who had obsequiously applied themselves to her Love Service acknowledging such passages mark this though not sufficient to condemn her as shewed she had made use of the utmost liberty which could be honestly allowed her There was no Evidence against her but the Confession of Smeton and the Calumnies of the Lady Rochfort of which the one was fooled into that Confession by the hope of Life which notwithstanding was not pardoned and the other most deservedly lost her Head within few years after Heylin Hist Reform pag. 264 265. I have added this favourable account out of Heylin to let the Reader see the mistake of that Character which Doctor Burnet gives of him in the Preface to his first volum viz. He being wrought on by most violent prejudices against some that were concerned in that time delivers many things in such a manner and so strangely that one would think he had been secretly set on by those of the Church of Rome c. If ever Heylin were set on to serve the Church of Rome it must be surely in the History of Ann Bolen upon which there is so much depending in reference to the Birth and Title of Queen Elisabeth But the Reader may find him relating her whole Story so favourably I mean this Story of her Misfortunes that Burnet himself could not say more yet whoever compares both Writers shall find I have left out nothing material that may be observ'd here in favour of Ann Bolen Sir Henry Norris was practised with to confess the Adultery says Heylin to which he made this generous Answer that in his Conscience he thought her guiltless of the Crimes objected against her c. and the Lord Peircy took the Sacrament wishing that the same might be his Damnation if ever there were any Contract or Promise of Marriage betwixt her and him Heylin p. 255 256. A. But she justifyed her Innocency in a Letter to the King from the Tower dated May 6. 1536. did she not B. You may find that Letter in Dr. Burnets Records annexed to his first vol. pag. 155. wherein she thus expresses her self But if you have already determined of me and that not only my Death but an infamous Slander must bring you the enjoyment of your desired happiness then I desire of God that he will pardon your great sin therein and that he will not call you to a strict account for your unprincely and cruel usage of me at his general Judgment-seat where both you and my self must shortly appear c. A. What did she say at her Execution May 19. 1536 B. She spoke some words which I am not able to reconcile with that same passage of her Letter A. What were the words B. She prayed heartily for the King and called him a most merciful and gentle Prince and that he had been always to her a good gentle Soveregin Lord She said she was come to dye as she was judged by the Law. She would accuse none nor say any thing of the ground upon which she was judged And if any would meddle with her Cause she required them to judge the best Dr. Burnet 1. vol. p. 205. NOTE In her Letter from the Tower she objects to him his unprincely and cruel usage of her And here at her Death she calls him a most merciful and gentle Prince and that he had been always to her a good gentle Sovereign Lord. I will not say she affirmed at her Death what she did not believe or that she complemented the King as having to the very last some hopes of his Mercy but the Reader may consult Doctor Burnet and try if he can sind ought to reconcile these passages A. Tell us the rest of her Story B. The day before she dyed upon a strict search of her past Life she called to mind that she had played the step Mother to the Lady Mary and had done her many Injuries upon which she desired the Lieutenant of the Towers Lady and with many Tears charged her as she would Answer it to God to go in her name and ask the Lady Mary's Forgiveness for the Wrongs she had done her c. page 204. This ingenuity and tenderness of Conscience about lesser matters this was but a Venial sin perhaps is a great presumption saith the Doctor that if she had been Guilty of more eminent Faults she had not continued to the last denying them NOTE It is a wonder she did not assert her own Innocency upon the Scaffold The Night before she suffered she sent her last Message to the King and acknowledged her self much obliged to him that he had continued still to advance her from a private Gentlewoman to a Marchioness from that to a Queen and now was sending her to be a Saint in Heaven page 204. 1 Vol. A. What were the several Opinions passed upon her B. The Doctor tells you the Popish Party said the Justice of God was visible that she who had supplanted Queen Katherine met with the like measure he means by Jane Seymour Some took notice of her faint justifying her self on the Scaffold as if her Conscience had then prevailed so far that she could no longer deny a thing for which she was so soon to Answer at another Tribunal But others thought her care of her Daughter made her speak so tenderly for she had observed that Queen Katherines obstinacy had drawn the King's Indignation on Lady Mary Therefore she spoke in a stile says the Doctor that could give the King no just offence page 206. He proceeds Some have since that time concluded it a great Evidence of her Guilt that during her Daughters Queen Elisabeths long and glorious Reign there was no full nor compleat Vindication of her publisht For the Writers of that time thought it enough to speak honorably of her and in general to call her Innecent but none of them ever at tempted a clear discussion of the particulars laid to her Charge This had been much to her Daughters Honour saith Dr. Burnet and therefore since it was not done others concluded it could not be done and that their knowledge of her Guilt restrained their Pens But others do not at all allow of that Inference and think rather that it was the great Wisdom of that time not to suffer such things to be called in question therefore it was prudently done of that Queen Elisabeth and her great Ministers not to suffer any Vindication or Apology to be written c. Some Indiscretions saith the Doctor could not be denied p. 207. 1. vel that is 't is confest on all hands that Ann Bolen went to the very brink of Dishonesty A. Is there nothing else of her that is memorable B. King Henry advanced her says Heylin to the Title of Marchioness of Pembroke on the first of September 1532. assigning her a Pension of a Thousand pounds per annum out of the Bishop rick of Durham History of Reform p. 261. The new Queen considering that the Pope
Light he cannot but know him He is like the Devil in his doings for the Devil said to Christ if thou wilt fall down and worship me I will give thee all the Kingdoms of the World even so the Bishop of Rome giveth Princes their Crowns being none of his own Christ saith that Antichrist shall be and who shall he be Forsooth he that advanceth himself above all other Creatures Now if there be none other that hath advanced himself after such manner besides the Pope he forgot Mahomet then in the mean time let him be Antichrist I say the Bishop of Rome treadeth under Foot God's Laws and the Kings c. Fox 3 Vol. page 653 and 661. A. This was strange stuff coming from the Metropolitan of a Nation B. But Fox admires it and adds this marginal Note the Pope proved Antichrist NOTE Cranmer little thought that in less then one Century after his Death his Protestant Successors in the See of Canterbury should be turn'd out of doors as the Limbs and Feet of that great Antichrist the Pope and that by vertue of his own dear Principle of Reformation the Scripture interpreted according to every Man's Judgment of Discretion I have seen a Book entituled The Souldiers Catechism composed for the Parliaments Army published in the year 1644 where this among other Questions being put What is it that you chiefly aim at in this War against the King The Answer is 1. At the pulling down of Babylon and rewarding her as she hath served us Psal 137.8 2. At the suppression of an Antichristian Prelacy consisting of Archbishops Bishops Deans c. 3. At the Reformation of a most corrupt lazy infamous superstitious soul-murdering Clergy 4. At the advancement of Christ's Kingdom and the purity of his Ordinances 5. At the bringing to Justice the Enemies of our Church and State. 6. At the preservation and continuance of the Gospel to our Posterity And to this Question Is it not a lamentable thing that Christians of the same Nation should thus imbrue their Hands in one anothers Blood The Answer is I confess it is but as the case now stands there is an inevitable and absolute necessity of fighting laid upon the good People of the Land. 2. The whole Church of God calls upon us to come into the help of the Lord and his People against the Mighty 3. We are not now to look at our enemies as Country Men or Kinsmen or fellow Protestants but as the Enemies of God and our Religion and Siders with Antichrist and so our eye is not to pity them nor our Sword to spare them Jerem. 48.10 And to this Question who do you think are the Authors and Occasioners of this unnatural War The Answer is the Jesuites those Fire-brands of mischief with all the Popish Party 2. The Bishops and the rotten Clergy with all the Prelatical Party c. This Book was printed in the year 1644. and licensed by James Cranford a Presbyterian Ringleader of those times In the Title page whereof you shall find these words viz. Written for the Instruction and Encouragement of all that have taken up Arms in the Cause of God and his People c. In which Book the Reader shall find them driving the Nail to the Head and expounding the Scripture against the Protestant Hierarchy just as Cranmer had done against the Pope and Church of Rome For you must know the time when Cranmer answered thus invectively against the Pope was the year 1556. the Parliament the National Church and Clergy of England being then actually reconciled to the Church of Rome as you may find both in Burnet and Fox so that his Authority for saying the Pope had brought in Gods of his own framing was then the very same with that of the Presbyterians anno 1644. for calling the English Bishops Antichrists namely the Scripture inter preted by himself A. It seems Cranmer was then a Schismatique as well from the established Church of England as Rome namely in the year 1556. B. Yes for Catholique Religion was then restored by Act of Parliament with all the Catholique Bishops who had been ejected by the Privy Council of Edward 6. So that I think it no easie matter to resolve you of what Church was Cranmer at that time a Lutheran he was not not yet a Calvinist nor of the Church of England then established by Law. A. His Church was then in Vtopia Go on to the rest of his Story B. Thus you shall find him answering to the Charge of Dr. Martyn viz. I will never consent to the Bishop of Rome so he would never consent to the Disinheriting of King Henrys Children for then should I give my self to the Devil I have made an Oath to the King and must obey the King by Gods Laws By the Scripture the King is Chief and no Foreign person in his own Realm above him There is no Subject but to a King. I am a Subject I ow my Fidelity to the Crown to the Lady Jane Grey the Pope is contrary the Crown I cannot obey both for no man can serve two Masters at once as you in the beginning of your Oration declared by the Sword and the Keys artributing the Sword to the King and the Keys to the Pope but I say the King hath both Therefore he that is subject to Rome and the Laws of Rome he is perjured c. Fox pag. 653. NOTE In his Opinion the King has both the Power of the Sword and of the Keys This must needs be a man after King Henrys own heart but if this Doctrine be true then Queen Mary had the Power of the Keys and our present Sovereign King James II. must have the same Power also He proceeds Now as concerning the Sacrament I have taught no false Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Altar For if it can be proved by any Doctor above a thousand years after Christ that Christs Body is there really I will give over My Book was made seven years ago and no man hath brought any Authors against it I believe that who so eateth and drinketh that Sacrament Christ is within them whole Christ his Nativity Passion Resurrection and Ascension but not that corporally that sitteth in Heaven Fox ibid. Here Dr. Story another of the Queens Proctors interrupted him saying Pleaseth it you to make an end To which he replyed Now I have declared why I cannot with my Conscience obey the Pope neither say I this for my Defence but to declare my Conscience for the Zeal that I bear to Gods Word trodden under foot by the Bishop of Rome See the rest in Fox pag. 654. Then Doctor Story stood up and said addressing himself to the Bishop of Glocester Pleaseth it your good Lordship because it hath pleased the King and Queens Majesty to appoint my Companion and me to hear the Examination of this man to give me leave somewhat to talk in that behalf although I know that in talk with Hereticks there
his Tryal pleaded strongly against the Statute that made it Treason to deny the Supremacy and argued that the King could not be Supream Head of the Church When he was brought to the Bar he pleaded Not Guilty but being found Guilty Judgment was given aganst him as a Traitor He received it with an equal Temper of Mind which he had shewed in both conditions of Life and then set himself wholly to prepare for Death He expressed great Contempt of the World and that he was weary of Life and long'd for Death which was so little terrible to him that his ordinary Facetiousness remained with him on the Scaffold It was censured by many as light and undecent but others said that way having been so natural to him on all other occasions it was not at all affected but shewed that Death did no way discompose him nor so much as put him out of his ordinary Humour Yet his rallying every thing on the Scaffold was thought to have more of the Stoick than the Christian in it After some time spent in secret Devotions he was beheaded on the sixth of July Thus dyed Sir Thomas More in the 53d year of his age He was a man of rare Vertues and excellent Parts In his youth he had freer thoughts of things as appears by his Vtopia and his Letters to Erasmus but afterwards he became superstitiously devoted says Burnet to the Interests and Passions of the Popish Clergy and as he served them when he was in Authority even to assist them in all their Cruelties so he employed his Pen in the same Cause both in writing against all the new Opinions in general and in particular against Tindall Frith and Barns He was no Divine at all if you believe Burnet and it is plain to any that reads his Writings that he knew nothing of Antiquity beyond the Quotations he found in the Canon Law and in the Master of the Sentences only he had read some of St. Austins Treatises For upon all points of Controversie he quotes only what he found in those Collections Nor was was he at all conversant in the critical Learning upon the Scriptures he did not care for the new fangled Conceits of the Reformers But his peculiar Excellency in writing was that he had a natural easie Expression and presented all the Opinions of Popery with their fair side to the Reader disguising or concealing the black side of them with great Art that is he did not understand or mistake Popery as Protestants do and was no less dextrous in exposing all the ill consequences that could follow on the Doctrine of the Reformers and had upon all occasions great store of pleasant Tales which he applied wittily to his purpose And in this consists the great strength of his Writings which were designed rather for the Rabble than for learned Men. But for Justice Contempt of Mony Humility and a true Generosity of Mind he was an Example to the Age in which he lived Burnets words pag 356. 1 vol. Second Edition The Bishop of Rochester had been a Prisoner above a year and was very severely used says Burnet he complained in his Letters to Cromwell then Secretary of State that he had neither Clothes nor Fire being then about fourscore years of age If he had kept his Opinion of the Kings Supremacy to himself they could not have proceeded further He would not do that but did upon several occasions speak against it So he was brought to his Tryal on the 17th of June The Lord Chancellor the Duke of Suffolk and some other Lords together with the Judges sate upon him by Commission of Oyer and Terminer He pleaded Not Guilty But being found Guilty Judgment passed on him to dye as a Traytor But he was by a Warrant from the King beheaded Upon the 22d of June being the day of his Execution he dressed himself with more than ordinary care and when his Man took notice of it he told him he was to be that day a Bridegroom As he was led to the place of Execution being stop'd in the way by the croud he opened his New Testament and prayed to this purpose that as that Book had been his Companion and chief Comfort in his Imprisonment so then some place might turn up to him that might comfort him in his last passage This being said he opened the Book at a venture in which these words of St. Johns Gospel turn'd up This is Life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent So he shut the Book with much satisfaction and all the way was reading and meditating on them When he came to the Scaffold he pronounced the Te Deum And after some other Devotions his Head was cut off Thus dyed Jon Fisher Bishop of Rochester in the 80th year of his age He was a learned and devour man says Burnet but much addicted to the Superstitions in which he had been bred up and that led him to great severities against all that opposed them He had been for many years Confessor to the Kings Grandmother the Countess of Richmond And it was believed that he persuaded her to those noble designs fer the Advancement of Learning of founding 2 Colledges in Cambridge St. Johns and Christs Colledge and Divinity Professors in both Universities And in acknowledgement of this he was chosen Chancellor of the University of Cambridge Henry 7. gave him the Bishoprick of Rochester which he following the rule of the primitive Church would never change for a better He used to say his Church was his Wife and he would never part with her because she was poor He continued in great Favour with Henry 8. till the business of the Divorce was set on foot and then he adhered so firmly to the Queens Cause and the Popes Supremacy that he was carried headlong into great Errors So Burnet after his petulant manner is pleased to character this good man pag. 354. 1. vol. But then adds Many thought the King ought to have proceeded against him rather upon that which was a point of State than upon the Supremacy which was matter of Conscienec but the King saith he was resolved to let all his Subjects see there was no Mercy to be expected by any that denyed his being Supreme Head of the Church and therefore made him and Sir Thomas More two Examples for terrifying the rest Burnet ibid. But the Courage and Christian Soul of this Bishop appears in those Speeches which he made in the House of Lords whereof there is no mention in Burnet Which for the primitive Simplicity and Honesty thereof I shall here transcribe out of Dr. Bayly's History The First Speech concerning the Demand of the Smaller Abbies for the Kings Use My Lords I Pray you to take good heed unto what you are doing lest you do you know not what For indeed the things that are demanded at our hands are not ours to grant nor theirs to whom we should bestow them