come to the Nunns of Syon with their Confessor to solicite them thereto who after many perswasions took it upon their Consciences that they ought to submit to the King's pleasure therein by God's Law But what could not be effected by such Arguments and fair Promises was by terror and streight dealing brought to pass For under pretence of suffering Delapidations in the Buildings or negligent administration of their Offices as also for breaking the Kings Injunctions they depriv'd some Abbots and then put others that were more plyant in their rooms From others they took their Convent-Seals to the end they might not by making Leases or Sale of their Jewels raise Money either for supply of their present Wants or payment of their Debts and so be necessitated to Surrender Nay to some as in particular to the Canons of Leicester the Commissioners threatned That they would charge them with Adultery and Buggery unless they would submit And Dr. London told the Nunns of Godstow That because he found them obstinate he would dissolve the House by vertue of the King's Commission in spite of their Teeth And yet all was so manag'd that the King was solicited to accept of them not being willing to have it thought that they were by Terror moved thereto and special notice was taken of those who did give out that their Surrenders were by Compulsion Which courses after so many through under-hand corruption had led the way brought on others apace as appears by their Dates which I have observ'd from the very Instruments themselves insomuch as the rest stood amaz'd not knowing which way to turn them Some therefore thought fit to try whether Money might save their Houses from this dismal fate so near at hand Others with great constancy refus'd to be thus accessory in violating the Donations of their Pious Founders But these tasted of no little severity For touching the Abbot of Fountains in York-shire I find that being charg'd by the Commissioners for taking into his hands some Jewels belonging to the Monastery which they call'd Theft and Sacrilege they pronounced him Perjur'd and so deposing him extorted a private Resignation And it appears that the Monks of Charter-House in the Suburbs of London were committed to Newgate where with hard and barbarous usage Five of them died and Five more lay at the point of death as the Commissioners signified But withal alledg'd That the Suppression of that House being of so strict a Rule would occasion great Scandal to their doings for as much as it stood in the face of the World infinite concourse from all parts coming to that Populous City and therefore desired that it might be altered to some other use And lastly that under the like pretence of robbing the Church wherewith the before specified Abbot of Fountains was charg'd the Abbot of Glastenbury with Two of his Monks being condemn'd to death was drawn from Wells upon a Hurdle and then hang'd upon the Hill call'd the Tore near Glastenbury his Head set upon the Abbey-gate and his Quarters dispos'd of to Wells Bath Ilchester and Bridgewater Nor did the Abbots of Colchester and Reading speed much better as they that shall consult our story of that time may see And for further terror to the rest some Priors and other Ecclesiastical Persons who had spoken against the Kings Supremacy a thing then somewhat uncouth being so newly set up were condemn'd as Traytors and Executed And now that all this was effected to the end it might not be thought that these things were done by a high Hand a Parliament was called â—…0 Hen. 8. to confirm these Surrenders Now there wanted not plausible insinuations to Both Houses for drawing on their Consent with all smoothness thereto The Nobility being promised large shares in the spoils either by Free-gift from the King easie-Purchases or most advantageous Exchanges and many of the Active Gentry advancements to Honour with encrease of their Estates All which we see happened to them accordingly And the better to satisfie the vulgar it was represented to them that by this Deluge of Wealth the Kingdom should be strengthened with an Army of Forty Thousand menâ—… and that for the future they should never be charg'd with Subsidies Fifteens Loans or Common Aides By which means the Parliament Ratifying these Surrenders the Work became compleated For the more firm Settling whereof a sudden course was taken to pull down and destroy the Buildings as had been done before upon the Dissolution of the smaller Houses Next to disperse a great portion of the Lands amongst the Nobility and Gentry which was accordingly done The Visitor General having told the King That the more had interest in them the more they would be irrevocable And lest any Domestick stir should arise by reason of this great and strange Alteration rumors were spread of great dangers from Forein Invasions against which great Preparations were made every where which seemed so to excuse this Suppression of the Abbyes as that the People willing to spare their own Purses began to suffer it easily But let us look upon the Success Wherein I find that the said Visitor General the grand Actor of this Tragical business having contracted upon himself an Odium from the Nobility by reason of his low Birth and being raised to so high Dignities as likewise from the Catholicks for having thus Acted in the Dissolution of the Abbeys was before the End of the said Parliament wherein that was ratified which he had with so much Industry brought to pass deserted by the King who not having any more use of him gave way to his Enemies Accusations Whereupon being Arrested by the Duke of Norfolk at the Council-Table when he least dream't of it he was Committed to the Tower and Condemned by the same Parliament for Heresie and Treason unheard and little pitied and had his Head cut off on Tower-Hill Nor did many of the Reformers speed much better For Fire and Fagot happened to be their Portion And as for the fruit the People reap'd from all their hopes built upon these specious Pretences it was very little For Subsidies from the Clergy and Fifteens of all Laymens Goods were soon after exacted And in Edward the Sixth's time the Commons were constrained to Supply the King's wants by a new Invention to wit Sheep Cloaths Goods Debts c. for Three years which Tax grew so heavy that the year following they prayed the King for mitigation of it Nor is it a little observable that whilst the Monasteries stood there was no Act for Relief of the Poor so amply did those Houses give succor to them Whereas in the next Age to wit the 39 of Elizabeth no less then Eleven Bills were brought into the House of Commons for that purpose Thus far out of Mr. Dugdale concerning this Prodigious and Diabolical Action A word out of the same History Page 109 and 119. concerning Chantryes Gilds or Fraternities I shall only mention one of each of them to
submitting themselves to the King for being found guilty of a Premunire were the first that called him Supreme Head of the Church yet with this restriction So far as it was according unto Gods Word and not otherwise In his Four and twentieth year an Act of Parliament was made That no Person should Appeal for any Cause out of this Realm to the Court of Rome In his Twenty sixth year an Act was made which Authoriz'd the King to be Supreme Head of the Church of England and the Authority of the Pope to be abolish'd and then also was given to the King the First Fruits and Tenths of all Spiritual Livings and this Year were many put to death Papists for denying the Kings Supremacy Protestants for denying the Real Presence in the Sacrament nor is it credible what numbers suffered death for these two Causes in the last Ten Years of the Kings Reign of whom if we should make particular mention it would reach a great way in the Book of Martyrs In his Eight and twentieth Year the Lord Cromwel was made Vicar General under the King over the Spirituality and at least Four Hundred Monasteries were suppress'd and all their Lands and Goods conferred upon the King by an Act of Parliament In his One and thirtieth Year was set forth by the Bishops the Book of the Six Articles and all the rest of the Monasteries were conferred upon him Lastly In his Thirty fifth Year all Colleges Chantries and Hospitals were given to him Thus Sir Rich. Baker Here you have had a short view of the Beginning and sad Effects of this Prodigious Change of Religion begun by King Henry the Eighth A Further PROSECUTION Of these HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS Concerning a Second Change of Religion Made for POLITICK ENDS And of the Occurrences concerning it In the Reign of King EDWARD the Sixth A Preamble THIS is a Summary Account of this King's Reign as to these matters of Religion taken out of the Preface of Dr. Heylyn's History of Reformation Where after a brief Narration of King Henry the Eighth's Deserting the Pope he gives this following Account of his Son King Edward the Sixth The Relation whereof begins thus Next comes his Son Edward the Sixth upon the Stage whose Name was made use of to serve Turns withal and his Authority abused to his own undoing In his First year the Reformation was resolved on but on different ends endeavoured by some Bishops and others of the Lower Clergy and promoted with the like Zeal and Industry but not with like Integrity by some great Men about the â—…rt Who under Colour of removing corruptions out of the Church had cast their eyes upon the Spoil of Shrines and Images though still preserved in the greatest part of the Lutheran Churches and the improving their own Fortunes by the Chantry Lands All which they most Sacrilegiously divided amongst themselves without admitting the poor King to share with them though nothing but the filling his Coffers by the Spoil of the one and the Encrease of his Revenue by the fall of the other was openly pretended in the Conduct of it But to speak no more of this the work chiefly intended was vigorously carried on by the King and his Counsellors as appears by the Doctrinals in the Book of Homilies and by the Practical part of Christian Piety And here the business might have rested if Calvin's Pragmatical Spirit had not interposed He first began to quarrel at some passages in the Liturgy and afterwards never left Soliciting the Lord Protector and practising by his Agents on the Court the Country and the Universities till he had laid the first Foundation of the Zuinglian Faction who laboured nothing more than Innovation both in Doctrine and Discipline to which they were encouraged by nothing more than some improvident Indulgence granted unto John Alasco who bringing with him a mixed multitude of Poles and Germans obtained the Priviledge of a Church for himself and his distinct in Government and Form of Worship from the Church of England This much animated the Zuinglian Gospellers to practice first upon the Church who being Countenanced if not Headed by the Earl of Warwick who then began to undermine the Lord Protector first quarrelled the Episcopal Habit and afterwards enveighed against Caps and Surplices against Gowns and Tippets But fell at last upon the Altars which were left standing by the Rules of the Liturgy The touching upon this string made excellent Musick to most of the Grandees of the Court who had before cast many an envious eye on those costly Hangings that massy Plate and other Rich and Precious things which adorned those Altars And what need all this wast said Judas when one poor Chalice only and perhaps not that might have served the turn Beside there was no small spoil to be made of Copes in which the Priest Officiated at the Holy Sacrament Some of them being made of Cloth of Tissue Cloth of Gold and Silver or Embroydred Velvet the meanest being made of Silk or Sattin with some decent Trimming And might not these be handsomely converted unto private uses to serve as Carpets to their Tables Coverlets to their Beds or Cushions for their Chairs and Windows Hereupon some rude People are encouraged under-hand to beat down some Altars which makes way for an Order of the Council-Table to take down the rest and set up Tables in their places followed by a Commission to be executed in all parts of the Kingdom for seizing on the Premises for the King's use But as the Grandees of the Court intended to defraud the King of so great a booty and the Commissioners to put a cheat upon the Court-Lords who employed them in it So they were both prevented in some places by the Lords and Gentry of the Country who thought the Altar-cloths together with the Copes and Plate of their several Churches to be as necessary for themselves as for any others This Change drew on the Alteration of the former Liturgy but almost as unpleasing to the Zuinglian Faction as the former was In which conjuncture of Affairs King Edward the Sixth died From the begining of whose Reign the Reformation began All that was done in order to it under King Henry the Eighth seemed but accidental only and by the by rather designed on Private Ends than out of any settled purpose of a Reformation and therefore intermitted and resumed again as those Ends had variance But now the great Work was carried on with a constant hand the Clergy cooperating with the King and the Council for the effecting of it But scarce had they brought it to this pass when King Edward died whose Death I cannot reckon for an infelicity to the Church of England For being ill principled in himsels and easily enclined to embrace such Counsels as were offered to him it is not to be thought but that the rest of the Bishopricks before sufficiently impoverished must have followed Durham and the poor Church be left as destitute
so long accustomed to receive the Sacrament upon their knees that no Rule nor Canon was thought necessary to keep them to it But the change of Altars into Tables the practise of the Church of Strangers and John a Lasco's Book in maintenance of Sitting at the Holy Table made many think that posture best which was so much countenanced And what was like to follow upon such a Liberty the proneness of those times to Heterodoxies and Profaneness considered gave just cause to fear Something therefore were to be done to prevent that mischief and nothing could prevent it better than to reduce the People to their ancient Custom by some Rule or Rubrick by which they should be bound to receive it kneeling So for the Ministers themselves they seemed to be as much at a loss in their Officiating at the Table as the People were in their irreverences to the Blessed Sacrament Which cannot be better expressed than in the words of some Romish Prelates who objected it unto some of our chief Reformers Thus White of Lincoln charges it upon bishop Ridley saying That when their Table was constituted they could never be content in placing of it now East now North now one way now another until it pleased God of his Goodness to place it quite out of the Church The like was Weston the Prolocutor of the Convocation in the First of Queen Mary in a Disputation held with Latimer telling him with reproach and contempt That the Protestants having turned their Table were like a company of Apes that knew not which way to turn their Tayls looking one day East and another West one this way and another that way as their fancies lead them Thus finally one Miles Hubbard in a Book called The Display of Protestants reports the business How long says he were they learning to set their Tables to minister the Communion upon First they placed it aloft where the High Altar stood Then must it be removed from the Wall that one might go between the Ministers being in contention on whether part to turn their faces either toward the West the North or South Some would stand Westward some Northward some Southward To take away these Disorders which gave great Scandal to many moderate and well meaning Men a Rubrick was resolv'd on by which the Minister that Officiated should be pointed to a certain place and by the Rubrick then devis'd the North-side was thought fitter than any other Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Rubrick and these Confusions CHAP. IX Of Calvin ' s Opposition against the former Book of Common-Prayer and of a New one set forth to satisfie him and of the Composing a Book of Articles D. Heylyn pag. 107. BUt the main matters which were now brought into Consideration were the Reviewing of the Liturgy and the Composing of a Book of Articles This last for the avoiding diversities of Opinions and for the establishing of Consent touching True Religion The other for removing of such Offences as had been taken by Calvin and his followers at some parts thereof For Calvin having broken the Ice resolv'd to make his way through it to the marke he aim'd at which was to have this Church depend upon his direction and not to be less esteem'd here than in other places To which end as he had formerly applied himself to the Protector so now he sets upon the King the Council and the Archbishop of Canterbury in hope to bring them to his bent In his Letters to the King and Council as himself signified to Bullinger on the 29th of August he excites them to proceed to a Reformation that is to say to such a Reformation as he had projected and without which his Followers would not be contented In his Letters to the King alone he lets him know that many things were still amiss in the State of the Kingdom which stood in need of Reformation And finally in those to Cranmer he certifies him that in the Service of this Church as then it stood there remained a whole mass of Popery which did not only darken but destroy Gods Holy Worship Moreover he had his Agents in the Court the Country and the Universities by whom he drives on his Design on all parts at once And so far he prevail'd in the first Two years that in the Convocation which began in the former year the first Debate amongst the Prelates was of such Doubts as had arisen about some things contain'd in the Common-Prayer-Book and more particularly touching such Feasts as were retain'd and such as had been abrogated by the Rules thereof the form of words used at the giving of the Bread and the different manner of Administring the Holy Sacrament which being signified to the Prolocutor and the rest of the Clergy who had receiv'd somewhat in charge about it the day before Answer was made that they had not yet sufficiently considered of the Points proposed but that they would give their Lordships some account thereof in their following Session But what account was given doth not appear only this is certain that upon this Debate there was a New Book of Common-Prayer set forth Now for the avoiding of diversities of Opinions and establishing consent touching true Religion it was thought necessary to Compose a Book of Articles in which should be contain'd the Common Principles of the Christian Faith in which all Parties did agree together with the most Points in which they differed For the better performing of which Work Melancthon's Company and Assistance had been long desired That he held Correspondence with the King and Archbishop Cranmer appears by his Epistles of the year 1549 1550 1551. But that he came not over as was expected must be imputed either to our Home-bred troubles or the great Sickness of this year or the Death of the Duke of Sommerset upon whom he did most rely But though Erasmus was dead and Melancthon absent yet were they to be found both alive and present in their Writings By which together with the Augustan Confession the Composers of those Articles were much directed That Cranmer had a great hand in composing of them is not to be doubted who therefore takes upon himself as the Author of them and is to be look'd upon as the principal Architect who contriv'd the Building and gave the inferior Workmen their several Parts and Offices in that employment Thus Dr. Heylyn CHAP. X. Of some particular Passages and Occurrences of this year and most particularly of the Changes that were made by the setting out of the new Common-Prayer-Book Anno Regni Edwardi Sexti 6. Dr. Heylyn pag. 121. THis year the Bishoprick of Westminster was dissolv'd by the Kings Letters Patents by which the County of Middlesex which had before been laid unto it was restored unto the See of London made greater than in former times by the addition of the Archdeaconry of St. Albans which at the Dissolution of the Monastery had been laid to Lincoln the Lands of Westminster
by Persons not responsible in which case the King as well as the Commissioners was to lose his Right But more was concealed by Persons not to be discovered who had so cunningly carried on the stealth that there was no tracing of their Foot-steps And some there were who being known to have such Goods in their Possession conceived themselves to be too great to be called in question and were connived at willingly by those that were but their equals and either were or meant to be Offenders in the same kind So that although some profit was hereby raised to the King's Exchequer yet the far greatest part of the Prey came to other hands Insomuch that many private Mens Parlors were hung with Altar-cloths their Tables and Beds covered with Copes instead of Carpets and Coverlets and many made Carowsing Cups of the Sacred Chalice as once Belshazzar Celebrated his drunken Feasts in the Sanctified Vessels of the Temple It was a sorry House not worth the naming which had not something of this Furniture in it though it were only a fair large Cushion made of a Cope or Altar-cloth to adorn their Windows or to make their Chairs appear to have somewhat in them of a Chair of State Yet how contemptible were these Trappings in comparrison of those vast Sums of Money which were made of Jewels Plate and Cloth of Tissue either conveighed beyond the Seas or sold at home and good Lands purchased with the Money nothing the more blessed to the Posterity of them that bought them for being purchased with the Consecrated Treasures of so many Churches Thus Dr. Heylyn CHAP. XII Of his last designed Sacriliege to wit The Suppression of Bishopricks and Collegiate Churches and particularly of his Suppressing the Bishoprick of Durham Dr. Heylyn pag. 132. BUt as the King was plunged in Debt without being put to any extraordinary Charges so was he decayed in his Revenue without selling any part of his Crown Lands toward the payment of it By the Suppressing of some and the Surrendring of other Religious Houses the Royal Intrado was so much encreased in the late King's time that for the better managing of it the King Erected first the Court of Augmentation and afterwards the Court of Surveyors But in short time by his own profuseness and the avariciousness of this King's Ministers it was so retrenched that it was scarce able to find work enough for the Court of Exchequer Whereupon followed the Dissolving of the said Two Courts in the last Parliament of this King Which as it made a loud noise in the ears of the People so did it put this jealousie into their minds That if the King's Lands should be thus daily wasted without any recruit he must at last prove burthensome to the common Subject Some course is therefore to be thought on which might pretend to an encrease of the King's Revenue And none more easie to be compassed than to begin with the Suppression of such Bishopricks and Collegiate Churches as either lay farthest off or might be best spared In reference whereunto it was concluded in a Chapter held at Westminster by the Knights of the Garter That from thenceforth the said most Noble Order of the Garter should be no longer entituled by the Name of St. George but that it should be called The Order of the Garter only and the Feast of the said Order should be Celebrated upon Whitsun-Eve Whitsun-Day and Whitsun-Munday and not on St. George's-day as before it was And to what end was this concluded and what else was to follow upon this Conclusion but the Dissolving of the Free-Chappel of St. George in the Castle of Windsor and the transferring of the Order to the Chappel of King Henry the Seventh in the Abbey of Westminster Which had undoubtedly been done and all the Lands thereof converted to some powerful Courtiers under pretence of laying them to the Crown if the King's death which happened within Four months after had not prevented the design and thereby respited that ruine which was then intended The like preservation hapned at the same time to the Church of Durham as liberally endowed as the most and more amply privilâ—…eged than the best in the King's Dominions The Bishops thereof by Charter and long Prescription enjoying and exercising all the Rights of a County Palatine in that large Tract of Ground which lies between the Tees and the Tyne the Diocess also containing all Northumberland of which the Bishops and the Priests had the greatest shares No sooner was Bishop Tonstal committed to the Tower but presently an eye was cast upon his Possessions Which questionless had followed the same fortune with the rest of the Bishopricks if one more powerful than the rest had not preserved it from being parcelled out as the others were on a strong confidence of getting it all unto himself After this the Earl of Northumberland to preserve himself gave unto the King the greatest part of his Inheritance and dying without Children not long after left his Titles also to the King 's disposing The Lands and Titles being thus fallen unto the Crown continued undisposed of till the Fall of the Duke of Sommerset when Dudley Earl of Warwick being created Duke of Northumberland doubted not but he should be able to possess himself in short time also of all the Lands of that Family To which Estate the Bishoprick of Durham and all the Lands belonging to it would make a fair Addition upon which grounds the Bishoprick of Durham being Dissolved by Act of Parliament under pretence of patching up the King's Revenue the greatest part of the Lands thereof were kept together that they might serve for a Revenue to the future Palatine But all these Projects failed in the Death of the King and the subsequent Death of this great Duke in the following Reign of Queen Mary Thus far out of Dr. Heylyn ' s History of Reformation concerning the strange Proceedings in this Change of Religion and the sad Effects of it An Appendix I will here end this King's Reign with a short Relation of this great Dukes Ambition and the King's Death Sir Rich. Baker pag. 445. THe Duke of Northumberland having procured the cutting off the Proctor's Head and being placed next the King had now gone a great way in his Design It only remaining to perswade King Edward to exclude his two Sisters from Succession in the Crown For that done his Daughter-in-law the Lady Jane would come to have Right for as to Pretenders out of Scotland or any other he made no great matter And now to work the King to this perswasion being in a languishing Condition not far from Death he inculcates to him how much it concerned him to have a care of Religion that it might be preserved in Purity not only in his own Life but also after his Death which would not be if his Sister the Lady Mary should Succeed and She could not be put by unless the other Sister the Lady Elizabeth
were put by also seeing their Rights depended one upon another But if he pleased to Appoint the Lady Jane the Duke of Suffolk's eldest Daughter and his own next Kinswoman to his Sisters to be his Successor he might then be sure that the True Religion should be maintained to God's great Glory and be a worthy Act of his Religious Prudence This was to strike upon the right string of the young King's Affections with whom nothing was so dear as Preservation of Religion And thereupon his Last Will was appointed to be drawn contrived chiefly by the Lord Chief Justice Mountague and Secretary Cecil By which Will as far as in him lay he excluded his Two Sisters from the Succession and all others but the Duke of Suffolk's Daughters And then causing it to be read before his Council he required them all to Assent unto it and to Subscribe their Hands which they All both Nobility Bishops and Judges did only the Archbishop Cranmer refused at first Sir James Hales a Judge of the Common-Pleas to the last and with them also Sir John Baker Chancellor of the Exchequer His Will being thus made he shortly after dies conceived to have been Poysoned It is noted by some saith Sir Richard Baker That he died the same Month and the day of the Month that his Father King Henry the Eighth had put Sir Thomas Moor to death Thus of this Duke and the Kings Death We will now give an Account of the Years when these changes were made IN the First year a Reformation was resolved on and to prepare the way for it Injunctions were set out and Commissioners sent into all parts of the Kingdom to enquire into all Ecclesiastical Concernments With them also were sent Preachers to disswade the People from their former practices in Religion And this to prepare the way for the total Alteration in Religion which was intended There was likewise a Parliament called to promote and confirm the same Designs In the Second year Images were taken down and many Ancient Customs abolished and a Book of Common-Prayer composed All Colleges Hospitals c. were given to the King In the Third year a part of Pauls and many Churches were pulled down to build Sommerset House in the Strand There were great Troubles and Commotions both in Church and State The Book of Common-Prayer composed in the former year was now set out Peter Martyr and Bucer came over In the Fourth year one John a Lasco a Polonian with his Sectaries settled themselves here The great business of this year was the taking down of Altars Until this following Fifth year nothing had been Positively and Dogmatically concluded in Points of Doctrine Wherefore to set a stop to the great Confusions that were at this time there was a Book of Articles composed And to satisfie the Calvinists ther was a New Book of Common-Prayer set forth In the Sixth year Hopkins Psalms began to be sung in Churches And the use of the New Common-Prayer-Book made strange Alterations but all in order to Calvin's designs who had a chief hand in composing it In the Seventh year the King is found to be extremely engaged in Debt and under Colour of satisfying such Debts great spoyl is made of the Treasures of the Church Thus you have had a short Relation of the strange Confusions and Alterations of Religion which happened in the few years Reign of this King A CONTINUATION Of these HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS Concerning the Restauration of Catholick Religion And the Occurrences concerning it In the Reign of Queen MARY A Preamble WE shall here follow Dr. Heylyns order in relating First some Passages concerning her before She came to the Crown With a brief Narration of her Mother's Death whereof Dr. Heylyn gives this following account in his History of Reformation page 9. The Execution of Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas Moor with many others who wished well unto her added so much affliction to the desolate Queen that not being able longer to bear the burthen of so many miseries she fell into a languishing Sickness which more and more encreasing on Her And finding the near approach of Death the only Remedy now left for all Her miseries She dictated this ensuing Letter which She caused to be delivered to the King by one of Her Women Wherein She laid before him these Her Last Requests Viz. My most Dear Lord King and Husband for so She called Him THe Hour of my Death now approaching I cannot chuse out of the Love I bear you but advise you of your Soul's health which you ought to prefer before all Considerations of the World or Flesh whatsoever For which yet you have cast me into many Calamities and your Self into many Troubles But I forgive you all and pray God to do so likewise For the rest I commend unto you Mary our Daughter beseeching you to be a good Father unto her as I have heretofore desired I must entreat you also to consider my Maids and give them in Marriage which is not much they being but Three And to grant unto all my other Servants a years pay besides their due lest otherwise they should be unprovided for Lastly I make this Vow That my Eyes have desired you above All Things Farewel Within few days after the writing of which Letter She yielded her pious Soul unto God at the Kings Manner-House of Kimbolton and was Solemnly buried in the Abbey of Peterborough The rending of her Letter drew some tears from the King which could not but be much encreased by the news of her Death Moved by them both to such a measure of Commiseration of Her sad condition That he caused the greatest part of Her Goods amounting to Five Thousand Marks to be expended or her Funeral and in the recompensing of such of Her Servants as had best deserved it Never so kind to Her in the time of her Life as when he had rendred Her incapable of receiving any kindness Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning her Mothers death Now concerning her Self he writes thus Pag. 11. THe Princess Mary is now left wholly to her Self declared Illegitimate by her Father deprived of the comfort of her Mother and in a Manner forsaken by all her Friends whom the severe proceedings against Moor and Fisher had so deterred that few durst pay her any offices of Love or Duty In which condition the poor Princes had no greater comfort than what She could gather from Her Books In which She had been carefully instructed by Dr. John Harman appointed her Tutor by the King and for his good Performance in that place of Trust advanced by him to the See of Exon and afterwards made Lord President of Wales By satisfying the King her Father in a Message sent unto her She gained so far upon him that from that time forwards he held her in the same rank with the rest of his Children gave Her her Turn in the Succession of the Kingdom assigned Her a Portion of Ten thousand pounds to
after mine own brain and affection Wherefore I exhort you all to beware how and after what sort you come to read God's Holy Word For it it is not a trifle or playing-game to deal with God's Holy Mysteries Stand not too much in your own conceits For like as the Bee of one Flower gathers Hony and the Spider Poyson of the same Even so you unless you humbly submit your selves to God and Charitably read the same to the intent to be edified thereby it is to you as Poyson and worse and it were better to let it alone And then after he had asked the Queens Highness forgiveness and all the World he desired the People of their Charity to Pray unto God with him for remission of his sins and then refusing the Kerchief laid down his Head which was strucken off at Three blows Sir Thomas Palmer as soon as he came to the Scaffold took every Man by the Hand and desired them to Pray for him and then said these Words It is not unknown to you wherefore I come hither which I have worthily well deserved at God's Hands For I know it to be his Divine Ordinance by this means to call me to his mercy and to teach me to know my self what I am and whereunto we are all Subject I thank his merciful Goodness For he hath caused me to learn more in one little dark corner in yonder Tower than ever I learned by any Travel in so many places as I have been For there I have seen what God is and how inscrutable his wondrous Works and how infinite his Mercies be I have there seen my self throughly and what I am Nothing but a lump of sin earth dust and of all vileness the most vile I have there seen and known what the World is how vain deceitful transitory and short how wicked and loathsome the works thereof are in the sight of God's Majesty how he neither regards the menacâ—…s of the proud and mighty nor dispises the humbleness of the poor and lowly Finally I have there seen what Death is how near hanging over every Mans head and yet how uncertain the time is and how little it is to be feared And should I fear Death or be sad therefore Have I not seen two die before mine Eyes yea and within the hearing of my Ears No neither the sprinkling of the Blood nor the shedding thereof nor the Blood it self shall make me afraid And now taking my leave to the same I pray you all to Pray for me Come on Good-fellow Are you he that must do the deed I forgive you with all my Heart And then kneeling down and laying his Head upon the Block he said I will see how fit the Block is for my Neck I pray strike not yet for I have a few Prayers to say and that done strike on God's Name His Prayer ended and again desiring all to Pray for him he laid down his Head which the Executioner took off at one stroke Thus Howes concerning the Death of these two Persons CHAP. II. Of Her Coronation and of a Tumult raised and of Her moderate proceeding upon it Dr. Heylyn pag. 20. SHe came with great Magnificence to the Abby-Church where She was met with Three Silver Crosses and Fourscore Singing-men all in rich and noble Copes so sudden a recruit was made of those Sacred Vestments Amongst whom went the New Dean of Westminster and divers Chaplains of Her own each of them bearing in their hands some Ensign or other After them marched Ten Bishops which were as many as remained of her Perswasion with their Miters rich Copes and Crosier-Staves c. Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning Her Coronation Upon Her being Proclaimed Queen She Declared That She would persecute none for Religion nor force their Consciences But this could not hinder Factious Spirits from raising Tumults whereof this was one Howe 's upon Stow pag. 613. Mr. Bourn a Canon of Paul's-Cross not only Prayed for the Dead but also declared that Dr. Bonner Bishop of London lately restored and there present for a Sermon by him Preached in the same place upon the same Gospel was about Four years since unjustly cast into the vile Prison of the Marshalsea and there kept curing the Reign of King Edward the Sixth which saying so offended some of the Audience that they breaking silence said The Bishop had Preached Abomination Other some cryed Pull him out pull him out And some being nearer the Pulpit began to climb wherewith the Preacher stept back and one Mr. Bradford a Preacher of King Edwards time stept into his place and perswaded the Audience to Quietness and Obedience Nevertheless Mr. Bourn standing by Mr. Bradford one threw a Dagger at him Whereupon Mr. Bradford broke off his Speech and forced himself with the help of John Rogers another Preacher to conveigh Mr. Bourn out of the Audience whom with great labour they brought into Pauls-School Thus Howes Dr. Heylyn pag. 21. Upon occasion of this Tumult the Lords of the Council ordered the Mayor and Aldermen of London to call the next day a Common Council of the City and that they should charge every Housholder to cause their Children and Apprentices to keep to their own Parish Churches upon Holy days and not suffer them to attempt any thing to the violating of the Common Peace Willing them all to signifie to the said Assembly the Queens Determination uttered to them by Her Highness in the Tower which was That albeit Her Graces Conscience was settled in matters of Religion yet She Graciously meant not to compel or constrain other Mens otherwise than God should as She trusted put into their Hearts a perswasion of the Truth which she was in through the opening of his Word unto them by Godly Virtuous and Learned Preachers She further set out this following Proclamation THe Queens Highness well remembring what great Inconveniences and Dangers have grown to this Realm in times past through the diversities of Opinions in Questions of Religion And hearing also that now of late the same Contentions be again revived through Writings false Reports and Rumors spread abroad by some evil-disposed Persons Informs all Her Subjects That she cannot now hide that Religion which God and the World knows she hath ever Professed from her Infancy hitherto which as her Majesty is minded to observe and maintain for her self by God's Grace during her time so doth her Highness much desire and would be glad the same were of all Her Subjects quietly and charitably entertained And yer She doth signified unto all Her Majesties loving Subjects That Her Highness mindeth not to compel any of Her said loving Subjects thereunto forbidding nevertheless the moving of any Seditions by the interpreting the Laws after their brains and fancies applying their whole care study and travel to live in the Grace of God exercising their Conversations in such Charitable and Godly doings as their lives may indeed express the great hunger and thirst they have of God's
Father Who looked upon it as an Argument of God's displeasure as being much offended at this Second Marriage He then began to think of His ill Fortune with both His Wives both Marriages subject to cispute and the Legitimation of both His Daughters likely to be called in question in the time succeeding He must therefore cast about for another Wife of whose Marriage and his Issue by Her there could rise no controversie His eye had carried him to a Gentlewoman in the Queens Attendance on the enjoying of whom he so fixed his Thoughts that he had quite obliterated all remembrance of his former Loves Whereupon He began to be as weary of Queen Annes Gayeties and Secular humor as formerly of the Gravity and Reservedness of Queen Katharine And causing many eyes to observe her Actions they brought him a Return of some particulars which he conceived might give him a sufficient ground to proceed upon The Lord Rochfort her own Brother having some Suit to obtain by her means of the King was found whispering to her on her Bed when she was in it which was interpreted for an act of some dishonor done or intended to be done to the King in the aggravating whereof with all odious circumstances none was more forward than the Lady Rochfort her self It was observed also That Sir Henry Norris Groom of the Stool to the King had entertained a very dear affection for her not without giving himself hopes of succeeding in the King's Bed if she chanced to survive Him And it appeared that she had given him opportunity to make his Affection known and to acquaint her with his hopes which she expressed by twitting him in a frolick humor with looking after dead mens shoes Weston and Breerton both Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber were observed also to be very diligent in their Services and Addresses to her which were construed more to proceed from Love than Duty Out of all these Premises the King resolved to come to a conclusion of His aims and wishes A Solemn Tilting was maintained at Greenwich at which both the King and Queen were present the Lord Rochfort and Sir Henry Norris being principal Challengers Here the Queen by chance let fall her Handkerchief which was taken up by one of her supposed Favourites who stood under the Window whom the King perceived to wipe his face with it This taken by the King to have been done of purpose he thereupon leaves the Queen and all the rest and goes immediatly to Westminster Rochfort and Norris are the next day committed to the Tower and the Queen likewise After which Breerton and Weston with Mark Smeton one of the King's Musicians were commited on the same occasion These persons being thus committed and the cause made known the next care was to find sufficient evidence for their condemnation It was objected That the Queen growing out of hope of having any issue Male by the King had used the company of the Lord Rochfort Norris Breerton Weston and Smeton involving her at once in no smaller crimes than Adultery and Incest It appears by a Letter of Sir William Kingston Lieutenant of the Tower that he had much communication with her when she was his Prisoner in which her language seemed to be broken and distressed betwixt tears and laughter She exclaimed against Norris as if he had accused her It was further signified in that Letter that she named some others who had obsequiously applyed themselves to her Love and Service acknowledging such passages as shewed she had made use of very great liberties The conclusion of this Business was That both the Queen and the rest of the Prisoners were all put to death So died this great Lady one of the most remarkable Mockeries and Disports of Fortune which these last ages have produced raised from the quality of a private Lady to the Bed of a King Crowned on the Throne and Executed on the Scaffold the Fabrick of her Power and Glory being Six years in Building but cast down in an instant The splendor and magnificence of her Coronation seeming to have no other end but to make her the more glorious Sacrifice at the next Alteration But her death was not the chief mark the King aim'd at If she had only lost her Head though with the loss of her Honor it would have been no Bar to her Daughter Elizabeth from Succeeding her Father in the Throne Now he must have his Bed free from all such pretensions the better to draw on the following Marriage It was therefore thought necessary that she should be separated from his Bed by some other means than the Ax or Sword and that He should be legally separated from her in a Court of Judicature when the Sentence of Death had deprived Her of all means as well as of all manner of desire to dispute the point It doth not appear in Record upon what ground this Marriage was dissolved All which occurs in reference to it is a Solemn Instrument under the Seal of the Archbishop Cranmer by which that Marriage is declared on good and valid Reasons to be null and void Which Sentence was pronounced at Lambeth in the Presence of most of the great Men of that time and approved by the Prelates and Clergy assembled in their Convocation and lastly confirmed by Act of Parliament In which Act there also passed a Clause which declared the Lady Elizabeth to be Illegitimate Thus far Dr. Heylyn concerning her Mother Now because the Relation here made concerning this Queen belongs to the Reign of King Henry the Eighth I think it will not be altogether improper to insert a Speech made in that Kings Reign which did not come to my hands time enough to be put into its proper place A Speech made in the Upper House of Parliment by Dr. John Fisher Bishop of Rochester in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth in opposition to the Suppressing of the lesser Monasteries My Honored Lords THis is the place where your glorious and noble Progenitors have paternized the Kingdom from oppression Here is the Sanctuary where in all Ages but this of ours our Mother Church found still a sound Protection I should be infinitely sorrowful that from you that are so lovely Branches of antiquity and Catholick Honor the Catholick Faith should be so deeply wounded For God's and your own Goodness sake leave not to Posterity so great a blemish that you were the First and only those that give it up to ruine Where there is Cause you nobly punish and with Justice but beware of infringing so long continued Priviledges or denying the Members of the Church the parts of their Advantage that is enjoyed by every private Subject The Commons shoot their Arrows at our Livings which are the Motives that conceit us or make us to be conceived guilty Is all the Kingdom innocent and we only faulty that there is no room left for other Considerations far more weighty The Diligence Devotion and Liberality of