with a hot Iron on their Breast A great many Provisoes follow concerning Clerks so convict which shew that this Act was chiefly levelled at the idle Monks and Friars who went about the Country and would betake themselves to no employment but finding the People apt to have compassion on them they continued in that course of life Which was of very ill consequence to the State For these Vagrants did every where alienate the Peoples Minds from the Government and perswaded them that things would never be well setled till they were again restored to their Houses Some of these came often to London on pretence of suing for their Pensions but really to practise up and down through the Country To prevent this there was a Proclamation set out on the 18th of September requiring them to stay in the Places where they lived and to send up a Certificate where they were to the Court of Augmentations who should thereupon give order for their constant payment Some thought this Law against Vagabonds was too severe and contrary to that common liberty of which the English Nation has been always very sensible both in their own and their Neighbours particulars Yet it could not be denied but extream Diseases required extream Remedies and perhaps there is no punishment too severe for Persons that are in health and yet prefer a loitering course of life to an honest employment There followed in the Act many excellent Rules for providing for the truly poor and indigent in the several Places where they were born and had their abode Of which this can only be said That as no Nation has laid down more effectual Rules for the supplying the Poor than England so that indeed none can be in absolute want so the neglect of these Laws is a just and great reproach on those who are charged with the execution of them when such numbers of poor Vagabonds swarm every where without the due restraints that the Laws have appointed On the 6th of December the Bill for giving the Chantries to the King was brought into the House of Lords An Act giving the Chantries to the King It was read the second time on the 12th the third time on the 13th and the fourth time on the 14th of that Month. It was much opposed both by Cranmer on the one hand and the Popish Bishops on the other The late Kings Executors saw they could not pay his Debts nor satisfie themselves in their own pretensions formerly mentioned out of the Kings Revenue and so intended to have these to be divided among them Cranmer opposed it long For the Clergy being much empoverished by the Sale of the impropriated Tithes that ought in all reason to have return'd into the Church but upon the dissolution of the Abbies were all sold among the Laity he saw no probable way remaining for their supply but to save these Endowments till the King were of Age being confident he was so piously disposed that they should easily perswade him to convert them all to the bettering of the Condition of the poor Clergy that were now brought into extream misery And therefore he was for reforming and preserving these Foundations till the Kings full Age. The Popish Bishops liked these Endowments so well that upon far different Motives they were for continuing them in the state they were in But those who were to gain by it were so many that the Act passed the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of London Duresme Ely Norwich Hereford Worcester and Chichester dissenting So it being sent down to the House of Commons was there much opposed by some Burgesses who represented that the Boroughs for which they served could not maintain their Churches and other publick Works of the Guilds and Fraternities if the Rents belonging to them were given to the King for these were likewise in the Act. This was chiefly done by the Burgesses of Linn and Coventry who were so active that the whole House was much set against that part of the Bill for the Guild-Lands Therefore those who managed that House for the Court took these off by an assurance that their Guild-Lands should be restored to them And so they desisted from their opposition and the Bill passed on the promise given to them which was afterwards made good by the Protector In the Preamble of the Act it is set forth That the great superstition of Christians rising out of their ignorance of the true way of Salvation by the death of Christ in stead of which they had set up the vain conceits of Purgatory and Masses satisfactory was much supported by Trentals and Chantries And since the converting these to godly uses such as the endowing of Schools Provisions for the Poor and the augmenting of Places in the Universities could not be done by Parliament they therefore committed it to the care of the King And then reciting the Act made in the 37th year of his Fathers Reign they give the King all such Chantries Colledges and Chappels as were not possessed by the late King and all that had been in being any time these five years last past as also all Revenues belonging to any Church for Anniversaries Obits and Lights together with all Guild-Lands which any Fraternity of Men enjoyed for Obits or the like and appoint these to be converted to the maintenance of Gramar-Schools or Preachers and for the encrease of Vicarages After this followed the Act giving the King the Customs known by the Name of Tonnage and Poundage besides some other Laws of Matters that are not needful to be remembred in this History Last of all came the Kings general Pardon with the common mon Exceptions among which one was of these who were then Prisoners in the Tower of London in which the Duke of Norfolk was included So all business being ended the Parliament was Prorogued from the 24th of December to the 20th of April following Acts that were proposed but not carried But having given this account of these Bills that were passed I shall not esteem it an unfruitful piece of History to shew what other Bills were designed There were put into the House of Lords two Bills that were stifled The one was for the use of the Scriptures which came not to a second reading The other was a Bill for erecting a new Court of Chancery for Ecclesiastical and Civil Causes which was committed to some Bishops and Temporal Lords but never more mentioned The Commons sent up also some Bills which the Lords did not agree to One was about Benefices with Cure and Residence It was committed but never reported Another was for the Reformation of divers Laws and of the Courts of Common-Law and a third was that married Men might be Priests and have Benefices To this the Commons did so readily agree that it being put in on the 19th of December and read then for the first time it was read twice the next day and sent up to the Lords on the 21st But
It was long argued at first and at the passing the Bill it was again argued but at last the Commons agreed to it The Preamble of it is a long Accusation of the Duke of Somerset for involving the King in Wars wasting his Treasure engaging him in much Debt embasing the Coin and having given occasion to a most terrible Rebellion In fine considering the great Debt the King was left in by his Father the loss he put himself to in the reforming the Coin and they finding his temper to be set wholly on the good of his Subjects and not on enriching himself therefore they give him two Tenths and two Fifteenths with one Subsidy for two years Whether the debate in the House of Commons was against the Subsidies in this Act or against the Preamble cannot be certainly known but it is probable the Debate at the engrossing the Bill was about the Preamble which the Duke of Northumberland and his Party were the more earnestly set on to let the King see how acceptable they were and how hateful the Duke of Somerset had been The Clergy did also for an expression of their affection and duty give the King six Shillings in the Pound of their Benefices There was also a Bill sent down from the Lords That none might hold any Spiritual Promotion unless he were either Priest or Deacon But after the third reading it was cast out The reason of it was because many Noblemen and Gentlemens Sons had Prebends given them on this pretence that they intended to fit themselves by Study for entring into Orders but they kept these and never advanced in their Studies upon which the Bishops prevailed to have the Bill agreed to by the Lords but could carry it no further Another Act passed for the suppressing the Bishoprick of Duresme The Bishoprick of Duresme suppressed and two new ones appon ed. which is so strangely mis-represented by those who never read more than the Title of it that I shall therefore give a more full account of it It is set forth in the Preamble That that Bishoprick being then void of a Prelate so that the Gift thereof was in the Kings pleasure and the compass of it being so large extending to so many Shires so far distant that it could not be sufficiently served by one Bishop and since the King according to his godly disposition was desirous to have Gods Holy Word preached in these Parts which were wild and barbarous for lack of good Preaching and good Learning therefore he intended to have two Bishopricks for that Diocess the one at Duresme which should have 2000 Marks Revenue and another at Newcastle which should have 1000 Marks Revenue and also to Found a Cathedral Church at Newcastle with a Deanry and Chapter out of the Revenues of the Bishoprick therefore the Bishoprick of Duresme is utterly extinguished and dissolved and Authority is given for Letters Patents to erect the two new Bishopricks together with the Deanry and Chapter at Newcastle with a Proviso that the Rights of the Deanry Chapter and Cathedral of Duresme should suffer nothing by this Act. When this Bill is considered that dissolution that was designed by it will not appear to be so sacrilegious a thing as some Writers have represented it For whosoever understands the value of old Rents especially such as these were near the Marches of an Enemy where the Service of the Tenants in the War made their Lands be set at very low rates will know that 3000 Marks of Rent being reserved besides the endowing of the Cathedral which could hardly be done under another thousand Marks there could not be so great a Prey of that Bishoprick as has been imagined Ridley as himself writes in one of his Letters was named to be Bishop of Duresme being one of the Natives of that Country but the thing never took effect For in May and no sooner was the Temporalty of the Bishoprick turned into a County-Palatine and given to the Duke of Northumberland But the Kings sickness and soon after his death made that and all the rest of these designs prove abortive How Tonstall was deprived I cannot understand It was for misprision of Treason and done by Secular Men. For Cranmer refused to meddle in it I have seen the Commission given by Queen Mary to some Delegates to examine it in which it is said That the Sentence was given only by Lay-men and that Tonstal being kept Prisoner long in the Tower was brought to his Trial in which he had neither Counsel assigned him nor convenient time given him for clearing himself and that after divers Protestations they had notwithstanding his Appeal deprived him of his Bishoprick He was not only turned out but kept Prisoner till Queen Mary set him at liberty At the end of this Parliament the King granted a free Pardon concerning which this is only remarkable That whereas it goes for a Maxime that the Acts of Pardon must be passed without changing any thing in them the Commons when they sent up this Act of Pardon to the Lords desired that some words might be amended in it but it is not clear what was done for that same day the Acts were passed and the Parliament was dissolved In it the Duke of Northumberland had carried this Point That the Nation made a publick Declaration of their dislike of the Duke of Somersets Proceedings which was the more necessary because the King had let fall words concerning his death by which he seemed to reflect on it with some concern and look'd on it as Northumberlands deed But the Act had passed with such difficulty that either the Duke did not think the Parliament well enough disposed for him or else he resolved totally to vary from the Measures of the Duke of Somerset who continued the same Parliament long whereas this that was opened on the first was dissolved on the last day of March. A Visitation for the Plate in the Churches Visitors were soon after appointed to examine what Church-plate Jewels and other Furniture was in all Cathedrals and Churches and to compare their account with the Inventories made in former Visitations and to see what was embezeled and how it was done And because the King was resolved to have Churches and Chappels furnished with that that was comely and convenient for the Administration of the Sacraments they were to give one or two Chalices of Silver or more to every Church Chappel or Cathedral as their discretions should direct them and to distribute comely Furniture for the Communion-Table and for Surplices and to sell the rest of the Linen and give it to the Poor and to sell Copes and Altar-Cloaths and deliver all the rest of the Plate and Jewels to the Kings Treasurer Sir Edm. Pecham This is spitefully urged by one of our Writers who would have his Reader infer from it that the King was ill principled as to the matters of the Church because when this Order was given by
had been long very apprehensive when he considered the sins then prevailing and the Judgments which they had reason to look for as will appear by an excellent Letter which he sent about to his Clergy to set them on to such Duties as so sad a Prospect required It will be found in the Collection Collection Number 58. and though it belongs to the former Year yet I choose rather to bring it in on this occasion These things having been fully laid open in the former parts of this Work I shall not insist on them here having mentioned them only for this cause that the Reader may from hence gather what we may still expect if we continue guilty of the same or worse sins after all that illumination and knowledge with which we have been so long blest in these Kingdoms The END of the First BOOK MARIA ANGLIAE HISPANIAE ct REGINA R. White sculp Nata 18 Feb 1516 Regnare cepit 6. to HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE Julij 1553. Obijt 17.mo Novemb 1558 Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in S. t Pauls Church yard BOOK II. THE LJFE AND REIGN OF Queen MARY UPon the Death of King Edward the Crown devolved 1553. Q. Mary succeeds but is in great danger according to King Henry's Will and the Act of Parliament made in the 35th Year of his Reign on his Eldest Sister the now Queen Mary She was on her way to London in obedience to the Letters that had been writ to her to come and comfort her Brother in his Sickness and was come within half a days Journey of the Court when she received an Advertisement from the Earl of Arundel that her Brother was dead together with an account of what was done about the Succession The Earl also informed her that the King's Death was concealed on design to entrap her before she knew of it and therefore he advised her to retire Upon this she knowing that the Duke of Northumberland was much hated in Norfolk for the great slaughter he had made of the Rebels when he subdued them in the third Year of the last Reign And retires to Suffolk therefore chose to go that way to the Castle of Framlingham in Suffolk Which Place being near the Sea she might if her Designs should miscarry have an opportunity from thence to fly over to the Emperor that was then in Flanders At London it seems the whole Business of setting up the Lady Jane had been carried very secretly since if Queen Mary had heard any hint of it she had certainly kept out of the way and not adventured to have come so near the Town It was an unaccountable Error in the Party for the Lady Jane that they had not immediately after the Seal was put to the Letters Patents or at furthest presently after the King's Death sent some to make sure of the King's Sisters instead of which they thus lingred hoping they would have come into their Toils in an easier and less violent way On the 8th of July they writ to the English Ambassadors at Brussels the news of the King's Death but said nothing of the Succession On the 9th of July they perceived the King's Death was known for Queen Mary writ to to them She writes to the Council from Kenning-Hall that she understood the King her Brother was dead which how sorrowful it was to her God only knew to whose Will she did humbly submit her Will. The Provision of the Crown to her after his Death she said was well known to them all but she thought it strange that he being three days dead she had not been advertised of it by them She knew what Consultations were against her and what Engagements they had entred into but was willing to take all their Doings in good part and therefore did give Pardon for all that was past to such as would accept of it and required them to proclaim her Title to the Crown in London Upon this Letter they saw the death of the King could no longer be concealed so the Duke of Suffolk and the Duke of Northumberland went to Durham-House where the Lady Jane lay to give her notice of her being to succeed to the Crown in the room of the deceased King She received the News with great sorrow for King Edward's Death Who declare for the Lady Jane which was not at all lessened but rather encreased by that other part of their Message concerning her being to succeed him Lady Jane's Character She was a Lady that seemed indeed born for a great Fortune for as she was a beautiful and graceful Person so she had great Parts and greater Vertues Her Tutor was Dr. Elmer believed to be the same that was afterwards made Bishop of London by Queen Elizabeth She had learned from him the Latin and Greek Tongues to great â—erfection so that being of the same Age with the late King she seeâ—ed superior to him in those Languages And having acquired the helps of Knowledg she spent her time much in the study of it Roger Ascham Tutor to the Lady Elizabeth coming once to wait on her at her Father's House in Leicestershire found her reading Plato's Works in Greek when all the rest of the Family were hunting in the Park He asked her How she could be absent from such pleasant Diversions She answered The Pastimes in the Park were but a shadow to the delight she had in reading Plato's Phedon which then lay open before her and added That she esteemed it one of the greatest Blessings that God ever gave her that she had sharp Parents and a gentle School-master which made her take delight in nothing so much as in her Study She read the Scriptures much and had attained great knowledg in Divinity But with all these Advantages of Birth and Parts she was so humble so gentle and pious that all People both admired and loved her and none more than the late King She had a Mind wonderfully raised above the World and at the Age wherein others are but imbibing the Notions of Philosophy she had attained to the practice of the highest Precepts of it She was neither lifted up with the hope of a Crown nor cast down when she saw her Palace made afterwards her Prison but carried her self with an equal temper of Mind in those great inequalities of Fortune that so suddenly exalted and depressed her All the Passion she expressed in it was that which is of the noblest sort and is the indication of tender and generous Natures being much affected with the Troubles her Father and Husband fell in on her account The mention of the Crown when her Father with her Father-in-Law saluted her Queen did rather heighten her disorder upon the King's Death She said She knew by the Laws of the Kingdom Her unwillingness to accept of the Crown and by natural Right the Crown was to go to the King's Sisters so that she was
kill the Queen for which he justly suffered Of this I find nothing on Record so it must depend on our Author's Credit which is not infallible 75. He says The Imposture of Elizabeth Crofts Ibid. was set up by the Persuasion of many of the Hereticks and when it was discovered she confessed she had been set on to it by others and by one Drake in particular but they all fled In the Account that was then published of that Imposture Drake only is accused for it what he was does not appear to me for I have never found him mentioned but on this Occasion so there was no reason to transfer the private Guilt of this Conspiracy on a whole Party as our Author does though upon his Credit one of our Writers has also done it 76. He says Those in whose hands the Church-Lands were Pag. 243. had great apprehensions of their being forced to restore them because the Queen had restored all the Land that were in her hands and had again converted the Collegiat Church of Westminster into an Abbey But to prevent the ill Effects that might have followed on this the Cardinal did in the Pope's Name absolve them from all Censures for possessing those Lands and that was confirmed by Letters sent over from the Pope He observes the order of Time very exactly when he sets the Queen's restoring the Church-Lands and founding the Abbey of Westminster as the occasions of the Fears the Laity were in of being forced to restore the rest of the Church-Lands and of the Cardinal 's absolving them from all Censures for keeping them still in their hands The Order in which this was done was thus In Novemb. 1554 in the Act of Reconciliation with the See of Rome there was a special Proviso made for the Church-Lands which the Cardinal confirmed in the Pope's Name In the Year after that the Queen gave up into the Cardinal Hands all the Church-Lands that belonged to the Crown and two Years after she founded the Abbey of Westminster so little influence had these things on the other that were done before But he was grosly mistaken when he said the Pope approved All for he in plain terms refused to ratify what the Cardinal had done and soon after set out a severe Bull Cursing and Condemning all that held any Church-Lands 77. He says Pag. 244. All the Bishops being sensible of their Schismatical way of entring into their Sees did desire and obtain a Confirmation from the Pope Kitchin Bishop of Landaff only excepted who afterwards relapsed into Heresy under Queen Elizabeth and says it is likely the want of this Confirmation made him be more easily overcome This our Author wrote being a thing very probable and seldom do his Authorities for what he asserts rise higher It was also a pretty strain of his Wit to make the omitting of it fall singly on the only Bishop that conformed under Queen Elizabeth But it is certain there was no such thing done at all for if any had done it Bonner was as likely as any other since as none had been more faulty in King Henry's Time so none studied to redeem that with more servile compliances than he did yet there is nothing of this recorded in his Register which continues entire to this day Pag. 246. 78. He says The State of the Universities was restored to what it had been and Oxford in particular by Petrus a Soto's means who was in the Opinion of all much preferred to P. Martyr He that gathered the Antiquities of Oxford though no partial Writer on this occasion represents the state of that University very differently that there were almost no Divines in it and scarce any publick Lectures But when Sanders writ his Poem the Spanish Councils were so much depended on by him and his Party that it was fit to put that Complement on the Nation concerning Petrus a Soto Whether it was true or false was a Circumstance which he generously overlook'd for most part Pag. 248. 79. He says Queen Elizabeth had done many things in Queen Mary's Time both against her Person and Government He knew this was so false that there was never a Circumstance or a Presumption brought against her but the Information which Wiat gave hoping thereby to save himself and yet he denied that on the Scaffold If there had been any colour to have justified the taking away her Life both the Queen and her Counsellors were as much enclined to it as our Author himself was Ibid. 80. He says King Henry said in Parliament she was not and could not be his Daughter for a secret Reason which he had revealed to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury This was aptly enough said by a Writer that had emancipated himself from the Laws of Truth and Veracity to appeal to such a Story yet to have made it pass the better he should have named other Circumstances for such a thing cannot be easily believed since after Ann Boleyn's Death the King continued to treat Elizabeth still as his Daughter so that when she writ to his next Queen she subscribed Daughter she was in all things educated with the Care and State that became a King's Child and was both by Act of Parliament and by his Will declared to be so Now to think that such a King would have done all this after he had in Parliament declared that she could not be his Child is a little too coarse to be believed and so should have been supported with more than ordinary Proofs Ibid. 81. He says She came to the Crown meerly by virtue of the Act of Parliament without being Legitimated In this she and her Sister were upon the same Level for neither of them were declared Legitimate so this was not to be objected to the one more than to the other Sister Pag. 249. 82. He says Queen Mary being declared by Act of Parliament in the beginning of her Reign Legitimate and her Mothers Marriage being declared good Elizabeth was thereby of new Illegitimated yet she never repealed the Laws against her Title but kept the Crown meerly upon the Authority of an Act of Parliament without having any regard to her Birth Queen Mary came to the Crown being in the same Condition and was either a lawful Queen before that Act was made or else that Act was of no force if it had not the Royal Assent given by a lawful Queen So Queen Elizabeth was as much Queen before any such Act could have passed as afterwards and therefore since it was not necessary for the securing her Title it was a sign of her tenderness of her Father's Memory to which Queen Mary had no regard not to revive the remembrance of things that must have turned so much to his dishonour as that would have done 83. He says Pag. 250. Queen Mary not being able to prevent her Sisters Succession sent a Message to her on her Death-Bed desiring her to pay her Debts and
Church received that Sacrament frequently and in both kinds To the sixth Baptism in Cases of necessity was to be administred at any time but out of these Cases it was fit to do it solemnly and in the Ancient Church it was chiefly done on the Eves of Easter and Whit-Sunday of which usage some Footsteps remained still in the old Offices To the seventh these were late superstitious devices Images were contrary to the Scriptures first set up for remembrance but soon after made Objects of Worship To the eight The old Service had many ludicrous things in it the new was simple and grave If it appeared ridiculous to them it was as the Gospel was long ago foolishness to the Greeks To the ninth The Scriptures say nothing of it it was a superstitious Invention derogatory to Christs death To the tenth The Scriptures are the Word of God and the readiest way to confound that which is Heresie indeed To the eleventh These were ignorant superstitious and deceitful Persons To the twelfth Pool had been attainted in Parliament for his spiteful Writings and Doings against the late King To the thirteenth It was foolish and unreasonable one Servant could not do a Man's business and by this many Servants would want employment To the fourteenth This was to rob the King and those who had these Lands of him and would be a means to make so foul a Rebellion be remembred in their Prayers To the fifteenth These were notorious Traitors to whom the Kings Council was not to submit themselves After this they grew more moderate and sent eight Articles They make new Demands 1. Concerning Baptism 2. About Confirmation 3. Of the Mass 4. For reserving the Host 5. For Holy Bread and Water 6. For the old Service 7. For the single Lives of Priests 8. For the Six Articles and concluded God save the King for they were His both Body and Goods To this there was an Answer sent in the Kings Name on the 8th of July so long did the Treaty with them hold in which Which were also rejected after Expressions of the Kings affection to his People he taxes their rising in Arms against him their King as contrary to the Laws of God He tells them That they are abused by their Priests as in the Instance of Baptism which according to the Book might necessity requiring it be done at all times that the Changes that had been set out were made after long and great consultation and the Worship of this Church by the advice of many Bishops and Learned Men was reformed as near to what Christ and his Apostles had taught and done as could be and all things had been setled in Parliament But the most specious thing that misled them being that of the Kings Age it was shewed them that his Blood and not his Years gave him the Crown and the state of Government requires that at all times there should be the same Authority in Princes and the same Obedience in the People It was all penned in a high threatning Style and concluded with an earnest Invitation of them to submit to the Kings Mercy as others that had risen had also done to whom he had not only shewed Mercy but granted Redress of their just grievances otherwise they might expect the utmost severity that Traitors deserved But nothing prevailed on this enraged Multitude whom the Priests inflamed with all the Artifices they could imagine and among whom the Host was carried about by a Priest on a Cart that all might see it But when this Commotion was thus grown to a Head The Rebellion in Norfolk headed by Ket a Tanner the Men of Norfolk rose the 6th of July being led by one Ket a Tanner These pretended nothing of Religion but only to suppress and destroy the Gentry and to raise the commons and to put new Councellors about the King They encreased mightily and became 20000 strong but had no Order nor Discipline and committed many horrid outrages The Sheriff of the County came boldly to them and required them in the Kings Name to disperse and go home but had he not been well mounted they had put him cruelly to death They came to Moushold Hill above Norwich and were much favoured by many in that City Parker afterwards Arch-bishop of Canterbury came among them and preached very freely to them of their ill Lives their Rebellion against the King and the Robberies they daily committed by which he was in great danger of his Life Ket assumed to himself the Power of Judicature and under an old Oak called from thence the Oak of Reformation did such Justice as might be expected from such a Judge and in such a Camp The Marquess of Northampton was sent against them but with Orders to keep at a distance from them and to cut off their Provisions for so it was hoped that without the shedding much Blood they might come to themselves again When the news of this Rising came into York-shire the Commons there rose also A Rising in York-shire being further encouraged by a Prophecy That there should be no King nor Nobility in England that the Kingdom should be ruled by four Governours chosen by the Commons who should hold a Parliament in commotion to begin at the South and North Seas This they applied to the Devon-shire Men on the South Seas and themselves on the North Seas They at their first rising fired Beacons and so gathered the Country as if it had been for the defence of the Coast and meeting two Gentlemen with two others with them they without any provocation murdered them and left their naked Bodies unburied The French fall into the Bullognese At the same time that England was in this Commotion the News came that the French King had sent a great Army into the Territory of Bulloigne so that the Government was put to most extraordinary straits A Fast at Court where Cranmer preached Ex MS. Col. C. C. Cantab. There was a Fast proclaimed in and about London Cranmer preached on the Fast-day at Court I have seen the greatest part of his Sermon under his own Hand and it is the only Sermon of his I ever saw It is a very plain unartificial Discourse no shews of Learning or conceits of Wit in it but he severely expostulated in the Name of God with his Hearers for their ill Lives their Blasphemies Adulteries mutual Hatred Oppression and Contempt of the Gospel and complained of the slackness in punishing these sins by which the Government became in some sort guilty of them He set many Passages of the Jewish Story before them of the Judgments such sins drew on and of Gods Mercy in the unexpected deliverances they met with upon their true Repentance But he chiefly lamented the scandal given by many who pretended a zeal for Religion but used that for a Cloak to disguise their other Vices He set before them the fresh Example of Germany where People generally
afraid of burdening her Conscience by assuming that which belonged to them and that she was unwilling to enrich her self by the spoils of others But they told her all that had been done was according to the Law to which all the Judges and Counsellors had set their Hands This joined with their Persuasions and the Importunities of her Husband who had more of his Fathers temper than of her Philosophy in him at length prevailed with her to submit to it Of which her Father-in-Law did afterwards say in Council She was rather by enticement of the Counsellors and force made to accept of the Crown then came to it by her own seeking and request Upon this order was given for proclaiming her Queen the next day And an Answer was writ to Queen Mary signed by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Lord Chancellor the Dukes of Suffolk and Northumberland the Marquesses of Winchester and Northampton the Earls of Arundel Shrewsbury Huntington Bedford and Pembrook the Lords Cobham and Darcy Sir Thomas Cheyney Sir Robert Cotton Sir William Petre Sir William Cecil Sir John Cheek Sir John Mason Sir Edward North and Sir Robert Bowes in all one and twenty Council writes to Q. Mary letting her know That Queen Jane was now their Soveraign according to the Ancient Laws of the Land and the late King's Letters Patents to whom they were now bound by their Allegiance They told her That the Marriage between her Father and Mother was dissolved by the Ecclesiastical Courts according to the Laws of God and of the Land That many noble Universities in Christendom had consented to it That the Sentence had been confirmed in Parliaments and she had been declared illegitimate and uninheritable to the Crown They therefore required her to give over her Pretences and not to disturb the Government and promised that if she shewed her self Obedient she should find them all ready to do her any Service which in Duty they could The day following they proclaimed Queen Jane Lady Jane proclaimed Queen Collection Number 1. The Proclamation will be found in the Collection It sets forth That the late King had by his Letters Patents limited the Crown that it should not descend to his two Sisters since they were both illegitimated by Sentences in the Spiritual Courts and Acts of Parliament and were only his Sisters by the Half-Blood who though it were granted they had been legitimate are not inheritable by the Law of England It was added That there was also great cause to fear that the King's Sisters might marry Strangers and so change the Laws of the Kingdom and subject it to the Tyranny of the Bishops of Rome and other Forreign Laws For these Reasons they were excluded from the Succession and the Lady Frances Dutchess of Suffolk being next the Crown it was provided that if she had no Sons at the death of the King the Crown should devolve immediately on her eldest Daughter Jane and after her and her Issue to her Sisters since she was born within the Kingdom and already married in it Therefore she was proclaimed Queen promising to be most benign and gracious to all her People to maintain God's Holy Word and the Laws of the Land requiring all the Subjects to obey and acknowledg her When this was proclaimed great multitudes were gathered to hear it but there were very few that shouted with the Acclamations ordinary on such Occasions And whereas a Vintner's Boy did some-way express his scorn at that which was done it was ordered that he should be made an Example the next day by being set on a Pillory and having his Ears nail'd to it and cut off from his Head which was accordingly done a Herauld in his Coat reading to the multitude that was called together by sound of Trumpet the nature of his Offence Censures past upon it Upon this all People were in great distraction The Proclamation opening the new Queen's Title came to be variously descanted on Some who thought the Crown descended by right of Blood and that it could not be limited by Parliament argued that the King having his Power from God it was only to descend in the natural way of Inheritance therefore they thought the next Heir was to succeed And whereas the King 's two Sisters were both by several Sentences and Acts of Parliament declared Bastards and whether that was well judged or not they were to be reputed such as the Law declared them to be so long as it stood in force therefore they held that the Queen of Scotland was to succeed who though she pretended this upon Queen Mary's Death yet did not claim now because by the Papal Law the Sentence against Queen Mary was declared Null Others argued that though a Prince were named by an immediate appointment from Heaven yet he might change the course of Succession as David did preferring Solomon before Adonijah But this it was said did not belong to the King 's of England whose right to the Crown with the extent of their Prerogative did not come from any Divine Designation but from a long Possession and the Laws of the Land and that therefore the King might by Law limit the Succession as well as he and other Kings had in some Points limited the Prerogative which was clearly Sir Thomas More 's Opinion and that therefore the Act of Parliament for the Succession of the King's Sisters was still strong in Law It was also said That if the Kinâ—'â— Sisters were to be excluded for Bastardy all Charles Brandon's Issue were in the same predicament since he was not lawfully married to the French Queen his former Wife Mortimer being then alive and his Marriage with her was never dissolved for though some English Writers say they were divorced yet those who wrote for the Queen of Scots Title in the next Reign denied it But in this the difference was great between them since the King's Sisters were declared Bastards in Law whereas this against Charles Brandon's Issue was only a Surmise Others objected That if the Blood gave an Indefeasible Title How came it that the L. Jane's Mother did not Reign It is true Maud the Empress and Margaret Countess of Richmond were satisfied that their Sons Henry the Second and Henry the Seventh should reign in their Rights but it had never been heard of that a Mother had resigned to her Daughter especially when she was yet under Age. But this was imputed to the Duke of Suffolk's weakness and the Ambition of the Duke of Northumberland That Objection concerning the Half-Blood being a Rule of Common Law in the Families of Subjects to cut off from Step-Mothers the Inclinations and Advantages of destroying their Husbands Children was not thought applicable to the Crown Nor was that of Ones being born out of the Kingdom which was hinted at to exclude the Queen of Scotland thought pertinent to this Case since there was an Exception made in the Law for the King's Children which was thought to
run so fast that the Bishops themselves were forced to moderate their Heats They all understood how much the Queen was set upon having the Church raised as high as could be and saw there was nothing so effectual to recommend any to her Favour as to move high in these Matters And though their Motions were thought too violent and rejected yet their Affections were thereby discovered so that they knew they should be looked on as Men deeply engaged in these Interests An Act declaring Treasons After this the Bill of Treasons was brought in This was also argued for some days in the House of Commons but at last agreed to By it any who denied the King's Right to the Title of the Crown with the Queen's or endeavoured to put him from it together with them that did several other Offences were to forfeit all their Goods and to be imprisoned during Life and Clergy Men were to be deprived by their Ordinaries In these cases the second Offence was to be Treason But if any should compass the King's Death and utter it by any overt Deed during his Marriage to the Queen the first Offence of this kind should be Treason It was also enacted that the Parliament having petitioned the King that if the Queen died with any Issue he would take on him the Government of them till they came of Age to which he had assented therefore if the Queen died before her Children came to be of Age the Government of the Kingdom should be in the King's Hands if it were a Son till he were eighteen or if a Daughter till she was fifteen Years of Age And in all that time the conspiring his Death was to be Treason The Witnesses were to be brought before the Parties and none was to be tried for any words but within six months after they were spoken Another against seditious words Another Act passed upon a Report made of some Heretical Preachers who had as was informed prayed in their Conventicles that God would turn the Queen's Heart from Idolatry to the true Faith or else shorten her days and take her quickly out of the way All therefore that so prayed for taking away the Queen's Life were to be judged Traitors but if they shewed themselves penitent for such Prayers they were not to be condemned of Treason but put to any Corporal Punishment other than Death at the Judges Discretion This was passed in great haste for it was thrice read in the House of Lords and passed on the 16th of January in which the Parliament was Dissolved There was another Act past against those that spread Lying Reports of any Noblemen Judges or great Officers that such as spread them should be imprisoned till they brought their Authors according to former Acts. If any spread such Reports of the King and Queen they were to be set on a Pillory and pay 100 l. or have their Ears cut off and be three months Prisoners and they were to pay 100 Merks and suffer one months Imprisonment though they had Authors for them if they reported them maliciously But if their Reports tended to the stirring of any Insurrection they were to lose their right Hands and upon a second Offence to suffer Imprisonment during their Lives but they were to be proceeded against within three months after the words so spoken All the Bills being ended the Parliament was dissolved on the 16th of January to Gardiner's Gardiner is in great esteem no small joy He had now performed all that he had undertaken to the Queen or the Emperor Upon which he had the Reputation that he was formerly in of a great Statesman and a dextrous manager of Affairs much confirmed and raised since he had brought about in so small a time so great a change where the Interests of those who consented to it seemed to lead them another wav To those who had apprehended the Tyranny of Rome he had said That as our former Kings had always kept it under in a great measure so there was less danger of that now since they saw that all Princes had agreed to preserve their own Rights entire against the Pope's Pretensions He shewed them that therefore all the Old Laws against Provisions from Rome were still kept in force And so upon Cardinal Pool's being called over there was a Commission sent him under the Great Seal bearing date the 10th of November authorising him to exercise his Legatine Power in England By this he shewed them that no Legat should ever come into England to execute any Power till his Faculties were seen and approved by the Queen Others thought this was but a vain Imagination for if the Papacy were once fully established and People again brought under the old Superstition of esteeming the Popes Christ's Vicars and the infallible Heads of the Church it would not be possible to retain the People in their Obedience since all the assistance that the Princes of Christendom of this time had from their Subjects in their Wars with the Popes flowed chiefly from this that they generally did no more submit implicitly to their Priests But if once that blind Obedience were restored it would be easy for the Priests by their privat dealings in Confession to overturn Governments as they pleased But that which stuck most was That the Church Lands were Great fear about the Church-Lands by the Cannon Law so indissolubly annexed to the Church that they could not be separated from it To this it was answered that they should secure it by a Law at Rome and should confirm all the Alienations that had been made both by consent of the Clergy and by the Pope's Authority committed to the Legat. Yet even that did not satisfy many who found some Laws in the Canon so strict that the Pope himself could not dispence with them If the Legate did it the Pope might refuse to confirm it and then it was nothing and what one Pope did another often recalled So it was said that this Confirmation was but an Artifice to make it pass the more easily Besides all observed that in the Cardinal's Confirmation of those Lands there was a charge given to all to be afraid of the Judgments of God that fell on Belshazar for using the Holy Vessels which was to pardon the thing and yet to call it a Sacrilege for which they might look for the Vengeance of God So that the Cardinal did at the same time both bind and loose and it was plain both by that Clause and the Repeal of the Statute of Mortmain that it was designed to possess People with the Opinion of the Sin of retaining Church-Lands It was thought this Confirmation was rather an Indemnity and Permission to keep them than a declaring the Possessors had any lawful Title to them So that when Men were near Death and could no longer enjoy those Lands themselves it was not to be doubted but the Terrors of Sacrilege and the Punishments due to it with
the poor Man and his Heirs put from their Right which his Majesty wisheth to be considered And albeit he thinketh that the King your Master being under Age cannot himself by the order of the Law conclude upon any thing now in his Minority that shall be of due force and strength able to bind him and his Country when he shall come to his perfect Age. Yet taking that his Tutors being authorised thereto by the common Assent of your Parliament may go through and conclude upon these or like things in his Name his Majesty thinketh it will do well when his Subjects shall be recompenced of the Wrongs they have hitherto sustained that some order be devised for the administration of Justice hereafter in like Cases As touching the Confirmation of the Treaty considering that the same was first made between the Emperor and King Henry the Eighth and not ratified by the King your Master since his Father's Death his Majesty thinketh that he hath most cause to require the same Wherefore because as I told you even now he thinketh that these things the King himself should conclude upon during his Minority cannot be of sufficient force if his Tutors shall be by the Authority of your Parliament enabled thereto his Majesty is content the Treaty be confirmed by them in the King's Name and by the Prince of Spain in such form as shall be thought best for both Parties As to the comprehension of Bulloign ye must know that we have a Treaty with France as well as with you which the Emperor cannot without some touch of his Honour break without just Grounds And albeit his Majesty would be loath to see the King his good Brother forgoe either that Peece or any other Jot of his Right yet can he not enter this Defence unless he would break with France out of hand which in respect of his other Affairs he cannot yet do howbeit he will gladly assist his good Brother in any other thing the best he may and will not fail to shew him all the Pleasure he can with regard to his Honour but with Bulloign he cannot meddle at this time And here he staying Is this the Emperor's resolute and full Answer Monsieur d' Arras quoth I. Yea quoth he wherewith he prayeth the King his good Brother to rest satisfied and take it in good part Albeit quoth I I have no Commission to make any Reply thereto because it was not known to your Grace what the Emperor's Resolution should be yet in the way of talk I will be bold to say my mind herein We have Monsieur d' Arras quoth I always esteemed the Emperor's Friendship and desired the observation of the Treaties and the entertainment of the Amity as a thing necessary and common to both the Parties for the better establishment whereof and that now and in this time some good Fruit to the benefit of both might appear to the World to follow of the same I was sent hither which was the chiefest cause of my coming And because that the Amity between both Princes might be the firmer and that all Doubts being taken away no cause of Quarrel shall be left we thought best to put you in mind of the Confirmation and Revisitation of the Treaty to the intent that by the one the World might see an establishment of our Friendship by our deed and that by the other one of us might understand another and consider whether any thing were to be added for the Commodity of both Parties which I suppose standeth you as much upon to desire as it doth us And whereas ye say that the King's Majesty because he is under Age cannot conclude or go through with any thing that shall be of sufficient force I must needs tell you plainly That ye touch his Majesty's Honour over-near herein for we think that the Majesty of a King is of such efficacy that he hath even the same Authority and full Power at the first hour of his Birth that he hath thirty Years after And what your Laws are I know not but sure I am that by our Laws whatsoever is done by the King in his Minority or by his Ministers in his Name is of no less force and strength than if it had been done in time of his full Age and Years if once the Great Seal of his Realm have passed there is no Remedy but needs must he stand thereto Marry let the Ministers take heed what they do and look that they may be able to discharge themselves towards him of their Doings if he shall require account of them when he cometh to Age for it is they must answer him but he must needs stand to whatsoever they have counselled him to agree unto during his Minority And to prove that our Laws giveth him the same Authority now that he shall have when he cometh to his perfect Age if any Man either for instruction of Learning or any other Cause should presume to lay hands on or touch his Majesty in way of correction he should by Law be taken for a Traitor And if the Matter were as ye take it we should then be in a strange and evil case for neither might we conclude Peace League or Treaty nor make Laws or Statutes during the King's Minority that should be of sufficient force to bind him and his to the observation of the same But ye mistake the Matter much and therefore if the Emperor mind to proceed to this Confirmation he may or otherwise do as it shall please him And as touching my Case quoth I ye must understand I did not move it without some just ground for remembring that all your Commissioners and all ours being together at Vtrecht for the Esclarcisement of the Treaty although the words of the Treaty were plain enough and could receive none other interpretation than was there plainly written yet would ye needs understand the Article for common Enmity in case of Invasion after your own minds And whereas by the words of the Treaty no mention is made of any number and therefore with howsoever few in number the Invasion be made ought the Invaders to be taken for common Enemies Your Commissioners did nevertheless interpret the Matter at their pleasure and would needs prescribe a number of 8000 Men under which number of Invasion were made the Treaties in this case should not stand to any force And like-as ye put a doubt here where none was to be found so thought I ye might do in other things were they never so plain and that moved me to put this case to see whether ye understood this Point as ye ought to do after the literal sense and partly to know your minds therein because perhaps the Matter hath been already in ure This I say was the occasion why I put further this Question and not for any mistrust of the Emperor's Friendship whom I must confess we have always found our Well-willer and so we doubt not he will continue and
Cardinal to marry since he was only in Deacon's Orders Before Commendone left England he saw the Duke of Northumberland executed and soon after he made all the haste that was possible to carry those acceptable Tidings to Rome and by his dexterity in this Negotiation he laid the foundation of those great Fortunes to which he was afterwards advanced There was no small Joy in the Consistory when the Pope and the Cardinals understood that a Kingdom from which they had drawn so much Wealth in former times was now to become again tributary to them So there was a publick rejoicing for three days in which the Pope said Mass himself and distributed his ordinary Largess of Indulgences of which he was the more bountiful because he hoped they should come in credit again and be purchased at the Rates at which they had been formerly sold Yet in the Consistory Commendone did not positively say he was sent by the Queen that being only communicated to the Pope all he told the Cardinals was That he understood from very good hands that the Queen was very well disposed to that See and that she desired that a Legate might be sent over with full Powers Many of the Cardinals thought this was too bare a Message and that it was below the Papal Dignity to send a Legate till the Pope was earnestly desired to do it by an express Message and an Embassy sent by the Queen But it was said that Commendone had said nothing but by the Queen 's express Orders who was yet in so unsetled a condition that till she held a Session of Parliament it might much endanger her to appear openly in such a Matter They were to remember how England had been lost by too much stiffness formerly and they were to imitate the Shepherd in the Parable who left his ninety nine Sheep to seek the one that was strayed So it was granted that Pool should go Legate with a full Power But Gardiner coming to know this sent to the Emperor to stop his Journey assuring him that things were going well on and that his coming over would spoil all At this time the Emperor began to think of marrying his Son Philip to the Queen who tho she was above nine years elder than he But stopp'd in his Journey by the Emperor yet being but thirty seven years old was not out of hopes of having Children The Emperor saw that if England were united to the Spanish Crown it would raise that Monarchy to a great height they should have all the Trade of the World in their hands and so enclose France that it seemed as probable a step to the Universal Monarchy as that he had lately lost in Germany When this Match was first proposed I do not know but I have read some parts of a Letter concerning it for it is not all legible which was written by the Queen of Hungary and signed by the Emperor in the beginning of November this tho it was not the first Proposition yet seems to have followed soon after it The Queen entertained the Motion easily not trusting to the Affections of her People nor thinking it possible to have the Papal Authority set up nor the Church-Lands restored without a forreign Force to assist her It is said and I have shewn some ground to believe that she had some Inclinations to Cardinal Pool and that the Emperor fearing that might be an hindrance to his Design therefore the Cardinal 's coming over was stopp'd till the Queen was married to his Son Philip. But of this I find no certain footsteps On the contrary Gardiner whose eye was chiefly upon the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury would rather have promoted Pool's pretensions to the Queen since her marrying a Subject and not a Stranger would have made the Government much easier and more acceptable to the People and it would have been the best thing he could do for himself if he could have persuaded her to marry him who alone was like to stand between him and that Dignity The true Account of it is The Emperor pressed her first to settle the State and consummate her Marriage and that would more easily make way for what was to follow For Gardiner had assured him the bringing in of the Papal Power and making up the Marriage both at once would be things of such ill digestion that it would not be easy to carry them together and therefore it was necessary to let a considerable Interval go between This being resolved on it was apparent the Marriage ought to go first as that which would give them more strength to conclude the other And this was the true reason of stopping Cardinal Pool at * A Town on the Danube Dilling which the Emperor at first did by his own Authority but afterwards got the Queen to send one to him to the same purpose She sent Goldwell afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph to him The Queen sent one to to him with the two Acts that were passed for the justifying of her Mother's Marriage and for bringing all things back to the State in which they were at her Father's Death Thereby she let him see that she was going forward in the Business for which he was sent but withal she told him That the Commons in passing those Acts had expressed great aversion to the taking of the Supremacy from the Crown or the restoring of the Pope's Power and that they were much allarm'd to hear he was coming over Legate and it prejudiced her Affairs that the Message she had sent by Commendone had been published in the Consistory Therefore she desired him to keep out of England till he were further advertised But to let him see how much she depended on his Counsels she desired he would send her a List of such Persons as should be made Bishops for many were now to be turned out To this besides the Answer which he might have writ to her self that I have not seen he writ a copious Answer in a tedious Paper of Instructions which he gave to Goldwell the Conclusion of which summing up his whole Mind fully enough Collections Numb 9. I thought sufficient to put into the Collection for the Instructions are extream long and very full of words to little purpose They seem to be of his own hand-writing but of that I am not well assured having seen nothing else of his hand except his Subscription The substance of it was this He rejoyced much at the two Acts that were passed The Advice he sent to the Queen but yet he censures them both because he observed some Defects in them In the Act for confirming her Mother's Marriage he found fault that there was no mention made of the Pope's Bulls by the authority of which only it could be a lawful Marriage In the other he did not like it that the Worship of God and the Sacraments were to be as they were in the end of her Father's Reign for then the People
Bill It was long argued some said the Clergy would rob the Crown and the Nation both and that the Laity must then support the Dignity of the Realm It was particularly committed to Sir William Cecil and others to be examined by them On the 13th of December the House divided about it 126 were against it and 193 were for it There was a Bill sent down against the Countess of Sussex Against thosâ— that had fled beyond-Sea rejected who had left her Husband and gone into France where she lived openly in Adultery and bare Children to others A Bill was put in to the same purpose in the first Parliament of this Reign to take her Jointure from her and declare her Children Bastards and was then cast out by the Commons and had now again the same fate Another Bill was put in against the Dutchess of Suffolk and others who had gone beyond Sea to require them to return under severe punishments but tho it was agreed to by the Lords yet upon a division of the House of Commons it was carried in the Negative The greatest and wealthiest of those who favoured the Reformation seeing in how ill a condition they must be in if they stayed in England vvere gone beyond Sea so it was now endeavoured to force them to return or to make them lose their Estates but the Commons thought they had already consented to too severe Laws against them and therefore would add no more The Dutchess of Suffolk had been persecuted while she was in the Netherlands but narrowly escaped Another Bill was put in for the incapacitating of several Persons from being Justices of Peace but was cast out by the Commons at the first reading This was chiefly against such as were suspected of remissness in the prosecuting of Hereticks but the Commons would do nothing to encourage that nor was it necessary since it was in the Queen's power to leave out of the Commission such as she excepted to but it shewed the Zeal of some who had a mind to recommend themselves by such motions There vvas a Complaint put into the House of Commons An Act debarring one from the benefit of Clergy by the Wife of one Rufford against Bennet Smith vvho had hired two Persons to kill her Husband and which as the Act passed about it says was one of the most detestable Murders that had ever been known in England But Smith that had hired and afterwards paid the Murderers might by the Law claim and have the benefit of Clergy It is and hath been an ancient custom in this Nation that for some Crimes those who can read are not to suffer Death This was at first done vvith a declaration that either they had vowed or vvere then resolved to enter into Orders vvhich vvas the cause that no Bigami that is none that had been twice married or such as married Widows vvere capable of it because such could not receive Orders and the Reading vvas only to shew that they vvere in some sort qualified for Orders tho aftervvards the Reading without any such Vow or Promise was all that was required to give one the benefit of Clergy This was granted as an Appendix of the Ecclesiastical Immunity for the Churchmen were not satisfied that their own Persons should be exempted from punishment but would needs have all that resolved to come among them be likewise preserved from the punishment due to those Crimes which they had formerly committed ted So Rufford's Wife petitioning that Smith might by Act of Parliament be debarred that benefit they sent her to the Queen to beg That she would order Smith to be brought from the Tower where he was then kept to the Bar of their House which being done the other Partners and Actors confessed all and tho he at first denied yet he afterwards confessed So the Bill was sent up by the Commons to the Lords where it was much opposed by the Clergy who would not consent that any diminution should be made of their ancient Privileges but the heinousness of the Fact wrought so much on the greater part that it was passed The Earls of Arundel and Rutland the Bishops of London Worcester Norwich and Bristol the Lords Abergaveny Fitzwater and Lumley protesting Pates was now Bishop of Worcester upon Heath's translation to York He was as some say designed to be Bishop of that See by King Henry upon Latimer's Resignation but being engaged in a correspondence with the Pope and Cardinal Pool he fled beyond Sea But the truth is that upon the Death of Jerome de Ghinuci he was at Rome made Bishop of Worcester by the Pope and was thereupon Attainted But his Attainder had bin repealed by the former Parliament and so he was restored to that See On the 9th of December the Parliament was dissolved And the day following Sir Anthony Kingston Sir Anthony Kingston put in the Tower for his behaviour in the House of Commons Ex Lib. Concil who had bin a main Stickler in it and had one day taken the Keyes of the House from the Serjeant which it seems was not displeasing to the major part of the House since they did nothing upon it was sent to the Tower and that same day as it is in the Council Books the Bishop of Ely delivered to the Lord Treasurer the Popes Bull confirming the King and Queens Title to Ireland bearing date the 7th of June Kingston lay in the Tower till the 23d of the month and then he submitted and asked pardon and was discharged But he was next year accused to have engaged in a Design with some others to have robbed the Exchequer of 50000 lib. Whereupon six of them Vdal Throgmorton Petham Daniel Stanton and White were Executed for Felony What Evidence was brought against them I do not know But Kingston died on his way to London Card. Pool in Convocation makes Canons for Reforming the Clergy Rot. Pat. 1st Par. 3. Reg. From the Parliament I turn next to the Convocation where the Cardinal was now at more liberty being delivered from Gardiners Jelousies and Opposition He obtained of the Queen on the 2d of November a Warrant under the great Seal giving him Licence to hold a Synod The Licence he had formerly taken out is made mention of and to avoid all ambiguities which might arise from the Laws or Prerogatives of the Crown she authorised him to call that or any other Synod after and to decree what Canons he should think fit she also authorised the Clergy to meet consent to and obey those Canons without any danger of the Law This was thought safe on both sides both for preserving the Rights of the Crown and securing the Clergy from being afterwards brought within the statute of Premunire as they had been upon theiâ—â—â—nowledging Cardinal Woolseys Legatine power To this Convocation Pool proposed a Book he had prepared which was afterwards printed with the Title of The Reformation of England by the Decree of Cardinal Pool
Queen declares she will force no Conscience pag. 245. A Tumult at Pauls ibid. A Proclamation against Preaching ibid. Censures passed upon it pag. 246. She uses those of Suffolk ill ibid. Consultations among the Reformed pag. 247. Judge Hales barbarously used ibid. Cranmer declares against the Mass pag. 248. Bonners insolence ibid. Cranmer and Latimer sent to the Tower pag. 250. Forreigners sent out of England ibid. Many English fly beyond Sea ibid. The Queen rewards those who had served her pag. 251. She is Crowned and discharges a Tax ibid. A Parliament summoned pag. 252. The Reformed Bishops thrust out of the House of Lords ibid. Great disorders in Elections ibid. An Act moderating severe Laws pag. 253. The Marriage of the Queens Mother Confirmed ibid. Censures passed upon it pag. 254. The Queen is severe to the Lady Elis. ibid. King Edwards Laws about Religion repealed pag. 255. An Act against injuries to Priests ibid. An Act against unlawful assemblies ibid. Marquess of Northamptons 2d Marriage broken pag. 256. The Duke of Norfolks Attaindor annulled ibid. Cranmer and others attainted pag. 257. But his See is not declared void ibid. The Queen resolves to reconcile with Rome ibid. Cardinal Pool sent Legate pag. 258. But is stopt by the Emperor pag. 259. The Queen sends to him ibid. His advice to the Queen pag. 260. Gardiners methods are preferred pag. 261. The House of Commons offended with the Queens Marriage then treated about ibid. The Parliament is dissolved ibid. 1200000 Crowns sent to corrupt the next Parliament pag. 262. Proceedings in the Convocation ibid. Disputes concerning the Sacrament ibid. Censures passed upon them pag. 283. 1554. Ambassadors treat with the Queen for her Marriage ibid. Articles agreed on ibid. The Match generally disliked p. 284. Plots to oppose it are discovered ibid. Wiat breaks out in Kent ibid. His Demands p. 286. He is defeated and taken ibid. The Lady Jane and her Husband Executed p. 271. Her preparations for Death ibid. The Duke of Suffolk is Executed p. 272. The Lady Elis is unjustly suspected p. 273. Many severe proceedings ibid. The Imposture in the Wall ibid. Instructions for the Bishops p. 274. Bishops that adhere to the Reform deprived ibid. The Mass every where set up pag. 276. Books against the married Clergy pag. 277. A New Parliament ibid. The Queens Regal Power asserted ibid. The secret Reasons for that Act. ibid. Great jealousies of the Spaniards pag. 279. The Bishoprick of Duresm restored ibid. Disputes at Oxford pag. 280. With Cranmer pag. 281. And Ridley pag. 282. And Latimer pag. 283. Censures passed upon them ibid. They are all Condemned ibid. The Prisoners in London give reasons why they would not dispute pag. 284. King Philip Lands pag. 286. And is Married to the Queen ibid. He brings a great Treasure with him ibid. Acts of favour done by him pag. 287. He preserves the Lady Elizabeth ibid. He was little beloved pag. 288. But much Magnifyed by Gardiner ibid. Bonners carriage in his Visitation ibid. No reordination of those Ordained in King Edward's time pag. 289. Bonners rage pag. 290. The Sacrament stollen pag. 291. A New Parliament ibid. Cardinal Pools Attaindor repealed ibid. He comes to London pag. 292. And makes a speech to the Parliament ibid. The Queen is believed with Child ibid. The Parliament petition to be reconciled pag. 293. The Cardinal absolves them ibid. Laws against the See of Rome repealed pag. 294. A Proviso for Church Lands ibid. A Petition from the Convocation ibid. An Address from the inferior Clergy pag. 295. Laws against Hereticks revived pag. 296. An Act declaring Treasons ibid. Another against seditious words ibid. Gardiner in great esteem pag. 297. The fear of losing the Church Lands ibid. Consultations how to deal with Hereticks pag. 298. Cardinal Pool for moderate courses pag. 299. But Gardiner is for violent ones ibid. To which the Queen is inclined pag. 300. 1555. They begin with Rogers and others ibid. Who refusing to comply are judged pag. 301. Rogers and Hooper burnt pag. 302. Sanders and Taylor burnt pag. 303. These cruelties are much censured pag. 304. Reflections made on Hoopers Death ibid. The Burnings much disliked pag. 305. The King Purges himself ibid. A Petition against persecution ibid. Arguments to defend it pag. 306. More are Burnt pag. 307. Ferrar and others Burnt pag. 308. The Queen gives up the Church Lands ibid. Pope Julius dies and Marcellus succeeds pag. 309. Paul the 4th succeeds him pag. 310. English Ambassadors at Rome ibid. Instructions sent for persecution pag. 311. Bonner required to Burn more pag. 312. The Queens delivery in vain expected ibid. Bradford and others Burnt pag. 313. Sir Thomas Mores works Published pag. 316. His Letter of the Nun of Kent ibid. Ridley and Latimer Burnt pag. 318. Gardiners Death and Character pag. 320. The temper of the Parliament is much changed pag. 322. The Queen discharges tenths and first fruits ibid. An Act against those that fled beyond Sea rejected pag. 323. An Act debarring a Murderer from the benefit of Clergy opposed ibid. Sir Anthony Kingston put in the Tower pag. 324. Pool holds a Convocation ibid. The heads of his Decrees ibid. Pools design for Reforming of abuses pag. 326. Pool will not admit the Jesuits to England pag. 327. Philpots Martyrdome pag. 328. Forreign affairs ibid. Charles the 5ths Resignation pag. 329. Cranmers Tryal pag. 332. He is degraded pag. 333. He recants ibid. He repents of it pag. 334. His Martyrdome pag. 335. His Character ibid. Others suffer on the like account pag. 337. A Child born in the Fire and burnt ibid. The Reformation grows pag. 338. Troubles at Frankfort among the English there pag. 339. Pool is made Arch-bishop of Canterbury pag. 340. Some Religious Houses are endowed ibid. Records are razed pag. 341. Endeavours for the Abbey of Glassenburg ibid. Forreign Affairs pag. 342. The Pope is extravagantly proud ibid. He dispenses with the French Kings Oath pag. 343. And makes War with Spain pag. 344. 1557. A Visitation of the Vniversities pag. 345. The Persecution set forward pag. 346. A Design for setting up the Inquisition pag. 347. Burnings for Religion pag. 348. Lord Stourton hanged for Murder pag. 350. The Queen is jealous of the French pag. 351. The Battel at St. Quintin pag. 352. The Pope offended with Cardinal Pool ibid. He recalls him pag. 353. The Queen refuses to receive Cardinal Peito ibid. A Peace between the Pope and Spain pag. 354. A War between England and Scotland ibid. The Affairs of Germany pag. 355. A Persecution in France pag. 356. 1558. Calais is besieged ibid. And it and Guisnes are taken pag. 357. Sark taken by the French pag. 358. And retaken strangely pag. 359. Great discontents in England ibid. A Parliament is called pag. 360. King of Sweden courts the Lady Elizabeth pag. 361. But is rejected by her ibid. She was ill used in this Reign pag. 362. The Progress of the Persecution pag. 363. The Methods of it pag.
my Cousin Margaret at Mine sat the French Ambassadour We were served by two Services two Sewers Cup-bearers Carvers and Gentlemen Her Master Hostell came before her Service and my Officers before Mine There were two Cup-boards one of Gold four Stages high another of massy Silver six Stages In her great Chamber dined at three Boards the Ladies only After Dinner when she had heard some Musick I brought her to the Hall and so she went away 5. The Duke of Northumberland the Lord Treasurer the Lord Marquess of Northampton the Lord Privy-Seal and divers others went to see her and to deliver a Ring with a Diamond and two Nags as a Token from Me. 6. The Duke of Northumberland with his Band of a hundred of which forty were in Black-Velvet white and black Sleeves sixty in Cloth The Earl of Pembrook with his Band and fifty more The Earl of Wiltshire with 58 of his Father's Band all the Pensioners Men of Arms and the Country with divers Ladies as my Cousin Margaret the Dutchesses of Richmond and Northumberland brought the Queen to Shoreditch through Cheap-side and Cornhill and there met her Gentlemen of Middlesex an 100 Horse and so she was conveied out of the Realm met in every Shire with Gentlemen 8. The Earl of Arundel committed to the Tower with Master Stroadly and St. Alban his Men because Crane did more and more confess of him 7. A Frenchman was sent again into France to be delivered again to the eight Frenchmen at the Borders because of a Murder he did at Diep and thereupon he fled hither 14. Answer was given to the Germans which did require 400000 Dollars if need so required for maintenance of Religion First That I was very well inclined to make Peace Amity or Bargain with them I knew to be of mine Religion for because this Messenger was sent only to know my Inclination and Will to enter and not with full Resolution of any Matters Secondly I would know whether they could get unto them any such strength of other Princes as were able to maintain the War and to do the Reciprogue to Me if need should require and therefore willed those three Princes Duke Maurice of Saxon the Duke of Mecklenburgh and the Marquess John of Brandenburgh from which he was sent to open the Matter to the Duke of Prussia and to all Princes about them and somewhat to get the good Will of Hamburgh Lubeck Bremen c. shewing them an inkling of the matter Thirdly I would have the matter of Religion made more plain lest when War should be made for other Quarrels they should say it were Religion Fourthly He should come with more ample Commission from the same States to talk of the sum of Mony and other Appurtenances This Answer was given lest if I assented wholly at the first they would declare mine Intent to the Stadts and whole Senates and so to come abroad whereby I should run into danger of breaking the League with the Emperor 16. The Lord Admiral took his leave to go into France for christening of the French King 's Son 18. Fossey Secretary to the Duke Maurice who was here for matter above-specified 20. A Proclamation appointed to go forth for that there went one before this time that set prices of Beef Oxen and Muttons which was meant to continue but to November when-as the Parliament should have been to abbrogate that and to appoint certain Commissioners to cause the Grasiers to bring to the Market and to sell at prices reasonable And that certain Overseers should be besides to certify of the Justices doings 23. The Lord Treasurer appointed High-Steward for the Arraignment of the Duke of Somerset At this time Duke Maurice began to show himself a Friend to the Protestants who before that time had appeared their Enemy 21. The foresaid Proclamation proclaimed 17. The Earl of Warwick Sir Henry Sidney Sir Henry Nevil and Sir Henry Yates did challenge all Commers at Tilt the third of January and at Tornay the sixth of January and this Challenge was proclaimed 28. News came that Maximilian was coming out of Spain nine of his Galleys with his Stuff and 120 Gennets and his Treasure was taken by the French 24. The Lord Admiral entred France and came to Bulloign 26. The Captain of Portsmouth had word and commandment to bring the Model of the Castle and Place to the intent it might be fortified because Baron de la Gard had seen it having an Engineer with him and as it was thought had the Plott of it 30. 22 Peers and Nobles besides the Council heard Sir Thomas Palmer Mr. Hammond Mr. Crane and Nudigate swear that their Confessions were true and they did say that that was said without any kind of Compulsion Force Envy or Displeasure but as favourably to the Duke as they could swear to with safe Consciences 24. The Lord Admiral came to Paris December 1. The Duke of Somerset came to his Trial at Westminster-Hall The Lord-Treasurer sat as High-Steward of England under the Cloth of State on a Bench between two Posts three degrees high All the Lords to the number of 26 viz. Dukes Suffolk Northumberland Marquess Northampton Earls Derby Bedford Huntingdon Rutland Bath Sussex Worcester Pembrook Vis Hereford Barons Burgaveny Audley Wharton Evers Latimer Bourough Souch Stafford Wentworth Darcy Sturton Windsor Cromwell Cobham Bray These sat a degree under and heard the Matter debated First After the Indictments were read five in number the Learned Counsel laid to my Lord of Somerset Palmer's Confession To which he answered That he never minded to raise the North and declared all the ill he could devise of Palmer but he was afraid for Bruites and that moved him to send to Sir William Herbert Replied it was again that the worse Palmer was the more he served his purpose For the Banquet he swore it was untrue and required more Witnesses Whence Crane's Confession was read He would have had him come Face to Face For London he meant nothing for hurt of any Lord but for his own Defence For the Gendarmoury it were but a mad matter for him to enterprise with his 100 against 900. For having Men in his Chamber at Greenwich confessed by Partridg it seemed he meant no harm because when he could have done harm he did it not My Lord Strange's Confession he swore it was untrue and the Lord Strange took his Oath it was true Nudigate's Hammond's and Alexander Seimour 's Confessions he denied because they were his Men. The Lawyers rehearsed how to raise Men at his House for an ill Intent as to kill the Duke of Northumberland was Treason by an Act Anno tertio of my Reign against Unlawful Assemblies for to devise the Death of the Lords was Felony To mind resisting his Attachment was Felony To Raise London was Treason and to Assault the Lords was Felony He answered He did not intend to raise London and swore that the Witnesses were not there His assembling of
to preserve the Catholick Religion both which she promised but performed neither This is said without any Proof and is not at all probable but is an Ornament added to set off the one and blemish the other Queen Mary's Sickness was concealed as much as was possible A week before her Death they were burning Hereticks as busily as ever and by the managing Affairs in the Parliament it appears there was great care taken to conceal the desperate Condition she was in so it is not likely that any such Messages was sent by her to her Sister And thus far have I traced our Author in the History he gives of the Reigns of King Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Mary and have discovered an equal measure of Ignorance and Malice in him but he was the fitter to serve their Ends who employed him and were resolved to believe him how false or improbable soever his Relation might be We see what use they have made of him ever since that Time His Friends were so sensible of the Advantage their Cause received from such a way of Writing that they resolved to continue down the History through Queen Elizabeth's Reign in which we are told Sanders himself made some Progress but that not being done to such a perfection as Rishton and others intended to bring it they undertook it and have written so skilfully after the Copy Sanders had given them that if it is possible they have out-done him in these two particular Excellencies of writing Histories in which he was so great a Master Impudence and Falshood as to Matter of Fact In one thing they had manifestly the better of him that they writing of what fell out in their own Time could not be ignorant of the truth of Things whereas he writing of what was done before he was born or when he was but a Child might have said many things more innocently delivering them as he had them by report But this Excuse cannot fit them who did knowingly and on Design prevaricate so grosly in Matters of Fact A little taste of these I shall give only so far as I have carried down the History of this Queen for to examine all the Faults they have committed would require a new Volume but from the taste I shall give the Reader he will easily know what judgment to pass on the whole work As for the Decency of the Style the first Period gives an Essay of it in which the Author promises such a Description of the Queen's Reign that this Lioness shall be known by her Claws And for his sincerity in writing the whole Preface is one indication of it in which he accuses the Queen for acting against the Laws of Nature and Religion in assuming the Supremacy and represents it so that the Reader must needs think she was the High Priest of England that ordained Bishops and Ministers and performed all other Holy Offices whereas she was so scrupulous in this Point that as she would not be called the Supream Head of this Church so she made it be declared both in one of the Articles of Religion set forth in the beginning of her Reign and afterwards in an Act of Parliament what was the nature of that Supremacy which she assumed making it both a part of the Religion and the Law of the Land By these it was declared that they gave her not the Ministry of God's Word or of the Sacraments but only that Prerogative which was given by God himself in the Scriptures to Godly Princes that they should rule all committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil Doers If Men were not past shame they could not after such an express and publick Declaration put on the confidence of writing as this Author does I shall follow him in some more steps and doubt not not but I shall convince the Reader that he was the fittest Man that could be found to have writ a Continuation of Sanders's History Pag. 255. 1. He says Henry the Second of France in a solemn Assembly did after Queen Mary's Death declare the Queen of Scotland his Daughter-in-Law Queen of England and Ireland This was neither done in a Solemn Assembly nor presently after Queen Mary's Death nor was it done by Henry the Second The Queen of Scotland did by her Uncles Advice assume that Title without any publick Act and it was not done till they understood that Philip was moving for a Dispensation in the Court of Rome for marrying Queen Elizabeth King Henry did only connive at it but neither ordered it nor justified it when the Queen's Ambassador complained of it An Author that is so happy in his first Period as to make three such Mistakes is likely to give us an excellent History Ibid. 2. He says The Arch-Bishop of York and all the other Bishops one only excepted refused to anoint her This was one of the most extraordinary things that ever was in any Government that the Bishops refusing to crown the Queen were not only not punished for it but continued to hold their Bishopricks still and the Arch-Bishop of York was continued a Privy Counsellor many months after this This is none of the Claws of a Lioness but rather a slackness and easiness of Clemency that deserves censure if it had not been that the Queen resolved to begin her Reign with the most signal Acts of Mercy that were possible Pag. 256. 3. He says Cecil and his Friend Bacon raised vast Estates to themselves and involved the Government into vast Difficulties and brought the Queen's Revenue into great or rather inextricable Confusion This may pass among Forreigners and perhaps be believed but we at home that when we wish for happy Times and excellent Counsellors do naturally reflect on the Days of that glorious Queen and her wise Councils will not be much wrought on by it The Revenue was never better managed the Undertakings of the Government were never greater and the Charge was never less This gives a Character of those Ministers beyond all exception Sir Nicholas Bacon never raised himself above that Quality which he brought with him into the Court. And Cecil was not advanced above the lowest Rank of Nobility tho he was in the chief Ministry above thirty Years and though they both left good Estates behind them yet far short of what might have been expected after so long a course in such great and high Employments 4. He says Pag. 257. There was an Oath enacted in the Parliament for the Queen's Supremacy and those who refused to swear it for the first Offence were to forfeit their Benefices and all their Goods and to be Prisoners for Life the second Offence was made Treason Such a false recital of a printed Act deserves a severer Animadversion than I shall bestow on it The refusing that Oath did infer no other punishment but the forfeiture of Benefices and