well as of all manner of desire to dispute the point Upon which ground Norris is practised with to confess the Adultery and the Lord Percy now Earl of Northumberland who was known to have made love unto her in her former times to acknowledge a Contract But as Norris gallantly denyed the one so the Lord Percy could not be induced though much laboured to it to confess the other For proof whereof we have this Letter of his own hand writing directed to Secretary Cromwel in these following words Mr Secretary THis shall be to signifie unto you that I perceive by Sir Raynald Carnaby that there is supposed to be a pre-contract between the Queen and me Whereupon I was not only examined upon my oath before the Archbishops of Canterbury and York but also received the blessed Sacrament upon the same before the Duke of Norfolk and others of the Kings Highnesse Council learned in the spiritual Law assuring You Mr Secretary by the said oath and blessed body which afore I received and hereafter mean to receive that the same may be to my damnation if ever there were any contract or promise of mariage betwixt her and me At Newington Green the 13th of May in the 28th year of the reign of Our Soverain Lord King Henry the 8th Yours assured H. Northumberland But notwithstanding these denyals and that neither the Adultery was confessed not the Contract proved some other ground was found out to dissolve the mariage though what it was doth not appear upon Record All which occurs in reference to it is a solemn instrument under the seal of Archbishop Cranmer by which the mariage is declared on good and valuable reasons to be null and void no reason being exprest particularly for the ground thereof Which sentence was pronounced at Lambeth on the 17th of May in the presence of Sir Thomas Hadly Lord Chancellor Charles Duke of Suffolk John Earl of Oxon Robert Earl of Sussex William Lord Sandys Lord Chancellor of his Majesties houshold Thomas Cromwel Master of the Rolls and principal Secretary then newly put into the office of Vicar General Sir William Fitzwilliams Treasurer and Sir William Paulet Controller of the Kings houshold Thomas Bedil Arch-Deacon of Cornwal and John Trigunwel Dr of the Lawes all being of the Privy Council Besides which there were present also John Oliver Dean of Kings College in Oxon Richard Guent Arch-Deacon of London and Dean of the Aâ—ches Edmund Bonner Arch-Deacon of Leicester Richard Leighton Arch Deacon of Buckingham and Thomas Lee Doctor of the Lawes as also Dr Richard Sampson Dean of the Chapel Royal who appeared as Proctor for the King together with Doctor Nicholas Wotton and Doctor John Barbour appointed Proctors for the Queen By the authority of which great appearance more than for any thing contain'd particularly in the act or instrument the said sentence of Divorce was approved by the Prelates and Clergy assembled in their Convocation on the ninth of June and being so confirmed by them it received the like approbation by Act of Parliament within few dayes after in which Act there also passed a clause which declared the Lady Elizabeth the only issue of this mariage to be illegitimate What else concerns this unfortunate Lady together with some proof of divers things before delivered cannot be more pathetically expressed than by her self bemoaning her misfortunes to the King in this following Letter Sir YOur Graces displeasure and my imprisonment are things so strange unto me as what to write or what to excuse I am altogether ignorant Whereas you send unto me willing me to confesse a truth and so obtain your favour by such a one whom you know to be my antâ—ent professed enemy I no sooner received this message than I rightly conceived your meaning And if as you say confessing a truth indeed may procure my safety I shall with all willingness and duty perform your commands but let not your Grace ever imagine that your poor wife will ever be brought to acknowledge a fauâ—t where not so much as a thought ever proceeded And
who do less deserve it that it is therefore necessary that the ears of Princes should be open unto all complaints and their hands ready to receive Petitions from all sorts of people to the end that knowing their grievances and distresses they may commiserate them in the one and afford them remedy in the other that a good Prince must have somewhat in him of the Priest who if he be not sensible of the infirmities of his brethren cannot be thought to intercede so powerfully in their behalf as when he hath been touched with the true sense and feeling of their extremities and finally that the School is never better governed than by one who hath past through all the forms and degrees thereof and having been perfectly trained up in the ways of obedience must know the better how to use both the Rod and Ferula when he comes to be Master of the rest The first eight years of the Reign of QUEEN ELIZABETH An. Reg. Eliz. 1. An. Dom. 1558 1559. ELizabeth the only child then living of King Henry the 8th succeeded her Sister in the Throne on the 17th of November Anno 1558. Ferdinand of Austria being then Emperour Henry the 2d King of the French Philip the second King of Spain and Paul the 4th commanding in the Church of Rome Queen Mary not long before her death had called a Parliament which was then sitting when the news thereof was brought unto the Lords in the House of Peers The newes by reason of the Queens long sickness not so strange unto them as to take them either unresolved or unprovided for the declaring of their duty to the next successor though some of them perhaps had some secret wishes that the Crown might have fallen rather upon any oâ—her than upon her to whom it did of right belong so that upon a short debate amongst themselves a message is sent to the Speaker of the House of Commons desiring him and all the Members of that House to come presently to them upon a business of no small importance to the good of the Kingdom Who being come the Lord Chancellor Heath with a composed and setled countenance not without sorrow enough for the death of the one or any discontent for the succession of the other declared unto them in the name of the rest of the Lords that God had taken to his mercy the late Queen Mary and that the succession to the Crown did belong of right to the Princess Elizabeth whose Title they conceived to be free from all legal questions that in such cases nothing was more necessary than expedition for the preventing of all such plots and practices of any discontented or ambitious persons as might be set on foot to the disturbance of the common quiet and therefore that there concurrence was desired in proclaiming the new Queen with all speed that might be they being then so opportunely convened together as the Representees of the whole body of the Commons of the Realm of England Which being said the Knights and Burgestes gave a ready consent to that which they had no reason to deny and they which gave themselves some thoughts of inclining otherwise conceived their opposition to the general Vote neither safe nor seasonable So that immediately the Princess Elizabeth was proclaimed by the King at Arms first before Westminster Hall door in the Palace Yard in the presence of the Lords and Commons and not long after at the Cross in Cheapside and other places in the City in the presence of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and principal Citizens to the great joy of all peaceable and well-affected people It was not long before the Princess had advertisement of the death of her sister together with the general acknowledgement of her just and lawful Title to the Crown Imperial The newes whereof being brought unto her by some of the Lords she prepared for her removal from Hatfield on the Saturday after being the 19th of that month and with a great and Royal train set forwards to London At Higate four miles from the City she was met by all the Bishops then living who presented themselves before her upon their knees in testimony of their loyalty and affection to her In which address as she seemed to express no small contentment so she gave to each of them particularly her hand to kiss except only unto Bonner of London whose bloody butcheries had render'd him uncapable in her opinion of so great a favour At her first coming to the City she took her lodging in the Charterhouse where she staid some days till all things in the Tower might be fitted and prepared for her reception Attended by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen with a stately strain of Lords and Ladies and their several followers She entreth by Cripple gate into the City passeth along the wall till she came to Bishops gate where all the Companies of the City in their several Liveries waited her coming in their proper and distinct rancks reaching from thence until the further end of Mark Lane where she was entertained with a peal of great Ordnance from the Tower At her entrance into which place she render'd her most humble thanks to Almighty God for the great and wondrous change of her condition in bringing her from being a prisoner in that place to be the Prince of her people and now to take possession of it as a Royal Palace in which before she had received so much discomfort Here she remained till the 5th day of December then next following and from thence removed by water unto Sommerset House In each remove she found such infinite throngs of people who flocked from all parts to behold her both by land and water and testified their publick joy by such loud acclamations as much rejoyced her heart to hear and could not but express it in her words and countenance by which she doubled their affections and made her self the absolute Mistriss at all times of their hands and purses She had been forged upon the anvil of adversity which made her of so fine a temper that none knew better than her self how to keep her State and yet descend unto the meanest of her subjects in a popular Courtship In the mean time the Lords of the Council had given Order for the stopping of all Ports and Havens that no intelligence of the Queens death might be caried out of the Realm by which any disturbance might be plotted or contrived against it till all things were setled here at home But finding such a general concurrence in all sorts of people in acknowledging her just and lawful Title testified by so many outward signs of a publick joy that there was no fear of any danger from abroad that bar was speedily removed and the Ports opened as before to all sorts of passengers And in the next place care was taken for sending new Commissions unto such Embassadors as resided in the Courts of several Princes both to acquaint them with