repealed and it was Enacted That from the first of May none should eat Flesh on Fridays Saturdays Ember-days in Lent or any other days that should be declared Fish-days under several Penalties A Proviso was added for excepting such as should obtain the Kings Licence or were sick or weak and that none should be indicted but within three Months after the Offence Christ had told his Disciples that when he should be taken from them then they should fast Accordingly the Primitive Christians used to fast oft more particularly before the Anniversary of the Passion of Christ which ended in a high Festivity at Easter Yet this was differently observed as to the number of days Some abstained 40 days in imitation of Christs Fast others only that Week and others had only an entire Fast from the time of Christs death till his Resurrection On these Fasts they eat nothing till the Evening and then they eat most commonly Herbs and Roots Afterwards the Fridays were kept as Fasts because on that day Christ suffered Saturdays were also added in the Roman Church but not without contradiction Ember-weeks came in afterwards being some days before those Sundays in which Orders were given And a General Rule being laid down that every Christian Festival should be preceded by a Fast thereupon the Vigils of Holy-days came though not so soon into the Number But this with the other good Institutions of the Primitive times became degenerate even in St. Austins time Religion came to be placed in these observances and anxious Rules were made about them Afterwards in the Church of Rome they were turned into a Mockery for as on Fast-days they dined which the Ancients did not so the use of the most delicious Fish drest in the most exquisite manner with the richest Wines that could be had was allowed which made it ridiculous So now they resolved to take off the severities of the former Laws and yet to keep up such Laws about Fasting and Abstinence as might be agreeable to its true end which is to subdue the Flesh to the Spirit and not to gratifie it by a change of one sort of diet into another which may be both more delicate and more inflaming So fond a thing is Superstition that it will help Men to deceive themselves by the slightest Pretences that can be imagined It was much lamented then and there is as much cause for it still that carnal Men have taken advantages from the abuses that were formerly practised to throw off good and profitable Institutions since the frequent use of Fasting with Prayer and true Devotion joyned to it is perhaps one of the greatest helps that can be devised to advance one to a spiritual temper of Mind and to promote a holy course of Life And the mockery that is discernable in the way of some Mens Fasting is a very slight excuse for any to lay aside the use of that which the Scriptures have so much recommended Some Bills were rejected There were other Bills put in into both Houses but did not pass One was for declaring it Treason to marry the Kings Sisters without consent of the King and his Council but it was thought that King Henry's Will disabling them from the Succession in that case would be a stronger restraint and so it was laid aside Another Bill was put in for Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Great Complaints were made of the abounding of Vices and Immoralities which the Clergy could neither restrain nor punish and so they had nothing left but to preach against them which was done by many with great freedom In some of these Sermons the Preachers expressed their apprehensions of signal and speedy Judgments from Heaven if the People did not repent but their Sermons had no great effect for the Nation grew very corrupt and this brought on them severe punishments The Temporal Lords were so jealous of putting power in Church-mens hands especially to correct those vices of which themselves perhaps were most guilty that the Bill was laid aside The pretence of opposing it was that the greatest part of the Bishops and Clergy were still Papists in their Hearts so that if Power were put into such Mens hands it was reasonable to expect they would employ it chiefly against those who favoured the Reformation and would vex them on that score though with Pretences fetched from other things A design for digesting the Common Law into a Body There was also put into the House of Commons a Bill for reforming of Processes at Common Law which was sent up by the Commons to the Lords but it fell in that House I have seen a large Discourse written then upon that Argument in which it is set forth that the Law of England was a barbarous kind of Study and did not lead Men into a finer sort of Learning which made the Common Lawyers to be generally so ignorant of Forreign Matters and so unable to negotiate in them therefore it was proposed that the Common and Statute Laws should be in imitation of the Roman Law digested into a Body under Titles and Heads and put in good Latin But this was too great a Design to be set on or finished under an Infant King If it was then necessary it will be readily acknowledged to be much more so now the Volume of our Statutes being so much swell'd since that time besides the vast number of Reports and Cases and the Pleadings growing much longer than formerly yet whether this is a thing to be much expected or desired I refer it to the learned and wise Men of that Robe The only Act that remains of this Session of Parliament The Admirals Attainder about which I shall inform the Reader is the Attainder of the Admiral The Queen Dowager that had married him died in September last not without suspition of Poison She was a good and vertuous Lady and in her whole Life had done nothing unseemly but the marrying him so indecently and so soon after the Kings death There was found among her Papers a Discourse written by her concerning her self entituled The Lamentation of a Sinner which was published by Cecil who writ a Preface to it In it she with great sincerity acknowledges the sinful course of her Life for many years in which she relying on External Performances such as Fasts and Pilgrimages was all that while a Stranger to the Internal and True Power of Religion which she came afterwards to feel by the study of the Scripture and the calling upon God for his Holy Spirit She explains clearly the Notion she had of Justification by Faith so that Holiness necessarily followed upon it but lamented the great scandal given by many Gospellers So were all these called who were given to the reading of the Scriptures She being thus dead The Queen Dowager dying he courted the Lady Eliz. the Admiral renewed his Addresses to the Lady Elizabeth but in vain for as he could not expect that his Brother and the Council
him he was now in the 16th Year of his Age. But if all Princes should be thus judged by all Instructions that pass under their Hands they would be more severely censured than there is cause And for the particular matter that is charged on the Memory of this young Prince which as it was represented to him was only a calling for the superfluous Plate and other Goods that lay in Churches more for pomp than for use though the applying of it to common uses except upon extream necessities is not a thing that can be justified yet it deserved not so severe a censure especially the Instructions being Signed by the King in his sickness in which it is not likely that he minded Affairs of that kind much but set his Hand easily to such Papers as the Council prepared for him These Instructions were directed in the Copy that I have perused Instructions for the President of the North. to the Earl of Shrewsbury Lord President of the North upon which occasion I shall here make mention of that which I know not certainly in what Year to place namely the Instructions that were given to that Earl when he was made President of the North. And I mention them the rather because there have been since that time some Contests about that Office and the Court belonging to it There was by his Instructions a Council to be assistant to him whereof some of the Members were at large and not bound to attendance others were not to leave him without licence from him and he was in all things to have a negative Voice in it For the other Particulars I refer the Reader to the Copy which he will find in the Collection Collection Number 56. One Instruction among them belongs to Religion that he and the other Councellors when there was at any time Assemblies of People before them should perswade them to be obedient chiefly to the Laws about Religion and especially concerning the Service set forth in their own Mother-Tongue There was also a particular charge given them concerning the abolished Power of the Bishop of Rome whose abuses they were by continual inculcation so to beat into the minds of the People that they might well apprehend them and might see that those things were said to them from their Hearts and not from their Tongues only for Forms sake They were also to satisfie them about the abrogation of many Holy-days appointed by the same Bishop who endeavoured to perswade the World that he could make Saints at his pleasure which by leading the People to idleness gave occasion to many vices and inconveniences These Instructions were given after the Peace was made with Scotland otherwise there must have been a great deal in them relating to that War but the Critical time of them I do not know This Year Harly was made Bishop of Hereford instead of Skip who died the last Year And he being the last of those who were made so by Letters Patents The Form of the Bishops Letters Patents I shall give the Reader some satisfaction concerning that way of making Bishops The Patents began with the mention of the vacancy of the See by death or removal upon which the King being informed of the good qualifications of such a one appoints him to be Bishop during his natural Life or so long as he shall behave himself well giving him power to ordain and deprive Ministers to confer Benefices judge about Wills name Officials and Commissaries exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction visit the Clergy inflict Censures and punish scandalous Persons and to do all the other parts of the Episcopal Function that were found by the Word of God to be committed to Bishops all which they were to execute and do in the Kings Name and Authority After that in the same Patent follows the restitution of the Temporalties The day after a Certificate in a Writ called a Significavit was to be made of this under the Great Seal to the Arch-bishop with a Charge to consecrate him The first that had his Bishoprick by the Kings Patents was Barlow that was removed from St. Davids to Bath and Wells They bear date the third of February in the second Year of the Kings Reign and so Ferrar Bishop of St. Davids was not the first as some have imagined for he was made Bishop the first of August that Year This Ferrar was a rash indiscreet Man and drew upon himself the dislike of the Prebendaries of St. Davids He was made Bishop upon the Duke of Somersets favour to him But last Year many Articles were objected to him some as if he had incurred a Praemunire for acting in his Courts not in the Kings but his own Name and some for neglecting his Charge and some little indecencies were objected to him as going strangely habited travelling on foot whistling impertinently with many other things which if true shewed in him much weakness and folly The heaviest Articles he denied yet he was kept in Prison and Commissioners were sent into Wales to examine Witnesses who took many Depositions against him He lay in Prison till Queen Maries time and then he was kept in on the account of his Belief But his suffering afterwards for his Conscience when Morgan who had been his chief Accuser before on those other Articles being then made his Judge condemned him for Heresie and made room for himself to be Bishop by burning him did much turn Peoples Censures from him upon his Successor By these Letters Patents it is clear that the Episcopal Function was acknowledged to be of Divine appointment and that the Person was no other way named by the King than as Lay-Patrons present to Livings only the Bishop was legally authorized in such a part of the Kings Dominions to execute that Function which was to be derived to him by Imposition of Hands Therefore here was no pretence for denying that such Persons were true Bishops and for saying as some have done that they were not from Christ but from the King Upon this occasion it will not be improper to represent to the Reader how this matter stands according to Law at this day which is the more necessary because some superficial Writers have either mis-understood or mis-represented it The Act that authorized those Letters Patents and required the Bishops to hold their Courts in the Kings Name was repealed both by the 1 Mar. Chap. 2. and 1 and 2 Phil. and Mary Chap. 8. The latter of these that repealed only a part of it was repealed by the 1 Eliz. Chap. 1. and the former by the 1 Jac. Chap. 25. So some have argued that since those Statutes which repealed this Act of Edward the 6th 1. Par. Chap. 2. are since repealed that it stands now in full force This seems to have some colour in it and so it was brought in question in Parliament in the fourth year of King James and great debate being made about it the King appointed the two Chief Justices
Address is turned to the Nobility warning them of the Danger of not only losing their Abbey Lands but all their Liberties and being brought under a Spanish Yoke which had ruined many of the best Countries in the World They are told they must resolve to come under heavy Taxes and a general Excise such as was in the Netherlands and that all this would come justly on them who had joined â—n the Reformation for base ends to get the Church Lands and now thinking those were secured to them forsook it but for all these things they were to answer heartily to God From them it turns to the People and exhorts them to repent of their great sins which had brought such Judgments on them and in the end begs the Queen will at least be as favourable to her own People as she had been to the Strangers to whom she allowed a free passage to Forreign Parts This Discourse is writ in a strong and good Style much beyond the rate of the other Books of that time Upon this some were set on work to write in defence of such Proceedings so a Book was set out about it with divers Arguments of which the substance follows They said The Jews were commanded to put Blasphemers to death and those Hereticks were such Arguments for persecuting Hereticks for they blasphemed the Sacrament of the Altar which was the Body of Christ and called it a piece of Bread They noted also that the Heathens had persecuted Christians and if they had that Zeal for their false Religion it became Christians to be much more zealous for theirs they made use of that Expression in the Parable Compel them to enter in and of St. Paul's I would they were cut off that trouble you They alleadged that St. Peter had by a Divine Power struck Ananias and Saphira dead which seemed a good Warrant for the Magistrate to put such Persons to Death They said that the Hereticks themselves were for Burning when they had Power and that those that died then by their hands had expressed as much Courage in their Deaths and Innocence in their Lives as they had ever done they cited St. Austin who was for prosecuting the Donatists and though he had been once of anothet mind yet finding Severities had a good effect on them he changed and was for fining or banishing of them These were the Arguments for and against those Proceedings But leaving them to the Reader 's Judgment I proceed in the History I intend not to write a pompous Martyrology and therefore hereafter I shall only name the Persons that suffered with the Reasons for which they were condemned but except in a very few Instances I shall not enlarge on the manner of their Trial and Sufferings which being so copiously done by Fox there is nothing left for any that comes after him In some private Passages which were brought to him upon flying Reports he made a few Mistakes being too credulous but in the Account he gives from Records or Papers he is a most exact and faithful Writer so that I could never find him in any prevarication or so much as a designed concealment He tells the Good and the Bad the Weakness and Passion as well as the Constancy and Patience of those good Men who sealed their Faith with their Blood who were not all equal in Parts nor in Discretion but the weaker any of them were it argued the more cruelty in their Persecutors to proceed so severely against such inconsiderable Persons The first Intermission being over on the 16th of March They proceed to burn more Thomas Thompkins a Weaver in Shorditch was burnt in Smithfield only for denying the corporal Presence of Christ in the Sacrament Bonner kept him many months in his House hoping to have wrought on him by fair means but those having no effect one day he tore out a great deal of the Hair of his Beard but to conceal that made his Beard be clean shaved And another time he held his hand in the Flame of the Candle so long till the Sinews and Veins shrunk and burst and spurted in Harpsfield's Face that was standing by who interposing with Bonner got him to give over any further cruelty at that time The next that suffered was one William Hunter of Brentwood an Apprentice of nineteen Years old who had been drawn on in discourse by a Priest till he brought him to deny the Presence in the Sacrament and then was accused by him His own Father was made to search for him to bring him to Justice but he to save his Father from trouble rendred himself Bonner offered him 40 l. if he would change so mercenary a thing did he think Conscience to be But he answered if they would let him alone he would keep his Conscience to himself but he would not change so he was condemned and sent to be burnt near his vvhere he suffered on the 20th of March. On the same day Causton and Higbed two Gentlemen of good Estates and great Esteem were burnt near their own Houses in Essex On the 28th of March William Pigot was burnt at Braintree and Stephen Knight at Malden and on the 29th John Lawrence a Priest Fathers House was burnt at Colchester In all their Processes the Bishops brought no Witnesses against them but did only exhibit Articles to them according to the vvay of those Courts called Ex Officio and required them to make Answers and upon their Answers which were judged Heretical they condemned them so that all this vvas singly for their Consciences without the pretence of any other Matter Ferrar Bishop of St. Davids condemned and burnt Ferrar that had been Bishop of St. David's being dealt with by Gardiner to turn and refusing to do it was sent down to Carmart hen where his Successor Morgan sat upon him and gave him Articles about the Marriage of Priests the Mass and some other things To which his Answers being found Heretical he was condemned He put in an Appeal to Cardinal Pool but it was not received Yet it seems that delayed the Execution till they heard from him for though he was condemned on the 13th he vvas not burnt before the 30th of March. About that time was Rawlins White an honest poor Fisher-man burnt at Cardiff it vvas in March but the day is not mentioned He vvas very Ancient and vvas put in Prison only because he had put his Son to School that he might hear the Bible read by him After a Years Imprisonment the Bishop of Landaff condemned him upon Articles to which he answered as an Heretick On the 24th of April George March a Priest vvas burnt at Ghester being judged as the others had been only at his Death there was a new Invention of Cruelty a Firkin of Pitch was hung over his Head that the Fire melting it it might scald his Head as it dropt on it One wounds a Priest at the Altar and is burnt for Heresy himself condemning his
Name who made that Testament was appointed to be struck out of the List of those Church-men who had died in the Faith and were remembred in the daily Offices Samosatenus is represented as one of the first eminent Church-men that involved himself much in Secular Cares Upon the Emperors turning Christian it was a natural effect of their Conversion for them to cherish the Bishops much and many of the Bishops became so much in love with the Court and publick Imployments that Canons were made against their going to Court unless they were called and the Canalis or Road to the Court was kept by the Bishop of Rome so that none might go without his Warrant Their medling in Secular Matters was also condemned in many Provincial Councils but most copiously and amply by the General Council at Chalcedon It is true the Bishops had their Courts for the Arbitration of Civil Differences which were first begun upon St. Pauls Epistle to the Corinthians against their going to Law before Unbelievers and for submitting their Sutes to some among themselves The Reasons of this ceased when the Judges in the Civil Courts were become Christians yet these Episcopal Audiences were still continued after Constantines time and their Jurisdiction was sometimes enlarged and sometimes abridged as there was occasion given St. Austin and many other Holy Bishops grew weary even of that and found that the hearing Causes as it took up much of their time so filled their Heads with thoughts of another nature than what properly belonged to them The Bishops of Rome and Alexandria taking advantage from the greatness and Wealth of their Sees began first to establish a Secular Principality of the Church and the Confusions that fell out in â—aly after the 5th Century gave the Bishops of Rome great opportunities for it which they improved to the utmost advantage The Revolutions in Spain gave a Rise to the Spanish Bishops medling much in all Civil Matters And when Charles the Great and his Son had given great Territories and large Jurisdictions to many Sees and Monasteries Bishops and Abbots came after that not only to have a share in all the publick Councils of most of the States of Europe to which their Lands gave them a Right but to be chiefly imployed in all Affairs and Offices of State The Ignorance of these Ages made this in a manner necessary and Church-Preferments were given as Rewards to Men who had served in the State in Embassies or in their Princes Courts of Justice So that it was no wonder if Men advanced upon that merit continued in their former Method and course of Life Thus the Bishops became for the greatest part only a sort of Men who went in peculiar Habits and upon some high Festivities performed a few Offices but for the Pastoral care and all the Duties incumbent on them they were universally neglected and that seriousness that abstraction from the World that application to Study and Religious Exercises and chiefly the care of Souls which became their Function seemed inconsistent with that course of Life which Secular Cares brought on Men who pursued them Nor was it easie to perswade the World that their Pastors did very much aspire to Heaven when they were thrusting themselves so indecently into the Courts of Princes or ambitiously pretending to the Administration of Matters of State and it was always observed that Church-men who assumed to themselves Imployments and an Authority that was excentrick to their Callings suffered so much in that Esteem and lost so much of that Authority which of right belonged to their Character and Office But to go on with the Series of Affairs There was all possible care taken to divert and entertain the Kings Mind with pleasing Sights as will appear by his Journal which it seems had the effect that was desired for he was not much concerned in his Unkles Preservation 1552. An Order was sent for beheading the Duke of Somerset on the 22d of January on which day he was brought to the Place of Execution on Tower-hill His whole deportment was very composed and no way changed from what it had ordinarily been he first kneeled down and prayed and then he spake to the People in these words The Duke of Somerset's Speech at his Execution Dearly beloved Friends I am brought here to suffer death albeit that I never offended against the King neither by word nor deed and have been always as faithful and true to this Realm as any Man hath been But for so much as I am by Law condemned to die I do acknowledge my self as well as others to be subject thereto Wherefore to testifie my obedience which I owe unto the Laws I am come hither to suffer death whereunto I willingly offer my self with most hearty thanks to God that hath given me this time of Repentance who might through sudden death have taken away my Life that neither I should have acknowledged him nor my self Moreover there is yet somewhat that I must put you in mind of as touching Christian Religion which so long as I was in Authority I always diligently set forth and furthered to my power neither repent I me of my doings but rejoice therein sith that now the State of Christian Religion cometh most near unto the Form and Order of the Primitive Church which thing I esteem as a great benefit given of God both to you and me most heartily exhorting you all that this which is most purely set forth to you you will with like thankfulness accept and embrace and set out the same in your living which thing if you do not without doubt greater mischief and calamity will follow DUX EDWARDUS SEIMERUS SOMERSETI R White sculp â—OY POUR DEVOâ— Angliae Protector Edwardi Regis Avunculus Capitruncatus 22 JaÌ„ 1552. Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in S. t Pauls Churchyard When he had gone so far there was an extraordinary noise heard as if some House had been blown up with Gun-powder which frighted all the People so that many run away they knew not for what and the Relator who tarried still says it brought into his remembrance the astonishment that the Band was in that came to take our Saviour who thereupon fell backwards to the ground At the same time Sir Ant. Brown came riding towards the Scaffold and they all hoped he had brought a Pardon upon which there was a general shouting Pardon Pardon God save the King many throwing up their Caps by which the Duke might well perceive how dear he was to the People But as soon as these disorders were over he made a Sign to them with his Hand to compose themselves and then went on in his Speech thus Dearly beloved Friends there is no such matter here in hand as you vainly hope or believe It seemeth thus good unto Almighty God whose Ordinance it is meet and necessary that we all be obedient to Wherefore I pray you all to be quiet
On the 31 Wiat was become 4000 strong and came near Southwark He came to Southwark On the 2d of February he fell into Southwark Some of his Company had a mind to have broken into Winchester-House and rob'd it but he threatned to hang any that should do it He was put in hope that upon his coming to Southwark London would have declared for him but in that he was deceived The Bridg was fortified so that he found it was not possible to force it Here he held a Council of War with his Officers some were for turning back into Kent to disperse a Body of Men that the Lord. Abergaveny had gathered together but he said That was a small Game The strength of their Party was in London and therefore it was necessary for him to be there as soon as he could for though they could not open the Bridg to him yet he was assured if he were on the other side many would come out to him Some were for crossing over to Essex where they heard the People were well-affected to them but they had not Boats enough so he marched to get over at Kingston-Bridg On the 4th they came to Kingston He crossed the Thames at Kingston where the Queen had ordered the Bridg to be cut but his Men repairing it he crossed the River that Night and though he lost much time by the mending of one of his Carriages that broke by the way he was at Hide-Park by nine of the Clock next Morning it being Ash-wednesday The Earl of Pembroke had gathered a good Body of Men to have fallen on him But is defeated for his Men were now in great disorder but they look'd on to let him cast himself into their hands He did not march by Holborn as some advised but came down to Charing-crass There the Lord Clinton fell in between the several Bodies of his Men and dispersed them so that he had not 500 left about him But with those that remained he passed through the Strand and Fleetstreet to Ludgate where he stopped in hope to have found the Gates opened to him That hope failing he returned back and being now out of all heart And taken was taken at Temple-Bar by a Herald All this while the Queen shewed great courage she would not stir out of Whitehall nor go by Water to the Tower as some advised her but went with her Women and Priests to her Devotions This was a Rebellion both raised and dispersed in as strange a maâ—mer as could have been imagined Wiat was a popular and stout Man but had not a Head for such an Undertaking otherwise the Government was so feeble that it had not been a difficult thing to have driven the Queen to great straits It was not at all raised upon pretence of Religion which according to the printed Account set out by the Queen's Order was not so much as once named And yet some of our own Writers say That Poinet Poinet was not in that Rebellion the late Bishop of Winchester was in it But this is certainly false for so many Prisoners being taken it is not to be imagined but this would have been found out and published to make that Religion more odious and we cannot think but Gardiner would have taken care that he should have been attainted in the following Parliament Christophorson soon after writ a Book against Rebellion in which he studies to fasten this Rising on the Preachers of the New Religion as he calls it and gives some presumptions that amount to no more but little flourishes of his Wit but never names this which had been a decisive proof So that it is but a groundless Fiction made by those who have either been the Authors or at least have laid down the Principles of all the Rebellions in the Christian World and yet would cast that blame on others and exempt themselves from it as if they were the surest Friends of Princes while they design to enslave them to a Forreign Power and will neither allow them to Reign nor to Live but at the mercy of the Head of that Principality to which all other Powers must bend or break if they meet with an Age that is so credulous and superstitious as to receive their Dictates This raw and soon-broken Rebellion was as lucky to Gardiner and those who set on the Marriage as if they had projected it for now the People were much disheartned and their own Designs as much fortified since as some Fevers are Critical and cast out those Latent Distempers which no Medicines could effectually purge away and yet if they were not removed must in the end corrupt the whole Mass of Blood so in a weak Government to which the People are ill-affected ill-digested Rebellions raise the Prince higher and add as much Spirit to his Friends as they take from the Faction against him and give a Handle to do some things for which otherwise it were not easy either to find Colours or Instruments One effect of this was the proceeding severely against the Lady Jane and her Husband The L. Jane and her Husband executed the Lord Guilford who both suffered on the 12th of Feburary The Lady Jane was not much disordered at it for she knew upon the first Jealousie she must be the Sacrifice and therefore had now lived six months in the continual meditations of Death Fecknam afterwards Abbot of Westminster was sent to her by the Queen three days before to prepare her to Die He had a long conversation with her But she answered him with that calmness of Mind and clearness of Reason that it was an astonishing thing to hear so young a Person of her Sex and Quality look on Death so near her with so little disorder and talk so sensibly both of Faith and Holiness of the Sacrament the Scriptures and the Authority of the Church Fecknam left her seeing he could work nothing on her But procured as is said the continuance of her Life three days longer and waited on her on the Scaffold She writ to her Father to moderate his Grief for her Death which must needs have been great since his Folly had occasioned it She expressed her sense of her Sin Her preparation for Death in assuming the Royal Dignity though he knew how unwillingly she was drawn to it and that in her Royal Estate her enforced Honour had never defiled her innocent Heart She rejoiced at her approaching End since nothing could be to her more welcome than to be delivered from that Valley of Misery into that Heavenly Throne to which she was to be advanced where she prayed that they might meet at last There was one Harding that had been her Father's Chaplain and that was a zealous Preacher in King Edward's Days before whose Death he had animated the People much to prepare for Persecution and never to depart from the Truth of the Gospel but he had now fallen away himself To him she
Deputies from the Towns one from every Town only Edenburgh sends two were the third Estate Anciently all that held Lands of the Crown were summoned to Parliaments as well the greater as the lesser Barons But in King James the first 's time the lesser Barons finding it a great charge to attend ou such Assemblies desired to be excused from it and procured an Act of Parliament exempting them and giving them power to send from every County two three four or more to represent them but they afterwards thought this rather a Charge than a Priviledge and did not use it so that now the second Estate consisted only of the Nobility But the Gentry finding the prejudice they suffered by this and that the Nobility grew too absolute procured by King James the sixth's favour an Act of Parliament restoring them to that Right of sending Deputies two from every County except some small Counties that send only one But according to the Ancient Law none has a Vote in the Elections but those who hold Lands immediately of the Crown of such a value The difference between a Parliament and a Convention of Estates is that the former must be summoned forty days before it sits and then it meets in State and makes Laws which are to be prepared by a Committee of all the Estates called the Lords of the Articles but a Convention may be called within as few days as are necessary for giving notice to all parts of the Nation to make their Elections They have no Power of making Laws being only called for one particular Emergent which during the division of the Island was chiefly upon the breaking out of War betwixt the two Nations and so their Power was confined to the giving of Money for the occasion which then brought them together In the Convention now held after much debate and opposition whether they should consent to the demand made by the Ambassador sent from France it was carried that the Dolphin should be acknowledged their King great assurances being given that this should be only a bare Title and that he should pretend to no Power over them So the Earl of Argile and the Prior of St. Andrews who had been the main sticklers for the French Interest upon the promises that the Queen Regent made them that they should enjoy the free exercise of their Religion were appointed to carry the Matrimonial Crown into France But as they were preparing for their Journey a great revolution of Affairs fell out in England A Session of Parliament in England The Parliament met on the fifth of November On the seventh the Queen sent for the Speaker of the House of Commons and ordered him to open to them the ill condition the Nation was in for though there was a Treaty begun at Cambray yet it was necessary to put the Kingdom in a posture of defence in case it should miscarry But the Commons were now so dissatisfied that they could come to no resolution So on the 14th day of November the Lord Chancellor the Lord Treasurer the Duke of Norfolk the Earls of Shrewsbury and Pembroke the Bishops of London Winchester Lincoln and Carlisle the Viscount Mountacute the Lords Clinton and Howard came down to the House of Commons and sate in that place of the House where the Privy-Counsellors used to sit The Speaker left his Chair and he with the Privy-Counsellors that were of the House came and sate on low Benches before them The Lord Chancellor shewed the necessity of granting a Subsidy to defend the Nation both from the French and the Scots When he had done the Lords withdrew but though the Commons entred both that and the two following days into the debate they came to no issue in their Consultations The Queen had never enjoyed her health perfectly since the false conception that was formerly spoken of The Queens sickness upon which followed the neglect from her Husband and the despair of Issue that encreased her Melancholly and this receiving a great addition from the loss of Calais and the other misfortunes of this Year she by a long declination of Health and decay of her Spirits was now brought so low that it was visible she had not many days to live and a Dropsie coming on her put a conclusion to her unhappy Reign And death and unfortunate Life on the 17th of November in the 43d Year of her Age after she had reigned five Years four Months and eleven Days At the same time Cardinal Pool Cardinal Pool dies as if one Star had governed both their Nativities was also dying and his end being hastened by the Queens death he followed her within sixteen hours in the 59th Year of his Age. He left his whole estate to Aloisi Prioli a Noble Venetian with whom he had lived six and twenty years in so entire a friendship that as nothing could break it off so neither was any thing able to separate them from one anothers company Prioli being invited by Pope Julius to come and receive a Cardinals Hat preferred Pools company before it and as he had supplied him in his necessities in Italy so he left his Country now to live with him in England Pool made him his Executor But Prioli was of a more Noble temper than to enrich himself by his Friends Wealth for as he took care to pay all the Legacies he left so he gave away all that remained reserving nothing to himself but Pools Breviary and Diary And indeed the Cardinal was not a Man made to raise a Fortune being by the greatness of his Birth and his excellent Vertues carried far above such mean designs He was a Learned His Character Modest Humble and good natured Man and had indeed such Qualities and such a Temper that if he could have brought the other Bishops to follow his Measures or the Pope and Queen to approve of them he might have probably done much to have reduced this Nation to Popery again But God designed better things for it so he gave up the Queen to the Bloody Councils of Gardiner and the rest of the Clergy It was the only thing in which she was not led by the Cardinal But she imputed his Opinion in that Particular rather to the sweetness of his Temper than to his Wisdom and Experience and he seeing he could do nothing of what he projected in England fell into a languishing first of his mind that brought after it a decay of his Health of which he died I have dwelt the more copiously on his Character being willing to deny to none of whom I write the Praises that are due to them and he being the only Man of that whole Party of whom I found any reason to say much good I was the more willing to enlarge about him to let the World see how little I am biassed in the account I give by Interest or Opinion So that if I have written sharply of any others that have been mentioned in
assurance of a great Army if it was necessary and charged the Lord Gray not to quit the Seige till the French were gone Ships were also sent to lye in the Frith to block them up by Sea The French apprehending the total loss of Scotland sent over Monluc Bishop of Valence to London to offer to restore Calais to the Queen of England if she would draw her Forces out of Scotland She gave him a quick Answer on the sudden her self that she did not value that Fish-Town so much as she did the quiet of Brittain But the French desiring that she could mediate a Peace between them and the Scots she undertook that and sent Secretary Cecil and D. Wotton into Scotland to conclude it As they were on the Way the Queen Regent died The Queen Regent of Scotland dies in the Castle of Edinburgh on the 10th of June She sent for some of the chief Lords before her Death and desired to be reconciled to them and asked them pardon for the Injuries she had done them She advised them to send both the French and English Souldiers out of Scotland and prayed them to continue in their Obedience to their Queen She also sent for one of their Preachers Willock and discoursed with him about her Soul and many other things and said unto him that she trusted to be saved only by the Death and Merits of Jesus Christ and so ended her Days which if she had done a Year sooner before these last Passages of her Life she had been the most universally lamented Queen that had been in any time in Scotland For she had governed them with great Prudence Justice and Gentleness and in her own Deportment and in the order of her Court she was an Example to the whole Nation but the Directions sent to her from France made her change her Measures break her Word and engage the Kingdom in War which rendred her very hateful to the Nation Yet she was often heard to say that if her Counsels might take place she doubted not to bring all things again to perfect Tranquillity and Peace The Treaty between England France and Scotland A Peace is concluded was soon after concluded The French were to be sent away within Twenty Days an Act of Oblivion was to be confirmed in Parliament the Injuries done to the Bishops and Abbots were referred to the Parliament Strangers and Church-men were no more to be trusted with the chief Offices a Parliament was to meet in August for the confirming of this During the Queen's absence the Nation was to be governed by a Council of Twelve of these the Queen was to name seven and the States five the Queen was neither to make Peace nor War but by the Advice of the Estates according to the Ancient Custom of the Kingdom The English were to return as soon as the French were gone and for the matter of Religion that was referred to the Parliament and some were to be sent from thence to the King and Queen to set forth thier desires to them and the Queen of Scotland was no more to use the Arms and Title of England All these Conditions were agreed to on the 8th of July and soon after both the French and English left the Kingdom In August thereafter the Parliament Reformation is setled in Scotland by Parliament met where four Acts passed one for the abolishing of the Pope's Power A second For the repealing of all Laws made in favour of the former Superstition A third For the punishing of those that said or heard Mass And the fourth was A Confirmation of the Confession of Faith which was afterwards ratified and inserted in the Acts of Parliament held Anno 1567. It was penned by Knox and agrees in almost all things with the Geneva Confession Of the whole Temporalty none but the Earl of Athol and the Lords Somervile and Borthick dissented to it They said they would believe as their Fathers had done before them The Spiritual Estate said nothing against it The Abbots struck in with the Tyde upon assurance that their Abbies should be converted to Temporal Lordships and be given to them Most of the Bishops seeing the Stream so strong against them complied likewise and to secure themselves and enrich their Friends or Bastards did dilapidate all the Revenues of the Church in the strangest manner that has ever been known and yet for most of all these Leases and Alienations they procured from Rome Bulls to confirm them pretending at that Court that they were necessary for making Friends to their Interest in Scotland Great numbers of these Bulls I my self have seen and read So that after all the noise that the Church of Rome had made of the Sacriledge in England they themselves confirmed a more entire waste of the Churches Patrimony in Scotland of which there was scarce any thing reserved for the Clergy But our Kings have since that time used such effectual endeavours there for the recovery of so much as might give a just encouragement to the Labours of the Clergy that universally the inferior Clergy is better provided for in no Nation than in Scotland for in Glebe and Tythes every Incumbent is by the Law provided with at least 50 l. Sterling a Year which in proportion to the cheapness of the Country is equal to twice so much in most parts of England But there are not among them such Provisions for encouraging the more Learned and deserving Men as were necessary When these Acts of the Scotish Parliament were brought into France to be confirmed they were rejected with much scorn so that the Scots were in fear of a new War Francis the 2d died But the King of France dying in the beginning of December all that Cloud vanished their Queen being now only Dowager of France and in very ill tearms with her Mother-in-Law Queen Katherine de Medici who hated her because she had endeavoured to take her Husband out of her Hands and to give him up wholly to the Counsels of her Uncles So she being ill used in France was forced to return to Scotland and govern there in such manner as the Nation was pleased to submit to Thus had the Queen of England separated Scotland entirely from the Interests of France and united it to her own And being engaged in the same Cause of Religion she ever after this had that influence on all Affairs there that she never received any disturbance from thence during all the rest of her glorious Reign In which other Accidents concurred to raise her to the greatest Advantages in deciding Forreign Contests that ever this Crown had In July after she came to the Crown Henry the Second of France The Civil Wars of France was unfortunately wounded in his Eye at a Tilting the Beaver of his Helmet not being let down so that he died of it soon after His Son Francis the Second succeeding was then in the 16th Year of his Age and assumed
Principality which his Unkle George had left him only on condition that he turned Papist notwithstanding which he got him to be possessed of it was made use of by the Emperor as the best Instrument to work his ends To him therefore he promised the Electoral Dignity with the Dominions belonging to the Duke of Saxe if he would assist him in the War against his Kinsman the present Elector and gave him assurance under his Hand and Seal That he would make no change in Religion but leave the Princes of the Ausburg Confession the free exercise of their Religion And thus the Emperor singled out the Duke of Saxe and the Landgrave from the rest reckoning wisely that if he once mastered them he should more easily overcome all the rest He pretended some other quarrels against them as that of the Duke of Brunswick who having begun a War with his Neighbours was taken Prisoner and his Dominions possessed by the Landgrave That with some old Quarrels was pretended the ground of the War Upon which the Princes published a Writing to shew that it was Religion only and a secret design to subdue Germany that was the true cause of the War and those alledged were sought Pretences to excuse so infamous a breach of Faith and of the publick Decrees that the Pope who designed the destruction of all of that Confession had set on the Emperor to this who easily laid hold on it that he might master the liberty of Germany Therefore they warned all the Princes of their danger The Emperors Forces being to be drawn together out of several Places in Italy Flanders Burgundy and Boheme they whose Forces lay nearer had a great advantage if they had known how to use it 1546. June The Elector and Landgrave arm For in June they brought into the Field 70000 Foot and 15000 Horse and might have driven the Emperor out of Germany had they proceeded vigorously at first But the divided Command was fatal to them for when one was for Action the other was against it So they lost their opportunity and gave the Emperor time to gather all his Forces about him which were far inferior to theirs in strength but the Emperor gained by time whereas they who had no great Treasure lost much All the Summer and a great deal of the Winter was spent without any considerable Action though the two Armies were oft in view one of another 1546. Jul. 20. Duke of Saxe and Landgrave proscribed But in the beginning of the Winter the Emperor having proscribed the Duke of Saxe and promised to bestow the Principality on Maurice he fell into Saxony and carried a great many of the Cities which were not prepared for any such impression Nov. 23. The Elector returns into Saxony This made the Duke separate his Army and return to the defence of his own Country which he quickly recovered and drove Maurice almost out of all his own Principality The States of Boheme also declared for the Elector of Saxony This was the state of Affairs there The Princes thought they had a good Prospect for the next Year having mediated a Peace between the Crowns of England and France 1546. Jan. 7. Peace concluded between England and France whose Forces falling into Flanders must needs have bred a great distraction in the Emperors Councils But King Henry's death gave them great apprehensions and not without cause For when they sent hither for an Aid in Money to carry on the War the Protector and Council saw great dangers on both hands if they left the Germans to perish the Emperor would be then so lifted up that they might expect to have an uneasie Neighbour of him on the other hand it was a thing of great consequence to engage an Infant King in such a War Therefore their Succours from hence were like to be weak and very slow Howsoever the Council ordered Paget to assure them that within three or four Months they should send 50000 Crowns to their assistance which was to be covered thus The Merchants of the Still-yard were to borrow so much of the King and to engage to bring home Stores to that value they having the Money should send it to Hamburg and so to the Duke of Saxe But the Princes received a second Blow in the loss of Francis the first of France Who having lived long in a familiarity and friendship with King Henry not ordinary for Crowned Heads was so much affected with the news of his death that he was never seen cheerful after it He made Royal Funeral Rites to be performed to his memory in the Church of Nostredame to which the Clergy who one would have thought should have been glad to have seen his Funerals Celebrated in any fashion were very averse But that King had emancipated himself to a good degree from a servile subjection to them and would be obeyed He out-lived the other not long 1557. Mar. 31. Francis I. died for he died the last of March He was the chief Patron of Learned Men and advancer of Learning that had been for many Ages He was generally unsuccessful in his Wars and yet a great Commander At his death he left his Son an Advice to beware of the Brethren of Lorain and to depend much on the Councellors whom he had employed But his Son upon his coming to the Crown did so deliver himself up to the charms of his Mistress Diana that all things were ordered as Men made their Court to her which the Ministers that had served the former King scorning to do and the Brothers of the House of Lorain doing very submissively the one were discharged of their employments and the other governed all the Councils Francis had been oft fluctuating in the business of Religion Sometimes he had resolved to shake off the Popes Obedience and set up a Patriarch in France and had agreed with Henry the 8th to go on in the same Councils with him But he was first diverted by his Alliance with Clement the 7th and afterwards by the Ascendant which the Cardinal of Tournon had over him who engaged him at several times into severities against those that received the Reformation Yet he had such a close Eye upon the Emperors motions that he kept a constant good understanding with the Protestant Princes and had no doubt assisted them if he had lived But upon his death new Councils were taken the Brothers of Lorain were furiously addicted to the Interests of the Papacy one of them being a Cardinal who perswaded the King rather to begin his Reign with the recovery of Bulloine out of the hands of the English So that the state of Germany was almost desperate before he was aware of it And indeed the Germans lost so much in the death of these two Kings upon whose assistance they had depended that it was no wonder they were easily over-run by the Emperor Some of their Allies the Cities of Vlm and Frankfort and the Duke of
should be sent to the Admiral before the Bill should be put in against him to see what he could or would say All this was done to try if he could be brought to a Submission So the Lord Chancellor the Earls of Shrewsbury Warwick and Southampton and Sir John Baker Sir Tho. Cheyney and Sir Anth. Denny were sent to him He was long obstinate but after much perswasion was brought to give an Answer to the first three Articles which will be found in the Collection at the end of the Articles and then on a sudden he stopt and bade them be content for he would go no further and no entreaties would work on him either to answer the rest or to set his Hand to the Answers he had made On the 25th of Feb. the Bill was put in for attainting him The Bill passed in both Houses and the Peers had been so accustomed to agree to such Bills in King Henry's time that they did easily pass it All the Judges and the Kings Council delivered their Opinions that the Articles were Treason Then the Evidence was brought many Lords gave it so fully that all the rest with one Voice consented to the Bill only the Protector for natural pities sake as is in the Council-Book desired leave to withdraw On the 27th the Bill was sent down to the Commons with a Message That if they desired to proceed as the Lords had done those Lords that had given their Evidence in their own House should come down and declare it to the Commons But there was more opposition made in the House of Commons Many argued against Attainders in absence and thought it an odd way that some Peers should rise up in their Places in their own House and relate somewhat to the slander of another and that he should be thereupon attainted therefore it was pressed that it might be done by a Trial and that the Admiral should be brought to the Barr and be heard plead for himself But on the fourth of March a Message was sent from the King that he thought it was not necessary to send for the Admiral and that the Lords should come down and renew before them the Evidence they had given in their own House This was done and so the Bill was agreed to by the Commons in a full House judged about 400 and there were not above ten or twelve that voted in the negative The Royal Assent was given on the 5th of March. On the 10th of March the Council resolved to press the King that Justice might be done on the Admiral and since the Case was so heavy and lamentable to the Protector so it is in the Council-Book though it was also sorrowful to them all they resolved to proceed in it so that neither the King nor he should be further troubled with it After Dinner they went to the King the Protector being with them The King said he had well observed their Proceedings and thanked them for their great care of his safety and commanded them to proceed in it without further molesting him or the Protector and ended I pray you my Lords do so Upon this they ordered the Bishop of Ely to go to the Admiral and to instruct him in the things that related to another Life and to prepare him to take patiently his deserved Execution And on the 17th of March he having made report to them of his attendance on the Admiral the Council Signed a Warrant for his Execution which will be found in the Collection Collection Number 32. to which both the Lord Protector and the Arch-bishop of Canterbury set their Hands And on the 20th his Head was cut off March 20. The Admiral beheaded What his behaviour was on the Scaffold I do not find Thus fell Tho. Lord Seimour Lord high Admiral of England a Man of high thoughts of great violence of temper and ambitious out of measure Censures past upon it The Protector was much censured for giving way to his Execution by those who looked only at that relation between them which they thought should have made him still preserve him But others who knew the whole Series of the Affair saw it was scarce possible for him to do more for the gaining his Brother than he had done Yet the other being a Popular Notion that it was against Nature for one Brother to destroy another was more easily entertain'd by the Multitude who could not penetrate into the Mysteries of State But the way of Proceeding was much condemned since to attaint a Man without bringing him to make his own defence or to object what he could say to the Witnesses that were brought against him was so illegal and unjust that it could not be defended Only this was to be said for it that it was a little more regular than Parliamentary Attainders had been formerly for here the Evidence upon which it was founded was given before both Houses And on Cranmers signing the Warrant for his Execution One Particular seemed a little odd that Cranmer Signed the Warrant for his Execution which being in a Cause of Blood was contrary to the Canon Law In the Primitive Times Church-men had only the Cure of Souls lying on them together with the reconciling of such differences as might otherwise end in Suits of Law before the Civil Courts which were made up of Infidels When the Empire became Christian these Judgments which they gave originally on so charitable an account were by the Imperial Laws made to have great Authority but further than these or the care of Widows and Orphans they were forbid both by the Council of Chalcedon and other lesser Councils to meddle in Secular Matters Among the Endowments made to some Churches there were Lands given where the Slaves according to the Roman Law came within the Patrimony of these Churches and by that Law Masters had Power of Life and Death over their Slaves Laws against Church-mens medling in Matters of Blood In some Churches this Power had been severely exercised even to maiming and death which seemed very indecent in a Church-man Besides there was an Apprehension that some severe Church-men who were but Masters for life might be more profuse of the Lives of such Slaves than those that were to transmit them to their Families Therefore to prevent the wast that would be made in the Churches Patrimony it was agreed on that Church-men should not proceed capitally against any of their Vassals or Slaves And in the Confusions that were in Spain the Princes that prevailed had appointed Priests to be Judges to give the greater reputation to their Courts This being found much to the prejudice of the Church it was decreed in the fourth Council of Toledo that Priests who were chosen by Christ to the Ministry of Salvation should not judge in Capital Matters unless the Prince should swear to them that he would remit the punishment and such as did otherwise were held guilty of Blood-shedding and were to
lessen the credit of those who had suffered formerly for it was said they saw now that Men of harmless Lives might be put to death for Heresie by the confâ—ssion of the Reformers themselves And in all the Books published in Queen Maries days justifying her severity against the Protestants these Instances were always made use of and no part of Cranmers Life exposed him more than this did This was much censured It was said he had consented both to Lamberts and Anne Askews death in the former Reign who both suffered for Opinions which he himself held now and he had now procured the death of these two Persons and when he was brought to suffer himself afterwards it was called a just retalliation on him One thing was certain that what he did in this matter flowed from no cruelty of temper in him no Man being further from that black disposition of Mind but it was truly the effect of those Principles by which he governed himself Disputes concerning the Baptism of Infants For the other sort of Anabaptists who only denied Infants Baptism I find no severities used to them but several Books were written against them to which they wrote some Answers It was said that Christ allowed little Children to be brought to him and said of such was the Kingdom of Heaven and blessed them Now if they were capable of the Kingdom of Heaven they must be regenerated for Christ said none but such as were born of Water and of the Spirit could enter into it St. Paul had also called the Children of believing Parents Holy which seemed to relate to such a consecration of them as was made in Baptism And Baptism being the Seal of Christians in the room of Circumcision among the Jews it was thought the one was as applicable to Children as the other And one thing was observed that the whole World in that Age having been baptized in their Infancy if that Baptism was nothing then there were none truly baptized in being but all were in the state of meer Nature Now it did not seem reasonable that Men who were not baptized themselves should go and baptize others and therefore the first Heads of that Sect not being rightly baptized themselves seemed not to act with any Authority when they went to baptize others The Practice of the Church so early begun and continued without dispute for so many Ages was at least a certain confirmation of a thing which had to speak moderately so good foundations in Scripture for the lawfulness though not any peremptory but only probable Proof for the practice of it These are all the Errors in Opinion that I find were taken notice of at this time There was another sort of People The Doctrine of Predestination much abused of whom all the good Men in that Age made great complaints Some there were called Gospellers or Readers of the Gospel who were a scandal to the Doctrine they professed In many Sermons I have oft met with severe Expostulations with these and heavy Denunciations of Judgments against them But I do not find any thing objected to them as to their belief save only that the Doctrine of Predestination having been generally taught by the Reformers many of this Sect began to make strange Inferences from it reckoning that since every thing was decreed and the Decrees of God could not be frustrated therefore Men were to leave themselves to be carried by these Decrees This drew some into great impiety of Life and others into desperation The Germans soon saw the ill effects of this Doctrine Luther changed his mind about it and Melancthon openly writ against it and since that time the whole stream of the Lutheran Churches has run the other way But both Calvin and Bucer were still for maintaining the Doctrine of these Decrees only they warned the People not to think much of them since they were Secrets which Men could not penetrate into but they did not so clearly shew how these consequences did not flow from such Opinions Hooper and many other good Writers did often dehort People from entring into these curiosities and a Caveat to that same purpose was put afterwards into the Article of the Church about Predestination One ill effect of the dissoluteness of Peoples manners broke out violently this Summer occasioned by the Inclosing of Lands Tumults in England While the Monasteries stood there were great numbers of People maintained about these Houses their Lands were easily let out and many were relieved by them But now the Numbers of the People encreased much Marriage being universally allowed they also had more time than formerly by the abrogation of many Holy-days and the putting down of Processions and Pilgrimages so that as the Numbers encreased they had more time than they knew how to bestow Those who bought in the Church-Lands as they every where raised their Rents of which old Latimer made great Complaints in one of his Court Sermons so they resolved to enclose their Grounds and turn them to Pasture for Trade was then rising fast and Corn brought not in so much Money as Wooll did Their Flocks also being kept by few Persons in Grounds so enclosed the Landlords themselves enjoyed the profit which formerly the Tenants made out of their Estates and so they intended to force them to serve about them at any such rates as they would allow By this means the Commons of England saw they were like to be reduced to great misery This was much complained of and several little Books were written about it Some proposed a sort of Agrarian Law that none might have Farms above a set value or Flocks above a set number of 2000 Sheep which Proposal I find the young King was much taken with as will appear in one of the Discourses he wrote with his own Hand It was also represented that there was no care taken of the educating of Youth except of those who were bred for Learning and many things were proposed to correct this but in the mean time the Commons saw the Gentry were like to reduce them to a very low condition The Protector seemed much concerned for the Commons and oft spoke against the oppression of Landlords He was naturally just and compassionate and so did heartily espouse the Cause of the poor People which made the Nobility and Gentry hate him much The former year the Commons about Hampton-Court petitioned the Protector and Council complaining that whereas the late King in his Sickness had enclosed a Park there to divert himself with private easie Game the Deer of that Park did overlay the Country and it was a great burden to them and therefore they desired that it might be disparked The Council considering that it was so near Windsor and was not useful to the King but a charge rather ordered it to be disparked and the Deer to be carried to Windsor but with this Proviso that if the King when he came of Age desired to have
Church received that Sacrament frequently and in both kinds To the sixth Baptism in Cases of necessity was to be administred at any time but out of these Cases it was fit to do it solemnly and in the Ancient Church it was chiefly done on the Eves of Easter and Whit-Sunday of which usage some Footsteps remained still in the old Offices To the seventh these were late superstitious devices Images were contrary to the Scriptures first set up for remembrance but soon after made Objects of Worship To the eight The old Service had many ludicrous things in it the new was simple and grave If it appeared ridiculous to them it was as the Gospel was long ago foolishness to the Greeks To the ninth The Scriptures say nothing of it it was a superstitious Invention derogatory to Christs death To the tenth The Scriptures are the Word of God and the readiest way to confound that which is Heresie indeed To the eleventh These were ignorant superstitious and deceitful Persons To the twelfth Pool had been attainted in Parliament for his spiteful Writings and Doings against the late King To the thirteenth It was foolish and unreasonable one Servant could not do a Man's business and by this many Servants would want employment To the fourteenth This was to rob the King and those who had these Lands of him and would be a means to make so foul a Rebellion be remembred in their Prayers To the fifteenth These were notorious Traitors to whom the Kings Council was not to submit themselves After this they grew more moderate and sent eight Articles They make new Demands 1. Concerning Baptism 2. About Confirmation 3. Of the Mass 4. For reserving the Host 5. For Holy Bread and Water 6. For the old Service 7. For the single Lives of Priests 8. For the Six Articles and concluded God save the King for they were His both Body and Goods To this there was an Answer sent in the Kings Name on the 8th of July so long did the Treaty with them hold in which Which were also rejected after Expressions of the Kings affection to his People he taxes their rising in Arms against him their King as contrary to the Laws of God He tells them That they are abused by their Priests as in the Instance of Baptism which according to the Book might necessity requiring it be done at all times that the Changes that had been set out were made after long and great consultation and the Worship of this Church by the advice of many Bishops and Learned Men was reformed as near to what Christ and his Apostles had taught and done as could be and all things had been setled in Parliament But the most specious thing that misled them being that of the Kings Age it was shewed them that his Blood and not his Years gave him the Crown and the state of Government requires that at all times there should be the same Authority in Princes and the same Obedience in the People It was all penned in a high threatning Style and concluded with an earnest Invitation of them to submit to the Kings Mercy as others that had risen had also done to whom he had not only shewed Mercy but granted Redress of their just grievances otherwise they might expect the utmost severity that Traitors deserved But nothing prevailed on this enraged Multitude whom the Priests inflamed with all the Artifices they could imagine and among whom the Host was carried about by a Priest on a Cart that all might see it But when this Commotion was thus grown to a Head The Rebellion in Norfolk headed by Ket a Tanner the Men of Norfolk rose the 6th of July being led by one Ket a Tanner These pretended nothing of Religion but only to suppress and destroy the Gentry and to raise the commons and to put new Councellors about the King They encreased mightily and became 20000 strong but had no Order nor Discipline and committed many horrid outrages The Sheriff of the County came boldly to them and required them in the Kings Name to disperse and go home but had he not been well mounted they had put him cruelly to death They came to Moushold Hill above Norwich and were much favoured by many in that City Parker afterwards Arch-bishop of Canterbury came among them and preached very freely to them of their ill Lives their Rebellion against the King and the Robberies they daily committed by which he was in great danger of his Life Ket assumed to himself the Power of Judicature and under an old Oak called from thence the Oak of Reformation did such Justice as might be expected from such a Judge and in such a Camp The Marquess of Northampton was sent against them but with Orders to keep at a distance from them and to cut off their Provisions for so it was hoped that without the shedding much Blood they might come to themselves again When the news of this Rising came into York-shire the Commons there rose also A Rising in York-shire being further encouraged by a Prophecy That there should be no King nor Nobility in England that the Kingdom should be ruled by four Governours chosen by the Commons who should hold a Parliament in commotion to begin at the South and North Seas This they applied to the Devon-shire Men on the South Seas and themselves on the North Seas They at their first rising fired Beacons and so gathered the Country as if it had been for the defence of the Coast and meeting two Gentlemen with two others with them they without any provocation murdered them and left their naked Bodies unburied The French fall into the Bullognese At the same time that England was in this Commotion the News came that the French King had sent a great Army into the Territory of Bulloigne so that the Government was put to most extraordinary straits A Fast at Court where Cranmer preached Ex MS. Col. C. C. Cantab. There was a Fast proclaimed in and about London Cranmer preached on the Fast-day at Court I have seen the greatest part of his Sermon under his own Hand and it is the only Sermon of his I ever saw It is a very plain unartificial Discourse no shews of Learning or conceits of Wit in it but he severely expostulated in the Name of God with his Hearers for their ill Lives their Blasphemies Adulteries mutual Hatred Oppression and Contempt of the Gospel and complained of the slackness in punishing these sins by which the Government became in some sort guilty of them He set many Passages of the Jewish Story before them of the Judgments such sins drew on and of Gods Mercy in the unexpected deliverances they met with upon their true Repentance But he chiefly lamented the scandal given by many who pretended a zeal for Religion but used that for a Cloak to disguise their other Vices He set before them the fresh Example of Germany where People generally
Blessing which otherwise attends on such Dedications And it had been happy for the Church if all those that are authorized to confer Orders had stood on this more critically and not been contented with a bare putting these Questions to those who come to be ordained but had used a due strictness before hand sutable to that grave admonition of St. Pauls to Timothy Lay Hands suddenly on no Man and be not partaker of other Mens sins In the Sponsions made by the Priests they bind themselves to teach the People committed to their charge to banish away all erroneous Doctrines and to use both publick and private Monitions and Exhortations as well to the Sick as the Whole within their Cures as need shall require and as occasion shall be given Such as remember that they have plighted their Faith for this to God will feel the Pastoral Care to be a Load indeed and so be far enough from relinquishing it or hiring it out perhaps to a loose or ignorant Mercenary These are the blemishes and scandals that lie on our Church brought on it partly by the corruption of some Simoniacal Patrons but chiefly by the negligence of some and the faultiness of other Clergy-men Which could never have lost so much ground in the Nation upon such trifling accounts as are the Contests since raised about Ceremonies if it were not that the People by such palpable faults in the Persons and behaviour of some Church-men have been possessed with prejudices first against them and then upon their account against the whole Church so that these corrupt Church-men are not only to answer to God for all those Souls within their charge that have perished through their neglect but in a great degree for all the mischief of the Schism among us to the nourishing whereof they have given so great and palpable occasion The importance of those things made me judge they deserved this digression from which I now turn to other Affairs The Business of Bulloigne lay heavy on the Council The French had stopt all communication between Calais and it so that it was not easie to supply it from thence The Council to rid the Nation of the Forreigners sent them all to Calais with 3000 English and resolved to force a way through if it came to extremities but at this time both the French and English were well disposed to a Peace The King of France knew the Emperor intended to go into Germany next Summer so he longed to be at liberty to wait on his Motions It is resolved to deliver Bulloigne to the French The English Council that opposed the delivery of Bulloigne chiefly to throw off the Duke of Somerset that being done were all convinced that it was not worth the cost and danger of a War only they stood on the indecency of yielding it especially they having raised such clamours against the Protector when he went about the delivering it up So they made great shews of preparations to defend it but at the same time were not unwilling to listen to Propositions of Peace One Guidotti a Florentine that lived in England was employed by the Constable of France Mountmorancy to set on a Treaty yet he was to do it without owning he had any orders from that King He went often to and again between Paris and London and at last it was resolved on both sides that there should be a Treaty Pope Paul the third dies But at this time there was a great change of Affairs in Italy Pope Paul the third having held that See fifteen years died the 10th of November in the 82d Year of his Age much broken in mind at the calamity of his Family the killing of his Son the loss of Placentia and the ingratitude of his Grand-child Upon his death all the Cardinals being gathered from Bollogna Trent and other neighbouring Places entred the Conclave where one that is to have such a share in the following part of this Work was so much concerned that it will be no impertinent digression to give an account of it There were great animosities between the Imperialists and the French Cardinal Farnese had also many Votes that followed him so that these three Factions were either of them strong enough to exclude any that was unacceptable to them Cardinal Pool was elected Pope Cardinal Pool was set up by Farnese as a moderate Imperialist who had carried it so well at Trent that they saw he would not blindly follow the Emperor He had lived many years at Viterbo where he was made Legate after he had given over his Practices against England There he gave himself wholy to the Study of Divinity not without some imputations of favouring Heresie For one Antonio Flaminio that was also suspect of Lutheranisme lived with him Tremellius that learned Jew who had been Baptized in his House was also known to incline that way and many who left their Monasteries and went to Germany used to stay some time with him on their way and were well received by him nor would he proceed against any suspected of Heresie There was causes enough to raise suspicion in a less jealous People than Italians Yet the vast zeal that he had shewn for the exaltation of the Papacy made all those things be over-looked He was sent one of the Popes Legates to Trent where he asserted the German Doctrine of Justification by Faith But upon the Emperors setting out the Interim he wrote freely against it He was indeed a Man of an easie and generous temper but much in the Power of those whom he loved and trusted Farnese therefore looking on him as one that would be governed by him and that was acceptable to the Imperialists and not much hated by the French the Cardinal of Guise being his Friend resolved to promote him and by the scrutiny they made it was found that they were within two of the number that was requisite But he seemed so little concerned at it himself that he desired them not to make too much hast in a thing of that nature for that dignity was rather to be undertaken with fear than to be ambitiously desired The Cardinals who had heard of such things among the Ancient Romans but had seen few such modern Instances and who valued Men by nothing more than their ambitious aspiring imputed this either to dullness or hypocrisie He himself seemed nothing affected with it and did not change his behaviour and carried it with an equality of mind that became one who had divided his time between Philosophy and Divinity Caraffa that hated him did all he could to alienate the Conclave from him he objected to him not only Heresie but also the suspition of incontinence since he bred up a Nun who was believed to be his Daughter Of these things he coldly purged himself he shew'd that he had suffered so much on the account of Religion in his own Country that he was beyond the suspition of Heresie and he proved that
silent only after long intervals cried out sometimes Chastise me Lord but throw me not off in mine old Age. He was by order from Cranmer and Sir John Cheek buried with the highest Solemnities that could be devised to express the value the University had for him The Vice-Chancellor and all the Graduates and the Major with all the Town accompanied his Funeral to St. Maries where after Prayers Haddon the University Orator made such a Speech concerning him and pronounced it with that affection that almost the whole Assembly shed Tears Next Dr. Parker that had been his most intimate Friend made an English Sermon in his praise and concerning the sorrowing for our departed Friends And the day following Dr. Redmayn then Mr. of Trinity Colledge made another Sermon concerning Death and in it gave a full account of Bucers Life and Death He particularly commended the great sweetness of his temper to all but remarkably to those who differed from him Redmayn and he had differed in many things both concerning Justification and the Influences of the Divine Grace But he said as Bucer had satisfied him in some things so he believed if he had lived he had satisfied him in more and that he being dead he knew none alive from whom he could learn so much This Character given him by so grave and learned a Man who was in many Points of a different perswasion from him was a great commendation to them both And Redmayn was indeed an extraordinary Person All in the University that were eminent either in Greek or Latin Poetry did adorn his Coffin with Epitaphs in which they expressed a very extraordinary sense of their loss about which one Carr writ a copious and passionate Letter to Sir John Cheek But Peter Martyr bore his death with the most sensible sorrow that could be imagined having in him lost a Father and the only intimate Friend he had in England His Character He was a very learned judicious pious and moderate Person Perhaps he was inferior to none of all the Reformers for Learning but for Zeal for true Piety and a most tender care of preserving Unity among the Forreign Churches Melancthon and he without any injury done the rest may be ranked a-part by themselves He was much opposed by the Popish Party at Cambridge who though they complied with the Law and so kept their Places yet either in the way of Argument as it had been for disputes sake or in such Points as were not determined set themselves much to lessen his esteem Nor was he furnished naturally with the quickness that is necessary for a Dispute from which they studied to draw advantages and therefore Peter Martyr writ to him to avoid all publick Disputes with them For they did not deal candidly on these occasions They often kept up their Questions till the hour of the Dispute that so the extemporary faculty of him who was to preside might be the more exposed and right or wrong they used to make Exclamations and run away with a Triumph In one of his Letters to Bucer he particularly mentions Dr. Smith for an Instance of this It was that Smith he said who writ against the Marriage of Priests and yet was believed to live in Adultery with his Mans Wife This Letter was occasioned by the Disputes that were in August the former Year between Bucer and Sedgwick Young and Pern about the Authority of the Scripture and the Church Which Disputes Bucer intending to publish caused them to be writ out and sent the Copy to them to be corrected offering them that if any thing was omitted that they had said or if they had any thing else to say which was forgot in the Dispute they might add it but they sent back the Papers to him without vouchsafing to read them At Ratisbone he had a Conference with Gardiner who was then King Henry's Ambassador in which Gardiner broke out into such a violent passion that as he spared no reproachful words so the Company thought he would have fall'n on Bucer and beat him he was in such disorder that the little Vein between his Thumb and Fore-finger did swell and palpitate which Bucer said he had never before that observed in any Person in his life But as Bucer was taken away by death Gardiner is deprived so Gardiner was soon after put out which was a kind of death though he had afterwards a Resurrection fatal to very many There was a Commission issued out to the Arch-bishop the Bishops of London Ely and Lincoln Secretary Petre Judge Hales Griffith and Leyson two Civilians and Goodrick and Gosnosd two Masters of Chancery to proceed against Gardiner for his contempt in the matters formerly objected to him He put in a Compurgation by which he endeavoured to shew there was malice born to him and Conspiracies against him as appeared by the Business of Sir Hen. Knevet mentioned in the former Part and the leaving him out of the late Kings Will which he said was procured by his Enemies He complained of his long Imprisonment without any Trial and that Articles of one sort after another were brought to him so that it was plain he was not detained for any Crime but to try if such usage could force him to do any thing that should be imposed on him He declared that what Order soever were set out by the Kings Council he should never speak against it but to the Council themselves and that though he could not give consent to the Changes before they were made he was now well satisfied to obey them but he would never make any acknowledgment of any fault The things chiefly laid against him were that being required he refused to preach concerning the Kings Power when he was under Age and that he had affronted Preachers sent by the King into his Diocess and had been negligent in obeying the Kings Injunctions and continued after all so obstinate that he would not confess his fault nor ask the King mercy His Crimes were aggravated by this that his timely asserting the Kings Power under Age might have been a great mean for preventing the Rebellion and Effusion of Blood which had afterwards happened chiefly on that pretence to which his obstinacy had given no small occasion Upon this many Witnesses were examined chiefly the Duke of Somerset the Earls of Wilt-shire and Bedford who deposed against him But to this he answered That he was not required to do it by any Order of Council but only in a private Discourse to which he did not think himself bound to give obedience Other Witnesses were also examined on the other Particulars But he appealed from the Delegates to the King in Person Yet his Judges on the 18th of April gave sentence against him by which for his disobedience and contempt they deprived him of his Bishoprick Upon that he renewed his Protestation and Appeal and so his Process ended and he was sent back to the Tower where he lay till
and to be contented with my Death which I am most willing to suffer And let us now joyn in Prayer to the Lord for the preservation of the Kings Majesty unto whom hitherto I have always shewed my self a most faithful and firm Subject I have always been most diligent about his Majesty in his Affairs both at home and abroad and no less diligent in seeking the common Commodity of the whole Realm upon this the People cried out it was most true unto whose Majesty I wish continual health with all felicity and all prosperous success Moreover I do wish unto all his Counsellors the Grace and Favour of God whereby they may rule in all things uprightly with justice unto whom I exhort you all in the Lord to shew your selves obedient as it is your bounden Duty under the pain of condemnation and also most profitable for the preservation and safeguard of the Kings Majesty Moreover for as much as heretofore I have had Affairs with divers Men and hard it is to please every Man therefore if there have been any that have been offended or injured by me I most humbly require and ask him forgiveness but especially Almighty God whom throughout all my Life I have most grievously offended and all other whatsoever they be that have offended me I do with my whole Heart forgive them Then he desired them to be quiet lest their Tumults might trouble him and said Albeit the Spirit be willing and ready the Flesh is frail and wavering and through your quietness I shall be much more quieter Moreover I desire you all to bear me witness that I die here in the Faith of Jesus Christ desiring you to help me with your Prayers that I may persevere constant in the same to my lives end Then Dr. Cox who was with him on the Scaffold His Death put a Paper in his Hand which was a Prayer he had prepared for him He read it on his Knees then he took leave of all about him and undressed himself to be fitted for the Axe In all which there appeared no change in him only his Face was a little rudier than ordinary he continued calling Lord Jesus save me till the Executioner severed his Head from his Body Thus fell the Duke of Somerset a Person of great Vertues And Character eminent for Piety humble and affable in his greatness sincere and candid in all his Transactions He was a better Captain than a Counsellor had been oft successful in his undertakings was always careful of the Poor and the Oppressed and in a word had as many Vertues and as few faults as most great Men especially when they were so unexpectedly advanced have ever had It was generally believed that all this pretended Conspiracy upon which he was condemned was only a forgery For both Palmer and Crane the chief Witnesses were soon after discharged as were also Bartuile and Hamond with all the rest that had been made Prisoners on the pretence of this Plot. And the Duke of Northumberland continued after that in so close a friendship with Palmer that it was generally believed he had been corrupted to betray him And indeed the not bringing the Witnesses into the Court but only the Depositions and the Parties sitting Judges gave great occasion to condemn the Proceedings against him For it was generally thought that all was an Artifice of Palmers who had put the Duke of Somerset in fears of his Life and so got him to gather Men about him for his own preservation and that he afterwards being taken with him seemed through fear to acknowledge all that which he had before contrived This was more confirmed by the death of the other four formerly mentioned who were executed on the 26th of February and did all protest they had never been guilty of any design either against the King or to kill the Lords Vane added That his Blood would make Northumberland's Pillow uneasie to him The People were generally much affected with this Execution and many threw Handkerchiefs into the Duke of Somersets Blood to preserve it in remembrance of him One Lady that met the Duke of Northumberland when he was led through the City in Queen Maries Reign shaking one of these Bloody Handkerchiefs said Behold the Blood of that worthy Man that good Unkle of that excellent King which was shed by thy malicious practise doth now begin apparently to revenge it self on thee Sure it is that Northumberland as having maliciously contrived this was ever after hated by the People But on the other hand great notice was taken that the Duke of Norfolk who with his Son the Earl of Surrey were believed to have fallen in all their misery by the Duke of Somersets means did now out-live him and saw him fall by a Conspiracy of his own Servants as himself and his Son had done The Proceeding against his Brother was also remembred for which many thought the Judgments of God had overtaken him Others blamed him for being too apt to convert things Sacred to his own use and because a great part of his Estate was raised out of the Spoils of many Churches and some late Writers have made an Inference from this upon his not claiming the Benefit of Clergy that he was thus left of God not to plead that Benefit since he had so much invaded the Rights and Revenues of the Church But in this they shewed their ignorance For by the Statute that Felony of which he was found guilty was not to be purged by Clergy Those who pleased themselves in comparing the events in their own times with the Transactions of the former Ages found out many things to make a parallel between the Duke of Somerset and Humphrey the good Duke of Glocester in Henry the 6th's time but I shall leave the Reader in that to his own observation Now was the Duke of Northumberland absolute at Court all Offices being filled with those that were his Associates The Affairs of Germany But here I stop to give a general view of Affairs beyond Sea this year though I have a little transgressed the bounds of it to give an account of the Duke of Somersets Fall all together The Siege of Magdeburg went on in Germany But it was coldly followed by Maurice who had now other designs He had agreed with the French King who was both to give him assistance and to make War on the Emperor at the same time when he should begin Ferdinand was also not unwilling to see his Brothers greatness lessened for he was pressing him not without threatnings to lay down his Dignity as King of the Romans and thought to have established it on his Son All the other Princes of Germany were also oppressed by him so that they were disposed to enter into any alliance for the shaking off of that Yoke Maurice did also send over to try the inclinations of England if they would joyn with him and contribute 400000 Dollars towards the expence of a
they continued still in that mind that they could not be offered by them as Mediators yet they ordered them to impart them unto the Emperor as News and carefully to observe his looks and behaviour upon their opening of every one of them But now the Kings death broke off this Negotiation The Kings sickness together with all his other Affairs He had last year first the Measels and then the Small-Pox of which he was perfectly recovered In his Progress he had been sometimes violent in his Exercises which had cast him into great Colds but these went off and he seemed to be well after it But in the beginning of January this year he was seized with a deep Cough and all Medicines that were used did rather encrease than lessen it upon which a suspition was taken up and spread over all the World so that it is mentioned by most of the Historians of that Age that some lingering Poison had been given him but more than Rumours and some ill-favoured Circumstances I could never discover concerning this He was so ill when the Parliament met that he was not able to go to Westminster but ordered their first meeting and the Sermon to be at White-hall In the time of his sickness Bishop Ridley preached before him and took occasion to run out much on Works of Charity and the obligation that lay on Men of high Condition to be eminent in good Works This touched the King to the quick So that presently after Sermon he sent for the Bishop His care of the Relief of the Poor And after he had commanded him to sit down by him and be covered he resumed most of the Heads of the Sermon and said he looked on himself as chiefly touched by it he desired him as he had already given him the Exhortation in general so to direct him how to do his duty in that Particular The Bishop astonished at this tenderness in so young a Prince burst forth in Tears expressing how much he was overjoyed to see such inclinations in him but told him he must take time to think on it and craved leave to consult with the Lord Major and Court of Aldermen So the King writ by him to them to consult speedily how the Poor should be relieved They considered there were three sorts of Poor such as were so by natural infirmity or folly as impotent Persons and Mad-men or Ideots such as were so by accident as sick or maimed Persons and such as by their idleness did cast themselves into poverty So the King ordered the Gray-friars Church near Newgate with the Revenues belonging to it to be a House for Orphans St. Bartholomews near Smith-field to be an Hospital and gave his own House of Bridewell to be a Place of Correction and Work for such as were wilfully idle He also confirmed and enlarged the Grant for the Hospital of St. Thomas in Southwark which he had erected and endowed in August last And when he set his Hand to these Foundations which was not done before the 26th of June this Year He thanked God that had prolonged his Life till he had finished that design So he was the first Founder of those Houses which by many great Additions since that time have risen to be among the Noblest in Europe He expressed in the whole course of his sickness great submission to the Will of God and seemed glad at the approaches of death only the consideration of Religion and the Church touched him much and upon that account he said he was desirous of Life About the end of May Several Marriages or beginning of June the Duke of Suffolks three Daughters were married The eldest Lady Jane to the Lord Guilford Dudley the fourth Son of the Duke of Northumberland who was the only Son whom he had yet unmarried The second the Lady Katharine to the Earl of Pembroke's eldest Son the Lord Herbert The third the Lady Mary who was crooked to the Kings Groom-Porter Martin Keys The Duke of Northumberland married his two Daughters the eldest to Sir Henry Sidney Son to Sir William Sidney that had been Steward to the King when he was Prince the other was married to the Lord Hastings Son to the Earl of Huntington The People were mightily inflamed against this insolent Duke for it was generally given out that he was sacrificing the King to his own extravagant ambition He seemed little to regard their Censures but attended on the King most constantly and expressed all the care and concern about him that was possible And finding that nothing went so near his Heart as the ruine of Religion which he apprehended would follow upon his death when his Sister Mary should come to the Crown He is perswaded to leave the Crown to the Lady Jane Upon that he and his Party took advantage to propose to him to settle the Crown by his Letters Patents on the Lady Jane Gray How they prevailed with him to pass by his Sister Elizabeth who had been always much in his favour I do not so well understand But the King being wrought over to this the Dutchess of Suffolk who was next in King Henry's Will was ready to devolve her Right on her Daughter even though she should come afterwards to have Sons So on the 11th of June Mountague that was Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas and Baker and Bromley two Judges Which the Judges at first opposed with the Kings Attorney and Solicitor were commanded to come to Council There they found the King with some Privy-Councellors about him The King told them he did now apprehend the danger the Kingdom might be in if upon his death his Sister Mary should succeed who might marry a Stranger and so change the Laws and the Religion of the Realm So he ordered some Articles to be read to them of the way in which he would have the Crown to descend They objected that the Act of Succession being an Act of Parliament could not be taken away by any such device yet the King required them to take the Articles and draw a Book according to them they asked a little time to consider of it So having examined the Statute of the first Year of this Reign concerning Treasons they found that it was Treason not only after the Kings death but even in his Life to change the Succession Secretary Petre in the mean while pressed them to make hast When they came again to the Council they declared they could not do any such thing for it was Treason and all the Lords should be guilty of Treason if they went on in it Upon which the Duke of Northumberland who was not then in the Council-Chamber being advertised of this came in great fury calling Mountague a Traitor and threatned all the Judges so that they thought he would have beaten them But the Judges stood to their Opinion They were again sent for and came with Gosnold added to them on the 15th of June The King was
present and he somewhat sharply asked them Why they had not prepared the Book as he had ordered them They answered That what ever they did would be of no force without a Parliament The King said He intended to have one shortly Then Mountague proposed that it might be delayed till the Parliament met But the King said He would have it first done and then ratified in Parliament and therefore he required them on their Allegiance to go about it and some Counsellors told them if they refused to obey that they were Traitors This put them in a great consternation and old Mountague thinking it could not be Treason what ever they did in this matter while the King lived and at worst that a Pardon under the Great Seal would secure him consented to set about it if he might have a Commission requiring him to do it and a Pardon under the Great Seal when it was done Both these being granted him he was satisfied The other Judges But through fear all yielded except Judge Hales being asked if they would concur did all agree being overcome with fear except Gosnald who still refused to do it But he also being sorely threatned both by the Duke of Northumberland and the Earl of Shrewsbury consented to it the next day So they put the Entail of the Crown in Form of Law and brought it to the Lord Chancellor to put the Seal to it They were all required to set their Hands to it but both Gosnald and Hales refused Yet the former was wrought on to do it but the latter though a most steady and zealous Man for the Reformation would upon no consideration yield to it After that the Lord Chancellor for his Security desired that all the Counsellors might set their Hands to it which was done on the 21st of June by thirty three of them it is like including the Judges in the Number But Cranmer as he came seldom to Council after the Duke of Somersets Fall so he was that day absent on design Cecil in a Relation which he made one write of this Transaction for clearing himself afterwards says That when he had heard Gosnald and Hales declare how much it was against Law he refused to set his Hand to it as a Counsellor and that he only Signed as a Witness to the Kings Subscription But Cranmer still refused to do it after they had all Signed it and said he would never consent to the disinheriting of the Daughters of his late Master Many Consultations were had to perswade him to it Cranmer was very hardly brought to consent to it But he could not be prevailed on till the King himself set on him who used many Arguments from the danger Religion would otherwise be in together with other Perswasions so that by his Reasons or rather Importunities at last he brought him to it But whether he also used that distinction of Cecils that he did it as a Witness and not as a Counsellor I do not know but it seems probable that if that liberty was allowed the one it would not be denied the other The Kings sickness becomes desperate But though the setling this business gave the King great content in his mind yet his Distemper rather encreased than abated so that the Physicians had no hope of his recovery Upon which a confident Woman came and undertook his Cure if he might be put into her Hands This was done and the Physicians were put from him upon this pretence that they having no hopes of his recovery in a desperate Case desperate Remedies were to be used This was said to be the Duke of Northumberlands advice in particular and it encreased the Peoples jealousie of him when they saw the King grow very sensibly worse every day after he came under the Womans care which becoming so plain she was put from him and the Physicians were again sent for and took him into their charge But if they had small hopes before they had none at all now Death thus hastening on him the Duke of Northumberland who knew he had done but half his work except he had the Kings Sisters in his Hands got the Council to write to them in the Kings Name inviting them to come and keep him company in his sickness But as they were on the way on the sixth of July his Spirits and Body were so sunk that he found death approaching and so he composed himself to die in a most devout manner His whole exercise was in short Prayers and Ejaculations The last that he was heard to use was in these words Lord God deliver me out of this miserable and wretched Life His last Prayer and take me among thy Chosen Howbeit not my Will but thine be done Lord I commit my Spirit to thee O Lord thou knowest how happy it were for me to be with thee yet for thy Chosens sake send me Life and Health that I may truly serve thee O my Lord God bless my People and save thine Inheritance O Lord God save thy chosen People of England O Lord God defend this Realm from Papistry and maintain thy true Religion that I and my People may praise thy Holy Name for Jesus Christ his sake Seeing some about him he seemed troubled that they were so near and had heard him but with a pleasant countenance he said he had been praying to God And soon after the Pangs of death coming on him he said to Sir Henry Sidney who was holding him in his Arms I am faint Lord have mercy on me and receive my Spirit and so he breathed out his Innocent Soul The Duke of Northumberland according to Cecils Relation intended to have concealed his death for a fortnight but it could not be done His Death and Character Thus died King Edward the sixth that incomparable young Prince He was then in the sixteenth Year of his Age and was counted the wonder of that Time He was not only learned in the Tongues and other Liberal Sciences but knew well the State of his Kingdom He kept a Book in which he writ the Characters that were given him of all the chief Men of the Nation all the Judges Lord-Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace over England in it he had marked down their way of living and their zeal for Religion He had studied the matter of the Mint with the Exchange and value of Money so that he understood it well as appears by his Journal He also understood Fortification and designed well He knew all the Harbours and Ports both of his own Dominions and of France and Scotland and how much Water they had and what was the way of coming in to them He had acquired great knowledge in Forreign Affairs so that he talked with the Ambassadors about them in such a manner that they filled all the World with the highest opinion of him that was possible which appears in most of the Histories of that Age. He had great quickness of apprehension and
meerly for love of the Truth which he had gathered out of the Word of God and the Holy Fathers but because it vvas God's Cause he vvas then to maintain he protested that he might have leave afterwards to add or to change as upon better consideration he should see cause for it He also desired he might have leave to speak his mind without interruption which though it was promised him yet he vvas often stopt as he went on explaining his Doctrine He argued against the Corporal Presence as being contrary to the Scriptures that spoke of Christ's leaving the World as being against the Article of his sitting at the right hand of God and against the nature of the Sacrament which is a Remembrance he shewed that by it the Wicked receive Christ no less than the Godly that it is against nature to swallow down a living Man that this Doctrine introduced many extraordinary Miracles vvithout any necessity and must have given advantage to the Hereticks who denied Christ had a real Body or a true humane Nature and that it vvas contrary to the Doctrine of the Fathers He acknowledged that it vvas truly the Communion of his Body that is of Christ's Death and of the Heavenly Life given by him and did in a strong nervous Discourse as any I ever saw on that Subject gather together the chief Arguments for his Opinion Smith argued That notwithstanding Christ's being at the right Hand of God he was seen on Earth Ridley said he did not deny but he might come and appear on Earth but that was for a moment to convince some and comfort others as St. Paul and St. Stephen though he said it might be they saw him in Heaven but he could not be at the same time both in Heaven and on Earth They returned oft to Chrysostom's words and pressed him with some of Bernard's but as he answered the Sayings of the former that they were Rhetorical and Figurative so he excepted against the judgment of the latter as living in an Age when their Opinion was generally received The Dispute held till Weston grew weary and stopt all saying You see the obstinate vain-glorious crafty and inconstant mind of this Man but you see also the force of Truth cannot be shaken therefore cry but with me Truth has the Victory This being ecchoed again by the Audience they went away with great Triumph and now they reckoned the hardest part of their Work was over since Latimer only remained Latimer And Latimer being next day brought forth told them He had not used Latin much these twenty Years and was not able to Dispute but he would declare his Faith and then they might do as they pleased He declared That he thought the Presence of Christ in the Sacrament to be only Spiritual since it is that by which we obtain Eternal Life which flows only from Christ's abiding in us by Faith therefore it is not a bare naked sign but for the Corporal Presence he looked on it as the Root of all the other Errors in their Church He enlarged much against the Sacrifice of the Mass And lamented that they had changed the Communion into a private Mass that they had taken the Cup away from the People and instead of Service in a known Tongue were bringing the Nation to a Worship that they did not understand He perceived they laughed at him but he told them they were to consider his great Age and to think what they might be when they came to it They pressed him much to answer their Arguments He said his Memory was gone but his Faith was grounded on the Word of God he was fully convinced by the Book which Dr. Cranmer had written on that Subject In this whole Disputation as Ridley wrote of it Censures past upon it there was great disorder perpetual Shoutings Tauntings and Reproaches so that it looked liker a Stage than a School of Divines and the Noise and Confusions with which he had been much offended when he was in the Sorbone were modest compared to this On April 28 they were again brought to St. Maries where Weston told them They were over-come in the Disputation therefore he required them to subscribe with the rest Cranmer objected against their way of Disputing he said they would not hear any one argue against their Errors or defend the Truth that often-times four or five of them were speaking at once so that it was impossible for any to hear or to answer all these In conclusion he refused to subscribe Ridley and Latimer made the same Answers So they were all judged Hereticks and the Fautors of Heresy Then they were asked Whether they intended to turn They answered That they would not turn so they were judged Obstinate Hereticks and declared to be no more Members of the Church Upon which Cramer answered From this your Judgment and Sentence I appeal to the just judgment of Almighty God trusting to be present with him in Heaven for whose Presence on the Altar I am thus condemned Ridley answered Although I be not of your Company yet I doubt not but my Name is written in another Place whither this Sentence will send us sooner than we should by the course of Nature have come Latimer answered I thank God most heartily that he hath prolonged my Life to this end that I may in this case glorify God with this kind of Death To them Weston answered If you go to Heaven with this Faith ' then I will never come thither as I am thus persuaded After this there was a solemn Procession in Oxford the Host being carried by Weston the Prolocutor who had been as himself said in this Disputation six Years in Prison in King Edward's Time This gave him now great repute though he was known to be a constant Drunkard Ridley wrote to him desiring to see what the Notaries had written and that he might have leave to add in any part as had been promised him but he had no Answer On the 23d of April the Commissioners sent from the Convocation returned to London Cranmer sent a Petition sealed by Weston to be delivered to the Council in which he earnestly begged their favour with the Queen that he might be pardoned for his Treason since they knew how unwillingly he consented to the Patents for excluding her He also complained of the disorder in the Disputes lately had saying that he was not heard nor suffered to propose his Arguments but all was shufled up in a day though he had Matter on that Subject for twenty days work that it look'd like a Design to shut up all things in haste and make a Triumph and so to condemn them of Heresy He left it to their Wisdom to consider if this was an indifferent way of handling such a Matter Weston carried this Petition half way and then opening it and finding what it contained he sent it back and said he would deliver no such Petition Cranmer was so kept that though
run so fast that the Bishops themselves were forced to moderate their Heats They all understood how much the Queen was set upon having the Church raised as high as could be and saw there was nothing so effectual to recommend any to her Favour as to move high in these Matters And though their Motions were thought too violent and rejected yet their Affections were thereby discovered so that they knew they should be looked on as Men deeply engaged in these Interests An Act declaring Treasons After this the Bill of Treasons was brought in This was also argued for some days in the House of Commons but at last agreed to By it any who denied the King's Right to the Title of the Crown with the Queen's or endeavoured to put him from it together with them that did several other Offences were to forfeit all their Goods and to be imprisoned during Life and Clergy Men were to be deprived by their Ordinaries In these cases the second Offence was to be Treason But if any should compass the King's Death and utter it by any overt Deed during his Marriage to the Queen the first Offence of this kind should be Treason It was also enacted that the Parliament having petitioned the King that if the Queen died with any Issue he would take on him the Government of them till they came of Age to which he had assented therefore if the Queen died before her Children came to be of Age the Government of the Kingdom should be in the King's Hands if it were a Son till he were eighteen or if a Daughter till she was fifteen Years of Age And in all that time the conspiring his Death was to be Treason The Witnesses were to be brought before the Parties and none was to be tried for any words but within six months after they were spoken Another against seditious words Another Act passed upon a Report made of some Heretical Preachers who had as was informed prayed in their Conventicles that God would turn the Queen's Heart from Idolatry to the true Faith or else shorten her days and take her quickly out of the way All therefore that so prayed for taking away the Queen's Life were to be judged Traitors but if they shewed themselves penitent for such Prayers they were not to be condemned of Treason but put to any Corporal Punishment other than Death at the Judges Discretion This was passed in great haste for it was thrice read in the House of Lords and passed on the 16th of January in which the Parliament was Dissolved There was another Act past against those that spread Lying Reports of any Noblemen Judges or great Officers that such as spread them should be imprisoned till they brought their Authors according to former Acts. If any spread such Reports of the King and Queen they were to be set on a Pillory and pay 100 l. or have their Ears cut off and be three months Prisoners and they were to pay 100 Merks and suffer one months Imprisonment though they had Authors for them if they reported them maliciously But if their Reports tended to the stirring of any Insurrection they were to lose their right Hands and upon a second Offence to suffer Imprisonment during their Lives but they were to be proceeded against within three months after the words so spoken All the Bills being ended the Parliament was dissolved on the 16th of January to Gardiner's Gardiner is in great esteem no small joy He had now performed all that he had undertaken to the Queen or the Emperor Upon which he had the Reputation that he was formerly in of a great Statesman and a dextrous manager of Affairs much confirmed and raised since he had brought about in so small a time so great a change where the Interests of those who consented to it seemed to lead them another wav To those who had apprehended the Tyranny of Rome he had said That as our former Kings had always kept it under in a great measure so there was less danger of that now since they saw that all Princes had agreed to preserve their own Rights entire against the Pope's Pretensions He shewed them that therefore all the Old Laws against Provisions from Rome were still kept in force And so upon Cardinal Pool's being called over there was a Commission sent him under the Great Seal bearing date the 10th of November authorising him to exercise his Legatine Power in England By this he shewed them that no Legat should ever come into England to execute any Power till his Faculties were seen and approved by the Queen Others thought this was but a vain Imagination for if the Papacy were once fully established and People again brought under the old Superstition of esteeming the Popes Christ's Vicars and the infallible Heads of the Church it would not be possible to retain the People in their Obedience since all the assistance that the Princes of Christendom of this time had from their Subjects in their Wars with the Popes flowed chiefly from this that they generally did no more submit implicitly to their Priests But if once that blind Obedience were restored it would be easy for the Priests by their privat dealings in Confession to overturn Governments as they pleased But that which stuck most was That the Church Lands were Great fear about the Church-Lands by the Cannon Law so indissolubly annexed to the Church that they could not be separated from it To this it was answered that they should secure it by a Law at Rome and should confirm all the Alienations that had been made both by consent of the Clergy and by the Pope's Authority committed to the Legat. Yet even that did not satisfy many who found some Laws in the Canon so strict that the Pope himself could not dispence with them If the Legate did it the Pope might refuse to confirm it and then it was nothing and what one Pope did another often recalled So it was said that this Confirmation was but an Artifice to make it pass the more easily Besides all observed that in the Cardinal's Confirmation of those Lands there was a charge given to all to be afraid of the Judgments of God that fell on Belshazar for using the Holy Vessels which was to pardon the thing and yet to call it a Sacrilege for which they might look for the Vengeance of God So that the Cardinal did at the same time both bind and loose and it was plain both by that Clause and the Repeal of the Statute of Mortmain that it was designed to possess People with the Opinion of the Sin of retaining Church-Lands It was thought this Confirmation was rather an Indemnity and Permission to keep them than a declaring the Possessors had any lawful Title to them So that when Men were near Death and could no longer enjoy those Lands themselves it was not to be doubted but the Terrors of Sacrilege and the Punishments due to it with
punishment rather than put himself in danger of Everlasting Burnings by such an Apostacy So the Fire was set to him which consumed him to Ashes Hooâ—er burnt at Glocester For Hooper after they had degraded him they resolved to send him to Glocester At which he much rejoiced hoping by his Death to confirm their Faith over whom he had been formerly placed He was carried thither in three days After he came he had one days interval given him which he spent in Fasting and Prayer Some came to perswade him to accept of the Queen's Mercy since Life was sweet and Death was bitter He Answered The Death that was to come after was more bitter and the Life that was to follow was more sweet As some of his Friends parted with him he shed some Tears and told them All his Imprisonment had not made him do so much On the 9th he was led out to his Execution where being denied leave to speak but only to pray in the strain of a Prayer he declared his belief Then the Queen's Pardon being shewed him he desired them to take it away He prayed earnestly for strength from God to endure his Torment patiently and undressed himself and embraced the Reeds When he was tied to the Stake with Iron Chains he desired them to spare their pains for he was confident he should not trouble them The Fire was put to him but the Wood being green burnt ill and the Wind blew away the flame of the Reeds He prayed oft O Jesus thou Son of David have mercy on me and receive my Soul and called to the People for the Love of God to bring him more Fire for the Fire was burning his neather Parts but did not reach his Vitals The Fire was renewed but the Wind still blew it away from rising up to stifle him so that he was long in the Torment The last words he was heard to say were Lord Jesus receive my Spirit One of his Hands dropped off before he died with the other he continued to knock on his Breast some time after and was in all near three quarters of an hour a burning Next these was Sanders condemned Sanders burnt at Coventry and sent to Coventry to be burnt where he suffered on the 8th of February He had been made a Prisoner for Preaching notwithstanding the Queen's Prohibition and was condemned for refusing to conform to the New Laws When he was led out to the Stake a Pardon was likewise offered him But he said He held no Heresies but the blessed Gospel of Christ and that he would never recant When he came to the Stake he embraced it and said Wellcome the Cross of Christ wellcome Everlasting Life and so he was burnt Dr. Taylor followed next who was Parson of Hadley And Taylor at Hadley Some of his neighbouring Priests came to Hadley and resolved to say Mass in his Church He went thither and openly declared against it but was by violence thrust out of the Church Gardiner being informed of this writ for him to come up Many of his Friends wished him to go out of the way He said He must follow Christ the good Shepherd who not only fed his Flock but died for it He was old and thought he should never be able at any other time to do his good God such Service as he was then called to so he went with much chearfulness Gardiner received him with his ordinary Civilities of Traitor Villain Heretick and Knave He answered He was none of these and put Gardiner in mind of the Oaths he had sworn both to King Henry and King Edward Gardiner said An unlawful Oath was not to be kept and charged him for hindring Mass to be said at his Church He said He was by Law Parson of Hadley and no Man had a right to come thither and defile his Church and People with Idolatry After some Discourse on that Head he was sent to the Kings Bench Prison and being carried before the Council on the 22d of January he refused to turn After that he was condemned and degraded And it was resolved to send him to Hadley to be burnt there All the way he expressed great chearfulness When he was brought to the Stake he said to the People he had taught them nothing but God's Holy Word and was now to Seal it with his Blood But one of the Guard struck him over the Head and made him give over speaking Then he went to his Prayers and so to the Stake where he was put in a Pitcht Barrel as the Faggots were laying about him one flung a Faggot at his Head which broke it and fetch'd a great deal of Blood but all he said was Oh Friend I have harm enough what needed that He repeated the 51 Psalm in English at which one of the Guard struck him over the Mouth and bid him speak Latin He continued in his Ejaculations to God till the Fire was kindled and one of the Guard cut him in the Head with his Halbert so that his Brains fell out This was done on the 9th of February Bradford was also at the same time condemned but his Execution was respited Soon after the Condemnation of these Men fix others were apprehended on the account of Heresy By this Gardiner saw that what he had expected did not follow for he thought a few severe instances would have turned the whole Nation but finding he was disappointed Gardiner is disiappointed he would meddle no more in the condemning of them but left the whole matter wholly to Bonner who undertook it chearfully being naturally savage and brutal and retaining deep resentments for what had befallen himself in King Edwards time These Cruelties are much considered The whole Nation stood amazed at these Proceedings and the burning of such Men only for their Consciences without the mixture of any other thing so much as pretended against them And it was look't upon as a horrible cruelty because those Men had acted nothing contrary to the Laws For they were put in Prison at first for smaller matters and there kept till those Laws were past by which they were now burnt So that remembring Gardiners Plea for himself in his imprisonment when he desired to be first Tried and discharged in the particular for which he was committed before new matter was brought against him all Men saw now how much more justly those men might have demanded the like at his hands But now the spirit of the two Religions shewed it self In King Edwards time Papists were only turned out of their Benefices and at most imprisoned and of those there were but very few but now that could not serve turn but barbarous Cruelties must be executed on innocent Men only for their Opinions One piece of Severity was taken notice of among the rest The Council sent for those who were to be burnt in the Country and required of them a promise to make no Speeches otherwise they threatned to cut out
former Act. After this one Flower that had been in Orders but was a rash indiscreet Man went on Easter day into St. Margarets Church in Westminster and there with a Knife struck at and wounded the Priest as he was officiating He for some time justified what he had done as flowing from Zeal but afterwards he sincerely condemned it Bonner upon this proceeding against him as an Heretick condemned him to the Fire and he was burnt on the 24th of April in Westminster Church-Yard This Fact was condemned by all the Reformed who knew that the Wrath of Man was not the way to accomplish the Righteousness of God In the Jewish Government some extraordinary Persons did execute Vengeance on notorious Offenders but that Constitution was in all its Policy regulated by the Laws given by Moses in which such Instances vvere proposed as Examples vvhereby they became a part of the Law of that Land so that in such Cases it vvas certainly lawful to execute Punishment in that vvay so in some Kingdoms any Man that finds an out-lawed Person may kill him but vvhere there is no Law vvarranting such things it is certainly against both Religion and the Laws of all Society and Government for private Persons to pretend to the Magistrates right and to execute Justice upon any account vvhatsoever There vvas at this time a second stop put to the execution of Hereticks for till the end of May more fires were not kindled People grew generally so enraged upon it that they could not bear it I shall therefore now turn my self to other things that vvill give the Reader a more pleasing entertainment The Queen resolves to surrender up all the Church-Lands that were in her hands On the 28th of March the Queen called for the Lord Treasurer Sir Robert Rochester Comptroller Sir William Petre Secretary of State and Sir Francis Inglefield Master of the Wards She said She had sent for them to declare her Conscience to them concerning the Church-Lands that continued still in the Crown She thought they were taken away in the time of the Schism and by unlawful Means therefore she could not keep them vvith a good Conscience so she did surrender and relinquish them If they should tell her That her Crown vvas so poor that she could not well maintain her Dignity if she parted with them she must tell them She valued the Salvation of her Soul more than ten Kingdoms and thanked God her Husband was of the same mind and therefore she was resolved to have them disposed as the Pope or his Legat should think fit so she ordered them to go with the Lord Chancellor to whom she had spoken of it before and wait on the Legat and signify it to him together with the value of those Lands This flowed from the strictness of the Queen's Conscience vvho then thought her self near the time of her delivery and therefore vvould not have such a load lie on her of which she was the more sensible by reason of a Bull which Pope Julius had made excommunicating all that kept any Abbey or Church-Lands and all Princes Prelats and Magistrates that did not assist in the execution of such Bulls Some said this related to the Business of England but Gardiner said it was only made for Germany and that Bulls had no Authority unless they vvere received in England This did not satisfy the People much for if it was such a sin in Germany they could not see but it was as bad in England And if the Pope had his Authority from Christ and St. Peter his Bulls ought to take place every-where Pope Julius died soon after this on the 20th of March Pope Julius dies and Marcellus succeeds and on the 6th of April after Cardinal Marcellus Cervinus was chosen Pope a Man of great gravity and innocence of Life He continued to keep his former Name which had not been done a great while except by Adrian the 6th between whose temper and this Man there was a great resemblance He presently turned all his Thoughts as Adrian had done to a Reformation of the Corruptions of that See and blamed his Predecessors much who had always put it off he thought nothing could make the Papacy more reverenced than to cut off their excessive and superfluous Pomp whereby they would be the more esteemed all the World over and might on surer grounds expect the protection of God He had been one of the Legats at Trent and there observed what was represented as the root of all Heresy and Disorder that the Clergy were generally corrupted and had by many Exemptions procured from Rome broken all the Primitive Rules Upon his first Election he called for the Cardinal of Mantâ—a and having observed him to be a Man of great probicy told him he knew it vvas ordinary for all Popes at their first coming to the Throne to talk of Reformation but he would talk little being resolved to do more only he opened his mind to him that if ever he went back from it he might have this check upon him that so honest a Man as he was would know him to be a Knave and a Hypocrite He would suffer none of his Friends that were in remote parts to come to Rome nor his Nephews that were in Rome to come within the Court He was resolved to have sent all Priests and Bishops home to their Benefices and talked much of their Non residence with great detestation He would not change his Table nor his Custom of making one read to him when he was sitting at it One day after a long musing at Dinner he said he remembred the words of Hadrian the Fourth That the Pope was the most miserable of all Men his whole Life was bitterness his Chair was full of Thorns and his way of Briars and then leaning with his Hand on the Table he said I do not see how they can be saved that hold this high Dignity These Thoughts did so affect him that on the 12th day after that he vvas chosen Pope he sickned and died ten days after These things are reported of him by the Learned Onuphrius who knew him well and they will not be thought impertinent to have a room in this Story The Queen recommends Card Pool tâ— the Popedom upon Maâ—cellus's death As soon as the News of his Death came to England the Queen writ on the 29th day of May to Gardiner the Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget vvho vvere then at Calais mediating a Peace between the French and Spaniard which they could not effect but only procured a Truce She desired them to deal with the Cardinal of Lorrain the Constable and the other French Commissioners to persuade their Master to set up Cardinal Pool that he might succeed in that Chair since he seemed every way the fittest Person for it adding Coll. Numb 18. as will appear by the Letter which is in the Collection that she had done this without his knowledg or
the Pope he could not answer them having sworn never to acknowledge that Authority What he had done at Pauls was at Bourn's earnest desire who prayed him for the Passion of Christ to speak to the People upon which he stepped up to the Pulpit and had almost been killed with the Dagger that was thrown at Bourn for it touched his Sleeve But in the points of Religion he professed his Faith so constantly that for that cause he was condemned Yet the saving of Bourn was so publickly known that it was thought undecent to proceed against him so quick as they did with the rest So both Heath Arch-Bishop of York and Day Bishop of Chichester Weston Harpsfield and the King's Confessor and Alphonsus a Castro went to see him and endeavoured to gain him but all to no purpose It looks very ill in Bourn that he never interposed for Bradford nor came once to visit him and as when Bradford was before the Council Bourn's Brother the Secretary was very sharp upon him so when he was brought to his Tryal Bourn himself then Bishop of Bath and Wells being present did not open his mouth for him though he appealed to him as to the business of the Tumult With Bradford one John Lease an Apprentice of nineteen years old was lead out to be burnt who was also condemned upon his answers to the Articles exhibited to him When they came to the Stake they both fell down and Prayed Then Bradford took a Fagot in his hands and kissed it and so likewise kissed the Stake expressing thereby the joy he had in his Sufferings and cried O England repent repent beware of Idolatry and false Antichrists But the Sheriff hindring him to speak any more he embraced his Fellow Sufferer and prayed him to be of good comfort for they should Sup with Christ that night His last words were Strait is the way and narrow is the gate that leadeth into eternal Life and few there be that find it Now the Persecution was carried on to other places Bonner stopping in it again But Thornton Suffragan of Dover Harpsfield Arch-Deacon of Canterbury and some others resolved likewise to shew their zeal This Thornton had from the first change made by King Henry been the most officious and forward in every turn and had been the first in this Reign that had set up the Mass at Canterbury He was much despised for it by Cardinal Pool but Pool could not hinder the fury of those men without drawing on himself the Pope's indignation The Pope was his professed and inveterate Enemy but knew not how to vent his hatred to him since he had done such an eminent service to the Church as the reconciling of England Gardiner understanding this sent secretly to Rome to give ill Characters of Pool which the ill-natured Pope was ready enough to receive Gardiner designed to be made a Cardinal and to get Pool recalled and himself made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury The Pope was resolved on the first occasion to take the Legatine power from Pool and give it to Gardiner but Pool was so much in the Queens favour that this required some time to bring it about This made Gardiner study to preserve Cranmer as long as he lived It seemed more reasonable to have begun with him who had indeed been the chief Author of the Reformation and promoter of that they called Heresie nor had Gardiner such kindness for him as to interpose on his account but he knew that as soon as he was burnt Pool would be presently invested in the See of Canterbury Therefore he suggested that if he could be any way brought off it would be the most effectual means possible to extirpate Heresie for if he who had so much set on these Doctrines did forsake them it would confound the whole Party and bring over at least all that were weak or staggering whereas on the other hand if he died resolutly for it his death would confirm them all very much This was a colour good enough to preserve him But why the See of Canterbury was not declared vacant since he was now pronounced an obstinate Heretick I do not so well apprehend whether there was any thing in the Pall or the latter inventions of the Canonists that made it necessary not to fill his See so long as he lived I know not Pool being in these circumstances durst neither offend those at Rome nor openly hinder the prosecution of Hereticks which it seems he would have done more steadily if it had not been for fear of the Popes taking thereby advantages against him who had before given out in the Conclave that he was a favourer of Heresie and therefore would the more easily be induced to believe any thing that might be written over to Rome to his prejudice Those that sat in Canterbury to judge the Hereticks had four Men brought before them two Priests Bland and Frankesh and Shiterden and Midleton two Laymen They were condemned upon their Answers to the Articles exhibited to them and burnt at Canterbury Some burnt at Canterbury the 25th of June and in July Margery Polley was burnt at Tunbridge on the like account who was the first Woman that suffered in this Reign Christopher Ward was Condemned with her and burnt in Darford On the 22d of July Dirick Carver was burnt at Lewis and on the 23d John Launder was burnt at Stoning They had been taken in London and brought before Bonner but he would not meddle with them and desired they might be sent to their own Ordinaries One of them being of Surrey was within Gardiners Jurisdiction who resolved to proceed no more against the Hereticks so he procured a Letter from the Council to Bonner requiring him to proceed against them who thereupon presently condemned them There were at this time several discoveries of Plottings in several Counties especially in Dorsetshire and Essex Pretended Plots and some put to the Torture to make Discovery but the nature of these Plots is not set down in the Council Books Some were taken and put in the Tower Two or three Privy Councellors were sent thither on the 9th of June with a Letter from the Council to the Lieutenant of the Tower to put them to the Torture according to their discretions yet nothing following upon this it is probable these were only surmises devised by the Clergy to set on the Council more severely against them whose Ruine they were contriving by all the ways they could think on There was also an outrage committed on two Friars Peyto and Elston who were Franciscans of the Observance They had spoken sharply against King Henry in the business of the Divorce and had fled beyond Sea on that account The Qâ— rebuilds the Franciscan's house at Greenwich therefore the Queen had sent for them and not only procured the Attainder that had passed against them to be repealed in the last Parliament but made Peyto her Confessor and being resolved to raise Religious
mutual Love and to relieve the Poor according to their abundance Then he came to that on which he said all his past Life and that which was to come did hang being now to enter either into the joys of Heaven or the pains of Hell He repeated the Apostles Creed and declared his belief of the Scriptures and then he spake to that which he said troubled his Conscience more than any thing he had ever done in his whole Life which was the subscribing a Paper contrary to the Truth and against his Conscience out of the fear of Death and the love of Life and when he came to the Fire he was resolved that Hand that had signed it should burn first He rejected the Pope as Christ's enemy and Antichrist and said he had the same belief of the Sacrament which he had published in the Book he writ about it Upon this there was a wonderful Confusion in the Assembly Those who hoped to have gained a great Victory that day seeing it turning another way were in much disorder They called to him to dissemble no more He said he had ever loved Simplicity and before that time had never dissembled in his whole Life And going on in his discourse with abundance of tears they pulled him down and led him away to the Stake which was set in the same place where Ridley and Latimer were burnt All the way the Priests upbraided him for his changing but he was minding another thing When he came to the Stake he first prayed He suffers Myrtyrdome with great constancy of Mind and then undressed himself and being tied to it as the Fire was kindling he stretched forth his Right-Hand towards the Flame never moving it save that once he wiped his Face with it till it was burnt away which was consumed before the Fire reached his Body He expressed no disorder for the pain he was in sometimes saying that unworthy Hand and oft crying out Lord Jesus receive my Spirit He was soon after quite burnt But it was no small matter of Astonishment to find his Heart entire and not consumed among the Ashes which tho the Reformed would not carry so far as to make a Miracle of it and a clear proof that his Heart had continued true tho his Hand had erred yet they objected it to the Papists that it was certainly such a thing that if it had fallen out in any of their Church they had made it a Miracle Thus did Thomas Cranmer end his days in the sixty seventh year of his Age. He was a Man raised of God for great Services His Character and well fitted for them He was naturally of a milde and gentle temper not soon heated nor apt to give his Opinion rashly of things or persons and yet his Gentleness tho it oft exposed him to his Enemies who took advantages from it to use him ill knowing he would readily forgive them did not lead him into such a weakness of Spirit as to consent to every thing that was uppermost for as he stood firmly against the six Articles in K. Henry's time notwithstanding all his heat for them so he also opposed the Duke of Somerset in the matter of the sale and alienation of the Chantry Lands and the Duke of Northumberland during his whole Government and now resisted unto Blood so that his meekness was really a vertue in him and not a pusillanimity in his temper He was a Man of great Candor He never dissembled his Opinion nor disowned his Friend two rare qualities in that Age in which there was a continued course of dissimulation almost in the whole English Clergy and Nation they going backward and forward as the Court turned But this had got him that esteem with King Henry that it always preserv'd him in his days He knew what Complaints soever were brought against him he would freely tell him the truth so instead of asking it from other hands he began at himself He neither disowned his esteem of Queen Anne nor his friendship to Cromwel and the Duke of Somerset in their misfortunes but owned he had the same thoughts of them in their lowest Condition that he had in their greatest State He being thus prepared by a candid and good nature for the searches into Truth added to these a most wonderful diligence for he drew out of all the Authors that he read every thing that was remarkable digesting these Quotations into Common-places This begat in King Henry an admiration of him for he had often tried it to bid him bring the Opinions of the Fathers and Doctors upon several questions which he commonly did in two or three dayes time This flowed from the copiousness of his common place Books He had a good judgment but no great quickness of apprehension not closeness of Stile which was diffused and unconnected therefore when any thing was to be penned that required more Nerves he made use of Ridley He laid out all his Wealth on the poor and pious uses He had Hospitals and Surgeons in his House for the King's Seamen He gave Pensions to many of those that fled out of Germany into England and kept up that which is Hospitality indeed at his Table where great numbers of the honest and poor neighbours were always invited instead of the Luxury and Extravagance of great Entertainments which the vanity and excess of the Age we live in has honoured with the name of Hospitality to which too many are led by the Authority of Custom to comply too far He was so humble and affable that he carried himself in all conditions at the same rate His last Fall was the only blemish of his life but he expiated it with a sincere repentance and a patient Martyrdom He had been the chief advancer of the Reformation in his Life and God so ordered it that his death should bear a proportion to the former parts of his life which was no small Confirmation to all that received his Doctrine when they heard how constantly he had at last sealed it with his Blood And tho it is not to be fancied that King Henry was a Prophet yet he discovered such things in Cranmers temper as made him conclude he was to die a Martyr for his Religion and therefore he ordered him to change his Coat of Arms and to give Pelicans instead of Cranes which were formerly the Arms of his Family Intimating withal that as it is reported of the Pelican that she gives her Blood to feed her young ones so he was to give his Blood for the good of the Church That King's kindness to him subjected him too much to him for great Obligations do often prove the greatest snares to generous and noble minds And he was so much over-born by his respects to him and was so affected with King Henry's Death that he never after that shaved his Beard but let it grow to a great length which I the rather mention because the Pictures that were afterwards made for
but one night hoping they would beget a New Alexander the Great between them But if that had been and the Child had taken after the Father it would have been more like Alexander the Sixth Notwithstanding all the Attempts of Rome against her Person and Government she still lived and triumphed In the first ten Years of her Reign all things were carried with such moderation that there was no stir about Religion Pope Pius the Fourth reflecting on the capricious and high Answer his mad Predecessor had made to her Address sent one Parpalia to her in the second Year of her Reign to invite her to join her self to that See and he would disanul the Sentence against her Mothers Marriage confirm the English Service and the use of the Sacrament in both Kinds But she sent the Agent word to stay at Brussels and not to come over The same Treatment met Abbot Martinengo who was sent the Year after with the like Message From that Time all Treaty with Rome was entirely broken off Pius the Fourth proceeded no further but his Successor Pius the Fifth resolved to contrive her Death as he that writ his Life relates Catena The unfortunate Queen of Scotland upon the Wars in her Country was driven to seek shelter in England where it was at first resolved to use her well and to restore her to her Crown and Country as will appear by two Papers which for their Curiosity being Originals I have put into the Collection Coll. Numb 12. The one is the Advice that Sir Henry Mildmay gave about it the other is a long Letter written concerning it by the Earl of Leicester to the Earl of Sussex They were given me by that most ingenious and vertuous Gentleman Mr. Evelyn who is not satisfied to have advanced the knowledg of this Age by his own most useful and successful Labours about Planting and divers other ways but is ready to contribute every thing in his Power to perfect other Mens Endeavours But while the English Council intended to have used the Queen of Scotland well her own officious Friends by the frequent Plots that were in a Succession of many Years carried on sometimes by open Rebellion as in the North of England and in Ireland but more frequently by secret Attempts brought on her the Calamities of a long Imprisonment and Death in the Conclusion Her Death was the greatest blemish of this Reign being generally censured by all the Age except by Pope Sixtus the Fifth Vita de Sisto 5. who was a Man that delighted in cruel Executions and so concluded her to be a happy Woman that had the pleasure to cut off a Crowned Head But Queen Elizabeth's own preservation from the many Designs that were against her Life made it in some sort if not necessary yet more excusable in her especially that unfortunate Queen having her self cherished the Plot of Babington and Ballard and having set her hand to the Letters that were written to them about it though she still denied that and cast the blame of it on her Secretaries who as she said had gotten her hand to them without her Knowledg The Pope had deposed the Queen as will appear by his Sentence which I have put in the Collection Coll. Num. 13. and the Queen of Scotland being the next Heir to the Crown and a zealous Papist those of that Religion hoped by destroying the Queen to set her in her room which put England in no small disorder by Associations and other means that were used for preserving the Queen and destroying the Popish Interest The Rebellions and Plots in England and Ireland were not a little supported by the Assistance of King Philip of Spain who did all he could to embroil the Queen's Affairs at home though still without Success But the steps of the Queen's Proceedings both against Papists and Puritans are so set out by her great and wise Secretary Sir Francis Walsingham in so clear a manner that I shall set it down here as a most important piece of History being written by one of the wisest and most vertuous Ministers that these latter Ages have produced He wrote it in French to one Monsieur Critoy a French-man of which I have seen an English Copy taken as is said from the Original SIR Walsingham's Letter concerning the Qâ—een's proceedings against both Papists and Puritans WHereas you desire to be advertized touching the proceedings here in Ecclesiastical Causes because you seem to note in them some Inconstancy and Variation as if we inclined sometimes to one side and sometimes to another and as if that Clemency and Lenity were not used of late that was used in the beginning all which you imputed to your own superficial understanding of the Affairs of this State having notwithstanding her Majesty's doings in singular Reverence as the real Pledges which she hath given unto the World of her Sincerity in Religion and of her Wisdom in Government well meriteth I am glad of this Occasion to impart that little I know in that matter unto you both for your own Satisfaction and to the end you may make use thereof towards any that shall not be so modestly and so reasonably minded as you are I find therefore her Majesty's Proceedings to have been grounded upon two Principles The one that Consciences are not to be forced but to be won and reduced by force of Truth with the aid of Time and use of all good means of Instruction and Perswasion The other that Causes of Consciences when they exceed their bounds and grow to be matter of Faction loose their Nature and that Sovereign Princes ought distinctly to punish their Practices and Contempt though coloured with the pretence of Conscience and Religion According to these Principles her Majesty at her coming to the Crown utterly disliking the Tyranny of Rome which had used by Terror and Rigour to settle Commandments of Mens Faiths and Consciences Though as a Princess of great Wisdom and Magnanimity she suffered but the exercise of one Religion yet her proceedings towards the Papists was with great Lenity expecting the good Effects which time might work in them and therefore her Majesty revived not the Laws made in the 28th and 35th of her Fathers Reign whereby the Oath of Supremacy might have been offered at the King's Pleasure to any Subject so he kept his Conscience never so modestly to himself and the refusal to take the same Oath without further Circumstances was made Treason But contrariwise her Majesty not liking to make Windows into Mens Hearts and secret Thoughts except the abundance of them did overflow into overt and express Acts or Affirmations tempered her Law so as it restraineth every manifest disobedience in impugning and impeaching advisedly and maliciously her Majesties supreme Power maintaining and extolling a Forreign Jurisdiction And as for the Oath it was altered by her Majesty into a more grateful Form the hardness of the Name and Appellation of Supreme Head was
Exeter besieged ibid. It is relieved and the Rebels defeated pag. 119 The Norfolk Rebels are dispersed ibid. A general Pardon pag. 120 A Visitation of Cambridg ibid. Dispute about the Greek pronunciation ibid. Bonner in new Troubles ibid. Injunctions are given him pag. 121 He did not obey them pag. 122 He is proceeded against ibid He defends himself pag. 123 He Appeals pag. 125 But is deprived pag. 126 Censures past upon it pag. 127 The French fall into Bulloign pag. 128 Ill Success in Scotland pag. 129 The Affairs of Germany ibid. A Faction against the Protector pag. 130 Advices about Forreign Affairs pag. 131. Paget sent to the Emperor ibid. But can obtain nothing pag. 133. Debates in Council ibid. Complaints of the Protector pag. 134. The Counsellors leave him pag. 135. The City of London joyns with them pag. 136. The Protector offers to submit ibid. He is accused and sent to the Tower pag. 138. Censures passed upon him ibid. The Papists much lifted up pag. 139. But their hopes vanish ibid. A Treaty with the Emperor pag. 140. A Session of Parliament ibid. An Act against Tumults ibid. And against Vagabonds ibid. Bishops move for a Power of Censuring pag. 141. An Act about Ordinations ibid. An Act about the Duke of Somerset ibid. The Reformation carried on pag. 142. A Book of Ordinations made pag. 143. Heath disagrees to it and put in Prison ibid. Interrogations added in the new Book pag. 144. Bulloigne was resolved to be given to the French pag. 146. Pope Paul the third dies ibid. Cardinal Pool was elected Pope ibid. Julius the third chosen pag. 147. 1550. A Treaty between the English and French ibid. Instructions given the English Ambassador ibid. Articles of the Treaty pag. 148. The Earl of Warwick governs all pag. 149. Ridley made Bishop of London ibid. Proceedings against Gardiner pag. 150. Articles sent to him ibid. He signed them with Exceptions pag. 151. New Articles sent him ibid. He refuses them and is hardly used ibid. Latimer advises the King about his Marriage pag. 152. Hooper made Bishop of Glocester ibid. But refuses the Episcopal Garments ibid. Vpon that great Hâ—â—tâ— arose ibid. Bucers Opinion about it pag. 153. And Peter Martyrs pag. 154. A German Congregation 〈◊〉 London ibid. Polidore Virgil leaâ—â—â— England ibid. A Review made of the Common-Prayer-Book pag. 155. Bucers advice concerning it ibid. He writ a Book for the King pag. 156. The 〈◊〉 studies to reformâ— abuses pag. 157. He keeps a Journal of his Reign ibid. Ridley visits his Diocess pag. 158. Altars turned to Communion-Tables ibid. The Reasons given for it pag. 159. Sermons on Working-days forbidden ibid. The Affairs of Scotland pag. 161. And of Germany ibid. 1551. The Compliance of the Popish Clergy pag. 162. Bucers Death and Funeral pag. 163. His Character pag. 164. Gardiner is deprived pag. 165. Which is much censured ibid. Hooper is Consecrated pag. 166. Articles of Religion prepared ibid. An Abstract of them pag. 167. Corrections in the Common-Prayer-Book pag. 169. Reasons of kneeling at the Communion pag. 170. Orders for the Kings Chaplains pag. 171. The Lady Mary has Mass still ibid. The King is earnest against it pag. 172. The Council write to her about it ibid. But she was intractable pag. 174. And would not hear Ridley preach pag. 175. The Designs of the Earl of Warwick pag. 176. The Sweating Sickness ibid. A Treaty for a Marriage with the Daughter of France pag. 177. Conspiracy against the Duke of Somerset pag. 178. The King is alienated from him pag. 179. He is brought to his Trial. ibid. Acquitted of Treason but not of Felony pag. 180. Some others condemned with him pag. 181. The Seal is taken from the Lord Rich. pag. 182. And given to the Bishop of Ely ibid. Church-mens being in Secular Imployments much censured pag. 183. Duke of Somersets Execution pag. 184. His Character pag. 185. Affairs of Germany pag. 186. Proceedings at Trent pag. 187. 1552. A Session of Parliament pag. 189. The Common-Prayer-Book confirmed ibid. Censures past upon it pag. 190. An Act concerning Treasons ibid. An Act about Fasts and Holy-days pag. 191. An Act for the married Clergy pag. 192. An Act against Vsury ibid. A Bill against Simony not passed pag. 193. The Entail of the Duke of Somersets Estate cut-off pag. 194. The Commons refuse to attaint the Bishop of Duresme by Bill ibid. The Parliament is dissolved pag. 195. A Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Courts is considered ibid. The chief heads of it pag. 197. Rules about Excommunication pag. 201. Projects for relieving the poor Clergy pag. 202. Heath and Day deprived pag. 203. The Affairs of Ireland ibid. A change in the order of the Garter pag. 205. Paget degraded from the Order pag. 206. The encrease of Trade pag. 207. Cardan passes through England pag. 208. The Affairs of Scotland ibid. The Affairs of Germany pag. 210. Proceedings at Trent pag. 211. An Account of the Council there pag. 212. A Judgment of the Histories of it ibid. The freedom of Religion established in Germany pag. 213. The Emperor is much cast down pag. 214. 1553. A Regulation of the Privy Council ibid. A New Parliament ibid. The Bishoprick of Duresm suppressed and two new ones were to be raised pag. 215. A Visitation for the Plate in Churches pag. 216. Instructions for the President in the North. pag. 217. The form of the Bishops Letters Patents pag. 218. A Treaty with the Emperor pag. 219. The Kings sickness pag. 221. His care of the poor ibid. Several Marriages pag. 222. He intends to leave the Crown to Lady Jane Gray ibid. Which the Judges opposed at first ibid. Yet they consented to it except Hales pag. 222. Cranmer is hardly prevailed with pag. 224. The Kings sickness becomes desperate ibid. His last Prayer ibid. His Death and Character ibid. BOOK II. The Life and Reign of Queen Mary QVeen Mary succeeds but is in great danger pag. 233. And retires to Suffolk ibid. She writes to the Council pag. 234. But they declare for the Lady Jane ibid. The Lady Janes Character ibid. She unwillingly accepts the Crown pag. 235. The Council writes to Queen Mary ibid. They proclaim the Lady Jane Queen ibid. Censures passed upon it pag. 236. The Duke of Northumberland much hated pag. 237. The Council send an Army against Queen Mary ibid. Ridley Preaches against her pag. 238. But her Party grows strong ibid. The Council turn and proclaim her Queen pag. 239. The Duke of Northumberland is taken ibid. Many Prisoners are sent to the Tower ibid. The Queen comes to London pag. 240. She was in danger in her Fathers time ibid. And was preserved by Cranmer pag. 241. She submitted to her Father ibid. Designs for changing Religion pag. 242. Gardiners policy ibid. He is made Chancellour ibid. Duke of Northumberland and others Attainted ibid. He at his Death professes he had been always a Papist pag. 243. His Character pag. 244. King Edwards Funeral ibid. The
364. An Expedition against France pag. 365. Many strange Accidents ibid. A Treaty of Peace pag. 366. The Battel of Graveling ibid. Many Protestants in France ibid. Dolphin marries the Queen of Scots pag. 367. A Convention of Estates in Scotland ibid. A Parliament in England pag. 368. The Queens Sickness and Death pag. 369. Cardinal Pool dies ibid. His Character ibid. The Queens Character pag. 370. BOOK III. Of the Settlement of the Reformation of Religion in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign QVeen Elizabeth succeeds pag. 373. And comes to London pag. 374. She sends a Dispatch to Rome ibid. But to no effect ibid. King Philip Courts her pag. 375. The Queens Council ibid. A Consultation about the Change of Religion pag. 376. A Method proposed for it pag. 377. Many forward to Reform pag. 378. Parker named to be Arch-Bishop of Canterbury ibid. 1559. Bacon made Lord Keeper pag. 380. The Queens Coronation ibid. The Parliament meets pag. 381. The Treaty at Cambray pag. 382. A Peace agreed on with France ibid. The Proceedings of the Parliament pag. 383. An Address to the Queen to marry pag. 384. Her Answer to it ibid. They Recognise her Title pag. 385. Acts concerning Religion ibid. The Bishops against the Supremacy pag. 386. The beginning of the High Commission pag. 387. A Conference at Westminster pag. 388. Arguments for the Latin Service pag. 389. Arguments against it pag. 390. The Conference breaks up pag. 391. The Liturgy corrected and explained pag. 392. Debates about the Act of Vniformity pag. 393. Arguments for the Changes then made pag. 394. Bills proposed but rejected pag. 395. The Bishops refuse the Oath of Supremacy pag. 396. The Queens gentleness to them ibid. Injunctions for a Visitation pag. 397. The Queen desires to have Images retained ibid. Reasons brought against it ibid. The Heads of the Injunctions pag. 398. Reflections made on them pag. 399. The first High Commission pag. 400. Parkers unwillingness to accept of the Archbishoprick of Canterbury pag. 401. His Consecration pag. 402. The Fable of the Nags-head confuted pag. 403. The Articles of Religion prepared pag. 405. An Explanation of the Presence in the Sacrament ibid. The Translation of the Bible pag. 406. The beginnings of the Divisions pag. 407. The Reformation in Scotland ibid. Mills Martyrdome pag. 408. It occasions great discontents pag. 409. A Revolt at St. Johnstoun pag. 410. The French King intends to grant them liberty of Religion pag. 411. But is killed ibid. A Truce agreed to ibid. The Queen Regent is deposed pag. 412. The Scots implore the Queen of England's Aid ibid. Leith besieged by the English ibid. The Queen Regent dies pag. 413. A Peace is concluded ibid. The Reformation setled by Parliament ibid. Francis the second dies ibid. The Civil Wars of France pag. 415. The Wars of the Netherlands pag. 416. The misfortunes of the Queen of Scotland pag. 417. Queen Elizabeth deposed by the Pope pag. 418. Sir Fr. Walsinghams Letter concerning the Queens proceeding with Papists and Puritans ibid. The Conclusion pag. 421. FINIS A COLLECTION OF RECORDS AND Original Papers WITH OTHER INSTRUMENTS Referred to in the SECOND PART OF THE History of the Reformation OF THE Church of England LONDON Printed by J.D. for Richard Chiswell 1680. The Journal of King EDWARD'S Reign written with his own Hand The Original is in the Cotton Library Nero C. 10. THe Year of our Lord 1537 was a Prince born to King Henry the 8th by Jane Seimour then Queen who within few days after the Birth of her Son died and was buried at the Castle of Windsor This Child was Christned by the Duke of Norfolk the Duke of Suffolk and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Afterwards was brought up till he came to six Years old among the Women At the sixth Year of his Age he was brought up in Learning by Master Doctor Cox who was after his Almoner and John Cheeke Master of Arts two well-learned Men who sought to bring him up in learning of Tongues of the Scripture of Philosophy and all Liberal Sciences Also John Bellmaine Frenchman did teach him the French Language The tenth Year not yet ended it was appointed he should be created Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwal and Count Palatine of Chester At which time being the Year of our Lord 1547 the said King died of a Dropsie as it was thought After whose Death incontinent came Edward Earl of Hartford and Sir Anthony Brown Master of the Horse to convoy this Prince to Enfield where the Earl of Hartford declared to him and his younger Sister Elizabeth the Death of their Father Here he begins anew again AFter the Death of King Henry the 8th his Son Edward Prince of Wales was come to at Hartford by the Earl of Hartford and Sir Anthony Brown Master of the Horse for whom before was made great preparation that he might be created Prince of Wales and afterward was brought to Enfield where the Death of his Father was first shewed him and the same day the Death of his Father was shewed in London where was great lamentation and weeping and suddenly he proclaimed King The next day being the _____ of _____ He was brought to the Tower of London where he tarried the space of three weeks and in the mean season the Council sat every day for the performance of the Will and at length thought best that the Earl of Hartford should be made Duke of Somerset Sir Thomas Seimour Lord Sudley the Earl of Essex Marquess of Northampton and divers Knights should be made Barons as the Lord Sheffield with divers others Also they thought best to chuse the Duke of Somerset to be Protector of the Realm and Governour of the King's Person during his Minority to which all the Gentlemen and Lords did agree because he was the King's Uncle on his Mothers side Also in this time the late King was buried at Windsor with much solemnity and the Officers broke their Staves hurling them into the Grave but they were restored to them again when they came to the Tower The Lord Lisle was made Earl of Warwick and the Lord Great Chamberlainship was given to him and the Lord Sudley made Admiral of England all these things were done the King being in the Tower Afterwards all things being prepared for the Coronation the King being then but nine Years old passed through the City of London as heretofore hath been used and came to the Palace of Westminster and the next day came into Westminster-Hall And it was asked the People Whether they would have him to be their King Who answered Yea yea Then he was crowned King of England France and Ireland by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and all the rest of the Clergy and Nobles and Anointed with all such Ceremonies as were accustomed and took his Oath and gave a General Pardon and so was brought to the Hall to Dinner on Shrove-sunday where he sat with the Crown on his Head with the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury
his Right and a general Peace proclaimed They desired also that in the mean season no Man might be restrained to use his fashion of Religion 18. The Emperor made Answer That the Council should be to the Glory of God and Maintenance of the Empire at Trent He knew no Title to any of his Territories Peace he desired and in the mean season would have them observe the Interim and last Council of Trent he would also that they of Breme and Hamburgh with their Associates should leave their Seditions and obey his Decrees 21. George Duke of Mecklenburgh came with 8000 Men of War to the City of Magdeburgh being Protestant against whom went forth the Count of Mansfield and his Brother with 6000 Men and eight Guns to drive him from Pillage but the other abiding the Battel put the Count to flight took his Brother Prisoner and slew 3000 Men as it is reported October 4. Removing to Richmond 5. The Parliament Prorogued to the 20th of January 6. The French King made his entry into Roan 10. It was agreed that York Master of one of the Mints at the Tower should make his Bargain with Me viz. To take the Profit of Silver rising of Bullion that he himself brought should pay all my Debts to the Sum of 1200000 l. or above and remain accountable for the Overplus paying no more but 6 s. and 6 d. the ounce till the Exchange were equal in Flanders and after 6 s. and 2 d. Also that he should declare all his Bargains to any should be appointed to oversee him and leave off when I would For which I should give him 15000 l. in Prest and leave to carry 8000 l. over-Sea to abase the Exchange 16. Removing to Westminster 19. Prices were set of all kind of Grains Butter Cheese and Poultry-Ware by a Proclamation 20. The Frenchmen came to Sandefield and Fins-wood to the number of 800 and there on my Ground did spoil my Subjects that were relieved by the Wood. 26. The French Ambassadour came to excuse the foresaid Men saying They thought it not meet that that Wood should be spoiled of us being thought and claimed as theirs and therefore they lay there 24. There were 1000 Men embarqued to go to Calais and so to Guisnes and Hammes Rishumbee Newmanbridge the Causie and the Bullwarks with Victual for the same November 19. There were Letters sent to every Bishop to pluck down the Altars 20. There were Letters sent down to the Gentlemen of every Shire for the observation of the last Proclamation touching Corn bccause there came none to the Markets commanding them to punish the Offenders 29. Upon the Letters written back by the same the second Proclamation was abolished December 15. There was Letters sent for the taking of certain Chaplains of the Lady Mary for saying Mass which she denied 19. Borthwick was sent to the King of Denmark with privy Instructions for the Marriage of the Lady Elizabeth to his Son 20. There was appointed a Band of Horsemen divided amongst the Nobles An 100 to the Duke of Somerset 50 to my Lord Marq. Northampton Lord Marquess of Dorset Earl of Wiltshire Lord Wentworth Lord Admiral Lord Paget Mr. Sadler Mr. Darcy To the Earl of Warwick Lord Privy-Seal Mr. Herbert Mr. Treasurer 24. Removing to Greenwich 26. Peace concluded between the Emperor and the Scots January 6. The Earl of Arundel remitted of 8000 l. which he ought to have payed for certain Faults he had committed within 12 Years 7. There was appointed for because the Frenchmen did go about practice in Ireland that there should be prepared four Ships four Barques four Pinaces and twelve Victualers to take three Havens of which two were on the South-side toward France and one in James Cannes the Scottish Country and also send and break the foresaid Conspiracies 10. Three Ships being sent forth into the Narrow Seas took certain Pirats and brought them into England where the most part was hanged 27. Monsieur de Lansac came from the French King by way of request to ask that Coumilis the fishing of the Tweed Edrington the Ground debatable and the Scotch Hostages that were put here in the King my Father's days should be delivered to the Scots that they might be suffered to Traffique as though they were in Peace and that all Interest of the foresaid Houses should be delivered to the Scots Also that those Prisoners which were bound to pay their Ransoms before the Peace last concluded should not enjoy the benefit of the Peace 18. The Lord Cobham was appointed to be General Lieutenant in Ireland 30. Letters written to Mr. St. Lieger to repair to the South parts of Ireland with his Force February 3. Mr. Croftis appointed to go into Ireland and there with Rogers and certain Artificers to take the Havens aforesaid and begin some Fortification 5. Divers Merchants of London were spoken withal for provision of Corn out of Dansick about 40000 Quarters 10. Mountford was commanded to go to provide for certain proportions of Victual for the Ships that should go into Ireland 11. Also for Provision to be sent to Barwick and the North parts 16. Whaley was examined for perswading divers Nobles of the Realm to make the Duke of Somerset Protector at the next Parliament and stood to the denial the Earl of Rutland affirming it manifestly 13. The Bishop of Winchester after a long Trial was deposed of his Bishoprick 20. Sir VVilliam Pickering Kt. was dispatched to the French King for Answer to Monsieur de Lansac to declare That although I had right in the foresaid Places yet I was content to surrender them under Conditions to be agreed on by Commissioners on both sides and for the last Articles I agreed without condition 25. The Lord Marquess Dorset appointed to be Warden of the North-Borders having three Sub-Wardens the Lord Ogle c. in the East and the Lord Coniers in the West Also Mr. Auger had the charge for victualling Calais 28. The Learned Man Bucerus died at Cambridg who was two days after buried in St. Mary's Church at Cambridg all the whole University with the whole Town bringing him to the Grave to the number of 3000 Persons Also there was an Oration of Mr. Haddon made very eloquently at his Death and a Sermon of * Dr. Parker after that Master Redman made a third Sermon which three Sermons made the People wonderfully to lament his Death Last of all all the Learned Men of the University made their Epitaphs in his praise laying them on his Grave March 3. The Lord Wentworth Lord Chamberlain died about ten of the Clock at Night leaving behind him sixteen Children 1. Sir John York made great loss about 2000 l. weight of Silver by Treason of English Men which he brought for Provision of the Mints Also Judd 1500 and also Tresham 500 so the whole came to 4000 l. February 20. The Frenchmen came with a Navy of 160 Sail into Scotland loaden with provision of Grain
Proceedings therein and in all things committed to our Charge shall be such as shall be able to answer the whole World both in honour and discharge of our Consciences And where your Grace writeth that the most part of the Realm through a naughty Liberty and Presumption are now brought into such a Division as if we Executors go not about to bring them to that stay that our late Master left them they will forsake all Obedience unless they have their own Will and Phantasies and then it must follow that the King shall not be well served and that all other Realms shall have us in an Obloquy and Derision and not without just cause Madam as these words written or spoken by you soundeth not well so can I not perswade my self that they have proceeded from the sincere mind of so vertuous and so wise a Lady but rather by the setting on and procurement of some uncharitable and malicious Persons of which sort there are too many in these days the more pity but yet we must not be so simple so to weigh and regard the Sayings of ill-disposed People and the Doings of other Realms and Countries as for that Report we should neglect our Duty to God and to our Soveraign Lord and Native Country for then we might be justly called evil Servants and Masters and thanks be given unto the Lord such hath been the King's Majesty's Proceedings our young Noble Master that now is that all his faithful Subjects have more cause to render their hearty thanks for the manifold Benefits shewed unto his Grace and to his People and Realm sithence the first day of his Reign until this hour than to be offended with it and thereby rather to judg and think that God who knoweth the Hearts of all Men is contented and pleased with his Ministers who seek nothing but the true Glory of God and the Surety of the King's Person with the Quietness and Wealth of his Subjects And where your Grace writeth also That there was a Godly Order and Quietness left by the King our late Master your Graces Father in this Realm at the time of his Death and that the Spiritualty and Temporalty of the whole Realm did not only without compulsion fully assent to his Doings and Proceedings specially in Matters of Religion but also in all kind of Talk whereof as your Grace wrote ye can partly be witness your self at which your Graces Sayings I do something marvel For if it may please you to call to your remembrance what great Labours Travels and Pains his Grace had before he could reform some of those stiff-necked Romanists or Papists yea and did not they cause his Subjects Rise and Rebel against him and constrained him to take the Sword in his hand not without danger to his Person and Realm Alas why should your Grace so shortly forget that great Outrage done by those Generations of Vipers unto his Noble Person only for God's Cause Did not some of the same ill kind also I mean that Romanist Sect as well with his own Realm as without conspire oftentimes his Death which was manifestly and oftentimes proved to the confusion of some of their privy Assisters Then was it not that all the Spiritualty nor yet the Temporalty did so fully assent to his Godly Orders as your Grace writeth of Did not his Grace also depart from this Life before he had fully finished such Orders as he minded to have established to all his People if death had not prevented him Is it not most true that no kind of Religion was perfected at his Death but left all uncertain most like to have brought us in Parties and Divisions if God had not only helpt us And doth your Grace think it convenient it should so remain God forbid What regret and sorrow our late Master had the time he saw he must depart for that he knew the Religion was not established as he purposed to have done I and others can be witness and testify and what he would have done further in it if he had lived a great many know and also I can testifie And doth your Grace who is learned and should know God's Word esteem true Religion and the knowledg of the Scriptures to be new-fangledness and fantasie For the Lord's sake turn the Leaf and look the other while upon the other side I mean with another Judgment which must pass by an humble Spirit through the Peace of the Living God who of his infinite Goodness and Mercy grant unto your Grace plenty thereof to the satisfying of your Soveraign and your most noble Hearts continual desire Number 16. Certain Petitions and Requests made by the Clergie of the Lower House of the Convocation to the most Reverend Father in God the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury his Grace and the residue of the Prelats of the Higher House for the furtherance of certain Articles following FIrst Ex M. S. Dr. Stillingfleet That Ecclesiastical Laws may be made and established in this Realm by thirty two Persons or so many as shall please the King's Majesty to name and appoint according to the effect of a late Statute made in 35th Year of the most noble King and of most famous Memory King Henry the 8th So that all Judges Ecclesiastical proceeding after those Laws may be without danger and peril Also that according to the Ancient Custom of this Realm and the Tenour of the King 's Writ for the summoning of the Parliament which be now and ever have been directed to the Bishops of every Diocess the Clergy of the Lower House of the Convocation may be adjoined and associate with the Lower House of the Parliament or else That all such Statutes and Ordinances as shall be made concerning all Matters of Religion and Causes Ecclesiastical may not pass without the sight and assent of the said Clergy Also that whereas by the Commandment of King Henry the 8th certain Prelats and learned Men were appointed to alter the Service in the Church and to devise other convenient and uniform Order therein Who according to the same Appointment did make certain Books as they be informed Their Request is That the said Books may be seen and perused by them for a better expedition of Divine Service to be set forth accordingly Also that Men being called to Spiritual Promotions or Benefices may have some Allowance for their necessary Living and other Charges to be sustained and born concerning the same Benefices in the first Year wherein they pay the first Fruits Whether the Clergy of the Convocation may liberally speak their Minds without danger of Statute or Law Number 17. A second Petition to the same purpose Ex M. S. Dr. Stillingfleet WHere the Clergy in this present Convocation assembled have made humble suit unto the most Reverend Father in God my Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and all the other Bishops That it may please them to be a Mean to the King's Majesty and Lord Protector 's Grace
Question For what Cause it were not expedient nor convenient to have the whole Mass in English The Answer This Question is answered by Dyonise and Basil De Spiritu Sancto and also an uniformity of all Churches in that thing is to be kept Number 26. A Collection of some of the Chief Indulgences then in the English Offices Horae B. Mariae Virg. ad usum Sarum Printed at Paris 1526. Folio 38. TO all them that be in the State of Grace that daily say devoutly this Prayer before our Blessed Lady of Pity she will shew them her blessed Visage and warn them the Day and the Hour of Death and in their last End the Angels of God shall yield their Souls to Heaven and he shall obtain 500 Years and so many Lents of Pardon granted by five Holy Fathers Popes of Rome Folio 42. Our Holy Father Sixtus the 4th Pope hath granted to all them that devoutly say this Prayer before the Image of our Lady the sum of 11000 Years of Pardon Folio 44. Our Holy Father the Pope Sixtus hath granted at the instance of the high-most and excellent Princess Elizabeth late Queen of England and Wife to our Soveraign Liege Lord King Henry the 7th God have mercy on her sweet Soul and all Christian Souls that every day in the Morning after three tollings of the Ave-Bell say three times the whole Salutation of our Lady Ave Maria Gratia that is to say at six of the Clock in the Morning three Ave Maries at twelve of the Clock at Noon three Ave Maries and at six of the Clock at Even for every time so doing is granted of the Spiritual Treasure of Holy Church 300 days of Pardon toties quoties And also our Holy Father the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and York with other nine Bishops of this Realm have granted three times in the day forty days of Pardon to all them that be in the state of Grace able to receive Pardon the which began the 26th day of March Anno 1492. Anno Henrici 7. and the sum of the Indulgence and Pardon for every Ave Maria 860 days toties quoties This Prayer shall be said at the tolling of the Ave-Bell Folio 47. Our Holy Father the Pope Bonifacius hath granted to all them that devoutly say this lamentable contemplation of our Blessed Lady standing under the Cross weeping and having compassion with her sweet Son Jesus seven Years of Pardon and forty Lents And also Pope John the 22d hath granted 300 days of Pardon Folio 50. These be the fifteen Do's the which the Holy Virgin S. Bridget was wont to say daily before the Holy Rood in S. Paul's Church at Rome whoso says this a whole Year shall deliver fifteen Souls out of Purgatory of his next Kindred and convert other fifteen Sinners to good Life and other fifteen Righteous Men of his kind shall persevere in good Life and what ye desire of God ye shall have it if it be to the Salvation of your Souls Folio 54. To all them that before this Image of Pity devoutly say five Pater Nosters and five Ave Maries and a Credo piteously beholding those Arms of Christ's Passion are granted 32755 Years of Pardon and Sixtus the 4th Pope of Rome hath made the fourth and the fifth Prayer and hath doubled his foresaid Pardon Folio 56. This Epistle of our Saviour sendeth our Holy Father Pope Leo to the Emperor Carolo Magno of the which we find written Who that beareth this Blessing upon him and saith it once a day shall obtain forty Years of Pardon and eighty Lentings and he shall not perish with sudden Death Folio 57. This Prayer made by S. Austin affirming who that says it daily kneeling shall not die in Sin and after this Life shall go to the everlasting Joy and Bliss Folio 58. Our Holy Father the Pope John 22d hath granted to all them that devoutly say this Prayer after the Elevation of our Lord Jesus Christ 3000 days of Pardon for deadly sins Ibid. Our Holy Father the Pope Bonifacius the Sixth hath granted to all them that say devoutly this Prayer following between the Elevation of our Lord and the three Agnus Dei 10000 Years of Pardon Folio 61. Our Holy Father Sixtus the 4th hath granted to all them that be in the state of Grace saying this Prayer following immediately after the Elevation of the Body of our Lord clean remission of all their Sins perpetually enduring And also John the Third Pope of Rome at the request of the Queen of England hath granted to all them that devoutly say this Prayer before the Image of our Lord Crucified as many days of Pardon as there were wounds in the Body of our Lord in the time of his bitter Passion the which were 5465. Folio 65. These five Petitions and Prayers made S. Gregory and hath granted unto all them that devoutly say these five Prayers with five Pater Nosters five Ave Maries and a Credo 500 Years of Pardon Folio 66. These three Prayers be written in the Chappel of the Holy Cross in Rome otherwise called Sacellum Sanctae Crucis septem Romanorum who that devoutly say them they shall obtain ten hundred thousand Years of Pardon for deadly Sins granted of our Holy Father John 22d Pope of Rome Folio 68. Who that devoutly beholdeth these Arms of our Lord Jesus Christ shall obtain 6000 Years of Pardon of our Holy Father S. Peter the first Pope of Rome and of thirty other Popes of the Church of Rome Successors after him And our Holy Father Pope John the 22d hath granted unto all them very contrite and truly confessed that say these devout Prayers following in the commemoration of the bitter Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ 3000 Years of Pardon for deadly Sins and other 3000 for venial Sins and say first a Pater Noster and Ave Maria. Folio 71. Our Holy Father Pope Innocentius the Second hath granted to all them that say this Prayer devoutly in the worship of the Wound that our Lord had in his blessed Side when he was dead hanging in the Cross 4000 days of Pardon Folio 72. This most devout Prayer said the Holy Father S. Bernard daily kneeling in the worship of the most Holy Name Jesus And it is well to believe that through the Invocation of the most excellent Name of Jesu S. Bernard obtained a singular Ward of perpetual Consolation of our Lord Jesu Christ And these Prayers written in a Table that hanged at Rome in S. Peter's Church nigh to the High Altar there as our Holy Father the Pope evely is wont to say the Office of the Mass and who that devoutly with a contrite Heart daily say this Orison if he be that day in the state of eternal Damnation then his eternal Pain shall be changed him in temporal pain of Purgatory then if he hath deserved the pain of Purgatory it shall be forgotten and forgiven through the infinite Mercy of God Number 27. Injunctions for
being married as he falsly insinuates 28. He says Pag. 202. The Protector bore great hatred to Gardiner and Tonstal both because they opposed the Hereticks and because they had been made equals to him if not preferred before him by King Henry's Will in the Government during the King's being under Age. This is another of our Author's Figures Gardiner was not mentioned in King Henry's Will neither as an Executor nor so much as a Counsellor and by it none were preferred to another all being made equal And for Tonstal he continued still in a firm friendship with the Protector and was so well satisfied with the first Changes that were made that he was complained of as well as Cranmer by Gardiner in the Letters which he writ to the Protector 29. He says Ibid. The Protector made a Speech about Religion before the King and thereafter he put first Gardiner then Tonstall and at another time the Bishops of London Chichester and Worcester in Prison Gardiner and Bonner were indeed imprisoned some time during the Protector 's Government the latter was also deprived while he was Protector But Tonstall was not put in Prison till two Years after and it was at the time of the Duke of Somerset's total fall and by the same Persons means that wrought his Ruin From which it appears he was always a firm Friend to the Duke of Somerset The Bishops of Worcester and Chichester were also brought in trouble long after the Government was taken out of the Protector 's Hands 30. He says ' They were all deposed from their Degree Ibid. They were not deposed from their Degree but deprived of their Bishopricks for they having accepted Commissions by which they held their Sees only during the King's Pleasure they might well be deprived by a Sentence of the Delegates But had they been to be deposed and thrust from their Order it must have been done by a Synod of Bishops They were deprived as many Bishops were under the Christian Emperors by selected Synods that sat in the Court and judged of all Complaints that were brought before the Emperors Pag. 204. 31. He reckons up the Judgments of God upon the Hereticks and says the Protector made kill his Brother and Dudley took him away This is a way of writing familiar enough to our Author to represent things in such a manner as might fill the Reader with horror as if these Persons had been secretly murdered whereas the one was condemned in Parliament the other by a Judgment of his Peers Ibid. 32. He says King Edward died not without suspition of being poisoned by Dudley and the Duke of Suffolk who aspired to the Crown It was never suspected that the Duke of Suffolk had any hand in poisoning the King nor could I ever see any reason to conclude that he was poisoned but neither of these Dukes aspired to the Crown the one resigned any Pretension he could ever have to his Daughter and the other intended only that his fourth Son should reign Pag. 205. 34. He says The Protector 's Lady claimed the precedence of the Queen Dowager and upon the denial of it conspired the ruin of the Admiral All this is a contrivance of the Enemies of that Family for as it had been absurd for the Dutchess of Somerset to have disputed Precedence with the Queen Dowager so in that whole Matter it is plain the Admiral began with his Brother and conspired his ruin and the Protector was often reconciled to him and forgave him many Faults till it appeared that his Ambition was incurable Ibid. 34. He says There being no ground of any Accusation against him the Dutchess of Somerset got Latimer to accuse him of Treason in a Sermon The Articles upon which he was condemned shew what Matter there was against him Latimer did never accuse him of Treason but being a Man of great plainness of Speech he reflected on him as Ambitious and not sincere in the Profession of Religion And when it was suspected that the Dutchess of Somerset had set him on to make these Reflections he did vindicate her in a most solemn manner Nor is there any reason to think that how indiscreet soever he might be in preaching in such a sort that he did it to flatter or to aspire by such means for he refused to accept of any Preferment though the House of Commons interposed to have him repossessed of the See of Worcester Ibid. 35. He says At the same time that he was Beheaded the Queen Dowager died She died in Septemb. 1548 and he was beheaded in March following and one of the Articles against him was That after her Death he intended to have married the King's Sister Elizabeth and it was suspected that to make for that he had poisoned her 36. He says The Men of Devonshire and Cornwal did Pag. 206. with one consent take up Arms for the Faith In one thing he says true that this Rebellion was set on by the Priests and made on the account of Religion but the brutal cruelty of those Rebels shewed it was not for the Faith but in compliance to their Priests and Leaders that they rose 37. He says Pag. 209. The Clergy finding that their being Married was generally an ingrateful thing procured an Act of Parliament declaring that there was no Humane Law against their Marriages and this was all they were concerned in for they cared little for the Law of God This is a genuine piece of our Author's Wit If the Parliament meddles in declaring what is the Law of God he accuses them for medling in things without their Sphere And if they only declare what is the Law of the Land he says they have no regard to the Law of God So he is resolved do what they will they shall not escape his Censure But in this he shews his Ignorance as well as his Malice The lawfulness of the Marriage of the Clergy was enquired into with such exactness that scarce any thing can be added since to what was then written on that Argument It was made out that there was no Law of God against it It was also proved that there was no general Law made by the Primitive Church about it but that it was a part of the Yoke that the Popes laid on the Clergy to engage them more zealously in their Concerns It was at first carried in the Convocation that they might lawfully Marry then an Act of Parliament passed permitting it of all which our Author takes no notice Then three Years after some that were ill-affected to them taking advantage from the words of the Statute as if the Permission had only been such a conniving at it as had been formerly to the Stews a second Act passed confirming those Marriages and the Issue by them 38. He says The Catholick Doctors in the Universities Pag. 210. grew more couragious in the Defence of the Faith and so desired a publick Dispute
Coll. p. 148. Such was Robert King Abbot of Oseney after Bishop of Oxford and Thom. Cornish a Residentiary of Wells who by the name of Thomas Episcopus Tinensis did confer Orders and performed other Episcopal Functions for Fox while he was Bishop of Exeter from 1487 to 1492. and afterwards when he was Bishop of Wells as appears by both those Registers he died in the Year 1513. Of this I could give more Instances if it were necessary P. 203. l. 5 6. It is said some were judged to be Hanged and others to be Beheaded But this being a Case of Treason the Judgments must have been the same tho executed in different ways by order from the King This I copied from Judg Spelman's Common-Place Book P. 203. l. 21. The Original Declaration should have been set down but I thought that not necessary for the L. Herbert has published it only he forgot to add the Subscription to it which I ought to have mentioned in its proper place but it escaped me and therefore I do it here P. 226. l. 24. Andre ' Thevet a French Franciscan who writ some Years after this an Universal Cosmography says Lib. 16. cap. 5. That he was assured by divers English Gentlemen that Mark Smeton at his Death among his other Sins repented in particular of the wrong he had done the Queen in destroying her by a false Accusation And tho Thuanus makes him an Author of no Credit yet there is no reason to suspect him in this Particular for Writers seldom lye against their Interest and the Franciscan Order had suffered so much for their adhering to Queen Katherine's Interests in opposition to Ann Boleyn that it is not likely one of that Order would have strained a Point to tell an honourable Story of her This was made use of in Queen Elizabeth's Time to vindicate her Memory see Saravia Tract cont Bezam cap. 2. versus finem P. 220. l. 4 5 The King's Protestation was not published till about eight or nine months after that was obtained which you there mention which was the 20th of July 1536. And in the Protestation mention is made of the putting off the Council from May to Novemb. 1537. which came out in April or May that Year And in April 1538. the King set out another Protestation against a Bull for the Council at Vincenza which is not mentioned in the History Pool lived at Padua long before this time and not after it as Antiq. P. 221. l. 10. Brit. from whom it is vouched has it but that Society of Learned Men was now removed to Rome whither Pool seems to have gone to them No wonder Chester was not here mentioned P. 263. l. 7. since it was erected before And so it might well be tho the Charter for the present Foundation bears date after for the former might be surrendered and cancelled probably because of some mention made in it of the Pope's Bull of which you speak p. 121. Fox adds another Passage of that Discourse between Cromwel and the Duke of Norfolk which perhaps offended him much P. 265. l. 17. from bottom that he was never so far in love with Wolsey as to have waited on him to Rome as he understood the Duke of Norfolk would have done Coventry and Litchfield were never two different Bishopricks P. 228. l. 23. but two different Seats of the same See which had sometimes a third at Chester This was no designed interview P. 272. l. 1. but Charles hearing of the Tumult at Ghent went from Spain to Flanders through France as his nearest way and was met by Francis at Loches in Berry and not at Paris Cromwel was then Dean of Wells P. 279. l. 20. and that was the reason of the Proviso Hall and L. Herbert say This was on the 25th P. 280. l. 5. which you put on the 24th of June He in that place belongs to the King named before P. 297. so it should have been expressed that it is Bonner that is here meant It was not necessary to restore the Lord Cromwel in Blood P. 312. l. 12. for he was made a Baron when his Father was made an Earl so that his Blood was not corrupted by his Fathers Attaindor Interludes were not then brought in first to Churches P. 318. l. 8. but had been used in the Times of Popery the greatest part of their Religion being placed in outward Shews so that these did well enough agree with it and such Representations are yet in use sometimes in the Roman Church so that by which they had formerly entertained the People was now turned on themselves Fox sets down a Confession of Anne Askews P. 342. l. 1. perhaps Ascough was her right Name for so is the Name of the Family in Lincolnshire written in which she her self relates this Passage of the Lord Chancellors racking her with his own hands so there is no reason to question the truth of it and Parsons who detracts as much from Fox's Credit as he can does not question this particular P. 344. l. 10. The Story concerning Cranmer must belong to the former Year for Butts that bore a share in it died on the 17th of Novemb. 1545 as appears by the Inscription on his Tomb-stone in Fulham Church So this Passage being after the Duke of Suffolk's Death which was in August that Year this must be placed between August and Novemb. 1545. P. 346. l. 6. The Earl of Surrey had not lived long a Widower for his youngest Son afterwards Earl of Northampton is said to have been at nurse at his Father's Death P. 355. l. 17. from bottom The Year of Sir Tho. More 's Birth is not certain by Erasmus his Reckoning it was in the Year 1479 if not higher others say it was 1480 and others 1484. P. 359. l. 30. William Peyto Thuanus calls him William and says he was Loci Ignobilis but his true Name by which he was made Cardinal was Peter whether he was so Christened or assumed it only when he became a Friar is not certain He was descended from an Ancient and Eminent Family in Warwick-shire yet remaining P. 204. l. 14. from bottom And not many of these Here seems to be a word or more wanting It is wanting in the Original but it should have been supplied by a conjecture on the Margent Armed seems to be the word that agrees best to the sense FINIS Errata in the former Volume that are not marked in the Table of them PAge 10. line 17 from bottom for 18 of June read 28. P. 22. l. 11. fr. bott f. Frediswood r. Frideswoide P. 26. l. 24. f. Sartre r. Sautre l. 29. f. it as like r. it is like P. 27. l. 12. fr. bott f. 1611 r. 1511. P. 41. l. 25. for Dorchester r. Dorset P. 47. l. 24. f. Puccy r. Pucci P. 59. l. 18. f. great r. got P. 72. l. 11. f. Simpson r.