pass that he was believed a Prophet as well as a Saint And the Reformation was now so much opened by his Preaching and that was so confirmed by his death that the Nation was generally possessed with the love of it The Nobility were mightily offended with the Cardinal and said Wisharts death was no less than Murder since the Clergy without a Warrant from the Secular Power could dispose of no mans Life So it came universally to be said that he now deserved to die by the Law yet since he was too great for a Legal Tryal the Kingdom being under the feeble Government of a Regency it was fit private persons should undertake it and it was given out that the killing an Usurper was always esteemed a commendable Action and so in that state of things they thought secret practices might be justified This agreeing so much with the temper of some in that Nation who had too much of the heat and forwardness of their Countrey a few Gentlemen of Quality who had been ill used by the Cardinal conspired his death He was become generally hateful to the whole Nation and the Marriage of his Bastard Daughter to the Earl of Crawfords eldest Son enraged the Nobility the more against him and his carriage towards them all was insolent and provoking These offended Gentlemen came to St. Andrews the 29th of May and the next Morning they and their attendants being but twelve in all first attempted the Gate of his Castle which they found open and made it sure and though there were no fewer than an hundred reckoned to be within the Castle yet they knowing the passages of the House went with very little noise to the Servants Chambers and turned them almost all out of doors and having thus made the Castle sure they went to the Cardinals door He who till then was fast asleep suspecting nothing perceived at last by their rudeness that they were not his friends and made his door fast against them So they sent for fire to set to it upon which he treated with them and upon assurance of Life he opened the door but they rushing in did most cruelly and treacherously Murder him A Tumult was raised in the Town and many of his friends came to rescue him but the Conspirators carryed the dead body and exposed it to their view in the same Window out of which he had not long before lookt on when Wishart was burnt which had been universally censured as a most indecent thing in a Churchman to delighâ— in such a Spectacle But those who condemned this Action yet acknowledged Gods Justice in so exemplary a punishment and reflecting on Wisharts last words were the more confirmed in the opinion they had of his Sanctity This Fact was differently censured some justified it and said it was only the killing of a mighty Robber others that were glad he was out of the way yet condemned the manner of it as treacherous and inhumane And though some of the Preachers did afterwards fly to that Castle as a Sanctuary yet none of them were either Actors or Consenters to it it is true they did generally extenuate it yet I do not find that any of them justified it The exemplary and signal ends of almost all the Conspirators scarce any of them dying an ordinary death made all people the more inclined to condemn it The day after the Cardinal was killed about 140 came into the Castle and prepared for a Siege The House was well furnished in all things necessary and it lying so near the Sea they expected help from King Henry to whom they sent a Messenger for his Assistance and declared for him So a Siege following they were so well supplyed from England that after five months the Governor was glad to treat with them apprehending much the footing the English might have if those within being driven to extremities should receive a Garrison from King Henry They had the Governor also more at their mercy for as the Cardinal had taken his Eldest Son into his house under the pretence of educating him but really as his Fathers Hostage designing likewise to infuse in him a violent hatred of the new Preachers so the Conspirators finding him in the Castle kept him still to help them to better terms A Treaty being agreed on they demanded their pardon for what they had done together with an Absolution to be procured from Rome for the killing of the Cardinal and that the Castle and the Governors Son should remain in their hands till the Absolution was brought over Some of the Preachers apprehending the Clergy might revenge the Cardinals death on them were forced to fly into the Castle but one of them Iohn Rough who was afterwards burnt in England in Queen Maries time being so offended at the licentiousness of the Souldiers that were in the Castle who were a reproach to that which they pretended to favour left them and went away in one of the ships that brought Provisions out of England When the Absolution came from Rome they excepted to it for some words in it that called the killing of the Cardinal Crimen irremissibile an unpardonable crime by which they said the Absolution gave them no security since it was null if the Fact could not be pardoned The truth was they were encouraged from England so they refused to stand to the Capitulation and rejected the Absolution But some ships and Souldiers being sent from France the Castle was besieged at Land and shut up also by Sea and which was worst of all a Plague broke out within it of which many died Upon this no help coming suddenly from England they were forced to deliver up the place on no better terms than that their Lives should be spared but they were to be Banisht Scotland and never to return to it The Castle was demolished according to the Canon Law that appoints all places where any Cardinal is killed to be razed This was not compleated this year and not till two years after only I thought it best to joyn the whole matter together and set it down all at once In November following a New Parliament was held where toward the expence of the Kings Wars the Convocation of the Province of Canterbury granted a continuation of the former Subsidy of six shillings in the pound to be payed in two years But for the Temporality a Subsidy was demanded from them of another kind There were in the Kingdom several Colledges Chappels Chantries Hospitals and Fraternities consisting of Secular Priests who enjoyed Pensions for saying Mass for the Souls of those who had endowed them Now the belief of Purgatory being left indifferent by the Doctrine set out by the Bishops and the Trade of redeeming souls being condemned it was thought needless to keep up so many Endowments to no purpose Those Priests were also generally ill-affected to the Kings proceedings since their Trade was so much lessened by them Therefore many of them had been dealt
years together for before two years elapsed there was a War proclaimed against France and when overtures were made for a Peace it appears by the Treaty-Rolls that the Earl of Worcester was sent over Ambassador And when the Kings sister was sent over to Lewis the French King though Sir Thomas Boleyn went over with her he was not then so much considered as to be made an Ambassador For in the Commission that was given to many persons of Quality to deliver her to her Husband King Lewis the 12 Sir Thomas Boleyn is not named The persons in the Commission are the Duke of Norfolk the Marquess of Dorchester the Bishop of Duresm the Earls of Surrey and Worcester the Prior of St. Iohns and Doctor West Dean of Windsor A year after that Sir Thomas Boleyn was made Ambassador but then it was too late for Anne Boleyn to be yet unborn much less could it be as Sanders says that she was born two years after it But the Learned Camden whose Study and Profession led him to a more particular knowledg of these things gives us another account of her birth He says that she was born in the year 1507. which was two years before the King came to the Crown And if it be suggested that then the Prince to enjoy her Mother prevailed with his Father to send her Husband beyond Sea that must be done when the Prince himself was not 14 years of Age so they must make him to have corrupted other mens wives at that Age when yet they will not allow his Brother no not when he was 2 years older to have known his own wife But now I leave this foul Fiction and go to deliver certain Truths· Anne Boleyn's Mother was Daughter to the Duke of Norfolk and Sister to the Duke that was at the time of the Divorce Lord Treasurer Her Fathers Mother was one of the Daughters and heirs to the Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond and her great Grand-Father Sir Geofry Boleyn who had been Lord Major of London Married one of the Daughters and Heirs of the Lord Hastings and their Family as they had mixed with so much great Blood so had Married their Daughters to very Noble Families She being but seven years old was carried over to France with the Kings Sister which shews she could have none of those deformities in her person since such are not brought into the Courts and Families of Queens And though upon the French Kings Death the Queen Dowager came soon back to England yet she was so liked in the French Court that the next King Francis his Queen kept her about her self for some years and after her death the Kings Sister the Dutchess of Alenson kept her in her Court all the while she was in France which as it shews there was somewhat extraordinary in her person so those Princesses being much celebrated for their vertues it is not to be imagined that any person so notoriously defamed as Sanders would represent her was entertained in their Courts When she came into England is not so clear it is said that in the year 1522. when War was made on France her Father who was then Ambassador was recalled and brought her over with him which is not improbable but if she came then she did not stay long in England for Camden says that she served Queen Claudia of France till her death which was in Iuly 1524 and after that she was taken into service by K Francis his Sister How long she continued in that service I do not find but it is probable that she returned out of France with her Father from his Embassy in the year 1527. when as Stow says he brought with him the Picture of her Mistress who was offered in Marriage to this King If she came out of France before as those Authors before-mentioned say it appears that the King had no design upon her then because he suffered her to return and when one Mistress died to take another in France but if she stayed there all this while then it is probable he had not seen her till now at last when she came out of the Princess of Alenson's service but whensoever it was that she came to the Court of England it is certain that she was much considered in it And though the Queen who had taken her to be one of her Maids of Honour had afterwards just cause to be displeased with her as her Rival yet she carried her self so that in the whole Progress of the Sute I never find the Queen her self or any of her Agents fix the least ill Character on her which would most certainly have been done had there been any just cause or good colour for it And so far was this Lady at least for some time from any thoughts of Marrying the King that she had consented to Marry the Lord Piercy the Earl of Northumberland's eldest Son whom his Father by a strange compliance with the Cardinals vanity had placed in his Court and made him one of his servants The thing is considerable and clears many things that belong to this History and the Relator of it was an Ear-witness of the Discourse upon it as himself informs us The Cardinal hearing that the Lord Piercy was making addresses to Anne Boleyn one day as he came from the Court called for him before his servants before us all says the Relator including himself and chid him for it pretending at first that it was unworthy of him to match so meanly but he justified his choice and reckoned up her birth and Quality which he said was not inferior to his own And the Cardinal insisting fiercely to make him lay down his pretensions he told him he would willingly submit to the King and him but that he had gone so far before many witnesses that he could not forsake it and knew not how to discharge his conscience and therefore he entreated the Cardinal would procure him the Kings favour in it Upon that the Cardinal in great rage said why thinkest thou that the King and I know not what we have to do in so weighty a matter yes I warrant you but I can see in thee no submission at all to the purpose and said you have matched your self with such a one as neither the King nor yet your Father will agree to it and therefore I will send for thy Father who at his coming shall either make thee break this unadvised bargain or disinherit thee for ever To which the Lord Piercy replyed That he would submit himself to him if his Conscience were discharged of the weighty burden that lay upon it and soon after his Father coming to Court he was diverted another way Had that Writer told us in what year this was done it had given a great light to direct us but by this relation we see that she was so far from thinking of the King at that time that she had
engaged her self another way but how far this went on her side or whether it was afterwards made use of when she was divorced from the King shall be considered in its proper place It also appears that there was a Design about her then formed between the King and the Cardinal yet how far that went whether to make her Queen or only to Corrupt her is not evident It is said that upon this she ever after hated the Cardinal and that he never designed the Divorce after he saw on whom the King had fixed his thoughts but all that is a mistake as will afterwards appear And now having made way through these things that were previous to the first motion of the Divorce my narration leads me next to the Motion it self The King resolving to put the matter home to the Pope sent Doctor Knight Secretary of State to Rome with some Instructions to prepare the Pope for it and to observe what might be the best Method and who the fittest tools to work by At that time the Family of the Cassali being three Brothers were entertained by the King as his Agents in Italy both in Rome Venice and other places Sir Gregory Cassali was then his ordinary Ambassador at Rome To him was the first full dispatch about this business directed by the Cardinal the Original whereof is yet extant dated the 5th of Decemb. 1527. which the Reader will find in the Collection but here I shall give the Heads of it After great and high Complements and Assurances of Rewards to engage him to follow the Business very vigorously and with great Diligence he writes that he had before opened the Kings case to him and that partly by his own study partly by the opinion of many Divines and other Learned men of all sorts he found that he could no longer with a good Conscience continue in that Marriage with the Queen having God and the Quiet and Salvation of his Soul chiefly before his eyes And that he had consulted both the most Learned Divines and Canonists as well in his own Dominions as elsewhere to know whether the Popes Dispensation could make it good and that many of them thought the Pope could not Dispence in this case of the first degree of Affinity which they esteemed forbidden by a Divine Moral and Natural Law and all the rest concluded that the Pope could not do it but upon very weighty reasons and they found not any such in the Bull. Then he lays out the reasons for Annulling the Bull which were touched before upon which they all concluded the Dispensation to be of no force that the King looked on the death of his Sons as a Curse from God and to avoid further Judgments he now desired help of the Apostolick See to consider his case to reflect on what he had merited by these Services he had done the Papacy and to find a way that he being divorced from his Queen may Marry another Wife of whom by the blessing of God he might hope for issue Male. Therefore the Ambassador was to use all means possible to be admitted to speak to the Pope in Private and then to deliver him these Letters of Credence in which there was a most earnest Clause added with the Kings own hand He was also to make a Condoleance of the Miserie 's the Pope and Cardinals were in both in the Kings name and the Cardinals and to assure the Pope they would use all the most effectual means that were possible for setting him at Liberty in which the Cardinal would Employ as much Industry as if there were no other way to come to the Kingdom of Heaven but by doing it Then he was to open the Kings business to the Pope the Scruples of his Conscience the great danger of cruel Wars upon so disputable a Succession the Entreaties of all the Nobility and the whole Kingdom with many other urgent reasons to obtain what was desired He was also to lay before the Pope the present condition of Christendome and of Italy that he might consider of what Importance it was to his own affairs and to the Apostolick See to engage the King so firmly to his Interests as this would certainly do And to move that the Pope without communicating the Matter to any person would freely grant it and Sign the Commission which was therewith sent engrossed in due form and ready to be Signed by which the Cardinal was Authorized with the Assistance of such as he should choose to proceed in the Matter according to some Instructions which were also sent fairly written out for the Pope to Sign A Dispensation was also sent in due form and if these were expeded he might assure the Pope that as the King had sent over a vast sum to the French King for paying his Army in Italy so he would spare no Travel nor Treasure but make War upon the Emperor in Flanders with his whole strength till he forced him to set the Pope at Liberty and restore the State of the Church to its former Power and Dignity And if the Pope were already at Liberty and had made an Agreement with the Emperor he was to represent to him how little cause he had to trust much to the Emperor who had so oft broke his faith and designed to do all he could towards the Depressing the Ecclesiastical State And the Pope was to be remembred that he had dispenced with the Emperors Oath for Marrying the Kings Daughter without communicating the Matter to the King And if he had done so much for one that had been his Enemy how much more might the King expect the like favour who had always payed him a most filial Duty Or if the Pope would not grant the Commission to the Cardinal to try the Matter as a Person that being the Kings chief Minister was not indifferent enough to judge in any of the Kings Concerns he was by all means to overcome that and assure the Pope that he would proceed in it as a Judge ought to do But if the Pope stood upon it and would by no means be perswaded to sign the Commission for the Cardinal then he was to propose Staphileus Dean of the Rota who was then in England and was to except against all other Forreigners if the Pope chanced to propose any other He was also to represent to the Pope that the King would look upon a delay as a Denial and if the Pope inclined to consult with any of the Cardinals about it he was to divert him from it all that was possible but if the Pope would needs do it then he was to Address himself to them and partly by informing them of the reasons of the Kings Cause partly by rewarding the good Offices they should do he was to engage them for the King And with this Dispatch Letters were sent to Cardinal Puccy Sanctorum Quatuor and the other Cardinals to be made use of as there should be
another Wife keeping the Queen still Zuinglius confutes that and says If the Marriage be against the Law of God it ought to be dissolved But concludes the Queen should be put away honourably and still used as a Queen and the Marriage should only be dissolved for the future without Illegitimating the Issue begotten in it since it had gone on in a publick way upon a received error But advises that the King should proceed in a Judiciary way and not establish so ill a President as to put away his Queen and take another without due form of Law Dated Basil 17th of Aug. There is a second Letter of his to the same purpose from Zurick the first of September There is also with these Letters a long paper of Osianders in the form of a Direction how the Process should be managed There is also an Epistle of Calvins published among the rest of his Neither the date nor the person to whom it was directed are named Yet I fancie it was written to Grineus upon this occasion Calvin was clear in his judgment that the Marriage was null and that the King ought to put away the Queen upon the Law of Leviticus And whereas it was objected that the Law is only meant of Marrying the Brothers wife while he is yet alive he shews that could not be admitted for all the prohibited degrees being forbidden in the same style they were all to be understood in one sense Therefore since it is confessed that it is unlawful to Marry in the other degrees after the death of the Father Son Uncle or Nephew so it must be also a sin to Marry the Brothers wife after his death And for the Law in Deuteronomy of Marrying the Brothers wife to raise up seed to him he thought that by Brother there is to be understood a near Kinsman according to the usual phrase of the Hebrew tongue and by that he reconciles the two Laws which otherwise seem to differ illustrating his Exposition by the History of Ruth and Boaz. It is given out that Melancthon advised the Kings taking another wife justifying Polygamy from the old Testament but I cannot believe it It is true the Lawfulness of Polygamy was much controverted at this time And as in all controversies newly started many crude things are said so some of the Helvetian and German Divines seem not so fierce against it though none of them went so far as the Pope did who did plainly offer to grant the King Licence to have two wives and it was a motion the Imperialists consented to and promoted though upon what reason the Ambassador Cassali who wrote the account of it to the King could not learn The Pope forbade him to write about it to the King perhaps as Whisperers enjoyn silence as the most effectual way to make a thing publick But for Melancthons being of that mind great evidences appear to the contrary for there is a Letter of Osianders to him giving him many reasons to perswade him to approve of the Kings putting away the Queen and Marrying another the Letter also shews he was then of opinion that the Law in Leviticus was Dispensable And after the thing was done when the King desired the Lutheran Divines to approve his second Marriage they begged his excuse in a writing which they sent over to him so that Melanâ—â—hon not allowing the thing when it was done cannot be imagined to have advised Polygamy before hand And to open at once all that may clear the sense of the Protestants in the Question when some years after this Fox being made Bishop of Hereford and much inclined to their Doâ—ctrine was sent over to get the Divines of Germany to approve of the Divorce and the subsequent Marriage of Anne Boleyn he found that Melancthon and others had no mind to enter much into the Dispute about it both for fear of the Emperor and because they judged the King was led in it by dishonest affections they also thought the Laws in Leviticus were not Moral and did not oblige Christians and since there were no Rules made about the Degrees of Marriage in the Gospel they thought Princes and States might make what Laws they pleased about it yet aâ—ter much Disputing they were induced to change their minds but could not be brought to think that a Marriage once made might be annulled and therefore demurred upon that as will appear by the Conclusion they passed upon it to be found at the end of this volume All this I have set together here to give a right representation of the judgments of the several parties of Christendome about this matter It cannot be denyed that the Protestants did express great sincerity in this matter such as became men of conscience who were acted by true Principles and not by maxims of Policie For if these had governed them they had struck in more compliantly with so great a Prince who was then alienated from the Pope and in very ill terms with the Emperor so that to have gained him by a full Compliance to have protected them was the wisest thing they could do and their being so cold in the matter of his Marriage in which he had engaged so deeply was a thing which would very much provoke him against them But such measures as these though they very well became the Apostolick See yet theâ— were unworthy of men who designed to restore an Apostolick Religion The Earl of Wiltshire with the other Ambassadors when they had their Audience of the Pope at Bononia refused to pay him the submission of Kissing his foot though he graciously stretched it out to them but went to their Business and expostulated in the Kings name and in high words and in Conclusion told the Pope that the Prerogative of the Crown of England was such that their Master would not suffer any Citation to be made of him to any forreign Court and that therefore the King would not have his cause tryed at Rome The Pope answered that though the Queens Sollicitor had pressed him to proceed in the Citation bâ—th that her Marriage being further examined might receive a new Conâ—irmation for silencing the Dispuâ—es about it and because the King had withdrawn himself â—rom her yet if the King did not go further and did not innovate in Relâ—gion the Pope was willing to let the matter rest They went next to the Emperor to justifie the Kings Proceedings in the Suit of the Divorce But he told them he was bound in honour and justice to â—uppâ—rt his Aunt and that he would not abandon her Cranmer offered to maintain what he had written in his Book but whether they went so far as to make their Divines enter into any Discourse with him about it I do not know This appears that the Pope to put a Complement on the King declared Cranmer his Paenitentiary in England He having stayed some months at Rome after the Ambassadors were gone
several Ages till the state of Monkery rose And then when they engrossed the riches and the Popes assumed the Dominion of the World it was not consistent with these Designs nor with the Arts used to promote them to let the Scriptures be much known Therefore Legends and strange stories of Visions with other devices were thought more proper for keeping up their Credit and carrying on their Ends. It was now generally desired that if there were just exceptions against what Tindal had done these might be amended in a New Translation This was a plausible thing and wrought much on all that heard it who plainly concluded that those who denyed the people the use of the Scriptures in their vulgar tongues must needs know their own Doctrine and practices to be inconsistent with it Upon these grounds Cranmer who was projecting the most effectual means for promoting a Reformation of Doctrine moved in Convocation that they should Petition the King for leave to make a Translation of the Bible But Gardiner and all his party opposed it both in Convocation and in secret with the King It was said that all the Heresies and extravagant Opinions which were then in Germany and from thence coming over to England sprang from the free use of the Scriptures And whereas in May the last year Nineteen Hollanders were accused of some Heretical Opinions denying Christ to be both God and man or that he took Flesh and Blood of the Virgin Mary or that the Sacraments had any effect on those that received them in which opinions Fourteen of them remained Obstinate and were burnt by pairs in several places it was complained that all those drew their Damnable errors from the indiscreet use of the Scriptures And to offer the Bible in the English tongue to the whole Nation during these distractions would prove as they pretended the greatest Snare that could be Therefore they proposed that there should be a short exposition of the most useful and necessary Doctrines of the Christian Faith given to the people in the English tongue for the Instruction of the Nation which would keep them in a certain Subjection to the King and the Church in Matters of Faith The other party though they liked well the publishing such a Treatise in the vulgar tongue yet by no means thought that sufficient but said the people must be allowed to search the Scripture by which they might be convinced that such Treatises were according to it These Arguments prevailed with the Two Houses of Convocation So they petitioned the King that he would give order to some to set about it To this great Opposition was made at Court Some on the one hand told the King that a diversity of opinions would arise out of it and that he could no more Govern his Subjects if he gave way to that But on the other hand it was represented that nothing would make his Supremacy so acceptable to the Nation and make the Pope more hateful than to let them see that whereas the Popes had Governed them by a blind obedience and kept them in darkness the King brought them into the light and gave them the free use of the word of God And nothing would more effectually extirpate the Popes Authority and discover the Impostures of the Monks than the Bible in English in which all people would clearly discern there was no Foundation for those things These Arguments joyned with the Power that the Queen had in his affections were so much considered by the King that he gave order for setting about it immediately To whom that work was committed or how they proceeded in it I know not For the Account of these things has not been preserved nor conveighed to us with that care that the Importance of the thing required Yet it appears that the work was carryed on at a good rate for Three years after this it was Printed at Paris which shows they made all convenient hast in a thing that required so much deliberation But this was the last publick good Act of this unfortunate Queen who the nearer she drew to her end grew more full of good works She had distributed in the last Nine Moneths of her Life between Fourteen and Fifteen Thousand Pounds to the poor and was designing great and publick good things And by all appearance if she had lived the Money that was raised by the Suppression of Religious Houses had been better employed than it was In Ianuary she brought forth a dead Son This was thought to have made ill Impressions on the King and that as he concluded from the death of his Sons by the former Queen that the Marriage was displeasing to God so he might upon this misfortune begin to make the like Judgment of this Marriage Sure enough the Popish party were earnestly set against the Queen looking on her as the great supporter of Heresie And at that time Fox then Bishop of Hereford was in Germany at Smalcald treating a League with the Protestant Princes who insisted much on the Ausburg Confession There were many Conferences between Fox and Doctor Barnes and some others with the Lutheran Divines for accommodating the differences between them and the thing was in a good forwardness All which was imputed to the Queen Gardiner was then Ambassador in France and wrote earnestly to the King to dissuade him from entring into any Religious League with these Princes for that would alienate all the World from him and dispose his own Subjects to Rebel The King thought the German-Princes and Divines should have submitted all things to his Judgment and had such an Opinion of his own Learning and was so puft up with the flattering praises that he daily heard that he grew impatient of any opposition and thought that his Dictates should pass for Oracles And because the Germans would not receive them so his mind was alienated from them But the Duke of Norfolk at Court and Gardiner beyond Sea thought there might easily be found a mean to accommodate the King both with the Emperor and the Pope if the Queen were once out of the way for then he might freely Marry any one whom he pleased and that Marriage with the Male Issue of it could not be disputed Whereas as long as the Queen lived her Marriage as being judged Null from the beginning could never be allowed by the Court of Rome or any of that Party with these reasons of State others of affection concurred The Queen had been his Wife Three years but at this time he entertained a secret Love for Iane Seimour who had all the charmes both of Beauty and Youth in her person and her humor was tempered between the severe gravity of Queen Katharine and the gay pleasantness of Queen Anne The Queen perceiving this Alienation of the Kings heart used all possible Arts to recover that affection of whose decay she was sadly sensible But the Success was quite contrary to what she designed For the King
to effect any other way they advised the King to beware of such Counsels They also proposed that there might be a Conference agreed on between such Divines as the King would name and such as they should depute to meet either in Gueldres Hamburgh Bremen or any other place that should be appointed by the King to examine the Lawfulness of private Masses of denying the Chalice and the Prohibiting the Marriage of the Clergy On these things they continued treating till the Divorce of Anne of Cleve and Cromwells fall after which I find little Correspondence between the King and them Ad Page 256. line 4. When I mentioned the Kings Letters directing the Bishops how to proceed in a Reformation I had not seen them but I have since seen an Original of them subscribed by the Kings hand In these he challenged the Clergy as guilty of great Indiscretions that the late Rebellion had been occasioned by them therefore he required the Bishops to take care that the Articles formerly published should be exactly obeyed and to go over their Dioceses in person and preach Obedience to the Laws and the good ends of those Ceremonies that were then retained that the people might neither despise them nor put too much trust in them and to silence all disputes and contentions concerning things indifferent and to signifie to the Kings Council if there were any Priests in their Diocesses that were Marryed and yet did discharge any part of the Priestly Office All which will be better understood by the Letter it self that I have put into the Collection Ad Page 258. line 8. I do there acknowledg that I knew not what Arguments were used against the necessity of Auricular Confession But I have made since that time a Considerable discovery in this particular from an Original Letter written all with the Kings own hand to Tonstal by which it appears there had been conferences in the House and that the Arch-Bishop of York the Bishop of Winchester and Duresm had pleaded much for it as necessary by a Divine Institution and that both the King and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had maintained that though it was good and profitable yet it was not necessary by any precept of the Gospel and that though the Bishops brought several texts out of Scripture and Ancient Doctors yet these were so clearly answered by the King and the Arch-Bishop that the whole House was satisfied with it Yet Tonstall drew up in a writing all the reasons he had made use of in that debate and brought them to the King which will be found in the Collection with the Anotations and reflections which the King wrote on the Margent with his own hand taken from the Original together with the Kings Letter written in answer to them By this it will appear that the King did set himself much to study points of Divinity and examined matters with a scrupulous exactness The issue of the debate was that though the Popish party endeavoured to have got Auricular Confession declared to be Commanded by Christ as a part of the Sacrament of Pennance yet the King overruled that so it was enacted that Auricular Confession was necessary and expedient to be retained in the Church of God These debates were in the House of Lords which appears not only by the Kings Letter that speaks of the House but by the Act of Parliament in the Preamble of which it is said that the King had come himself to the Parliament and had opened several points of high Learning to them Ad Page 262. line 23. There I mention the Kings diligence in drawing an Act of Parliament with his own hand but since that was Printed I have seen many other Acts and Papers if not Originally Penned by the King yet so much altered by his Corrections that in some sort they may be esteemed his draughts There are two draughts of the Act of the six Articles both corrected in many places by the King and in some of these the Correction is three lines long There is another Act concerning Precontracts of Marriage likewise Corrected very much by his Pen. Many draughts of Proclamations particularly these about the use of the Bible in English are yet extant interlined and altered with his Pen. There is a large Paper written by Tonstall of arguments for Purgatory with Copious Animadversions on it likewise written by the King which shew that then he did not believe there was a Purgatory I have also seen the draught of that part of the Necessary Erudition for a Christian man which explains the Creed full of Corrections with the Kings own Pen as also the Queries concerning the Sacraments mentioned page 289. with large Annotations written with his hand on the Margent likewise an Extract all written with his own hand of passages out of the Fathers against the Marriage of the Clergy and to conclude there is a Paper with which the Collection ends containing the true Notion of the Catholick Church which has large Emendations added with the Kings hand those I have set by themselves on the Margent of the Paper A TABLE OF THE CONTENTS OF THE HISTORY BOOK I. A Summary View of King Henry the Eighth's Reign till the Process of his Divorce was begun in which the State of England chiefly as it related to Religion is opened KING Henry's Succession to the Crown pag. 1 He proceeds against Dudley and Empson ibid He holds a Parliament p. 2 His great Expence ibid Affairs beyond Sea p. 3 A Peace and Match with France ibid He offers his Daughter to the Dolphin ibid The King of Spain chosen Emperor ib He comes to England p. 4 A second War with France ibid Vpon Leo the 10th's death Hadrian chosen Pope ibid He dies and Clement the 7th succeeds ib Charles the 5th at Windsor contracted to the Kings Daughter p. 5 But breaks his Faith ibid The Clementine League ibid Rome taken and sackt p. 6 The Pope is made a Prisoner ibid. The Kings success against Scotland ibid. A Facâ—ion in his Counsels p. 7 Cardinal Wolseys rising ibid. His Preferments p. 8 The Character of the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk p. 9 Cardinal Wolsey against Parliaments p. 10 The Kings breeding in Learning ibid. He is flattered by Scollars p. 11 The Kings Prerogative in Ecclesiastical affairs ibid. It was still kept up by him p. 12 A Contest concerning Immunities ibid. A Publick debate about them p. 13. Hunne Murdered in Prison p. 14 The Proceedings upon that p. 15 The King much courted by Popes p. 18 And declared Defender of the Faith p. 19 The Cardinal absolute in England ibid. He designed to Reform the Clergy ibid. And to Suppress Monasteries p. 20 The several kinds of Convocations ibid. The Clergy grant a Subsidy to the King p. 21 Of the State of Monasteries ibid. The Cardinal founds two Colledges p. 22 The first beginning of Reformation in England p. 23 The Cruelties of the Church of Rome ibid.
his time and have continued since in great honour as the Seimours from whom the Dukes of Somerset are descended the Paulets from whom the Marquess of Winchester derives the Russels Wriothslies Herberts Riches and Cromwells from whom the Earls of Bedford Southampton Pembroke Essex and Ardglass have descended and the Browns the Petres the Pagets the Norths and the Mountagues from whom the Vice-Count Mountague the Barons Petre Paget North and Mountague are descended These Families have now flourished in great Wealth and Honour an Age and a half and only one of them has and that but very lately determined in the Male Line but the Illustrious Female Branches of it are intermixed with other Noble Families So that the Observation is false and the Inference is weak 119. He says When the King found his strength declining he had again some thoughts of reconciling himself to the Church of Rome which when it was proposed to one of the Bishops he made a flattering answer But Gardiner moved that a Parliament might be called for doing it and that the King for the quiet of his own Conscience would vow to do it of which God would accept in that extremity when more was not possible to be done But some of his Courtiers coming about him who were very apprehensive of such a Reconciliation lest they should have been made restore the Goods of the Church diverted the King from it And from this our Author infers that what the King had done was against his Conscience and that so he sinned the Sin against the Holy Ghost I shall not examine this Theological definition of the Sin against the Holy Ghost for my quarrel is not at present with his Divinity but with his History tho it were easy to shew that he is alike at both But for this story it is a pure dream for not only there is no evidence for it nor did Gardiner in the Reign of Queen Mary ever own any such thing tho it had been then much for the credit of their Cause especially he being often upbraided with his compliances to this King for which the mention of his repentance had furnished him with a good answer But as the Tale is told the Fiction appears too plainly for a Parliament was actually sitting during the King's sickness which was dissolved by his Death and no such Proposition was made in it The King on the contrary destroyed the chief hopes of the Popish Party which were founded on the Duke of Norfolk's greatness by the Attainder which was passed a day before he died And yet Sanders makes this discourse to have been between the King and Gardiner after his fall and his Sons death between which and the King's Death there were only nine days but besides all this Gardiner had lost the King's favour a considerable time before his death 120. He says The King that he might not seem never to have done any good Work in his whole life as he was dying founded Christ's Church Hospital in London which was all the restitution he ever made for the Monasteries and Churches he had robbed and spoiled If it had not already appeared in many Instances that our Author had as little shame as honesty here is a sufficient proof of it I will not undertake to justify the King as if he had done what he ought to have done in his new Foundations But it is the height of impudence to deny things that all England knows He founded six Bishopricks he endowed Deans and Prebendaries with all the other Offices belonging to a Cathedral in fourteen several Sees Canterbury Winchester Duresme Ely Norwich Rochester Worcester and Carlisle together with Westminster Chester Oxford Glocester Peterborough and Bristol where he endowed Bishopricks likewise He founded many Grammar-Schools as Burton Canterbury Coventry Worcester c. He founded and endowed Trinity Colledg in Cambridg which is one of the noblest Foundations in Christendom He also founded Professors in both Universities for Greek Hebrew Law Physick and Divinity What censure then deserves our Author for saying that the Hospital of Christ's-Church was all the restitution he ever made of the Church-Lands 121. He gives a Character of the King which sutes very well with his History his malice in it being extravagantly ridiculous Among other things he says The King promoted always learned Bishops Cranmer only being excepted whom he advanced to serve his Lusts. Cranmer was a Man of greater Learning than any that ever sate in that See before him as appears in every thing that he writ Tonstal was a learned Man and Gardiner was much esteemed for Learning yet if any will compare Cranmer's Books of the Sacrament with those the other two writ on the same Subject there is so great a difference between the learning and solidity of the one and the other that no Man of common ingenuity can read them but he must confess it 122. He says When the King found himself expiring he called for a Boul of White Wine and said to one that was near him We have lost all and was often heard repeating Monks Monks and so he died This was to make the Fable end as it had gone on and it is forged without any authority or appearance of truth The manner of his death was already told so it needs not be repeated 123. He says The King by his Will appointed the Crown to go to his righteous Heirs after his three Children and commanded his Son to be bred a true Catholick but his Will was changed and another was forged by which the Line of Scotland was excluded and they bred his Son an Heretick There was no such Will ever heard of and in all the Debates that were managed in Queen Elizabeth's Reign about the Succession those that pleaded for the Scotish Line never alleadged this which had it been true did put an end to the whole Controversie It was indeed said that the Will which was given out as the King's Will was not signed by his Hand nor sealed by his Order but it was never pretended that there was any other Will so this is one of our Author's Forgeries The Conclusion THus I have traced him in this History and hope I have said much more than was necessary to prove him a Writer of no credit and that his Book ought to have no Authority since he was not only a stranger to the Publick Transactions Printed Statutes and the other Authentick Registers of that time but was a bold and impudent Asserter of the grossest and most malicious Lies that ever were contrived I have not examined all the Errors of his Chronology for there is scarce any thing told in its right order and due place nor have I insisted on all the passages he tells without any proof or appearance of truth for as I could only deny these without any other evidence but what was negative so there are so many of them that I must have transcribed the greatest part of
places cited from the New Testament As for that of Herod both Iosephus and Eusebius witness that his Brother Philip was alive when he took his wife and so his sin was Adultery and not Incest We must also think that the Incestous Person in Corinth took his Fathers Wife when he was yet living otherwise if he had been dead St. Paul could not say it was a Fornication not named among the Gentiles for we not only find both among the Persians and other Nations the Marriage of Step-Mothers allowed but even among the Iews Adonijah desired Abisha in Marriage who had been his Fathers Concubine From all which they concluded that the Laws about the Degrees of Marriage were only Judiciary Precepts and so there was no other obligation on Christians to obey them than what flowed from the Laws of the Church with which the Pope might dispense They also said that the Law in Leviticus of not taking the Brothers wife must be understood of not taking her while he was alive for after he was dead by another Law a man might marry his Brothers wife They also pleaded that the Popes Power of Dispensing did reach further than the Laws of the Church even to the Law of God for he daily Dispensed with the Breaking of Oaths and Vows though that was expresly contrary to the Second Commandment and though the Fifth Command Thou shalt do no Murther be against Killing yet the Pope Dispensed with the putting Thieves to death and in some cases where the reason of the Commandment does not at all times hold he is the only judge according to Summa Angelica They Concluded the Popes Power of Dispensing was as necessary as his Power of Expounding the Scriptures and since there was a Question made concerning the obligation of these Levitical Prohibitions whether they were Moral and did oblige Christians or not the Pope must be the only Judge There were also some late Presidents found one of P. Martin who in the case of a mans having Marryed his own Sister who had lived long with her upon a Consultation with Divines and Lawyers Confirmed it to prevent the Scandal which the dissolving of it would have given Upon which St. Antonin of Florence says that since the thing was dispensed with it was to be refered to the judgment of God and not to be condemned The Pope had granted this Dispensation upon a very weighty Consideration to keep peace between two great Crowns it had now stood above Twenty years it would therefore raise an high scandal to bring it under debate besides that it would do much hurt and bring the Titles to most Crowns into Controversie But they Concluded that whatever Informalities or Nullities were pretended to be in the Bulls or Breves the Pope was the only competent judge of it and that it was too high a presumption for inferior Prelates to take upon them to examine or discuss it But to these Arguments it was Answered by the writers for the Kings cause that it was strange to see men who pretended to be such Enemies to all Heretical Novelties yet be guilty of that which Catholick Doctors hold to be the foundation of all Heresie which was the setting up of private senses of Scripture and Reasonings from them against the Doctrine and Tradition of the Church It was fully made out that the Fathers and Doctors of the Church did universally agree in this that the Levitical Prohibitions of the Degrees of Marriage are Moral and do oblige all Christians Against this Authority Cajetan was the first that presumed to write opposing his private conceits to the Tradition of the Church which is the same thing for which Luther and his followers are so severely Condemned May it not then be justly said of such men that they plead much for Tradition when it makes for them but reject it when it is against them Therefore all these exceptions are overthrown with this one Maxime of Catholick Doctrine That they are Novelties against the constant Tradition of the Christian Church in all Ages But if the force of them be also examined they will be found as weak as they are New That before the Law these degrees were not observed proves only that they are not evidently contrary to the Common sense of all men But as there are some Moral Precepts which have that natural evidence in them that all men must discern it so there are others that are drawn from publick inconvenience and dishonesty which are also parts of the Law of nature These Prohibitions are not of the first but of the second sort since the Immorality of them appears in this that the Familiarities and freedoms among near Relations are such that if an horror were not struck in men at conjunctures in these degrees Families would be much defiled This is the Foundation of the Prohibitions of Marriages in these degrees Therefore it is not strange if men did not apprehend it before God made a Law concerning it Therefore all examples before the Law show only the thing is not so evident as to be easily collected by the light of Nature And for the story of Iudah and Tamar there is so much wickedness in all the parts of it that it will be very hard to make a President out of any part of it As for the Provision about Marrying the Brothers wiâ—e that only proves the ground of the Law is not of its own Nature Immutable but may be Dispensed with by God in some cases And all these Moral Laws that are founded on publick conveniency and honesty are Dispensable by God in some cases but because Moses did it by Divine Revelation it does not follow that the Pope can do it by his Ordinary Authority For that about Herod it is not clear from Iosephus that Philip was alive when Herod Marryed his Wife For all that Iosephus says is that she separated from her Husband when he was yet alive and divorced her self from him But he does not say that he lived still after she Marryed his Brother And by the Law of Divorce Marriage was at an end and broken by it as much as if the Party had been dead So that in that case she might have Marryed any other Therefore Herods sin in taking her was from the Relation of having been his Brothers Wife And for the Incestuous person in Corinth it is as certain that though some few Instances of a King of Syria and some others may be brought of Sons Marrying their Step-Mothers yet these things were generally ill looked on even where they were practised by some Princes who made their Pleasure their Law Nor could the Laws of Leviticus be understood of not Marrying the Brothers wife when he was alive for it was not Lawful to take any mans Wife from him living Therefore that cannot be the meaning And all those Prohibitions of Marriage in other degrees excluding those Marriages simply whether during the life or after the death of
the Father Son Uncle and other such Relations there is no ground to disjoynt this so much from the rest as to make it only extend to a Marriage before the Husbands death And for any Presidents that were brought they were all in the latter Ages and were never Confirmed by any publick Authority Nor must the Practices of later Popes be laid in the Ballance against the Decisions of former Popes and the Doctrine of the whole Church and as to the Power that was ascribed to the Pope that began now to be enquired into with great Freedom as shall appear afterwards These Reasons on both sides being thus opened the Censures of them it is like will be as different now as they were then for they prevailed very little on the Queen who still persisted to justifie her Marriage and to stand to her Appeal And though the King carryed it very kindly to her in all outward appearance and employed every body that had credit with her to bring her to submit to him and to pass from her Appeal remitting the Decision of the matter to any Four Prelates and Four Secular men in England she was still unmovable and would hearken to no Proposition In the judgments that people passed the Sexes were divided the Men generally approved the Kings cause and the Women favoured the Queen But now the Session of Parliament came on the Sixteenth of Ianuary and there the King first brought in to the House of Lords the Determination of the Universities and the Books that were written for his cause by Forreigners After they were read and Considered there the Lord Chancellor did on the 20th of March with Twelve Lords both of the Spiritualty and Temporalty goe down to the House of Commons and shewed them what the Universities and Learned men beyond Sea had written for the Divorce and produced Twelve Original Papers with the Seals of the Universities to them which Sr. Brian Tuke took out of his hand and read openly in the House Translating the Latine into English Then about an Hundred Books written by Forreign Divines for the Divorce were also showed them none of which were read but put off to another time it being late When that was done the Lord Chancellor desired they would report in their Countries what they had heard and seen and then all men should clearly perceive that the King hath not attempted this matter of Will and Pleasure as strangers say but only for the Discharge of his Conscience and the Security of the Succession to the Crown Having said that he left the House The matter was also brought before the Convocation and they having weighed all that was said on both sides seemed satisfied that the Marriage was unlawful and that the Bull was of no force more not being required at that time But it is not strange that this matter went so easily in the Convocation when another of far greater consequence passed there which will require a â—ull and distinct account Cardinal Wolsey by exercising his Legantine Authority had fallen into a Premunire as hath been already shewn and now those who had appeared in his Courts and had sutes there were found to be likewise in the same guilt by the Law and this matter being excepted out of the Pardon that was granted in the former Parliament was at this time set on foot Therefore an Indictment was brought into the Kings Bench against all the Clergy of England for breaking the Statutes against Provisions or Provisors But to open this more clearly It is to be Considered that the Kings of England having claimed in all Ages a Power in Ecclesiastical Matters equal to what the Roman Emperors had in that Empire they exercised this Authority both over the Clergy and Laity and did at first erect Bishopricks grant Investitures in them call Synods make Laws about Sacred as well as Civil Concerns and in a word they Governed their whole Kingdom Yet when the Bishops of Rome did stretch their Power beyond either the limits of it in the Primitive Church or what was afterward granted them by the Roman Emperors and came to assume an Authority in all the Churches of Europe as they found some Resistance every where so they met with a great deal in this Kingdom and it was with much Difficulty that they gained the Power of giving Investitures Receiving Appeals to Rome and of sending Legates to England with several other things which were long contested but were delivered up at length either by feeble Princes or when Kings were so engaged at home or abroad that it was not safe for them to offend the Clergy For in the first Contest between the Kings and the Popes the Clergy were generally on the Popes side because of the Immunity and Protection they enjoyed from that See but when Popes became ambitious and warlike Princes then new Projects and Taxes were every where set on foot to raise a great Treasure The Pall with many Bulls and high Compositions for them Annates or first Fruits and Tenths were the standing Taxes of the Clergy besides many new ones upon emergent occasions So that they finding themselves thus oppressed by the Popes fled again back to the Crown for Protection which their Predecessors had abandoned From the days of Edward the 1st many Statutes were made to restrain the Exactions of Rome For then the Popes not satisfied with their other oppressions which a Monk of that time lays open fully and from a deep sense of them did by Provisions Bulls and other Arts of that See dispose of Bishopricks Abbeys and lesser Benefices to Forreigners Cardinals and others that did not live in England Upon which the Commonalty of the Realm did represent to the King in Parliament That the Bishopricks Abbeys and other Benefices were founded by the Kings and people of England To inform the people of the Law of God and to make Hospitality Alms and other works of Charity for which end they were endowed by the King and people of England and that the King and his other Subjects who endowed them had upon Voidances the Presentment and Collations of them which now the Pope had Usurped and given to Aliens by which the Crown would be disinherited and the ends of their endowments destroyed with other great Inconveniences Therefore it was ordained that these Oppressions should not be suffered in any manner But notwithstanding this the abuse went on and there was no effectual way laid down in the Act to punish these Transgressions The Court of Rome was not so easily driven out of any thing that either encreased their Power or their Profits Therefore by another Act in his Grand-Child Edward the 3ds time the Commons complained that these abuses did abound and that the Pope did daily reserve to his Collation Church-Preferments in England and raised the first-Fruits with other great Profits by which the Treasure of the Realm was carried out of it