Duke her Husband and the Cardinall * I see not how this is much materiall in her defence of Winchester about the year 1440. 5. It is not probable if the Dutchess intended such Treason against the Kings life as to consume him by burning a wax candle that she would impart a plot of such privacy to four persons viz. Sir Roger Margaret Jourdman Mr. Thomas Southwell and Iohn Hume seeing five may keep counsell if four be away 6. So hainous a treason against the Kings person if plainly proved would have been more severely punished with death no doubt of all privy thereunto Whereas this Lady escaped with Exile and Iohn Hume had his life pardoned which being so foule a fact would not have been forgiven if clearly testified against Him 7. She is accused in our Chronicles Harding Polycronicon c. for working Sorcery and Inchantments AGAINST the Church and the King Now how can Inchantments be made AGAINST the Church which is a Collective Body consisting of a Multitude of Christians and reader in my weak opinion this Conjecture carrieth some weight with it Anno Dom. 1433. Balaam himself can tell us Anno Regis Hen. 11 6. There is no Sorcery against Jacob not Southsaying against Israel If any interpret Against the Church that is the Laws and Canons of the Church Num. 23. 23. the Sence is harsh and unusual This rendreth it suspicious that her Inchantments against the Church was only her disliking and distasting the errours and Superstitions thereof 8. This Witch of Eye saith Fabian lived neer Winchester a Presumption as Mr. Fox conjectureth that the Cardinall of Winchester had a hand in packing this accusation 9. Polydore Virgil maketh no mention thereof otherwise sufficiently quicksighted in matters of this nature 10. Why may not this be false as well as that King Richard the third his accusing of Iane Shore for bewitching of his withered arm These conjectures are not Substantial enough severally to subsist of themselves yet may they be able to stand in complication in the whole Sheaf though not as single Arrows and conduce not a little towards the clearing of her innocence For my own part 23. A moderate way it is past my Skill to seour out stains inlayed in the memory of one diseased more then two hundred years agoe I see her credit stands condemned by the generality of Writers and as it is above the power of the present Age to pardon it so it is against all pitty crueltie to execute the same some after-evidences appearing with glimmering light in her vindication Let her Memory therefore be reprieved till the day of Judgement when it is possible Micah 7. 9. that this Lady bearing here the indignation of God for her sins may in due time have her cause pleaded and judgement executed for her and her righteousnesse be brought into light Sure I am she fared no whit the better for her sirname of Cobbam odious to the Clergy of that Age on the account of Sir Iohn Oldcasile Lord Cobham though these two were nothing of kin The best is she left no issue to be ashamed of her faults if she were guilty the best evidences of whose innocence are in the Manuscript Books of J. Leyland which as yet I have not had the happinesse to behold At this time William Heiworth sat Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield The meanest Bishop above the mightiest Abbot being translated thither from being Abbot of St. Albans Wonder not that he should leave the richest Abbey of England where he took place of all of his Order and exchange it for a middle-sized Bishoprick For first even those who most admire the holinesse and perfection of Monasticallife do grant the Episcopal Function above it in all Spirituall respects Secondly in Temporal Considerations the poorest Bishop was better and might be more beneficial to his Kindred than the richest Abbot seeing he by will might bequeath his estate to his Heirs which no Abbot incapable in his own person of any Propriety could legally do whose goods belonged to his Convent in common This Bishop Heiworth deserved not ill of his Cathedral Church of Litchfield Litchfield's Cathedral Indeed the body of the Church was built by Roger de Clinton Bishop thereof 1433 in the reign of King Henry the first 11. who increased the number of the Prebends and surrounded Litchfield with a ditch bestowing much cost on the invisible Castle which now is vanished out of sight Afterwards Walter de Langton his successour in the reign of King Edward the first was a most munificent Benefactor thereunto laying the foundation of the Chappel of the Virgin Mary and though dying before it was finished bequeathing a sufficient summe of money for the finishing thereof He also fenced the Close of the Church about with a high wall and deep ditch adorning it with two beautifull gates the fairer on the west the lesser on the South side thereof He expended no lesse then two thousand and pound in beautifying the shrine of Saint Chad his predecessor 65. But now in the time of the aforesaid VVilliam Heyworth Anno Regis Hen. 6 11. the Cathedral of Litchfield was in the verticall height thereof Anno Dom. 1433. being though not augmented in the essentials beautified in the Ornamentals thereof The nearest Pile in England Indeed the West front thereof is a stately Fabrick adorned with exquisite imagerie which I suspect our age is so far from being able to imitate the workmanship that it understandeth not the Historie thereof 66. Surely what Charles the fifth is said to have said of the Citie of Florence Charles the fifth of Florence that it is pittie it should be seen save only on Holy-dayes as also that it was fitt that so fair a Citie should have a Case and Cover for it to keep it from wind and weather so in some sort this Fabrick may seem to deserve a shelter to secure it 67. But alas it is now in a pittifull case indeed An ingenious design almost beaten down to the ground in our civil dissensions Now lest the Church should follow the Castle I mean quite vanish out of view I have at the cost of my worthy friend here exemplified the Portraiture thereof and am glad to hear it to be the design of ingenious persons to preserve ancient Churches in the like nature whereof many are done in this and more expected in the next part of Monasticon seeing when their substance is gone their verie shadows will be acceptable to posteritie 68. The Commons in Parliament complained to the King A grievance complained on that whereas they had sold great wood of twenty years growth and upwards to their own great profit and in aid to the King in his wars and shipping the Parsons and Vicars impleaded such Merchants as bought this Timber for the Tithes thereof whereby their estates were much damnified the King and the Kingdome disserved 69.
died in his own House in Waltham and was g Matt. Paris Anno 1252. A heap of difficulties cast together buried in the Abby-Church therein And now because we have so often cited Matthew Paris I never met with more difficulties in six lines then what I finde in him which because nearly relating to this present subject I thought fit to exemplifie MATTHEW PARIS in Anno 1242. p. 595. Eodemque Anno videlicet in crastino S ti Michaelis dedicata est Ecclesia conventualis Canonicorum de Waltham ab Episcopo Norwicensi Willielmo solemniter valde assistibus aliis plurimis Episcopis Praelatis Magnatibus venerabilibus statim post dedicationem Ecclesiae sancti Pauli Londinensis ut peregrinantes hinc inde indistanter remearent And in the same year namely the morrow after S t. Michaels day the conventual Church of the Canons at Waltham was dedicated by William Bishop of Norwich very solemnly many other Bishops Prelates and venerable Peers assisting him presently after the dedication of S t Pauls in London that Pilgrims and Travellers up and down might indistantly return It is clear our Church of Waltham Abby is intended herein a See speed his Caralogue of religiious houses Queries on queries England affording no other Conventual Church This being granted how comes Waltham Church built by Harold two hundred years before now to be first Dedicated that Age accounting it as faulty and fatal to defer the Consecration of Churches as the Christning of Children 2. What made the Bishop of Norwich to meddle therewith an Office more proper for the Bishop of London to perform Waltham being though not under in his jurisdiction 3. What is meant by the Barbarous word indistanter and what benefit accrewed to Travellers thereby I will not so much as conjecture as unwilling to draw my bow where I despair to hit the mark but leave all to the judgment of others But I grow tedious and will therefore conclude Anno 1641. King CHARLES came the last time to Waltham and went as he was wont where any thing remarkable to see the Church the Earl of Carlile attending him His Majestie told him that he divided his Cathedral Churches K. Charls his last coming to Waltham as he did his Royal ships into three ranks accounting S t Pauls in London York Lincoln Winchester c. of the first form Chichester Lichfield c. of the second the Welch Cathedrals of the third with which Waltham Church may be well compared especially if the Roof thereof was taken lower and Leaded The Earl moved His Majestie Conditionally granteth the repairing of the Church that seeing this Ancient Church Founded by king Harold his Predecessor was fallen into such decay that the repair was too heavy for the Parish he would be pleased to grant a moderate Tole of Cattle coming over the Bridg with their great Driftss doing much damage to the High-wayes and therewith both the Town might be Paved and the Church repaired The King graciously granted it provided it were done with the privity and cons ent of a great Prelate not so safe to be named as easie to be guessed with whom he consulted in all Church-matters But when the foresaid Prelate was informed But it misarcrieth that the Earl had applied to His Majestie before addresses to himself he dashed the design so that poor Waltham Church must still be contented with their weak walls and worse Roof till Providence procure her some better Benefactors As for the Armes of Waltham Abby being loath to set them alone I have joyned them in the following draught with the Armes of the other Mitred Abbies as far as my industry could recover them SOLI DEO GLORIA FINIS AN INDEX OF THE MOST REMARKABLE PERSONS and Passages in this BOOK TO THE READER ALthough a Methodicall Book be an Index to it self yet an Index is not to be contemned by the most Industrious Reader Whom we request to take notice of the following Particulars I. C. stands for Century B. for Book P. for Page ¶ for Paragraph II. In the two first Books memorables are ranked onely according to Centuries an Paragraphs but afterwards by Books III. Paragraph without page doth for brevity sake referre to that page which was last named IV. Page without Book on the same reason relates to the last Book that was named V. VVhere no Paragraph is named it sheweth that the page by it self is sufficient notification Lastly know that the discounting of Sheets to expedite the work at severall Presses hath occasioned in the Fifth book after page 200. completed to go back Again to page 153 surrounded in this fashion to prevent confusion ARON a Citizen of Caerlion martyred Cent. 4. 1. 10. ABBEYS The prodigious expence in building and endowing them Cent. 10. ¶ 40. multitudes of them causeth the Danish invasion ¶ 51. mischiefs done by them b. 2. p. 282 283 284. prime Officers and Officines p. 285 286 287. the civil benefits by them p. 296 297 298. presage of their ruin p. 300. and offers to overthrow them p. 301 302. the lesser which could not expend 200. pounds a year bestowed on the King p. 310 311 and the rest visited with three sorts of Officers p. 314. 315. some appear vertuous p. 316. otherâ—â—otouriously vitious p. 317. all resigned by their Abbots unwillingly willing to the King p. 319 c. Rob. ABBOT Bishop of Salisbury his death and commendation B. 10. P. 70. ¶ 53. George ABBOT Arch-bishop of Cant. B. 10. P. 57. 9. 47. casually killeth a keeper p. 87 ¶ 12 c. befriended by Sir Edward Coke ¶ 15. and Bishop Andrews ¶ 16. mortified by this chance ¶ 17. seven years after severely suspended from his jurisdication b. 11. ¶ 51. his character ¶ 53. and vindication ¶ 54. 55. Tho. ADAMS Alderman of London foundeth an Arabick Professours place in Cambridge Hist of Cam. P. 166. ¶ 23. ADELME the first Bishop Sherborn Cent. 8. ¶ 4. and the first Englsnman who wroted Latin or made a verse ibid. AETHELARD Arch-bishop of Cant. calleth a Svnod Cent. 9. ¶ 2. with the solemn subscriptions thereunto ibidem AGRICOLA a principall spreader of Pelagiamisme in Britain Cent. 5. ¶ 3. AIDAN Bishop of Lindissern his due Commendation Cent. 7. ¶ 70. dissenteth from the Romish Church in the Celebration of Easter ¶ 71. inciteth Lay-men to the Reading of Scripture ¶ 72. St. ALBAN though a Britan how a Citizen of Rome Cent. 4. ¶ 2. converted to Christianity by Amphibalus ¶ 3. his Martyrdome and reported Miracles ¶ 4. 5. his intire body pretended in three places Cent. 5. ¶ 11. Enshrined some hundred years after by King Offa Cent. 8. ¶ 35. St. ALBANS Abbey founded by King Offa Cent. 8. ¶ 38. the Abbot thereof confirmed first in place of all England by Pope Adrian the fourth b. 3. p. 29. ¶ 49. ALL-SOULS Colledge in Oxford founded by Hen. Chichely Arch-bishop of Cant. b. 4. p. 182. ARROW a small city in
Cruelty to himself if unwillingly was it Dunstan's Fire or his Faith that fail'd him that he could hold out against him no longer But away with all Suspicions and Queries none need to doubt of the truth thereof finding it in a Sign painted in Fleet-street near Temple-barre 16. During Dunstan's abode in his Cell Aelsgine Dunstan's bountifull friend he had to his great Comfort and Contentment the company of a good Lady Aelfgine by name living fast by No Preacher but Dunstan would please her being so ravisht with his Society that she would needs build a little Cell for her self hard by him In processe of time this Lady died and by her last Will left Christ to be the Heir and Dunstan the Executor of her Estate Enabled with the accession thereof joyned to his paternall Possessions which were very great and now fallen into his hands Dunstan erected the Abbey of Glassenbury and became himself first Abbot thereof a Title till his time unknown in England he built also and endowed many other Monasteries filling them with Benedictine Monks who began now to swarm in England more then Magots in a hot May so incredible was their Increase 17. After the death of King Athelstane 16 Dunstan was recalled to Court in the reign of King Edmund 939 Athelstan's Brother Recalled to Court and re-banished thence and flourished for a time in great Favour But who would build on the brittle Bottome of Princes Love Soon after he falls into the Kings Disfavour Edmundi 1 the old Crime 940 of being a Magician and a Wanton with Women to boot being laid to his charge Surely Dunstan by looking on his own Furnace might learn thence there was no Smoak but some Fire either he was dishonest or undiscreet which gave the Ground-work to their generall Suspicion Hereupon he is re-banisht the Court and returned to his desired Cell at Glassenbury but within three dayes was solemnly brought back again to Court if the ensuing Story may be believed 18. King Edmund was in an eager pursuit of a Buck King Edmund his miraculous deliverance on the top of a steep Rock whence no Descent but Destruction Down falls the Deer and Dogs after him and are dashed to pieces The King follows in full speed on an unruly Horse whom he could not rein is on the Brink of the Brink of the Precipice yet his Prayers prove swifter then his Horse he but ran whilst they did fly to Heaven He is sensible of his Sin in banishing Dunstan confesseth it with Sorrow vowes Amendment promiseth to restore preferre him Instantly the Horse stops in his full Career and his Rider is wonderfully preserved 19. Thus farre a strong Faith may believe of the Story Fy for shame lying Monk but it must be a wild one which gives credit to the remainder a Ross Histor Matt. West Iob. Capgr Osbernus Cervus Canes reviviscunt saith the impudent Monk The Deer Dogs revive again I remember not in Scripture that God ever revived a brute Beast partly because such mean subjects are beneath the Majesty of a Miracle and partly because as the Apostle faith brute Beasts b 2 Pet. â— 12. are made to be taken destroyed Well then might the Monk have knockt off when he had done well in saving the Man and Horse and might have left the Dogs Deer to have remained dead on the place the Deer especially were it but to make Venison Pasties to feast the Courtiers at the solemnizing of their Lord and Masters so miraculous Deliverance 20. Dunstan returning to Court was in higher Favour then ever before 6 Edredi 1 Nor was his Interest any whit abated by the untimely Death of King Edmund slain by one Leoff a Thief seeing his Brother Edred 946 succeeding to the Crown King Edred a high Patron of Dunstan continued and increased his Kindness to him Under him Dunstan was the Doe-all at Court Anno Dom. 946 being the Kings Treasurer Anno Regis Edredi 1 Chancellour Counsellour all things Bishopricks were bountifully profered him pick and chuse where he please but none were honoured with his Acceptance Whether because he accounted himself too high for the place and would not stoop to the Employment or because he esteemed the place too high for him unable conscientiously to discharge it in the midst of so many Avocations Mean time Monasteries were every where erected King Edred devoutly resigning all his Treasure to Dunstan's Disposall Secular Priests being thrust out of their Convents and Monks substituted in their rooms 21. But after Edred's Death But King Edwine his profest Enemy the Case was altered with Dunstan falling into Disgrace with King Edwin his Successour 954 This King on his Coronation-day was said to be incestuously imbracing both Mother Daughter 9 Edwini 1 when Dunstan boldly coming into his Bed-chamber after bitter Reproofs stoutly fetcht him thence and brought him forth into the company of his Noblemen An heroick act if true done with a Iohn Baptist spirit and no wonder if Herod and Herodias I mean this incestuous King and his Concubines were highly offended with Dunstan for the same 22. But good men Who though wronged by the Monks was a worthy Prince and grave Authours give no belief herein conceiving King Edwin how bad soever charactered by the Monks his malicious Enemies to have been a worthy Prince In witnesse whereof they produce the words of a Hist lib. 5. pag. 357. Henry Huntington a learned man but no Monk thus describing him Edwin non illaudabiliter regni insulam tenuit Et rursus Ed win rex anno regni sui quito cum in principio regnum ejus decentissime flor eret prospera laetabunda exordia mors immatura perrupit Edwin was not undeserving of praise in managing the Sceptre of this Land And again King Edwin in the fifth year of his Reign when his Kingdome began at first most decently to flourish had his prosperous and pleasant Beginnings broken off with untimely Death This Testimony considered makes many men think better of King Edwin and worse of Dunstan as guilty of some uncivil Intrusion into the Kings Chamber for which he justly incurred his royall Displeasure 23. Hereupon Dunstan is banished by King Edwin He banisheth Dunstan and dieth heart-broken with grief not as before from England to England from the Court to his Cell at Glassenbury but is utterly expelled the Kingdome and flieth into Flanders Where his Friends say that his Fame prepared his Welcome the Governour of Gaunt most solemnly entertained him 956 Mean time 3 all the Monks in England of Dunstan's Plantation were rooted up and Secular Priests set in their places But soon after happened many Commotions in England especially in Mercia and Northumberland The Monks which write the Story of these Rebellions conceive it unfit to impart to Posterity the Cause thereof which makes wise men to
and the City of Jerusalem from the Turks in Palestine 9. Having formerly written an whole Book of the Holy War An account of our design and particularly of King Richards atchievements therein 1190 I intend here no repetition 1. Onely our design is to give a Catalogue of some of our English Nobility who adventured their persons in the Holy War and whose Male-Posterity is eminently extant at this day I have known an excellent Musician whom no Arguments could perswade to play until hearing a Bungler scrape in the company he snatch'd the Instrument out of his hand in indignation that Musick should be so much abused then turned and played upon it himself My project herein is that giving in an imperfect list of some few noble Families who ingaged themselves in this service It will so offend some eminent Artist hitherto silent in this kinde that out of disdain he will put himself upon so honourable a work deserving a Gentleman who hath Lands Learning and leisure to undertake so costly intricate and large a subject for the honor of our Nation And be it premised that to prevent all cavils about precedency first come first serv'd I shall Marshal them in no other method but as in my studies I have met with the mention of them 10. To begin with the place of my present habitation Anno Regis Rich. prim 1. one Hugh Nevil attended King Richard into the Holy War Anno Dom. 1190 and anciently lieth buried in a Marble Monument Nevil Kill Lion his performance in Palestine in the Church of Waltham Abbey in Essex whereof no remainders at this day This Hugh Nevil being one of the Kings special samiliars slew a Lion in the Holy Land first driving an arrow into his Breast and then running him through with his sword on whom this Verse was made a Mat. Paris Anno Dom 1222. Viribus Hugonis vires periêre Leonis The strength of Hugh A Lion slew If Benaiah the son of Jehoiadah was recounted the fifth amongst Davids worthies for b 2 Sam. 23. 20. killing a Lion in the middest of a pit in the time of snow surely on the same reason this bold and brave Baron Hugh ought to be entred into the Catalogue of the Heroes of his Soveraign But I cannot give credit to c Weavers Fun. Mon. pag. 644. his report who conceiveth that the Atchievement of the man was translated to his Master And that on this occasion King Richard the first got the name of Cordelion or Lions Heart 11. This Hugh Nevil gave the Manor of d Registrum Cart Abbat de Waltham Thorndon to Waltham Abby Ancesters to the Noble numerous Nevils and was Ancester of the Noble and numerous Family of the Nevils to which none in England equal for Honor Wealth and number in the later end of King Henry the sixth though at this day the Lord Abergavenny be the only Baron thereof He gave for his Armes a Cross Saltire or the Cross of S t Andrew probably assuming it in the Holy War For though I confess this is not the proper Cross of Hierusalem yet was it highly esteemed of all those who adventured thither as may appear in that all Knights-Templers make such Saltire Cross with their Thwarted Leggs upon their Monuments 12. Giralde de Talbote succeeds in the second place Giralde de Talbote whence the house of Shrewsbury When Articles were drawn up between our King Richard in his passage to Palestine and Tancred King of Sicily for the mutual observation of many Conditions betwixt them He put in upon their Oaths for his Sureties a Grand-Jury of his principal Subjects then present viz. two Arch-Bishops two Bishops and twenty other of his Prime Nobility expressed in his Letters e R. Hoveden pars poster 〈◊〉 in Rich. primo Patents Besides many other whose names were concealed Of these twenty the aforesaid Girald de Talbote is the first whose Male Issue and Name is extant at this day flourishing in the Right Honourable Family of the Earls of Shrewsbury 13. Next amongst the Royal Jurors as I may term them was Guarrin Fitz-Girald Guarrin Fitz Girald from whom the Earls of Kildare and Barons of Windsor from whom are descended the Fitz Giralds in Ireland where their name is in some places Provincial of whom the Earl of Kildare is chief A memorial of their service in Palestine is preserved in their Armes giving Argent a Cross Saltire Gules Here it must be remembred that the valiant sprightly Gentleman Hickman Lord Windsor is descended from the same f See Camd. Brit. in Berkshire Male Ancestors with the Fitz Giralds as Robert Glover a most exquisite Herald doth demonstrate though according to the fashion of that age altering his old and assuming a new name from Windsor the place of his office and Command This Lord Windsor carrieth the Badg of his Service in his Arms being essentially the same with the Earl of Kildares save that the colours are varied the field Gules and cross Saltire Argent betwixt twelve Crosses crossed OR Which Coat seemingly sursited was conceived in that age the more healthful for the same the more Crossed the more Blessed being the Devotion of those dayes 14. Four other Gentlemen of quality remain mentioned in that Parent A Quaternion more of adventures William de Curcy Father to John the valiant Champion and Conqueror of Ireland Robert de Novo Burgo Hugh le Brain and Amaury de Mountford of all whom formerly in our Alphabetical Comment on Abby Roll. Anno Dom. 1191. Anno Regis Rich. Prim. 2. 15. At the siege of Acres or Ptolemais the Grave General of the Christian Army amongst many Worthies dying there within the compass of one year Ingleram 〈◊〉 his posterity I finde a 〈…〉 pag. 655. Ingelram de Fiennes to be slain from whom the Lord Viscount Say and Seal and the Lord Dacres of the South derive their discent But most visible are the remains of the Holy War in the atchievement of Theophilus Finnes alias Clinton Earl of Lincoln giving in the lower parts of his shield in a field Argent six Crosses crossed Fitchee Sable denoting the stability and firmness of his Ancestors in that service 16. Also at the aforesaid Siege of Acres Radulphus De Alta ripa Radulphus de Alta ripa Arch-Deacon of Colchester ended his life Now although because a Clergy-man he could not then leave any lawful Issue behinde him Yet we may be confident that the Ancient Family De Alta ripa or Dautry still continuing in b Camd. Brit. ibid. Sussex were of his Alliance 17. Before we leave the Siege of Acres let me refresh the Reader with my innocent and give me leave to say provable mistake A mistake freely confest I conceived the Noble Family of the Lord Dacres took their Sir-name from some service there performed confirmed in my conjecture 1. Because the
peaceable possession of such priority 8. Next him Next the Abbot of S. Albans the Abbot of S. Albans took place above all of his Order to the no small grief and grudge of Glassenbury seeing Joseph of Arimathea was two hundred years senior to S. Albans But who shall deny the Patriarck f Gen. 48. 14. Jacob the priviledge of crossing his own hands to preferre the younger before the elder The same power but on what pretence let others enquire the Pope assumeth to himself whereby Adrian the fourth once a Monk of S. Albans gave that Convent the precedencie 9. As for the remaining Abbots The carelesse order of the rest we may observe a kinde of a carelesse order observed in their summoning to and consequently their sitting in Parliament Now seeing it will not enter into a rationall belief that their methodizing was meerly managed by the will of the Clerk of the Writs it must descend on the disposall of the King calling them in what order He pleaseth 10. Sure I am Seniority not observed in the summons these Abbots were not summoned according to their personall seniorities of their severall instalments nor according to the antiquity of their respective foundations For Waltham Abbot being ante-penultimus as but founded by King Herold is commonly fourteenth or fifteenth in the summons Battaile Abbey which in this body of Abbeys should be beneath the ancle as last of all save Selbye is commonly about the breast the eight or ninth in number 11. Nor are they ranked according to the richnesse of their annuall Revenues Not ranked by their wealth for then according to their Valuations at the Dissolution they should be martialled according to the method here insuing when first I have premised a Note concerning the Abbey of Teuxbury in Glocester-shire 12. This Abbot appeareth Parliamentary neither in any summons exhibited Teuxbury to be added to the Catalogue by g Titles of borror p. 728. Master Selden most curious in this point nor yet in the Catalogue of them presented by h Brit. p. 170. Master Cambden and reverence to these worthy Authors hath prevailed with me so much that durst not insert him However since I am convinced in my judgement he must be entred in the list Partly moved by the greatnesse of Revenues Partly because I finde him registred by i In his Annall of K. Hen. 8. An. 1539. Bishop God win no lesse Criticall than the former in Historicall matters Yet to please all parties we will onely adde him in the Margine and not enter him in the body of the Catalogue  lib. s. d. ob q. 1. S. Peters Westminster 3977 6 4 1 1 2. Glassenbury Somerset-shire 3508 13 4 1 1 3. S. Albans Hertford-shire 2510 6 1 1 1 4. S. Johns of Jerusalem Middlesex 2385 19 8 0 0 5. S. Edmunds-Bury Suffolke 2336 16 0 0 0 6. Reading Berk-shire 2116 3 9 0 1 7. S. Maryes nigh Yorke 2085 1 5 1 1 8. Abington Berk-shire 2042 2 8 1 1 9. * Teuxbury valued at 1598 ◠◠3d. Ramsey Huntingdon shire 1983 15 3 0 1 10. Peterborough Northampton-shire 1972 7 0 1 1 11. Gloucester 1550 4 5 1 0 12. S. Austines Canterbury 1412 4 7 1 1 13. Evesham Worcester-shire 1268 9 9 0 0 14. Crewland Lincoln-shire 1217 5 11 0 0 15. Wealtham Effex 1079 12 1 0 0 16. Cirencester Glocester-shire 1051 7 1 0 0 17. Battaile Suffex 987 0 11 1 1 18. Tavystoke Devonshire 902 5 7 1 1 19. Hide nigh Winchester 865 1 6 1 1 20. Selby York-shire 819 2 6 0 0 21. Malinsbury Wilts-shire 803 17 7 0 0 22. Wivelscombe Glocester-shire 756 11 9 0 0 23. Middleton Dorset-shire 720 4 1 0 0 24. S. Bennet Hulm Morthfolke 677 9 8 0 1 25. Shrewsbury 615 4 3 1 0 26. Thorny * All these valuations are taken out of Speed's Catalogue of religious Houses pag 787. Cambridge-shire 508 2 5 0 0 27. Bardney Lincoln-shire 429 7 0 0 0 The valuations of Coventry Colchester I cannot finde and in all these sums we have trusted Harps-field and Speed both subject to many mistakes those standing on stippery ground who in point of computation tread onely on figures and not on numbers at length The Auditors in these accounts pretend to much exactnesse descending to the fractions of half-pence and farthings though much partiality was used therein many of the Raters at the dissolution being Ranters for the present proved Purchasers for the future of the lands The Abbey of Ramsey commonly called l Sir Rob. Cotton under due name of Speed in the description of Huntingdonshire the RICH is here but the ninth in number according to the wealth thereof whereby it plainly appears that much favour was used in the undervaluing of that foundation 13. We must know there were other Abbeys Some Abbots not Barons richer than those that were who though not so high in Dignity were richer in Indowments than many of these Parliamentary Barons viz  lib. s. d. ob q. 1. Fountains Richmond-shire 1173 0 7 1 0 2. Lewes Suffex 1691 9 6 0 1 3. S. Werburghs Cheshire 1073 17 7 1 0 4. Leicester 1062 0 4 1 1 5. Marton Surrey 1039 5 3 0 0 6. Fournance Richmond-shire 969 7 1 0 0 These had more Lands at best were more highly valued though not so Honourable a tenure as holding of mean Landlords in frank almonage And probably the Parliamentary Barons had more old rents though these as later foundations greater incomes by improved demeans 14. There also were Nunneries corrivall in revenues with Parliamentary Abbeys Shafts-bury the richest Nunnery whereof Shafts-bury the chiefest valued at 1329 li. 21 s. 3d. So that the Countrey-people had a Proverb That if the Abbot of Glassenbury might marry the Abbesse of Shafts-bury their Heire would have more land than the King of England Barkeing in Essex and Sion in Middlesex fell not much short of Shafts-bury being severally endowed with above a 1000 li. per annum 15. Of all Counties in England Glocester-shire was most pestered with Monks having four mitred Abbeys beside S. Austines in Bristoll who sometimes passed for a Baron within the compasse thereof viz Glocester Teuxbury Ciren-cester and Wevelscome Hence the topical wicked Proverb deserving to be banisht out of that Countrey A prophane proverb being the prophane childe of superstitious parents As sure as God is in Glocester-shire As if so many Convents had certainly fastned his gracious presence to that place 16. As Glocester-shire was the fullest of No Countrey free from Monks so Westmoreland the freest from Monasteries It seemeth the Monks did not much care for that cold Countrey nestling themselves but in one place called Sharp which they found so answering the name that they sought warmer places elswhere As for the boasting of the men of the Isle of Wight That they never had m Cambd. Brit. in the Isle of Wight hooded
forged leases are countenanced under the pretence of this passing the same 22. As for the number of Recusants which forsook the land at this time A list of persons deprived the prime of them were Henry Lord Morley S r. Francis Inglefield Thomas Shelly and John Gage Esqrs As for the Nuns of Sion and other Votaries wasted over we have formerly treated of them in our History of Abbies Nor were there moe then eighty Rectours of Churches fifty Prebendaries fifteen Masters of Colledges twelve Arch-Deacons twelve Deans with six Abbots and Abbesses deprived at this time of their places thoroughout all England 23. Now the Queen and Her Councell Matthew Parker designed Arch-Bishop his due commendation accounted it high time to supply the Church of Canterbury which hitherto had stood * Counted from Pooles death to Parkers consecration Vacant a yeer Anno Dom. 1559. and three weeks with an Arch-Bishop Anno Regin Eliza. 2. D r. Matthew Parker is appointed for the place borne in Norwich bred in Cambridge Master of Benefactour to Bennet-Colledge there Chaplain to Queen Anne Bollen a relation which next his own merits befriended him with Queen Elizabeth for such high and suddain advancement then to King Henry the eighth Deane of the Colledge of Stoke juxta Clare a learned and religious Divine He confuted that character which one gives of Antiquaries that generally they are either superstitious or supercilious his skill in antiquity being attended with soundnesse of doctrine and humility of manners His Book called Antiquitates Britanicae hath indebted all posterity to his pen. Which work our great a Mr Selden of Tithes cap. 9. pag. 256. Critick cites as written by M r. Joscelin one much employed in the making thereof But we will not set the memories of the Patrone and Chaplaine at variance who loved so well in their lives time nor needeth any Writ of partition to be sued out betwixt them about the authorship of this book though probably one brought the matter the other composure thereof 24. The Queen had formerly sent order to D r. Wotton The Queen Her letter for his consecration Dean of Canterbury an exquisite Civilian July 18. Aug. 1. and therefore one who may be presumed critical in such performances and to the Chapter there to choose Matthew Parker their Arch-Bishop which within fourteen dayes after was by them accordingly performed This done She directeth Her Letters-Patents in manner and forme following Elizabetha b Registrum Parker 1. Iom 1 fol. 3. Dei Gratia c. Reverendis in Christo Patribus Antonio Landavensi Episcopo Will Barlow quondam Bath Well Ep. nunc Cicestrensi electo Joh Scory quondam Cicestrensi Episcopo nunc electo Heâ—esor Miloni Coverdalio quondam Exoniensi Episcopo Johanni Surffaganeo Bedford Johanni Suffraganeo Thetford Johanni Bale Osserensi Episcopo Quatenus vos aut ad minus quatuor vestrûm eundem Matthaeum Parkerum in Archiepiscopum Pastorem Ecclesiae Cathedralis Metropoliticae Christi Cantuariensis praedictae sicut praefertur electum electionemque praedictum confirmare eundem Magistrum Matthaeum Parkerum in Archiepiscopum Pastorem Ecclesiae praedictae consecrare caeteraque omnia singula peragere quae vestro in hac parte editorum provisorum velitis cum effectu c. Dat sexto Decembris Anno secundo Elizabethae But the old Bishop of Landaffe appeared not at the Consecration Dece 6. terrified say the Papists by Bonners threats so as to absent himself which others do not believe For he that feared not the Lion out of the grate would he be frighted with the Lion within the grate If Bonner when at liberty could not deterr him from taking the oath of Supremacy improbable it is that when now detain'd prisoner in the Tower he could disswade him from his obedience to his Soveraigne More likely it is that his absence as also Bishop Bale's and the Suffragans of Thetford was occasioned by their indisposition of body and infirmity of old age 25. But the other four Bishops appeared The manner thereof William Barlow John Scory Miles Coverdal and John Hodgskins by whom Matthew Parker was solemnly consecrated in manner and forme following The East part of the Chappel of c Regist Parker Tom 1. fol. 9. Lambeth was hung with tapestry the floore spred with red cloth chairs and cushions are conveniently placed for the purpose morning prayer being solemnly read by Andrew Peerson the Arch-Bishops Chaplaine Bishop Scory went up into the d Ibid. fol. 10. pulpit and took for his text The e 1 Pet. 5. 1. Elders which are among you I exhort who also am an Elder and a witnesse of the sufferings of Christ c. Sermon ended and the Sacrament administred they proceed to the Consecration the Arch-Bishop had his Rochet on with Hereford and the Suffragan of Bedford Chichester wore a silke cope and Coverdal a plain cloth-gown down to his ancles All things are done conâ—ormable to the book of Ordination Letanie sung the Queens Patent for Parkers consecration audibly read by D r. Vale Dece 17. he is presented the oath of Supremacy tendred to him taken by him hands reverendly imposed on him and all with prayers begun continued concluded In a word though here was no Theatrical pompe to make it a Popish pageant though no sandals gloves ring staffe oyle pall c. were used upon him yet there was ceremony enough to cloth his consecration with decency though not to clog it with superstition 26. This his consecration is avowed most legal The legality of his consecration both according to Canon and Common Law In the latter it was ordered by King Henry a Anno Regin 25. the eighth that an Arch-Bishops should not be consecrated but by an Archbishop and two Bishops or by four Bishops in case an Arch-Bishop was wanting as here it was performed Object not that one of these foure was but a Suffragan seeing such by the b 26. of Henry 8 cap. 14. laws of the land though not able to vote as Barons in Parliament had Episcopal power to all purposes and intents Neither cavill that Coverdale henceforward led a private life being always a Bishop quoad characterem and for the present quoad jâ—es â—itulum Exeter his former Bishoprick being actually void by the deprivation of Turbervile though refusing to be so quoad possessionem As for the canonical part of his consecration six of the most eminent Doctours of that faculty England then afforded gave it under their hands that the same was exactly observed 27. Yet notwithstanding all circumstances so solemnly performed The impudent lie of the Naggs-head some impudent Papists have raised a lie that Matthew Parker was consecrated Ad caput manni At the Naggs-head a tavern in Cheapside Indeed they shew a place therein just against the barr so anciently arched that an active phansie which can make any thing of
Virginity another of the Celebration of Easter And about this time the Libraries of Monasteries began to be replenished with Books many being written in that Age. 5. By the way Multitude of books created by a mistake one Mistake I could not have discerned it my self had not a learned b Spelman in Conciliis pag. 210. Writer discovered it unto me makes Books of this Age more numerous and the Kings therein more Learned then indeed they were Namely because every Latine Charter granted by any King to a Monastery is termed by the Saxon Writers Liber or Libellus a Book Wherefore when they tell us of such and such Books made by the Saxon Kings understand we most of them of their Charters of Donation In which sense King Edgar who some two hundred yeares after this time founded as many Monasteries as Weeks in the year and consequently made as many Charters was a voluminous Writer of no lesse then fifty two Books And yet this large acception of Books will not make up the Number which Bale and Pitz pretend they have seen in this Age. A Vanity in them to affect a Title-learning though a Stationers Apprentice after some weeks Experience might excell them therein and the greater because many imaginary Authours which they make as if they had seen either were never extant or long since extinguished 6. But the multitude of Books encreaseth not our Marvel so much The numerosity of noble Saints in this Age. as the Numerosity of Saints such as they were in this Age whereof four parts of five according to the Herauldry of such who wrote their Lives were of Royall or Noble Extraction It addeth to the wonder because S t. Paul c 1 Cor. 1. 26. saith Not many Noble are called except any confine that Observation of the Apostle to times of Persecution whereas Christianity now in England flourished in all Peace and Prosperity But to render their noble Parentage at this time the more probable know that under the Saxon Heptarchy Royalty was encreased seven-fold in England which must beget a proportionable multiplication of Nobility attending them Yet when all is done as the Iewish Rabbins on their bare Tradition without ground from Scripture make Ruth the Daughter to Eglon King of Moab merely to make the Descent of their King David from her the more illustrious so it is suspicious that to advance the Temporall Reputation of these Saints such Monks as wrote their Lives causelesly â—â—arified and refined many of their Blouds into Noble Extraction However if truely pious indeed such Saints have the best Nobility in the Scripture-sense d Acts 17. 11. These were more noble because they received the word with all readinesse of mind 7. Of these noble Saints 708 S t. Guthlake a Benedictine Monk S t Guthlake the first Saxon Heremite was the first Saxon that professed an Heremitical life in England to which purpose he chose a Fenny place in Lincolnshire called Crowland that is the raw or crudeland so raw indeed that before him no man could digest to live therein Yea the Devils are said to claim this place as their peculiar and to call it e Flores Sanctorum written by Hierome Porter in the life of St. Guthlake pag. 348. their own land Is any place but the Prison of Hell properly theirs Yet wonder not at their Presumption pretending this Spot of ground to be theirs whose Impudence durst affirm that God had given them f Matth. 4. 8. all the World and the Glory thereof Could those infernal Fiends tortured with immateriall Fire take any Pleasure or make any Ease to themselves by padling here in Puddles and dabling in the moist dirty Marishes However Guthlake took the Boldnesse to enter common with them and erect his Cell in Crowland But if his prodigious Life may be believed Ducks and Mallards do not now flock thither faster in September then Heards of Devils came about him all whom he is said victoriously to have vanquished Anno Dom. 708 But whom Satan's Power could not foil his Policy had almost destroyed by perswading Guthlake to fast fourty dayes and nights together after the Example of Moses a Idem P. 347. and Elias till finding this Project destructive to Nature he was forced in his own Defence to take some necessary but very sparing Refection He died in his own Cell and Pega his sister an Anchoritesse led a solitary life not far from him 8. Doves also Aswinish conceit of a Monk a poor plain man was eminent in this Age a Shepheard say some a Neatheard others Swineheard say the third sort and that most probable For whilest he lived in Worcestershire not far from the River Avon the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared unto him even where fare well all good Tokens he found a lost Sow b Godwin in Catalogo Episcoporum pag. 301. with seven Piggs sucking upon her and to have given order that in that very place a Monastery should be erected to her Honour The beastly Monk who made this Vision had e'ne learned as far as Virgil's Aeneids whence he fetched the Platform of this pretty Conceit a place so marked being foretold fortunate to Aeneas to found Alba since Rome therein c Aeneidosl 3. Litories ingens inventa sub ilicibus Sus Triginta capitum faetus enixa jacebit Alba solo recubans albi circum ubera nati Hic locus Vrbis erit requies ubi certa laborum Where under Oakes on Shore there shall be found A mighty Sow all white cast on the ground With thirty sucking Piggs that place is ' sign'd To build your Town and ease your wearied Mind Here the Monk mutatis mutandis but principally shrinking the Number of the Pigs from thirty to seven as more mystical he applies the Apparition to his Purpose A pretty Parallel that Pagan-Rome and Popish Superstition if Hue-and-cry should be made after them might be discovered by the same Marks This gave the first motion to the Foundation of Eovesham Abbey so called from Eoves aforesaid first built in that Sow-place 9. But the Building thereof was hastened by a second The first Synod for Image-worship in England more neat and cleanly Apparition of the Virgin Mary in the same place who is pretended to have shewed her self with two Maiden-attendants to Egwin Bishop of Worcester prompting him to expedite a Structure therein d See Sir Henry Spelman's Councils pag. 210. Egwin posts presently to Rome and makes faith of this Vision to Constantine the Pope who convinced in his judgement of the truth thereof dispatcheth his Commands to Brightwall Arch-bishop of Canterbury 709 to assemble a Synod at Alncester in VVorcestershire to promote the building of an Abbey in that place which was done accordingly and the same was bountifully endowed by Offa and other Mercian Kings with very large Revenues And not long after another Synod saith my c Magdeburgenses Cent. sed ex
suspect that Dunstan who could blow Coals elsewhere as well as in his Furnace though at distance vertually or rather viciously present had a Finger yea a Hand therein Heart-broken with these Rebellions 958 King Edwin died in the Flower of his Age. 5 Edgati 1 24. Edgar succeeds him Dunstan recalled by King Edgar and takes a double Bishoprick and recalls Dunstan home 959 receiving him with all possible Affection 2 Yea now Dunstan's Stomack was come down and he could digest a Bishoprick which his Abstemiousness formerly refused And one Bishoprick drew down another VVorcester and London not successively but both a-breast went down his Conscience Yea never Age afforded more Pluralist Bishops In this Kings reign Letine held b Vid. Antiq. Britan. p. 83. Lincoln and Leicester oswald a great Monk-monger of whom hereafter held York and VVorcester Aldulph his Successour in both Churches did the like pardoned yea praised for the same though Woolstan because no favourer of Monks is reproved for the like Plurality Thus two men though doing the same thing do not the same thing Bigamy of Bishopricks goes by Favour and it is condemnable in one what is commendable in another Anno Regis Edgari 2 Odo Severus Anno Dom. 959 Arch-bishop of Canterbury being ceremoniously to consecrate Dunstan Bishop of VVorcester used all the Formalities fashionable at the Consecration of an a Antiq. Britan ibidem Arch-bishop And being reproved for the same he answered for himself That he foresaw that Dunstan instantly after his death would be Arch-bishop of Canterbury And therefore a compendious way to spare Paines he onely by a provident Prolepsis ante-dated his Consecration Surely whosoever had seen the decrepit age of Odo the affection of King Edgar to Dunstan the affection of Dunstan to Dignity needed no extraordinary prophetical Spirit to presage that on the supposition of Dunstan's surviving him he should succeed him in the Arch-bishoprick of Canterbury 25. Yea King Edgar was so wholly Dunstanized Oswald's Law to eject secular Priests that he gave over his Soul Body and Estate to be ordered by him and two more then the Triumvirate who ruled England namely Ethelwald Bishop of Winchester and Oswald Bishop of Worcester This Oswald was the man who procured by the Kings Authority the Ejection of all Secular Priests out of Worcester and the placing of Monks in their Room which Act was called Oswald's Law in that Age. They might if it pleased them have stiled it Edgar's Law the Legislative Power being then more in the King then in the Bishop This Oswald's Law afterwards enlarged it self over all England Secular Priests being thrown out and Monks every where fixed in their rooms till King Henry the eighth his Law outed Oswald's Law and ejected those Drones out of their Habitations 26. King Edgar violated the Chastity of a Nun at Wilton Dunstan's disciplining of king Edgar Dunstan getting notice thereof refused at the Kings Request to give him his Hand because he had defiled a Daughter of God as he termed her Edgar hereby made sensible of his Sin with Sorrow confessed it and Dunstan now Arch-bishop of Canterbury enjoyned him seven years Penance for the same Monks endeavour to inforcea mock-Parallel betwixt David and Edgar Nathan and Dunstan herein Sure I am on David's profession of his Repentance Nathan presently pronounced Pardon b 2 Sam. 12. 13 the Lord also hath put away thy Sin thou shalt not die consigning him to be punished by God the Principall using an Undutifull Son Treacherous Servants and Rebellious Subjects to be the Instruments thereof but imposing no voluntary Penance that David should by Will-worship undertake on himself All that I will adde is this If Dunstan did septennary Penance to expiate every mortall Sin to use their own Termes he committed he must have been a Methusalah extremely aged before the day of his Death 27. More commendable was Dunstan's Carriage towards an English Count 12 who lived incestuously with his own Kinswoman 969 Dunstan admonished him once And carriage towards an incestuous Count. twice thrice nothing prevailed whereupon he proceeded to Excommunicate him The Count slighted his Excommunication conceiving his Head too high for Church-Censures to reach it King Edgar falsly informed desires Dunstan to absolve him and is denied Yea the Pope sends to him to the same Purpose and Dunstan persists in his c Osbern in vita Dunstani Refusall At last the Count conquered with Dunstan's Constancy and the sense of his own Sin came into a Nationall Council at Canterbury where Dunstan sate President active therein to substitute Monks in the places of Secular Priests on his bare Feet with a Bundle of Rods tendering himself to Dunstan's Chastisement This wrought on Dunstan's mild Nature scarce refraining from Teares who presently absolved him 28. Three things herein are remarkable Observations thereon First that Bribes in the Court of Rome may purchase a Malefactor to be innocent Secondly that the Pope himself is not so infallible but that his Key may misse the Lock and he be mistaken in matter of Absolution Thirdly that men ought not so with blind Obedience to obey his pretended Holinesse but that if with Dunstan here they see just Cause to the contrary it is no Mortall Sin to disobey his Commands 29. The Apprentiship of Edgar's Penance long since expired Edgar's Canons why by us here related he flourished in all Monarchicall Lustre sole Founder of many Co-founder of more Benefactor to most Abbeys in England Anno Dom. 969 And as he gave new Cases to most Monasteries repairing their outward Buildings so he gave new Linings to all Anno Regis Edgari 12 substituting Monks in stead of the Secular Priests whom he expelled Many Ecclesiasticall Canons were by him ordained which at large are presented in S t. Henry Spelman and which I have neither List nor Leisure to recount in this my History Our Women have a Proverb It is a sad Burden to carry a dead mans Child and surely an Historian hath no heart to take much Pains which herein are Pains indeed to exemplify dead Canons dead and buried long since as most relating to Monkery this Age wherein we live being little fond of Antiquity to know those things which were antiquated so many yeares since 30. Now though the Devotion of King Edgar may be condemned to be byassed to Superstition Edgar a most triumphant King yet because the Sincerity of his Heart sought to advance Gods Honour according to the Light in those dark dayes he appears one of the most puissant Princes that ever England enjoyed both in Church and Common-wealth I have read in a most fair and authentick guilded a Extant in the precious Library of S r. Tho. Cotton Manuscript wherein he stileth himself Gods Vicar in England for the ordering Ecclesiasticall matters a Title which at this day the Pope will hardly vouchsafe to any
this Land till at last after a personall Duel fought the Land was equally divided betwixt them A division wherewith both seemed neither were well pleased seeing the least whole head cannot be fitted with the biggest half Crown all or none was their desire Edm. Iron side teacherously slain Canutus at last with his Silver Hand was too hard for the other his Iron Side who by his promised Bribes prevailed with one Edrick to kill this his Corrivall which being performed he was fairely advanced with a h Others say he was beheaded Canutus his cruelty Halter It would spoil the Trade of all Traytours Canuti 1 if such Coyn onely were currant in paying their Rewards 5. Canutus or Knot the Dane from whom a Bird in Lincolnshire is so called 1017 wherewith his Palate i Draitons Poly-olbion pag. 112. was much pleased bathed himself in English Bloud whom at this distance of time we may safely term a Tyrant so many Murthers and Massacres were by him committed For his Religion as yet he was a Mungrel betwixt a Pagan and a Christian though at last the later prevailed especially after his Pilgrimage to Rome In his passage thither 14 he went through France 1031 where understanding that the people paid deep Taxes Converted into charity he disburst so much of his own money in their behalf that he brought their k Rodulph de Diceto column 468. Taxes to be abated to one l Iohannes Bromton in leg Canuti column 912. He goeth to Rome half An Act of Pitty in a Prince without Precedent done to Forrainers It is vain for the English to wish the like Curtesy from the King of France partly because England lies not in their way to Rome partly because they are fuller of Complements then Curtesie 6. Coming to Rome 16 Canutus turned Convert 1033 changing his Condition with the Climate shewing there many expressions of Devotion Much he gave to the Pope and something he gained from him namely an Immunity for Archbishops Returneth improved in devotion from their excessive Charges about their Pall and some other Favours he obtained for his Subjects After his return into his own Country he laid out all the remainder of his dayes in Acts of Charitie in founding or enriching of religious Houses Anno Dom. and two especially Anno Canuâ—i Saint Bennets in the Holm in Norfolk and Hyde Abbey near VVinchester 7. To this latter he gave a Crosse so costly for the Metall The paramount Crosse of England for richness and curious for the Making 1035 that one yeares a Camdens Briton in Hantshire revenues of his Crown was expended on the same 18 But the Crosse of this Crosse was that about the Reign of King Henry the sixth it was b Idem ibidem King Canutus his Humility burnt down with the whole Monastery in a Fire which was very suspicious to have been kindled by intentionall Malice This Canutus towards the latter end of his Reign never wore a Crown resigning up the same to the Image of our Saviour he was also famous for a particular act of Humility done by him on this occasion 8. A Parasite and sooner will an hot May want Flies Commands the Sea then a Kings Court such Flatterers sought to puffe up King Canutus with an opinion of his Puissance as if because England and Norway therefore Aeolus and Neptune must obey him In confuting of whose falsehood Canutus commanded his Chair of State to be set on the Sea-shore nigh South-Hampton and settled himself thereon Then he c Hen. Huntington in vita Canuti But in vain imperiously commanded the Waves as a Fence which walled that Land belonging unto him to observe their due Distance not presuming to approach him The surly Waves were so far from obeying they heard him not who listned onely to the Proclamation of a higher Monarch d Iob 38. 11 Hither shalt thou come and no further and made bold to give the Kings Feet so course a Kisse as wetted him up to the Knees 9. On this accident King Canutus made an excellent Sermon His Sermon thereon First adoring the infinite Power of God sole Commander of the Winds and Waves Secondly confessing the frailty of all Flesh unable to stop the least Drop of the Sea Thirdly confuting the Profanenesse of Flatterers fixing an infinite Power in a finite Creature As for the Laws made by King Canutus His Laws why omitted we have purposely omitted them not so much because many large and ordinarily extant but chiefly because most of Civil Concernment Haroldi Harefoot 1 10. Two of his Sons succeeded him Harold Harefoot succeeded him more known by their handsome Sur-names 1036 then any other Desert First his base Son taking advantage of his Brothers absence called from his Swiftnesse Hardy Canuti 1 Harold Harefoot belike another e 2 Sam. 2. 18 Then Hardy Canutus Asahel in Nimblenesse but Hares-heart had better befitted his Nature 1040 so cowardly his disposition Then his legitimate Sonne called Hardy Canute more truely bloudy Canute eminent for his Cruelty With him expired the Danish Royall Line in England leaving no Issue behind him and opening an Opportunity for the banished Sonne of King Ethelred to recover the Crown whose ensuing Reign is richly worth our description Mean time it is worth our observing in how few yeares the Danish Greatnesse shrank to nothing and from formidable became inconsiderable yea contemptible Indeed Canutus was one of extraordinary Worth and the Wheel once moved will for a time turn of it self Had Harold his Son by what way it skilled not been one of a tolerable disposition he might have traded in Reputation on the Stock of his Fathers Memory But being so very mean considerable onely in Cruelty his Fathers Worth did him the Disadvantage to render his Vnworthynesse the more conspicuous Besides when Hardy Canute his Brother succeeded him and though better born shewed himself no better bred in his inhumane Carriage it caused not onely a Neuseation in the people of England of Danish Kings but also an appetite yet a longing after their true and due Soveraign 11. Edward the Confessour Anno Regis Edvardi confessoris 1 youngest Son of King Etherlred Anno Dom. 1042 his elder Brethren being slain Edward the Confessour becomes King of England and their Children fled away came to be King of England I understand not the Ceremony which I read was used to this Edward whilest as yet saith a Monkish a Father Hierome Porter in the flowers of the lives of the Saints pag. 2. Authour properly enough in his own Language he was contained in the weak Cloisters of his Mothers VVomb at which time the Peers of the Land sware Allegiance unto him or her the Sex as yet being unknown before he was born Indeed I find that Varanes his Child was crowned King whilest yet in his
questionable vvhether you be more skilfull in knovving carefull in keeping or courteous in communicating your curious Collections in that kind Iustly therefore have I dedicated these severall Copies of Battel-Abbey Roll unto you first because I have received one of the most authentick of them from your ovvn Hand secondly because your ancient Name chargeth through and through most of these Catalogues Yea as the Archers came over vvith the Conquerour so the Conquerour may be said to come over vvith the Archers therefore placed in a List by themselves because their Valour atchieved the greatest part of his Victory PErusing the worthy Pains of grave and godly M r. Fox The Design propounded and asserred in his Book of Martyrs I find him in the Reign of VVilliam the first exemplifying a double Catalogue of such eminent Persons as came over at the Conquest Now seeing so Reverend a Writer accounted the inserting thereof no Deviation from his Church-History we presume accordingly by way of Recreation of the Reader to present him with a larger List of those Names with some brief Notes thereupon Here will I premise nothing about the ancient Original of Names Imposing of names denotes dominion which argued the undoubted Dominion of him who first gave them over those on whom they were imposed Thus Eve a Gen. 4. 1. named Cain to shew the command even of the Mother over the eldest and therefore over all her Children Adam b Gen. 2. 23. named Eve She shall be called VVoman to signifie the Husbands Sovereignty over his Wife God named c Gen. 1. 26. Adam Let us make Adam or Man to denote his Power and Authority over Man And God named himself d Exod. 3. 14. I am hath sent me unto you importing his absolute and independent being in and from himself But waving what may be said of the beginning of Names we shall digest what we conceive necessary for our present Purpose into the following Propositions The first is Fixt Surnames not long before the Conquest Surnames were fixed in Families in England at or about the Conquest I say fixed Formerly though men had Surnames yet their Sons did not as I may say follow suit with their Fathers the Name descended not hereditarily on the Family At or about Fourty years under or over will break no squares It began somewhat sooner in the Confessours time fetch'd out of France but not universally settled till some hundred years after When men therefore tell us how their Surnames have been fastened on their Families some Centuries of years before the Conquest we hear them say so His Chronology was no better then his Herauldry who boasted that his Auncestours had given the three Gun-holes which indeed were the three Annulets for their Armes these thousand yeares when Guns themselves have not been extant three hundred yeares in Europe The same soloecisme in effect is committed by such who pretend to the Antiquity of Surnames before the same were settled in rerum natura The second Surnames late in because not needfull to Kings Kings had fixed Surnames later then Common people Our four first Norman Kings had no Surnames Henry the second being the first of the Plantagenists Wonder not that a gentile Fashion should come later into the Court then into the Country and last to the Crown it self For Names being made to distinguish men they were more necessary for common people whose Obscurities would be lost in a Multitude were they not found out by the signe of their Surnames having no other Eminency whereby they might be differenced But Princes being comparatively few in respect of private persons are sufficiently discovered by their own Lustre and Sovereignty may be said to be a Surname to it self and therefore Kings not of Necessity but mere Pleasure have accepted additions to their Christian-names The third Many of the Normans most noble by birth Many who cameover out of Normandy were Noble in their native Country Especially such who are stiled from their Places as le Sire de Soteville le Sire de Margneville le Sire de Tancarville c. whereby we understand them Lords and Owners of such Mannours Towns and Castles from whence they took their Denomination However this particle de such a place when without le Sire going before it doth not always give Livery and Seisin and presently put the person so named into Possession of the Place sometimes barely importing that he was born there and not Owner thereof The fourth Yet some not so much as Gentlemen All that came over with the Conquerour were not Gentlemen untill they came over with the Conquerour For instantly upon their Victory their Flesh was refined Bloud clarified Spirits elevated to aâ— higher Purity and Perfection Many a Peasant in Normandy commenced Monsieur by coming over into England where they quickly got Goods to their Gentry Lands to their Goods and those of the most honourable Tenure in Capite it self What Richard the third said no lesse spitefully then falsely of the VVoodviles Brethren to the Wife of his Brother King Edward the fourth by whom they were advanced that Many were made noble who formerly were not worth a Noble was most true of some of the Norman Souldiery suddenly starting up honourable from mean Originalls These cruelly insulted over the Saxon ancient Gentry whom they found in England Thus on the new casting of a Die when Ace is on the Top Sise musts needs be at the Bottome The fifth Many of the neighbouring Nations under the notion of Normans Besides native Normans many of the neighbouring Countries ingaged in England ' s Invasion As Flemings which Baldwin Earle of Flanders and Father in law unto the Conquerour sent to aide him VValloons with many from Picardy Britain Anjou and the very Heart of France Thus when a Fair of Honour and Profit is proclaimed Chapmen will flock from all parts unto it Some will wonder that any would be such wilfull Losers as to exchange France for England a Garden for a Field Was not this degrading of their Souls in point of Pleasure going backward from VVine to Ale from VVheat to Oates then the generall Bread-corn of England Besides coming Northward they left the Sun on their Backs the Sun who is a comfortable Vsher to go before but bad Train-bearer to come behind one But let such know that England in it self is an excellent Country too good for the unthankfull people which live therein and such Forreiners who seemingly slight secretly love and like the Plenty and Profit thereof But grant England far short of France in Goodnesse yet such Adventurers hoped to atchieve to themselves a better Condition in a worse Country Many a younger Brother came over hither in hope here to find an elder Brothership and accordingly procured an Inheritance to him and his Posterity As for the great French Nobility Store was no sore unto them such Pluralists retained still their old Patrimonies in France with
command all to abstain from meats This were the way to empty the world of men as the simple forbidding of marriage would fill it with bastards And although some silly Hereticks as Tatian Marcion and Manichens are said absolutely to forbid marriage yet they never mounted high nor spread broad nor lasted long Surely some more considerable mark is the aim of the Apostles reproof even the Church of Rome who by an oblique line and consequentially prohibit marriage to the Priests a most considerable proportion of men within the pale of the Church 16. Notwithstanding the premisses Marriage Bed may be â—orborn for a time not totally forbidden it is fit that the embraces of marriage should on some occasion for a time be forborn for the advance of Piety first when private dalliance is to yield to publick dolefulness b Joel 2. 11. Let the Bridegroom go out of his chamber and the Bride out of her closet For though by the Levitical Law one might not be forced to fight in the first year of his marriage yet might he on just occasion be pressed to fast on the first day thereof It is not said Let the Bridegroom go out of his Bridegroom-ship but onely out of his Chamber and that also with intention to return when the solemnity of sorrow is over-past Secondly when such absence is bewixt them mutually agreed on c 1 Cor. 7. Desraud ye not one another except it be with consent for a time that ye may give your selves to fasting and prayer and come together again that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency Here indeed is an Interdiction of the marriage Bed but it is Voluntary by mutual consent of the parties and Temporary onely durante eorum beneplacito not as the Popish Prohibition Impulsive by the power of others and perpetual to continue during their lives 17. Hear what Henry of Huntington expresly saith of Anselmes carriage herein H. Huntington his Censure of Anselme He prohibited English Priests to have wives who before time were not prohibited which as some thought to be a matter of greatest purity so others again took it to be most perilous lest while by this means they aimed at cleanliness above their power Anno Regis Hen. 19. they should fall into horrible uncleanness Anno Dom. 1108 to the exceeding great shame of Christianity 18. But Anselme died before he could finish his project of Priests Divorces who had he deceased before he began it Anselme dieth re infecta of Priests Divor his memory had been left less stain'd to Posterity His two next Successors Rodulphus and William Corbel went on vigorously with the Design but met with many and great Obstructions Other Bishops found the like opposition but chiefly the Bishop of Norwich whose obstinate Clergie would keep their Wives in defiance of his endeavours against them 19. Indeed Norfolk-men are charactred in jure municipali versatissimi The sloutness of Norwich Clergy and are not easily ejected out of that whereof they had long prescription and present possession No wonder therefore if they stickled for their Wives and would not let go a moytie of themselves Besides Herbet Losing of Norwich needed not to be so fierce and furious against them if remembring his own extraction being the Son of an Abbot These married Priests traversed their cause with Scripture and Reason and desired but Justice to be done unto them But Justice made more use of her sword then of her Ballance in this case not weighing their Arguments but peremptorily and powerfully enjoyning them to forgo their Wives notwithstanding that there were in England at this time many married Priests signal for Sanctity and Abilities 20. Amongst the many eminent married Priests Learned married Ealphegus flourishing for Learning and Piety 26. one Ealphegus was now living 1125. or but newly dead His Residence was at Plymouth in Devonshire a Brit. in Devon M r Cambden saith he was eruditus conjugatus but the Word conjugatus is by the b Printed Anno 1612. pag. 3. 383. Index Expurgatorius commanded to be deleted 21. To order the Refractory married Clergie A Virgin Lecher unmasked the Bishops were fain to call in the aid of the Pope John de Crema an Italian Cardinal jolly with his youthfull Bloud and Gallant Equipage came over into England with his Bigness and Bravery to Bluster the Clergie out of their wives He made a most Gawdy Oration in the Commendation of Virginity as one who in his Own Person knew well how to valew such a Jewel by the loss thereof Most true it is that the same night at London he was caught a Bed with an c Roger Hoveden and Han. Huntington Harlot whereat he may be presumed to blush as red as his Cardinals Hat if any remorse of Conscience remained in him What saith d Judg. 5. 6. Deborach In the dayes of Shamgar when the high-wayes were unimployed obstructed by the Philistims travellers walked thorow by-paths The stopping the Way of marriage Gods Ordinances make them frequent such base by-paths that my Pen is both afraid and asham'd to follow them Cardinal Crema his mischance or rather misdeed not a little advantaged the Reputation of married Priests 22. Bishops Arch-Bishops Priests buy their own Wives and Cardinal 27. all of them almost tired out with the stubbornness of the Recusant Clergie 1126. the King at last took his turn to reduce them William Corbel Arch-Bishop of Canterbury willingly resigned the work into the Kings hand hoping he would use some Exemplary severity against them but all ended in a money matter the King taking a Fine of married Priests permitted them to enjoy their Wives as well they might who bought that which was their own before 23. About this time the old Abby of Ely was advanced into a new Bishoprick ely-Ely-Abbey made a Bishoprick and Cambridg-shire assigned for its Diocess taken from the Bishoprick of Lincoln Out of which Henry the first carved one Ely and Henry the last two Oxford and Peterborough Bishopricks and yet left Lincoln the largest Diocess in England Spaldwick Manor in Huntington-shire was given to Lincoln in Reparation of the Jurisdiction taken from it and bestowed on Ely 24. One Herveyus was made first Bishop of Ely And inriched with Royalties One who had been undone if not undone banished by the Tumultuous welsh from the Beggerly Bishoprick of Bangor and now in Pitty to his Poverty and Patience made the rich Bishop of Ely It is given to Parents to be most fond of and indulgent to their youngest which some perchance may render as a Reason why this Bishoprick as last born Anno Regis Hen. 127. was best beloved by the King Surely he bestowed upon it vast priviledges and his Successors cockering this See for their Darling conferred some of their own Royalties thereon 25. Bernard Chaplain to the King and Chancellor to the Queen
Yet the Pope endeavoured what lay in his power 16. to disswade Prince Lewis from his design 1215. to which at first he encouraged him Lewis Prince of France invited by the Barons to invade England and now forbad him in vain For where a Crown is the Game hunted after such hounds are easier laid on then either rated or hollowed off Yea ambition had brought this Prince into this Dilemma that if he invaded England he was accursed by the Pope if he invaded it not forsworn of himself having promised upon oath by such a time to be at London Over comes Lewis into England and there hath the principal learning of the Land the Clergie the strength thereof the Barons the wealth of the same the Londoners to joyn with him Who but ill requited King John for his late bounty to their City in first giving them a a Granted to the City Anno Dom. 1209. Grafton fol. 59. Mayor for their governour Gualo the Popes new Legat sent on purpose bestirr'd himself with Book Bell and Candle Excommunicating the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with all the Nobility opposing King John now in protection of his Holiness But the commonness of these curses caused them to be contemned so that they were a fright to few a mock to many and an hurt to none 21. King John thus distressed An unworthy Embassie of King John to the King of Morocco sent a base degenerous and unchristian-like embassage to Admiralius Murmelius a Mahometan King of Morocco then very puissant and possessing a great part of Spain offering him on condition he would send him succour to hold the Kingdome of England as a vassal from him and to receive the Law b Mat. Paris pag. 245. placeth this two years sooner viz. An. 1213. of Mahomet The Moor marvellously offended with his offer told the Embassadors that he lately had read Pauls Epistles which for the matter liked him very well save onely that Paul once renounced that faith wherein he was born and the Jewish profession Wherefore he neglected King John as devoid both of piety and policie who would love his liberty and disclaim his Religion A strange tender if true Here whilest some alledg in behalf of King John that cases of extremity excuse counsels of extremity when liberty is not left to chuse what is best but to snatch what is next neglecting future safety for present subsistence we onely listen to the saying of Solomon c Eccles 7. 7. Oppression maketh a wise man mad In a fit of which fury oppressed on all sides with enemies King John scarce compos sui may be presumed to have pitched on this project 22. King John having thus tried Turk and Pope and both with bad success sought at last to escape those his enemies 17. whom he could not resist 1216. by a far The lamentable death of King John and fast march into the North-eastern Counties Where turning mischievous instead of valiant he cruelly burnt all the stacks of Corn of such as he conceived disaffected unto him doing therein most spight to the rich for the present but in fine more spoil to the poor the prices of grain falling heavy on those who were least able to bear them Coming to Lin he rewarded the fidelity of that Town unto him with bestowing on that Corporation his own a Camd. Brit. in Norfolk sword Anno Dom. 1216. which had he himself but known how well to manage Anno Regis Joh. 17. he had not so soon been brought into so sad a condition He gave also to the same place a faire silver Cup all gilded But few dayes after a worse Cup was presented to King John at Swinshed Abbey in Lincoln-shire by one Simon b Wil. Caxton in his Chron. called Fructus temp lib. 7. a Monk of poisoned wine whereof the King died A murther so horrid that it concerned all Monks who in that age had the Monopoly of writing Histories to conceal it and therefore give out sundry other causes of his death c Mat Paris pag. 287. Some report him heart-broken with grief for the loss of his baggage and treasure drowned in the passage over the washes it being just with God that he who had plagued others with fire should be punished by water a contrary but as cruel an element d Compare Mr Fox Martyr pag. 234. with Holynshed pag. 194. Others ascribe his death to a looseness and scouring with bloud others to a cold sweat others to a burning heat all effects not inconsistent with poyson so that they in some manner may seem to set down the symptomes and suppress his disease 23. It is hard to give the true character of this Kings conditions King Johns character delivered in the dark For we onely behold him through such light as the Friers his foes show him in who so hold the candle that with the shaddow thereof they darken his virtues and present onely his vices Yea and as if they had also poisoned his memory they cause his faults to swell to a prodigious greatness making him with their pens more black in conditions then the Morocco-King whose aid he requested could be in complexion A murtherer of his Nephew Arthur a defiler of the wives and daughters of his Nobles sacrilegious in the Church profane in his discourse wilful in his private resolutions various in his publick promises false in his faith to men and wavering in his Religion to God The favourablest expression of him falls from the pen of Roger Hoveden Princeps quidem magnus erat sed minùs felix Atque ut Marius utramque fortunam expertus Perchance he had been esteemed more pious if more prosperous it being an usual though uncharitable error to account mischances to be misdeeds But we leave him quietly buried in Worcester Church and proceed in our storie 24. Henry Henry the third under Tutors and Governors the third of that name Hen. 3 1. Octob. 2◠his Son succeeded him being but ten years old and was Crowned at Glocester by a moiety of the Nobility and Clergie the rest siding with the French Lewis Now what came not so well from the mouth of Abijah the son concerning his father Rehoboam posterity may no less truly and more properly pronounce of this Henry even when a man e 2 Chro. 16. 7. He was but a childe and tender-hearted But what strength was wanting in the Ivie it self was supplied by the Oaks his supporters his Tutors and Governours first William Mareshall Earl of Pembroke and after his death Peter Bishop of Winchester But of these two Protectors successively a sword-man and a Church-man the latter left the deeper impression on this our King Henry appearing more Religious then resolute devout then valiant His Reign was not onely long for continuance fifty six years but also thick for remarkable mutations happening therein 25. Within little more then a twelvemonth By what means King
wearisome Though a Royall Guest with often coming his Royalty made not his Guestship the more accepted but the notion of a Guest rendred his Royalty the lesse to be esteemed Indeed his visits of Abbeys at first did wear the countenance of Devotion on which account this King was very eminent but afterwards they appeared in their own likeness the dimmest eye seeing them to proceed from pure Necessity 37. Soon after began the Civill Warrs in England No part of Church-work with various success sometimes the King and sometimes the Barons getting the better till at last an indifferent Peace was concluded for their mutuall good as in the Historians of the Common-wealth doth plentifully appear 38. The later part of the reigne of King Henry was not onely eminent in it self Bettered by affliction but might be exemplary to others He reformed first his own naturall errours then the disorders in his Court the Expence whereof he measured by the just rule of his proper Revenue The rigour and corruption of his Iudges he examined and redressed by strict commission filled the seats of Iudgement and Counsell with men nobly born sate himself daily in Counsell and disposed affairs of most weight in his own person 39. And now the Charta Magna was very strictly observed Charta Magna first fully practised being made in the ninth year of this Kings reign but the practice thereof much interrupted and disturbed with Civill Wars it is beheld by all judicious men as like the aurea Bulla or golden Bull of Germany the life of English Liberty rescued by the bloud and valour of our Auncestours from Tyrannicall incroachment giving the due bounds to Prerogative and Propriety that neither should mutually intrench on the others lawfull Priviledges And although some high Royallists look on it as the product of Subjects animosities improving themselves on their Princes extremities yet most certain it is those Kings flourished the most both at home and abroad who tyed themselves most conscientiously to the observation thereof 40. Two Colledges in Oxford were founded in the Reign of this King Bailiol Colledge built by a banisht Prince One Bailiol Colledge 46 by Iohn Bailiol and Dervorguill his Lady of Bernads Castle in the Bishoprick of Durham 1262 banisht into England and Father of Bailiol King of Scotland Wonder not that an Exile should build a Colledge Charity being oftentimes most active in the afflicted willingly giving to others a little of that little they have witness the Macedonians whose deep a 2 Cor. 8. 2. poverty abounded to the riches of their Liberality 41. True it is Great revenues for that Age. the ancient revenues of this Colledge were not great allowing but b Roger Walden in his History eight pence a week for every Scholar therein of his Foundation whereas Merion Colledge had twelve pence and yet as c Bri. Twine antiq Acad. Ox. in Appendice Endowed with more land then now it possesseth one casteth up their ancient revenues amounted unto ninety nine pounds seventeen shillings ten pence which in that Age I will assure you was a considerable Summe enough to make us suspect that at this day they enjoy not all the Originall lands of their foundation 42. Indeed I am informed that the aforesaid King Bailiol bestowed a large proportion of Land in Scotland on this his Fathers Foundation The Master and Fellows whereof petitioned King Iames when the Marches of two Kingdomes were newly made the middle of one Monarchy for the restitution of those Lands detained from them in the Civil Warres betwixt the two Crowns The King though an affectionate lover of Learning would not have his Bounty injurious to any save sometimes to himself and considering those Lands they desired were long peaceably possessed with divers Owners gave them notice to surcease their Suit Thus not King Iames but the infeacibility of the thing they petitioned for to be done with justice gave the denyall to their Petition 43. Being to present the Reader with the Catalogues of this The Authours request to the learned in Oxford and other worthy Foundations in Oxford I am sorry that I can onely build bare Walls erect empty Columns and not fill them with any furniture which the ingenuous Reader I trust will pardon when he considers first that I am no Oxford-man secondly that Oxford is not that Oxford wherewith ten years since I was acquainted Wherefore I humbly request the Antiquaries of their respective Foundations best skill'd in their own worthy Natives to insert their own observations which if they would return unto me against the next Edition of this work if I live it be thought worthy thereof God shall have the Glory they the publick thanks and the world the benefit of their contribution to my endeavours 44. The Catalogue of Masters we have taken with an implicite faith Four necessary things premised out of M r. Brian Twine who may be presumed knowing in that subject untill the year 1608. where his work doth determine Since which time we have supplyed them as well as we may though too often at a losse for their Christian names If M r. Twine his Register be imperfect yet he writes right who writes wrong if following his Copy 45. The List of Bishops hath been collected out of Francis Godwine Bishop of Hereford Whence the Bishops are collected whose judicious paines are so beneficiall to the English Church Yet Godwinus non vidit omnia and many no doubt have been omitted by him 46. As for the Roll of Benefactours Whence the Benefactours I who hope to have made the other Catalogues true hope I have made this not true upon desire and confidence that they have more then I have or can reckon up though following herein I. Scot his printed Tables Anno Dom. 1262 and the last Edition of Iohn Speed his Chronicle Anno Regis Henrici 3. 46 47. The column of learned Writers I have endeavoured to extract out of Bale and Pitts Whence the learned writers Whereof the later being a member of this University was no lesse diligent then able to advance the Honour thereof 48. Let none suspect that I will enrich my Mother No wilfull wrong done by rebbing my Aunt For besides that Cambridge is so conscientious she will not be accessary to my Felony by receiving stollen goods Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine habetur A Trojan whether he Or a Tyrian be All is the same to me It matters not whether of Cambridge or Oxford so God hath the Glory the Church and State the Benefit of their learned endeavours 49. However Adde and mend I am sensible of many defects and know that they may be supplied by the endeavours of others Every man knows his own land better then either Ortelius or Mercator though making the Maps of the whole world And the members of respective Colledges must be more accurate in the
Witness my self at Westminster c. Date we from this day the achme or vertical height of Abbeys which henceforward began to stand still at last to decline Formerly it was Endow Monasteries who would hereafter who could having first obtained licence from the King Yet this Law did not ruine but regulate not destroy but direct well grounded liberality that bounty to some might not be injury to others Here I leave it to Lawyers by profession to shew how many years after viz. the eighteenth of of Edward the third Prelates Impeached before the Kings Justices for purchasing land in Mortmain shall be dismissed without further trouble upon their producing a charter of licence and process thereupon made by an Inquest ad quod damnum or in case that cannot be shewed by making a convenient Fine for the same who the active Prelats of this age 14. The late mention of the Prelates advise in passing a Law so maleficial unto them giveth me just occasion to name some the principal persons of the Clergie present thereat namely 1. John Peckam Arch-Bishop of Canterbury a stout man He afterwards excommunicated the Prince of Wales because he went a long journey to perswade him to peace with England but could not prevaile 2. William Wickwane Anno Regis Ed. 1. 11. Arch-Bishop of York Anno Dom. 1283. accounted a great Scholar Author of a Book called Memoriale and esteemed a petty-saint in that Age. 3. Anthony Beake soon after Bishop of Durham the richest and proudest alwayes good manners to except Cardinal Wolsey of that place Patriarch titular of Jerusalem and Prince of the Isle of Man Yet in my minde Gilbert Sellinger his contemporary and Bishop of Chichester had a far better Title as commonly called the Father of Orphans and Comforter of the widdows These with many more Bishops consented though some of them resorbentes suam bilem as inwardly angry to the passing or confirming of the Statute of Mortmain To make them some amends the King not long after favourably stated what causes should be of spiritual cognizance 15. For a Parliament was called at Westminster 13. eminent on this account 1285. that it laid down the limits The Spiritual and Temporal Courts bounded by Parliament and fixed the boundaries betwixt the Spiritual and Temporal Jurisdictions Hitherto shall you come and no farther though before and since both powers have endeavoured to enlarge their own and contract their Rivals authority We will present first the Latin out of the Records and then the English out of our printed Statutes and make some necessary observations on both REX talibus Judicibus Salutem Circumspectè agatis de negotiis tangentibus Episcopum Norwicensem ejus Clerum non puniend eos si placitum tenuerint in Curia Christianitatis de bis quae merè sunt spiritualia viz. de correctionibus quas Prelati faciunt pro mortali peccato viz. pro fornicatione adulterio hujusmodi pro quibus aliquando infligitur paena corporalis aliquando pecuniaria maximè si convictus fuerit de hujusmodi liber homo Item Si Praelatus puniat pro cemeterio non clauso Ecclesia discooperta vel non decenter ornata in quibus casibus alia poena non potest inffigi quam pecuniaria Item Si Rector petat versus parochianos oblationes decimas debitas vel consuetas vel si Rector agat contra Rectorem de decimis majoribus vel minoribus dummodo non petatur quarta pars valoris Ecclesiae Item Si Rector petat mortuà rium in partibus ubi mortuarium dari consuevit Item Si Praelatus alicujus Ecclesiae vel advocatus petat à Rectore pensionem si debitam omnes hujusmodi petitiones sunt faciend in foro Ecclesiastico De violenta manuum injectione in Clericum in causa diffamationis concessum fuit aliàs quod placitum inde teneatur in Curia Christianitatis cum non petatur pecunia sed agatur ad correctionem peccati similiter pro fidei laesione In omnibus praedictis casibus habet judex Ecclesiasticus cognoscere regia prohibitione non obstante THe KING to his Judges sendeth Greeting Use your self circumspectly in al matters concerning the Bishop of Norwich his Clergie not punishing them if they hold plea in Court Christian of such things as be meerly spiritual that is to wit of penance enjoyned for deadly sin as fornication adultery and such like for the which many times corporal penance or pecuniary is enjoyned specially if a free man be convict of such things Also if Prelates do punish for leaving Church-yards unclosed or for that the Church is uncovered or not conveniently decked in which cases none other penance can be enjoyned but pecuniary Item If a Parson demand of his parishioners oblations and tythes due and accustomed or if any person plead against another for tythes more or less so that the fourth part of the value of the Benefice be not demanded Item If a Parson demand mortuaries in places where a mortuarie hath used to have been given Item If a Prelate of a Church or if a Patron demand a pension due to themselves all such demands are to be made in a Spiritual Court And for laying violent hands on a Priest and in cause of defamation Anno Dom. 1285 it hath been granted already Anno Regis Ed. 1. 13. that it shall be tried in a Spiritual Court when money is not demanded but a thing done for punishment of sin and likewise for breaking an oath In all cases afore rehearsed the Spiritual Judg shall have power to take knowledge notwithstanding the Kings prohibition Something must be premised about the validity of this writing learned men much differing therein Some make it 1. Onely a constitutiou made by the Prelates themselves much too blame if they cut not large pieces being their own Carvers 2. A meer Writ issued out from the King to his Judges 3. A solemn Act of Parliament compleat in all the requisites thereof Hear what * Mr Nath. Bacon in his Hist Dis of the Government of England lib. 1. pag. 233. a Bacon but neither S r Nicolas nor S r Francis the two Oracles of Law writes in this case A writing somewhat like a Grant of Liberties which before times were in controversie and this Grant if it may be so called hath by continuance VSURPED the name of a Statute but in its own nature is no other then a Writ directed to the Judges Presently after he saith It is therefore no Grant nor Release but as it were a Covenant that the Clergie should hold peaceable possession of what they had upon this ground And in the next page more plainly For my part therefore I shall not apprehend it of a higher nature then the Kings Writ which in those dayes WENT FORTH AT RANDOM 16. Come we now to the calme judgment of S r Edward Cook Judg Cokes decision on whose decision we may
suit ad tantam violentiam prolapsum ut in Sedis Apostolicae nuncios Legatos manus temerè mitterentur sicut â—evissimè sactum est in persona dilecti filii Johannis de Oisis Palatii Apostolici causarum auditoris in praesato regno Nunlii collectoris nosiri quem audivimus ex hâc sola causa quod literas Apostolicas nostro nomine praesentabat fuisse per aliquos de ipso regno carceribus mancipatum Quae injuria nobis Apostolicae sedi illata animum nostrum affecit admiratione turbatione molestia singulari Miramur enim stupescimus dolemus quod tam FOEDILM TURPE FACINUS in illo regno commissum sit contrà sedem B. Petri Nuntios ejus praesertim cum literae illae nostrae nil aliud quam salutem animarum honorem regni per omnia paternas sanctas admonitiones continerent Fuit enim semper etiam apud gentiles qui nullam tenebant verae fidei rationem inviolabile nomen Nuncii atâ— Legati etiamsi ab hostibus mitterentur semper salvi hodiè apud Saracenos Turcos à quibusciam tutè destinantur legationes literae etiamsi illis ad quos deferuntur molestae sint injuriosae Et nuncius noster vir humanus moderatus Anno Dom. 1393. continua conversatione notissimus in regno Angliae quod devotione fidei cultu divino se jactat omnes alias Christianas rationes superare turpiter captus est nihil impium nec hostile deferens sed literas salutares justas Sed revereantur aliquando illi qui sic contumaciter superbè Ecclesiam Dei contemnent Sedis Apostolicae authoritatem nè super ipsos eveniat justa punitio ex Christi judicio qui cam instituit fundavit Caveant nè tot cumulatis offensis Deum irritent ad ultionem tarditatem supplicii gravitate compensent Non videbatur eis satis offendisse Deum Statuta condendo contra vicarium ejus contra Ecclesiam Ecclesiae caput nisi pertinacitèr perseverantes in malo proposito in Nuntium Apostolicum violentas manus injicerent Quod non dubitamus tuae Excellentiae quae Ecclesiae regni honorem diligit displicere certi sumus quod si fuisses in Anglia pro tua naturali prudentia pro side devotione quam geres erga nos Ecclesiam Dei illos incurrere in hunc furorem nullatenus permisisses Verùm cum non solum ipsis qui hoc fecerunt sed toti regno magna accederit ignominia dietim si perseverabit in errore accessura sit major generositatem tuam in qua valdè confidemus exbortamur affectuose rogamus ut circa haec provideas prout sapientiae tuae videbitur honori nostro Ecclesiae ac saluti regni convenire Datum Romae apud Sanctos Apostolos VI Kal. Junii Pontificatus nostri Anno 12 mo Give Winners leave to laugh and Losers to speak or else both will take leave to themselves The less the Pope could bite the more he roared and as it appears by his language he was highly offended thereat This penal Statute as a Rod was for many years laid upon the desk or rather lock'd up in the cupboard No great visible use being made thereof until the Reign of King Hen. 8. whereof hereafter 38. Since the Reformation More scar'd then hurt the professors of the Common-Law have taken much advantage out of this Statute threatning therewith such as are active in the Ecclesiastical jurisdictions as if their dealings tended to be the disherison of the Crown A weapon wherewith they have rather flourished then struck it being suspicious that that appearing sword is but all Hilt whose Blade was near drawn out as this charge hath never been driven home against them but herein let us hearken to the Learned judgment of S r Thomas Smith Secretary of State who well knew the interest of his Soveraign therein 39. Because the Court a Sir Thomas Smiths judgment herein which is called Curia Christianitatis is yet taken for an extern and foraign Court and differeth from the Politie and manner of Government of the Realm Com. wealth of Eng. 3. book 11 Chap. and is another Court as appeareth by the Act and Writ of Praemunire then Curia Regis aut Reginae yet at this present this Court as well as others hath her force power authority rule and jurisdiction from the Royal Majesty and the Crown of England and from no other foreign Potentate or power under God which being granted as indeed it is true it may now appear by some reason that the first Statute of Praemunire whereof I have spoken hath now no place in England seeing there is no pleading alibi quam in Curia Regis ac Reginae All I will add of this Statute is this That it hath had the hard hap not to be honoured with so many Readings therein as other Statutes Perhaps because not bringing in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in proportion to the pains which must be laied out thereon and therefore I would invite some ingenious in our Common-Law and with such no doubt it aboundeth to bestow their learned endeavours thereon to their own honour and advancement of the truth in so noble a subject 40. Many poor souls at this time were by fear or flattery moved to abjure the truth 19. and promise future conformity to the Church of Rome 1395 In proof whereof The solemn form of an abjuration let not the Reader think much to peruse the following Instruments Anno Dom. 1395. First Anno Regis Ric. 2. 19. for the authentickness thereof being truly copied out of the Originals of the Tower Secondly because it conteines some extraordinary formalities of abjuration Lastly because the four persons mentioned therein have escaped M r Fox his observation seeing no drag-net can be so carefully cast as to catch all things which come under it a Ex Rotulâ— Clausaâ— de Anno Regni Regis decimo nono Richardi secundi membrana 18 Memorand quod primo die Septembris Anno Regni Regis Richardi Secundi post Conquestum decimo-nono Will. Dynet Nic. Taillour Nic. Poucher Will. Steynour de Notyngham in Cancellar ipsius Regis personaliter constituti sacra divisim prestiterunt sub eo qui sequitur tenore I WILLIAM DYNET be-for yhow worshipefull father and Lord Archbishop of Yhorke and Yhother Clergie with my free will and full avysede swere to God and to all his Sayntes upon this holy Gospells yat fro this day forwarde I shall worship ymages with preying and offeryng unto hem in the worschep of the sayntes that yey be made after And alsoe I shall never more despise pygremage ne states of holy Chyrche in no degree And alsoe I shall be buxum to the lawes of holy Chyrche and to yhowe as myn Archbishop and to myn oyer Ordinares and Curates and kepe yo lawes
Vniversitas praedicta solvant teneantur folvere ipsi Domino nostro Regi Henrico haeredibus suis mille Libras legalis Monetae Angliae Concordat cum Originali GULIELMUS RYLEY Afterwards the King confirmed the same with the consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament as in the Tower Rouls doth plainly appear 27. See we here the grand difference The effect of the Statute of Praemunire betwixt the Popes power in England before and after the Statute of Praemunire Before it his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was authentical and his Bulls received next to Canonical Scripture Since that Statute hath broken off their best Seals wherein they crosse the Royall Power and in all things else they enter into England mannerly with good King by your leave Sir or else they were no better then so much waste Parchment 28. This doth acquaint us with a perfect Character of King Henry the fourth Farwell to K. Henry the fourth who though curteous was not servial to the Pope And * Fourth book of his Instit of the Jurisd of Courts page 228. S r Edward Cook accounteth this his Oxford action though unwilling to transcribe the Instrument for the tediousness thereof a noble act of Kingly power in that Age and so we take our farwell of King Henry the fourth not observed as all English Kings before and after him to have erected and endowed any one intire house of Religion as first or sole Founder thereof though a great Benefactor to the Abby of Leicester and Colledg of Fotheringhay in Northamptonshire his Picture is not so well known by his Head as his Hood which he weareth upon it in an antick fashion peculiar to himself 29. At the Commons Petition to the King in Parliament Chaumberdakyns banished England that all Irish begging-Priests Hen. 5 1413 called * Rotuli in Turre in hoc anno The death of T. Arundel Chaumberdakyns should avoid the Realm before Michaelmas next 1. they were ordered to depart by the time aforesaid upon pain of loss of goods and imprisonment during the Kings pleasure 30. I had almost forgotten that just a moneth before the death of King Henry the Fourth Thomas Arundel Arch-Bishops of Canterbury expired famished to death not for want of food but a throat to swallow it such the swelling therein that he could neither speak nor eat for some dayes I may safely report what others observe how he who by his cruel Canons forbad the food to the soul and had pronounced sentence of condemnation on so many innocents was now both starv'd and strick dumb together Henry Chichely succeeded him in the place whose mean birth interrupted the Chain of Noble Arch-Bishop his two predecessors and successors being Earls sons by their extraction 31. The Prelates and Abbots especially The Clergie jealous of King Henries activity began now to have the activesoul of King Henry in suspition For working heads are not so willing to follow old wayes Hen. 5 1414. 2. as well-pleased to find out new ones Such a medling soul must ne sent out of harms-way If that the Clergie found not this King some work abroad he would make them new work at home Had his humor happend to side with the Lollards Anno Regis Hen. 2 8. Henry the fifth would have saved King Henry the Eight much pains in demolishing of Monasteries Anno Dom. 1414. 32. Hereupon the Clergie cunningly gave vent to his Activity Divert it on a war in France by divertting it on a long warre upon the French where his Victories are loundly sounded forth by our State Historians A warre of more credit then profit to England in this Kings Reigne draining the Men and Money thereof Thus Victorious Bayes bear onely barren Berries no whit good for food and very little for Physick whilst the Peaceable Olive drops down that precious liquor making the face of man to shine therewith Besides what this King Henry gained his Son as quickly lost in France Thus though the Providence of Nature hath priviledged Islanders by their entire position to secure themselves yet are they unhappy in long keeping their acquisitions on the Continent 33. Now began the Tragedy of Sir John Oldcastle The sad story of Sir John Oldcastle so largely handled in Mr. Fox that his pains hath given Posterity a Writ of Ease herein He was a vigorous Knight whose Martiall Activity wrought him into the affections of Jone f Camd. Brit. in Kent D la Pole Baronesse of Cobham the Lord whereof he became sed quaere whether an Actuall Baron by her Marriage 34. As for the Opinions of this Sir John Oldcastle His belief they plainly appear in his Belief which he drew up with his own hand and presented it first to the King then to the Archbishop of Canterbury wherein some things are rather coursely then falselie spoken He knew to speak in the Language of the Schools so were the meetings of the Wicklivists called but not scholastically and I believe he was the first that coyned and last that used the distinction of the Church Militant divided into Priest-hood Knight-hood and Commons which had no great harm therein as he explained it As for * In his 3 conversion Persons his charging him with Anabaptistical Tenets it is pitty that the words of a plain meaning man should be put on the Wrack of a Jesuites malice to extort by deduction what never was intended therein 35. But a worse accusation is charged on his Memory He is charged of Treason that he was not onely guilty of Herese but Treason But by the way it appeareth that Lolardisme then counted Heresie was made Treason by Statute and on that account Heresie and Treason signifie no more then Heresie and then Heresie according to the abusive language of that Age was the best serving of God in those dayes But besides this a very formal Treason is laid to this Lords account in manner following It is laid to his charge that though not present in the person with his Councel he encouraged an Army of Rebels no fewer then twenty thousand which in the dark thickets expounded in our Age into plain pasture of S t Giles Fields nigh London intended to seize on the Kings Person and his two Brothers the Dukes of Bedford and Glocester Of this numerous Army thirty six are said to be hang'd and burnt though the Names of three are onely known and S r Roger Acton Knight the onely person of quality named in the design 36. For mine own part The Author intricated I must confess my self so lost in the Intricacies of these Relations that I know not what to assent to On the one side I am loath to load the Lord Cobhams memory with causless crimes knowing the perfect hatred the Clergie in that Age bear'd unto him and all that look d towards the reformation in Religion Besies that 20000 men should be brought into the field
of his foulest facts wherewith in all ages since he standeth charged on record For mine own part I confess it no heresie to maintain a paradox in History nor am I such an enemy to wit as not to allow it leave harmlesly to disport it self for its own content and the delight of others Thus Cardan hath written his Encomium Neronis and others best husbandmen who can improve the barrennest ground have by art endeavoured to praise as improbable subjects But when men shall do it cordially in sober sadness to pervert peoples judgments and therein go against all received Records I say singularity is the least fault can be laid to such mens charge Besides there are some Birds Sea-pies by name who cannot rise except it be by flying against the winde as some hope to atchieve their advancement by being contrary and paradoxal in judgment to all before them 9. Soon after followed the execution of the Duke of Buckingham The request of the Duke of Buckingham denied King Richard his grand enginere or Master of the fabrick of his preserment The occasion thus The Duke requested-required of King Richard as confident that his merits were incapable of a denial the Earldome of Hereford and the hereditary Constable-ship of England laying title to them by discent Well did he ask both together which would be granted both together For the Earldome of Hereford was an Abishag concubine to the former Kings of England which had long lien in the Crown whilest in the Lancastrian line so imbraced and interlaced therewith that it was difficult to dissever them And the affecting thereof proved as fatall to Buckingham Anno Dom. 1484. as the desiring of the other was to Adonijah Anno Regis Ric. 3. 2. being interpreted in both an ambition of the Kingdome The Hereditary Constableship was conceived too unlimited a power to be trusted to a Subject lest he should make more disorder then he should mend therewith so that in fine both in effect were denied unto him 10. Buckingham stormes thereat Buckingham surpâ—â—â—ed and beheaâ—ed Shall a Coronet be denied him by him on whom he had conferred a Crown Yet what anger soever boiled in his â—eart none ran over in his mouth pretending very fair in his behaviour But hard it is to halt before a cripple and dissemble before King Richard The Duke withdraws to Brecknock in Wales with his prisoner Bishop Morton of Elie committed unto him by the King on some distaste who tampered with him about the marriage of Henry Earl of Richmond with the eldest Daughter of King Edward the fourth The Duke carried himself so open therein that surprised by King Richard his head was divorced from his body before this marriage was compleated II. More cunning was Bishop Morton to get himself over into France Morten make peace there to contrive the Union of the two Houses of York and Lancaster If Blessed be the peace-makers be pronounced of such as reconcile party and party how much more must it be true of his memory the happy instrument to unite those Houses to the saving of the effusion of so much bloud Some will say it was a design obvious to every capacity to make such an union But we all know when a thing is done then it is easie for any to do it Besides it is one thing for men in their brains barely and notionally to apprehend a project and another as our Morton did to elect proportionable means and by the vigorous prosecution thereof really to effect it 12. A modern Writer in his voluminous book Mr Pryn charged for charging Bishop Morton of â—reson which he hath Entituled The Rebellions Treasons Conspiracies Antimonarchical practises c. of the English Prelates to swell his number chargeth this Bishop Morton with Treason against King Richard the third But is it treason for one in savour of the true heir to oppose an Usurper in Title and Tyrant in practice Surely unbiased judgments behold Morton herein under a better notion Had this Bishop been active on King Richards side how would the same Author have proclaimed him for a Traitor against King Henry the seventh Thus I see an inevitable necessity that Morton must be a Traitor whatsoever he did and observe that no practice will please which cometh from one whose person or profession is distasted 13. But King Richard his cruelties had so tired out Divine patience Earl Henry landeth at Milsord Haven that his punishment could be no longer deferred 1585 Henry Earl of Richmond lands with an handful of men at Milford Haven 3. A landing place politickly chosen near Pembroke the place of his Nativity in the heart of his Country-men and Kinsmen the Welsh his grand-father Owen ap Theodore alias Tuthar having thence his extraction and far from London the Magazine of King Richards might From Milford the Earl marched North-East through the bowels of Wales and both his Army and fame thereof crevit eundo grew by going Many old Prophesies the people about Leicester will load a stranger with them were fulfilled in him and this amongst the rest may be remembred It was foretold that in a great battle which was to be fought near Leicester whosoever should shoot the arrow first should have the victory This most understood that the archer in the fight which should first let loose should gain the day to his side When behold the Earl of Richmond bending his march out of Wales to the middle of England first passed Arrow a rivolet in the confines of Worcester and Warwick-shire and accordingly proved victorious For into Leicester-shire he came and in the navel thereof is met by King Richard and next morning both sides determine to trie their fortunes in fight This night the Earl had sweet and quiet rest whilest King Richard his guilty conscience was frighted with hideous dreams Anno Regis Ric 3 3. and fanciful apparitions Anno Dom. 1485 as no wonder if no pillow could give him quiet sleep who with a pillow had so lately smothered his Lord and Master 14. The Battle is called the Battle of Bosworth though fought full three miles from the a Burton in his description of Leicestershire Town The Battle of Bosworth and nearer other Country Villages because Bosworth is the next Town of not ethereunto The Earls Army fell far short of the Kings in number and Armes equalled it in courage exceeded it in cause and success Indeed the Kings Army was hollow at the heart many marching in his main battle who were much suspected and therefore purposely placed there to secure them from flying out and fought as unwilling to overcome Yet the scales of victory seemed for a long time so equal that an exact eye could not discern on which side the beam did break At last the coming in of the Lord Stanley with three thousand fresh men decided the controversie on the Earls side King Richard fighting valiantly so his friends
and the Constables and Bayliffes were every week to search the same They were not to sell Bread Ale Flesh Fish Wood Cole or any Victuals This was done partly because they should not engrosse those Trades being the livelihood of more honest people and partly left simple Chapmen in seeking for such necessaries should be inveigled into sin d Stow us priùs Such women living and dying in their sinfull life were excluded Christian buriall and had a plot of ground farre from the Parish-Church appointed for them called The single-womans Church-yard 41. These Cautions and Constitutions could not make them The impossibility to Legitimate what in it self is unlawfull who are bad in themselves to be good though happily keeping some who were bad from being worse Such a toleration of sin being utterly unlawful For though Naturall poysons may by Art be so qualified and corrected to make them not onely not noxious but in some cases as wisely applied cordiall Yet Morall poysons I mean things sinfull of themselves can never be so ordered and regulated but that still they will remain pernitious and unlawfull The onely way to order and amend being to remove and extirpate them 42. Yet there wanted not those better idle than so imployed who endevoured with Arguments to maintain some so shamelesse the necessity Argument pro and con about Stewes but more the conveniency of such Brothel-houses No wonder if wanton wits pleaded for wanton women Whoredome like the Whores was painted over with politick Reasons for the permission thereof which may easily be washed away if the following Parallel be but seriously perused 1. Mans infirmity herein since his Naturall corruption is grown so generall it is needfull to counive at such Houses as a kinde of remedy to prevent worse incontinency with Married women the whole land being the cleaner for the publick Sincks or Sewer of the Stewes 2. As Moses c Mark 10. 5. permitted Divorcement to the Jewes Stewes may be connived at on the same accompt for the hardnesse of mens hearts Ann. Reg. HeÌ„ 8 37. 3. Ann. Dom. 1545. Strange women were no strangers in Israel it self under their best Kings two of that trade publickly known pleaded before King f I Kings 3.16 Solomon These were publickly repaired unto and known by the attire g Prov. 7.10 of an Harlot 4. Many great Familie were preserved thereby whose younger Brethren abstaining from Marriage did nont cumber the same with numerosity of Children 5. Such Stewes are Fashionable in forreigne Nations yea in Rome it self 6. The suppressing of Stewes would not make men more chaste but more close not more sincerely honest but secretly wanton In all populous places male-incontinency will meet with a female counterpart and so reciprocally 1. It is absurd to say and belibelleth Divine Providence That any thing is really Needfull that is not Lawfull Such pretended necessity created by bad men must be annihilated by good Laws Let Marriage run in its proper channell being permitted to all persons and then no need of such noysome sinks which may well be dammed up The malady cannot be accounted a remedy For whilest Matrimony is appointed and blessed by God to Cool the heat of Lust Whoredome doth double the drought thereof 2. Christians ought not so much to listen to Moses his permission as to Christ his reprehension thereof Besides some faults had a cover for them in the twi-light of the Law which have none in the sun-shine of the Gospel 3. Christians must conform themselves to the necessary members and commendable Ornaments of the Jewish Common-wealth f 1. Kings 3. 16. but not to the wennes and ulcers thereof f Prov. 7. 10. 4. Where Harlots have preserved one house they have destroyed an hundred Besides we must not doe Evil that Good may come thereof Nor can many Children be accompted evils to men which are blessings from God 5. Let the Paramount Whore tolerate Whores which as a branch of Popery was now banished England more honour it is for us to go before forraign Nations in Reformation than to follow them in their Corruptions 6. This undeniable truth is sodly granted Perchance there may now be moe English-folk Adulterers but England was then an Adultresse so long as Stewes were openly licensed It was a Nationall sin when publickly permitted which now is but personall though too generally committed Thus Chastity by the countenance of Authority got at last a finall conquest of Wantonness Indeed formerly in the one and twentieth year h Râ—b Fabian in his Chronicle Anno 1506. of Henry the seventh for a time the Stewes were closed up but afterwards opened again though reduced from sixteen to twelve but now by the King's commandment this regiment of sinners was totally and finally routed the Kings pleasure herein proclaimed by sound of Trumpet and their Houses peopled with other Inhabitants of honest conversation 43. We lately mentioned the exchange of land Prelates their loss by pomp betwixt the King and the two Archibishops On which account be it remembred though I finde not the exact year Otford in Kent was given the King whereof thus our great i Camden in his Brit. in Kent Pag. 328. Antiquary William Warrham Archbishop of Canterbury built Otford for himself and his successours so sumptuously that for to avoid envy Cranmer who next succeeded him was constrained to exchange it with King Henry the eighth Could the Clergie have found out the mean betwixt baseness bravery too sordid too sumptuous they might have fixed themselves therein with the more security Whilest their Palaces built so big as to receive and so beautifull as to invite the King an His Court made especially if lying neer London covetousnesse to long after them And although some competent consideration was given in exchange yet politick Prelates disliked such commutations as which gaged the root of Episcopal lands from their first property and antient foundation 44. The last person of quality The character of Anne Ashcough which suffered martyrdome in this Kings Reign June 2. was Anne Ashcough alià s Kyme She was worshipfully extracted Ann. Dom. 1546. the Daugther of Sir William Ashcough of Kelsay in Lincoln-shire of the age of twenty five years Whose wit beauty learning and religion Ann. Dom. 1546. procured her much esteem on the Queens side of the Court Ann. Regis HeÌ„ 8. 38. and as much hatred from the Popish persecuting Bishops But the k Parsonâ— in his Exam. of Jc. Fâ—x hisSâ—â—â—s in the mâ—â—â—th of Jane Jesuite condemns her for leaving her Husband at home and gadding to Gospel and gossip it at Court alwaies subscribing her self not by her married but maiden surname the rather because being often examined what reason she could give of forsaking her Husband she refused to answer to any save to the King alone Master Fox turneth off the whole matter to John Bale and I having his Manuscript in my
none should speak any thing of the King's death Which Act though onely intended to retrench the Predictions and mock-Prophesies of Southsayers yet now all the Courtiers glad of so legall a covert for their cowardise alledged it to excuse themselves to inform the King of Nis approaching end At last Sir Anthony Denny went boldly unto Him and plainly acquainted Him of His dying condition whereupon Archbishop Cranmer was by the King his desire sent for to give him some ghostly counsell and comfort 62. But before Cranmer then being at Croidon could come to Him His hope expressed by speechlesse gesture He was altogether speechlesse but not senslesse The Archbishop exhorted Him to place all His trust in Gods mercies thorough Christ and besought Him that if He could not in words He would by some signe or other testifie this His hope Who then wringed the Archbishops hand as hard as He could and shortly after expired having lived fifty five years and seven moneths Jan. 28. and thereof reigned thirty seven years nine moneths and six daies 63. As for the report of Sanders Lying Slanders that King Henry perceiving the pangs of approaching Death called for a great bowle of white wine and drinking it off should say to the company We have lost all it is enough to say it is a report of Sanders As loud a lie is it what he affirmeth that the last words heard from His mouth were The Monks the Monks and so gave up the ghost This may goe hand in hand with what another Gatholick * Rich. Hall in his Manuscript-Life of Bishop Fisher relates that a black Dog he might as truly have said a blew one lickt up His blood whilest the stench of His corps could be charmed with no embalming though indeed there was no other noysomnesse than what necessarily attendeth on any dead body of equall corpulency 64. Vices most commonly charged on His memory are His Vices and Virtues 1. Covetousness He was an eminent Instance to verifie the Observation Omnis prodigus est avarus vast His profusiveness coming a fork after a rake not only spending the great Treasure left Him by His Father but also vast wealth beside and yet ever in want and rapacious to supply the same Secondly Cruelty being scarce ever observed to pardon any Noble person whom He condemned to death I finde but two black swannes in all the currant of His Reign that tasted of His favour herein And therefore when Arthur * Godwin in Hen. 8. p. 181. Lord Lisle imprisoned and daily expecting death in the Tower was unexpectedly set free he instantly died of soddain joy so that it seems King Henry's pity proved as mortal as His cruelty Thirdly Wantonness which cannot be excused But these faults were if not over even poised with His virtues of Valour Bounty Wisdome Learning and love of Learned men scarce one Dunce wearing a Miter all His daies 65. The Monument mentioned in His Will Why K. Henry's Monument never perfected as almost made was never all made but left imperfect whereof many reasons are rendred Some impure it to the very want of workmen unable to finish it according to the exactnesse wherewith it was begun a conceit in my minde little better than scandalum seculi and very derogatory to the Art and Ingenuity of our Age. * Godwin in Hen. 8. p. 113. Others more truly ascribe it to the costlinesse thereof which deterred His Successours from finishing of it Indeed King Henry the seventh in erecting His own Monument in His Chappell at Westminster did therein set a Pattern of despair for all Posterity to imitate And yet Sanders * De schis Angl. pag. 216. tells us That Queen Mary had a great minde to make up His Tomb but durst not for fear a Catholick should seem to countenance the memory of one dying in open schism with the Church of Rome As for His imperfect Monument it was beheld like the barren Fig-tree bearing no fruit and cumbring the * Luke 13. 7. ground I mean the Chappell wherein it stood and therefore it was since these Civill Warres took down and sold by order of Parliament 66. In the Reign of Queen Mary Card. Poole his project it was reported that Cardinal Poole whose spleen generally vented it self against dead-mens bodies had a designe with the principall Clergie of England to take up and burn the body of King Henry the eighth This plot is said to be discovered by Doctor Weston * Fox Acts and Mon. p. 2102. Dean of Westminster But because Weston was justly obnoxious for his scandalous living for which at that time he stood committed to the Tower and bare a personal grudge to the Cardinal his report was the lesse credited as proceeding from revenge and desire to procure his own enlargement 67. Indeed when a Vault The bones of K. Hen. abused seven years since was pierced in the midst of the Quire at Windesor therein to interre the corps of King CHARLES they lighted on two Coffins therein Now though no memory alive could reach the same yet constant tradition seconded with a * See more hereof at the buriall of K. Charles coincidency of all signs and circumstances concluded these Coffins to contain the bones of King HENRY the eighth and His dear Queen JANE SEYMOUR And yet the bignesse of the Coffin though very great did not altogether answer that Giant-like proportion which posterity hath fancied of Him The end of the Fift Book THE Church-History OF BRITAIN THE SIXT BOOK BEING The History of Abbeys in ENGLAND Of their Originall Increase Greatnesse Decay and Dissolution To the Right Honourable WILLIAM COMPTON Sonne and Heire to the Right Honourable JAMES Baron COMPTON of COMPTON AND Earle of NORTHAMPTON HAving formerly proved at a In severall Dedicatory Epistles in my Pisgah Sight large That it is lawfull for any and expedient for me to have Infant-Patrons for my Books let me give an account why this parcell of my History was set apart for your Honour not being cast by chance but led by choice to this my Dedication First I resolved with my self to select such a Patron for this my History of Abbies whose Ancestour was not onely of credit and repute in the Reîgn but also of favour and esteem in the affection of King HENRY the Eighth Secondly he should be such if possible to be found who had no partage at all in Abbey-Lands at their dissolution that so his judgement might be unbiased in the reading hereof Both my Requisits have happily met in your Honour whose direct Ancestour Sir WILLIAM COMPTON was not onely chief Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber to the aforesaid KING but also as a noble b The Lord Herbert in his History page 8. pen writing his Life informeth us the third man in His favour in the beginning of His Reign yet had he not a shooe-latchet of Abbey-Land though nothing surely debarred him save his
own abstinence as there is none in all your antient Paternall estate for I account not what since by accession of Matches hath accrued unto it Thus are you the Person designed for my purpose and I believe very few if any in ENGLAND can wash their hands in the same Bason to have no Abbey-lands sticking to their fingers and thus being freest from being a Party in due time you will be fittest to be a Judge to passe unpartial sentence on what is written on this subject And now let me make your Lordship smile a little acquainting you with a passage in the Legend of NICHOLAS a Popish Saint They c Lib. Festival in die S. Nichol. fol. 55. report of him That when an Infant hanging on his Mothers breast he fasted Wednesdaies and Fridaies and could not be urged to suck more than once a day But good my Lord be not so ceremonious or rather superstitious to imitate his example Wean not your self until you be weaned and let all daies be alike to your Honour I dare assure you no spark of Sanctity the lesse for a drop of milke the more A good case is no hindrance to a pretious jewell and a healthfull body no abasement to a holy soule And when your Lordship shall arrive at riper years consult your own Extraction as the best Remembrancer of worthy behaviour In whose veines there is the confluence of so many Rivulets that a mean Herault by the guidance thereof upwards may be led to the fountains of the most of the English Nobility All I will adde is this as you give three Helmets for your Armes may you be carefull to take the fourth even the d Eph. 6. 17. helmet of salvation An Helmet which here is worn close whilest Souldiers in the Church-Militant we see but in part but hereafter shall be born like the Helmet of Princes with the bever open in the Church-Triumphant when we shall see as we are seen The desire of Your Honours most engaged Beads-man THOMAS FVLLER The History of Abbeys in ENGLAND Primitive MONKS with their Piety and Painfulnesse WHen the Fornace of Persecution in the Infancy of Christianity was grown so hot First Monks caused by persecution that most Cities Towns and populous Places were visited with that Epidemical Disease many pious men fled into Desarts there to live with more safety and serve God with lesse disturbance No wilde humour to make themselves miserable and to chuse and court their own calamity put them on this project much lesse any Superstitious Opinion of transcendent Sanctity in a Solitary life made them willingly to leave their former Habitations For whereas all men by their Birth are indebted to their Countrey there to stay and discharge all civil relations it had been dishonesty in them like Bankrupts to run away into the Wildernesse to defraud their Countrey their Creditor except some violent Occasion such as Persecution was forced them thereunto and this was the first Originall of Monks in the world so called from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because living alone by themselves 2. Here they in the Desarts hoped to finde Rocks Their pious employment in a solitary life and Stocks yea Beasts themselves more kinde than Men had been to them What would Hide and Heat Cover and keep Warm served them for Cloathes not placing as their Successours in after-Ages any Holinesse in their Habit folded up in the affected Fashion thereof As for their Food the Grasse was their Cloath the Ground their Table Herbs and Roots their Diet wilde Fruits and Berries their Dainties Hunger their Sauce their Nails their Knives their Hands their Cups the next Well their Wine-cellar But what their Bill-of-fare wanted in Cheer it had in Grace their Life being constantly spent in Prayer Reading Musing and such like pious Employments They turned Solitarinesse it self into Society and cleaving themselves asunder by the divine Art of Meditation did make of one two or more opposing answering moderating in their own Bosomes and busie in themselves with variety of Heavenly recreations It would doe one Good even but to think of their Goodnesse and at the rebound and second hand to Meditate on their Meditations For if ever Poverty was to be envied it was here And I appeal to the moderate men of these Times whether in the heighth of these wofull Warres they have not sometimes wisht not out of Passionate distemper but serious recollection of themselves some such Private Place to retire unto where out of the noise of this Clamorous World they might have reposed themselves and served GOD with more Quiet 3. These Monks were of two sorts They vowed no Poverty Chastity or Obedience either such as fled from actuall or from imminent Persecution For when a danger is not created by a timorous Fancie but rationally represented as probable See 〈◊〉 Virgil le 〈…〉 lib. 761. in such a case the Principles of Prudence not out of Cowardise but Caution warrant men to provide for their Safety Neither of these bound themselves with a wilfull Vow to observe Poverty but Poverty rather vowed to observe them In Sixtâ—s Sene si lib 6. 〈◊〉 332. waiting constantly upon them Neither did they vow Chastity though keeping it better than such as vowed it in after-Ages As for the Vow of Obedience it was both needlesse and impossible in their Condition having none beneath or above them living alone and their whole Covent as one may say consisting of a single Person And as they entred on this Course of Life rather by Impulsion than Election so when Peace was restored they returned to their former homes in Cities and Towns resuming their Callings which they had not left off but for a time laid aside The first British Monks that we meet with in this kinde were immediately after the Martyâ—dome of Saint Alban for then saith Gildas Qui superfuerant sylvis ac desertis abditisque speluncis se occultaverunt Such as survived hid themselves in woods and desarts and secret dens of the earth As long after on the like Occasion when the Pagan Saxons and Danes invaded this Island many religious Persons retired themselves to Solitary lives Voluntary MONKS embracing that Life not for Necessity but Conveniency AFter these succeeded a Second Sort of Monks leading a Solitary Life Silver Monks succeeded the former golden ones when no visible need forced them thereunto as neither feeling nor fearing any apparent Persecution Yet these considering the inconstancy of humane matters that though they had Prosperity for the present it might soon be changed into a contrary condition if either the restlesse endevours of the Devil took effect or sinfull Christians were rewarded according to their deserts freely chose a Lone life also prompted perchance thereunto by their own Melancholy disposition 2. Afterwards it was counted convenient Fetcht from wandring in the wilderness to dwell together that such who hitherto dwelt desolate in Desarts scattered asunder should be
gathered together to live under one Roof because their Company would be Cheerfull in Health and Needfull in Sicknesse one to another Hence these two words though contrary to sound signifie the same Monasterium Coenobium A place containing men living Alone In common For though they were sequestred from the rest of the World yet they enjoyed mutuall Society amongst themselves And again though at solemn times they joyned in their Publick Devotions and Refections yet no doubt they observed howers by themselves in their Private Orisons Of these some were Gardeners like Adam Husbandmen like Noah caught Fish with Peter made Tents with Paul as every man was either advised by his Inclination or directed by his Dexterity and no Calling was counted Base that was found Beneficiall Much were they delighted with making of Hives as the Embleme of a Covent for Order and Industry wherein the Bees under a Master their Abbot have severall Cells and live and labour in a regular discipline In a word they had hard hands and tender hearts sustaining themselves by their labour and relieving others by their Charity as formerly hath been observed in the Monks of Bangor 3. Take a tast of their Austerity who lived at Vall Rosine The discipline of British 〈◊〉 under S. David since called Minevea in Pembroke-shire under the Method of S. David They were raised with the crowing of the a 〈◊〉 Hist Eccl. Angl. p. 40. Cock from their beds and then betook themselves to their prayers and spent the rest of the day in their severall calling when their task was done they again bestowed themselves in prayers meditations reading writing and at night when the heavens were full of starres they first began to feed having their temperate repast to satisfie hunger on bread water and herbs Then the third time they went to their prayers and so to bed till the circulation of their daily employment returned in the Morning A spectacle of virtue and continence who although they received nothing or any thing very unwillingly of others yet were so farre from wanting necessaries that by their pains they provided sustenance for many poor people Orphans Widows and Strangers 4. Here as we cannot but highly commend the integrity of their Hearts herein Superstition unawares occasioned by them so we must withall bemoan that what in them was intentionally good proved occasionally evill hatching Superstition under the warmth of their Devotion For though even these as yet were free from humane Ordinances and Vows yet Will-worship crept in insensible in the next Age Tares are easier seen grown than growing and error and vitlousnesse came in by degrees The Monks afterwards having sufficiency turned lazie then getting wealth waxed wanton and at last endowed with superfluity became notoriously wicked as hereafter shall appear Thus as Pliny reporteth of the GAGATE-stone that set a fire it burneth more fiercely if water be cast on but is extinguished if oyle be poured thereupon So the zeal of Monastick men was inflamed the more with the bitter water of affliction whilst in prosperity the oyle of plenty quenched their piety So ill a Steward is humane corruption of outward happinesse oftner using it to the Receivers hurt than the Givers glory Of Superstition which was the fundamentall fault in all Abbeys THis was one main fault in all English Abbeys Abbeys built on the sand of superstition that the Builders did not dig deep enough to lay the Foundation as grounded on the foundred and mouldring bottome of superstition For every Monastery was conceived a magazine of merit both for the Founder his Ancestors and Posterity And although all these Dotations did carry the title of pure Alms yet seriously considered they will be found rather forced than free as extorted from men with the fear of Purgatory one flash of which fire believed is able to melt a miser into charity yea which is worse many of their foundations had their morter tempered with innocent blood For which we may conceive afterwards they sped never a whit the better To give some instances of many 2. Wolpher Peterborough Abbey founded to expâ—ate murder King of the MERCIANS having murdered Wolphald and Rufine his own Sons with cruell and barbarons Immanity because they had devoted themselves unto Christ and embraced his Religion afterwards turning Christian himself b Cambd. Brit. in Northampton-shire MiddletoÌ„ being on the same occasion Idem in Dorceâ— to wash away the stain of his impiety built that famoâ—s Abbey since known by the name of Peterborough 3. King Athelstance drowned his brother Edwine having put him into a little Wherry or Cockboat without any tackling or furniture thereunto to the end he might impute his wickedness to the waves and afterwards as a satisfaction to appease his Ghost built the fair Abbey of Middleton in Dorset-shire 4. To joyn to these two houses of Monks So also the Nunnery of Ambresbury one of Nuns such society hath not been unacceptable Aelfrith second Wife to King Edgar having contrived the death of Edward her Son-in-law King of England murdered him by a company of Hacksters and Villains at her appointment at Corfe-Castle in Dorset-shire to pave the way for the Succession of her Son Etheldred to the Crown afterwards built the stately Nunnery of c Harpsfield Hist Eccl. Angl. saec 10. p. 188. Ambresbury with some other religious Houses 5. It is confest Suspitious therein might be a great fault herein that wilfull murder may be pardoned in Christ and they who deny it are guilty as much as lies in their power of a worse soul-murder in their uncharitable opinion Yet this we say that all the chantings of the Monks and Nuns in their Covents could not drown the noise of innocent blood And if these Founders of Abbeys thought that their murder could be expiated by raising such beautifull buildings their most polished marble and costly carved pieces were in the expression of the Prophet but d Ezck. 22. 28. dawbing over their damnable sins with untempered morter But though Abbeys long since have been demolished we leave their Founders to stand or fall to their own Maker when his all-seeing Eye hath discerned betwixt the Errours of their Judgment and Integrity of their Affections endevouring that which they conceived was to the glory of God and advance of true Religion Of the severall Orders of Monks and Nuns in England SO much of the Superstition of the Founders An heap of Monkish Orders in England come we now to their Superstition and other notorious sins who lived in these foundations But first we will premise their severall Orders Herein we pretend not to any criticall skill For though every Minister of God's Word whereof I am the meanest is a spirituall Herald to derive and deduce the Pedigrees and Genealogies of any Institution which hath its Originall in God's Word yet they are not bound not to say it is a learned Ignorance to be skilled in the
Deductions Divisions and Sub-divisions of these Orders which have no foundation in the Scripture Yea hear what c Matth. Park An. Dom. 1257. pag. 949. Matthew Paris being a Monk of S. Albans saith Tot jam apparuerunt Ordines in Angliâ ut ordinum confusio videretur inordinata It is possible then for my best diligence to commit an Errour and impropriety in Reckoning them up For what wonder is it if one be lost in a wood to which their numerous Orders may well be resembled though in all this wood there appears not one plant of God's planting as one of their own f Rob. Witgift Abbot of Wellow Abbots most remarkably did observe In a word when the g Exod. 8. 13 14. Frogs of Aegypt died out of the houses out of the villages and out of the fields They gathered them together upon heaps c. And give us leave in like manner confusedly to shovel up these Vermin now dead in England 2. First Benedictines the primitive Monks in England come forth the Benedictines or Black Monks so called from S. BENEDICT or BENET an Italian first Father and Founder of that Order Augustine the Monk first brought them over into England and these black Birds first nested in Canterbury whence they have flowen into all the parts of the Kingdome For as h Clem. Reyner De antiq Ordin is S. Benedict one rightly observeth all the Abbeys in England before the time of King William the Conquerour and some whiles after were filled with this Order Yea all the Abbeys in England of the first magnitude which had Parliamentary Barons abate onely the Prior of the Hospitallers of S. John's in London were of this Order and though the Augustinians were their Seniors in Europe they were their Juniors in England Now as Mercers when their old Stuffes begin to tire in Sale refresh them with new Names to make them more vendible So when the Benedictines waxed stale in the world the same Order was set forth in a New Edition corrected and amended under the names first of CLUNIACKS these were Benedictines sifted through a finer search with some additionals invented and imposed upon them by Odo Abbot of Cluni in Burgundy who lived Anna Domini 913. But these Cluniacks appeared not in England till after the Norman Conquest and had their richest Covents at Barnestable in Devon-shire Pontefract and Meaux in Yorkshire c. 2. CISTERCIANS so called from one Robert living in Cistercium in Burgundy aforesaid he the second time refined the drossie Benedictines and Walter Especk first established their Brotherhood in England at Rivall in York-shire besides which they had many other pleasant and plentifull habitations at Warden and Woburne in Bedford shire Buckland and Ford in Devon shire Bindon in Dorset-shire c. The Bernardine Monks were of a younger House or under-Branch of the Cistercians 3. Of GRAND-MONT which observed S. Benet's Rule were brought into England Anno 1233 and were principally fixed at Abberbury in Shropshire The Family of these Benedictines taken at large with their Children and Grand-Children of under-Orders springing from them were so numerous and so richly endowed that in their Revenues they did match all the other Orders in England especially if the Foundations of Benedictine Nuns be joyned in the same reckoning I doubt not but since these Benedictines have had their crudities deconcocted and have been drawn out into more slender threds of sub-divisions For commonly once in a hundred years starts up some pragmaticall person in an Order who out of novelty alters their old Rules there is as much variety and vanity in Monks Cowles as in Courtiers Cloaks and out of his fancie adds some observances thereunto To crie quits with whom after the same distance of time ariseth another and under some new Name reformeth his Reformation and then his late new now old Order is looked on as an Almanack out of Date wanting the Perfection of new and necessary Alterations 3. A scandal hath lately been raised Scandalum Benedictinorum much in dishonour of these Benedictines viz That all the antient English Monks before the Conquest were onely of the Order of S. Equitius Some highly concerned to confute this Report wrote over to our Antiquaries in England for their Judgments herein from whom they received this following Answer a Extant in Clem Reynere de Apostolatu Benedictinorum in Angliâ— pag. 202. QUoniam hâc nostra aetate exorta est controversia de Monachatu Gregorii magni Augustini Cantuariensis Sociorúmque ejus quos Gregorius in Angliam de sâ—o Monasterio praedicandi Evangelii causa destinâsse legitur quibusdam ipsos ordini Benedictino addicentibus quibusdam vero id acriter pernegantibus ipsos Ordini S. Equitii sive alicui alii ascribentibus Nos qui multum temporis in rebus vetustis tam civilibus quà m sacris atque iis imprimis quae ad Britanniam nostram potissimum spectant impendimus rogati ut testimonium perhiberemus veritati cum neutrius partis prejudiciis simus obnoxii Dicimus affirmamus nos duo solùm Monachorum genera in primis Saxonicae apud majores nostros Ecclesiae temporibus unum eorum qui Aegyptiensium mores secuti in hac Insulâ florebant ante adventum Augustini alterum eorum qui Benedictini Augustino itineris erant comites Hanc traditionem à patribus ad filios derivatam esse testamur atque ita derivatam ut non levibus innitatur fabulis aut ambitiosis partium conjecturis quin eam ipsam vetusta signatae fidei exhibent apud nos monumenta Ab Augustino insupper ad Henricum octavum per petuo in hac Insulâ viguit Benedictina Institutio nec Augustino recentiorem ejusve originem originisve recentioris vestigium ullibi comperimus Tantum abest Equitianum aliquem in hâc Insula fuisse Ordinem ut nulla omnino hujusmodi neque ordinis neque nominis mentio in vetustis quibus versamur tabulariis habeatur Sanè aliorum fere omnium in hâc Insulâ origines ita observavimus ut unius cujusque etiam minimi ingressum suo anno consignatum habeamus solius Benedictini ordinis originem ante Augustini saeculum non invenimus ipsius saeculo floruisse apertè re reperi mus Unde exploratissimum nobis esse profitemur non alterius ordinis fuisse ipsum sociósque ejus quam Benedictini qui ideo proculdubiâ— tam altas radices in Anglia egerit quoniam primi illi Monachi à Gregorio in Insulam destinati Regulae Benedictinae professores extiterunt Robertus Cotton Johannes Seldenus Henricus Spelman Gulielmus Cambdenus England may see 400 years yet not behold 4 such Antiquaries her Natives at once the four wheels of the Triumphant chariot of truth for our British History This Quaternion of Subscribers have stick'n the point dead with me that all antient English Monks were Benedictines Which Order lasting above one thousand years in this Land hath produced about
betwixt them Whether a Fryer may be said to be Owner of the Cloathes be weareth and it hath been for the most part over-ruled in the negative 11. It will be objected Objection to null the distinction that many Convents of Fryers had large and ample revenues as will appear by perusing the Catalogue in Speed's Tables amounting to some hundreds though never thousands by the year some Fryers barns well-nigh as wealthy as some Monks rather every pretended Lazarus a Dives holding though not severally to themselves joyntly amongst themselves most rich endowments Here also it will be in vain to flie to the distinction of Cresis and Chresis of using and owning seeing the Monks will lay a claim to that distinction and challenge as great an interest therein as the Fryers themselves 12. I have nothing to return in answer hereunto Answered save onely that Olim verò non fuit sic from the beginning of the Institution of Fryers it was not so these additions of Lands unto them are of later date and believe it not of their seeking but their Benefactors casting upon them 13. However Criticisme in this subject not materiall nothing more common than to make Monks and Fryers both Synonyma's and reciprocall and for my own part I passe not if in this my History I have committed the same and hereafter shall be guilty of greater mistakes Foresters laughed at the ignorance of that Gentleman who made this difference betwixt a Stag and a Hart that the one was a red the other a fallow deer being both of a kinde only different in age and some other circumstances in Venarie I may make the like sport to some Popish Reader and much good let it do him in differencing some Orders which are the same and identifying other Orders which are distinct but the matter is of no dangerous concernment May we be but carefull to order f Psal 50. 23. our conversations aright that God may shew us his salvation and it matters not much if we commit errours and discover ignorance in ordering Fryers not in their exact number and seniority These premised we begin with their four Elemental Orders 14. Wickliffe constantly inveigheth against Fryers What means by Wickliffe's CAIM. under the name of CAIM. Had it been Caine I should have suspected his allusion to the words of the Apostle They have gone in the * Jude ver 11. way of Cain but now am at a losse and had so continued had I not lighted on a railing Hexastick of an uncharitable Rythmer a base fellow may show an honest man the way who thus letteth flie at them Per decies binos Sathanas capiat Jacobinus Propter errores Jesu confunde Minores Augustienses Pater inclyte sterne per enses Et Carmelitas tanquam falsos Heremitas Sunt Confessores Dominorum seu Dominarum Et seductores ipsarum sunt animarum C. Carmelites A. Augustinians I. Jacobines M. Minorites or Dominicans Franciscans Fryers And thus at last we have the great mysterie unfolded whom Wickliffe therein did intend 15. Of these Dominicans were the first Fryers Dominican Fryers which came over into England Anno 1221 being but twelve an Apostolical number with Gilbert de Fraxineto their Prior first landed at Canterbury fixed at Oxford but richly endowed at London they were commonly called Black Fryers Preaching Fryers and Jacobine Fryers They took their name from S. Dominick born at Calogora in Spain and Hubert de Burg◠Earl of Kent was their prime Patrone bestowing his Palace in the Suburbs of London upon them which afterwards they sold to the Archbishop's of York residing therein till by some transactions betwixt King Henry the eighth and Cardinal Wolsey it became the Royal-Court now known by the name of White-hall Afterwards by the bounty of Gregory Rocksly Lord Major of London and Robert Kilwarby Archbishop of Canterbury they were more conveniently lodged in two Lanes on the bank of Thames in a place enjoying great priviledges and still retaining the name of Black Fryers No fewer than g Pitzeus in Indice p. 981. fourscore famons English writers are accounted of this Order At this day as beyond the Seas they are much condemned for being the sole active managers of the cruell Spanish Inquisition so they deserve due commendation for their Orthodox judgements in maintaining some Controversies in Divinity of importance against the Jesuits 16. Franciscans follow Franciscan Fryers commonly called Grey Fryers and Minorites either in allusion to Jacob's words h Gen. 32. 10. Sum Minor omnibus beneficiis Tuis or from some other humble expressions in the New Testament They received their name from S. Francis born in the Dutchy of Spoletum in Italy Canonized by Pope Gregory the ninth about two years after whose death the Franciscans came over into England and one Diggs Ancestour of Sir Dudley Diggs bought for them their first seat in Canterbury who afterwards were diffused all over England For skill in School-Divinity they beat all other Orders quite out of distance and had a curious Library in London built by Richard Whittington in that Age costing five hundred and fifty pounds which quickly might be made up if as it is reported an i Reyn. in Ap. Benedict pag 162. hundred marks were expended in transcribing the Commentaries of Lyra. 17. We must not forget that one Bernard of Siena about the year 1400 Sub-reformations of Franciscans refined the Franciscans into Observants no distinct metall from the former but different from them as steel from iron K. Edward the fourth first brought them into England where they had six famous Cloysters since which time there have been a new Order of Minims begun beyond the Seas conceiving the comparative of Minor too high they have descended to Minimus according to our Saviour's own words He that is a minime or the least among you the same shall be greatest and I much admire that none have since begun an Order of Minor-Minimo's the rather because of the Apostles words of himself who am lesse than the least of all saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As I may say a subter-subterlative in his humility As for other Diminutives of Franciscans or Minorites beyond the Seas Recollects Penitentiaries Capuchins c. seeing they had their rise since the fall of Abbeys in England they belong not to our present enquiry Sufficeth it that this Order during the extent of our story afforded in England an hundred and ten learned Writers 18. Carmelites Carmelites their first coming into England or White Fryers come next so named from Mount Carmel in Syria brought over into England in the Reign of King Richard the first by Ralph Ereeborn and placed at Alnewicke in Northumberland in a wildernesse sic canibus catulos most like unto Carmel in Syria Whose Convent at their dissolution in the Reign of King Henry the eighth Speed Catalog pag. 795. was at low rates in that cheap County valued at
except solemnly designed for the place 19. At distance stood the Stables The Stables where the Stallarius or Master of the Horse did command and under him o In Vâ—tis c. pag. 97. the Provendarius who as his name imports provided Provender for the Horses These were divided into foure ranks and it would puzzle all the Jockies in Smithfield to understand the meaning of their names 1. Manni being Geldings for the Saddle of the larger size 2. Runcini Runts p Wats in Glossar at the end of Mat. Paris small Pad-Nags like those of Galloway or Goonehely 3. Summarii Sumpter-horses 4. Averii Cart or Plough-horses This was the quadripartite division of the Horses of William the two and twentieth Abbot of S. Albans on the token that he lost an hundred Horses in one yeer 20. One roome remaines The Gaâ—le last named because least loved even a Prison for the punishment of incorrigible Monkes who otherwise would not be ordered into obedience It was a grand penance imposed on the q In Vitis pag. 52. Delinquents to carry about the Lanthorn though light an heavy burden but such contumacious Monks as would not be amended therewith the Abbot had tetrum fortem carcerem a strong and hideous Prison where their Obstinacie was corrected into Reformation 21. We omit other roomes The Grange as Vaccisterium the Cow-house Porcarium the Swine-stie as having nothing peculiar therein but concurrent with those offices in other houses As for Granges being Farms at distance kept and stocked by the Abbey and so called as it seemeth à grana gerendo the Overseer whereof was commonly called the Prior of the Grange because sometimes many miles from the Monasterie they come not within the reach of our present discourse Onely I adde in Female Foundations of Nunneries there was a correspondencie of all the same essential Officers and Offices 22. Expect not of me a List of those mean Officers in the Abbey Barbarous names and Offices whose employment was not so base as their names barbarous and of English extraction Such were 1. Coltonarius Cutler 2. Cupparius 3. Potagiarius 4. Scutellarius Aulae 5. Salsarius 6. Portarius 7. Carectarius Cellerarii 8. Pelliparius Parchment-Provider 9. Brasinarius Maltster All these appeared at the Hali-mote or Holy Court of the Cellarer and it is the degrading the soul of a Scholar best pleased in a progressive motion to attain elegancy to stoop to the understanding of such base and unlearned Etymologies 23. Note that the Offices aforesaid in the smaller Abbeys were but one fair intire room Rooms in small houses in great Abbeys which in greater Monasteries were a distinct structure with all under-Offices attendant thereupon Thus the Firmorie in the Priorie of Canterbury had a Refectorie thereto belonging a Kitchin a Dortour distributed into several Chambers that one might not disturb another and a private Chappel for the devotions of the diseased Their Almerie also was accommodated with all the aforesaid appurtenances and had many distinct Manours consigned onely to their maintenance 24. It were aliene from our present purpose to speak of Cells The use of Cells which were aut pars aut proles of all great Abbeys sometime so farre off that the mother-Mother-Abbey was in England the Childe-Cell beyond the Seas and so reciprocally Some of these were richly endowed as that of Windham in Norfolke which though but a Cell annexed to S. Albans yet was able at the Dissolution to expend of its own Revenues seventy two pounds per annum These were Colonies into which the Abbeys discharged their superfluous numbers and whither the rest retired when Infections were feared at home 25. Thus have we run through the main Rooms in all great Abbeys The Honours in Canterbury Priorie though besides the same particular Abbeys had particular Houses known to those of their own Covent by peculiar denominations It were endlesse for one to instance in all these and impossible to render a reason of their names except he were privie to the fancies of the Founders Thus we meet with a pile of building in the Priorie of Canterbury called the Honours but why so termed my good friend and great r Mr. William Somner in his Antiquit. of Canterbury pag. 196. Antiquarie is fain to confesse his own ignorance Some generall Conformities observed in all Covents SUndry Orders were bound to observe severall Canonicall Constitutions Rules calculated for the Benedictines without any grand errour will serve all Orders However the rule of the antient Benedictines with some small variations according to time and place hold true thorough most Monasteries Some generall heads whereof the under-branches being infinite we will here insert it being hard if amongst much drosse some gold be not found to repair the pains of the Reader We will contrive them into Canons collected out of Authors before or in the daies of Dunston 1. Let Monks after the example of a Psal 119. 164. David praise God seven times a day Seven times Some difference in reckoning them up but the following computation is generally imbraced 1. At Cock-crowing Because the b Psal 119. 62. Psalmist saith At midnight will I praise the Lord and most conceive that Christ rose from the dead about that time 2. Matutines At the first hour or six of the clock when the Jewish morning sacrifice was offered And at what time Christ's resurrection was by the Angels first notified to the women 3. At the third hour or nine of the clock before none When according to S. Marke Christ was condemned and scourged by Pilate 4. At the sixt hour or twelve of the clock at high noon When Christ was crucified and darknesse over all the earth 5. At the ninth hour or three of the clock in the afternoon When Christ gave up the ghost and which was an hour of publick prayer in the c Acts 3. 1. Temple and privately in his closet with d Acts 10. 30. Cornelius 6. Vespers At the twelfth hour or six a clock in the afternoon When the Evening-sacrifice was offered in the Temple and when Christ is supposed taken down from the Crosse 7. At seven of the clock at night or the firâ—t hour beginning the nocturnall twelve When Christ's agonie in the garden was conceived began The fift e This whole Chapter is the abridgment of CONGORDIA REGULARUM collected by S. Bennet the Anian Abbot but printed with a Comment An. 1638. set forth by Frier Aeâ—ard of these was performed at two of the clock in the morning When the Monks who went to bed at eight at night had slept six hours which were judged sufficient for nature It was no fault for the greater haste to come without shooes or with unwashen hands provided sprinkled at their entrance with holy-water to this nights service And I finde no expresse to the contrary but that they might go to bed again But a flat prohibition after Matutines when
had store of time and no want of intelligence to take that task upon them And surely that industrious b An able Stationer in Little Britain London Bee hath in our Age merited much of posterity having lately with great cost and care enlarged many Manuscripts of Monks formerly confined to private Libraries that now they may take the free aire and being printed publickly walk abroad Mean time whilest Monks pens were thus employed Nuns with their needles wrote histories also that of Christ his passion for their Altar-clothes and other Scripture and moe Legend stories in hangings to adorn their houses 7. They were most admirable good Land-lords Abbots excellent Land-lords and well might they let and set good peny-worths who had good pounds-worths freely given unto them Their yearly rent was so low as an acknowledgment rather than a rent onely to distinguish the Tenant from the Land-lord Their fines also were easie for though every Convent as a body politick was immortal yet because the same consisted of mortal Monks for their members and an old Abbot for the head thereof they were glad to make use of the present time for their profit taking little fines for long leases As for rent-beeves sheep pullein c. reserved on their leases Tenants both payed them the more easily as growing on the same and the more cheerfully because at any time they might freely eat their full share thereof when repairing to their Land-lords bountiful table Insomuch that long Leases from Abbeys were preferred by many before some Tenures of freeholds as lesse subject to taxes and troublesome attendance 8. Their hospitality was beyond compare And admirable House-keepers insomuch that Ovid if living in that Age who feigned famine to dwell in Scythia would have fancied feasting an inhabitant of English Abbeys Especially in Christmas-time they kept most bountifull houses Whosoever brought the face of a man brought with him a Patent for his free welcome till he pleased to depart This was the method where he brake his fast there he dined where he dined there he supped where he supped there he brake his fast next morning and so in a circle Alwaies provided that he provided lodging for himself at night Abbeys having great halls and refectories but few chambers and dormitories save for such of their own society 9. Some will object Objection against their hospitality that this their hospitality was but charity mistaken promiscuously entertaining some who did not need and moe who did not deserve it Yea these Abbeys did but maintain the poor which they made For some Vagrants accounting the Abbey-almes their own inheritance served an apprentiship and afterwards wrought journey-work to no other trade than begging all whose children were by their fathers copie made free of the same company Yea we may observe that generally such places wherein the great Abbeys were seated some few excepted where cloathing began when their Covent did end swarm most with poor people at this day as if beggary were entailed on them and that lazinesse not as yet got out of their flesh which so long since was bred in their bones 10. All this is confessed The same answered yet by their hospitality many an honest and hungry soul had his bowels refreshed which otherwise would have been starved and better it is two drones should be fed than one bee famished We see the heavens themselves in dispensing their rain often water many stinking bogs and noisome lakes which moisture is not needed by them yea they the worse for it onely because much good ground lies inseparably intermingled with them so that either the bad with the good must be watered or the good with the bad must be parched away 11. Of all Abbeys in England Elie puts all Abbeys down for feasting Elie bare away the bell for bountifull feast-making the vicinity of the fenns affording them plenty of flesh fish and fowle at low rates Hereupon the Poët Praevisis aliis Eliensia festa videre Est quasi praevisa nocte videre diem When other Feasts before have been If those of ELIE last be seen 'T is like to one who hath seen night And then beholds the day so bright But with the leave of the Poëts Hyperbole other Abbeys as Glassenbury S. Albans Reading spurred up close to Elie which though exceeding them in feasts the evidence oft of a miser yet they equalled Elie in the constant tenour of house-keeping The mention of Reading mindes me of a pleasant and true story which to refresh my wearied self and Reader after long pains I here intend to relate 12. King Henry the eighth A pleasant story of K Henry the eighth as He was hunting in Windesor Forrest either casually lost or more probable willfully losing Himself struck down about dinner-time to the Abbey of Reading Where disguising Himself much for delight more for discoverie to see unseen He was invited to the Abbots table and passed for one of the Kings guard a place to which the proportion of His person might properly intitle Him A Sir-loyne of beef was set before Him so Knighted saith tradition by this King Henry on which the King laid on lustily not disgracing one of that place for whom He was mistaken Well fare thy heart quoth the Abbot and here in a cup of sack I remember the health of His Grace your Master I would give an hundred pounds on the condition I could feed so heartily on beef as you doe Alas my weak and squeazie stomack will hardly digest the wing of a small rabbet or chicken The King pleasantly pledged him and heartily thanking him for His good cheer after dinner departed as undiscovered as He came thither 13. Some weeks after He proves a good Physician the Abbot was sent for by a Pursevant brought up to London clapped in the Tower kept close-prisoner fed for a short time with bread and water Yet not so empty his body of food as his minde was filled with fears creating many suspitions to himself when and how he had incurred the King's displeasure At last a sir-loyne of beef was set before him on which the Abbot fed as the Farmer of his Grange and verified the Proverb That two hungry meals makes the third a glutton In springs King Henry out of a private lobbie where He had placed Himself the invisible spectatour of the Abbots behaviour My Lord quoth the King presently deposit your hundred pounds in gold or else no going hence all the daies of your life I have been your Physician to cure you of your squeazie stomack and here as I deserve I demand my fee for the same The Abbot down with his dust and glad he had escaped so returned to Reading as somewhat lighter in purse so much more merrier in heart than when he came thence Presages of the approaching ruine of Abbeys THE wisest and most religious amongst the Romanists Oliban's prophesie of the Friers fall presaged and suspected a
downfall of these Covents some years before it came to passe For when it was in the intention and designe of Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester to have built a Monasterie Hugh Oldham Bishop of Exeter disswaded him affirming That such Covents possessed more already than they would long a Godwin in the Bishop of Winchester enjoy He advised him rather to bestow his bounty on founding some Colledge in the University as which was likely to last longer and certain to doe more good promising also his own utmost assistance in so pious an undertaking This was done accordingly Fox being the first Founder of and Oldham a liberall Benefactour to CORPUS CHRISTI Colledge in Oxford 2. Adde to this Seconded by Abbot Whitgift a Speech of Robert b Sir George Paul in Whitgift's life p. 3. Whitgift Abbot of Wellow nigh Grimsbey in Lincoln shire Uncle to Archbishop Whitgift who was wont to say That they and their religion chiefly in relation to Monasteries could not long continue because said he I have read the whole Scripture over and over and could never finde therein that our religion was founded by God And for proof of his opinion the Abbot would alledge that saying of our Saviour Every planting which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up And that he proved a true Prophet herein the next Book will sufficiently evidence 3. We will conclude with their observation as an ominous presage of Abbies Ominous burning of Abbeys often by lightning ruine that there was scarce a great Abbey in England which once at the least was not burnt down with lightning from heaven 1. The Monastery of Canterbury burnt Anno 1145. And afterward again burnt Anno c Ex Hist Gerâ—afâ—i 1174. 2. The Abbey of Croyland twice d Ex Histor Ingulphi burnt 3. The Abbey of Peterborow twice set on e Ex Chron. Peterb Walteri Weeks Hovedeni Gualteri Coventr Fabiani fire 4. The Abbey of S. Maryes in Yorke burnt 5. The Abbey of Norwich burnt 6. The Abbey of S. Edmonds-bury f Ex Ghron S. Edmond Guil. Malmeâ—b burnt and destroyed 7. The Abbey of Worcester burnt 8. The Abbey of Glocester was also burnt 9. The Abbey of Chichester burnt 10. The Abbey of Glastenbury burnt 11. The Abbey of S. Mary in South-warke burnt 12. The Church of the Abbey of Beverley burnt 13. The Steeple of the Abbey of Evesham burnt I will not with Master Fox inferre from such casualties that God was more offended with Abbeys than other buildings a naturall cause presenting it selfe of such accidents namely because the highest structures whatever they are are the fairest marks for lightning and thunder As if those active Meteors took the usurpation of such aspiring buildings in distaste for entring their territory and for offering without leave to invade the marches of the middle region of the aire And if mountains of Gods own advancing thither and placing there pay dear for their honour and frequently feel the weight of thunder-bolts falling upon them feriunt summos fulmina montes no wonder if artificiall buildings of mens making whatsoever they be Palaces or Castles or Churches or Covents have their ambition often humbled with thunder and lightning which casually melt and consume them 4. Onely we will adde Bells no effectuall charm against lightning that such frequent firing of Abbey-Churches by lightning confuteth the proud Motto commonly written on the Bells in their Steeples wherein each Bell intituled it self to a sixfold efficacie 1. Funera plango Men's deaths I tell By dolefull knell 2. Fulgura Fulmina frango Lightning and thunder I break asunder 3. Sabbata pango On Sabbath all To Church I call 4. Excito lentos The sleepy head I raise from bed 5. Dissipo ventos The winds so fierce I doe disperse 6. Paco cruentos Men's cruell rage I doe asswage Whereas it plainly appears that these Abbey-steeples though quilted with Bells almost cap a pee were not of proof against the sword of God's lightning Yea generally when the heavens in tempests did strike fire the Steeples of Abbeys proved often their tynder whose frequent burning portended their finall destruction which now God willing we come to relate Of the Essaies and Offers to overthrow Abbeys before they took effect GReat buildings commonly crack before they fall Orders of Friers alterable according to the pleasures of their Founders to give the dwellers therein warning to depart so was it here in Abbeys But may we here first premise as an Introduction that it was placed in the power and pleasure of Princes and great persons their Founders to displace exchange particular Orders as sometimes Monks for Nuns and reciprocally Nuns for Monks white for gray Friers and gray for white as their fancie directed them whereof we have plenty of instances But all this made nothing to the losse of Monkery in generall though sexes or colours of Friers were altered the same Bells did hang still in the steeple though rung in changes to content severall people 2. Secondly Particular Covents on misdemeanour dissolvable particular Covents might be wholly dissolved upon their misdemeanour as in Berklie Nunnery Here a young man left out of designe by Earl Godwine dissembled himself to be sick who in short space so acquitted himself amongst the Votaries there that all of them with their Abbesse whose age might have been presumed a protection for her honesty were got with a De honestis onustas de agnis lupus Cambdens Brit in Glocester-shire out of Walterus Maâ—aeus childe upon complaint and proof whereof unto King Edward the Confessour they were all driven out and their Nunnery with large revenues bestowed upon Earl Godwine by the aforesaid King who was then accounted Patron of all Abbeys which now fallen into His hands by this foule lapse He bestowed as a Lay fee upon this new Owner wholly altering the property thereof 3. Thirdly Whole Orders routed out by the Pope for their faults whole religious Orders might by order from the Pope be totally and finally extirpated Here I passe by the Fratres Flagelliferi or scourging Friers religious Bedlams who used publickly to whip themselves in the Market-place making velame of their own skins thereon to write their follies in legible characters I say I omit them afterwards put down by the Pope himself the rather because I finde them not in England or elswhere endowed with considerable revenues I will insist on the Templers whose numerous and wealthy fraternity was for their vitiousness by the Pope in the Councell of Vienna dissolved all over Europe and in England all or most of their land was given to the Knights b See Supplemoâ—t of the Holy Warre chap. 1 2 3. Hospitallers This was a great shaking of all religious Orders the plucking out of these chief threads made a in the whole cloth men conceiving that in processe of time the whole sheafe may be broken as
The miserable ends of the Cardinals instruments herein that these houses were still continued to the generall end of pious uses however it was not fair to alienate them from the primitive intention of the Founders yea God himself seemed not well-pleased therewith I know that g Eccles 9. 1 2. no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them All things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked c. However Gods exemplary hand ought to be heeded in the signall fatality of such as by the Cardinall were employed in this service Five they were in number two whereof challenging the field of each other one was h Godwin his Annals of Hen. the eighâ—h Anno 1525. Yet Mr. Fox maketh the Lord Cromwell the principall person employed by the Cardinall therein slain and the other hanged for it A third throwing himself headlong into a well perished wilfully A fourth formerly wealthy grew so poor that he begged his bread The fifth Dr. Allen one of especiall note afterward Archbishop of Dublin was slain in Ireland What became of the Cardinal himself is notoriously known and as for his two Colledges that in Ipswich the embleme of its Builder soon up soon down presently vanished into private houses whilst the other Christ-Church in Oxford was fain to disclaim its Founder and being adopted the issue of the bounty of the King Henry the eighth at this day owns not him for Father who first gave it life but who afterwards kept it from dying In a word this dissolution of fourty small Houses caused by the Cardinall made all the Forest of religious Foundations in England to shake justly fearing the King would finish to fell the oaks seeing the Cardinal began to cut the underwood Of the first Priory which was solemnly suppressed by King Henry the eighth SOme six years after Christ-Church Priorie neer Allgate first and solely dissolved whilst as yet all other Abbeys flourished in their height and happinesse as safe and secure as ever before King Henry the eighth for reasons best known to Himself singled out the Priory of Christ-Church nigh Allgate in London and dissolved the same This He bestowed as a boon on Thomas a Hall's Chronicle An. 1525. Audley Speaker in the Parliament and indeed it was an excellent receit to clear his voice to make him speak shrill and loud for his Master This shrewdly shook the freehold of all Abbeys seeing now two such great men Wolsey and Audley both in their times Lord-Chancellours of England and therefore presumed well versed in cases of conscience the one a Divine first took the other a Common-Lawyer first received such lands into their possession 2. A word of the antiquity The antiquity wealth and dignity thereof wealth and dignity of this Covent because in each respect it was remarkable It was founded Anno 1108. by Queen b Harpâ—field in his Catalogue of Abbeys Matilda Wife to King Henry the first dedicated to the holy Trinity for Black Canons or Canons-Regular and one Norman by name and nation was first Prior thereof In processe of time it became rich in land and ornaments and passed all the Priories in London or Middlesex especially in this particular that the Prior thereof was alwaies an c Stow's Survey of London p. 145. Alderman of London namely of Portsoken Ward though otherwise their Covent standeth in Ealgate Ward and used to ride amongst the Aldermen in a livery like the rest save that his habit was in the shape of a spiritual person In the year 1264 d Idem ibidem Eustathius the eighth Prior of this Covent because he himself was loth to deale in temporall matters instituted Theobald Fitz-Ivo Alderman in his place They were most bountifull house-keepers relieving all comers and goers and got themselves much reputation for their hospitality 3. Some conjecture this was King Henry's designe in dissolving this Priorie A guesse at King Henry's design thereby to make a discovery in peoples affections how they resented the same He dispatched this Covent first as the forelorn hope is sent out before the body of the Army which if meeting with unsuspected dangers may give timely notice to the rest to advance no farther And if He had found the people much startled thereat He could quickly knock off retrench His resolutions and dexterous to decline envy for Himselfe handsomely cast the same on His instruments employed therein Others think the King as yet had no such project in intention but did it meerly to gratifie Sir Thomas Audley whom He loved the better for hating Cardinal Wolsey now beginning to fall against whom he had bitterly inveighed in the Parliament 4. As for the manner of the dissolving thereof The Priory taken by composition whereas all other Abbeys afterwards were stormed by violence whatsoever is plausibly pretended to the contrary this onely was fairly taken by composition For the Prior thereof was sent for by the King commended for his hospitality promised preferment as a man worthy greater dignity which promise surely He performed though the particulars of the agreement are not to be known Whereupon Anno 1531 the twenty third year of the King's reign in the moneth of July he surrendred the same to the King's use As for the Canons they were sent to other houses of the same Order who now being severally disposed in other Covents they might serve them as Monitours to warn all the rest seasonably to prepare for the time of their dissolution 5. The rooting out of this Priory wrought a middle effect in people The effect thereof upon the people for they were neither dumb nor clamorous thereat but grumbled out their discontentment for a time and then returned to their former temper However at first they were so abstemious that whereas the Priory Church and Steeple was e Idem ut priùs profered to whomsoever would take it down no man would undertake the offer Whereupon Sir Thomas Audley was fain to be at more charges than he could make of the materials the workmen with great labour beginning at the top loosed stone from stone and throwing them down most part of them were broken in the fall and remained uuelesse 6. What might move the King to single this Priory out of all the rest This the antientest of all Priories to lead this sad dance is variously conjectured Indeed this was the antientest of all England of that Order since the Conquest I mean of Canon-Regulars as our f Stow ut priùs Authour telleth us And therefore it was but reasonable the oldest should go first the first-born should be first buried But surely no such consideration moved King Henry to this choice who was not so methodical in His deeds of undoing 7. As for the Lord Audley At this day called the Dukes-Place on whom this Priory was bestowed Margaret his sole Daughter Heir was
not in obedient humylyte have undre the shadowe or color of the saide rule and habite vaynely detestably and also ungodly employed yea rather devowred the yerely revenues yssuing and comyng of the saide possessions in continuall in gurgitations and farcyngs of owr carayne bodyes and of others the supportares of owr voluptuose and carnal appetyte with other vayne and ungodly expensys to the manyfest subvertion of devocion and clennes of lyvyng and to the moost notable slaunder of Christs holy Evangely which in the forme of owr professyon we did ostentate and openly devaunt to kepe moost exactly withdrawyng thereby from the symple and pure myndys of yowr graces subjectes the onely truth and comfort which they oughte to have by the true faith of Christe And also the devyne honor and glory onely due to the glorious Majesty of God Almyghty steryng them with all perswasions ingynes and polyce to dedd Images and counterfett reliques for owr dampnable lucre Which our moost horryble abominacions and execrable persuacions of yowr graces people to detestable errours and our long coveryd Ipocrysie cloked with fayned sanctite We revolving dayly and continually ponderyng in owr sorrowfull harts and thereby perseyving the botomlas gulf of everlasting fyre redy to devowre us if persysting in this state of lyving we shulde depart from this uncertayn and transytory lâ—ffe constrayned by the intollerable anguysh of owr conscience callyd as we trust by the grace of God who wold have no man to perysh in synne with harts moost contrite and repentante prostrate at the noble feet of yowr moost royall Majestye most lamentably doo crave of yowr highnes of yowr abundant mercy to grant unto us moost greevous against God and yowr Highnes your most gracious perdon for owr saide sondry offences omyssyons and negligences comytted as before by us is confessed agaynst yowr Highnes and yowr most noble Progenitors And where yowr Hyghnes being Supreme hedd immediately aftre Christ of his Church in this yowr Roialme of England so consequently generall and onely Reformator of all religious persons there have full authority to correct or dyssolve at yowr Graces pleasure and libertye all Covents and religious companyes abusing the Rewles of their profession And moreover to yowr Highnes being owr soveraygn Lord and undoubted fownder of yowr said Monastery by dissolucion whereof apperteyneth onely the Oryginall title and propre inherytance as well of all other goods moveable and unmoveable to the said Monastery in any wyse apperteyning or belonging to be disposed and imployed as to yowr graces most excellent wysdeme shall seme expedyent and necessary Per me Franciscum Priorem Per me Johannem Sub-Priorem Per me Tho Smyth Per me Tho Golston Per me Rob Martin Per me Jacob Hopkins Per me Ric Bunbery Per me Johannem Pette Per me Jo Harrold Per me Tho Barly Per me Will Ward Per me Tho Atterbury Per me Will Fowler Other Resignations varying in their words met for the maine in the matter and were with all speed presented to the Kings Visitors As School-boyes hope to escape with the fewer stripes for being the first in untying their points those Convents promised to themselves the kindest usage which were forwardest in their Resignations though all on the matter fared alike 4. Yea Betwixt first and last no great difference John de Warboise so called from the place of his nativity in Huntingdon shire where my worthy friend Mr. William Johnson is well beneficed though the a Speed in his description of Huntingdon-shire first with his sixty Benedicti Monks who with solemn subscription renounced the Popes Supremacy and now as officious as any in surrendring his Convent to the Kings Visitors met with no peculiar and extraordinary civility above others of his Ordâ—r 5. Such Resignations seal'd and deliver'd the Visitors called for the Seales themselves which now had survived their own use having passed the last effectual Act and these generally made of silver were by the Kings Officers presently broken in pieces Such material Stamps being now abolished it will be charity to preserve their Impressions and exhibit them to posterity which here we shall endeavour rendring some probable reason how most of them referre to the Founders or scituation or some remarkable action therein The Seale of Armes of the Mitred Abbeys in England IN presenting of them The designe of the work I will not be confined to the strict termes of Blazoury the rather because some of their Armes may be presumed so antient as sitter to give Rules to than take them from our moderne Heraldry And what my pen cannot sufficiently describe therein the Reader may satisfie himselfe by his own eye To which these Cotes are presented in the last sheet of this Volume after the History of Waltham Abbey 1. I will make a method of my own beginning where the Sun ends in the West The Armes of Tavestocke Tavestock in Devon shire gave Varrey Or and Azure on a Chiefe Or two Mulletts Gules 2. Glassenbury gave Vert as I conjecture the Colour a Crosse Bottone Argent Of Glossenbury In the first Quarter the Woman with a Glory holding a Babe radiated about his head in her Armes because forsooth by the direction of the Angel * See the first Cent. Paragr 11. Gabriel their Church was first dedicated to the Virgin Mary 3. Middleton in Gloucester-shire gave Sable Of Middleton three Baskets Argent replenished with Loaves of Bread Gules Had the number of the Baskets been either Seven or Twelve some would interpret therein a reference to the Reversions preserved by Christ his command of the Loaves miraculously multiplied whereas now they denote the Bounty of that Abbey in relieving the poor 4. What Malmesbury in Wiltshire gave I cannot yet attain Of Malmsbury 5. Abingdon gave a Crosse flurt betwixt Martelletts Sable Of Abingdon much alluding to the Armes of our English Kings before the Conquest who it seems were great Benefactors thereunto 6. The Abbey of S. James in Reading Of Reading gave AZure three Scallop Shells Or. Here I know not what secret sympathy there is between S. James and Shells but sure I am that all Pilgrims that visit St. James of Compos-Stella in Spaine the Paramount Shrine of that Saint returned thence obsiti * Erasmâ—â— in his Dialogue called Peregrinatio Religionis eâ—go conchis all beshell'd about on their clothes as a religious Donative there bestowed upon them 7. The Abbey of Hide Of Hide juxta Winton gave Argent a Lyon rampant Sable on a cheiff of the second four Keyes Argent 8. Bataile Abbey in Sussex gave Gules a Crosse betwixt a Crown Or Of Battaile in the first and third Quarter A Sword bladed Argent hilted Or in the second and fourth Quarter thereof Hete the Armes relate to the Name and both Armes and Name to the fierce Fight hard by whereby Duke William gained the English-Crown by Conquest and founded this
Abbey Nor must it be forgotten that a Text X pierced through with a dash is fixed in the navill of the Crosse Now though I have read * Accidence of Armes Letters to be little honourable in Armes this cannot be disgracefull partly because Church-Heraldrie moveth in a sphere by it self partly because this was the Letter of Letters as the received character to signifie Christus 9. S. Augustines in Canterbury gave Sable a Cross-Argent Of S. Augustine 10. Crosse we now the Thames Of Gloucester where Westward we first fall on S. Peters in Gloucester whose Dedication to that Apostle sufficiently rendreth a reason for the Armes thereof viz AZure two Crosse Keyes or two Keyes Saltire Or. 11. Teuxbury gave Gules Of Teuxbury a Cross of an antick form Or a border Argent 12. I will not adventure on the blazoning of the Armes of Winchcombe having much conformity therein with Mortimers Coat but leave the Reader to satisfie his own eyes in the inspection thereof Of Winchcomb 13. I should be thankfull to him who would inform me of the Armes of Cirencester Of Cirencesâ—er which hitherto I cannot procure 14. * S. Maryes in Coventry had no Armes in their Seale as my good friend Mr. Dugdale informed me St. Albans gave Azure a Cross Saltire Or. Of S. Albanâ— 15. westminster-Westminster-Abbey gave Azure a Cross flurt betwixt five Marteletts Or and this I humbly conceive were antiently the entire Armes of that Abbey being in effect the same with those of King Edward the Confessour the first Founder thereof But afterwards their Conventuall Seale was augmented with the Armes of France and England on a Chiefe Or betwixt two Roses Gules plainly relating to King Henry the seventh enlarging their Church with his Chappell 16. The Prior of St. John of Jerusalem gave Gules a Cross Argent Of S. Johns of Jerusalem which the Lord Priot sometimes a Thus Sir Tho. Tressam impayled with but before his own Coate and b Thus Sir Tho. Dockwray sometimes bare it in a Chiefe about it 17. The Armes of Waltham Abbey in Essex appear at this day neither in glass wood Of Waltham nor stone in or about the Town or Church thereof At last we have recovered them Unus home nobis out of a faire Deed of Robert Fullers the last Abbot though not certain of the mettall and colours viz Gules as I conjecture two Angels can they be lesse than Or with their hands such we finde of them in c Mat. 4. 6. Scripture holding betwixt them a Cross Argent brought hither faith our d Gamd. Brit in Essex Antiquary by miracle out of the West whence Waltham hath the addition of Holy Cross 18. The Arms of S. Johns in Colchester Of Colchester I leave to the eye of the Reader 19. Burie gave Azure three Crowns Or Of Bury The Armes of the Kings of the East-Angles assumed in the memory of King Edmund to whom this Abbey was dedicated martyred by the Danes when his Crown of Gold thorough a Crown of Thorns or Arrows rather was turned into a Crown of Glory 20. St. Benet's in the Holme Of S. Benets in Norfolke gave Sable a Pastorall Staffe Argent picked below and reflexed above intimating the Abbots Episcopal Jurisdiction in his own precincts betwixt two Crowns-Or pointing at England and Norway the two Kingdomes of Canutus the Founder thereof The aforesaid Staffe was infulated that is adorned with an holy Lace or Label carelesly hanging down or cast a crosse such with which their Mitres used formerly to be fastned 21. Thorney-Abbey in Cambridge shire gave Azure three Crosses crossed fitchee Of Thorny betwixt three Pastoral Staves Or. 22. Ramsey in Huntingdon-shire gave Or three Rams Heads couped Argent Of Ramsey 〈◊〉 Bend Azure The rest of the Rams must be supposed in the blue Sea the Fennes appearing such when overflown Besides such changes were common here whereof Melibaeus complaineth in the Marishes * Virgil. Eâ— log 9. of Mantua Non bene ripae Creditur ipse Aries etiam nunc vellera siccat There is no trusting to the foundring bank The Ramme still dries his fleece so lately dank But since the draining of the Fennes hath I hope secured their Cattell from casualties 23. The very name of Peterborough unlocks the reason why that Abbey gave Gules Of Peterborough two crosse Keyes betwixt four Crosses crossed fitchee Or. 24. Crowland Abbey gave quarterly three call them long Knives Of Crowland or short Swords bladed Argent hasted or pomelled or Azure three Whips stringed and knotted Or the second like the third the fourth like the first Instruments of cruelty relating to their Monks massacred by the Danes Anno 870. Ingulphus pag. 866. whereof their Historian gives us this account That first they were examinati tortured see there the Whips and then exanimati killed see there the Swords But if any will have those Whips to relate to the Whip of S. Bartholomew the most remarkable Relique of that Monastery I will not appose 25. The Armes of Evesham Abbey in Worcester-shire Of Evesham I cannot recover but possibly may before the conclusion of this Work 26. Shrewsbury gave Azure Of Shrewsbury a Lyon Rampant over a Pastorall-staffe Bendwayes so that both the ends thereof are plainly discovered 27. Crosse we now North of Trent Of Selby where onely two remain Selby founded by William the Conquerour which gave Sable three Swans Argent membred Or alluding as I believe to the depressed scituation of the place where the neighbouring River of Ouse affordeth such Birds in abundance 28. St. Maryes in Yorke gave Argent a Crosse Of Yorke Gules and a Key in the first Quarter of the same In the midst of the Crosse a King in a circle in his Robes of state with his Scepter and Mound Yet hath he onely a ducall Cap and no Crown on his head I humbly conceive under favour of better judgments this King-Dukes picture to relate partly to King VVilliam Rufus partly to Alan Duke of Britain and Richmond the principall Co-Founders of that Monastery The Lord Darcy his Extraction justly vindicated AMongst the principal persons who suffred for their zeale in defending of Abbeys was the lately mentioned Thomas Lord a vide supra pag. 313. parag 5. Darcy A causlesse aspersion grounded on passion whose extraction I finde foully aspersed by the pen of that passionate Prince K. Henry the eighth for when the Rebels boasted of the many Noblemen who sided with them in confutation thereof King Henry returned a Letter to them interlined with His own hand wherein this passage b Speeds Châ—â— in his 1 â—dit pag. 776. Others as the Lord Marney and Darcy are but mean scarce well-born Gentlemen and yet of no great Lands till they were promoted by Us and so made Knights It cannot be denied but that K. Henry too much consulted
Orders have spauned much since our late Civil Warres Protestant confusions multiplying Popish foundations 2. Yet I cannot believe what * Mr. Prin. one reports of two Covents in London Two Covents reported in London set up about the year 1640. One at the Lord Gages neer Queens-street the other at Westminster For finding no person who is properly tearmed the Lord Gage I suspect all the rest And though I confesse Catholicks then arrived at such boldnesse as rather to dare than dread any discovery yet it seemeth improbable any should abide there save onely to wait conveniencie of transportation And so much for English Covents beyond the Seas which discourse let none censure as alien and not pertaining to the History of England For I would willingly be condemned for a needlesse excursion on the condition that they belonged not at all unto us who daily fetch over too much money hence and doe mutually bring back too much mischief hither To whom the Sites of Mitred Abbeys were granted and by whom they are possessed at this day IT were a work almost impossible for our pen to pursue the Lands of each Religious house from the time that they parted from the Crown to the present Owners thereof A possible designe preferred impossible declined Yea such a task when ended were endlesse of no other use than the satisfaction of curiosity As therefore the best Anatomists cannot hunt out the deviations of every petty vein embracing severall courses in sundry bodies but abundantly acquit their skill and industry if truly discovering the trunkveins observing the same chanels in all people Kephalicall Basilicall c. So we conceive our duty discharged to any rationall expectation if instancing onely out of the Originall Records in the Sites of the Mitred Abbeys marking their fluctuation since passed from the Crown into the possession of severall subjects 2. Here I intended to present the Reader with the particulars of all those Owners through whose hands these Mitred Abbeys have passed from those to whom King Henry granted them to those who at this day are possessed thereof A thing with very much difficulty such the frequencies of the exchange collectible out of the severall fines payd at their alienation but having tyred out mine own modesty though not my good friend Mr. John Witt 's officious industry in being beholden to him above my possibility of requitall for perusing so many Records I desisted from so difficult a design Abbey Granted by Unto In consideration Tenure and rent After alien'd to Present owner Tavestock in Devon K. a 1 parte rotulo 29. formerly Osboâ—ns Remembrancers Office Henry the 8 in the 31 of his Reign July 4. Iohn Lord Russel Anne his Wife and their Heires c. of his faithfull service and counsell in Capite by Knights service of cum aliis one Knights see paying 36 li. none but still possessed by their Heirs William Russell Earle of Bedford Middleton in Dorsetshire K. b 1 par rot 95. Henry the 8 in the 31 of his Reign 23 of Febr. Iohn Tregonwell Kn t Doctor of Law of a PensioÌ„ of 40 l. per ann surrendred 1000 l. paid down his good service in Capite by Knights service of the tenth part of a Knights fee paying 12 l. 4s none but still possessed by his Heirs Iohn Tregonwell Esquire Malmesbury in Wilt-sh K. c 7 par râ—t 147. Henry the 8 in the 31 of his Reign William Stampe Gentleman of the payment of 1516 l. 15s 2d ob in Capite by the tenth part of a Knights fee paying 8l 8s ob  Thomas Ioy Esquire Ramsey in Huntingtonshire K. d 2 par rot 293. Henry the 8 in the 31 of his Reign 4 of March. Richard Williams alià s Cromwell Esq of his good service and the payment of 4663l 4s 2d in Capite by the tenth part of a Knights fee paying 29l 16s none possessed by his Heir Sir Oliver Cromwell the most aged Gent. and Knight in England Selby in Yorkshire K. e 1 part rot 140. Henry the 8 in the 32 of his Reign 28 of August Ralph Sadleir of Hackney Knight of 736l paid in Capite by the tenth part of a Knights fee paying 3l 10s 8d  Charles Walmesley Esquire Teuxburie in Glocester shire K. f 2 part rot 26. Henry the 8 in the 36 of his Reign Tho Stroud Wal Earle and Iam Paget of 2283 li. 19s 3d. in capite by the 20th part of a Knights fee paying 1l 18s 0 3 4   Hyde juxta Winton K. g 7 part rot 44 Henry the 8 in the 37 of his Reign 11 of Janu. Rich Bethel Gent. after a Lease of the Lord Wriothesly was expired of 110 li. 17 s. 1d in free Soccage of the King's Manour of Rumsey paying 6l 13s 4d to the Vic. of St. Barthol Wint   S. Johns juxta Colchester K. h 4 part rot 13. Edward the sixt in the first of his Reign June 22. Iohn Dudley Earle of Warwick of his service in Scotland and France whereby he had much impair'd his own estate in Capite cum aliis by service of one Knights fee paying 16s 11. d. ob  Sir Iohn Lucas L d Lucas Cirencester in Glocester shire K. i 1 part rot Edward the sixt in the first of his Reign 19 of August Thomas Lord Seymer high Admiral of his service and kindred being the Kings Uncle in Capite with land in 15 Shires by the service of one Knights fee paying 1l 1s 8d  Sir William Masters Bardney in Lincoln-shire K. k 3 part rot 95. Edw 6. in the second of his Reign Thomas Heneage Katherine his Wife and their Heirs of an exchange for the Manour of overton in Knights service  Francis Lord Willoughby of Parham Glaston in Somerset K. l 3 part rot 17. and againe 4 pars rot 77. Edward the sixt in the 4 th year of his Reign 4 of June Ed Seymer Duke of Somerset of his Petition and the advise of the Counsel to support his dignity in Capite by the 40 th part of a Knights fee sine reditu   Reading in Berkshire K. m Ibidem Edw. the sixt in the 4 th year of his Reign 4 of June Ed Seymer Duke of Somerset of his Petition and the advise of the Counsel to support his dignity in Capite by the 40 th part of a Knights fee sine reditu  Francis Knolles Esquire Crowland in Lincolnshire K. Edward the sixt in the 4 th year of his Reign Decemb. 1. Edw. Fines Knight L d. Clinton and Say high Admiral of England of the exchange of other lands with the Crown to be held in Soccage as of the Kings Manour of Louth by fealty only  till lately in the Crown Winchcomb in Glocestershire K. Edward the sixt in the fift year of his Reign June 24. William Par Marquesse of Northhampton of his faithfulness and valour against the Rebels in Northfolk in
carie this style in their superscription To the Students at Zurich But behold their names Robert Horne Richard Chambers Thomas Leaver Nicolas Karvile John Mullings Thomas Spenser Thomas Bentham William Cole John Parkhurst Roger Kelke Robert Beamont Laurence Humsrey Henry Cockraft John Pretio 6. Frankford on the Meine Where they found the State very favourable unto them And this was the most visible and conspicuous English Church beyond the seas consisting of c Tr. of Fr. pag. 20. 25. Iohn Bale Edmond Sutton Iohn Makebraie William Whittingham Thomas Cole William Williams George Chidley William Hammon Thomas Steward Thomas Wood. Iohn Stanton William Walton Iasper Swyft Iohn Geofric Iohn Graie Mighell Gill. Iohn Samford Iohn wood Thomas Sorby Anthonie Cariar Hugh Alford George Whetnall Thomas Whetnall Edward Sutton Iohn Fox Laurence Kent William Kethe Iohn Hollingham Here we omit their petty Sanctuaries having like d 1 Sam. 30. 31 David places where himself and his men were wont to haunt Deesburgh VVormes c. Where their stragling numbers amounted not to the constitution of a Church If these Congregations be compared together Emden will be found the richest for substance there the Merchants which bear the bagg VVeasel the shortest for continuance Arrow the slenderest for number Strasburgh of the most quiet temper Zurich had the greatest scholars and Frankford had the largest priviledges Nor let any wonder if some in these Catalogues assigned to one colonie were afterwards found in another seeing the Apostles e Heb. 13. 14. expression VVe have here no biding City hath in it a single truth in time of peace and at least a double one in time of persecution men slitting from place to place as they were advised by their own security Know also that besides these the first founders of these severall Congregations many additional persons coming afterwards out of England joyned themselves thereunto 42. Come we now to set down the sad troubles of Frankford A brief introduction to the troubles of Frankford rending these banished exiles asunder into severall factions This I dare say if the Reader takes no more delight in perusing than I in penning so dolefull a subject he will shew little mirth in his face and feel less joy in his heart However we will be somewhat large and wholy impartial in relating this sorrowfull accident the rather because the penn-knives of that age are grown into swords in ours and their writings laid the foundations of the fightings now adayes 43. The English exiles came first to Frankford Iune the 24 th A Church at Faankford first granted to the English and on the 14 th of Iuly following by the speciall favour and mediation of M r. Iohn Glauberg one of the chief Senatours of that State had a Church granted unto them yet so as they were to hold the same in Coparcenie with the French-Protestants they one day and the English another and on Sunday alternately to chuse their hours as they could best agree amongst themselves The Church was also granted them with this proviso a Tr. of Fr. pag. 6. That they should not dissent from the French in doctrine or ceremonie lest thereby they should minister occasion of offence On the 29 th of the same moneth our English with great joy entred their new Church and had two Sermons preached therein to their singular comfort About which time they constituted their Church choosing a Minister and Deacons for a time and out of conformity to the French abrogated many things formerly used by them in the Church of England as namely 1. They concluded that the answering aloud after the Minister should not be used 2. The Letanie Surplice and other ceremonies in Service and Sacraments they omitted both as superstuous and superstitious 3. In place of the English Confession they used another adjudged by them of more effect and framed according to the b Tr. of Fr. pag. 7. State and Time 4. The same ended the people sung a Psalme in meeter in a plain tune 5. That done the Minister prayed for assistance of Gods Spirit and so proceeded to the Sermon 6. After Sermon a generall prayer for all States and particularly for England was devised which was ended with the Lords prayer 7. Then followed a rehearsall of the Articles of Belief which ended the people sung another psalme as before 8. Lastly the Minister pronounced the blessing The peace of God c. or the like and so the people departed What is meant by framing their Confession according to the State and Time I understand not must our confessions as our clothes follow the fashions of the State and place we live in except it be this that it was made more particularly not only for sinners but for exiles acknowledging their present banishment justly inflicted on them for their offences The prayer devised after Sermon according to the genuine sense of the word seems no extemporary prayer then conceived by the Minister but a set forme formerly agreed upon by the Congregation Thus have we a true account of their Service conceive it onely of such things wherein they differed from the English Liturgy not of such particulars wherein they concurr'd therewith the cause as I conceive why no mention of reading of psalms and chapters in their Congregation These certainly were not omitted and probably were inserted betwixt the Confession and singing the first psalme 44. Thus setled in their Church Other English Congregations invited to Frankford their next care was to write letters Dated August the first to all the English Congregations at Strasburgh Zurich Weasel Emden c. to invite them with all convenient speed to come and joyne with them at Frankford This is the Communion of Saints who never account themselves peacably possessed of any happiness untill if it be in their power they have also made their fellow-sufferers partakers thereof However this their invitation found not any great entertainment amongst the other English Church-Colonies all delaying and some denying to come but especially those of Zurich were most refractory and shewed least inclination to repair to Frankford 45. This occasioned severall reiterated letters from Frankford Those of Zurich quickned by importunity pressing and requiring those of Zurich deeply to weigh this matter of Gods calling and the necessity of uniting themselves in one Congregation Let none say that Frankford might as well come to Zurich as Zurich to Frankford because the English-Zurichians though not in number in learning and quality equalled if not exceeded those of Frankford For Frankford was neerer to England and more convenient for receiving intelligence thence and returning it thither Besides all Christendome met at Frankford twice a yeer the vernal and autumnal mart and grant there was more learning at Zurich there were moe books at Frankford with conveniences to advance their studies But chiefly at Frankford the Congregation enjoyed most ample priviledges and it was conceived it would much conduce to the
certainly cause suspition slalnder c. 14. The concealing argueth either some guiltiness or at the least some faintness and fear to be seen or known in these Actions 15. It leaveth the truth which now travaileth poor naked destitute and void of friends it casteth the care credit countenance defence and maintenance of it upon those few which are in prison which ought to be supported and maintained by all 16. It leaveth the burden upon eight or nine mens shoulders which ought to be eased by many What satisfaction this gave to his party I know not sure I am the Bishops till his dying day beheld him as an ingenuous man carrying his conscience with the reason thereof in his own brest and not pinning it on the president of any other whereupon they permitted him peaceably to possess his parsonage being none of the meanest though he continued a stiffe Non conformist only quietly enjoying his own opinion Indeed he was a down-right Nathanael if not guilty of too much of the dove in him faulty in that defect wherein more offend in the excess not minding the world so much as became a provident parent But we leave him when we have told the Reader that he was bred a Student in Christ-Church and was a Brian Twine in Appendice Ant. Ac. Oxon. Proctor of Oxford Anno 1580 and died quietly an old man Anno 1617 at Warkton in Northampton-shire 41. Synodicall meetings finally blasted Thus one link being slipp'd out the whole chain was quickly broken and scattered Stone his discovery marr'd for the future all their formal meetings as Classically or Synodically methodized If any of these Ministers hereafter came together it was for visits not visitations to enjoy themselves not enjoyn others orders to be observed by them 42. Perkin's piety 〈…〉 Whereas M r Stone confesseth their meeting in Cambridge with M r Chatterton and others I finde some of these others a Dr Banerâ—st in his book of dangerous positions chap. 7. p. 59. elsewhere specified namely M r Perkins and M r Thomas Harrison afterwards the reverend Vice-Master of Trinity-Colledge both of them concurring though neither of them very active in this cause M r Perkins whatsoever his judgement was in point of Church-discipline never publickly medled with it in his preaching and being pressed by others about the lawfullness of subscription he declined to manifest his opinion therein glad to enjoy his own quiet and to leave others to the liberty of their own consciences Solomons observation found truth in him b Prov. 16. 7â— When a mans wayes please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him whose piety procured freedom to his preaching and fair respect to his person even from those who in affections differed and in opinion dissented from him for all held Perkins for a Prophet I mean for a painfull and faithfull dispenser of Gods will in his word 43. Transition to a more pleasant subject But I am weary of writing these sad dissentions in our Church and fain would pass over to some more pleasing subject from the renting of Gods Church to the repairing of it from the confounding thereof to the founding and building of some eminent place for learning and religion But finding none of that nature this very year in England I am fain to seek one beyond the seas and at last have lighted on the University and Colledge of Dublin which now began to be erected 44. The foundation of an University in Dublin Anciently Ireland was the Seminary of Saints people from all parts of Christendome repairing thither there to finde and thence to fetch the perfect pattern of Monastical devotion Many hundred years after namely in the Reign of King Edward the Second Alexander Bickner Arch-Bishop of Dâ—blin obtained licence of the Pope to erect an University in Dublin but the designe succeeded not according to his desire and others expectation Now at the last the same was effected by Royall Authority and a Colledge there erected and dedicated to the Holy Trinity This mindeth me of a pleasant passage In the Reign of King Henry the eighth it was enjoyned that all Churches dedicated to S t Thomas Becket should be new named and consigned over to some real Saint Now whilest country people sate in consultation what new Saint such Churches should assume being divided in their opinions to whom the same should be dedicated an old man gave this advice Even dedicate it to the Holy Trinity which will last and continue when all other Saints may chance to be taken away 45. The severall Benefactors thereto Many eminent persons concurred to advance so worthy a work And because we are to speak of a Colledge wherein seniority takes place we will rank these persons not according to their dignity but time of their benefaction 1. Henry Vsher then Arch-Deacon of Dublin bred in Cambridge afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh and uncle to James Vsher the present Arch-Bishop thereof took a journey with much danger into England and with more difficulty procured the Mort-main from 2. Queen Elizabeth who graciously granted it naming the Corporation Collegium Sanctae ac Individuae Trinitatis ex fundatione Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin 3. William Cicill Baron of Burleigh Anno Dom. 1591. and treasurer of England is appointed in the Mort-main first Chancellour of the University Anno Regin Eliza. 34. as being an active instrument to procure the same 4. S r William Fitz-Williams Lord Deputy of Ireland whose Arms are deservedly graven over the Colledge gate issued out his letters for collection to all the Counties in Ireland to advance so good a designe and the Irish though then generally Papists were very bountifull thereunto 5. M r Luke Chaloner Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge received and disbursed the monies had the oversight of the fabrick which he faithfully procured to be finished meriting that verse inscribed on his fair monument in Dublin Colledge Chappel built by his * Since married to the Arch-Bishop of Armagh daughter Conditur hoc Tumulo Chaloneri triste Cadaver Cujus ope precibus conditur ista domus This Tomb within it here contains Of Chalnor the sad Remains By whose prayer and helping hand This House erected here doth stand 6. The Major and Aldermen of Dublin bestowed on the Colledge the sight thereof with some accommodations of considerable grounds about it being formerly a Religious house termed Allhallows which at the suppression of Abbies was bestowed on their Corporation 7. Adam Loftus Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge at this present Arch-Bishop of Dublin and Chancellour of Ireland was the first Master of the Colledge holding it as an honorarie title though not so much to receive credit by as to return lustre to the place 8. S r Warham Saint-Leger was very bountifull in paying yearly pensions for the maintenance of the first students thereof before the Colledge was endowed with standing revenues
and writing I am almost pined away otherwise his fat cheeks did confute his false tongue in that expression 7. Amongst other of his ill qualities The jeerer jeered he delighted in jeering and would spare none who came in his way One of his sarcasmes he unhappily bestowed on Count Gondomar the Spanish Ambassador telling him That three turns at Tiburne was the onely way to cure his Fistula The Don highly offended hereat pained for the present more with this flout than his fistula meditates revenge and repairs to King JAMES He told His MAJESTY that His charity an errour common in good Princes abused His judgment in conceiving Spalato a true convert who still in heart remained a Roman Catholick Indeed His Majesty had a rare felicity in discovering the falsity of Witches and forgery of such who pretended themselves possessed but under favour was deluded with this mans false spirit and by His Majesties leave he would detect unto Him this his hypocrisie The KING cheerfully embraced his motion and left him to the liberty of his own undertakings 8. The Ambassadour writeth to His Catholick Majesty Spalato his hypocrisie discovered He to his Holinesse Ann. Dom. 1622. Ann. Regis Ja. 20 Gregory the fifteenth that Spalato might be pardoned and preferred in the Church of Rome which was easily obtained Letters are sent from Rome to Count Gondamar written by the Cardinal Millin to impart them to Spalato informing him that the POPE had forgiven and forgotten all which he had done or written against the Catholick Religion and upon his return would preferre him to the Bishoprick of Salerno in Naples worth twelve thousand crowns by the year A Cardinals Hat also should be bestowed upon him And if Spalato with his hand subscribed to this Letter would renounce and disclaim what formerly he had printed an Apostolical Breve with pardon should solemnly be sent him to Bruxels Spalato embraceth the motion likes the pardon well the preferment better accepts both recants his opinions largely subscribes solemnly and thanks his Holinesse affectionately for his favour Gondamar carries his subscription to King JAMES who is glad to behold the Hypocrite unmasked appearing in his own colours yet the discovery was concealed and lay dormant some daies in the deck which was in due time to be awakened 9. Now it happened a false rumour was spread He is incensed â—â—th a repulse that Tobâ—e Matthew Archbishop of Yorke who died yearly in report was certainly deceased Presently posts Spalato to Theobalds becomes an importunate Petitioner to the KING for the vacant Archbishoprick and is as flatly denied the KING conceiving He had given enough already to him if gratefull too much if ungratefull Besides the KING would never bestow an Episcopal charge in England on a forraigner no not on His own Countrey-men some Scotish-men being preferred to Deanries none to Bishopricks Spalato offended at this repulse for he had rather had Yorke than Salerno as equal in wealth higher in dignity neerer in place requests His MAJESTY by his Letter to grant His good leave to depart the Kingdome and to return into Italy Pope Paul his fierce foe being now dead and Gregory the fifteenth his fast friend now seated in the Chair The Copie of whose Letter we have here inserted To the high and mighty Prince JAMES by the Grace of God King of Great Britaine c. Defender of the Faith c. M. Anthonie de Dominis Archbishop of Spalato wisheth all happinesse THose two Popes which were most displeased at my leaving of Italy and coming into England Paulus Quintus and he which now liveth Gregory the Fifteenth have both laboured to call me back from hence and used divers Messages for that purpose to which notwithstanding I gave no heed But now of late when this same Pope being certified of my Zeal in advancing and furthering the union of all Christian Churches did hereupon take new care and endevour to invite me again unto him and signified withall that he did seek nothing therein but Gods glory and to use my poor help also to work the inward peace and tranquillity of this Your Majesties Kingdome Mine own conscience told me that it behoved me to give ready eare unto his Holiness Besides all this the diseases and inconveniences of old age growing upon me and the sharpness of the cold aire of this Countrey and the great want I feel here amongst strangers of some friends and kinsfolks which might take more dâ—ligent and exact care of me make my longer stay in this Climate very offensive to my body Having therefore made an end of my Works and enjoyed Your Majesties goodness in bestowing on me all things needfull and fit for me and in heaping so many and so Royal benefits upon me I can doe no lesse than promise perpetual memory and thankfulness and tender to You my continuance in Your Majesties service wheresoever I goe and will become in all places a reporter and extoller of Your Majesties praises Ann. Reg. Ja. 19 Now if my business proceed Ann. Dom. 1621 and be brought to a good end I well hope that I shall obtain Your Majesties good leave to depart without the least diminution of Your Majesties wonted favour towards me I hear of Your Majesties late great danger and congratulate with Your Majesty for Your singular deliverance from it by Gods great goodness who hath preserved You safe from it as one most dear unto him for the great good of his Church I hope Jan. 16. From the Savoy Jan. the 16. 1621. Farewell the glory and ornament of Princes Your Majesties ever most devoted Servant Ant. de Dominis Archbishop of Spalato To this Letter no present Answer was returned 21. but five daies after the Bishops of London and Duresme with the Dean of Westminster by His MAJESTIES direction repaired to this Archbishop propounding unto him Sixteen Quaeres all arising out of his former Letter 31. and requiring him to give the explanation of five most material under his hand for His MAJESTIES greater satisfaction which he did accordingly yet not so clearly but that it occasioned a second meeting wherein more interrogatories were by command propounded unto him which with his Answers thereunto because publickly printed are purposely omitted and notwithstanding all obstructions Spalato still continued his importunity to depart 10. He pretended many Reasons for his return Reasons pleaded for his return First Longing after his own Countrey Who so iron-hearted as not to be drawn home with the load-stone of his native Land Secondly To see his Friends Kinred Nephews but especially his beloved Neice a story hangs thereon and it is strange what was but whispered in Italy was heard over so plain into England In the Hebrew Tongue Nephews and Nieces are called Sons and Daughters but the Italian Clergie on the contrary often term their Sons and Daughters Nephews and Nieces Thirdly The late-pretended-discovery of many errors in our English Church how
brought out of the Tower to the Scaffold which he ascended with a chearfull countenance as rather to gain a Crown then lose an Head imputed by his friends to the clearedness by his foes to the seardeness of his Conscience The Beholders that day were so divided betwixt Bemoaners and Insulters it was hard to decide which of them made up the major part of the company 69. He made a Sermon-Speech Anno Dom. 1645. taking for his Text the two first verses of the â—â— Chap. of the Epistle to the Hebrews Let us run with patience the raâ—e which is â—et before us Looking unto Jesus the Author and finisher of our saith And pâ—acheth hâ—owâ— saneral sermon who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throâ—e of God Anno Regis Carol. 21. Craving leave to make use of his notes for the infirmity of his aged memory he dilated thereon about half an hour which discourse because common as publickly printed we hear forbear to insert For the main He protested his own innocence and integrity as never intending any subversion of Laws and Liberty no enemy to Parliaments though a mistaker of some miscarriages and a Protestant in Doctrine and Discipline according to the established laws of the land Speech ended He betook himself a while to his prayers and after wards prepared himself for the fatal stroak 70. S r John Clotworthy a member of the House of Commons being present interrogated him concerning his assurance of Salvation Questioned about the assurance of his salvation and dieth and whereon the same was grounded Some censured this interruption for uncivill and unseasonable as intended to râ—ffle his soul with passion just as he was fairly folding it up to deliver it into the hands of his Redeemer But the Arch-Bishop calmly returned that his assurance was evidenced unto him by that inward comfort which he found in his own soul Then lying down on the block and praying Lord receive my Soul the Executioner dexterously did his office and at one blow severed his Head from his Body Instantly his face ruddy in the last moment turned white as ashes confuting their falsehoods who gave it out that he had purposely painted it to fortifie his cheeks against discovery of fear in the paleness of his complexion His corps were privately interred in the Church of Alhalâ—ows Barking without any solemnity save that some will say He had in those dayes a fair Funeral who had the Common-Prayer read thereat 71. He was born Anno 1573 of honest parents at Reading in Bark-shire His birth in Reading breeding in Oxford a place for the position thereof almost equally distanced from Oxford the Scâ—â— of his breeding and London the principal stage of his preserment His Mother was Sister to S r William Web born also at Reading Salter and Anno 1591 Lord Majon of London Here the Arch-Bishop afterwards built an Almshouse and endowed it with two hundred pounds per annum as appeareth by his own Diaâ—y which if evidence against him for his faults may be used as a witness of his good works Hence was he sent to S t Johns Colledge in Oxford where he attained to such eminency of learning that * * Dr Heylin in his last â—dition of his Microcolm one since hath ranked him amongst the greatest Scholers of our Nation He afterwards married Charls Blunt Earl of Devon-shire to the Lady Rich which proved if intended an advantage under his feet to make him higher in the notice of the world a covering to his face and was often cast a rubb in his way when running in his full speed to preferment till after some difficulty his greatnesse at the last made a shift to stride over it 72. In some sort He may be said to have served in all offices in the Church He chargeth thorough all Church preserments from a Common-Souldier to a kinde of General therein There was neither Order Office Degree nor Dignity in Colledge Church or Vniversity but he passed thorough it 1. Order Deacon Priest Bishop Arch-Bishop 2. Office Scholer Fellow President of S t Johns Colledge Proctor and Chancellor of Oxford 3. Degree Batchelor and Master of Arts Batchelor and Doctor of Divinity 4. Dignity Vicar Prebendary of Stanford Parson of Ibstock Prebendary of Wesiminster Arch-Deacon of Huntington Dean of Colchester Bishop of S t Davids in Wales Bath and Wells and London in England and finally Arch-Bishop of Canterbury It was said of D r George Ablot his Predecessor that he suddenly started to be a bishop without ever having Pastoral charge whereas this man was a great Traveller in all Cliâ—â—aâ—es of Church-prefermen sufficient to acquaint him with an experiment knowledge of the conditions of all such persons who at last were subjected to his Authority 73. He is generally charged with Popish inclinations Charged unjustly to be a Papist and the story is commonly told and beleeved of a Lady still alive who turning Papist and being demanded of the Arch-Bishop the cause of her changing her religion tartly returned My Lord it was because I ever hated a â—oud And being desired to explain her meaning herein I perceived said she that your Lordship and many others are making for Rome as fast as â—eâ—â— and therfore to prevent a press I went before you Be the tale true or false take Papist for a Trent-Papist embracing all the derisions of that councel and surely this Arch-Bishop would have been made Fewel for the â—ire before ever or that perswasion Witness his book against Fisher wherein he giveth no less account of his sincerity then ability to defend the most dominative points wherein we and the Papists dissent 74. However most apparent it is by severall passages in his life Yet endeavouring a recoâ—ciliation betwixt Rome and England that he endeavoured to take up many controversies bewixt us and the Church of Rome so to compremise the difference and to bring us to a Viâ—nity if not Contiguity therewith an impossible designe if granted lawfully as some every way his equals did adjudge For composition is impossible with such who will not agree except all they sue for and all the charges of their suite be to the utmost farthing awarded unto them Our reconciliation with Rome is clogged with the same impossibilities She may be gone to but will never be met with such her â—ride or as Peevishness not to stir a step to obviate any of a different Religion Rome will never so farr un-Pope it self as to part with her pretended Supremacy and Infallibility which cuts off all possbility of Protestants Treaty with her if possibly without prejudice to Gods glory and the truth other controversies might be composed Which done England would have been an Island as well in Religion as Scituation cut off from the continent of Forâ—aign Protestant Churches in a singular posture by it self hard to be
ut accepi tu olim Litteris incubuisti ABout this time Henrici 6. 15 for I cannot attain the certain year some considerable persons of our Nation undertook the draining of the Fennes near to Cambridge 1436 They wanted not Dutchmen out of the Low-Countries to assist them Cambridge Fennes endeavoured to be drained where each Peasant is born a Pioneer and vast summes were expended in making of Ditches and Banks impregnable as conceived against all assaults of Inundation 2. But in the next being a wet All in vain Windy Winter down comes the Baliffe of Bedford so the Country-people commonly call the overflowing of the River Ouse attended like a person of his quality with many servants the accession of tributary Brooks and breaks down all their paper-banks as not water-shot-free reducing all to the former condition 3. This Accident put the VVits of that Arguments pro and on Pen-draâ—ning and succeeding Ages upon the dispute of the feacibility of the design and let us summe up the Arguments against and for this undertaking 1. Argument 1. Answer Some objected that God saith to the water a Iob 38. 11. hitherto thou shall come and no further it is therefore a Trespasse on the Divine Prerogative for Man to presume to give other Bounds to the Water then what God hath appointed Even the heathen b Pausanias in Corinth man was so Christian as to say Rebus divinitus constitutis manus non est injicienda The Argument holdeth in application to the Ocean which is a VVild-Horse only to the broak back'd and bridled by him who is the Maker thereof But it is a false and a lazy principle if applied to Fresh-Waters from which humane Industrie may and hath rescued many considerable parcels of ground 2. Argument 2. Answer Many have attempted but not effected it None ever wrastled with it but it gave them a foyl if not a fall to the bruising if not breaking of their Backs Many have burnt their fingers in these waters and instead of draining the â—ennes emptied their own estates It hath bin almost as unsucces full as the letting of the Red into the Midland-Sea to the Kings of Egypt who endeavoured it Many mens undertaking thereof insinuates the possibility of the project Otherwise it is unlikely so many discreet persons would befool themselves in seeking what is not to be found The failing is not in the unfeacibility of the Design but in the accidentall defaults of the Vndertakers wanting either Heads discretion or hearts resolution or hands assistants or purses performance of pay to people imployed therein 3. Argument 3. Answer Morton Bishop of Ely one of the wealthiest who ever sate in that See almost wasted his estate by cutting a water-passage known by the name of the New Leam welnigh beggered himself in hope to enrich his Town of VVisbich with trading thereby It is confessed a Burden too heavy for the back of any single person how great soever And therefore it calls for a Corporation of Wise and wealthy persons to undertake the same 4. Argument 4. Answer An Alderman of Cambridge choser a Burgesse in Parliament affirmed the Fennes to be like a crust of bread swimming in a dish of water So that under eight or ten soot earth it is nothing but mere water In possible therefore the draining thereof if surrounded by that liquid element both above and beneath Interest betrayed his judgement to an evident errour And his brains seemed rather to swim instead of this fâ—oting â—arth For such as have scunded as I may say the depth of that ground find it to be terrafirma and no doubt as solid to the Center as any other earth in England 5. Argument 5. Answer The River Grant or Cam call it as you please running by Cambridge will have it's stream dried up by the draining of the Fennes now as Cambridge is concerned in it's River so that whole County yea this whole Kingdome is concerned in Cambridge No reason therefore that private mens particular Profit should be preferred before an Vniversal good or good of an Vniversity It is granted the water by Cambridge kindles and keeps in the Fire therein No hope of sufficient fuel on reasonable rates except care be takeâ— for preserving the River Navigable which may be done and the Fennes drained neverthelesse To take away the Thief is no Wasting or Weakning to the Wiek of the Candle Assurance may be given that no damage shall redound to the Stream of Grant by stopping other superfluous waters 6. Argument 6. Answer The Fennes preserved in their present property afford great plenty and variety of Fish and Fowl which here have their Seminaries Nurseries which will be destroyed on the draining thereof so that none will be had but at excessive prices A large first makes recompence for the shorter second Course at any mans Table And who will not preferre a tame Sheep before a Wild Duck a good fat Oxe before a well grown Eele 7. Argument 7. Answer The Fennes afford plenty of Sedge Turfe and Reed the want whereof will be found if their nature be altered The commodities are inconsiderable to ballance the profit of good Grass Grain which those grounds if drained would produce He cannot complain of wrong who hath a suit of Buckram taken from him and one of Velvet given in lieu thereof Besides provision may bemade that a sufficiency of such Ware-trash may still be preserved 8. Argument 8. Answer Many thousands of poor people are maintained by fishing and fouling in the Fennes which will all be at a losse of Livelihood if their Barns be burnt that is if the Fennes be drained It is confest that many whose hands are becrampt with Laziness live and onely live as never gaining any estates by that employment But such if the Fennes were drained would quit their Idleness and betake themselves to more lucrative Manufactures 9. Argument 9. Answer Grant the Fennes drained with great difficulty they will quickly revert to their old condition like to the a Camden ' s Brit. in Cambridgeshire Pontine Marishes in Italy This disease of the Dropsy if aqua super cutem as well as intercutis may be so called will return to the Fennes again If a Patient perfectly cured will be carelesse of his Health none will pitty his Relapse Moderate cost with constant care will easily preserve what is drained the Low-Countries affording many proofs thereof 10. Argument 10. Answer Grant them drained and so continuing as now the great Fishes therein prey on the lesse so then Wealthy men would devour the poorer sort of people Injurious partage would follow upon the enclosures and rich men to make room for themselves would justle the poor people out of their Commons Oppression is not essentiall either to draining or inclosing though too often a concomitant of both Order may be taken by Commissioners of quality impowered for that purpose that such a Proportion of Commons
breeding b. 11. p. 219. ¶ 85. his peaceable disposition ¶ 86. improving of piety p. 220. ¶ 87 c. an innocent deceiver ¶ 90. excellent Hebrician ¶ 91. last of the old Puritans ¶ 92. DOGGES meat given to men b. 3. p. 29. ¶ 46 DOMINICAN Friers their first coming over into England b. 6. p. 270. ¶ 15. after their expulsion set up again by Q. Mary p. 357. the learned men of this order who were bred in Cambrid Hist. of Cam. p. 30. De DOMINIS Marcus Antonius see SPALATO John DONNE Dean of St. Pauls prolocutour in the Convocation b. 10. p. 112. ¶ 15. his life excellently written by Mr. Isaack Walton ¶ 16. DOOMES-DAY Book composed by the command of Will the Conquerour b. 3. ¶ 3. DORT Synod b. 10. p. 77. ¶ 63. four English Divines sent thither ibidem King James his Instructions unto them p. 77 78. Oath at their admission into it p. 78. ¶ 66. liberall allowance from the State p. 77. ¶ 77. various censures on the decisions thereof p. 84. ¶ 5 c. The DOVE on King Charles his Sceptre ominously broken off b. 11. ¶ 16. Thomas DOVE Bishop of Peterborough his death b. 11. p. 41. ¶ 17. DOWAY COLL. in Flanders for English fugitives b. 9. p. 85. A Convent there for Benedictine Monks b. 6. p. 365. And another for Franciscan Friers 366. DRUIDES their office and imployment amongst the Pagan Britans C. 1. ¶ 3. The DUTCH Congregation first set up in London b. 7. p. 407. ¶ 33. priviledges allowed them by King Edward the sixth ibidem under Queen Mary depart with much difficulty and danger into Denmark b. 8. p. 8. ¶ 13. DUBLIN University founded by Queen Elizabeth b. 9. p. 211. ¶ 44. the severall benefactours whereof Mr. Luke Chaloner a chief p. 212. no rain by day during the building of the Colledge ibidem The Provosts therof p. 213. ¶ 47. DUBRITIUS Arch-bishop of Caer-lion a great Champion of the truth against Pelagius C. 6. ¶ 3. ADUCATE worth about four shillings but imprinted eight b. 5. p. 196 ¶ 37. Andrew DUCKET in effect the founder of Queens Colledge in Cambridge Hist of Cambridge p. 80. ¶ 33. St. DUNSTAN his story at large Cent. 10. ¶ 11. c. his death and burial in Canterbury ¶ 44. as appeared notwithstanding the claim of Glassenbury by discovery ¶ 45 46. DUNWOLPHUS of a swine-heard made Bishop of VVinchester C. 9. ¶ 41. DURHAM the Bishoprick dissolved by King Edward the sixth b. 7. p. 419. ¶ 2. restored by Queen Mary ¶ 3. VVil. DYNET the solemn abiuration injoyned him wherein he promiseth to worship Images b. 4. p. 150. E. EASTER-DAY difference betwixt the British Romish Church in the observation thereof Cent. 7. ¶ 5. the Controversie stated betwixt them ¶ 28. reconciled by Laurentius ¶ 30. the antiquity of this difference ¶ 31. spreads into private families ¶ 89. A counsell called to compose it ¶ 90. setled by Theodorus according to the Romish Rite ¶ 96. EATON COLLEDGE founded by K. Henry the sixth b. 4. EDGAR King of England Cent. 10. ¶ 24. disciplined by Dunstan for viciating a Nun. ¶ 26. The many Canons made by him why in this book omitted ¶ 29. A most Triumphant King ¶ 30. his death ¶ 34. EDMUND King of the East Angles cruelly Martyred by the Danes Cent. 9. ¶ 22. EDWARD the Elder calls a Councell to confirm his Fathers acts Cent. 10. ¶ 5. gives great Priviledges to Cambridge ¶ 6. EDWARD the Martyr Cent. 8. ¶ 34. Barbarously murthered ¶ 42. EDWARD the Confessour his life at large Cent. 11. ¶ 11 c. King EDWARD the first his advantages to the Crown though absent at his Fathers death b. 3. p. 74. ¶ 3. his atchievements against the Turkes ¶ 4. Casteth the Iews out of England p. 87. ¶ 47. chosen arbitratour betwixt Baliol Bruce claiming the Kingdome of Scotland p. 88. ¶ 49. which Kingdome he conquereth for himself ¶ 50. stoutly maintaineth his right against the Pope p. 90. ¶ 2. humbled Rob. Winchelsey Arch-bishop of Cant. ¶ 4 5. the Dialogue betwixt them 6. his death and character p. 92. ¶ 11. his Arme the standard of the English yard ibid. King EDWARD the second his character b. 3. p. 93. ¶ 13. fatally defeated by the Scots ¶ 14. his vitiousnesse p. 100. ¶ 28. accused for betraying his Priviledges to the Pope ¶ 29. his deposing and death p. 103. King EDWARD the third a most valiant and fortunate King both by Sea and Land foundeth Kings Hall in Cambridge Hist of Camb. p. 39. ¶ 36. his death and Character b. 4. p. 136. ¶ 12. King EDWARD the fourth gaineth the Crown by Conquest b. 4. p. 190. ¶ 46. Beaten afterwards in Battel by the Earle of VVarwick p. 191. ¶ 31. escapeth out of prison flyeth beyond the Seas returneth and recovereth the Crown ¶ 32 33. A Benefactour to Merron Coll. in Oxford b. 3. p. 75. ¶ 7. but Malefactour to Kings Coll. in Cambridge Hist of Camb. p. 76. ¶ 19. his death b. 4. p. 199. ¶ 4◠King EDWARD the fifth barbarously murthered by his Vncle Richard Duke of York b. 4. p. 196. ¶ 5. King EDWARD the sixth his Injunctions b. 7. ¶ 3. observations thereon p. 374. his severall proclamations whereof one inhibiteth all Preachers in England for a time p. 388 389. his TEXT ROYAL and our observations thereon p. 397 398. c. Giveth an account by letter to B. Fitz-Patrick of his progresse p. 412 413. severall letters written by him p. 423 424. his diary p. 425. ¶ 14. quick wit and pious prayer ¶ 17. at his death ibid. EDWIN King of Northumberland and in effect Monarch of England after long preparatory promises Cent. 7. ¶ 39 c. at last converted and baptised ¶ 43. slain by the Pagans in Battel ¶ 60. EGBERT Arch-bishop of York famous in severall respects b. 2. p. 101. ¶ 23. his beastly Canons ¶ 24. EGBERT first fixed Monarch of England Cent. 8. ¶ 41. First giveth the name of England Cent. 9. ¶ 5 6. Is disturbed by the Danes ¶ 7. ELEUTHERIUS Bishop of Rome his Letter to King Lucius Cent. 2. ¶ 6. pretendeth to an ancienter date then what is due thereunto ¶ 7. sends two Divines into Britain ¶ 8. ELIE Abbey made the See of a Bishop b. 3. p. 23. ¶ 23. the feasts therein exceed all in England b. 6. p. 299. ¶ 11. Q. ELIZABETH proclaimed b. 8. p. 43. ¶ 56. assumeth the title of supream head of the Church b. 9. p. 152. ¶ 4. defended therein against Papists p. 53. ¶ 5 6. c. Excommunicated by Pope Pius quintus b. 9. p. 93 94. Her farewell to Oxford with a Latine Oration b. 9. p. 223. ¶ 7 8. Her well-come to Cambridge with a Latine Oration Hist of Cambridge p. 138. her death b. 10. p. 4. ¶ 12. Iohn ELMAR Bishop of London his death and Character b. 9. p. 223. ¶ 10. ELVANUS sent by King Lucius to Eleutherius Bishop of
pursued by the Scholars p. 62. ¶ 15. whereupon be interdicteth the university ¶ 17. but at the Bishops intercession ¶ 19. and the Scholars solemn penâ—ance ¶ 20. 〈◊〉 is reconciled ibidem John OVER ALL carryeth the Kings Professours plâ—oe from Mr. Wotton Hist. of Camb. p. 125. ¶ 20. Dean of St. Pauls b. 10. p. 7. gives King James an account of Lambeth Articles p. 13. his death p. 86. ¶ 10. OXFORD Vniversity if not founded restored by King Alfred C. 9. ¶ 30. the Armes of the Vniversity â— 40. the Scholars there of harshly used by King William â—he Conquerour b. 3. p. 6. ¶ 16. killed the brother of Otho the Popes Legate p. 61. ¶ 13. for which â—e interdicteth the Vniversity p. 62. ¶ 17. till the Scholars make their solemn submission ¶ 20. the great and suddain alterations therein in the Reign of Q. Mary b. 8. p. 7 8 9. a strange Mortality Anno 1577. aâ— the Assizes b. 9. p. 109. ¶ 22. counted by â—aunders a greâ—â— miracle ¶ 24. though a natural cause be assigned thereof ¶ 25. discontents therein about innovations b. 11. p. 141 ¶ 18 c. P. APALL what it iâ— with the my steries thereof C. 7. ¶ 38. PANDULPHUS his proud 〈◊〉 b. 3. p. 53. ¶ 22. Katharine PAR marryed to King Henry the eighth b. 3. p. 243. ¶ 48. her enemies 〈◊〉 against 〈◊〉 defeated by Gods providence ¶ 49 50 the form of publick prayer for her b. 7. p. 374 â—â—letter of Edward the sixth while Prince unto her p. 423 424. PARISHES in England first divided by Pope Honourâ—â—â— 7. ¶ 68. Matthew PARKER almost looseth his own life to convert the Rebells b. 7. p. 394. ¶ 7. made Archb. of Cant. b. 9. p. 60. ¶ 23 most legally consecrated ¶ 25 c. in defiance of all Popish Calumnies ibidem his death p. 108. ¶ 17. and defence against Mr. Prin ¶ 18. see Bennet Coll. Margaret PARKER the Arch-bishop his exemplary wife b. 9. p. 108. ¶ 19. St. PATERN a pattern for all Bishops C. 6. ¶ 10. St. PATRICK falsly reported living and dying at Glassenbury C. 5. ¶ 18 19 20. a distinct person from Sen Patrick ¶ 20. St. PAUL by a Poeticall Hyperbole onely made to preach in Britain C. 1. ¶ 8. PAULINUS his death C. 7. ¶ 79. The PAX what it was and the original thereof Hist of Walt. p. 17. in the third Item PEADA first Christian Prince of Mercia C. 7. ¶ 83. PELAGIUS a Britan by birth C. 5. ¶ 1. his principal Errours ¶ 3. condemned by many Councels under the name of his Scholar Caelestius ibid. PEMBROOK HALL in Cambridge founded by Mary de St. Paul Hist. of Camb. p. 41. PEMBROOK Colledge in Oxford founded b. 11. ¶ 41 42. John PENRY with others executed for libelling against the Bishops b. 9. p. 223. ¶ 6. Rob. PERSONS Jesuit cometh over into England b. 9. p. 114. ¶ 41. his three strange escapes p. 118. ¶ 44 45. returns to Rome ¶ 46. Master of the English Colledge there p. 86. the Secular priests bitterly complain of him p. 233. ¶ 30. St. PETER he never preached in Britain not withstanding Persons his arguments to the contrary C. 1. ¶ 7. PETER-Pence first granted to the Pope by King Ina C. 8. ¶ 13. amounting at least to seven thousand five hundred pounds per ann b. 15. p. 197. ¶ 46 47. PETER-HOUSE founded by Hugo Balsham Subprior of Ely Hist of Camb. p. 12. ¶ 44. endowed many years after by the same Hugo when Bishop of Ely p. 30 31 32 33. St. PETROCK captain of the Cornish Saints C. 6. ¶ 11. J. PHILPOT stoutly defendeth the truth in the convocation b. 8. ¶ 22. against railing Weston ¶ 23. sealeth it with his blood ¶ 24. John PIERCE Arch-bishop of York his death and commendation for exemplary temperance b. 9. p. 223. ¶ 9. Thomas PIERCY Earle of Northumberland his Rebellion against Q. Elizabeth b. 9. p. 83. ¶ 15. in maintenance of Popery ¶ 16. routed by the Queens forces ¶ 17. beheaded at York ¶ 19. James PILKINTON the false report of ten thousand pound given with his daughter b. 5. p. 253. ¶ 55. the truth thereof b. 9. p. 109. ¶ 21. his death ibidem Pope PIUS the fourth his letter and proposalls to Q. Elizabeth b. 9. p. 68. ¶ 40. Pope PIUS the fifth his sentence declaratory against Q. Elizabeth b. 9. p. 93. PLAYERS prohibited by proclamation of King Edward the sixth b. 7. p. 391. Thomas PLAYFER his ranting Epitaph Hist of Camb. p. 158. ¶ 40. PLEGMUND of an eminent Eremitâ— made Arch-bishop of Canterbury C. 9. ¶ 43. consecrateth seven Bishops in one day C. 10. ¶ 4. PLUNDER whence derived and when first used in England b. 11. p. 196. ¶ 33. Reg. POOLE Cardinall why so much favoured by Q. Mary b. 8. ¶ 39. Godfather to â— Tremelius ¶ 40 consecrated Archb. of Cant. ¶ 41. his dry Sermon of the Pall ibid. reconcileth England unto Rome ¶ 42. his death b. 8. S. 3. ¶ 49. well inclined to be a Protestant ¶ 50. leaveth all his estate to Italians 51. Chancellour both of Cambridge and Oxford Hist of Camb. p. 135. ¶ 53. Sr. Tho. POPE vide Trinity Colledge Oxford The POPE in England in his Rising improveth his power on five sorts of Princes C. 10. ¶ 2. The POPE in England in his Reigning a conjectural estimate of his yearly revenues in England b. 5. p. 197. The POPE in England in his Ruine how his usurped power at the abolition thereof was restored to several persons to whom it did belong b. 5. ¶ 199. All PREACHERS for a time inhibited by a Proclamation of King Edward the sixth b. 7. p. 388 389. PREMUNIRE-statute why made b. 4. p. 145. the form thereof p. 146 c. why so named p. 148. ¶ 35. Thomas PRESTON Master of Trinity Hall Queen Elizabeth her Scholar History of Camb. p. 139. ¶ 2. John PRESTON his great favour at Court b. 11. ¶ 6. imployed in a double conference ¶ 35 36. temporizeth with the Duke of Buckingham ¶ 43 44. his death and buriall ¶ 66. William PRIN b. 11. p. 152. ¶ 56. accused for libelling against Bishops ¶ 57. his plea rejected p. 152. ¶ 6â— and answer refused ¶ 63. his speech on the Pillory ¶ 73. and behaviour therein ¶ 74. good employment in his exile 75. brought book with triumph p. 172. ¶ 32. False PROPHECYES a great trade driven with them in Abbeys Hist of Abb. p. 333. ¶ 11. PROPHECYINGS in England how ordered b. 9. P. 121. ¶ 2. their inconveniences p. 122. ¶ 3. Arch-bishop Grindal his large letter to Q. Elizab. in their defence p. 123 c. PROVISIONS of the Pope their nature b. 3. p. 8. and b. 4. p. 115. ¶ 25. redressed by a statute ¶ 26. yet complained of many years after p. 147. ¶ 43. PSALMS of David by whom translated into English meeter b. 7. p. 406. ¶ 31. the mean doing thereof endeavoured to be defended ¶ 32.