time To those Sir Thomas Cheney Warden of the Cinque-Ports and Sir John Mason with the two Secretaries came over It was said that the French and Spanish Ambassadors had desired an Audience in some Place in the City and it was proposed to give it in the Earl of Pembrooks House who being the least suspected it was agreed to by the Duke of Suffolk that they should be suffered to go from the Tower thither They also pretended that since the Duke of Northumberland had writ so earnestly for new Forces they must go and treat with my Lord Mayor and the City of London about it But as soon as they were got out the Earl of Arundel pressed them to declare for Queen Mary And to perswade them to it he laid open all the Cruelty of Northumberland under whose Tyranny they must resolve to be enslaved if they would not now shake it off The other consenting readily to it they sent for the Lord Mayor with the Recorder and the Aldermen and having declared their Resolutions to them they rode together into Cheapside And proclaimed her Queen and there proclaimed Queen Mary on the 19th of July From thence they went to Saint Pauls where Te Deum was sung An Order was sent to the Tower to require the Duke of Suffolk to deliver up that Place and to acknowledg Queen Mary and that the Lady Jane should lay down the Title of Queen To this as her Father submitted tamely so she expressed no sort of Concern in losing that imaginary Glory which now had for nine days been rather a Burden than any Matter of Joy to her They also sent Orders to the Duke of Northumberland to disband his Forces and to carry himself as became an Obedient Subject to the Queen And the Earl of Arundel with the Lord Paget were sent to give her an account of it who continued still at Framingham in Suffolk The Duke of Northumberland had retired back to Cambridg The Duke of Northumberland submits and is taken to stay for new Men from London but hearing how Matters went there before ever the Councils Orders came to him he dismist his Forces and went to the Market-place and proclaimed the Queen flinging up his own Hat for joy and crying God save Queen Mary But the Earl of Arundel being sent by the Queen to apprehend him it is said That when he saw him he fell abjectly at his Feet to beg his favour This was like him it being not more unusual for such Insolent Persons to be most basely sunk with their Misfortunes than to be out of measure blown up with success He was on the 25th of July sent to the Tower with the Earl of Warwick his eldest Son With many more Prisoners who were sent to the Tower of London Ambrose and Henry two of his other Sons Some other of his Friends were made Prisoners among whom was Sir Thomas Palmer the wicked Instrument of the Duke of Somerset's fall who was become his most intimate Confident and Dr. Sands the Vicechancellor of Cambridg Now did all People go to the Queen to implore her Mercy She received them all very favourably except the Marquess of Northampton Dr Ridley and Lord Robert Dudley The first of these had been a submissive fawner on the Duke of Northumberland the second had incurred her displeasure by his Sermon and she gladly laid hold on any colour to be more severe to him that way might be made for bringing Bonner to London again the third had followed his Father's Fortunes On the 27th the Lords Chief Justices Cholmley and Montague were sent to the Tower and the day after the Duke of Suffolk and Sir John Cheek went after them the Lady Jane and her Husband being still detained in the Tower Three days after an Order came to set the Duke of Suffolk at liberty upon engagement to return to Prison when the Queen required it for it was generally known that he had been driven on by Dudley and as it was believed that he had not been faulty out of Malice so his great weakness made them little apprehensive of any Dangers from him and therefore the Queen being willing to express a signal Act of Clemency at her first coming to the Crown it was thought best to let it fall on him Now did the Queen come towards London being met on the way by her Sister Elizabeth The Queen enters London with a thousand Horse who had gathered about her to shew their Zeal to maintain both their Titles which in this late contest had been linked together She made her entry to London on the third of August with great solemnity and pomp When she came to the Tower the Duke of Norfolk who had been almost seven Years in it Gardiner the Bishop of Winchester that had been five Years there the Dutchess of Somerset that had been kept there near two Years and the Lord Courtney whom she made afterwards Earl of Devonshire that was Son to the Marquess of Exeter and had been kept there ever since his Father was Attainted had their Liberty granted them So now she was peaceably setled in the Throne without any effusion of Blood having broke through a Confederacy against her which seemed to be so strong that if he that was the Head of it had not been universally odious to the Nation it could not have been so easily dissipated She was naturally pious and devout even to superstition had a generous disposition of Mind but much corrupted by Melancholy which was partly natural in her but much increased by the cross Accidents of her Life both before and after her Advancement so that she was very peevish and splenetick towards the end of her Life When the Differences became irreconcilable between her Father and Mother She had been in danger in her Father's Time she followed her Mothers Interests they being indeed her own and for a great while could not be perswaded to submit to the King who being impatient of contradiction from any but especially from his own Child was resolved to strike a terror in all his People by putting her openly to death Which her Mother coming to know writ her a Letter of a very devout strain which will be found in the Collections Coll. Numb 2. In which She encouraged her to suffer chearfully to trust to God and keep her heart clean She charged her in all things to obey the King's Commands except in the Matters of Religion She sent her two Latin Books the one of the Life of Christ which was perhaps the famous Book of Thomas a Kempis and the other St. Jerom's Letter She bid her divert her self at the Virginals or Lute but above all things to keep her self pure and to enter into no treaty of Marriage till these ill times should pass over of which her Mother seemed to retain still good hopes This Letter should have been in my former Volumn if I had then seen it but it is no improper
Ranks and thought the Lands the King intended to give were not sufficient for the maintenance of the Honour to be conferred on them which he reported to the best advantage he could for every Man and endeavoured to raise the Kings favour to them as high as he could But while this was in consultation the Duke of Norfolk very prudently apprehending the ruin of his Posterity if his Lands were divided into many Hands out of which he could not so easily recover them whereas if they continued in the Crown some turn of Affairs might again establish his Family and intending also to oblige the King by so unusual a Complement sent a desire to him that he would be pleased to settle all his Lands on the Prince the now King and not give them away for said he according to the Phrase of that Time They are good and stately Gear This wrought so far on the King that he resolved to reserve them for himself and to reward his Servants some other way Whereupon Paget pressed him once to resolve on the Honours he would bestow and what he would give with them and they should afterwards consider of the way how to give it The King growing still worse said to him That if ought came to him but good as he thought he could not long endure he intended to place them all about his Son as Men whom he trusted and loved above all other and that therefore he would consider them the more So after many Consultations he ordered the Book to be thus filled up The Earl of Hartford to be Earl Marshal and Lord Treasurer and to be Duke of Somerset Exeter or Hartford and his Son to be Earl of Wiltshire with 800 l. a year of Land and 300 l. a year out of the next Bishops Land that fell void the Earl of Essex to be Marquess of Essex the Viscount Lisle to be Earl of Coventry the Lord Wriothesly to be Earl of Winchester Sir Tho. Seimour to be a Baron and Lord Admiral Sir Richard Rich Sir Jo. St. Leiger Sir William Willoughby Sir Ed. Sheffield and Sir Christopher Danby to be Barons with yearly Revenues to them and several other Persons And having at the Suit of Sir Edw. North promised to give the Earl of Hartford six of the best Prebends that should fall in any Cathedral except Deanries and Treasurerships at his suit he agreed that a Deanry and a Treasurership should be in stead of two of the six Prebendaries And thus all this being written as the King had ordered it the King took the Book and put it in his Pocket and gave the Secretary order to let every one know what he had determined for them But before these things took effect the King died Yet being on his Death-bed put in mind of what he had promised he ordered it to be put in his Will that his Executors should perform every thing that should appear to have been promised by him All this Denny and Herbert confirmed for they then waited in his Chamber and when the Secretary went out the King told them the substance of what had passed between them and made Denny read the Book over again to him whereupon Herbert observed that the Secretary had remembred all but himself to which the King answered He should not forget him and ordered Denny to write 400 l. a year for him All these things being thus declared upon Oath and the greatest part of them having been formerly signified to some of them and the whole matter being well known and spread abroad the Executors both out of Conscience to the Kings Will and for their own Honours resolved to fulfil what the King had intended but was hindred by death to accomplish But being apprehensive both of Wars with the Emperour and French King they resolved not to lessen the Kings Treasure nor Revenue nor to sell his Jewels or Plate but to find some other ways to pay them and this put them afterwards on selling the Chantry Lands The Affairs of Scotland The business of Scotland was then so pressing that Balnaves who was Agent for those that had shut themselves within the Castle of St. Andrews had this day 1180 l. ordered to be carried to them for an half years pay to the Soldiers of that Garrison There were also Pensions appointed for the most leading Men in that Business The Earl of Rothes eldest Son had 280 Pound Sir James Kircaldy had 200 and many others had smaller Pensions allowed them for their amity as it is expressed in the Council Books 1547. Feb. 6. the King Knighted That day the Lord Protector Knighted the King being authorized to do it by Letters Pattents So it seems that as the Laws of Chivalry required that the King should receive Knighthood from the Hand of some other Knight so it was judged too great a presumption for his own Subject to give it without a Warrant under the Great Seal The King at the same time Knighted Sir John Hublethorn the Lord Major of London When it was known abroad what a distribution of Honour and Wealth the Council had resolved on it was much censured many saying that it was not enough for them to have drained the dead King of all his Treasure but that the first step of their proceedings in their new Trust was to provide Honour and Estates for themselves whereas it had been a more decent way for them to have reserved their Pretensions till the King had come to be of Age. Another thing in the Attestations seemed much to lessen the credit of the Kings Will which was said to be Signed the 30th of Decemb. and so did bear date whereas this Narration insinuates that it was made a very little while before he died not being able to accomplish his design in these things which he had projected but it was well known that he was not so ill on the 30th of December Secular Men had their Ecclesiastical Dignities It may perhaps seem strange that the Earl of Hartford had six good Prebends promised him two of these being afterwards converted into a Deanry and a Treasurership But it was ordinary at that time The Lord Cromwell had been Dean of Wells and many other Secular Men had these Ecclesiastical Benefices without Cure conferred on them For which there being no charge of Souls annexed to them this might seem to be an excuse Yet even those had a sacred charge incumbent on them in the Cathedrals and were just and necessary encouragements either for such as by Age or other defects were not fit for a Parochial Charge and yet might be otherwise capable to do eminent service in the Church or for the support of such as in their Parochial labours did serve so well as to merit preferment and yet perhaps were so meanly provided for as to need some farther help for their subsistence But certainly they were never intended for the enriching of such lazy and sensual Men who having given themselves up
silent only after long intervals cried out sometimes Chastise me Lord but throw me not off in mine old Age. He was by order from Cranmer and Sir John Cheek buried with the highest Solemnities that could be devised to express the value the University had for him The Vice-Chancellor and all the Graduates and the Major with all the Town accompanied his Funeral to St. Maries where after Prayers Haddon the University Orator made such a Speech concerning him and pronounced it with that affection that almost the whole Assembly shed Tears Next Dr. Parker that had been his most intimate Friend made an English Sermon in his praise and concerning the sorrowing for our departed Friends And the day following Dr. Redmayn then Mr. of Trinity Colledge made another Sermon concerning Death and in it gave a full account of Bucers Life and Death He particularly commended the great sweetness of his temper to all but remarkably to those who differed from him Redmayn and he had differed in many things both concerning Justification and the Influences of the Divine Grace But he said as Bucer had satisfied him in some things so he believed if he had lived he had satisfied him in more and that he being dead he knew none alive from whom he could learn so much This Character given him by so grave and learned a Man who was in many Points of a different perswasion from him was a great commendation to them both And Redmayn was indeed an extraordinary Person All in the University that were eminent either in Greek or Latin Poetry did adorn his Coffin with Epitaphs in which they expressed a very extraordinary sense of their loss about which one Carr writ a copious and passionate Letter to Sir John Cheek But Peter Martyr bore his death with the most sensible sorrow that could be imagined having in him lost a Father and the only intimate Friend he had in England His Character He was a very learned judicious pious and moderate Person Perhaps he was inferior to none of all the Reformers for Learning but for Zeal for true Piety and a most tender care of preserving Unity among the Forreign Churches Melancthon and he without any injury done the rest may be ranked a-part by themselves He was much opposed by the Popish Party at Cambridge who though they complied with the Law and so kept their Places yet either in the way of Argument as it had been for disputes sake or in such Points as were not determined set themselves much to lessen his esteem Nor was he furnished naturally with the quickness that is necessary for a Dispute from which they studied to draw advantages and therefore Peter Martyr writ to him to avoid all publick Disputes with them For they did not deal candidly on these occasions They often kept up their Questions till the hour of the Dispute that so the extemporary faculty of him who was to preside might be the more exposed and right or wrong they used to make Exclamations and run away with a Triumph In one of his Letters to Bucer he particularly mentions Dr. Smith for an Instance of this It was that Smith he said who writ against the Marriage of Priests and yet was believed to live in Adultery with his Mans Wife This Letter was occasioned by the Disputes that were in August the former Year between Bucer and Sedgwick Young and Pern about the Authority of the Scripture and the Church Which Disputes Bucer intending to publish caused them to be writ out and sent the Copy to them to be corrected offering them that if any thing was omitted that they had said or if they had any thing else to say which was forgot in the Dispute they might add it but they sent back the Papers to him without vouchsafing to read them At Ratisbone he had a Conference with Gardiner who was then King Henry's Ambassador in which Gardiner broke out into such a violent passion that as he spared no reproachful words so the Company thought he would have fall'n on Bucer and beat him he was in such disorder that the little Vein between his Thumb and Fore-finger did swell and palpitate which Bucer said he had never before that observed in any Person in his life But as Bucer was taken away by death Gardiner is deprived so Gardiner was soon after put out which was a kind of death though he had afterwards a Resurrection fatal to very many There was a Commission issued out to the Arch-bishop the Bishops of London Ely and Lincoln Secretary Petre Judge Hales Griffith and Leyson two Civilians and Goodrick and Gosnosd two Masters of Chancery to proceed against Gardiner for his contempt in the matters formerly objected to him He put in a Compurgation by which he endeavoured to shew there was malice born to him and Conspiracies against him as appeared by the Business of Sir Hen. Knevet mentioned in the former Part and the leaving him out of the late Kings Will which he said was procured by his Enemies He complained of his long Imprisonment without any Trial and that Articles of one sort after another were brought to him so that it was plain he was not detained for any Crime but to try if such usage could force him to do any thing that should be imposed on him He declared that what Order soever were set out by the Kings Council he should never speak against it but to the Council themselves and that though he could not give consent to the Changes before they were made he was now well satisfied to obey them but he would never make any acknowledgment of any fault The things chiefly laid against him were that being required he refused to preach concerning the Kings Power when he was under Age and that he had affronted Preachers sent by the King into his Diocess and had been negligent in obeying the Kings Injunctions and continued after all so obstinate that he would not confess his fault nor ask the King mercy His Crimes were aggravated by this that his timely asserting the Kings Power under Age might have been a great mean for preventing the Rebellion and Effusion of Blood which had afterwards happened chiefly on that pretence to which his obstinacy had given no small occasion Upon this many Witnesses were examined chiefly the Duke of Somerset the Earls of Wilt-shire and Bedford who deposed against him But to this he answered That he was not required to do it by any Order of Council but only in a private Discourse to which he did not think himself bound to give obedience Other Witnesses were also examined on the other Particulars But he appealed from the Delegates to the King in Person Yet his Judges on the 18th of April gave sentence against him by which for his disobedience and contempt they deprived him of his Bishoprick Upon that he renewed his Protestation and Appeal and so his Process ended and he was sent back to the Tower where he lay till
Darcy Sturton Windsor Cromwell Cobham and Bray The Crimes laid against him were cast into five several Indictments as the King has it in his Journal but the Record mentions only three whether Indictments or Articles is not so clear That he had designed to have seized on the Kings Person and so have governed all Affairs and that he with one hundred others intended to have imprisoned the Earl of Warwick afterwards Duke of Northumberland and that he had designed to have raised an Insurrection in the City of London Now by the Act that passed in the last Parliament if twelve Persons should have assembled together to have killed any Privy-Counsellor and upon Proclamation they had not dispersed themselves it was Treason or if such Twelve had been by any malicious Artifice brought together for any Riot and being warned did not disperse themselves it was Felony without benefit of Clergy or Sanctuary It seemed very strange that the three Peers Northumberland Northampton and Pembroke who were his professed Enemies and against the first of whom it was pretended in the Indictment that he had conspired should sit his Judges for though by the Law no Peer can be challenged in a Trial yet the Law of Nations that is Superior to all other Laws makes that a Man cannot be Judge in his own Cause and which was very unusual the Lord Chancellor though then a Peer was left out of the number but it is like the Reconciliation between the Duke of Somerset and him was then suspected which made him not be called to be one of his Judges The Duke of Somerset being it seems little acquainted with Law did not desire Council to plead or assist him in Point of Law but only answered to matters of Fact He prefaced that he desired no advantage might be taken against him for any idle or angry word that might have at any time fallen from him He protested he never intended to have raised the Northern Parts but had only upon some reports sent to Sir William Herbert to be his Friend that he had never determined to have killed the Duke of Northumberland or any other Person but had only talked of it without any intention of doing it that for the design of destroying the Gendarmoury it was ridiculous to think that he with a small Troop could destroy so strong a Body of Men consisting of 900 in which though he had succeeded it could have signified nothing that he never designed to raise any stirs in London but had always looked on it as a Place where he was most safe that his having Men about him in Greenwich was with no ill design since when he could have done mischief with them he had not done it but upon his Attachment rendred himself a Prisoner without any resistance He objected also many things against the Witnesses and desired they might be brought face to face He particularly spake much against Sir Tho. Palmer the chief Witness But the Witnesses were not brought only their Examinations were read Upon this the Kings Council pleaded against him that to levy War was certainly Treason that to gather Men with intention to kill Privy-Counsellors was also Treason that to have Men about him to resist the Attachment was Felony and to assault the Lords or contrive their deaths was Felony Whether he made any defence in Law or not does not appear For the material defence is not mentioned in all the accounts I have seen of it which was that these Conspiracies and gatherings of the Kings Subjects were only treasonable and fellonious after they had been required to disperse themselves and had refused to give obedience And in all this matter that is never so much as alledged no not in the Indictment it self to have been done It is plain it was not done For if any such Proclamation or Charge had been sent him it is probable he would either have obeyed it or gone into London or to the Country and tryed what he could have done by force but to have refused such a command and so to have come within the guilt of Treason and yet not to stir from his House are not things consistent When the Peers withdrew it seems the Proofs about his design of raising the North or the City or of the killing the Gandarmes did not satisfie them For all these had been without question treasonable So they only held to that Point of conspiring to imprison the Duke of Northumberland If he with Twelve Men about him had conspired to do that and had continued together after Proclamation it was certainly Felony But that not being pretended it seems there was no Proclamation made The Duke of Suffolk was of opinion that no contention among private Subjects should be on any account scrued up to be Treason The Duke of Northumberland said he would never consent that any practise against him And is acquitted of Treason but found guilty of Felony should be reputed Treason After a great difference of Opinion they all acquitted him of Treason But the greater number found him guilty of Felony When they returned him not guilty of Treason all the People who were much concerned for his preservation shouted for joy so loud and so long that they were heard at Charing-Cross But the joy lasted not long when they heard that he was condemned of Felony and Sentence was thereupon given that he should die as a Felon The Duke had carried himself all the while of the Trial with great temper and patience and though the Kings Council had in their usual way of Pleading been very bitter against him perhaps the rather that thereby they might recommend themselves to the Duke of Northumberland yet he never took notice of these reflections nor seemed much affected with them When Sentence was given he thanked the Lords for their favour and asked pardon of the Duke of Northumberland Northampton and Pembroke for his ill intentions against them and made sute for his Life and for his Wife and Children From thence he was carried back to the Tower Whether this asking the Lords pardon had in it a full Confession of the Crime charged on him or was only a complement to them that they might not obstruct his Pardon is but a matter of conjecture He confessed he had spoken of killing them and this made it reasonable enough for him to ask their pardon so that it does not imply a Confession of the Crime All People thought that being acquitted of Treason and there being no fellonious Action done by him but only an intention of one and that only of Imprisoning a Peer proved that one so nearly joyned to the King in Blood would never be put to death on such an occasion But to possess the King much against him a Story was brought him and put by him in his Journal That at the Dukes coming to the Tower he had confessed that he had hired one Bartuile to kill the Lords and that Bartuile himself acknowledged it and
Name who made that Testament was appointed to be struck out of the List of those Church-men who had died in the Faith and were remembred in the daily Offices Samosatenus is represented as one of the first eminent Church-men that involved himself much in Secular Cares Upon the Emperors turning Christian it was a natural effect of their Conversion for them to cherish the Bishops much and many of the Bishops became so much in love with the Court and publick Imployments that Canons were made against their going to Court unless they were called and the Canalis or Road to the Court was kept by the Bishop of Rome so that none might go without his Warrant Their medling in Secular Matters was also condemned in many Provincial Councils but most copiously and amply by the General Council at Chalcedon It is true the Bishops had their Courts for the Arbitration of Civil Differences which were first begun upon St. Pauls Epistle to the Corinthians against their going to Law before Unbelievers and for submitting their Sutes to some among themselves The Reasons of this ceased when the Judges in the Civil Courts were become Christians yet these Episcopal Audiences were still continued after Constantines time and their Jurisdiction was sometimes enlarged and sometimes abridged as there was occasion given St. Austin and many other Holy Bishops grew weary even of that and found that the hearing Causes as it took up much of their time so filled their Heads with thoughts of another nature than what properly belonged to them The Bishops of Rome and Alexandria taking advantage from the greatness and Wealth of their Sees began first to establish a Secular Principality of the Church and the Confusions that fell out in â—aly after the 5th Century gave the Bishops of Rome great opportunities for it which they improved to the utmost advantage The Revolutions in Spain gave a Rise to the Spanish Bishops medling much in all Civil Matters And when Charles the Great and his Son had given great Territories and large Jurisdictions to many Sees and Monasteries Bishops and Abbots came after that not only to have a share in all the publick Councils of most of the States of Europe to which their Lands gave them a Right but to be chiefly imployed in all Affairs and Offices of State The Ignorance of these Ages made this in a manner necessary and Church-Preferments were given as Rewards to Men who had served in the State in Embassies or in their Princes Courts of Justice So that it was no wonder if Men advanced upon that merit continued in their former Method and course of Life Thus the Bishops became for the greatest part only a sort of Men who went in peculiar Habits and upon some high Festivities performed a few Offices but for the Pastoral care and all the Duties incumbent on them they were universally neglected and that seriousness that abstraction from the World that application to Study and Religious Exercises and chiefly the care of Souls which became their Function seemed inconsistent with that course of Life which Secular Cares brought on Men who pursued them Nor was it easie to perswade the World that their Pastors did very much aspire to Heaven when they were thrusting themselves so indecently into the Courts of Princes or ambitiously pretending to the Administration of Matters of State and it was always observed that Church-men who assumed to themselves Imployments and an Authority that was excentrick to their Callings suffered so much in that Esteem and lost so much of that Authority which of right belonged to their Character and Office But to go on with the Series of Affairs There was all possible care taken to divert and entertain the Kings Mind with pleasing Sights as will appear by his Journal which it seems had the effect that was desired for he was not much concerned in his Unkles Preservation 1552. An Order was sent for beheading the Duke of Somerset on the 22d of January on which day he was brought to the Place of Execution on Tower-hill His whole deportment was very composed and no way changed from what it had ordinarily been he first kneeled down and prayed and then he spake to the People in these words The Duke of Somerset's Speech at his Execution Dearly beloved Friends I am brought here to suffer death albeit that I never offended against the King neither by word nor deed and have been always as faithful and true to this Realm as any Man hath been But for so much as I am by Law condemned to die I do acknowledge my self as well as others to be subject thereto Wherefore to testifie my obedience which I owe unto the Laws I am come hither to suffer death whereunto I willingly offer my self with most hearty thanks to God that hath given me this time of Repentance who might through sudden death have taken away my Life that neither I should have acknowledged him nor my self Moreover there is yet somewhat that I must put you in mind of as touching Christian Religion which so long as I was in Authority I always diligently set forth and furthered to my power neither repent I me of my doings but rejoice therein sith that now the State of Christian Religion cometh most near unto the Form and Order of the Primitive Church which thing I esteem as a great benefit given of God both to you and me most heartily exhorting you all that this which is most purely set forth to you you will with like thankfulness accept and embrace and set out the same in your living which thing if you do not without doubt greater mischief and calamity will follow DUX EDWARDUS SEIMERUS SOMERSETI R White sculp â—OY POUR DEVOâ— Angliae Protector Edwardi Regis Avunculus Capitruncatus 22 JaÌ„ 1552. Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in S. t Pauls Churchyard When he had gone so far there was an extraordinary noise heard as if some House had been blown up with Gun-powder which frighted all the People so that many run away they knew not for what and the Relator who tarried still says it brought into his remembrance the astonishment that the Band was in that came to take our Saviour who thereupon fell backwards to the ground At the same time Sir Ant. Brown came riding towards the Scaffold and they all hoped he had brought a Pardon upon which there was a general shouting Pardon Pardon God save the King many throwing up their Caps by which the Duke might well perceive how dear he was to the People But as soon as these disorders were over he made a Sign to them with his Hand to compose themselves and then went on in his Speech thus Dearly beloved Friends there is no such matter here in hand as you vainly hope or believe It seemeth thus good unto Almighty God whose Ordinance it is meet and necessary that we all be obedient to Wherefore I pray you all to be quiet
and to be contented with my Death which I am most willing to suffer And let us now joyn in Prayer to the Lord for the preservation of the Kings Majesty unto whom hitherto I have always shewed my self a most faithful and firm Subject I have always been most diligent about his Majesty in his Affairs both at home and abroad and no less diligent in seeking the common Commodity of the whole Realm upon this the People cried out it was most true unto whose Majesty I wish continual health with all felicity and all prosperous success Moreover I do wish unto all his Counsellors the Grace and Favour of God whereby they may rule in all things uprightly with justice unto whom I exhort you all in the Lord to shew your selves obedient as it is your bounden Duty under the pain of condemnation and also most profitable for the preservation and safeguard of the Kings Majesty Moreover for as much as heretofore I have had Affairs with divers Men and hard it is to please every Man therefore if there have been any that have been offended or injured by me I most humbly require and ask him forgiveness but especially Almighty God whom throughout all my Life I have most grievously offended and all other whatsoever they be that have offended me I do with my whole Heart forgive them Then he desired them to be quiet lest their Tumults might trouble him and said Albeit the Spirit be willing and ready the Flesh is frail and wavering and through your quietness I shall be much more quieter Moreover I desire you all to bear me witness that I die here in the Faith of Jesus Christ desiring you to help me with your Prayers that I may persevere constant in the same to my lives end Then Dr. Cox who was with him on the Scaffold His Death put a Paper in his Hand which was a Prayer he had prepared for him He read it on his Knees then he took leave of all about him and undressed himself to be fitted for the Axe In all which there appeared no change in him only his Face was a little rudier than ordinary he continued calling Lord Jesus save me till the Executioner severed his Head from his Body Thus fell the Duke of Somerset a Person of great Vertues And Character eminent for Piety humble and affable in his greatness sincere and candid in all his Transactions He was a better Captain than a Counsellor had been oft successful in his undertakings was always careful of the Poor and the Oppressed and in a word had as many Vertues and as few faults as most great Men especially when they were so unexpectedly advanced have ever had It was generally believed that all this pretended Conspiracy upon which he was condemned was only a forgery For both Palmer and Crane the chief Witnesses were soon after discharged as were also Bartuile and Hamond with all the rest that had been made Prisoners on the pretence of this Plot. And the Duke of Northumberland continued after that in so close a friendship with Palmer that it was generally believed he had been corrupted to betray him And indeed the not bringing the Witnesses into the Court but only the Depositions and the Parties sitting Judges gave great occasion to condemn the Proceedings against him For it was generally thought that all was an Artifice of Palmers who had put the Duke of Somerset in fears of his Life and so got him to gather Men about him for his own preservation and that he afterwards being taken with him seemed through fear to acknowledge all that which he had before contrived This was more confirmed by the death of the other four formerly mentioned who were executed on the 26th of February and did all protest they had never been guilty of any design either against the King or to kill the Lords Vane added That his Blood would make Northumberland's Pillow uneasie to him The People were generally much affected with this Execution and many threw Handkerchiefs into the Duke of Somersets Blood to preserve it in remembrance of him One Lady that met the Duke of Northumberland when he was led through the City in Queen Maries Reign shaking one of these Bloody Handkerchiefs said Behold the Blood of that worthy Man that good Unkle of that excellent King which was shed by thy malicious practise doth now begin apparently to revenge it self on thee Sure it is that Northumberland as having maliciously contrived this was ever after hated by the People But on the other hand great notice was taken that the Duke of Norfolk who with his Son the Earl of Surrey were believed to have fallen in all their misery by the Duke of Somersets means did now out-live him and saw him fall by a Conspiracy of his own Servants as himself and his Son had done The Proceeding against his Brother was also remembred for which many thought the Judgments of God had overtaken him Others blamed him for being too apt to convert things Sacred to his own use and because a great part of his Estate was raised out of the Spoils of many Churches and some late Writers have made an Inference from this upon his not claiming the Benefit of Clergy that he was thus left of God not to plead that Benefit since he had so much invaded the Rights and Revenues of the Church But in this they shewed their ignorance For by the Statute that Felony of which he was found guilty was not to be purged by Clergy Those who pleased themselves in comparing the events in their own times with the Transactions of the former Ages found out many things to make a parallel between the Duke of Somerset and Humphrey the good Duke of Glocester in Henry the 6th's time but I shall leave the Reader in that to his own observation Now was the Duke of Northumberland absolute at Court all Offices being filled with those that were his Associates The Affairs of Germany But here I stop to give a general view of Affairs beyond Sea this year though I have a little transgressed the bounds of it to give an account of the Duke of Somersets Fall all together The Siege of Magdeburg went on in Germany But it was coldly followed by Maurice who had now other designs He had agreed with the French King who was both to give him assistance and to make War on the Emperor at the same time when he should begin Ferdinand was also not unwilling to see his Brothers greatness lessened for he was pressing him not without threatnings to lay down his Dignity as King of the Romans and thought to have established it on his Son All the other Princes of Germany were also oppressed by him so that they were disposed to enter into any alliance for the shaking off of that Yoke Maurice did also send over to try the inclinations of England if they would joyn with him and contribute 400000 Dollars towards the expence of a
the best and perfectest Pieces of that nature that I have seen The Original is yet extant under his own Hand in Scotland a Copy of it was shewed me by one descended from him from which I shall discover many considerable Passages though the Affairs in which he was most employed were something later than the time of which I am to write But to return to Ireland Upon the Peace made with France and Scotland things were quieted there and Sir Ant. St. Leiger was in August 1550. again sent over to be Deputy there For the Reformation it made but a small progress in that Kingdom It was received among the English but I do not find any endeavours were used to bring it in among the Irish This Year Bale was sent into Ireland He had been a busie Writer upon all occasions and had a great deal of Learning but wanted Temper and did not write with the decency that became a Divine or was sutable to such matters which it seems made those who recommended Men to preferment in this Church not think him so fit a Person to be employed here in England But the Bishoprick of Ossery being void the King proposed him to be sent thither So in August this Year Dr. Goodaker was sent over to be Bishop of Armagh and Bale to be Bishop of Ossery There were also two other who were Irish Men to be promoted When they came thither the Arch-bishop of Dublin intended to have consecrated them according to the old Pontifical for the new Book of Ordination had not been yet used among them Goodaker and the two others were easily perswaded to it but Bale absolutely refused to consent to it who being assisted by the Lord Chancellor it was carried that they should be ordained according to the new Book When Bale went into his Diocess he found all things there in dark Popery but before he could make any Reformation there King Edwards death put an end to his and all such designs In England nothing else that had any relation to the Reformation passed this Year A Change made in the Order of the Garter unless what belongs to the change made in the Order of the Garter may be thought to relate to it On the 23d of April the former Year being St. George's day a Proposition was made to consider the Order and Statutes since there was thought to be a great deal of superstition in them and the Story upon which the Order was founded concerning St. George's fighting with the Dragon looked like a Legend formed in the darker Ages to support the humour of Chivalry that was then very high in the World And as the Story had no great credibility in it self so it was delivered by no Ancient Author Nor was it found that there had been any such Saint there being among Ancient Writers none mentioned of that Name but George of Alexandria the Arrian Bishop that was put in when Athanasius was banished Upon this motion in the former Year the Duke of Somerset the Marquess of Northampton and the Earls of Wilt-shire and Warwick were appointed to review the Statutes of the Order So this Year the whole Order was changed and the Earl of Westmorland and Sir Andrew Dudley who were now to be installed were the first that were received according to the new Model which the Reader will find in the Collection King Edwards Remains Number 23. as it was translated into Latin out of the English by the King himself written all with his own Hand and it is the third Paper after his Journal The Preamble of it sets forth the noble design of the Order to animate great Men to gallant Actions and to associate them into a Fraternity for their better encouragement and assistance but says it had been much corrupted by superstition therefore the Statutes of it were hereafter to be these It was no more to be called the Order of St. George nor was he to be esteemed the Patron of it but it was to be called the Order of the Garter The Knights of this Order were to wear the Blew Ribond or Garter as formerly but at the Collar in stead of a George there was to be on one side of the Jewel a Knight carrying a Book upon a Sword point on the Sword to be written Protectio on the Book Verbum Dei on the Reverse a Shield on which should be written Fides to express their resolution both with offensive and defensive Weapons to maintain the Word of God For the rest of the Statutes I shall refer the Reader to the Paper I mentioned But this was repealed by Queen Mary and so the old Rules took place again and do so still This design seems to have been chiefly intended that none but those of the Reformed Religion might be capable of it since the adhering to and standing for the Scriptures was then taken to be the distinguishing Character between the Papists and the Reformers This is the sum of what was either done or designed this Year with relation to Religion As for the State there was a strict enquiry made of all who had cheated the King in the suppression of Chantries or in any other thing that related to Churches from which the Visitors were believed to have embezeled much to their own uses and there were many Sutes in the Star-Chamber about it Most of all these Persons had been the Friends or Creatures of the Duke of Somerset and the enquiry after these things seems to have been more out of hatred to him than out of any design to make the King the richer by what should be recovered for his use But on none did the Storm break more severely than on the Lord Paget Paget degraded from being a Knight of the Garter He had been Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster and was charged with many misdemeanours in that Office for which he was fined in 6000 l. But that which was most severe was that on St. George's Eve he was degraded from the Order of the Garter for divers offences but chiefly because he was no Gentleman neither by Fathers side nor Mothers side His chief offence was his greatest Vertue He had been on all occasions a constant Friend to the Duke of Somerset for which the Duke of Northumberland hated him mortally and so got him to be degraded to make way for his own Son This was much censured as a barbarous Action that a Man who had so long served the Crown in such publick Negotiations and was now of no meaner Blood than he was when King Henry first gave him the Order should be so dishonoured being guilty of no other fault but what is common to most Courtiers of enriching himself at his Masters cost for which his Fine was severe enough for the expiation But the Duke of Northumberland was a Person so given up to violence and revenge that an ordinary disgrace did not satisfie his hatred Sir Ant. St. Leiger another Knight of the Order
was at the same time accused upon complaint sent from the Arch-bishop of Dublin in Ireland for some high words that he had used But these being examined he was cleared and admitted to his Place among the Knights at the Garter Many others that were obnoxious came in upon this violent prosecution to purchase the favour of Northumberland who was much set on framing a Parliament to his mind and so took those methods which he thought likeliest to work his ends It being ordinary for Men of insolent and boisterous tempers who are generally as abject when they are low as they are puft up with prosperity to measure other People by themselves therefore knowing that the methods of reason and kindness would have no operation on themselves and that height and severity are the only ways to subdue them they use that same way of gaining others which they find most effectual with themselves This Year the King went on in paying his Debts The encrease of Traâ—e reforming the Coin and other ways that might make the Nation great and wealthy And one great Project was undertaken which has been the chief beginning and foundation of the great Riches and strength of Shipping to which this Nation has attained since that time From the days of King Henry the third the free Towns of Germany who had assisted him in his Wars obtained great Priviledges in England they were made a Corporation and lived together in the Still-yard near the Bridge They had in Edward the 4th's time been brought into some trouble for carrying their Priviledges further than their Charter allowed them and so Judgment was given that they had forfeited it but they redeemed themselves out of that by a great Present which they made to the King That which chiefly supported them at Court was that they trading in a Body were not only able to take the Trade out of all other Persons Hands by underselling them but they had always a great stock of Money and so when the Government was in a strait they were ready upon a good Security to lend great Sums and on lesser occasions could obtain the favour of a States-man by the Presents they made him But now Trade was raised much above what it had been and Courts becoming more magnificent than formerly there was a greater consumption particularly of Cloth than had ever been known The discovery of the Indies had raised both Trade and Navigation so that there was a quicker circulation of the Wealth of the World than had been in former Ages Antwerp and Hamburgh lying both conveniently the one in the mouth of the Elb and the other near the mouth of the Rhine which were the two greatest Rivers that fell into those Seas the Merchants of those two Cities at that time had the chief Trade of the World The English began to look on those Easterlings with envy All that was Imported or Exported came for most part in their bottoms all Markets were in their Hands so that Commodities of forreign growth were vented by them in England and the Product of the Kingdom was bought up by them And all the Nation being then set much on Pasture they had much advanced their Manufacture in so much that their own Wooll which had been formerly wrought at Antwerp was now made into Cloth in England which the Still-yard Men obtained leave to carry away At first they Shiped not above eight Cloths in a year after that an hundred then a thousand then six thousand but this last year there was Shipped in their Name 44000 Cloaths and not above 1100 by all others that traded within England The Merchant Adventurers found they could not hold out unless this Company was broke So they put in their complaint against them in the beginning of this year to which the Still-yard Men made answer and they replied Upon this the Council made a Decree that the Charter was broken and so dissolved the Company Those of Hamburg and Lubeck and the Regent of Flanders solicited the Council to have this redressed but in vain for the advantage the Nation was to have by it was too visible to admit of any interposition But the design of Trade being thus set on foot another Project of a higher nature followed it The War was now begun between the Emperor and the King of France And that with the persecution raised in Flanders against all that leaned to the Doctrine of the Protestants made many there think of changing their Seats It was therefore proposed here in England to open a free Trade and to appoint some Mart Towns that should have greater Priviledges and Securities for encouraging Merchants to live in them and should be easier in their Customs than they were any where else Southampton for the Cloth Trade and Hull for the Northern Trade were thought the two fittest Places And for the advantages and disadvantages of this design I find the young King had ballanced the matter exactly for there is a large Paper all written with his own Hand containing what was to be said on both sides But his death and Queen Maries marrying the Prince of Spain put an end to this Project though all the Addresses her Husband made seconding the desires of the Easterlings could never prevail to the setting up of that company again If the Reader would understand this matter more perfectly he may find a great deal of it in the Kings Journal King Edwards Remains Number 4. and in the fourth Paper that follows it where the whole Affair seems to be considered on all hands but Men that know Merchandise more perfectly will judge better of these things Cardan in England This Summer Cardan the great Philosopher of that Age passed thorough England He was brought from Italy on the account of Hamilton Arch-bishop of St. Andrews who was then desperately sick of a Dropsie Cardan cured him of his Disease but being a Man much conversant both in Astrology and Magick as himself professed he told the Arch-bishop that though he had at present saved his Life yet he could not change his fate for he was to die on a Gallows In his going through England he waited on King Edward where he was so entertained by him and observed his extraordinary Parts and Vertues so narrowly that on many occasions he writ afterwards of him with great astonishment as being the most wonderful Person he had ever seen The Affairs of Scotland But the mention of the Scotch Arch-bishops sickness leads me now to the Affairs of Scotland The Queen had passed thorough England from France to Scotland last year In her Passage she was treated by the King with all that respect that one Crowned Head could pay to another The Particulars are in his Journal and need not be recited here When she came home she set herself much to perswade the Governour to lay down the Government that it might be put in her Hands to which he being a soft Man was the more easily
Place to mention it here At Court many were afraid to move the King for her both the Duke of Norfolk and Gardiner look'd on and were unwilling to hazard their own Interests to preserve her But as it was now printed And was preserv'd by Cranmer's means and both these appealed to Cranmer was the only Person that would adventure on it In his gentle way he told the King that she was young and indiscreet and therefore it was no wonder if she obstinately adhered to that which her Mother and all about her had been infusing into her for many Years but that it would appear strange if he should for this Cause so far forget he was a Father as to proceed to Extremities with his own Child that if she were separated from her Mother and her People in a little time there might be ground gained on her but to take away her Life would raise horror through all Europe against him By these means he preserved her at that time After her Mother's Death in June following she changed her note She submitted to her Father for besides the Declaration she then signed which was inserted in the former part of this Work she writ Letters of such submission as shew how expert she was at dissembling Three of these to her Father and one to Cromwell I have put in the Collection in which she Collect. Numb 3 4 5 6. with the most studied Expressions declaring her sorrow for her past stubbornness and disobedience to his most just and vertuous Laws implores his Pardon as lying prostrate at his Feet and considering his great Learning and Knowledg she puts her Soul in his Hand resolving that he should for ever thereafter direct her Conscience from which she vows she would never vary This she repeats in such tender words that it shews she could command her self to say any thing that she thought fit for her ends And when Cromwell writ to her to know what her Opinion was about Pilgrimages Purgatory and Reliques she assures him she had no Opinion at all but such as she should receive from the King who had her whole Heart in his keeping and he should imprint upon it in these and all other Matters whatever his inestimable Vertue high Wisdom and excellent Learning should think convenient for her So perfectly had she learned that stile that she knew was most acceptable to him Having copied these from the Originals I thought it not unfit to insert them that it may appear how far those of that Religion can comply when their Interest leads them to it From that time this Princess had been in all Points most exactly compliant to every thing her Father did And after his Death she never pretended to be of any other Religion than that which was established by him So that all that she pleaded for in her Brother's Reign was only the continuance of that way of Worship that was in use at her Father's Death But now being come to the Crown that would not content her yet when she thought where to fix she was distracted between two different Schemes that were presented to her On the one hand Gardiner and all that Party were for bringing Religion back to what it had been at King Henry's Death and afterward The Designs for changing Religion by slow degrees to raise it up to what it had been before his breach with the Papacy On the other hand the Queen of her own Inclination was much disposed to return immediately to the Union of the Catholick Church as she called it and it was necessary for her to do it since it was only by the Papal Authority that her Illegitimation was removed To this it was answered that all these Acts and Sentences that had passed against her might be annulled without taking any notice of the Pope Gardiner's Policy Gardiner finding these things had not such weight with her as he desired for she looked on him as a crafty temporizing Man sent over to the Emperor on whom she depended much to assure him that if he would perswade her to make him Chancellor and to put Affairs into his Hands he should order them so that every thing she had a mind to should be carried in time But Gardiner understood she had sent for Cardinal Pool so he writ to the Emperor that he knew his Zeal for the Exaltation of the Popedom would undo all therefore he pressed him to write to the Queen for moderating her heat and to stop the Cardinal 's coming over He said that Pool stood Attainted by Law so that his coming into England would allarm the Nation He observed that upon a double account they were averse to the Papacy The one was for the Church Lands which they had generally bought from the Crown on very easie terms and they would not easily part with them The other was The fear they had of Papal Dominion and Power which had been now for about 25 Years set out to the People as the most intollerable Tyranny that ever was Therefore he said it was necessary to give them some time to wear out these Prejudices and the precipitating of Councils might ruin all He gave the Emperor also secret Assurances of serving him in all his Interests All this Gardiner did the more warily because he understood that Cardinal Pool hated him as a false and deceitful Man Upon this the Emperor writ to the Queen several Letters with his own hand which is so hardly legible that it was not possible for me or some others to whom I shewed them to read them so well as to copy them out and one that was written by his Sister the Queen of Hungary and signed by him is no better but from many half Sentences I find that all was with a design to temper her that she should not make too much hast nor be too much led by Italian Counsels Upon the return of this Message the Seal which had been taken from Goodrick Bishop of Ely and put for some days in the keeping of Hare Master of the Rolls was on the 13th of August given to Gardiner who was declared Lord Chancellor of England He is made Chancellor and the conduct of Affairs was chiefly put in his hands So that now the measure of the Queen's Councils was to do every thing slowly and by such sure steps as might put them less in hazard The Duke of Northumb. and others Tried The first thing that was done was the bringing the Duke of Northumberland to his Trial. The old Duke of Norfolk was made Lord High Steward the Queen thinking it fit to put the first Character of honour on him who had suffered so much for being the Head of the Popish Party And here a subtle thing was started which had been kept a great Secret hitherto It was said the Duke of Norfolk had never been truly attainted and that the Act against him was not a true Act of Parliament so that without
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
King Henry's time and quitted his Bishoprick on the account of the six Articles but in the end of that Reign recanted and was now Bishop Suffragan of Ely condemned them It is enough to have named all these who were burnt meerly by the Proceedings Ex Officio for being forced either to accuse themselves or to die however they chose rather plainly to answer those Articles that were ministred to them and so were condemned for their Answers Ridley and Latimer burnt at Oxford But on the 16th of October Ridley and Latimer offered up their lives at Oxford on which it may be expected I should enlarge a little The Bishops of Lincoln Glocester and Bristol were sent to Oxford by a special Commission from the Cardinal to proceed against them As soon as Ridley heard they proceeded in the name of the Pope by authority from the Cardinal he put on his Cap having stood bare headed before that because he would express no sign of Reverence to those who acted by such a Commission He said he paied great respect to the Cardinal as descended from the Royal Family and a man endued with such Learning and Vertue that therefore he honoured and reverenced him but for his Legatine Authority from the Bishop of Rome he utterly renounced it and therefore would shew no Reverence to that Character and so puting off his Cap as he spoke of him on other respects he put it on again when he named his being Legat and being required to put it off refused to do it on that account but one of the Beadles did it for him After that the Bishop of Lincoln made him a long exhortation to recant and acknowledge the See of Rome since Christ had built his Church on St. Peter and the Fathers had all acknowledged the preheminence of that See and himself had been once of that opinion To which he answered it was upon the Faith which St. Peter confessed that Christ had founded his Church he acknowledged the Bishops of Rome had been held in great esteem both for the dignity of the City and the worthiness of the Bishops that had sate in it but they were only esteemed Patriarchs of the West and the Church had not then thought of that Power to which they had since advanced themselves he confessed he was once of their mind but it was as St. Paul had been a Persecutor he had seen since such spots in the Church of Rome that he could never return to it Upon this followed much discourse In conclusion they objected to him some Articles about those Opinions which he had maintained a year and an half before that in the Schools and required him to make his answers to them He began with a Protestation that by answering them he did not acknowledg the Popes Authority and then answered them as he had done before Latimer used the like protestation and answers So they were allowed one nights respite to consider better whether they would recant or not but next day they appearing and adhering to the Answers they had made were declared obstinate Hereticks and ordered to be degraded and so delivered over to the Secular Power After that new attemps were made on Ridley to perswade him to accept of the Queens Mercy but all being to no purpose the Writ was sent down to burn them The night before the Execution Ridley was very joyful and invited the Mayor and his Wife in whose House he was kept to be at his Wedding next day at which when the Mayor's Wife wept he said he perceived she did not love him but he told her tho his breakfast would be sharp he was sure his Supper would be sweet he was glad to hear that his Sister would come and see him die and was in such composure of mind that they were all amazed at it Next morning being the 16th they were led out to the place of Execution which was before Baliol College they looked up to the Prison to have seen Cranmer but he was then engaged in Dispute with some Friars so that he was not in his Window but he looked after them with great tenderness and kneeling down prayed earnestly that God would strengthen their Faith and Patience in that their last but painful Passage When they came to the Stake they embraced one another with great affection Ridley saying to Latimer Be of good heart Brother for God will either asswage the fury of the Flame or enable us to abide it Doctor Smith was appointed to Preach and took his Text from these words If I give my body to be burnt and have no Charity it profiteth nothing He compared their dying for Heresie to Judas's hanging himself and warned the People to beware of them with as much bitterness as he could express The best of it was the Sermon lasted not above a quarter of an hour When he had done Ridley was going to answer him and the Lord Williams that was appointed by the Queen to see the Execution was enclined to hear him but the Vice-Chancellor said Except he intended to recant he was not to be suffered to speak Ridley answered He would never deny his Lord nor those Truths of his of which he was perswaded God's Will be done in him he committed himself to God who would indifferently judg all Then he addressed himself to the Lord Williams and said Nothing troubled him so much as that he had received Fines of some who took Leases of him when he was Bishop of London and these Leases were now voided He therefore humbly prayed that the Queen would give order that those might be made good to the Tenants or that the Fines might be restored out of his Goods which he had left in his House and were of far greater value than those Fines would amount to and that some pity might be had of Shipside his Brother in law who was turned out of a place he had put him in and had now attended on him with great care Then they both prayed and fitted themselves for the Stake Latimer saying to Ridley Be of good comfort we shall this day light such a Candle in England as I trust by God's Grace shall never be put out Then Gunpowder being hanged about their Bodies in great quantities to hasten their death the Fire was put to and Latimer was with the first Flame the Powder taking fire put out of pain and died immediatly But Ridley had a more lingring Torment for they threw on the fire so much wood that the Flame could not break through it so that his Legs were almost consumed before this was observed and then one opening the Passage to the Flame it put an end to his Life Thus died these two excellent Bishops the one for his Piety Learning and solid Judgment the ablest Man of all that advanced the Reformation and the other for the plain simplicity of his Life esteemed a truly primitive Bishop and Christian Of his care of his Bishoprick the Instructions he
their pleasure He had sworn to the Cardinals before he was chosen that he would make but four Cardinals in two Years but he created seven within one half Year and would not hear the Consistory argue against it 1556. or remember him of his Promise but said his Power was absolute and could not be limited One of these Cardinals was Gropper the Dean of Colen a man of great Learning and Vertues but inconstant and fearful as was shewn in the former Book he refused to accept of that Dignity so generally sought after in their Church and was more esteemed for rejecting it than others were that had by their Ambition aspired to it In the end of this year and the beginning of the next a memorable thing fell out of which if I give a large account I do not fear to be much censured by the Reader for it especially since it is not impertinent to this work the King and Queen being so much concerned in it It was Charles the 5ths Charles the 5th's Resignation laying down first some of his hereditary Dominions in October this year and the rest with the Empire not long after He had now enjoyed the one forty years and the other thirty six He was much disabled by the Gout which had held him almost constantly for several years he had been in the greatest Fatigues that ever any Prince had undergone ever since the 17th year of his age he had gone nine times into Germany six times into Spain seven times into Italy four times into France had been ten times in the Netherlands had made two Expeditions into Africk and been twice in England and had crossed the Seas eleven times He had not only been a Conquerer in all his Warrs but had taken a Pope a King of France and some Princes of Germany Prisoners besides a vast accession of Wealth and Empire from the West Indies But he now growing out of love with the Pomp and Greatness of the World began to have more serious thoughts of another Life which were much encreased in him by the answer one of his Captains gave him when he desired Leave to retire and being asked the reason said that between the affairs of the World and the hour of death there ought to be some interval He found his for tune turned his Designs in Germany were blasted In the Siege of Mets he saw he could no more command Triumphs to wait on him for though his Army consisted of 100000 Men yet he was forced to raise his Siege with the loss of 40000 Men and though his Wars had been this year more sucessful both in Italy and Flanders yet he thought he was too old to deal with the King of France It was thought his Son set this forward who had left England in discontent being weary both of His Queen and of holding a titular Crown only in her Right being excluded from the Government All these things concurring made the Emperor in a solemn Assembly at Brussels on the 25th of October in the presence of his Son and Maximilian King of Boheme and of the Duke of Savoy and his two Sisters the Queens Dowagers of France and Hungary with a vast number of others of lower quality first give his Son the Golden Fleece and so resign the headship of that Order to him and then the Dukedomes of Burgundy and Brabant and the other Provinces of the Netherlands Two months after that he resigned all his other Hereditary Dominions and the next year he sent a Resignation of the Empire to the Diet who thereupon did choose his Brother Ferdinand Emperor to which the Pope made great exceptions for he said the Resignation ought to have been only to him and that being made as it was it was null and upon that he would not acknowledge the new Emperor Charles staid sometime in Flanders in a private House For he left all his Palaces and had but little company about him It is said that when Seld his Brother's Secretary being sent to him was leaving him once late at night all the Candles on the Stairs being burnt out and none waiting to light him down the late Emperor would needs carry the Candle down after him the other as may be well imagined being much confounded at it the Emperor told him He was now a private Man and his Servants knowing there was nothing now to be had by attending did not wait carefully He bad him tell his Brother what a change he had seen in him and how vain a thing the attendance of Courtiers was since he was so soon forsaken by his own Servants He reserved but 100000 Crowns a year for his own use and sixty Servants But at his coming into Spain he found even that small Pension was not readily payed at which he was observed to be much displeased He retired to a place in the Confines of Castile and Portugal which he had observed in his Hunting to be fit for a retreat by reason of the pleasantness of the Situation and the temperatness of the Air and there he had ordered a little Appartment of seven Rooms fourteen foot square to be built for him He kept only twelve servants about himself and sent the rest to stay in the neighbouring Towns He gave himself at first much to mechanical Curiosities and had great varieties of Clocks and some other motions which surprised the ignorant Monks who were afraid they were the performances of Magick especially his Machines of Birds of wood that did fly out and come back and the representations of Armies that by Springs engaged and fought He also designed that great work of carrying the Tago up a Hill near Toledo which was afterwards done at a vast charge He gave himself to Gardening and used to Graft and Imp with his own hand and keeping but one Horse rid abroad some times attended only by one Footman The making of Clocks was not then so perfect as it is since so that he could never bring his Clocks to strike in the same minute and he used upon that to say he saw the Folly of endeavouring to bring all Men to be of the same mind in Religion since he could not bring Machines to agree exactly He set himself also much to study and in the second year of his retirement went oftener to the Chappel and â—o the Sacrament than he had done at first He used also to Discipline himself with a Cord which after his death having some marks of the severity he had put himself to was laid up among his Sons chiefest Rarities But amidst all this it was believed he became in most points to be of the belief of the Protestants before he died and as his Confessor was burnt afterwards for Heresie so Miranda the Arch-Aishop of Toledo who used to come often to him was upon the same suspitions kept long in Prison Near the end of two years at the Aniversary of his Mothers Funeral who had died but a few years before having
him being taken according to what he was at his Death differ much from that which I have put in my former Volume Those who compared modern and ancient Times found in him so many and excellent qualities that they did not doubt to compare him to the greatest of the Primitive Bishops not only to the Chrysostomes Ambroses and Austines but to the Fathers of the first Rate that immediately followed the Apostles to the Ignatius's Policarps and Cyprians And it seemed necessary that the Reformation of this Church which was indeed nothing else but restoring of the Primitive and Apostolical Doctrine should have been chiefly carried on by a Man so eminent in all Primitive and Apostolical Vertues And to those who upbraided the Reformed with his Fall it was answered That Liberius whom they so much magnify had fallen as foully upon a much slighter Temptation only out of a desire to reenter to his See from which he had been banished and that he persisted much longer in it But now I shall give account of the rest that were burnt this year On the 27th of Jan. Tho. Wirtle a Priest Bartlet Green a Gentleman Tho. Brown John Tudson and John Went three Tradesmen Isabel Foster Others suffered on the like account and Joan Warne having all been presented because they came not to Church Articles were put to them and upon their Answers they were all condemned and burnt in Smithfield at the same Stake And on the 31st of that Month John Lomas and four Women were burnt at Canterbury They were presented because they came not to Confession whereupon Articles being given them they were found guilty of Heresie and burnt in one Fire In the beginning of March two Women were burnt at Ipswich Three Tradesmen were burnt in Salisbury on the 24th of March. On the 29th of April Robert Drakes a Priest William Tyms a Deacon and four Tradesmen that were sent out of Essex because they came not to Church were condemned and all burnt together in Smithfield John Hanpole and Joan Booek were burnt at Rochester on the first of April and on the second John Hallier a Priest was burnt in Canterbury Six Tradesmen were sent up from Colchester and the Bishop of London who had hitherto kept his Prisoners for some time to see if he could prevail with them growing weary of that fruitless labour and becoming by many Acts of cruelty less sensible of those affections which belong to humane Nature did without any more ado exhibit the Articles to them and they answering in the way he accounted Heresie he gave them time to consider if they would recant till the Afternoon but they continuing in the same mind he condemned them and sent them back to Colchester where they were all burnt in one Fire On the 15th of May he gave yet a more astonishing instance of his barbarity Laverock an old Criple a Man of sixty eight years old and Jo. Ap-price a blind Man were upon the like account condemned and burnt in the same Fire at Stratford-le-bow they comforting one another that they were now to be freed of their lameness and blindness The day after three Women were burnt in Smithfield another blind Man with a Tradesman were burnt at Glocester this Month. On the 21st of the Month three were burnt at Beckles in Suffolk On the 6th of June four Men were burnt at Lewis in Sussex Another was burnt there on the 20th and one was burnt at Leicester on the 26th But on the 27th of June Bonner made an unheard of Execution of thirteen whereof eleven were Men and two Women all burnt in one Fire in Stratfordle-Bow He had condemned in all sixteen but by what Intercession I do not know three of them were preserved by a Warrant from Cardinal Pool It seems Bonner thought it not worth the while to burn those singly and therefore sent them in such droves to the Stake but whether the horror of this Action or the discontent because the Cardinal had saved some of them wrought on him I know not the latter being the more likely he burnt no more till April next Year The 30th of June three were burnt at Bury in Suffolk A strange barbarity at Gernsy of burning a Child born in the Fire On the 16th of July three Men were burnt at Newberry But this July there was done in Gernsey an Act of as great inhumanity as ever was recorded in any Age. A Mother and her two Daughters were burnt at the same Stake and one of them a married Woman big with Child when she was in the Fire the violence of it bursting her Belly a Boy fell out into the Flame that was snatched out of it by one that was more merciful than the rest but after they had a little consulted about it the Infant was thrown in again and there was literally baptized with Fire There were many Eye-witnesses of this who attested it afterwards in Queen Elizabeths time when the matter was enquired into and special care was taken to have full and evident Proofs of it For indeed the Fact was so unnatural that a Man must either be possessed with a very ill opinion of the Actors or be well satisfied about the number and credibility of the Witnesses before he could believe it But Lies and Forgeries are seldom made of Actions done in the Face of the Sun and before so great an Assembly as was present at this Therefore complaint being made of it to Queen Elizabeth the Dean of Garnsey was put in Prison for it and afterwards he and nine more that were all accessary to it took out their Pardons So merciful was the Government then to pardon an Action of such a monstrous nature because done with some colour of Law since it was said the Mother was condemned to be burnt and no exception was made of her Belly On the 18th of July two Women and one Man were burnt at Greenstead On the first of August Joan Wast a blind Woman was burnt at Darby On the 8th of September one was burnt at Bristol and another in the same place on the 25th of that Month. On the 24th four were burnt at Mayfield in Sussex On the 27th a Man and a Woman were burnt at Bristol And on the 12th of October a Man was burnt at Nottingham And thus ended the burning this Year those that suffered were in all eighty five All these Persons were presented as suspect of Heresie and were required to answer the Questions that the Bishop put to them which related to the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament the necessity of Auricular Confession or the Sacrifice of the Mass and upon the Answers they made were condemned to the Fire But none of them were accused of any violence committed on the Persons of any Church-man or of any affront put on their Religion and all their Sufferings were meerly for their Conscience which they kept as private as they could so that it rather appeared in their abstaining from the
Communion of a Church which they thought had corrupted the chief parts of Worship than in any thing they had said or done It was an unusual and an ungrateful thing to the English Nation that is apt to compassionate all in misery to see four five six seven and once thirteen burning in one Fire and the sparing neither Sex nor Age nor Blind nor Lame but making havock of all equally and above all the barbarity of Gernsey raised that horror in the whole Nation that there seems ever since that time such an abhorrence to that Religion to be derived down from Father to Son that it is no wonder an aversion so deeply rooted and raised upon such grounds does upon every new provocation or jealousie of returning to it break out in most violent and convulsive Symptoms But all those Fires did not extinguish the Light of the Reformation The Reformation spreads for all the Persecution nor abate the love of it They spread it more and kindled new heats in Mens minds so that what they had read of the former Persecutions under the Heathens seemed to be now revived This made those who loved the Gospel meet oft together though the malice of their Enemies obliged them to do it with great caution and secrecy yet there were sometimes at their Meetings about 200. They were instructed and watched over by several faithful Shepherds who were willing to hazard their Lives in feeding this Flock committed to their care The chief of these were Scambler and Bentham afterwards promoted by Queen Elizabeth to the Sees of Peterborough and Litchfield Foule Bernher and Rough a Scotch-man that was afterwards condemned and burnt by Bonner There was also care taken by their Friends beyond Sea to supply them with good Books which they sent over to them for their instruction and encouragement These that fled beyond Sea went at first for the most part to France where though they were well used in opposition to the Queen yet they could not have the free exercise of their Religion granted them so they retired to Geneva and Zurick and Arraw in Switzerland and to Strasburg and Frankfort in the upper Germany and to Emden in the lower At Frankfort an unhappy difference fell in among some of them The Troubles at Frankfort among the English there who had used before the English Liturgy and did afterwards comply with it when they were in England where it had Authority from the Law yet they thought that being in Forreign Parts they should rather accomodate their Worship to those among whom they lived so in stead of the English Liturgy they used one near the Geneva and French Forms Others thought that when those in England who had compiled their Liturgy were now confirming what they had done with their Blood and many more were suffering for it it was an high contempt of them and their sufferings to depart from these Forms This contradiction raised that heat that Dr. Cox who lived in Strasburg with his Friend Peter Martyr went thither and being a Man of great reputation procured an Order from the Senate that the English Forms should only be used in their Church This dissention being once raised went further than perhaps it was at first intended For those who at first liked the Geneva way better that being in Forreign Parts they might all seem to be united in the same Forms now began to quarrel with some things in the English Liturgy and Knox being a Man of a hot temper engaged in this matter very warmly and got his Friend Calvin to write somewhat sharply of some things in the English Service This made Knox and his Party leave Frankfort and go to Geneva Knox had also written indecently of the Emperor which obliged the Senate of Frankfort to require him to be gone out of their Bounds There fell in other Contests about the censuring of offences which some of the Congregation would not leave in the Hands of the Ministers only but would have it shared among the whole Congregation Upon these matters there arose great debates and many Papers were written on both sides to the great grief of Parker and others who lived privately in England and to the scandal of the strangers who were not a little offended to see a company of People fly out of their Country for their Consciences and in stead of spending their time in Fasting and Prayer for their persecuted Brethren at home to fall into such quarrels about matters which themselves acknowledged were not the Substantials of Religion nor Points of Conscience in which certainly they began the Breach who departed from that way of Worship which they acknowledged was both lawful and good but there followed too much animosity on both sides which were the Seeds of all those differences that have since distracted this Church They who reflected on the Contests that the Novatians raised both at Rome and Carthage in Cyprians time and the Heats the Donatists brought into the African Churches soon after the Persecution was over found somewhat parallel both to these Schisms now during the Persecution and to those afterwards raised when it was over Pool is made Arch-bishop of Canterbury I now return to the Affairs of England On the 22d of March the very day after Cranmer was burnt Pool was consecrated Arch-bishop of Canterbury by the Arch-bishop of York the Bishops of London Ely Worcester Lincoln Rochester and St. Asaph He had come over only a Cardinal Deacon and was last Winter made a Priest and now a Bishop It seems he had his Conge d'Elire with his Election and his Bulls from Rome already dispatched before this time The Pope did not know with what face to refuse them being pressed by the Queen on his account though he wanted only a colour to wreak his revenge on him to which he gave vent upon the first opportunity that offered it self It seems Pool thought it indecent to be consecrated as long as Cranmer lived yet his choosing the next day for it brought him under the suspition of having procured his death so that the words of Elijah to Ahab concerning Naboth were applied to him Thou hast killed and taken possession On the 28th of that Month he came in State through London to Bow-Church where the Bishops of Worcester and Ely after the former had said Mass put the Pall about him This was a Device set up by Pope Paschall the second in the beginning of the twelfth Century for the engaging of all Arch-bishops to a more immediate dependance on that See they being after they took the Pall to act as the Popes Legates born as the Phrase was of which it was the Ensign But it was at the first admitted with great contradiction both by the Kings of Sicily and Poland the Archbishops of Palermo and Gnesna being the first to whom they were sent all Men wondring at the novelty of the thing and of the Oath which the Popes required of them at the
the Arch-Bishop sent the Cords of his own Pavilion for that use When Mill was brought to the Stake he said he would not go up of his own accord because he would not be accessary to his own Death but if they would put their hand to him they should see how chearfully he should do it That being done he went up and said I will go in to the Altar of God He exhorted the People to be no more seduced by the Lyes of their Priests but to depend upon Christ and his Mercy for whose Doctrine as many Martyrs had offered up their Lives so he blessed God that had so honoured him to call him to give this Testimony for whose Glory he most willingly offered up his Life When the Fire was set to him he called to the People to pray for him and continued to cry Lord have mercy on me till he could speak no more His Suffering was much resented by the Inhabitants of St. Andrews The Nation was much provoked by it who raised a great heap of Stones in the place where he was burnt for a Memorial of it and though the Priests scattered them often they renewed them still till a Watch was set about it In all parts of Scotland and especially in the Towns and in the Families of the Nobility and Gentry the Reformation had been received and secretly professed So they began now to consult what to do They had many meetings in several places and finding their Interest was great over the Kingdom they entred into Confederacies to maintain the true Religion Before the Parliament met last Year they had sent a Petition to the Queen Regent That the Worship of God might be in the Vulgar Tongue and the Communion might be given in both Kinds That there should be great care taken in the Election of Ministers that it might be according to the Custom of the Primitive Church and that scandalous Ministers might be removed and more worthy Men put in their Places But the Queen Regent to keep them in hopes till the Dolphin should be acknowledged King of Scotland promised they should not be hindred to have Prayers in their own Tongue so they would keep no publick Assemblies in Edinburgh and Leith In the Parliament they proposed the abrogating of the Laws for Church-mens proceedings against Hereticks and that none should be condemned of Heresy but according to the Word of God with some other Limitations of the Severities against them But the Queen still gave them good hopes only she said she could not agree to those things by reason of the opposition that would be made by the Spiritual Estate But she suffered them to read a Protestation in Parliament declaring their desires of a Reformation and that if upon the denial of it Abuses were removed violently they were not to be blamed who had begun thus in a modest way to Petition for it This Year it was become visible that she resolved to proceed to extremities She ordered all the reformed Preachers to appear at Sterling the 10th of May. When this was done the Earl of Glencarn went to her in the Name of the rest and asked her the reason of that way of proceeding She answered him in passion ' That maugre them and all that would take part with them the Ministers should be banished Scotland though they preached as soundly as St. Paul did Upon this he remembred her of the Promises she had often made them to which she answered ' That the Promises of Princes should be no further strained then seem'd convenient to them to perform Glencarn replied ' if she would keep no Promises they would acknowledge her no more but renounce their Obedience to her A Revolt began at St. Johnstoun â— That very night she heard that in the Town of St. Johnstoun the People had Sermons openly in their Churches Upon that she ordered the Lord Ruthven to go and reduce that Town He answered he could not govern their Consciences Upon which she vowed she would make him and them both repent it The Ministers were coming from all parts accompanied with many Gentlemen to appear on the Day to which they were cited The Queen hearing that sent word to them to go home for she would not proceed in the Citation Many of them upon that returned to their homes but others went to St. Johnstoun Yet upon their not appearing she made them all be declared Rebells contrary to her Promise This made many leave her and go over to them at St. Johnstoun The People began there first to break Images and then they fell into the Houses of the Franciscans and Dominicans where they found much more Wealth than agreed with their pretended Poverty They also pulled down a great House of the Carthusians with so much Hast that within two days there was not one Stone left to shew where it had stood but yet the Prior was suffered to carry away the Plate All that was found in these Houses besides what the Monks carried away was given to the Poor The Queen hearing this resolved to make that Town an Example and sent over all the Kingdom to gather the French Souldiers together with such others as would joyn with her in this Quarrel But the Earl of Glencarn with incredible hast came to their assistance with 2500 Men And there were gathered in all in and about the Town 7000 Men. The Queen seeing it now turned to an open Rebellion employed the Earl of Argile and the Prior of St. Andrews to treat with them An Oblivion for what was past was agreed on The Queen was to come to St. Johnstoun without her French-men and the matters of Religion were to be referred to a Parliament Upon this she went thither but carried French-men with her and put a Garrison in the Town and proceeded to the Fining of many and the Banishing of others Being pressed with her Promise she said The Promises of Princes ought not to be strictly urged and those were not to be kept that were made to Hereticks she declared that she would take it on her Conscience to kill and undo all that Sect and make the best excuse she could when it was done Upon this all the Nation forsook her and in many other places they went on to cleanse the Churches and pull down Monasteries When the News of this came to the Court of France it was at first not rightly understood The Queen Regent represented it as if it had been a Design to shake off the French Power and desired a great Force to reduce them The King then saw too late that the Constable had given him good Advice in diswading the Match with Scotland The French Kind intends to grant Liberty of Religion and fearing to be intangled in a long chargeable War he resolved to send one thither to know the true occasion of these Stirrs So the Constable proposed to him the sending of Melvil by whom he had understood that the Reason of all
and the Lord Protector and all the Lords sat at Boards in the Hall beneath and the Lord Marshal's Deputy for my Lord of Somerset was Lord Marshal rode about the Hall to make room then came in Sir John Dimock Champion and made his Challenge and so the King drank to him and he had the Cup. At night the King returned to his Palace at Westminster where there was Justs and Barriers and afterward Order was taken for all his Servants being with his Father and being with the Prince and the Ordinary and Unordinary were appointed In the mean season Sir Andrew Dudley Brother to my Lord of Warwick being in the Paunsie met with the Lion a principal Ship of Scotland which thought to take the Paunsie without resistance but the Paunsie approached her and she shot but at length they came very near and then the Paunsie shooting off all one side burst all the overlop of the Lion and all her Tackling and at length boarded her and took her but in the return by negligence she was lost at Harwich-Haven with almost all her Men. In the month of * Should be March May died the French King called Francis and his Son called Henry was proclaimed King There came also out of Scotland an Ambassador but brought nothing to pass and an Army was prepared to go into Scotland Certain Injunctions were set forth which took away divers Ceremonies and Commissions sent to take down Images and certain Homilies were set forth to be read in the Church Dr. Smith of Oxford recanted at Pauls certain Opinions of the Mess and that Christ was not according to the Order of Melchisedeck The Lord Seimour of Sudley married the Queen whose name was Katherine with which Marriage the Lord Protector was much offended There was great preparation made to go into Scotland and the Lord Protector the Earl of Warwick the Lord Dacres the Lord Gray and Mr. Brian went with a great number of Nobles and Gentlemen to Barwick where the first day after his coming he mustered all his Company which were to the number of 13000 Footmen and 5000 Horsemen The next day he marched on into Scotland and so passed the Pease then he burnt two Castles in Scotland and so passed a streight of a Bridg where 300 Scots Light-Horsemen set upon him behind him who were discomfited So he passed to Musselburgh where the first day after he came he went up to the Hill and saw the Scots thinking them as they were indeed at least 36000 Men and my Lord of Warwick was almost taken chasing the Earl of Huntley by an Ambush but he was rescued by one Bertivell with twelve Hagbuttiers on Horseback and the Ambush ran away The 10th day of September the Lord Protector thought to get the Hill which the Scots seeing passed the Bridg over the River of Musselburgh and strove for the higher Ground and almost got it but our Horsemen set upon them who although they stayed them yet were put to flight and gathered together again by the Duke of Somerset Lord Protector and the Earl of Warwick and were ready to give a new Onset The Scots being amazed with this fled theirwayes some to Edinburgh some to the Sea and some to Dalkeith and there were slain 10000 of them but of Englishmen 51 Horsemen which were almost all Gentlemen and but one Footman Prisoners were taken the Lord Huntley Chancellor of Scotland and divers other Gentlemen and slain of Lairds 1000. And Mr. Brian Sadler and Vane were made Bannerets After this Battel Broughtie-craig was given to the Englishmen and Hume and Roxburgh and Heymouth which were Fortified and Captains were put in them and the Lord of Somerset rewarded with 500 l. Lands In the mean season Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester was for not receiving the Injunctions committed to Ward There was also a Parliament called wherein all Chaunteries were granted to the King and an extream Law made for Vagabonds and divers other things Also the Scots besieged Broughty-craig which was defended against them all by Sir Andrew Dudley Knight and oftentimes their Ordnance was taken and marred YEAR II. A Triumph was where six Gentlemen did challenge all Comers at Barriers Justs and Tournay and also that they would keep a Fortress with thirty with them against an hundred or under which was done at Greenwich Sir Edward Bellingam being sent into Ireland Deputy and Sir Anthony St. Leiger revoked he took O-Canor and O-Mor bringing the Lords that rebelled into subjection and O-Canor and O-Mor leaving their Lordships had apiece an 100 l. Pension The Scots besieged the Town of Haddington where the Captain Mr. Willford every day made issues upon them and slew divers of them The thing was very weak but for the Men who did very manfully Oftentimes Mr. Holcroft and Mr. Palmer did Victual it by force passing through the Enemies and at last the Rhinegrave unawares set upon Mr. Palmer which was there with near a thousand and five hundred Horsemen and discomfited him taking him Mr. Bowes Warden of the West-Marches and divers other to the number of 400 and slew a few Upon St. Peter's day the Bishop of Winchester was committed to the Tower Then they made divers brags and they had the like made to them Then went the Earl of Shrewsbury General of the Army with 22000 Men and burnt divers Towns and Fortresses which the Frenchmen and Scots hearing levied their Siege in the month of September in the levying of which there came one to Tiberio who as then was in Haddington and setting forth the weakness of the Town told him That all Honour was due to the Defenders and none to the Assailers so the Siege being levied the Earl of Shrewsbury entred it and victualled and reinforced it After his departing by night there came into the Outer Court at Haddington 2000 Men armed taking the Townsmen in their Shirts who yet defended them with the help of the Watch and at length with Ordnance issued out upon them and slew a marvellous number bearing divers Assaults and at length drove them home and kept the Town safe A Parliament was called where an Uniform Order of Prayer was institute before made by a number of Bishops and learned Men gathered together in Windsor There was granted a Subsidy and there was a notable Disputation of the Sacrament in the Parliament-House Also the Lord Sudley Admiral of England was condemned to Death and died in March ensuing Sir Thomas Sharington was also condemned for making false Coin which he himself confessed Divers also were put in the Tower YEAR III. Hume-Castle was taken by Night and Treason by the Scots Mr. Willford in a Skirmish was left of his Men sore hurt and taken There was a Skirmish at Broughty-craig wherein Mr. Lutterell Captain after Mr. Dudley did burn certain Villages and took Monsieur de Toge Prisoner The Frenchmen by night assaulted Boulingberg and were manfully repulsed after they had made Faggots with Pitch Tar Tallow Rosin
him to go a-board a Ship in Flanders on another pretence and presently set sail for England where yet the Government was so gentle that two Years past before he was brought to his Tryal and then the Defence he made was That he was not accountable for what he had done in Flanders it not being in the Queen's Dominions and that he was not her Subject having sworn Allegiance to the King of Spain But this being contrary to his natural Allegiance which he could never shake off he was found guilty of Treason and was there executed These are our Author's Martyrs and are of a piece with his Faith Pag. 216. 44. In the room of the Bishops that were turned out he says there were put some Apostate and Lustful that is as he explains it married Monks Scory Bird Holgate Barlow Harley Coverdale and Ridley on whom he bestows many such Epithetes as may be expected from him This is such a piece of History as one can hardly meet with any thing like it 1. Bird was made Bishop of Chester by King Henry and was the first that sat in that See it being of that King's Foundation 2. Holgate was put in the See of York by King Henry when it was void by Lee's Death 3. Barlow was also put in Bath and Wells by the same King it being likewise void by the Death of Knight 4. Coverdale was put in the See of Exeter upon Veysey's free Resignation he being then extream old 5. Harley was also put in Hereford upon the former Bishop's Death 6. Ridley and Harley were never married nor Coverdale for ought I can find so exact is our Author in delivering the History of that Time Ibid. 45. He says Poinet that was made Bishop of Worchester in Gardiner's Room besides one Wife to whom he was married took â— Butchers Wife from him but the Butcher sued for his Wife and recovered her out of his hands and to make this pass the better he adds a Jest of Gardiner's about it that he had said Why might not he hope to be restored to his Bishoprick as well as the Butcher was to his Wife The falseness of this Story is clearly evinced by the Answer that Dr. Martin set out in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign to a Book that Poinet had writ in the defence of the married Clergy Martin's Answer is writ with so much spite and so many indecent Reflections that though it is not reasonable to believe all he says yet it is almost a certain Argument that this Story concerning Poinet is a Forgery since if it was a thing so publick as our Author makes it Martin must have heard of it especially living in Gardiner's House and it is not to be imagined that if he did know it he would have concealed it So this and the Jest that hangs upon it must pass as one of the flourishes of our Author 's Pen. Pag. 217. 46. He says Hooper that used formerly to rail at the Luxury of the Catholick Bishops being made a Superintendent himself for so the Zuinglians called their Bishops enjoyed at once two Bishopricks Worcester and Glocester The Zuinglians had no Superintendents for ought I can find nor was Hooper ever called Superintendent but Bishop He was made Bishop of Glocester which had been before King Henry the Eighth's Time a part of the Bishoprick of Worcester And now these Sees came to be united so that Hooper had not two Bishopricks but one that had been for some Years divided into two He only enjoyed the Revenue of Glocester for Worcester was entirely suppressed 47. He says On the 9th of July Pag. 219. the Mony was cried down one fourth part and forty days after another fourth part so that the whole Nation was thereby robbed of the half of their Stock This King's Counsellors found the Coin embased and they were either to let it continue in that State to the great prejudice of the state of the Nation or to reduce it to a just Standard so our Author condemns them for correcting what they found amiss But no wonder he that quarrels with them so much for reforming of Religion should be likewise offended with them for reforming the Coin 48. He says The Duke of Somerset was condemned Pag. 222. because he had come into the Duke of Northumberland's Chamber with intention to have killed him and was thereupon beheaded This was indeed said to be the cause of his Death but it is not mentioned in the Record in which it is only said that he intended to have seised on the Duke of Northumberland without adding that he designed to have killed him 49. He says The two younger Sisters of Lady Jane Gray Page 223. vvere married to the eldest Sons of the Earls of Pembroke and Huntington This Error is of no great consequence but it shews how much our Author was a stranger even to the most publick Actions for the youngest Sister to the Lady Jane was married to one Keys that was Groom Porter The Earl of Huntington's Son married the Duke of Northumberland's Daughter 50. He says Soon after the Marriages the King began to sicken Ibid. and to fall in decay The King had been ill four months before these Marriages were made and it is probable his sickness made them be the more hastned 51. He says Ibid. Dudley was very desirous to have the Lady Mary in his power not being much concerned about the Lady Elizabeth for she being descended of Ann Boleyn he did not much consider her It was natural for Dudley to desire rather to have the elder Sister in his power than the younger who could not claim to the Crown but after the other but it appeared by the submission of the whole Nation to Queen Elizabeth though still professing Popery that she was every whit as much considered as her Sister had been formerly 52. He says Lady Mary having been sent for by Dudley's Order Pag. 224. understood when she was not for from London that the King was expiring and that she would be in great danger if she came to Court upon which she turned back Queen Mary had not been sent for by Dudley's Order the Council had writ to her that the King being Ill desired her Company The News sent her from Court was That the King was Dead so she was desired to stir no further and upon that retired to her House in the Countrey Ibid. 53. He says Twenty days after that she heard the King was dead whereupon she made proclaim her self Queen The discovery of the former Error clears this for she immediatly gathered the People of Suffolk about her and gave them her Royal Word that they should enjoy their Religion as it had been established in King Edward's Time But though they were the first that proclaimed her Queen and came about her to defend her Right they were among the first that felt the Severities of her Reign Pag. 225. 54.
mutual Love and to relieve the Poor according to their abundance Then he came to that on which he said all his past Life and that which was to come did hang being now to enter either into the joys of Heaven or the pains of Hell He repeated the Apostles Creed and declared his belief of the Scriptures and then he spake to that which he said troubled his Conscience more than any thing he had ever done in his whole Life which was the subscribing a Paper contrary to the Truth and against his Conscience out of the fear of Death and the love of Life and when he came to the Fire he was resolved that Hand that had signed it should burn first He rejected the Pope as Christ's enemy and Antichrist and said he had the same belief of the Sacrament which he had published in the Book he writ about it Upon this there was a wonderful Confusion in the Assembly Those who hoped to have gained a great Victory that day seeing it turning another way were in much disorder They called to him to dissemble no more He said he had ever loved Simplicity and before that time had never dissembled in his whole Life And going on in his discourse with abundance of tears they pulled him down and led him away to the Stake which was set in the same place where Ridley and Latimer were burnt All the way the Priests upbraided him for his changing but he was minding another thing When he came to the Stake he first prayed He suffers Myrtyrdome with great constancy of Mind and then undressed himself and being tied to it as the Fire was kindling he stretched forth his Right-Hand towards the Flame never moving it save that once he wiped his Face with it till it was burnt away which was consumed before the Fire reached his Body He expressed no disorder for the pain he was in sometimes saying that unworthy Hand and oft crying out Lord Jesus receive my Spirit He was soon after quite burnt But it was no small matter of Astonishment to find his Heart entire and not consumed among the Ashes which tho the Reformed would not carry so far as to make a Miracle of it and a clear proof that his Heart had continued true tho his Hand had erred yet they objected it to the Papists that it was certainly such a thing that if it had fallen out in any of their Church they had made it a Miracle Thus did Thomas Cranmer end his days in the sixty seventh year of his Age. He was a Man raised of God for great Services His Character and well fitted for them He was naturally of a milde and gentle temper not soon heated nor apt to give his Opinion rashly of things or persons and yet his Gentleness tho it oft exposed him to his Enemies who took advantages from it to use him ill knowing he would readily forgive them did not lead him into such a weakness of Spirit as to consent to every thing that was uppermost for as he stood firmly against the six Articles in K. Henry's time notwithstanding all his heat for them so he also opposed the Duke of Somerset in the matter of the sale and alienation of the Chantry Lands and the Duke of Northumberland during his whole Government and now resisted unto Blood so that his meekness was really a vertue in him and not a pusillanimity in his temper He was a Man of great Candor He never dissembled his Opinion nor disowned his Friend two rare qualities in that Age in which there was a continued course of dissimulation almost in the whole English Clergy and Nation they going backward and forward as the Court turned But this had got him that esteem with King Henry that it always preserv'd him in his days He knew what Complaints soever were brought against him he would freely tell him the truth so instead of asking it from other hands he began at himself He neither disowned his esteem of Queen Anne nor his friendship to Cromwel and the Duke of Somerset in their misfortunes but owned he had the same thoughts of them in their lowest Condition that he had in their greatest State He being thus prepared by a candid and good nature for the searches into Truth added to these a most wonderful diligence for he drew out of all the Authors that he read every thing that was remarkable digesting these Quotations into Common-places This begat in King Henry an admiration of him for he had often tried it to bid him bring the Opinions of the Fathers and Doctors upon several questions which he commonly did in two or three dayes time This flowed from the copiousness of his common place Books He had a good judgment but no great quickness of apprehension not closeness of Stile which was diffused and unconnected therefore when any thing was to be penned that required more Nerves he made use of Ridley He laid out all his Wealth on the poor and pious uses He had Hospitals and Surgeons in his House for the King's Seamen He gave Pensions to many of those that fled out of Germany into England and kept up that which is Hospitality indeed at his Table where great numbers of the honest and poor neighbours were always invited instead of the Luxury and Extravagance of great Entertainments which the vanity and excess of the Age we live in has honoured with the name of Hospitality to which too many are led by the Authority of Custom to comply too far He was so humble and affable that he carried himself in all conditions at the same rate His last Fall was the only blemish of his life but he expiated it with a sincere repentance and a patient Martyrdom He had been the chief advancer of the Reformation in his Life and God so ordered it that his death should bear a proportion to the former parts of his life which was no small Confirmation to all that received his Doctrine when they heard how constantly he had at last sealed it with his Blood And tho it is not to be fancied that King Henry was a Prophet yet he discovered such things in Cranmers temper as made him conclude he was to die a Martyr for his Religion and therefore he ordered him to change his Coat of Arms and to give Pelicans instead of Cranes which were formerly the Arms of his Family Intimating withal that as it is reported of the Pelican that she gives her Blood to feed her young ones so he was to give his Blood for the good of the Church That King's kindness to him subjected him too much to him for great Obligations do often prove the greatest snares to generous and noble minds And he was so much over-born by his respects to him and was so affected with King Henry's Death that he never after that shaved his Beard but let it grow to a great length which I the rather mention because the Pictures that were afterwards made for