distinction out of Scotus which the Arch-Bishop more valued then all which he had before more pertinently alledged out of the Old and New Testament 51. King Henry wrote a fair and large Letter to the Convocation of York King Henry his answer to York Convocation too long here to be inserted though otherwise I have a good a Communicated unto me by my good friend Dr Littleton Copy thereof wherein the King began mildly to make the passage for his Supremacy into their consciences by a Rational and Argumentative way He disclaimed all design by fraud to surprize or by force to captivate their judgments but onely to convince them of the Truth and Equity of what he desired He b It is printed in the second part of the Cabal declavered the sence of Supreme Head of the Church though offensive in the sound to ignorant ears claiming nothing more thereby then what Christian Princes in the Primitive times assumed to themselves in their own Dominions so that it seems he wrought so far on their affections that at last they consented thereunto 52. Here I wonder at the cavil of the Papists A couseless cavil which being so causleses should be so clamorous accusing us to have a c Harding against Jewel Parliament Religion a Parliament Faith a Parliament Gospel and d Scultingus another addeth Parliament Bishops and a Parliament Clergy Whereas upon serious examination it will appear that there was nothing done in the Reformation of Religion save what was acted by the Clergy in their Convocations or grounded on some Act of theirs praecedent to it with the advice counsel and consent of the Bishops and most eminent Church-men confirmed upon the Postfact and not otherwise by the Civil Sanction according to the usage of the best and happiest times of Christianity 53. By the same proportion in the dayes of Queen Mary the Popish Religion The Cavil retorted might have been stiled a Parliament Religion because after the same had been debated on and concluded of in the Convocation it was confirmed by the Queen Lords and Commons by the Act of Parliament SECT III. Anno Regis To the Right Worshipful Anno Dom. Sir RICHARD SHVGBOROVGH OF SHUGBOROUGH in Warwick-shire MAster Haward returned this answer to Queen Mary demanding the causes of his coming to Court that it was partly to see Her Highness and partly that Her Highness should see him an answer which though more witty then Court-like yea more blunt then witty she took in good part You will not be offended at this my Dedication partly that I may know you partly that I may be known unto you Besides being informed that you love to have your Hospital Table handsomly attended with Ancient Servitors I presumed that this Section containing much of memorable Antiquity would not be unwelcome unto you 1. NOw though nothing was done in matters of Religion Hen. 8 25. but what was fairly and largely discussed 1533 first by the most Learned of the Clergy The Clergie bind themselves to the King yet this year the Clergy in the Convocation so submitted themselves to the King that each one severally promised in verbo Sacerdotis never henceforth to presume to alledg claim or put in ure any new Canons unless the Kings most Royal Assent might be had unto them and this soon after the same was ratified by Act of Parliament 2. And here it will be worth my pains A fourfold sort of Convocations and the Readers perusal to observe the differences between English Synods or Convocations which may eminently be distinguished into four ranks such as were 1. Called before the Conquest Anno Regis Hen. 25 2. Called since the Conquest but before the Statute of Praemunire was made 3. Called after the aforesaid Statute but before another made in the Reign of King Henry the eighth wherein the Clergie were bound up for doing ought without the Royal assent 4. Called after the twenty fifth year of the Reign of King Henry the eighth These did plainly differ in the several manners of their meeting and degrees of power of their acting in Spiritual matters 3. As for Councels Kings Acted in Church matters before the Conquest called before the Conquest whilest the Popes power had not as yet Lorded it over the Kings of England the Kings ever were if not in person in power present thereat as by perusing S r Henry Spelmans Councils plainly doth appear Yea matters both of Church and Common-wealth were often dictated and concluded in the same Meeting Communi consensutam Cleri quam a Sir Henry Spelman Anno 605. pag. 118. Populi Episcoporum procerum comitam nec non omnium Sapientum Seniorum populorumque totius Regni 4. For the second sort called after the Conquest Of the second sort of Convocations but before the Statute of Praemunire the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury or York used-upon all extraordinary and immergent cases toties quoties as their own discretions adjudging necessary or convenient to assemble the Clergie of their respective Provinces at what place they pleased dontinuing Convocations in them so long or dissolving them as soon as they pleased And this they did either as Metropolitans or Primates or as Legati Nati to the Pope of Rome without any leave from the King afore obtained and such Canoas and Constitutions then and there concluded on were in that Age without any further Ratification obligatory to all subjected to their jurisdiction Such were all the Synods from Lanckfranck to Thomus Arundel in whose time the Satute of Praemunire was enacted 5. A Third sort of Convocation succeeds For after the Statute of Praemunire was made Of the third sort of Convocations which did much restraine the Papal power and subject it to the Laws of the Land when Arch-Bishops called no more Convocations by their sole and absolute command but at the pleasure of the King as oft as his necessities and occasions with the distresses of the Church did require it Yea now their meetings were by vertue of a Writ or Precept from the King and it will not be amiss here to exemplifie the form thereof 6. REX The form of ancient Writs of Convocations c. Reverendissimo in Christo Patri A. Canturiensi Archiepiscopo totius Angliae primati Apostolicae sedis legato salutem Quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotiis defensionem securitatem Ecclesiae Anglicanae ac pacem tranquillitatem bonum publicum desensionem Regni nostri subditorum restrorum ejusdem concernentibus vobis in fide dilectione quibus nobis tenemini rogando mandamus quatenus praemissis debito intuitu attentis ponderatis universos singulos Episcopos nostrae Provinciae ac Decanes Praecores Ecclesiarum Cathedralium Abbates Priores alios Electivos Exemptos non Exemptos Nec non Archidiaconos Conventus Capitula Collegia totumque Clerum cujuslibet Dioeceseos
The Queen made Sir Tho Tresham Lord Prior of this Order who the thirtieth of November 1557 received the Order of the Crosse at Westminster and was solemnly inducted into his place He was of an antient family and large estate and had done the Queen Knights service proclaiming Her in the highest contest with Queen Jane If the dimension of his Body may be guessed by his finger and his finger by his Ring which have seen in the possession of his Kinsman William Tresham Esq of Newton in Northampton-shire he was a little Gyant and farre greater than his pourtraicture on his Monument almost demolisht in Rushton-Church in the same County But Alexander's souldiers were not in proportion so big as their shields left in India and possible that Ring of State serving for a Seale was rather borne about him than worn on his finger 7. Re-edified by devout persons It is out of doubt that Papists contributed many pretious Utensils unto these Orders as also that they were bountifull in repairing their decayed Houses to fit them for their habitation but by Sanders his leave No visible refunding of land doth appear Which if he had known of no doubt he would have told posterity as tending according to his principles so much to the credit of those persons I say again though Queens Examples carry a kinde of Mandamus in them yet herein Her best Subjects and Servants were so unmannerly as to suffer Her Grace to go alone by Her self in this Act without any attendants as to the restitution of any entire Religious house to its former Order No not Anthony Browne Viscount Montacute though formerly solemnly employed in an Ambassy to the Pope to reconcile the Church of England to Rome would part with his rich Abbey of Battaile in Sussex or poor Priory of Barnewell nigh Cambridge c. but kept all his pluralities in that nature though otherwise we believe him most bountifull to those of his own Religion 8. The Catholick Princes Meaning Philip and Mary and surely though we cannot insist on the particulars that Kings inclinations are sufficiently known zealous for the promoting of His own Religion However it is almost incredible what a qualme on this occasion came over the hearts of the stoutest Abbey-land Mongers in England fearing in processe of time a reverting of them to their former use the rather because Cardinall Poole in that Act in this Queens Reign to secure Abbey-lands to their Owners without the passing whereof to pacifie so many persons concerned Papistry could not have been restored in that Parliament did not as some think absolve their consciences from restitution But onely made a palliate cure the Church but suspending that power which in due time she might put in execution 3. This made many suspect that such edifices of Abbeys A generall jealousie of Abbey-holders which still were extant entire looked lovingly on their antient Owners in hope to be restord unto them In prevention whereof such as possest them for the present plucked out their eyes by levelling them to the ground and shaving from them as much as they could all Abbey-Characters disguising them as much as might be in a Lay-habit matching and mingling them with lands in another Tenure because on this very motion Abbey lands sunk two years purchase in the common valuation 4. Nor must I forget one passage in Derby-shire Nimianon cautela Non nocet a certain information whereof I have received from that skilful Antiquary and my respected Kinsman Samuel Roper of Lincolnes-Inne how one Thacker being possessed of Repingdon Abbey in Derby-shire alarumed with this news that Q. Mary had set up these Abbeys again and fearing how large a reach such a precedent might have upon a Sunday belike the better day the better deed called together the Carpenters and Masons of that County and plucked down in one day Church-work is a cripple in going up but rides post in coming down a most beautifull Church belonging thereunto adding He would destroy the Nest for fear the Birds should build therein again 5. And now when a Papist have done commending Q. Mary The best work of Q. Mary a Protestant may begin I say Her setting up the Hospitall of the Savoy was a better work than any instanced in by Sanders for the relief of poor people First because poor qua poor may be said to be Jure Divino * Prov. 22. 2. The rich and poor meet together and the Lord maketh them both Not onely as Creatour of their persons but Assigner of their conditions Besides the Poor is a continuall Order in the Church by the words of our Saviour * John 12. 8. The poor ye have alwaies with you but more properly hereof in the Reign of Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth demolisheth the new-erected Convents Queen Elizabeth coming to the Crown Violent alterations dangerous was not over-busie at the first but for some moneths permitted all things to remain in statu quo priùs Insomuch that in the first Parliament of Her summoning She sent Her Writs to the aforesaid Lord Prior Tresbam and Abbot Feckenham to make their appearance with the rest of Her Barons in Her Great Councell Whither they repaired and wherein they took their places accordingly 2. Sir Thomas as Lord Prior above but the Abbot beneath all the a See a List of them sitting in Sir Tho Cottons Library Temporal Lords being the lag of the House and placed under Oliver Lord S. John of Blet netsho lately made the second Baron of Queen Eliz Her creation But they had hardly set down on their seats before they were raised up and dissolved with all the rest of the late-restored Orders 3. I have not met to my best remembrance with any Statute A Quaere to the learned in Law enacted in the Reign of Queen Mary whereby She was legally empowred for the re-erection of these Convents done it seems by Her Prerogative by connivance not concurrence of the Parliament Nor can I finde in the first year of Queen Elizabeth any particular Statute wherein as in the Regin of King Henry the eighth these Orders are nominatim suppressed this probably being supposed needlesse as I conceive with submission to the Learned in that Profession their Houses having no Legal settlement Or else when the general Statutes against Superstition were layed like the Ax to the root of the Tree these Orders are under-branches fell of themselves by virtue of the Queens Commission for the same 4. I intended by way of a farewell-Corollary to present the Reader with a List of the Lord Priors of S. Iohn's An imperfect List better than none from Iordanus Briset their first Founder But their Records being all burnt in that fire which was kindled by Straw in his commotion it is impossible to compleat the Catalogue At and since which difaster such as we can recover are not contiguous in times and distanced with many years betwixt them though perhaps
Chad into the Bishoprick of York The writer of VVilfride's Life complains lowdly hereof Audacter sponsam vivo rapuere marito Boldly in the Husban's life Away from him they took his Wife But by the Poets leave York was but espoused not married to VVilfride whilest he was in England and after his going over beyond-Sea he stayed so long that his Church presumed him dead and herself a Maid-Widow which lawfully might receive another Husband At last VVilfride returning home had York restored unto him and S t. Chad was removed to the new-founded Bishoprick of Lichfield 93. The Abbess Hilda Abbess Hilda whom we mentioned before was like another Huldah which lived in the a 2 Chro. 34. 22. Colledge superiour to most of her Sex in Learning inferiour to none in Religion Monks ascribe it to her Sanctity that she turned many Serpents in that Country into Stones Plenty of which Stones are found at this day about VVhitby the place of her Aboad having the Shape of Serpents but most headlesse as the Tale is truthlesse relating it to her Miraculous Operation Who knows not but that at Alderly in Glocestershire there are found Stones resembling Cockles or Periwincles in a place far from the Sea which are esteemed by the Learned the Gamesome Work of Nature sometimes pleased to disport it self and pose us by propounding such Riddles unto us 94. Some impute it also to Hilda her Holinesse A miracle imputed to her holiness that Wilde-geese when flying over the Grounds near her Convent fell down to the ground as doing Homage to the Sanctity thereof As the Credit of the Reporters hath converted wise men to believe the Thing so they justly remain incredulous that it proceedeth from any Miracle but secret Antipathy But as Philosophers when posed in Nature and prosecuted to render Reasons of her Mysteries took Sanctuary at Occulta Qualitas Monks in the same kind make their Refuge to the Shrine of some Saint attributing all they cannot answer to His or Her miraculous Operation Yea sometimes such is Monkish Impudence falsely to assign that to a Saint though all Chronologies protest against the Possibility thereof which is the plain and pregnant effect of Nature Witnesse when they b As Camden saith in Worcestershire write that Richard de la VVich Bishop of Chicester with his fervent Prayers obtained that the VViches or salt Springs should boil out of the earth in Durtwich in VVorcestershire which are mentioned and described by ancient Authours dead before the Cradle of the said Richard de la VVich was made 95. Look we now on the See of Canterbury Theodorus Arch-bishop of Canterbury and there after the Death of the last Arch-Bishop and four yeares Vacancy we find that Church hath changed her Latine into Greek 668 I mean dead Deus-dedit into Theodorus his Successour put in by the Pope This Theodorus was a Grecian by Name and Nation fellow-Citizen with Sâ— Paul born in c Acts 22. 3. Tarsus in Cilicia and herein like him that he d 1 Cor. 14. 18 spake with Tongues more then they all had more skill in learned Languages then all his Brethren Bishops of England in that Age. Yea as Children when young are permitted to Play but when of some yeares are sent to learn their Book so hitherto the Infant-Church of England may be said to have lost time for matter of Learning and now Theodorus set it first to School brought Books to it and it to Books erecting a well-furnished Library and teaching his Clergie how to make use thereof 96. I could wish this Theodorus had had one Quality more of S t. Paul 67 â…” that in matters Indifferent he would have been e 1 Cor. 9. 22. His fierceness to keep Easter after the Romish rite made all things to all men that by all means he might save some Anno Dom. 67 â…” Whereas he most rigourously pressed Conformity to Rome in the Observation of Easter and to that purpose a Councill was called at Herad-ford now Hartford and not Hereford as judicious and industrious Bishop Godwine partiall to the place where of he himself was Bishop doth mistake it Here Easter was settled after the Romish Rite and we are not sorry for the same willing rather it should be any way ordered then that the Reader with whom I sympathize more then grutch my own Pains should be troubled any longer with such a small-great Controversie low in it's own Merit but heightned with the Spleen and Passion of such as prosecuted it In this Synod nine other Articles were concluded of as they follow here in order out of Bede a Lib. 4. cap. 5. as Stapleton himself hath translated them 1. That no Bishop should have ought to do in another Diocese but be contented with the Charge of the people committed unto him 2. That no Bishop should molest or any wise trouble such Monasteries as were consecreated and given to God nor violently take from them ought that was theirs 3. That Monks should not go from place to place that is to say from one Monastery to another unlesse by the leave of their own Abbot but should continue in the Obedience which they promised at the time of their Conversion and entring into Religion 4. That none of the Clergie forsaking his own Bishop should run up and down where he list nor when he came any whither should be received without Letters of Commendation from his Diocesan And if that he be once received will not return being warned and called both the Receiver and he that is Received shall incurre the Sentence of Excommunication 5. That such Bishops and Clerks as are Strangers be content with such Hospitality as is given them and that it be lawfull for none of them to execute any Office of a Priest without the permission of the Bishop in whose Diocese they are known to be 6. That whereas by the ancient Decrees a Synod and Convocation ought to be assembled twice a year yet because diverse Inconveniences do happen among us it hath seemed good to us all that it should be assembled once a year the first day of August at the place called Clofeshooh 7. That no Bishop should ambitiously preferre himself before another but should all acknowledge the time and order of their Consecration 8. That the Number of Bishops should be encreased the number of Christian folk waxing daily greater but hereof at this time we said no further 9. That no man commit Advoutry nor Fornication that no man forsake his own Wife but for onely Fornication as the Holy Gospel teacheth And if any man put away his Wife being lawfully married unto him if he will be a right Christian man let him be joyned to none other but let him so continue still sole or else be reconciled again to his own Wife I wonder no mention herein of settling the Tonsure of Priests a Controversie running parallel with that of Easter according to
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
Monarchs of the Saxon Heptarchie but not successive and fixed in a Family but fluctuating from one Kingdome to another Egbert father to this Athelwolph was the first that atchieved this Monarchie and left it to this his Son not Monarcha factus but natus and so in unquestionable Power to make the foresaid Act obligatory over all the Land 9. Indeed Former Acts for Tithes infirme before his time many Acts for Tithes are produced which when pressed will prove of no great Validity Such are the Imperiall Edicts in Civil Law never possessed of full power in England as also the Canons of some Councils Popes never admitted into plenary Obedience by consent of Prince and People Adde to these first such Laws as were made by King Ina and Offa Monarchs indeed of England in their turns as I may say but not deriving the same to the Issue of their Bodies So that their Acts as personall may by some froward Spirits be cavilled at as determining with their own Lives Joyn to these if produceable any Provinciall Constitutions of an English Arch-bishop perchance Egbertus of York those might obey them who would obey being otherwise not subject to any civil Penalty But now this Act of Athelwolphus appears entire in all the Proportions of a Law made in his great Council equivalent to after Parliaments not only cum consilio Episcoporum with the Advice of his Bishops which easily may be presumed willingly to concurre in such a matter of Church-advancement but also Principum meorum of my Princes saith he the Consent of Inferiour persons not being required in that Age. 10. However Objections against this Act answered noting can be so strong but it may meet with Cavills though not to destroy to disturb the Validity thereof as this Act hath and we will severally examine the Defects charged upon it 1. Obj. Some object that Althelwolphus was but King of the West-Saxons as appears by his Stile Rex occidentalium Saxonum and not universall Monarch of England whose Act onely is obligatory to his own Subjects Let those of Cornwall Devon Somerset Dorset Hants VVilts and Berks pay Tithes by vertue of this Command other Parts of the Land are freed from the same because nihil dat quod non habet none can derive that to others which they enjoy not themselves being King but of a Part he could not lay this Law upon all the Land Ans He is tearmed eminently not exclusively King of the VVest-Saxons being fondest of that Title as his Fathers first Inheritance before he acquired the Monarchy of the whole Land There were indeed at this time two other Royalets as onely Kings by his leave viz Beorred King of Mercia and Edmond King of East-Angles who as it plainly appears by a Exemplified in S r. Henry Spelman's Councils pag. 348. Ingulphus were present at his Council and consented to the Acts thereof 2. Obj. The Consideration was superstitious Anno Dom. 855 to say so many Masses for the Souls of this King and his Captains when deceased Anno Rigis Ethelwolphi 18 Ans A double Consideration is mentioned in this Grant The first generall so pious in it's self no Exception can be taken thereat viz. to divert the imminents Iudgements of God from the Land hourly fearing the Invasion of fierce forraign Pagans so the better to secure the Nine parts thereof to himself and his Subjects by setting apart resigning and surrendring a Tenth to God the supreme Land-lord of all in such as attended his daily Service The second Consideration is more restrictive and particular and resents indeed of the Ignorance of that Age but yet is proportionable to the best Devotion those dayes produced and easily may an accidentall Abuse be purged by the pious Use intended and designed generally to Gods Glory 3. Obj. The King onely granted Tithes of his own Crown-land non in Dominio sed in Domintco suo not in all his Dominions but onely in his Demesnes Ans There needed no such solemn Consent of the Council of the Land for the passing away of his Private Bounty And that the Grant extended to the Kingdome in Generall appears by a Hen Hunting Hist l. 5. pag. 348. other Authours on the same Adelwolphus decimonono anno regni sui qui totam terram suam ad opus Ecclesiarum decimavit propter Amorem Dei c. More plainly another Authour In eodem anno decimavit Athulf rex de omni possessione sua in partem Domini in universo regimine sui Principatus sic constituit 11. Here we insist not on the many Arguments out of Old and New Testament Store no sore to prove Tithes to be Iure Divino which in due time may be produced when all Tempests of Tumultuous Spirits are allayed and when what the Town-Clerk of Ephesus promised to the Citizens thereof the Question may be determined b Acts 19. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a lawfull and ordinary Assembly without fear of Force and suspicion of Violence For two Strings to a Bow do not amisse being no Hinderance to the Archer for the better hitting of the Mark who may wind up one and use that for the present which he sees most for his own Conveience Mean time most true it is that men are not so conscientious to obey the Laws of God as fearfull to resist the Edicts of Men and therefore though farre be it from the Clergy to quit their Title to Tithes by Divine Right they conceive it the surest way sometimes to make use of Humane Injunctions as having the most potent Influence on mens Affections especially in this Age when the love of many both to God and Goodnesse beginneth to wax cold 12. A Reverend Doctour in Cambridge A pleasant passage and afterwards Bishop of Sarisbury was troubled at his small living at Hogginton with a peremptory Anabaptist who plainly told him It goes against my Conscience to pay you Tithes except you can shew me a place of Scripture whereby they are due unto you The Doctour returned Why should it not go as much against my Conscience that you should enjoy your Nine parts for which you can shew no place of Scripture To whom the other rejoyned But I have for my Land Deeds and Evidences from my Fathers who purchased and were peaceably possessed thereof by the Laws of the Land The same is my Title saith the Doctour Tithes being confirmed unto me by many Statutes of the Land time out of mind Thus he drave that Nail not which was of the strongest Metall or sharpest Point but which would go best for the present It was Argumentum ad hominem fittest for the person he was to meddle with who afterwards peaceably payed his Tithes unto him Had the Doctour ingaged in Scripture-Argument though never so pregnant pertinent it had been endelesse to dispute with him who made Clamour the end of his Dispute whose Obstinacy and Ignorance made him uncapable
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
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
safely rely Though a Second part of his Institut pag. 487. some have said that this was no Statute but made by the Prelates themselves yet that this is an Act of Parliament it is proved not onely by our books but also by an Act of Parliament 17. The King to his Judges Were it of concernment it were not difficult to name the Prime Judges of England at this time Viz. 1. In the Kings or Vpper-Bench either Ralph de Hengham or which is more probable one Wymborne was Judge 2. In the Common-Pleas Thomas de Weyland on that token that he was guilty of Bribery 3. In the Exchequer Adam de Stratton as faulty as the former But by the Judges named in this Writ for as this was an Act of Parliament so was there a Writ also founded thereon called Circumspectè agatis we understand some peculiar Commissioners dispatch'd and employed on this particular business 18. Concerning the Bishop of Norwich It is needless to tell the Reader that William Middeton was Bishop thereof at this time b Chronicon Osniense charactred to be Vir in Jure Civili Canonico peritissmus elegantissmus But Norwich is here put onely for example which equally extended to all the Bishops of the Realme 19. Si placitum tenuerint if they hold plea Placitum a Plea so called saith my c Linwood his Constit lib. 2. tit De Foro competenti Author per antiphrasin quia non places none being pleased to go to Law save Barreters who delight in brangling But what if it be called placitum because the Plaintife is pleased to submit his right in question to the pleasure of the Court to decide it 20. In Court Christian These words are left out in Linwood his Constitutions where all the rest is registred And where the recording thereof amongst the Provincial Canons of Canterbury gave the best countenance to their conjecture who degrade this Act of Parliament into a meer Church-Constitution It is called the Court Christian because therein the Laws of Christ do or should bear the decisive sway whilest the Statutes of Secular Princes regulate the proceedings in other Courts 21. Such things as be meerly spiritual This furnisheth us with a necessary distinction of all matters Into meerly and purely mixtly and partly spiritual Of the former we shall finde very few meerly spiritual For the Apostles sometimes conceived that the very distribution of Almes to the poor had something of worldly drossiness therein called by them d Acts 6. 2. serving of tables as if onely the preaching of the word were a spiritual employment Of the latter sort many things are mixtly spiritual For seeing man consists of two principles soul and body all his actions good or bad as to the minde-moiety or soul-part thereof must needs have at least a glance of spiritual reflection Here then the Quaere will be in matters mixtly spiritual whether the spirituality of them shall refine the rest so as to exalt the same into Church-cognisance or the corporality or earthliness of them depress them so as to subject them to civil consideration the decision hereof dependeth on the practice and custom of the Land as will appear hereafter 22. For deadly sin Distinguish we here betwixt a sin deadly to the soul drawing damnation without repentance and a deadly commonly called a capital crime deserving death by humane Laws The former onely is here intended the latter belonging wholly to the Common-Law Nor did the punishment of every mortal sin to use the language of that age belong to Church-men seeing if so as Linwood no less Learnedly then modestly confesseth Sic periret temporalis gladii jurisdictio Thereby the power of the temporal sword will wholly be taken away Long since had Doctors-Commons eaten up all the Inns of Court if all things reducible to deadly sins had pertained to the Court-Christian And therefore the Casuists themselves do qualifie and confine these words of indefinite extent to such crimes which de sui naturâ spectant ad Forum Ecclesiasticum 23. As first fornication Here saith Linwood thirteen cases are in specie recited though I dare not reckon them up fearing to make them lying so confusedly moe or less Fornication that is saith the Casuist Soluti cum soluta the uncleanness of a loose understand unmarried with a loose person 24. Adultery These two alone are specified because lying in a middle distance so the more conveniently to reach other sins of this kinde of higher or lower guilt 1. Higher as Incest 2. Lower Soliciting a womans chastity If any say that Adultery doth not belong to the Court-Christian because Christ himself would not punish an a John 8. 4. 11. adulteress taken in the act waving it as an improper imployment It is answered that our Saviour appearing in privacy and poverty and coming not to act but to suffer not to judg but be judged justly declined all judicial power But we see afterward how the Church of Corinth by S t Paul his command proceeded against the incestuous person and at this time Church-men cleanly carried the cognisance of such offences I say at this time it plainly appearing that in the Conquerors time Fornication and Adultery were punishable in the Kings Court and the Leets especially by the name of LETHERWITE and the fines of offenders assessed to the King though now it meerly belonged to the Church As for a Rape being Adultery or at leastwise fornication offered with violence the Common-Law hath justly reserved to it self the trial and punishment thereof 25. And such like Here is an interpretative et-caetera inserted in the body of a Parliament Act and a Writ grounded thereon causing some differences about the Dimensions thereof For if these words And such like relate onely to the last foregoing Fornication and Adultery in common construction most probable then they onely fetch in such offences which have some tincture of Carnal uncleanness But if they also refer to the mediate preceding words deadly sins behold a troop cometh beyond our power exactly to number them And here Forein Casuists bring in a bundle of mortal sins all grist for their own Mill as of Church-cognisance namely Sacriledg Usury Heresie Simony Perjury Fortune-telling consulting Astrologers Drunkenness c. But it matters not how long and large their bills be from beyond the Seas seeing our Common-Law brings their reckonings to a new account defalking a great part of that measure which they make to themselves in favour of Church-Jurisdiction 26. For that the Church is uncovered It belonged ever to the Priests to provide for the decent reparation of Gods-House Thus Jehoiada b 2 Chro. 24. was careful to amend the decayes of the Temple But though it pertained to Church-men to see the thing done yet several persons were to do it 1. The Steeple with the Body of the Church and all Chappels lying in common thereunto are to be repaired at the joyn cost of the Parish 2.
Private Chappels wherein particular persons claim a propriety of sepulture at their own charges 3. The Chauncel at the expence of the Parson However in all these such respect is had to the custom of the place time out of minde that it often over-ruleth the premisses Quaere Whether the Fences of the Church-yard be to be made on the Parish-charges or on the purse of the several persons whose ground surroundeth it or abutteth on the same * Oblations and Tythes It is a question which I believe will never be decided to the contentment of both Parties in what notion Tythes belong to the Court-Christian 1. The Canonists maintaine That Originally and ex sua natura they are of Ecclesiastical cognizance as commonly avouched and generally believed due Jure Divino Besides such the near relation of the Church and its maintenance that to part the oyl from the lamp were to destroy it They produce also the Confession in the Statute of the first of Richard the second That pursuit for Tythes ought and of ancient time did pertain to the Spiritual Court 2. The Common-Lawyers defend That Tythes in their own nature are a civil thing and therefore by Britton who being Bishop of Heresord and learned in the Laws of this Realm was best qualified for an unpartial Judg herein omitted when treating of what things the Church hath cognizance They * Bracton lib. 5. fol. 401. affirm therefore that Tythes were annexed to the Spirituality Thus they expound those passages in Statutes of Tythes anciently belonging to Court-Christian as intended by way of concession and not otherwise But the Canonists are too sturdy to take that for a gift which they conceive is their due left thanks also be expected from them for enjoying the same and so we leave the question where we found it 27. Mortuary Because something of history is folded up in this word which may acquaint us with the practice of this age we will enlarge a little hereon and shew what a Mortuary was when to be paid by whom to whom and in what consideration 1. A Mortuary a Linwood Constit lib. 1. fol. 11. c. de Consuetudine was the second best quick cattel whereof the party died possessed If he had but two in all such forsooth the charity of the Church no Mortuary was due from him 2. It was often bequeathed by the dying but however alwayes payed by his Executors after his death thence called a Mortuary or Corse-present 3. By whom No woman under Covert-Baron was lyable to pay it and by proportion no children unmarried living under their Fathers tuition but Widows and all possessed of an Estate were subject to the payment thereof 4. To whom It was paid to the Priest of the Parish where the party dying received the Sacrament not where he repaired to prayers and if his house at his death stood in two Parishes the value of the Mortuary was to be divided betwixt them both 5. It was given in lieu of small or personal Tythes Predial Tythes are too great to be casually forgotten which the party in his life-time had though ignorance or negligence not fully paid But in case the aforesaid Mortuary fell far short of full satisfaction for such omissions Casuists maintain the dying party obliged to a larger restitution So much of Mortuaries as they were generally paid at the present until the time of Henry the sixth when learned Linwood wrote his Comment on that Constitution How Mortuaries were after reduced to a new regulation by a Statute in the twenty first of Henry the eighth pertains not to our present purpose 28. For laying violent hands on a Priest The Ecclesiastical Judg might proceed ex officio and pro salute animae punish the offender who offered violence to a Priest but dammages on Action of Battery were onely recoverable at Common-Law Note that the arresting of a Clergy-man by Process of Law is not to be counted a violence 29. And in cause of Defamation Where the matter defamatory is spiritual as to call one Heretick or Schismatick c. the plea lay in Court-Christian But defamations with mixture any matter determinable in the Common-Law as Thief Murderer c. are to be traversed therein 30. Defamation it hath been granted From this word granted Common-Lawyers collect let them alone to husband their own right that originally defamations pertained not to the Court-Christian From the beginning it was not so until the Common-Law by Acts of Parliament granted and surrendred such suits to the Spirituality 31. Thus by this Act and Writ of Circumspectè agatis No end can end an everlasting difference King Edward may seem like an expert Artist to cleave an hair betwixt the spiritual and temporal jurisdiction allowing the premisses to the former and leaving whatever is not specified in this Act to the Cognizance of the Common-Law according to the known and common Maxime Exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis However for many years after there was constant heaving and shoving betwixt the two Courts And as there are certain lands in the Marches of England and Scotland whilest distinct Kingdomes termed Battable-grounds which may give for their Motto not Dentur justiori but Dentur fortiori for alway the strongest sword for the present possessed them So in controversial cases to which Court they should belong sometimes the Spirituality sometimes the Temporality alternately seized them into their Jurisdiction as power and favour best befriended them See more hereof on Articuli Cleri in the Reign of Edward the second But generally the Clergie complained that as in the blending of liquors of several colours few drops of red will give tincture to a greater quantity of white so the least mixture of Civil concernment in Religious matters so discolourated the Christian candor and purity thereof that they appeared in a temporal hue and under that notion were challenged to the Common-Law Sad when Courts that should be Judges turn themselves Plaintiffs and Defendents about the bounds of their Jurisdiction 32. We long since mentioned the first coming in of the Jews into England brought over by William the Conqueror and now are come this year to their casting out of this Kingdome A transition to the entire story of our English Jews having first premised some observables concerning their continuance therein 1290. If hitherto we have not scattered our History with any discourse of the Jews 18. know it done by design that as they were enjoyned by our Laws to live alone in streets by themselves not mixing in their dwellings with Christians so we purposely singled out their story and reserved it by it self for this one entire relation thereof 33. They were scattered all over England Their principal residence in London In Cambridg Bury Norwich Lin Stanford Northampton Lincoln York and where not But their principal aboad was in London where they had their Arch-Synagogue at the North corner of the Old-Jury as opening
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
Bonehomes or good men being also Eremites brought over into England by Richard Earl of Cornwall in the Reign of King Henry the third his Brother So styled not exclusively of other Orders but eminently because of their signall goodnesse Otherwise the conceit of the u Iohn Owen Epigrammist admiring that amongst so many Popes there should be but five Pious lies as strongly here That amongst so many Orders of Fryers there should be but one of Good men But indeed the Apostle himself makes a Good man a degree above a Righteous man w Rom. 5. 7â— For scarcely for a Righteous man will one die yet peradventure for a Good man some would even dare to die 25. These Bonehomes Their rich Revenues though begging Fryers the poorest of Orders and Eremites the most sequestred of begging-Fryers had two and I believe no more Covents in England absolutely the richest in all the Land Monks onely excepted the one in Asheridge in Buckingham shire now the Mansion of the truly Honorable E. of Bridgewater where I am informed more of a Monastery is visible this day than in any other house of England It was valued at the dissolution yearly at four hundred forty seven pounds eight shillings halfpeny The other at Edington in Wiltshire now known for the hospitality of the Lady Beuchampe dwelling therein Valued when dissolved at five hundred twenty one pounds twelve shillings halfpeny It seems that these Fryers though pretending to have nothing nec in proprio nec in communi would not cast their Caps I should say their Coules at rich Revenues if bestowed upon them but contentedly not to say cheerfully imbrace the same 26 I am affraid I have wronged the Crouched Fryers in their seniority Crouched Fryers who about the same time if not before the Bonehomes viz 1244 came over into England with the Pope's Authentick and this unusuall priviledge That none should reprove their Order or upbraid them or command them under pain of x Mâ—â— Park in Anno 1244. Excommunication They carried a Crosse some say on their Staves others on their Backs called in French a Crouch and justly might they be angry if their Propernesse were debased into Deformity on the same mistake whereon Edmund Crouch-back Brother to King Edward the first y Jo. Harding one of the comliest men alive is mis-represented to Posterity for Crooked-back'd meerly for assuming the Crosse on Him in the Holy Warre The place of Crouched-Fryers in London still retaineth their name 27. Soon after Fryers of the Sack Bethlemites one year viz 1257 produced two new Orders so that I know not how to martiall their Priority except to avoid Contests they will be pleased discreetly to use the Expedient betwixt the Company of Merchant Taylors and Skinners in London to take their precedency yearly by turns Both of them were fixed in Cambridge The first the Brethren De Poenitentiâ Iesu otherwise Brethren of the Sack whose Cell since is turned into Peter-house The other Bethlemites dwelling somewhere in z Mas. Park in Anno 1257. Trumpington-street and wearing a Starre with five Rayes on their backs But their Starre proved but a Comet quickly fading away and no more mention found of them in English Authors 28. I will conclude with the Robertines Fryers Robertines confounded by a Weavers Fun. Mon. p. 143. some distinguished by b Rein. de Ben. Apost p. 166. others from Fryers Trinitarians These owe their originall to one Robert Flower son of Took Flower who had been twice Major of Yorke the name lately remaining in that City who forsaking the fair lands left him by his Father betook himself to a solitary life about the Rocks in Niddsdale in Yorke-shire and it seems at Knaresborough the first and last House was erected for his Order c In his Hist in anno 1239. Matthew Paris reports that his Tomb abundantly cast forth a Medicinall Oyle which possibly might be the dissolving of some Gums used about his body and other naturall causes may be assigned thereof 29. For mine own eyes have beheld in the fair Church of Ilminster in Somersetshire Sweating moisture out of Tombs no Miracle the beautifull Tomb of Nicholas Wadham of Myrefield Esquire and Dorothy his Wife Founders of the uniform Colledge of Wadham in Oxford out of which in Summer sweats forth an unctious moisture with a fragrant smell which possibly an active fancy might make soveraign for some uses being nothing else than some bituminous matter as by the colour and scent doth appear used by the Marbler in joyning the chinks of the stones issuing out chiefly thereabouts 30. So much of Monks and Fryers Why so various the number of Monks as great being the variety amongst Historians about their number as amongst Criticks in reckoning up the Originall Languages and the difference almost proceedeth on the same account for as the miscounting of Dialects for Tongues causlesly multiplieth the number of those Languages So many mistaking graduall for specificall differences amongst Orders have almost doubled their true number on that misprision Master d Acts Mon. p. 260. Fox in the Reign of King Henry the third reckoneth up no fewer than an hundred and two Male-Orders of Monks and Fryers no Nuns being cast into the account but therein he confineth not himself to such as onely were extant in England but taketh in the whole compasse of Christendome therein to make up his Catalogue We have work enough upon our hands to insist upon such Orders as found footing in our Land especially the most principall of them For other inferiour Orders I purposely omit besides the grand ones of Templers and Hospitallers because largely handled in my Holy Warre As the Order of the Blessed Mary of reward which Mr. Lambert confoundes with the Crouched and Trinitarian Fryers for which my e Rein de Apost Benedict in Ang. p. 162. Author falls foul with his memory affirming these to be three distinct Orders Habitu fine constitutionibus Distinctions enough of all conscience to diversifie them and therefore greater the wonder that Mr. Lambert's pen should leap over this treble ditch to confound them into one Order 31. The aforesaid f Idem Author also chargeth him A Catholick causlesse accusation of Mr. Lambert as if he made his perambulation about Kent as done meerly out of spightfull designe to disgrace the Romish Religion never mentioning any Convent without mocking at them adding moreover That his Book contains fabulas ineptas crassa mendacia Mean time he advances Iohn Stow to the skies though confessing him farre inferiour to Mr. Lambert in learning for his sedulous distinguishing of those Orders and concludeth that Stow's Antiquities of London for the worth and truth thereof have often passed the Presse whilst the other his Description of Kent underwent the hand of the Printer no more than once Nor stops he here but useth so slovenly an expression it is
Sisters sixty 2. Priests thirteen 3. Deacons four 4. Lay-brethren eight In all Eighty five Where by the way know we must reckon seventy two Disciples which the n Luke 10. 1. Evangelist makes but just seventy and also put in S. Paul for the thirteenth Apostle or else it will not make up the summe aforesaid but it is all even with discreet persons be it over or above it This Order constantly kept their Audit on All-Saints Eve October 31 and the day after All-Souls being the third of November they gave away to the poor all that was left of their annual Revenue conceiving otherwise it would putrifie and corrupt if treasured up and be as heinous an offence as the Jews when preserving Manna longer than the continuance of one day These Brigetteans had but one Convent in England at Sion in Middlesex built by King Henry the fifth but so wealthy that it was valued yearly worth at the dissolution o Th WalsinghaÌ„ ut priù◠One thousand nine hundred forty four pounds eleven shillings eight pence farthing 41. No Convents of Nuns in England more carfully kept their Records than the Priory of Clarkenwell Spcel's Catal. of Religious Houses p. 793. to whose credit it is registred That we have a perfect Catalogue of their Prioresses from their foundation to their dissolution defective in all other Houses according to the order following viz 1. Christiana The Prioresses of Clerkenwell 2. Ermegard 3. Hawisia 4. Eleonora 5. Alesia 6. Cecilia 7. Margery Whatvile 8. Isabell 9. Alice Oxeney 10. Amice Marcy 11. Denys Bras 12. Margery Bray 13. Joan Lewkenor 14. Joan Fullham 15. Ratherine Braybroke 16. Luce Attwood 17. Joan Viene 18. Margaret Blakewell 19. Isabell Wentworth 20. Margaret Bull. 21. Agnes Clifford 22. Katherine Greene. 23. Isabell Hussey 24. Isabell Sackvile Had the like care continued in other Convents it had contributed much to the clearnesse of Ecclesiasticall Historie 42. Sir Thomas Challoner Tutour as I take it to Prince HENRY not long agoe built a spacious House within the Close of that Priory A good exchange upon the Frontispiece whereof these Verses were inscribed not unworthy of remembrance Casta fides superest velatae tecta Sorores Ista relegatae deseruere licèt Nam venerandus Hymen hic vota jugalia servat Vestalémque focum mente fovere studet Chast Faith still stayes behinde though hence be flown Those veyled Nuns who here before did nest For reverend Marriage Wedlock vows doth own And sacred Flames keeps here in Loyall brest I hope and believe the same may truly be affirmed of many other Nunneries in England which now have altered their properity on the same conditions 43. So much for the severall dates of Monks and Fryers Exactnesse in dates not to be expected wherein if we have failed a few years in the exactnesse thereof the matter is not much I was glad to finde so ingenuous a passage in Pitzeus so zealous a Papist with whom in this point I wholly concurre He speaking of the different Aeraes of the coming in of the Augustinians into England thus concludeth In r Pitz. in Indice Illust Angl. script p 974. tantâ sententiarum Varietate veritatem invenire nec facile est nec multùm refert The best is though I cannot tell the exact time wherein every Counter was severally laid down on the Table I know certainly the year wherein they were all thrown together and put up in the bagge I mean the accurate date of their generall dissolution viz Anno One thousand five hundred thirty and eight on the same signe that Sanders observeth a grand providence therein That Jesuits began beyond the Seas at the very same time we will not higgle with so frank a chapman for a few months under or over but taking his Chronology herein de bene esse one word of the name of that Order first premising a pleasant story 44. A Countrey-man A pleasant story who had lived many years in the Hercinian woods in Germany at last came out into a populous City demanding of the people therein What God they did worship It was answered him They worshipped Jesus Christ Whereupon the wilde Wood man asked the names of the severall Churches in the City which were all called by the sundry Saints to whom they were consecrated It s strange said he that you should worship JESUS CHRIST and he not have one Temple in all your City dedicated unto him But it seems Ignatius Loyola Founder of this new Order finding all other Orders consigned to some SAINT or other whence they take their denomination intended at last peculiarly to appropriate one to JESUS That as at that holy name every knee should bow So all other Orders should doe homage and submit to this his new one of Jesuits 45. Here Jesuats different from Jesuits had not better eyes than mine own made the discovery being beholden to M. Chemnitius therein I had never noted the nice difference betwixt JESUATS and JESUITS so neer in name though not in time but it seems in nature distinguished The former began at Siena in Italy in the year 1366 of whom thus Sabellicus Colligebantur ab initio domesticatim simplici habitu amicti multâ innocentiâ pietate viri victum sibi labore operâ quaeritantes Apostolici ab initio Clerici nuncupati Hi neque sacris initiantur neque celebrant Missarum solemnia tantùm orationi vacant Jesuati ab eo dicti quòd Jesu Regis summi frequens sit nomen in illorum ore c. Men of much innocence and piety were gathered in the beginning from house to house cloathed in poor habit and seeking their own livelyhood with labour and pains called from the beginning Apostolicall Clerks These neither were entred into Orders neither did celebrate the solemnity of Masses but onely bestowed themselves in prayer therefore called Jesuats because the name of Jesus was so frequent in their mouthes But it seems these Iesuats sunk down in silence when the Iesuits appeared in the world the former counting it ill manners in likeness of name to sit so near to those who were so farr their betters 56. All Orders may be said eminently extant in the Iesuits to and above the kinde Jesuits the best buttresses of the Romish Church the degree thereof and indeed they came seasonably to support the tottering Church of Rome For when the Protestants advantaged with Learning and Languages brought in the Reformation Monks Fryers were either so ignorant as they could not so idle as they would not or so cowardly that they durst not make effectual opposition as little skill'd in Fathers lesse in Scripture and not at all versed in Learned Languages As for the Franciscans I may say of them they were the best and * See Cent. 14. pag. â—40 worst schollars of all Fryers The best as most sublime in School-Divinity worst for if before their entrance into that Order they knew not
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
England reconciled to Rome wherein she parted with her Supremacy to the Pope and Poole by his power Legatine solemnly reconciled England to the Church of Rome that is set it at open oddes and enmity with God and his Truth Then did he dispense with much irregularity in severall persons confirming the Institution of Clergie-men in their Benefices legitimating the Children of forbidden marriages ratifying the Processes and Sentences in matters Ecclestasticall and his Dispensations were confirmed by Acts of Parliament as in the Statutes at large appear Then was Anthonie Brown Vicount Mountacute Thirleby Bishop of Eli and Sr. Edward Carne sent on a gratulatorie Embassie to Pope Paul the fourth to tender Englands thanks for his great favours conferred thereon A sad and certain presage of heavie persecution which immediately did ensue SECTION II. Anno. Dom. 1555 To Mr. THOMAS BOWYER of the Old Jury Merchant Anno Regin Mar. 3. YOu may with much joy peruse this sad story of Persecution presented unto you whose Grandfather Francis * * Afterward Sheriffe of London Anno. 1577. Bowyer brought no fewel to these flames but endeavoured to quench them The Church is indebted to him for saving reverend Dr. Alexander Nowel then School master of Westminster designed to Death by Bonner and sending him safe beyond the Seas Thus he laid a good foundation to which I impute the firm-standing of your family it being rare to see as in yours the third Generation in London living in the same Habitation May many more of the stock succeed in the same the desire of your obliged friend T F. 1. WE come now to set down those particular Martyrs that suffered in this Queens Reigne The disposing of the future matter But this point hath been handled already so curiously and copiously by Mr. Fox that his industry herein hath starved the endeavours of such as shall succeed him leaving nothing for their penns and pains to feed upon a Eccles 2. 12. For what can the man doe that cometh after the King even that which hath been already done saith Solomon And Mr. Fox appearing sole Emperour in this subject all posterity may despair to adde any remarkable discoveries which have escaped his observation Wherefore to handle this subject after him what is it but to light a candle to the Sunn or rather to borrow a metaphor from his book to kindle one single stick to the burning of so many faggots However that our pains may not wholy be wanting to the Reader herein we will methodize these Martyrs according to the several Diocesses and make on them some brief observations 2. In the Diocesse of Exeter containing Cornwall and Persecution in the Diocess of Exeter Devonshire I finde but one Martyr namely Agnes b Fox 2052. Priest condemned by William Stanford then Judge of the Assise of Lanceston but burned at Exeter The tranquility of these parts is truly imputed c Holinshed pag. 1309. to the good temper of James Turbervile the Bishop one as gentilely qualified as extracted and not so cruel to take away the lives from others as carefull to regain the lost livings to his Church and indeed he recovered to him and his successours the Fee-farme of the Manour of Crediton Yet to shew his sincerity in Religion that he might not seem to do nothing he dipp'd his fingers in this poor womans blood but did not afterwards wash his hands in the persecution of any other Protestant for ought we can finde in any history 3. The like quiet disposition of Gilbert Bourn In the Diocess of Bath and Wells Bishop of Bath and Wells secured Somerset shire Indeed he owed his life under God to the protection of a Protestant for Mr. Bradford at Pauls-crosse saved him from a dagger thrown at him in a tumult and this perchance made him the more tender to Protestants lives Yet in the Register of his Church we meet with one a Fox pag. 2004. Richard Lash condemned by him though his execution doth not appear and yet it is probable that this poor Isaac thus bound to the Altar was afterward sacrificed except some intervening Angel staied the stroak of the sword 4. So also the Diocess of Bristol In the Diocess of Bristol made up of Dorset-shire and part of Glocester-shire enjoyed much quietnesse John Holyman the Bishop did not for ought I can finde prophane himself with any barbarous cruelty But Mr. Dalby b Fox pag. 2052. his Chancellour as an active Lieutenant to a dull Captain sent three namely Richard Sharpe Thomas Benton and Thomas Hale to the stake at Bristol for the testimony of the truth This Dalby knowing himself to be low in parts and learning and despairing otherwise to appear in the world thought the onely way to recommend himself to mens notice was to do it by his cruelty 5. More sparks of persecution flew into the Diocess of Sarisbury In the Diocess of Sarisburie in Wiltshire and Barkshire under John Capon the Bishop and Dr. Geffray his Chancellour for this Dâ—eg was worse then Saul himself At Nubery he sent three Martyrs to heaven in the same charriot of fire c Fox pag. 1940. Jalius Palmer John Gâ—in and Thomas Askin Yea this was but a light flourish in respect of that great blow he intended had not heaven prevented him and many others of his bloody crew by the death of Queen Mary whereby to use Davids phrase God smote them d Psal 3. 7. on the cheek-bone and brake the teeth of the ungodly 6. In the Diocess of Winchester In the Diocess of Winchester consisting of Hantshire and Surrey I finde no great impression from Stephen Garainer the Bishop and much marvell thereat It may be this politician who managed his malice with cunning spared his own Diocess fox-like preying farthest from his own den Indeed he would often stay behind the traverse and send Bonner upon the stage free enough of himself without spurring to do mischief to act what he had contrived Yea I may say of Gardiner that he had an head if not an hand in the death of every eminent Protestant plotting though not acting their destruction And being Lord Chancellour of England he counted it his honour to flie at stout game indeed contriving the death of the Ladie Elizabeth and using to say that it was vain to strike at the branches whilest the roote of all Hereticks doth remain And this good Lady was appointed for the slaughter and brought to the shambles when the seasonable death of this butcher saved the sheep alive 7. However as bloody as he was for mine own part The Authours gratitude to Stephen Gardiner I have particular gratitude to pay to the memory of this Stephen Gardiner and here I solemnly tender the same It is on the account of Mrs. Clarke my great Grandmother by my mothers side whose husband rented Farnham-Castle a place whither Bishop Gardiner retired in Surrey as belonging
Farrar his immediate predecessour whom he caused to be burnt at Carmarthen We know whose counsell it was a Luk. 20. 14. This is the heire come let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours And Morgan never thought himself in quiet possession of his Bishoprick whilest Farrar was as yet in possession of his life However herein Morgan Out-Bonnered even Bonner himself who though not out of pitty of pollicy did not himself condemne Ridley his Predecessour but procured him to be sent to Oxford to be sentenced by others whereas this Bishop himself pronounced the sentence on Farrar an act which no good man could and no wife man would have done Thus have we briefly surveyed all the Diocesses in England The Universities of Cambridge and Oxford onely excepted which being Peculiars and exempt from Episcopal Jurisdiction are reserved for a particular description by Gods blessing at the end of this book Nor do we forget though acted out of the Continent of England that cruel murder in the Isle of Garnsey where the infant bursting out of the mothers wombe the cruell fire being so mercifull as to be the midwife to separate and tender the innocent babe from the condemned mother to the charity of the beholders was first taken out of the b Fox Volum 3. pag. 747. fire and then cast in again and burnt with the mother thereof 25. In all this Army of Martyrs The first and last of the Martyrs M r. John Rogers burnt in Smithfield Februarie the 4 th 1555. led the Vann and five Martyrs burnt at Canterbury November the 10 th 1558. namely John Cornford Christopher Browne John Herst John Snoth and Katharine Knight brought up the Rere according to their own prayer not to say prophesie at the stake that they might be the last as by Gods mercy it so proved All these were executed in the foure last years of Queen Maries Reigne none suffering in the first yeer thereof In which time the Butchers under Her did onely prepare their shambles for slaughter whet their knives and make ready their instruments of cruelty Comparisons I know are odious and the more when made betwixt persons of eminencie However to such as peruse the whole story these proportions will appear true Of all the Marian Martyrs M r. Philpot was the best borne Gentleman Bishop Ridley the profoundest Scholar M r. Bradford the holiest and devoutest man Arch-Bishop Cranmer of the mildest and meekest temper Bishop-Hooper of the sternest and austerest nature D r. Taylor had the merriest and pleasantest wit M r. Latimer had the plainest and simplest heart c. Oh the variety of these several instruments Oh their joynt harmony in a consort to Gods glory 26. It is observable The Sacrament of the Altar the greatest snare to Protestants that the Sacrament of the Altar was the main touchstone to discover the poor Protestants Many indeed are the differences betwixt us and the Romish Church but on this point the examiners pinched most Haply because in other controversies Protestants hunted after by those blood-hounds might take covert under some tolerable distinction and thereby evade the danger Whereas this point of the real corporal presence of Christ in the Sacrament the self same body that was crucified was such downe-right falsehood it was incapable of any palliation and was the compendious way to disover those of the contrary opinion This neck-question as I may terme it the most dull and duncicall Commissioner was able to aske and thanks be to God the silliest Protestant-soule brought before them was able to answer first by denying it then by dying in the defence of his denyall 27. Remarkable was their cruelty in pretorturing of many Cruelty of Papists in pretorturing Martyrs whom afterwards they put to death Herein akinn in their proceedings to Pilate first scourging then crucifying Christ By what law did Edmond Terrill first burne the hand of Rose Allen and her body afterwards Even by the same that Bonner first burnt the hand of Thomas Tomkins and then commanded him to be dispatched out of the way By the same law that Cuthbert Simpson was first cruelly rack'd and then burnt even by the law of their own might and malice not having otherwise any rag of legality to cover the shame of their cruelty Nature was mercifull in appointing that all men should once a Heb. 9. 27. die whereas had these Tyrants had the ordering thereof they would have made divers to have died sundry times yea such was their cruelty that after once they had b Psal 14. 4 eat up Gods servants if possible they would have chewed the cud upon them the second time 28. Some Commissioners privately were courteous to the Martyrs Some Cōmissioners of and by themselves courteous who notwithstanding publikely concurr'd to their condemnation It is Luthers observation that in Scripture son of man is alwayes taken in a good sense but sons of men generally in the worst acception Sure I am take some of these men sole and single by themselves they were well natur'd pittifull and compassionate but when in conjunction with others they became at least by consenting as cruel as the rest What favour did D r. Fuller Chancellour of Elie offer William Woolsey and Robert Piggot when alone yet when in complication with other Commissioners pronounced the sentence of condemnation upon them 29. Passe we now from the Judicial Ministerial Persecutours to the Ministerial Persecutours Sherisss Vnder-sheriffs Bayliffs Promoters Summoners c. The locusts had tails like c Revel 9. 10. unto Scorpions and there were stings in their tails So here in officers the baser the bloodier the meaner the more malicious though by particular exception some happened to be more mercifull then others Of the Twin-Sherisss in London M r. Woodroffe and Mr. Chester the former like Esau had his hands rough and hairy being rugged and surly to Gods servants whilest Mr. Chester Jacob-like had smooth hands kinde and curteous to such as suffered Thus Amrie as I take it the Sheriffe of Chester was most cruel to M r. George Marsh whilest the Sheriffe of Stafford-shire pitty it is M r. Fox hath not recorded his name was afterward persecuted for shewing so much favour to Mrs. Joyce Lewes at her execution when he said d Mr. Fox Vol. 3. pag. 8. 9. Difference in prisons Amen to her prayer desiring God to deliver this Realme from Papistrie 30. One prison may comparatively be a paradise in respect of another and generally 't is the Jaylour puts the difference betwixt them How passionately did poor Jeremy e Jer. 37. 20. plead Cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan the Scribe lest I die there And therefore he took it for a speciall favour to be sent to the Court of the prison How nastie a place was the dungeon of Malchiah into which Jeremiah was afterward f Jer. 38. 6. cast till Ebed-melech the blackmore drew him
favoured that they were made as capable of Degrees as if admitted Gremials in the University Anno Regin Mar. 6. At this day S t. Iohns hath a President Anno Dom. 1558. fifty Fellows and Schollars a Chaplain and a Clarke besides Servants Commoners and other students being in all an hundred and twenty 46. Queen Mary every day waxed more and more melancholy Calis lost the Queen melancholy whereof several causes are assigned Some conceive her Sorrowing that by negligence the Key of France Calis was slipt from her girdle which her predecessours wore by their sides more then two hundred yeers But now it is gone let it Goe it was but a beggerly Town which cost England ten times yearly more then it was worth in keeping thereof as by the a and in a manuscript of Sr. Robert Cottons own making Her grief at her husbands absence accounts in the Exchequer doth plainly appear 47. Others ascribe her sadness to her Husbands absence which had many and made more occasions to go and stay beyond the Seas after he had found England and not so usefull as he expected as having neither power therein nor profit thereby though as much as on the Articles of marriage was promised Him halfe so much as He had promised to himself Besides Queen Mary her Person was no gainer scarce a saver of Affection having her Fathers feature a face broad and big with her mothers colour a somewhat swarthy complexion 48. As Queen Mary was not over fair And death of a Dropsie King Philip was not over-fond especially after he began to despair of Issue from her Nov. 17. Indeed her Physitians hoped her to be with Childe till her misconceived pregnancy proved a Dropsy at the last whereof she died having reigned five years and odd moneths As for the suggestion of Osorius the Spaniard that the English Protestants attempted to poison her a learned b Haddon contra Osorium lib. 1. fol. 25. Author returns Nihil hujusmodi dictum nec scriptum fictum nec pictum being the bare Inventions of his scandalous Tongue 49. Within few howres after her death The death of Cardinal Poole died Cardinal Poole Arch-Bishop of Canterbury One who the longer He lived in England the less He had of an English-man daily more and more Italianating Himself and conversing most with the Merchants of that country Practising the principles of Italian thrift his Pompe was rather gawdy then costly and attendance ceremonious more than expensive By Bils of Exchange He made over much mony to Venice and Rome and fearing a banke in England if Queen Mary should faile provided Himself a banke beyond the Seas He procured of the Queen the Patronage of c Ant. Brit. in vita Poli. nineteen Benefices unto his Sce promised and intended to repair the Palace at Canterbury He was buried in His own Cathedral with this short and modest Epitaph on his plain Monument DEPOSITVM CARDINALIS POLI. 50. He alwayes had a favourable inclination to Protestants His good inclinations to be a Protestant though to wipe off the aspersion of Lutheranisme at last he grew somewhat severe against them but expressing it rather in wronging the Dead whose bones He burnt than hurting the Living The Papists accuse him for too much Indulgence to the married Clergy because only parting them from their Wives and depriving them from their Livings But soon afterwards d Sanders de schis Ang. lib. 2. pag. 307. preferring the same persons to Benefices of farr better Revenue He was an absolute Protestant in the point of justification much offended with the Proud errour of Osorius therein thus expressing himself e Haddon contra Osorium lib. 2. fol. 58. non potest viribus humanis nimium detrahi nec addi Divine Gratiae Too much cannot be taken away from mans power nor given to Gods Grace 51. He left Aloisius Priol Leaveth all his Estate to Italians a Gentleman of Venice his sole executor to dispose of his estate to pious uses chiefly on the relief of forrainers In England He had no want of neer Kindred and some of them for all their high birth neer a kin to want yet He passing them by ordered that his whole Estate should be conferred on Italians Some condemning some commending him for the same as a deed of Gratitude because those of that Nation had formerly for many yeers relieved his necessities His Executor so honestly discharged his Trust therein that he freely disposed the whole estate to the True Intent of the Testator In so much that he left not any thing thereof unto himself save onely two small Books viz. a a Antiq. Brit. in vita Poli. Breviary and a Diurnall for a meer Memoriall Thus died Cardinall Poole neither of Italian Physick willfully taken by himself as an English b Mr. Fox Acts Mon. pag. 2102. Author insinuats nor of Poison given to him by the Protestants as a c Pitzaeus de scrip Ang. Cent. pag. Spanish writer suggests Paul Osorins but of a quartan feaver then epidemicall in England and malignant above the ordinary nature of that Disease 52. The Funerals of Queen Mary were performed with much Solemnity and true sorrow of those of her own religion Queen Maries double funeral sermons d Pitz de scrip Ang. Cent. pag. White Bishop of Winchester preached the Sermon taking for his Text Ecclesiastes 9. 4. A living Dog is better then a dead Lion One not present at the Place might easily tell whom he made the Lion and whom the Dog Indeed he strawed all the flowers of his Rhetorique on Queen Mary deceased leaving not so much as the stalkes to scatter on her surviving sister This White being a Tolerable Poet for so * Camb. in his Eliz. in Anno 1559. p. 23. one charactereth him was an Intollerable Fatterer and made use of his Poetical Licence in the praise of Popery More modest and moderate was the Sermon of Feckenham Abbot of Westminster taking for his Text. Ecclesiastes 4. 2. I praise the Dead rather then the Living who preached also the â— Obsequies of Queen Mary either that he did it as an act of Supeerrogation or because it was conceived the more state for so great a Prince to have a Duplicate of such solemnities The best is the Protestants of that Age cared not how many so it be Funeral Sermons were preached for her 3. However Her deserved Praise take Queen Mary in her self abstracted from her Opinions and by her self secluded from her bloody councellours and her Memory will justly come under Commendation Indeed she knew not the Art of being popular and never cared to learn it and generally being given more to her Beads then her Book had less of learning or Parts to get it then any of her Fathers children She hated to equivocate in her own Religion and alway was what she was without dissembling her judgement or Practise for fear or
procuring the votes of the Nobility feeding the b 〈…〉 pag. 329. Earle of Arundell with fond hopes that she would marry him and promising the Duke of Norfolke a dispensation from his wife which he could not with such expedition obtain from the Pope and yet faith he when all was done it was carried in the house of Lords but by c Idem pag. 303. three voices Here not to mention how in the greatest Councells matters of most high concernment have been determined with as few as three clear decisive suffrages this suggestion of Sanders is a loud untruth for the Act having easily pass'd the house of Commons found none of the Temporall Nobility in the house of Lords to oppose it save only the d Camdens Elizabeth in this year pag 19. Earle of Shrewsbury And Anthony Brown Viscount Mountacute who had formerly been employed to reconcile the Kingdom of England to his Holiness As for the Bishops there were but fourteen and the Abbot of Westminster then alive of whom foure being absent whether Voluntarily or out of Sickness uncertain the rest could not make any considerable opposition If any other Artifice was used in cunning contriving the businesse the Protestants were not aforchand but just even with the Papists who had used the same subtilty in their own Cause in the first Parliament of Queen Mary 10. But now to remove into the Convocation The acts of this years Convocation which at this time was very small and silent For as it is observed in Nature When one Twinn is of an unusual Strength and bigness the other his partner borne with him is weak and dwingled away So here this Parliament being very active in matters of Religion the Convocation younger Brother thereunto was little imployed and less Regarded Only after a Mass of the Holy Ghost had been celebrated Edmond Bonner Bishop of London in the vacancie of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury President of the Convocation began with a speech to this effect That although it had been an ancient and laudable custome to begin such meetings of the Clergie with a Latine Sermon yet such now was not to be expected partly because the Arch-Bishop was Dead who was to designe the Preacher and partly because they had received a e Liber Synod Anno Dom. 1559. folio 15. mandate from the privy Councel that no such Sermons should be made in that Church till they were further informed by the Queeu and her Councel In the third Session on friday Nicholas Harpsfield Doctor of Law and Arch-Deacon of Canterbury was chosen f Ib. fol. 6. Referendary or Prolocutor for the Clergie a place of some Credit g fol. 8. but little pains to discharge seeing the only remarkable thing which passed in this Convocation was certain Articles of Religion Feb. 18. which they tendered to the * To the Bps. that they might present them to the Parli c. Parliament which here we both Transcribe and Translate requesting the Reader not to begrutch his pains to peruse them Considering they are the last in this kinde that ever were represented in England by a Legall Corporation in defence of the Popish Religion And though errour doth go out with a Stink yet it is a persume that it does go out We are so far from denying a grave to bury them that we will erect the * Copied by me out of the Original Monument over this ashes of these dead errours REVERENDI in Christo Patres ac Domini colendissimi Anno Dom. 1558 Quoniam fama publica referente ad nostram nuper notitiam pervenit multa Religionis Christianae Dogmata publice unanimi gentium Christianarum consensu hactenus recepta probata ac ab Apostolis ad nos usque concorditer per manus deducta prâ—esertim Articulos infra scriptos in dubium vocari Hinc est quod nos Cantuariensis Provinciae inferior secundarius Clerus in uno Deo sic disponente ac Serenissimae Dominae nostrae Reginae Decani Capituls Cant. mandato Brevi Parliamenti ac monitione Ecclesiastica solita declarata id exigente convenientes partium nostrarum esse existimavimus tunt nostrae tum eorum quorum cura nobis Committitur aeternae saluti omnibus quibus poterimus modis prospicere Quocirca majorum nostrorum exemplis Commoti qui in similia saepe tempora inciderunt fidem quam in Articulis infra Scriptis veram esse credimus ex animo profitemur ad dei Laudem honorem officiique aliarum nostrae curae commissarum exonerationem praentibus duximus publicè auferendam affirmantes sicut Deus nos in die Judicij Adjuvet asserentes Primò quod in Sacramento Altaris virtute Christi verbo suo à Sacerdote debitè prolato assistentis praesens est realiter sub speciebus panis vini naturale Corpus Christi Conceptum de Virgine Mariae Item naturalis ejus Sanguis Item quod post Consecrationem non remanet substantia panis vini neque alia ulla substantia nisi substantia Dei hominis Item quod in missa offertur verum Christi Corpus verus ejusdem sanguis sacrificium propitiatiorium pro vivis defunctis Item quod Petro Apostolo ejus legitimis successoribus in sede Apostclica tanquim Christi Vicariis data est suprema potestas pascendi regendi ecclesiam Christi militantem et fratres suos confirmandi Item quod Authoritas tractandi dissiniendi de ijs quae spectant ad fidem Anno Dom. 1457. Sacrantentum disciplinam ecclesiasticam hactenus semper spectavit spectare debet tantum ad Pastores Ecclesiae quos spiritus Sanctus in hoc in ecclesiam Dei Pasuit non ad Laicos Quam nostram assertionem affirmationem fidem Nos inferior Clerus praedictus considerationes praedictas Vestris Paternitatibus tenore presentium exhibemus humiliter supplicantes ut quia nobis non est copia hanc nostram sententiam intentionem aliter illis quos in hac parte interest notificandi Vos qui Patres estis ista superioribus Ordinibus significare velitis Qua in re Offictum charitatis ac Pietatis ut arbitramur praestabitis saluti gregis vestri ut par est Prospicietis vestras ipsi animas liberabisis REVEREND Fathers in Christ and our honourable Lords Whereas by the report of publique fame it hath come unto our knowledge that many Doctrines of the Christain Religion hitherto received and approved by the unanimous consent of Christian nations and with joynt agreement as by hands deduced from the Apostles unto us especially the Articles under-written are now called into question Hence it is that we the inferior and secondary Clergy of the Province of Canterbury assembled in one body God so disposing it and the Command of our Lady the Queens most excellent Majesty together with the mandate of the Dean and chapter of Canterbury the Parliament-Writ and
Anno 1630. it nothing related to those opinons he did or his followers do maintain For as I am credibly informed being by the Constable of the Parish who chanced also to be his God-son somewhat roughly and rudely required the payment of a rate he happ'ned in passion to strike him The Constable not taking it patiently as a castigation from a God-father but in anger as an affront to his office complained to S r. Rowland S r. John a neighbouring Justice of the peace and Brown is brought before him The Knight of himself was prone rather to pity and pardon than punish his passion but Browns behaviour was so stubborn that he appeared obstinately ambitious of a prison as desirous after long absence to renew his familiarity with his ancient acquaintance His Mittimus is made and a cart with a feather-bed provided to carry him he himself being so infirme above eighty to goe too unweldie to ride and no friend so favourable as to purchase for him a more comly conveyance To Northampton jayle he is sent where soon after he sickned died and was buried in a neighbouring Church-yard and it is no hurt to wish that his bad opinions had been interred with him 7. The Tenents of Brownists daily increasing June 4. 6. July 6. their books were prohibited by the Queens authority Two Brownists executed Notwithstanding which prohibition some presumed to disperse the same and paid dearly for their contempt therein For Elias a Stow Chronicle pag. 697. Thacker was hanged on the fourth and John Coping on the sixth of June at the same place St. Edmonds Burie and for the same offence the scattering such schismatical pamphlets 8. John Whitgift succeeding in the Arch-Bishoprick Sept. 24. found it much surcharged in the valuation Whitgift succeedeth him and empaired in the revenues through the negligence of his predecessour who would pay willingly what they asked of him and take contentedly what any tendered to him First therefore Whitgift b Sr. George Paul in his life pag. 28. procured an order out of the Exchequer for the abatement of an hundred pound for him and his successours in the payment of his first-fruits Afterwards he encountred no meaner man than that great Courtier Souldier and Privie-Councellour S r. James Crosts or rather he legally contested with the Queen in him and recovered from both long c Idem p. 29. Beachwood in Kent containing above a thousand acres of land detained from his predecessour under colour of a lease from Her Majesty 9. This d Camdens Eliz. in hoc Anno. year Nicholas Sanders more truly Slanders Death of Sanders had in Ireland a wofull end of his wretched life He was borne in Sâ—rrey bred first in Winchester then in New Colledge in Oxford where he was Kings-Professor of Canon-Law but afterwards banishing himself fled to Rome there made Priest and D r. of Divinity He accompanied Cardinal Hosius to the Councel of Trent and there is said by disputing and declaiming to have gained himself great reputation At last he was sent over Popes Nuncio into Ireland conceived then a desperate employment and therefore many Catholicks regreted thereat Yea some were overheard to say but it is e De scriptor Anglican aetate 16. pag. 773. Pitzaeus Sander's own sisters son who reports it Why does his Holiness send our Sanders into Ireland We value him more then all Ireland is worth There amongst the bogs and mountains was he starved to death justly famished for want of food who formerly had surfited on improbable lies by him first forged on the nativity of Queen Elizabeth 10. We must not forget Lewes burnt at Norwich how this year one John Lewes was burnt at Norwich for denying the Godhead of Christ and holding other detestable heresies He called himself f Stows Chron. pag. 697. Abdeit let him tell you what he meant thereby alluding therein to the promise of a new g Rev. 2. 17. name which no man knoweth but him that receiveth it having in it a little mock-Hebrew to make himself the more remarkable 11. Now 27. 1584. so great was the malice of the Jesuits against Her Majesty Popish libels that at this time they set forth many slanderous libels stirring up Her Subjects and Servants to do the same to Her as Judith did to h Camdens Eliz. in hoc Anno. Holofernes One of their principal pamphlets was intitled A Treatise of Schism The suspicion of making it fell on Gregory Martin one probable enough for such a prank as being Divinity Professor in Rhemes did not his Epitaph there i Pitzaeus Descript Anglic pag. 782. ensure me he was dead and buried two years before Though it is possible his posthume work might be born abroad after the death of the author thereof But whoever made it William Carter the Stationer paid dearly for publishing it being executed at Tiburn And in the next moneth five Seminaries John Fen George Haddock John Munden John Nutter and Thomas Hemmerford were hanged bowelled and quartered for treason at Tiburn and many others about the same time Anno Dom. 1584. Anno Regin Eliza. 27. executed in other places 12. Yet The Queen Her eminent mercy even in the midst of this necessarie severity Her Majesty was most mercifull unto many Popish malefactors whose lives stood forfeited to the Laws in the rigour thereof For no fewer then seventy Priests some of them actually condemned to die all legally deserving death were by one act of Grace pardoned and sent over beyond sea Amongst these were 1. Gaspar Heywood son to that eminent Epigrammatist the first a Camdens Eliz. 1584. Jesuite that ever set foot in England 2. James Bosgrave 3. John Hart a learned man zealous to dispute not dangerous to practice for his religion 4. Edward Rishton ungrateful wretch who afterwards railed in print on the Queen who gave him his life Her Majesties mercy herein was the more remarkable because done at a time when treasons against her person by Arden Summerfield Throgmorton c. did follow or rather tread one on another If hereafter the edge of justice fall sharper on Jesuits let them thank their own trechery which whetted it against themselves 13. This year two conferences or disputations were kept Two fruitless Conferences the last at Lambeth about the Discipline and Ceremonies of the Church 1. Whitgift Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Sandys of York and Cooper of Winchester for the same 2. Unconforming Ministers whose names I cannot certainly attain against it 3. The Lords of Her Majesties Privie Councell and some other persons of Honour Auditors thereof This Conference effected nothing on the disputants as to the altering of their opinions little on the Auditors but as much on all as any judicious person ever expected What Eliah said passionately b 1 King 19. 4. I am no better then my Fathers may be soberly said of this conference It was no happier then
soever under the degree of a Bishop or Dean at the least doe from henceforth presume to preach in any popular Auditory deep points of Predestination Election Reprobation or of the Universality Efficacy Resistibility or Irresistibility of GODS grace but leave those themes rather to be handled by the Learned men and that moderately and modestly by way of Use and Application rather than by way of Positive Doctrines being fitter for the Schools than for simple Auditories 4. That no Preacher of what title or denomination soever from henceforth shall presume in any Auditory within this Kingdome to declare limit or bound out by way of Positive Doctrine in any Lecture or Sermon the Power Prerogative and Jurisdiction Authority or Duty of Sovereign Princes or otherwise meddle with matters of State and the differences between Princes and the People than as they are instructed and precedented in the Homilies of Obedience and the rest of the Homilies and Articles of Religion set forth as before is mentioned by publique Authority but rather confine themselves wholly to those two heads of faith and good life which are all the subjects of the antient Sermons and Homilies 5 That no Preacher of what title or denomination soever shall presume caussesly or without invitation from the Text to fall into bitter investives and undecent railing speeches against the persons of either Papists or Puri tans but modestly and gravely when they are occasioned thereunto by the Text of Scripture free both the Doctrine and the Discipline of the Church of England from the aspersions of either Adversaries especially where the Auditory is suspected to be tainted with the one or the other infection 6. Lastly that the Archbishops and Bishops of the Kingdome whom His Majestie hath good cause to blame for their former remisness be more wary and choice in their licensing of Preachers and revoke all Grants made to any Chancellour Official or Commissary to passe Licences in this kinde and that all the Lecturers throughout the Kingdome of England a new body severed from the antient Clergy as being neither Parsons Vicars nor Curates be licensed henceforward in the Court of Faculties but onely from a Recommendation of the party from the Bishop of the Diocese under his hand and seale with a Fiat from the L. Archbishop of Canterbury a Confirmation under the Great Seal of England And that such as doe transgresse any one of these Directions be suspended by the Bishop of the Diocesse or in his default by the Archbishop of the Province ab Officio Beneficio for a year and a day untill his Majestie by the advice of the next Convocation shall prescribe some farther punishment 5. No sooner were these the Kings Declarations dispersed into every Diocesse Various censures on the Kings Letters but various were mens opinions thereof Some counted it a cruell act which cut off half the preaching in England all afternoon-ermons at one blow Others thought the King did but Uti jure suo doing not onely what in justice He might but what in prudence He ought in this juncture of time But hear what I have heard and read in this case Objections Answers 1. Christ grants Ministers their Commission Go teach all Nations S. Paul corroborates the same Preach the word be instant in season out of season Man therefore ought not to forbid what God enjoyns 2. This is the way to starve soules by confining them to one meale a day or at the best by giving them onely a messe of milk for their supper and so to bed 3. Such as are licensed to make Sermons may be intrusted to choose their own Texts and not in the Afternoons to be restrained to the Lords Prayer Creed and ten Commandements 4. In prohibiting the preaching of Predestination man makes that the forbidden fruit which God appointed for the tree of life so cordial the comforts contained therein to a distressed conscience 5. Bishops and Deans forsooth and none under their dignity may preach of Predestination What is this but to have the word of God in respect of persons As if all discretion were confined to Cathedral men and they best able to preach who use it the least 6. Papists and Puritans in the Kings Letters are put into the same ballance and Papists in the prime scale first named as preferred in the Kings care chiefly to secure them from Invectives in Sermons 7. Lecturers are made such riddles in the Kings Letters reduceable to no Ministerial function in England Whereas indeed the flower of piety and power of godlinesse flourished most in those places where such Preachers are most countenanced 1. Ministers if commanded not at all to speak or teach in the name of Jesus are with the Apostles to obey God rather than man But vast the difference betwixt a total prohibition and as in this case a prudential regulation of preaching 2. Milk catechetical Doctrine is best for babes which generally make up more than a moyety of every Congregation 3. Such restraint hath liberty enough seeing all things are clearly contained in or justly reducible to these three which are to be desired believed and performed 4. Indeed Predestination solidly and soberly handled is an antidote against despair But as many ignorant Preachers ordered it the cordial was turned into a poyson and therefore such mysteries might well be forborn by mean Ministers in popular Congregations 5. It must be presumed that such of necessity must be of age and experience and may in civility be believed of more than ordinary learning before they attained such preferment Besides Cathedrall Auditories being of a middle nature for understanding as beneath the University so above common City and Country Congregations are fitter for such high points to be preached therein 6. The Kings Letter looks on both under the notion of guilty persons Had Puritans been placed first such as now take exception at their post-posing would have collected that the King esteemed them the greatest offenders 7. Lectures are no creatures of the Church of England by their original like those mixed kinds little better than monsters in nature to which God as here the State never said multiply and encrease and therefore the King had just cause to behold them with jealous eyes who generally supplanted the Incumbents of Livings in the affections of their Parishioners and gave the greatest growth to Non-conformity These Instructions from His Majestie were not pressed with equall rigour in all places seeing some over-active Officials more busie than their Bishops tied up Preachers in the Afternoon to the very letter of the Catechisme questioning them if exceeding the questions and answers therein as allowing them no liberty to dilate and enlarge themselves thereupon 6. Expect not of me a particular account of the politick intricacies touching the Spanish Match A needlesse subject waved or no Match rather First because Spanish and so alien from my subject Secondly because the passages thereof are so largely and publickly in print
Mountaine Bishop of London had much adoe to make his Chaplains peace for licensing thereof the Printer and Translator being for some time kept in Prison 19. Yet after all this Yet still conâ—hued and after Merick Casaubon had written a Latine Vindication to give satisfaction to all Ann. Regis Ja. 22. Ann. Dom. 1624. the same Translation since is printed in Amsterdam with a Justificatory Preface of the former Edition So impudent are some falsly to father Books on worthy Authors to make them more vendible for their own profit though it discredit the memory of others 20. The businesse of the Palatinate being now debated by Martiallists None of the work counsel the Kings Councill of Warre disswading from regaining it in kinde advised Him rather to recover it in value where he could with the best conveniency out of the Spanish Dominions For the Palatinate was not worth the rewinning which grant recover'd by the English could not recover it self for many years such the havock and waste made therein Secondly it was hard to be gotten such the distance thereof and harder to be kept so ill-neighboured it was on all sides So that the King if so pleased might with as much honour and more ease carve out his own reparations nearer home 21. During these Agitations King Iames falleth sick K. James fell sick at Theobalds of a tertian Ague commonly called in Spring for a King rather Physicall than dangerous But soon after his Ague was heighten'd into a Fever four mischiefs meeting therein 22. First A confluence of four mischiefs the malignity of the Malady in it self hard to be cured Secondly an aged Person of sixty years current Thirdly a plethorick Body full of ill humours Fourthly the Kings aversness to Physick and impatience under it Yet the last was quickly removed above expectation The King contrary to His custome being very orderable in all His sicknesse Such sudden alterations some apprehend a certain prognostick of death as if when mens mindes acquire new qualities they begin to habit and cloath themselves for a new world 23. The Countesse of Buckingham contracted much suspition to her selfe A plaster applied to His wrists and her Son for applying a plaster to the Kings wrists without the consent of His Physicians And yet it plainly appeared that Dr. John Remington of Dunmoe in Essex made the same plaster one honest able and successful in his practice who had cured many Patients by the same a piece whereof applied to the King one eat down into His belly without the least hurt or disturbance of nature However after the applying thereof the King grew worse 24. The Physicians refused to administer physick unto Him till the plasters were taken off And Julip without the advice of His Physicians which being done accordingly His fift sixt and seventh fits were easier as Dr. Chambers said On the Monday after the plasters were laid on again without the advice of the Physicians and His Majestie grew worse and worse so that Mr. Hayes the Kings Chirurgeon was called out of his bed to take off the plasters Mr. Baker the Dukes servant made the King a Julip which the Duke brought to the King with his own hand of which the King drank twice but refused the third time After His death a Bill was brought to the Physicians to sign that the ingredients of the Julip and Plasters were safe but most refused it because they knew not whether the ingredients mentioned in the Bill were the same in the Julip and Plasters This is the naked truth delivered by oath from the Physicians to a select Committee two years after when the Parliament voted the Dukes act a transcendent presumption though most thought it done without any ill intention 25. Four daies before His death Catechized on His death-bed in His Faith and Charity He desired to receive the Sacrament and being demanded whether He was prepared in point of faith and charity for so great mysteries 〈◊〉 24. He said He was and gave humble thanks to God for the same Being desired to declare His faith and what He thought of those Books He had written in that kinde He repeated the Articles of the Creed one by one and said He believed them all as they were received and expounded by that part of the Catholick Church which was established here in England And said with a kinde of sprightfulnesse and vivacity that whatever He had written of this Faith in his life he was now ready to seal with his death Being questioned in point of charity He answered presently that He forgave all men that offended Him and desired to be forgiven by all Christians whom He in any wise had offended 26. Then after absolution read and pronounced His death He received the Sacrament and some hours after He professed to the standers by that they could not imagine what ease and comfort he found in himself since the receiving hereof And so quiedy resigned His soul to God having reigned twenty two years and three daies 27. He was of a peaceable disposition Of a peaceable nature Indeed when he first entred England at Barwick He himself gave fire to and shot off a * Stowes Chro. p. 819. piece of Ordnance and that with good judgment This was the onely military act personally performed by Him So that He may have seemed in that Cannon to have discharged Warre cut of England 28. Coming to Yorke Made Nobility lesse respected by the commonnesse thereof He was somewhat amazed with the equipage of the Northern Lords repairing unto Him especially with the Earl of Cumberland's admiring there should be in England so many Kings for less He could not conjecture them such the multitude and gallantry of their attendance But following the counsel of His English Secretary there present He soon found a way to abate the formidable greatness of the English Nobility by conferring Honour upon many persons whereby Nobility was spread so broad that it became very thin which much lessened the antient esteem thereof 29. He was very eloquent in speech His eloquence whose Latine had no fault but that it was too good for a King whom carelessness not curiosity becomes in that kinde His Scotch tone he rather affected than declin'd and though His speaking spoil'd His speech in some English ears yet the masculine worth of his set Orations commanded reverence if not admiration in all judicious hearers But in common speaking as in His hunting he stood not on the cleanest but nearest way He would never go about to make any expressions 30. His wit was passing-sharp and piercing And piercing wit equally pleased in making and taking a smart jest His Majestie so much stooping to His mirth that He never refused that coine which he paid to other folk This made Him please Himself so much in the company of Count Gondomer and some will say the King was contented for reasons best known
l. 5 s. 5 d. 5 Toft Monachorum Rectory in the Diocess of Norwich valued at 8 l. 6 Leisingham Vicaridgâ— in the Diocess of Norwich valued at 6 li. 7 Harsted Rectory in the Diocess of Norwich valued at 6 li. 10 s. 8 West-Rutham Vicaridge in the Diocess of Norwich valued at 7 li. 6 s. 8 d. 9 Prestcott Vicaridge in the Diocess of Chester valued at 24 li. 9 s. 10 Wotton Wowen Vicaridge in the Diocess of Coventry and Lichfield valued at 11 l. 9 s. 7 d. 11 Dowton Wallat Rectory in the Diocess of London valued at 16 l. Behold here the fruitfulness of one Vineyard a single Colledge and yet we have onely gathered the top-grapes such as were ripest in parts and highest in preferment How many moe grew on the under-boughs which were serviceable in Church and State Not to speak of many eminent persons still surviving amongst whom Mr. William Oughtred beneficed at Alberie in Surrey Prince of the Mathematicians in our age whose modestie will be better pleased with my praying for them than praising of them 16. Wonder not Why so few have been Benefactours to this House Reader that Benefactors are so few and benefaction so small to this royall foundation caused partly from the commpleteness thereof at its first erection partly from mens modestie that their meanness might not mingle it self with Princely magnificence Solomon f Eccles 2. 12 saith What can the man doe that cometh after the King It is petty Presumption to make addition to Kings workes and to hold benefaction in Coparcenarie with them 17. We read in John Rouse The instrumental advancers of so worthy a work how King Henry the fifth had a designe to build a Colledge in the Castle of Oxford the intended model whereof with the endowments to the same he affirmeth himself to have seen but prevented by death his son Henry performed his fathers will as to his general end of advancing Learning and Religion though exchanging the place from Oxford to Cambridge We read also in the Oxford g Brian Twine Antiq. Academ Oxon. pag. 318. Antiquarie how Henry Beaufort that pompous Prelate and Bishop of Winchester gave two thousand pounds to Henry the sixth for the advancing of this Colledge and how John Summerset Doctor of Physick to King Henry the sixth Sophister first in Oxford but afterwards graduated in Cambridge and twice Proctor thereof though not expressed in our Cambridge-Catalogue so imperfect is it was very active with his perswasions to King Henry and concurred much instrumentally to the foundation of this Colledge 18. He proceedeth to tell us Dr Sommerset said to be ingratefully used by Cambridge how the same Sommerset when aged fell into want and disgrace and coming to Cambridge for succour and support found not entertainment proportionable to his deserts Whereupon he publiquely complained thereof in eighty h Extraâ—t in Guil worcestr and cited by Brian Twine pag. 313. satyrical verses thus beginning Quid tibi Cantabriga dudum dulcissima feci Vultum divertis oh mihi dura nimis For mine own part I hate ingratitude be it in mine own mother but dare not here condemn her because ignorant of the cause of Sommerset's poverty Probably it might relate to the difference of the Crown and Lancaster interest so that in those dangerous days Cambridge her charity could not consist with her safety not daring to relieve him for fear of damnifyinging her self 19. How ticklish those dayes were King Edward the fourth a malefactour to this Colledge and with how evill an eye this Foundation from the line of Lancaster was looked upon by the House of York is too plaine in the practise of King Edward the fourth one whose love to learning and religion were much alike who at once took away from Kings Colledge a thousand pound land a year amongst which the fee-farme of the Manours of Chesterton and Cambridge Whereupon no fewer than i â—aius Hist Ac. Cant. pag. 68. fourty of the Fellowes and Scholars besides Conducts Clerkes Choristers and other Colledge-officers were in one day forced to depart the House for want of maintenance Indeed I have read that King Edward afterwards restored five hundred Marks of yearly revenue on condition they should acknowledge him for their Founder and write all their Deeds in his name which perchance for the present they were contented to performe However his restitution was nothing adequate to the injurie offered this Foundation insomuch that Leland complaines Grantam suam hanc jacturam semper sensuram That his Cambridge will for ever be sensible of this losse 20. One k Brian Twine Antiq. Acad. Ox. pag. 317. tells us An old debt well paâ—d that as Kings Colledge was first furnished from Eaton so Eaton was first planted from Winchester-School whence Henry the sixth fetcht five Fellows and thirty five eminenâ— Scholars to furnish his first foundation But let our Aunt know that this debt hath been honestly satisfied with plentifull consideration for the forbearance thereof For in the yeer of our Lord 1524. when Robert Shirton Master of Pembrooke-Hall was employed by Cardinal Wolsey to invite Cambridge-men some full blown in learning others but in the bud and dawning of their pregnancie to plant his foundation at Christ-Church Kings-Colledge afforded them many eminent Scholars then removed thither amongst whom were Rich. Cox afterwards School-master to King Edward the sixth John Frith afterward martyred for the truth John Frier a famous Physician of that age Hen. * MS. Hatcher of K. Coll. Anno 1518. Sumptner who at Christ-Church for his religion being hardly used died soon after with may moe eminent persons which l Vide infâ—â— Anno 1524. hereafter God willing shall be observed Thus Christ-Church in Oxford was first a Cambridge-Colonie Be this remembred partly that Cambridge may continue her original title to such worthy men and partly to evidence her return to her Sister of what formerly she had borrowed Otherwise it matters not on which of the two Branches learned men doe grow seeing all spring from one and the same root of the English Nation 21. I have done with this Foundation The Armes of Kings Colledge when I have told the Reader that King Henry the sixth under his great Seal by Act of Parliament confirmed a coat of Armes to this Colledge bearing in chief a flower of France and a Lion of England that it may appear to be the work of a King For my instructions herein I must direct my thankfulness partly to the memory of Mr. Thomas Hatcher who some seventy yeers since collected an exact catalogue of the Scholars Fellowes and Provosts of this house partly to Mr. Tho. Page of this house and Vice-Oratour of Cambridge who as he went over beyond the seas the credit of his Coll. and this University so God lending him life after his accomplishment in his travails is likely to return one of the honours of our Countrey 22. My Pen