interrupt them in the course of their Building And herein Beza is consulted as the Master-workman To him they send their several Scruples and he returns such Answer to them as did not only confirm them in their present obstinacy but fitted and prepared them for the following Schism To those mentioned before they add the calling of Ministers and their Ordaining by the Bishops the Presbytery being not consulted Which he condemns as contrary to the Word of God but so that he conceives it better to have such a Ministry than none at all praying withal that God would give this Church a more lawful Ministry In some Churches and particularly in Westminster Abbey they still retained the use of Wafers made of Bread unleavened This he acknowledges for a thing indifferent Unto several other Questions he gives Answer in this Letter which is Superscribed To certain of the Brethren of the Churches of England touching some Points of Ecclesiastical Order and Government Upon the receiving this Letter they fall into an open Schism in the year next following At which time some taking upon them to be of a more ardent Zeal than others in professing the true Reformed Religion resolved to allow of nothing in God's Publick Service but what was found expresly in the Holy Scriptures Their Number much encreased on a double account First by the negligence of some and the connivance of other Bishops and partly by the secret favour of some Great Men in the Court who greedily gaped after the remainder of the Churches patrimony It cannot be denied but this Faction received much encouragement underhand from some Great Persons neer the Queen from no Man more than from the Earl of Leicester the Lord North Knolls and Walsingham who knew how mightily some Numbers of the Scots both Lords and Gentlemen had in short time improved their Fortune by humouring the Knoxian Brethren in their Reformation and could not but expect â—…he like in their own particulars by a compliance with these Men who aimed apparently at the ruin of Bishops and Cathedral Churches Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the further advancement of Presbytery CHAP. XVIII Of their Meetings and the Powerful Friends they had at Court with a short Relation concerning Cartwright Dr. Heylyn pag. 259. THe Genevian Brethren rather chose to Meet in Barns and Woods yea and in Common Fields than to associate with their Brethren For that they did so is affirmed by very good Authors who much bemoaned the sad condition of the Church of England in having her bowels torn in pieces by those very Children which she had cherished in her bosom By one of which we are first told what great Contentions had been raised in the first Ten years of Her Majesties Reign through the peevish frowardness and the outcries of such as came from Geneva against the Vestments of the Church and such-like matters And then he adds That being crossed in their desires touching these particulars they separated from the rest of their Congregations and Meeting together in Houses Woods and Common Fields kept there their most unlawful and disorderly Conventicles Thus of their Meetings Their Friends at Court Dr. Heylyn pag. 262. The Presbyterians had many powerful Friends at Court in which the Papists had scarce any but mortal Enemies Spies and Intelligencers were employed to attend the Papists and observe all their words and actions so that they could not stir without a discovery But all Mens eyes were shut up as to the other party so that they might do what they listed without observation of which one reason may be given to wit That the Queen suffered that Faction to grow up to confront the other A Word concerning Cartwright Dr. Heylyn pag. 263. Now comes Cartwright on the Stage on which he Acted more than any of the Puritan Faction He coming from Geneva became more practical or pragmatical rather condemning the vocation of Archbishops and Bishops Archdeacons and other Ecclesiastical Officers the Administration of the Sacraments and observation of our Rites and Ceremonies And buzzing these conceits into the heads of many young Preachers and Scholars of the University he drew after him a great number of Disciples and Followers Amongst whom he prevailed so far by his secret practices but much more by a Sermon which he Preached on a Sunday Morning in the College-Chappel that in the Afternoon all the Fellows and Scholars threw aside their Surplices which by the Statute of the House they were bound to wear and went to the Divine Service only in their Gowns and Caps But he not content with that which he had done in the College puts up his Disciples into all the Pulpits in the University where he and they enveigh most bitterly against the Government of the Church and the Governors of it the Ordination of Priests and Deacons the Liturgy and the Rites thereof Thus Dr. Heylyn CHAP. XIX Of their labouring to destroy Episcopal Government and of their Erecting a Presbytery Dr. Heylyn pag. 271. THE English Puritans had hitherto maintained their Quarrel by the Authority of Calvin the Sawciness of Knox the Bold Activities of Beza and the Interposing of some Forreign Divines whose Names were great in all the Churches of the Reformation But now they are resolved to try it out by their proper valour and to make no other use of them than as Auxiliaries and Reserves Hitherto they had appeared only against Caps and Surplices and such-like things But now they are resolved to venture on the Episcopal Government and to endeavour the Erecting of the Presbyterian as time and opportunity should make way unto it Amongst which Undertakers none more eminent because none more violent than Cartwright He and his Complices frequently handled such Points as concerned the Discipline many Motions being made and some Conclusions setled in pursuance of it But more particularly it was resolved upon the question That for as much as divers Books had been written and sundry Petiâ—…ions exhibited to her Majesty the Parliament and their Lordships to little purpose every man should therefore labour by all means possible â—…o bring the Reformation into the Church It was also then and there resolved That for the better bringing on of the said Holy Discipline they should not only as well Publickly as privately teach it but by little and little as well as possibly they might draw the same into practice According to which resolution a Presbytery was Erected on the Twentieth of November in the year 1572. at a small village in Surrey called Wandsworth a place conveniently situated for the London Brethren as standing near the Bank of the Thames but Four miles from the City and more retired and out of sight than any of their own Churches about the Town The first Establishment they endorsed by the name of The Orders of Wandsworth In which the Elders names are agreed on the manner of Election declared the Approvers of them mentioned their Offices agreed on also and described Sir Christopher Hatton was
thereof Some of the Lutherans had given out on the former ground That the English had deservedly suffered the greatest Hardships both at home and abroad because they Writ and Spake so irreverently of the Blessed Sacrament Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the Lutherans detesting an English Protestant Nothing occurring more in this Queens Reign as to these matters of Religion we will now give an Account of the years when these Changes were made with an Addition of some works of Piety done by Her and in Her time IN the First year of this Queens Reign All Bishops that had been deprived in the time of King Edward the Sixth were restored to their Bishopricks and the new removed Also this year on the Twenty seventh of August the Service was sung in Latin in St. Paul's Church The Pope's Authority being likewise by Act of Parliament restored in England and the Mâ—…ss Commanded in all Churches to be used In her Second year the Realm is Absolved and Reconciled to the Church of Rome and First Fruits and Tenths restored to the Clergy In her Third year Eight hundred English Protestants sorsook the Kingdom who fell into great Confusions amongst themselves being in other Countries In her Fourth year Monasteries were be gun to be re-edified In her Fifth year great endeavors were used by Sectaries to raise Sedition by Seditious Books and unlawful Meetings or Conventicles In her Sixth year She built Publick Schools in the University of Oxford Which being decayed in tract of time and of no beautiful Structure when they were at the best were taken down In place whereof but upon a larger extent of Ground was raised that Goodly and Magnificent Fabrick which we now behold Works of Piety The Queen restored a great part of the Abbey-Lands that were in her Possession In her First year Sir Thomas white then Mayor Erected a College in Oxford called S. John's College He also Erected Schools at Bristow and Reading and gave Two thousand pounds to the City of Bristow to purchase Lands the profits whereof to be employed for the benefit of young Clothiers In her Third year died Sir John Gresham late Mayor of London who Founded a Free-School at Holt in Norfolk and gave to every Ward in London Ten pounds to be distributed to the Poor Also to Maids-Marriages Two hundred pounds Cuthbert Tunstal Bishop of Durham Erected a goodly Library in Cambridge storing it with many Excellent both Printed and Written Books He also bestowed much upon Building at Durham at Alnewick and at Tunbridge Thus Sir Richard Baker Here you have had a short View of the great Zeal and Piety that was in this Nation during the Reign of this Queen And this delivered from the mouths of her Enemies the most zealous Protestants This Account being here ended we will now proceed to relate what Changes were made as to Religion in Queen Elizabeths time Wherein the Scene was totally Altered She following the Example of her Father and Brother in going on with the Destructions and Confusions begun by them The Last Part Of these HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS Concerning A Fourth Change of Religion Made for POLITICK ENDS And of the Occurrences concerning it In the Reign of Queen Elizabeth A Preamble BEfore we begin this Queens Reign we will following Dr. Heylyn's order first make a Relation out of him of the various Fortunes of her Mother Anne Boleign of whom thus he writes in his History of Reformation pag. 86. Anne Boleign from her tender years was brought up in the Court of France Who returning into England was preferred to be Maid of Honor to Queen Catherine In whose Service the King falls in Love with her But so long concealed his Affections that there was a great League contracted betwixt her and the young Lord Peircy Son to the Earl of Northumberland But that being broken off by the endeavors of Cardinal Wolsey and the King laboring for a Divorce from Queen Catherine that he might Marry her that also was sought to be obstructed by the Cardinal Which being understood by Mrs. Anne Boleign she seeks all ways for his destruction and prevailed so far with the King that he was presently Indicted and Attainted of a Praemunire and not long after by the Counsel of Thomas Cromwel who had sormerly been the Cardinals Solicitor in his Legatine Court envolves the whole Clergy in the same Crime with him And by perswasion of this man he requires of the said Clergy to acknowledge him for Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England and to make no new Canons and Constitutions not to Execute any such when made by his consent And having thus brought his own Clergy under his Command he was the less solicitous how his matters went in the Court of Rome concerning his Divorce Whereupon he privately Marries Mistris Anne Boleign And a long time after to wit Three or Four Months after the Birth of the Princess Elizabeth began a Parliament in which the Kings first Marriage was declared Unlawful and the Succession of the Crown settled upon His Issue by this Second Marriage An Oath being devised in maintenance of the said Succession and not long after Moor and Fisher were Executed for refusing to take that Oath The New Queen being thus settled and considering that the Pope and She had such different Interests that they could not subsist together She resolved to suppress his Power what she could But finding that the Pope was too well entrenched to be dislodged upon a sudden it was advised by Cromwel to begin with taking in the Outworks first which being gained it would be no hard matter to beat him out of his Trenches In order whereunto a Visitation is begun in which a diligent Enquiry was to be made into all Abbey's Priories and Nunneries within the Kingdom an Account of which Visitation and the Dâ—…ssolution of Abbeys hath been formerly given in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth But the New Queen for whose sake Cromwel had contrived that Plot did not live to see this Dissolution For such is the uncertainty of Humane Affairs that when she thought her Self most Secure and free from Danger She became most obnoxious to the ruine prepared for Her It had pleased God upon the Eighth of January to put an end unto the Calamities of the Virtuous but unfortunate Queen unto whose Bed she had succeeded The News whereof she entertained with such contentment that she caused her self to be apparelled in lighter Colours than was agreeable to the season or the sad occasion Whereas if she had rightly understood her own Condition She could not but have known that the long Life of Queen Catherine was to be her best preservation against all changes which the King 's loose Affections or any other Alteration in the Affairs of State were otherwise like to draw upon her But this Contentment held not long For within Three Weeks after She fell in Travail in which she miscarried of a Son to the extreme discontent of the
First-Fruits For the better drawing on of which Concession it was pretended that the Patrimony of the Crown had been much dilapidated and that it could not be Supported with such Honor as it ought to be if Restitution were not made of such Rents as were of late dismembred from it Upon which ground they also passed an Act for the Dissolution of all such Monasteries Convents and Religious Orders as had been Founded and Established by the Queen deceased When the Act of Parliament concerning the Supremacy came to be Debated it seemed to be a thing abhorrent even in Nature and Policy that a Woman should be declared Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England But those of the Reformed Party meant nothing else than to contend about words so they might gain the Point they aimed at Which was the stripping of the Pope of all Authority within these Dominions and fixing the Supream Ecclesiastical Power in the Crown Imperial And this they did not by the Name of Supreme Head which they perceived might be lyable to some just Exceptions but which comes all to one of Supreme Governess Thus Dr. Heylyn I will here insert a Speech made in this Parliament against this Supreme Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Authority granted to the Queen The Person that spake it was Nicholas Heath who was First Bishop of Worcester and Lord President of Wales Afterwards Archbishop of York and Embassador into Germany And made Lord Chancellor of England by Queen Mary in the year of our Lord 1555 and continued until he did surrender it up in Queen Elizabeth's time to Sir Nicholas Bacon The Person from whom I had this Speech is yet living who told me That he found it in Manuscript amongst Papers and Notes of his great Grandfather George Parry who had been High Sheriff of Hereford-shire in the Second year of the said Queen A Speech Made in the Upper House of Parliament against the Supremacy to be in her Majesty by Nicholas Heath Lord Chancellor of England in the first year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth above 100 years since In the Original Copy it is stiled A Tale told in Parliament For Oaths the Land shall be cloathed in Mourning My Lords WIth all humble Submission of my whole Discourse to your Wisdoms I purpose to speak to the Body of this Act touching the Supremacy that so what this Honourable Assembly is now a doing concerning the passing of this Act may thereby be better weighed and considered by your Wisdoms First When by the Virtue of this Act of the Supremacy we must forsake and fly from the See of Rome it would be considered what matter lieth therein and what matter of danger or inconvenience or else whether there be none at all Secondly If the intent of this Act be to grant or settle upon the Queens Majesty a Supremacy it would be considered of your Wisdoms what this Supremacy is and whether it doth consist in Spiritual Government or Temporal If in Temporal what further Authority can this House give Her more than what She already hath by right of Inheritance And not by our Gift but by the Appointment of God Being our Sovereign Lord and Lady our King and Queen our Empress and Emperor And if further than this we acknowledge Her to be Head of the Church of England we ough also to grant that the Emperor or any other Prince being Catholick and their Subjects Protestants are to be Heads of their Church Whereby we shall do an Act as disagreeable to Protestants as this seems to Catholicks If you say The Supremacy consists in Spiritual concernments Then it would be considered what the Spiritual Government is and in what points it doth chiefly consist Which being first agreed upon it would be further considered of your Wisdoms whether this House may grant it to her Highness or not And whether her Highness be an apt Person to receive the same So by through Examination of these parts your Honors shall proceed in this matter groundedly upon such sure knowledge as not to be deceived by ignorance Now to the First Point wherein I promised to examine what matter of weight danger or inconvenience might be incurred by this our forsaking and flying from the Church of Rome if there were no further matter therein than the with-drawing our Obedience from the Popes Person supposing that he had declared himself to be a very Austere and Severe Father to us then the business were not of so great importance as indeed it is as will immediately here appear For by relinquishing and forsaking the Church or See of Rome we must forsake and fly from all General Councils Secondly From all Canonical and Ecclesiastical Laws of the Church of Christ. Thirdly From the Judgment of all other Christian Princes Fourthly and Lastly We must forsake and fly from the Holy Unity of Christ's Church and so by leaping out of Peter's Ship we hazard our selves to be over-whelmed in the waves of Schism of Sects and Divisions First Touching the General Councils I shall name unto you these Four The Nicene Council the Constantinopolitan Council the Ephesine and the Chalcedon All which are approved by all Men. Of these same Councils Saint Gregory writeth in this wise Sicut enim Sancti Evangelii quatuor Libros sic haec quatuor Concilia Nicenum Constantinopolitanum Ephesinum Chalcedonense suscipere ac venerari me fareor That is to say in English I confess I do receive and reverence those Four General Councils of Nice Constantinople c. even as I do the Four Holy Evangelists At the Nicene Council the first of the Four the Bishops which were there Assembled did write there Epistles to Sylvester then Bishop of Rome That their decrees then made might be confirmed by his Authority At the Council kept at Constantinople all the Bishops there were obedient to Damasus then Bishop of Rome He as chief in the Council gave Sentence against the Hereticks Macedonius Sabellius and Eunomius Which Eunomius was both an Arrian and the first Author of that Heresie That only Faith doth justifie And here by the way it is much to be lamented that we the Inhabitants of this Realm are much more inclined to raise up the Errors and Sects of Ancient condemned Hereticks than to follow the True Approved Doctrine of the most Catholick and Learned Fathers of Christ his Church At the Ephesine Council Nestorius the Heretick was condemned by Celestine the Bishop of Rome he being chief Judge there At the Chalcedon Council all the Bishops there Assembled did write their humble Submission unto Leo then Bishop of Rome wherein they did acknowledge him there to be their Chief Head Six Hundred and Thirty Bishops of them Therefore to deny the See Apostolick and its Authority were to contemn and set at nought the Authority and Decrees of those noble Councils Secondly We must forsake and fly from all Canonical and Ecclesiastical Laws of Christ his Church whereunto we have already professed our
Obedience at the Font saying Credo Sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam that is I believe the Holy Catholick Church Which Article containeth That we must receive the Doctrine and Sacraments of the same Church obey her Laws and live according to the same Which Laws do depend wholly upon the Authority of the See Apostolick And like as it is here openly professed by the Judges of the Realm that the Laws agreed upon in the Higher and Lower Houses of this Honourable Parliament be of small or none effect before the Royal Assent of the King or Prince be given thereunto Even so Ecclesiastical Laws made cannot bind the Universal Church of Christ without the Royal Assent and Confirmation of the See Apostolick Thirdly We must forsake and fly from the Judgment of all other Christian Princes whether they be Protestant or Catholick Christians when none of them do agree with these our doings King Henry the Eighth being the first that ever took upon him the Title of Supremacy And whereas it was of late here in this House said by a Nobleman That the Title of Supremacy is of right due to a King for that he is a King then it would follow That Herod being a King should be Supreme Head of the Church at Jerusalem And Nero the Emperor Supreme Head of the Church of Christ at Rome they being both Infidels and therefore no members of Christ his Church And if our Saviour Christ at his departure from this World should have left the Spiritual Government of his Church in the hands of Emperors and Kings and not to have committed the same to his Apostles how negligently then should he have left his Church It shall appear right well by calling to mind That the Emperor Constantinus Magnus was the First Christian Emperor and was Baptized by Sylvester Bishop of Rome about Three hundred years after the Ascension of Christ Jesus If by your Proposition Constantine the first Christian Emperor was the First Head and Spiritual Governor of Christ his Church throughout his Empire then it followeth That our Saviour Christ for the space of Three Hundred years unto the coming of this Constantine left his Church which he had so dearly bought by effusion of his most precious Blood without any Head at all But how untrue the saying of this Nobleman was it shall further appear by Example of Ozia and also of King David For King Ozia did take the Censor to do Incense to the Altar of God The Priest Azarias did resist him and expelled him out of the Temple and said unto him Non est Officii tui Ozia ut adoleas Incensum Domino sed est Sacerdotum Filiorum Aaron Ad hujusmodi enim Officium consecrati That is to say It is not thy Office Ozia to offer Incense to the Altar of God But it is the Priests Office and the Sons of Aaron for they are Consecrated and Anointed to that Office Now I shall most humbly demand this question When the Priest Azarias said to the King Non est Officii tui whether he said Truth or not If you answer that he spake the Truth then the King was not Supreme Head of the Church of the Jews If you shall say No Why did God plague the King with Leprosie and not the Priest The Priest Azarias in resisting the King and thrusting him out of the Temple in so doing did the Priest play the faithful part of a Subject or no If you answer No why then did God spare the Priest and not spare the King If you answer Yea then it is most manifest Ozia in that he was a King could not be Supreme Head of the Church And as touching the Example of King David in bringing home the Ark of God from the Country of the Philistians to the City of David what Supremacy or Government of God's Ark did King David there take upon him Did he place himself amongst the Priests Or take upon him any Spiritual Function unto them appertaining Did he approach neer unto the Ark Or yet presume to touch the same No doubtless For he had seen before Ozia strucken to death by the hand of God for the like arrogance and presumption And therefore King David did go before the Ark of God with his Harp making Melody and placed himself amongst the Minstrels and humbly did abase himself being a King as to dance and leap before the Ark of God like as his other Subjects did Insomuch as his Queen Michol King Saul's Daughter beholding and seeing this great Humility of King David did disdain thereat Whereunto King David making answer said Ludam vilior fiam plùs quà m factus sum c. That is I will dance and abase my self more than yet I have done and abjecting my self in mine own eyes I shall appear more glorious with those Handmaids that you talk of I will play here before my Lord which hath chosen me rather than thy Father's House And whereas Queen Michol was therefore plagued at God's hand with perpetual Sterility and Barrenness King David received great praise for his Humility Now may it please your Honours to consider which of both these Kings Examples shall be most convenient for your Wisdoms to make the Queens Majesty to follow whether the Example of Proud Ozia moving Her by your perswasions and Councils to take upon her Spiritual Government and thereby exposing her Soul to be plagued at the hand of God as King Ozia was or else to follow the Example of the good King David which in refusal of all Spiritual Government about the Ark of God did humble himself as I have declared unto you Whereunto our Sovereign Lady the Queens Highness of Her own nature being well inclined we may assure our selves to have of Her as Humble as Virtuous and as Godly a Mistress to Reign over us as ever had English People here in this Realm if that her Highness be not by your Flattery and Dissimulation seduced and beguiled Fourthly and Lastly We must forsake and fly from the Holy Unity of Christ's-Church Seeing that St. Cyprian that Holy Martyr and great Clerk doth say that the Unity of the Church of Christ doth depend upon Peter's Authority and his Successors Therefore by leaping out of Peter's Ship we must be overwhelmed with the Waves of Schisms of Sects and Divisions Because the same Holy Martyr in his Third Epistle to Cornelius testifieth That all Heresies Sects and Schisms do spring only from hence that Men will not be obedient to the Head-Bishop of God And how true this saying of St. Cyprian is we may see it most apparent to all Men that list to see both by the Example of the Germans and by us the Inhabitants of this Realm of England And by this our forsaking and flying from the Unity of the Church of Rome this inconveniency amongst many must consequently follow That either we must grant the Church of Rome to be the True Church of God or else a malignant Church If you
burnt The other three were drawn to a Gallows and there hanged headed and quartered The Three First as appears in their Attainders were executed for divers Heresies The last Three for Treason to wit for denying the King's Supremacy and affirming his Marriage with Queen Catherine to be good Stow page 581. Thomas Empson sometimes a Monk of Westminster who had been Prisoner in Newgate more than Three years was brought before the Justices in Newgate and for that he would not ask the King Pardon for denying his Supremacy nor be Sworn thereto his Monks-Cowl was plucked off his back and his Body reprieved till the King was informed of his Obstinacy Stow page 591. Three Men and one Woman were burned in Smithfield for the Sacrament Dr. Shaxton sometimes Bishop of Salisbury Preaching at the same fire and there recanting perswaded them to do the like But they would not Stow page 592. Some Anabaptists Three Men and one Woman all Dutch bore Faggots to Pauls Cross and a Man and a Woman Dutch Anabaptists were burnt in Smithfield Stow page 576. Dr. Forest a Friar Observant was apprehended for that in Secret he had declared to many that the King was not Supreme Head of the Church Whereupon he was condemned and afterwards upon a pair of new Gallows set up for that purpose in Smithfield he was hanged by the Middle and Arm-pits quick and under the Gallows was made a Fire wherewith he was burnt and consumed Stow page 577. Hugh Faringdon Abbot of Reading and Two Priests named Rugg and Owen were hang'd and quartered at Reading The same day was Richard Whiting Abbot of Glastenbury hang'd and quartered on Tore-Hill adjoyning to his Monastery John Thorn and Roger James Monks the one Treasurer the other under-Treasurer of Glastenbury-Church were at the same time executed Also shortly after John Beck Abbot of Colchester was executed at Colchester All for denying the King's Supremacy Stow pag. 577. Six Persons and one led between Two were drawn to Tyburn to wit Laurence Cook Prior of Doncaster William Horn a Lay-Brother of the Charter-House at London Giles Horn Gentleman Clement Philipp Gentleman of Calais Edmond Bolhelm Priest Darcy Jennings Robert Bird And all there hang'd and quartered as having been Attainted by Parliament for denying of the King's Supremacy Stow pag. 581. Sir David Jenison Knight of Rhodes was drawn through Southwark to St. Thomas of Watterings and there executed for the Supremacy Stow page 581. German Gardiner and Lark Parson of Chelsey were executed at Tyburn for denying the King's Supremacy As likewise one Ashby Stow page 585. Three Anabaptists were burnt in the High-way beyond Southwark towards Newington Stow page 579. Thus far of these Cruelties CHAP. V. Of a Third Effect of this Change to wit a General Confusion in Religion THese horred Cruelties made the state of Religion in England in a strange Confusion as appears by this Relation of Sir Rich. Baker page 408. And now was the state of Religion in England come to a strange pass because always in Passing and had no Consistence For at first the Authority of the Pope was excluded in some cases only a while after in all But yet his Doctrine was wholly receiv'd Afterwards his Doctrine came to be impugn'd but yet in some few points only a while after in many That the Fable of Proteus might be no longer a Fable when the Religion of England might be its true Moral The Confusion was so great in these times that in Parliament one called the other Heretick and Anabaptist and he again called him Papist and Hypocrite And this not only amongst the Temporality but even the Clergy-men themselves preach'd and enveigh'd one against another So that the Frame of Religion was extremely disjoynted the Clergie that should set it in Frame being out of frame themselves The Minds of the People extremely distracted and the Nobility that should cement them together scarce holding themselves together Thus Baker The Truth of this Relation appears more fully confirm'd from this Speech of King Henry made in Parliament Thus related by How 's upon Stow pag. 590. A part of King Henry the Eighth's Speech made in Parliament in the Thirty seventh Year of his Reign WHat Love or Charity is there amongst you when one calls another Heretick and Anabaptist and he calls him again Papist Hypocrite and Pharisee I must needs judge the fault and occasion of this Discord to be partly by negligence of you the Fathers and Preachers of the Spirituality For I hear daily that you of the Clergie Preach one against another Teach one contrary to another railing one against another Some are so stiff in their old Mumpsimus others are so busie and furious in their new Sumpsimus that all men almost be in Variety and Discord and few or none preach truly and sincerely the Word of God Now how can poor Souls live in concord when you Preachers sow amongst them in your Sermons Debate and Discord Of you they look for light and you lead them into darkness Now although I say that Spiritual-men be in some fault that Charity is not kept amongst you yet you of the Temporality be not clear and unspotted from malice and envy For you rail at Bishops speak slanderously of Priests and rebuke and taunt Preachers You must understand that although you be permitted to read Holy Scriptures and to have the Word of God in your Mother-tongue yet this Licence is given you only to inform your Conscience and to instruct your Children and not to dispute and make Scripture a railing and a taunting-stock against Priests and Preachers as many light persons do I am very sorry to hear how irreverently that most precious Jewel the Word of God is Disputed Rimed Sung and Jangled in every Ale-house and Tavern contrary to the true meaning and Doctrine of the same And I am as much sorry that the Readers of it follow it in doing so faintly and coldly For of this I am sure that Charity and Virtue was never less exercised nor God amongst Christians was never less reverenc'd honor'd or serv'd Thus Stow. These Confusions and others are thus related by Dr. Heylyn in his History of Reformation Page 17. THE People were generally divided into Factions and Schisms The Treasures of the Crown were exhausted by prodigal Gifts and the Money of the Realm so mix'd that it could not pass for currant amongst Forein Nations to the great dishonor of the Kingdom and loss of the Merchant For although an infinite Mass of Jewels Treasure of Plate and ready Money and an incredible improvement of Revenue had accrued to him by such an universal Spoil and Dissolution of Religious Houses yet was he little or nothing the richer for it insomuch that in the year 1543. being within less than Seven years after the general Suppression of Religious Houses he was forc'd to have recourse for Moneys to his Houses of Parliament by which he was supply'd after an extraordinary manner the Clergy at
Preached and Written partly by divers the natural born Subjects of this Realm and partly being brought in hither from sundry other Forein Countries hath been sowen and spread abroad within the same By reason whereof as well the Spirituality as the Temporality of this Kingdom have swerved from the Obedience of the See Apostolick and declined from the Unity of Christ's Church and have so continued until such time as your Majesty being settled in the Royal Throne the Pope's Holiness and the See Apostolick sent hither unto your Majesty as a Person undefiled and by God's Goodness preserved from the common infection aforesaid and to the whole Realm the most Reverend Father in God the Lord Cardinal Pool to call us home again into the right way from whence we have all this long while wandred and strayeâ—… abroad And we after sundry long and grievous Plagues and Calamities seeing by the Goodness of God our own Errors have acknowledged the same unto the same most Reverend Father in God and by him been and are received and embraced into the Unity and bosom of Christ's Church upon our humble submission and promise made for a Declaration of our Repentance to Repeal and Abrogate such Acts and Statutes as had been made in Parliament since the said Twentieth year of the said King against the Supremacy of the See Apostolick as in our Submission exhibited appears The tenor whereof here ensueth We the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons Assembled in this present Parliament in the Name of our selves and the whole Kingdom do declare our selves very sorry and repentant of the Schism and Disobedience committed in this Realm and the Dominions thereof against the See Apostolick either by making agreeing or executing any Laws Ordinances or Commands against the Supremacy of the said See or otherwise by doing or speaking any thing that might impugn the same Offering our selves and promising by this our Supplication that for a token and acknowledgment of our said repentance we be and shall be always ready to the utmost of our Power to do what lies in us for the abrogating and the repealing of the said Acts and Ordinances in this present Parliament c. Whereupon we most humbly desire your Majesty to set forth this our most humble Suit That we may obtain from the See Apostolick release and discharge from all danger of such Censures and Sentences as by the Laws of the Church we are fallen into and that we may as Children repentant be received into the bosom and unity of Christ's Church so as this Noble Realm withal the members thereof may in this unity and perfect obedience to the See Apostolick serve God and your Majesty to the furtherance and advancement of his Honor and Glory c. This Petition being granted They further add We being now at the Intercession of your Majesty assoiled discharged and delivered from Excommunication Interdiction and other Censures Ecclesiastical which have hanged over our heads for our said faults since the time of the said Schism mentioned in our Supplication May it therefore now please your Majesty That for the better accomplishment of our promise made in the said Supplication we may Repeal All Laws and Statutes made contrary to the said Supremacy and See Apostolick during the said Schism Thus as to the Repealing of all such Laws made in the Reign of King Henry the 8th Another Act for the Repealing of certain Statutes made in the time of King Edward the Sixth FOrasmuch as by divers and several Acts of Parliament made in the time of King Edward the Sixth as well the Divine Service and good Administration of the Sacraments as divers other matters of Religion which we and our Fore-fathers found in this Church of England to us left by the Authority of the Catholick Church be partly altered and in some part taken from us and in place thereof New Things imagined and set forth by the said Acts such as a few of singularity have of themselves devised Whereof hath ensued amongst us in a very short time numbers of diverse and strange Opinions and diversity of Sects and thereby grown great unquietness and much discord to the great disturbance of the Kingdom And in a very short time like to grow to extreme peril and utter confusion of the same unless some remedy be in that behalf provided Which Thing all True Loving and Obedient Subjects ought to fore-see and to provide against to the utmost of their power c. Be it therefore Enacted c. A third Act for the Repeal of Two several Acts made in the time of King Edward the Sixth touching the Dissolution of the Bishoprick of Durham WHereas there hath been time out of mind of any man to the contrary a See of a Bishop of Durham commonly called The Bishoprick of Durham which hath been one of the most Ancient and worthiest Bishopricks in Dignity and Spiritual Promotion within the Realm of England and the same place always supplied and furnished with a man of great Learning and Virtue which was both to the Honor of God and the encrease of his True Religion and a great Surety to that part of the Realm Nevertheless the said Bishoprick was without any just cause or consideration by Authority of Parliament Dissolved Extinguished and Exterminated And further by the Authority of the said Parliament it was Ordained and Enacted That the said Bishoprick together with all the ordinary Jurisdiction thereunto appertaining should be adjudged clearly dissolved and extinguished and that King Edward the Sixth should from thence-forth have possess and enjoy to him his heirs and successors for ever whatsoever did appertain or belong to the said Bishoprick in as large and ample manner and form as any Bishop thereof had held or possessed or of right ought to have had held or possessed c. Be it therefore Enacted c. Thus far as to these Acts of Parliament CHAP. IV. A Relation of some English Protestants that forsook the Kingdom and of the Factions and Schisms that were amongst them being in other Countries Anno Reg. Mar. 3. Dr. Heylyn pag. 59. MAny English Protestants forsook the Kingdom to the number of Eight Hundred who having put themselves into several Cities partly in Germany and partly amongst the Switzers and their Confederates kept up the Face and Form of an English Church in each of their several Congregations Their principal retiring places amongst the last were Arow Zurick and Geneva And in the first the Cities of Emden Strasburgh and Frankfort In Frankfort they enjoyed the greatest privileges and therefore resorted thither in greatest numbers which made them the more apt unto Schisms and Factions At their first coming to the place they were permitted to have the use of one of their Churches which had before been granted to such French exiles as had repaired thither on the like occasion yet so that the French were still to hold their Right the English to have the use of it one day
Or that the Communion Table if any then were was removable up and down hither and thither and brought at any time to the lower part of the Church there to Celebrate the Lord's Supper Or That any Communion was kept upon Good-Friday Or That the Sacrament was administred then sometimes in Loaf-Bread sometimes in Wafers And that without the Name of Jesus or the sign of the Cross Or That at the Communion-time the Minister should wear a Coap and at all other Service a Surplice only Or as it is used in some places nothing at all beside his Common Apparel Or That they used a Common and Prophane Cup at the Communion pag. 162 Or That a solemn Curse should be used on Ashwednesday Or That a Procession about the Fields was used in Rogation week rather thereby to know the Bounds and Borders of every Parish than to move God to Mercy and mens hearts to Devotion Or That the Man should put the Wedding-Ring upon the Fourth Finger of the left hand of the Woman and not on the right as hath been many Hundred years practised pag. 163 Or That the residue of the Sacrament unreceived was taken of the Priest or of the Parish Clerk to spread their young Childrens Butter with or to serve their own Tooth with it at their homely Table Or That it was lawful then to have but one Communion in one Church in one day pag. 164 Or That the Lent or Friday was to be Fasted for Civil Policy not for any Devotion pag. 165 Or That the Lay-People Communicating did take the Cup at one anothers hands and not at the Priests pag. 166. Or That any Bishop then threw down the Images of Christ and his Saints and set up their own their Wives and their Childrens Pictures in their Chambers and Parlours pag. 164. Or That being a Virgin at the taking of the Holy Order of Priesthood did afterwards lawfully Marry pag. 165. Or That was Married on Ashwednesday Or That preached it to be all one to Pray on a Dunghil and in a Church Or That any Friar of 60 years obtaining afterwards the Dignity of a Bishop Married a young Woman of Nineteen years c. pag. 166. Here ends Dr. Heylyn's History of Reformation Now to compleat the story of the Presbyterians I will here add what is related by Dr. Heylyn concerning their actings in this Queens Reign in his History of Presbytery AN ADDITION Of some other Historical Collections Taken out of Dr. Heylyn's History of Presbytery CHAP. XV. A Discovery of the Insolent and Rebellious Spirit of the Presbyterians and particularly of Knox. Dr. Heylyn pag. 244. AT Queen Elizabeths first coming to the Crown such English as had lived in exile amongst the Zwitzers or at Geneva became exceedingly enamored with Calvin's Platform by which they found so much Authority ascribed unto Ministers in their several Churches as might make them absolute and independent without being called to an account by King or Bishop This Discipline they purposed to promote at their coming home But the Queen had heard so much from others of their carriage at Frankfort and their untractableness in point of Decency and comly Order in the Reign of her Brother as might sufficiently forewarn her Besides She was not to be told with what reproaches Calvin had reviled her Sister nor how she had been persecuted by his followers in the time of her Reign Some of them railing at her Person in their scandalous Pamphlets Some practising by false and dangerous Allusions to subvert her Government and others openly praying to God That he would either turn Her heart or put an end to her days And of these Men she was to give her self no hope but they would proceed with her in the self same manner whensoever any thing should be done how necessary and just soever which might cross their humours The Consideration whereof was of such prevalency with those of her Council who were then deliberating about the altering of Religion that they were resolved to have an eye upon those Men Who were so hot in the persuit of their flattering hopes that out of a desire of Innovation as my Author tells me they were busied at that very time in setting up a new form of Ecclestastical Policy and therefore were to be supprest with all care and diligence before they grew to a head But notwithstanding this discovery of their Rebellious practices yet they had so many Friends in England that they might easily have obtained Favour in order to the Promoting their designs had not Knox's furious Spirit moved him to write these following malicious Letters In one of which to Sir William Cecill he first upbraids him with consenting to the suppressing of Christ's true Evangile to the erecting of Idolatry and the Shedding the Blood of God's most dear Children during the Reign of mischievous Mary the professed enemy of God as he plainly calls her Then he proceeds to justifie his Treasonable and Seditious Book against the Regiment of Women of the truth whereof he positively affirms That he no more doubted than of the truth of that Voice of God pronounced against that Sex to wit That in dolour they should bear their Children Next he declared in reference to the person of Queen Elizabeth That he would willingly acknowledge her to be raised by God for the manifestation of his Glory although not nature only but Gods own Ordinance did oppugn such Regiments And thereupon did inferr That if Queen Elizabeth would confess that the Extraordinary Dispensations of God did make that Lawful in her which both Nature and Gods Laws did deny in all Women beside none in England should bemore ready to maintain her Lawful Authority than himself But on the other side he pronounces this Sentence on her That if she built her Title upon Custom Laws and Ordinances of Men such foolish Presumption would grievously offend God and that her ingratitude in that kind should not long lack punishment To the same purpose he writes also to the Queen her self reproaching her withal That for fear of her life she had declined from God Bowed to Idolatry and gone to Mass during the persecution of Gods Saints in the time of her Sister In both his Letters he complains of his being denied the liberty of Preaching in England and endeavours to excuse his Flock of late assembled in the most Godly Reformed Church and City of Geneva Thus Dr. Heylyn CHAP. XVI A further Discovery of their Practices in order to the Promoting of their Discipline which was much Advanced by their being admitted into the Publick Ministry Dr. Heylyn pag. 246. SUch was the necessity which the Church of England was under that it was hardly possible to supply all the vacant places in it but by admitting some of the Genevian Zealots to the Publick Ministry the Realm had been extreamly visited in the foregoing year with a dangerous and contagious Sickness which took away almost half of the Bishops and occasioned such a