Case that your Subjects should either examine by what right Ecclesiastical Government is Innovated or enquire how far they are bound thereby since beside that it might cause Division and hazzard the Overthrow both of the one and the other Authority it would give that Offence and Scandal abroad that Forein Princes would both reprove and disallow all our Proceedings in this kind and upon occasion be disposed easily to joyn against us Thus my Lord Herbert relates this excellent Speech But notwithstanding this Speech or whatsoever could be said against it the Popes Supremacy was excluded and the King Married Anne Boleign which is thus set down by Stow continued by How 's Pag. 554. KIng Henry upon occasion of these delays made by the Pope in his Controversie of Divorce and through Displeasure of such Reports as he heard had been made of him to the Court of Rome and Thirdly moved by some Counsellors to follow the example of the Germans caused a Proclamation to be made in the Two and twentieth year of his Reign forbidding all his Subjects to purchase any manner of thing from the Court of Rome And obtaining a Divorce from Queen Catherine his Wife by an Act of Parliament he privately Married Anne Boleign And upon that by another Act of Parliament the Pope with all his Authority was clean banished his Realm and Order taken that he should no more be called Pope but Bishop of Rome and the King to be taken and reputed as Supream Head of the Church of England having full Authority to Reform all Errors Heresies and Abuses in the same It was further Enacted by another Act of Parliament That no Person should Appeal for any Cause out of this Realm to the Court of Rome but from the Commissary to the Bishop from the Bishop to the Archbishop from the Archbishop to the King and all Causes of the King to be tryed in the Upper-House of Parliament Moreover the First-Fruits and Tenths of all Ecclesiastical Dignities and Promotions were granted to the King Thus far Stow. This Deserting of the Pope is thus related by Dr. Heylyn in the Preface of his History of Reformation KIng Henry the Eighth being violently hurried with the Transport of some private Affections And finding that the Pope appeared the greatest Obstacle to his desires he extinguished his Authority in the Realm of England This opened the first way to the Reformation and gave encouragement to those who inclined unto it To which the King afforded no small countenance out of Politick Ends. But for his own part he adhered to his Old Religion severely Persecuting those that Dissented from it And died though Excommunicated in that Faith and Doctrine which he had sucked in as it were with his Mothers milk And of which he shewed himself so stout a Champion against Luther Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the beginning of this prodigious Change of Religion The first Opposition against this sudden Change was a Sermon of one Friar Peto in opposition to the King 's second Marriage Thus related by Howes upon Stow Pag. 562. THe First that openly resisted or reprehended the King touching his Marriage with Anne Boleign was one Friar Peto a simple Man yet very Devout of the Ordâ—… of the Observants This Man Preaching at Greenwich upon the Two and twentieth Chapter of the third Book of the Kings to wit the last part of the story of Achab saying Even where the Dogs licked the Blood of Nabaoth even there shall Dogs lick thy Blood also O King And therewithal spake of the Lying Prophets which abused the King c. I am saith he that Micheas whom you will hate because I must tell you truly that this Marriage is unlawful And I know that I shall eat the Bread of Affliction and drink the Water of Sorrow yet because our Lord hath put it into my mouth I must speak it And when he had strongly enveighed against the King's second Marriage to diswade him from it he also said There are many other Preachers yea too many which Preach and Perswade you otherwise feeding your folly and frail Affections upon hope of their own worldly Promotion and by that means betray your Soul your Honour and Posterity to obtain Fat Benefices to become Rich Abbots and get Episcopal Jurisdiction and other Ecclesiastical Dignities These I say are the Four hundred Prophets who in the spirit of Lying seek to deceive you But take good heed lest you being seduced find Achab ' s punishment which was to have his Blood licked up by Dogs saying that it was one of the greatest miseries in Princes to be daily abused by Flatterers The King being thus reproved endured it patiently and did no violence to Peto But the next Sunday Dr. Curwin Preached in the same place who most sharply reprehended Peto and his Preaching calling him Dog Slanderer base beggarly Friar Rebel Traytor saying that no Subject should speak so audaciously to Princes And having spoken much to that effect and in Commendation of the King's Marriage thereby to Establish his Seed in his Seat for ever c. He then supposing that he had utterly suppressed Peto and his partakers lifted up his voice and said I speak to thee Peto which makest thy self Micheas that thou mayst speak evil of Kings But now thou art not to be found being fled for fear and shame as being unable to answer my Arguments And whilst he thus spake there was one Elstow a fellow Friar to Peto standing in the Rood-loft who said to Dr. Curwin Good Sir you know that Father Peto as he was Commanded is now gone to a Provincial Council held at Canterbury and not fled for fear of you for to morrow he will return again In the mean time I am here as another Micheas and will lay down my Life to prove all those things true which he hath taught out of the holy Scripture and to this Combate 〈◊〉 challenge thee before God and all equal Judges even unto thee Curwin I say which art one of the Four hundred false Prophets into whom the spirit of Lying is entred and seekest by Adultery to establish a Succession betraying the King unto endless Perdition more for thine own vain Glory and hope of Promotion than for discharge of thy clogged Conscience and the King's Salvation This Elstow waxed hot and spake very earnestly so as they could not make him cease his Speech until the King himself bad him hold his peace And gave Order that He and Peto should be Convented before the Council which was done the next day And when the Lords had rebuked them then the Earl of Essex told them that they had deserved to be put into a Sack and cast into the Thames Whereunto Elstow smiling said Threaten these things to Rich and Dainty Persons who are clothed in Purple fare Deliciously and have their chiefest hope in this World For we esteem them not but are joyful that for the discharge of our Duty we are driven hence
submitting themselves to the King for being found guilty of a Premunire were the first that called him Supreme Head of the Church yet with this restriction So far as it was according unto Gods Word and not otherwise In his Four and twentieth year an Act of Parliament was made That no Person should Appeal for any Cause out of this Realm to the Court of Rome In his Twenty sixth year an Act was made which Authoriz'd the King to be Supreme Head of the Church of England and the Authority of the Pope to be abolish'd and then also was given to the King the First Fruits and Tenths of all Spiritual Livings and this Year were many put to death Papists for denying the Kings Supremacy Protestants for denying the Real Presence in the Sacrament nor is it credible what numbers suffered death for these two Causes in the last Ten Years of the Kings Reign of whom if we should make particular mention it would reach a great way in the Book of Martyrs In his Eight and twentieth Year the Lord Cromwel was made Vicar General under the King over the Spirituality and at least Four Hundred Monasteries were suppress'd and all their Lands and Goods conferred upon the King by an Act of Parliament In his One and thirtieth Year was set forth by the Bishops the Book of the Six Articles and all the rest of the Monasteries were conferred upon him Lastly In his Thirty fifth Year all Colleges Chantries and Hospitals were given to him Thus Sir Rich. Baker Here you have had a short view of the Beginning and sad Effects of this Prodigious Change of Religion begun by King Henry the Eighth A Further PROSECUTION Of these HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS Concerning a Second Change of Religion Made for POLITICK ENDS And of the Occurrences concerning it In the Reign of King EDWARD the Sixth A Preamble THIS is a Summary Account of this King's Reign as to these matters of Religion taken out of the Preface of Dr. Heylyn's History of Reformation Where after a brief Narration of King Henry the Eighth's Deserting the Pope he gives this following Account of his Son King Edward the Sixth The Relation whereof begins thus Next comes his Son Edward the Sixth upon the Stage whose Name was made use of to serve Turns withal and his Authority abused to his own undoing In his First year the Reformation was resolved on but on different ends endeavoured by some Bishops and others of the Lower Clergy and promoted with the like Zeal and Industry but not with like Integrity by some great Men about the â—…rt Who under Colour of removing corruptions out of the Church had cast their eyes upon the Spoil of Shrines and Images though still preserved in the greatest part of the Lutheran Churches and the improving their own Fortunes by the Chantry Lands All which they most Sacrilegiously divided amongst themselves without admitting the poor King to share with them though nothing but the filling his Coffers by the Spoil of the one and the Encrease of his Revenue by the fall of the other was openly pretended in the Conduct of it But to speak no more of this the work chiefly intended was vigorously carried on by the King and his Counsellors as appears by the Doctrinals in the Book of Homilies and by the Practical part of Christian Piety And here the business might have rested if Calvin's Pragmatical Spirit had not interposed He first began to quarrel at some passages in the Liturgy and afterwards never left Soliciting the Lord Protector and practising by his Agents on the Court the Country and the Universities till he had laid the first Foundation of the Zuinglian Faction who laboured nothing more than Innovation both in Doctrine and Discipline to which they were encouraged by nothing more than some improvident Indulgence granted unto John Alasco who bringing with him a mixed multitude of Poles and Germans obtained the Priviledge of a Church for himself and his distinct in Government and Form of Worship from the Church of England This much animated the Zuinglian Gospellers to practice first upon the Church who being Countenanced if not Headed by the Earl of Warwick who then began to undermine the Lord Protector first quarrelled the Episcopal Habit and afterwards enveighed against Caps and Surplices against Gowns and Tippets But fell at last upon the Altars which were left standing by the Rules of the Liturgy The touching upon this string made excellent Musick to most of the Grandees of the Court who had before cast many an envious eye on those costly Hangings that massy Plate and other Rich and Precious things which adorned those Altars And what need all this wast said Judas when one poor Chalice only and perhaps not that might have served the turn Beside there was no small spoil to be made of Copes in which the Priest Officiated at the Holy Sacrament Some of them being made of Cloth of Tissue Cloth of Gold and Silver or Embroydred Velvet the meanest being made of Silk or Sattin with some decent Trimming And might not these be handsomely converted unto private uses to serve as Carpets to their Tables Coverlets to their Beds or Cushions for their Chairs and Windows Hereupon some rude People are encouraged under-hand to beat down some Altars which makes way for an Order of the Council-Table to take down the rest and set up Tables in their places followed by a Commission to be executed in all parts of the Kingdom for seizing on the Premises for the King's use But as the Grandees of the Court intended to defraud the King of so great a booty and the Commissioners to put a cheat upon the Court-Lords who employed them in it So they were both prevented in some places by the Lords and Gentry of the Country who thought the Altar-cloths together with the Copes and Plate of their several Churches to be as necessary for themselves as for any others This Change drew on the Alteration of the former Liturgy but almost as unpleasing to the Zuinglian Faction as the former was In which conjuncture of Affairs King Edward the Sixth died From the begining of whose Reign the Reformation began All that was done in order to it under King Henry the Eighth seemed but accidental only and by the by rather designed on Private Ends than out of any settled purpose of a Reformation and therefore intermitted and resumed again as those Ends had variance But now the great Work was carried on with a constant hand the Clergy cooperating with the King and the Council for the effecting of it But scarce had they brought it to this pass when King Edward died whose Death I cannot reckon for an infelicity to the Church of England For being ill principled in himsels and easily enclined to embrace such Counsels as were offered to him it is not to be thought but that the rest of the Bishopricks before sufficiently impoverished must have followed Durham and the poor Church be left as destitute
Preached and Written partly by divers the natural born Subjects of this Realm and partly being brought in hither from sundry other Forein Countries hath been sowen and spread abroad within the same By reason whereof as well the Spirituality as the Temporality of this Kingdom have swerved from the Obedience of the See Apostolick and declined from the Unity of Christ's Church and have so continued until such time as your Majesty being settled in the Royal Throne the Pope's Holiness and the See Apostolick sent hither unto your Majesty as a Person undefiled and by God's Goodness preserved from the common infection aforesaid and to the whole Realm the most Reverend Father in God the Lord Cardinal Pool to call us home again into the right way from whence we have all this long while wandred and strayeâ—… abroad And we after sundry long and grievous Plagues and Calamities seeing by the Goodness of God our own Errors have acknowledged the same unto the same most Reverend Father in God and by him been and are received and embraced into the Unity and bosom of Christ's Church upon our humble submission and promise made for a Declaration of our Repentance to Repeal and Abrogate such Acts and Statutes as had been made in Parliament since the said Twentieth year of the said King against the Supremacy of the See Apostolick as in our Submission exhibited appears The tenor whereof here ensueth We the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons Assembled in this present Parliament in the Name of our selves and the whole Kingdom do declare our selves very sorry and repentant of the Schism and Disobedience committed in this Realm and the Dominions thereof against the See Apostolick either by making agreeing or executing any Laws Ordinances or Commands against the Supremacy of the said See or otherwise by doing or speaking any thing that might impugn the same Offering our selves and promising by this our Supplication that for a token and acknowledgment of our said repentance we be and shall be always ready to the utmost of our Power to do what lies in us for the abrogating and the repealing of the said Acts and Ordinances in this present Parliament c. Whereupon we most humbly desire your Majesty to set forth this our most humble Suit That we may obtain from the See Apostolick release and discharge from all danger of such Censures and Sentences as by the Laws of the Church we are fallen into and that we may as Children repentant be received into the bosom and unity of Christ's Church so as this Noble Realm withal the members thereof may in this unity and perfect obedience to the See Apostolick serve God and your Majesty to the furtherance and advancement of his Honor and Glory c. This Petition being granted They further add We being now at the Intercession of your Majesty assoiled discharged and delivered from Excommunication Interdiction and other Censures Ecclesiastical which have hanged over our heads for our said faults since the time of the said Schism mentioned in our Supplication May it therefore now please your Majesty That for the better accomplishment of our promise made in the said Supplication we may Repeal All Laws and Statutes made contrary to the said Supremacy and See Apostolick during the said Schism Thus as to the Repealing of all such Laws made in the Reign of King Henry the 8th Another Act for the Repealing of certain Statutes made in the time of King Edward the Sixth FOrasmuch as by divers and several Acts of Parliament made in the time of King Edward the Sixth as well the Divine Service and good Administration of the Sacraments as divers other matters of Religion which we and our Fore-fathers found in this Church of England to us left by the Authority of the Catholick Church be partly altered and in some part taken from us and in place thereof New Things imagined and set forth by the said Acts such as a few of singularity have of themselves devised Whereof hath ensued amongst us in a very short time numbers of diverse and strange Opinions and diversity of Sects and thereby grown great unquietness and much discord to the great disturbance of the Kingdom And in a very short time like to grow to extreme peril and utter confusion of the same unless some remedy be in that behalf provided Which Thing all True Loving and Obedient Subjects ought to fore-see and to provide against to the utmost of their power c. Be it therefore Enacted c. A third Act for the Repeal of Two several Acts made in the time of King Edward the Sixth touching the Dissolution of the Bishoprick of Durham WHereas there hath been time out of mind of any man to the contrary a See of a Bishop of Durham commonly called The Bishoprick of Durham which hath been one of the most Ancient and worthiest Bishopricks in Dignity and Spiritual Promotion within the Realm of England and the same place always supplied and furnished with a man of great Learning and Virtue which was both to the Honor of God and the encrease of his True Religion and a great Surety to that part of the Realm Nevertheless the said Bishoprick was without any just cause or consideration by Authority of Parliament Dissolved Extinguished and Exterminated And further by the Authority of the said Parliament it was Ordained and Enacted That the said Bishoprick together with all the ordinary Jurisdiction thereunto appertaining should be adjudged clearly dissolved and extinguished and that King Edward the Sixth should from thence-forth have possess and enjoy to him his heirs and successors for ever whatsoever did appertain or belong to the said Bishoprick in as large and ample manner and form as any Bishop thereof had held or possessed or of right ought to have had held or possessed c. Be it therefore Enacted c. Thus far as to these Acts of Parliament CHAP. IV. A Relation of some English Protestants that forsook the Kingdom and of the Factions and Schisms that were amongst them being in other Countries Anno Reg. Mar. 3. Dr. Heylyn pag. 59. MAny English Protestants forsook the Kingdom to the number of Eight Hundred who having put themselves into several Cities partly in Germany and partly amongst the Switzers and their Confederates kept up the Face and Form of an English Church in each of their several Congregations Their principal retiring places amongst the last were Arow Zurick and Geneva And in the first the Cities of Emden Strasburgh and Frankfort In Frankfort they enjoyed the greatest privileges and therefore resorted thither in greatest numbers which made them the more apt unto Schisms and Factions At their first coming to the place they were permitted to have the use of one of their Churches which had before been granted to such French exiles as had repaired thither on the like occasion yet so that the French were still to hold their Right the English to have the use of it one day
thereof Some of the Lutherans had given out on the former ground That the English had deservedly suffered the greatest Hardships both at home and abroad because they Writ and Spake so irreverently of the Blessed Sacrament Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the Lutherans detesting an English Protestant Nothing occurring more in this Queens Reign as to these matters of Religion we will now give an Account of the years when these Changes were made with an Addition of some works of Piety done by Her and in Her time IN the First year of this Queens Reign All Bishops that had been deprived in the time of King Edward the Sixth were restored to their Bishopricks and the new removed Also this year on the Twenty seventh of August the Service was sung in Latin in St. Paul's Church The Pope's Authority being likewise by Act of Parliament restored in England and the Mâ—…ss Commanded in all Churches to be used In her Second year the Realm is Absolved and Reconciled to the Church of Rome and First Fruits and Tenths restored to the Clergy In her Third year Eight hundred English Protestants sorsook the Kingdom who fell into great Confusions amongst themselves being in other Countries In her Fourth year Monasteries were be gun to be re-edified In her Fifth year great endeavors were used by Sectaries to raise Sedition by Seditious Books and unlawful Meetings or Conventicles In her Sixth year She built Publick Schools in the University of Oxford Which being decayed in tract of time and of no beautiful Structure when they were at the best were taken down In place whereof but upon a larger extent of Ground was raised that Goodly and Magnificent Fabrick which we now behold Works of Piety The Queen restored a great part of the Abbey-Lands that were in her Possession In her First year Sir Thomas white then Mayor Erected a College in Oxford called S. John's College He also Erected Schools at Bristow and Reading and gave Two thousand pounds to the City of Bristow to purchase Lands the profits whereof to be employed for the benefit of young Clothiers In her Third year died Sir John Gresham late Mayor of London who Founded a Free-School at Holt in Norfolk and gave to every Ward in London Ten pounds to be distributed to the Poor Also to Maids-Marriages Two hundred pounds Cuthbert Tunstal Bishop of Durham Erected a goodly Library in Cambridge storing it with many Excellent both Printed and Written Books He also bestowed much upon Building at Durham at Alnewick and at Tunbridge Thus Sir Richard Baker Here you have had a short View of the great Zeal and Piety that was in this Nation during the Reign of this Queen And this delivered from the mouths of her Enemies the most zealous Protestants This Account being here ended we will now proceed to relate what Changes were made as to Religion in Queen Elizabeths time Wherein the Scene was totally Altered She following the Example of her Father and Brother in going on with the Destructions and Confusions begun by them The Last Part Of these HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS Concerning A Fourth Change of Religion Made for POLITICK ENDS And of the Occurrences concerning it In the Reign of Queen Elizabeth A Preamble BEfore we begin this Queens Reign we will following Dr. Heylyn's order first make a Relation out of him of the various Fortunes of her Mother Anne Boleign of whom thus he writes in his History of Reformation pag. 86. Anne Boleign from her tender years was brought up in the Court of France Who returning into England was preferred to be Maid of Honor to Queen Catherine In whose Service the King falls in Love with her But so long concealed his Affections that there was a great League contracted betwixt her and the young Lord Peircy Son to the Earl of Northumberland But that being broken off by the endeavors of Cardinal Wolsey and the King laboring for a Divorce from Queen Catherine that he might Marry her that also was sought to be obstructed by the Cardinal Which being understood by Mrs. Anne Boleign she seeks all ways for his destruction and prevailed so far with the King that he was presently Indicted and Attainted of a Praemunire and not long after by the Counsel of Thomas Cromwel who had sormerly been the Cardinals Solicitor in his Legatine Court envolves the whole Clergy in the same Crime with him And by perswasion of this man he requires of the said Clergy to acknowledge him for Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England and to make no new Canons and Constitutions not to Execute any such when made by his consent And having thus brought his own Clergy under his Command he was the less solicitous how his matters went in the Court of Rome concerning his Divorce Whereupon he privately Marries Mistris Anne Boleign And a long time after to wit Three or Four Months after the Birth of the Princess Elizabeth began a Parliament in which the Kings first Marriage was declared Unlawful and the Succession of the Crown settled upon His Issue by this Second Marriage An Oath being devised in maintenance of the said Succession and not long after Moor and Fisher were Executed for refusing to take that Oath The New Queen being thus settled and considering that the Pope and She had such different Interests that they could not subsist together She resolved to suppress his Power what she could But finding that the Pope was too well entrenched to be dislodged upon a sudden it was advised by Cromwel to begin with taking in the Outworks first which being gained it would be no hard matter to beat him out of his Trenches In order whereunto a Visitation is begun in which a diligent Enquiry was to be made into all Abbey's Priories and Nunneries within the Kingdom an Account of which Visitation and the Dâ—…ssolution of Abbeys hath been formerly given in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth But the New Queen for whose sake Cromwel had contrived that Plot did not live to see this Dissolution For such is the uncertainty of Humane Affairs that when she thought her Self most Secure and free from Danger She became most obnoxious to the ruine prepared for Her It had pleased God upon the Eighth of January to put an end unto the Calamities of the Virtuous but unfortunate Queen unto whose Bed she had succeeded The News whereof she entertained with such contentment that she caused her self to be apparelled in lighter Colours than was agreeable to the season or the sad occasion Whereas if she had rightly understood her own Condition She could not but have known that the long Life of Queen Catherine was to be her best preservation against all changes which the King 's loose Affections or any other Alteration in the Affairs of State were otherwise like to draw upon her But this Contentment held not long For within Three Weeks after She fell in Travail in which she miscarried of a Son to the extreme discontent of the
the Congregation managing their own Affairs apart from the rest of the Kingdom The principal Leaders of the Party well followed by the Common People put themselves into Perth and there begin to stand upon higher terms than before they did The news whereof occasioneth Knox to leave his Sanctuary in Geneva and joyn himself unto the Lords of the Congregation At Perth he goes into the Pulpit and falls so bitterly on Images that the People in a popular fury deface all the Images in that Church and presently demolish all the Religious Houses within that City Those of Couper hearing of it forthwith destroy all the Images and pull down the Altars in that Church also Preaching at Craile he enveighed sharply against the Queen-Regent and vehemently stirred up the people to joyn together for the expulsion of the French Which drew after it the like destruction of all Altars and Images as was made before at Perth and Couper The like followed on his Preaching at St. Andrews also the Religious Houses being pulled down as well as the Images and laid so flat that there was nothing left in the form of a building Inflamed by the same Fire-brand they burned down the Rich Monastery of Schone and ruined that of Cambus-braneth demolished all the Altars Images and Convents of Religious persons in Sterling Lithgow Glascough Edenburgh making themselves masters of the last and putting up their own Preachers into all the Pulpits of the City not suffering the Queen Regent to have the use of One Church only for her Devotions Nor staid they here but being carried on by the same ill Spirit they pass an Act amongst themselves for Depriving the Queen-Regent of all place and Power in the Publick Government Concerning which the Oracle being first consulted returned this answer sufficiently ambiguous as all Oracles are that is to say That the iniquity of the Queen Regent ought not to with draw their hearts from the Obedience due to their Sovereigns Nor did he wish any such sentence to be pronounced against her but when she should change her course and submit her self to good counsel there should place be left unto her of regress to the same Honors from which for good causes she ought to be deprived This Act is intimated to the Queen-Regent who ordered her business so well that they were quickly brought to great extremity and had been soon suppressed but for the Succors they received from England Thus Dr. Heylyn This Rebellion is thus delivered by Sir Rich. Baker Page 475. IT happened that there was a Reformation begun in Scotland But was indeed an Encroachment upon the Princes Authority For at the Preaching of Knox and other head-strong Ministers not only great Outrages were committed in Churches but it was likewise put into the heads of the Nobility That it pertained to them of their own Authority to take away Idolatry and by force to reduce the Prince to to the prescript of the Laws Whereupon there was presently a banding of the Lords of Scotland against the Queen-Dowager Regent of the Country and England fomenting and supporting the Rebellion the Queen was at last worsted and forced to fly into England Where contrary to promise of being friendly received by Queen Elizabeth she was kept Eighteen years in prison and afterwards beheaded The Order of whose Death and Execution was as follows The sentence of Condemnation being pronounced against her some Earls were sent to Fotheringham where She was kept prisoner These together with Sir Amias Paulet and Sir Drue Drury with whom she was then in custody go to the Queen and reading their Commission signifie the cause of their coming and in a few words admonish her to prepare her self for death For that she must die the next day whereunto without any change of her countenance or passion of mind she made answer I had not thought that my Sister the Queen would have consented to my death who am not subject to your Laws But since it is her pleasure death shall be to me most welcome Then she requests that she might confer with her Confessor and Melvyn her Steward But the first would not be granted her The Bishop or Dean of Peterborough they offered her but them she refused The Earls being departed from her she gave order that Supper should be hastned where she eat as she used to do soberly and sparingly And perceiving her men and women-Servants to lament and weep she comforted them and bid them rejoyce rather that she was now to depart out of a world of misery After Supper she looks over her Will reads the Inventory of her Goods and Jewels and writ their Names severally to whom she gave any of them At her wonted hour she went to bed and after a few hours sleep awaking spent the rest of the night in her devotion And now the Fatal day being come she gets up and makes her ready in her best Apparel and then betook her self to her closet to Almighty God imploring his assistance with deep sighs and groans Until Thomas Andrews Sheriff of the County gave notice 〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to come forth And then with a 〈◊〉 Majesty and cheerful countenance 〈◊〉 came out her head covered with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and carrying an Ivory-Crucifix in 〈◊〉 hand In the Gallery the Earls met her and the other Gentlemen Where Melvyn her Servant upon his knees deplored his own Fortune that he should be the Messenger to carry this sad news into Scotland Whom she comforted saying Do not lament Melvyn you shall by and by see Mary Stuart freed from all her cares Then turning her self to the Earls she requested that her Servants might stand by at her death Which the Earl of Kent was very loath to grant for fear of Superstition To whom she said Fear nothing These desire only to give me my last farewel And I know the Queen my Sister would not refuse me so small a request After this the two Earls leading the way with the Sheriff of the County she came to the Scaffold which was set up at the upper end of the Hall where was a Chair a Cushion and a Block all covered with Mourning Then she falling upon her knees and holding up the Crucisix in both her hands prayed with her Servants out of the Office of our Lady Prayers being ended she kissed the Crucisix and signing her self with the sign of the Cross she said As thy Arms O Christ were stretched forth upon the Cross so embrace me with the open Arms of thy Mercy And then the Executioner asking her pardon she forgave him And now her Women helping off her outward Garments and breaking forth into shreeks and cries she kissed them signed them with the Cross and willed them to leave lamenting for now an end of her Sorrows was at hand And then shadowing her face with a linnen cloth and lying down on the Block she repeated the Psalm In Te Domine Speravi non confundar in aeternum At which words she
of Lands and Ornaments as when she came into the World in her Natural Nakedness Nor was it like to happen otherwise in the following Reign of Queen Jane if it had lasted longer than a Nine-days wonder For Dudley of Northumberland who then ruled the rost and had before dissolved and in hope devoured the wealthy Bishoprick of Durham might easily have possessed himself of the greatest part of the Revenues of York and Carlisle By means whereof he would have made himself more absolute on the North-side of Trent than the poor Titular Queen had been on the South-side of it To carry on whose Interest and maintain her Title the poor remainder of the Churches Patrimony was in all probability to have been shared amongst those of the Party to make them sure unto that side Thus far out of Dr. Heylyn ' s Preface Summarily concerning this Rapine and Sacriliege which followed this Second Change of Religion Now in the History it self Page 33. Dr. Heylyn begins orderly to treat of the Reign of this King as to matters of Religion as will appear by what shall be here said CHAP. I. Of the many Policies used in the Introducing this Second Change of Religion Anno Regni Edwardi Sexti 1. THE Solemnities of the Coronation being passed the Grandees of the Court began to entertain some thoughts of a Reformation In which they found Archbishop Cranmer and some other Bishops to be as forward as themselves but on different ends endeavoured by the Bishops out of Zeal but by the Courtiers upon a hope of enriching themselves by the spoil of Bishopricks To the Advancement of which Work the Conjuncture seemed to be as proper as they could desire Fot first the King being of such tender Age and wholly governed by the Wâ—…ll of the Lord Protector who had declared himself a Friend to the Lutheran party in the time of King Henry was easie to be moulded into any form And as the Champions of the Papacy were removed out of all Office so it was thought expedient for the better carrying on of the Design not only to release all such as had been committed unto Prison but also to recal all such as had been forced to abandon the Kingdom for not submitting to King Henries Six Articles But the business was of greater moment than to expect the coming back of these Men. Wherefore neither to lose time nor to press too much at once upon the People it was thought fit to smooth the way to the intended Reformation by setting out some Preparatory Injunctions and this to be done by sending out Commissioners into all parts of the Kingdom armed with Instructions to enquire into all Ecclesiastical Concernments Which Commissioners were accompanied with Preachers appointed to instruct the People And that they might not cool or fall off again from what they had been taught they were to leave some Homilies with the Parish-Priest which the Archbishop had composed Now besides the Points contained in the said Injunctions the Preachers were to perswade them from Invocation of Saints Praying for the Dead Images Use of Beads Ashes Processions Mass Dirges c. All which was done to this intent That the People being prepared by little and little might with more ease and less opposition admit the total Alteration in the face of the Church which was intended in due time to be introduced Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Policy Another Policy But there was something more than the Authority of a Minor King which drew on such a general Conformity to these Injunctions and thereby smoothed the way to those Alterations both in Doctrine and Worship which the Grandees of the Court and Church had began to fashion The Lord Protector and his Party were more experienced in Affairs of State than to be told That all great Counsels tending to Innovation in the Publick Government especially where Religion is concerned are either to be back'd by Arms or otherwise prove destructive to the undertakers For this cause he resolves to put himself at the Head of an Army as well for the security of his Person and the preservation of his Party as for the carrying on of the Design against all Opponents And for the raising of an Army there could not be found a fairer colour nor a more popular pretence than a Wat with Scotland not to be made on any new Emergent Quarrel which might be apt to bread suspition in the heads of the People but in pursuit of the great Project of the King Deceased for uniting that Realm by a Marriage to the Crown of England On this Pretence Levies are made in all parts of the Kingdom He entertained also certain Regiments of Walloons and Germans because they were conceived more likely to enforce Obedience if his Design should meet with any opposition than the natural English Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this War with Scotland A Third Policy But in the first place care was taken that none of the Neighboring Princes should either hinder his Proceedings or assist the Enemy That which seemed to give most satisfaction to the Court of France was the performance of a Solemn Obsequy for King Francis the First Whose Funerals were no sooner Solemnized in France but Order was given for a Dirge to be sung in all the Churches of London as also in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in the Quire whereof hung with Black a sumptuous Hearse was set up for the present Ceremony And the next day Archbishop Cranmer assisted with Eight other of the Bishops all in their rich Miters and other their Pontificals did sing a Mass of Requiem the Funeral Sermon being Preached by Dr. Ridley This great Solemnity being thus honorably performed the Commissioners for the Visitation were dispatched to their several Circuits and the Army drawn to their Rendezvous Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning what was done before the calling of a Parliament CHAP. II. Of what was done in Parliament in order to the Establishing this Change of Religion Dr. Heylyn Page 47. A Parliament began upon the Fourth of November in which the Cards were so well pack'd by Sir Ralph Sadler that there was no need of any further Shuffling till the end of the Game This very Parliament without any sensible Alteration of the Members of it being continued until the Death of the King And though this Parliament consisted of such Members as disagreed amongst themselves in respect of Religion yet they agreed well enough together in one common Principle which was to serve the present time and preserve themselves which appears plainly by the strange mixture of the Acts and Results thereof some tending to the present Benefit and Enriching of particular Persons And some again being devised on purpose to prepare a way for exposing the Revenues of the Church unto spoil and rapine There was an Act made in King Henry the Eighths time Inhibiting the reading of the Old and New Testament in the English Tongue But this was here abrogated together with all
First-Fruits For the better drawing on of which Concession it was pretended that the Patrimony of the Crown had been much dilapidated and that it could not be Supported with such Honor as it ought to be if Restitution were not made of such Rents as were of late dismembred from it Upon which ground they also passed an Act for the Dissolution of all such Monasteries Convents and Religious Orders as had been Founded and Established by the Queen deceased When the Act of Parliament concerning the Supremacy came to be Debated it seemed to be a thing abhorrent even in Nature and Policy that a Woman should be declared Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England But those of the Reformed Party meant nothing else than to contend about words so they might gain the Point they aimed at Which was the stripping of the Pope of all Authority within these Dominions and fixing the Supream Ecclesiastical Power in the Crown Imperial And this they did not by the Name of Supreme Head which they perceived might be lyable to some just Exceptions but which comes all to one of Supreme Governess Thus Dr. Heylyn I will here insert a Speech made in this Parliament against this Supreme Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Authority granted to the Queen The Person that spake it was Nicholas Heath who was First Bishop of Worcester and Lord President of Wales Afterwards Archbishop of York and Embassador into Germany And made Lord Chancellor of England by Queen Mary in the year of our Lord 1555 and continued until he did surrender it up in Queen Elizabeth's time to Sir Nicholas Bacon The Person from whom I had this Speech is yet living who told me That he found it in Manuscript amongst Papers and Notes of his great Grandfather George Parry who had been High Sheriff of Hereford-shire in the Second year of the said Queen A Speech Made in the Upper House of Parliament against the Supremacy to be in her Majesty by Nicholas Heath Lord Chancellor of England in the first year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth above 100 years since In the Original Copy it is stiled A Tale told in Parliament For Oaths the Land shall be cloathed in Mourning My Lords WIth all humble Submission of my whole Discourse to your Wisdoms I purpose to speak to the Body of this Act touching the Supremacy that so what this Honourable Assembly is now a doing concerning the passing of this Act may thereby be better weighed and considered by your Wisdoms First When by the Virtue of this Act of the Supremacy we must forsake and fly from the See of Rome it would be considered what matter lieth therein and what matter of danger or inconvenience or else whether there be none at all Secondly If the intent of this Act be to grant or settle upon the Queens Majesty a Supremacy it would be considered of your Wisdoms what this Supremacy is and whether it doth consist in Spiritual Government or Temporal If in Temporal what further Authority can this House give Her more than what She already hath by right of Inheritance And not by our Gift but by the Appointment of God Being our Sovereign Lord and Lady our King and Queen our Empress and Emperor And if further than this we acknowledge Her to be Head of the Church of England we ough also to grant that the Emperor or any other Prince being Catholick and their Subjects Protestants are to be Heads of their Church Whereby we shall do an Act as disagreeable to Protestants as this seems to Catholicks If you say The Supremacy consists in Spiritual concernments Then it would be considered what the Spiritual Government is and in what points it doth chiefly consist Which being first agreed upon it would be further considered of your Wisdoms whether this House may grant it to her Highness or not And whether her Highness be an apt Person to receive the same So by through Examination of these parts your Honors shall proceed in this matter groundedly upon such sure knowledge as not to be deceived by ignorance Now to the First Point wherein I promised to examine what matter of weight danger or inconvenience might be incurred by this our forsaking and flying from the Church of Rome if there were no further matter therein than the with-drawing our Obedience from the Popes Person supposing that he had declared himself to be a very Austere and Severe Father to us then the business were not of so great importance as indeed it is as will immediately here appear For by relinquishing and forsaking the Church or See of Rome we must forsake and fly from all General Councils Secondly From all Canonical and Ecclesiastical Laws of the Church of Christ. Thirdly From the Judgment of all other Christian Princes Fourthly and Lastly We must forsake and fly from the Holy Unity of Christ's Church and so by leaping out of Peter's Ship we hazard our selves to be over-whelmed in the waves of Schism of Sects and Divisions First Touching the General Councils I shall name unto you these Four The Nicene Council the Constantinopolitan Council the Ephesine and the Chalcedon All which are approved by all Men. Of these same Councils Saint Gregory writeth in this wise Sicut enim Sancti Evangelii quatuor Libros sic haec quatuor Concilia Nicenum Constantinopolitanum Ephesinum Chalcedonense suscipere ac venerari me fareor That is to say in English I confess I do receive and reverence those Four General Councils of Nice Constantinople c. even as I do the Four Holy Evangelists At the Nicene Council the first of the Four the Bishops which were there Assembled did write there Epistles to Sylvester then Bishop of Rome That their decrees then made might be confirmed by his Authority At the Council kept at Constantinople all the Bishops there were obedient to Damasus then Bishop of Rome He as chief in the Council gave Sentence against the Hereticks Macedonius Sabellius and Eunomius Which Eunomius was both an Arrian and the first Author of that Heresie That only Faith doth justifie And here by the way it is much to be lamented that we the Inhabitants of this Realm are much more inclined to raise up the Errors and Sects of Ancient condemned Hereticks than to follow the True Approved Doctrine of the most Catholick and Learned Fathers of Christ his Church At the Ephesine Council Nestorius the Heretick was condemned by Celestine the Bishop of Rome he being chief Judge there At the Chalcedon Council all the Bishops there Assembled did write their humble Submission unto Leo then Bishop of Rome wherein they did acknowledge him there to be their Chief Head Six Hundred and Thirty Bishops of them Therefore to deny the See Apostolick and its Authority were to contemn and set at nought the Authority and Decrees of those noble Councils Secondly We must forsake and fly from all Canonical and Ecclesiastical Laws of Christ his Church whereunto we have already professed our
Answer that it is a True Church of God where Jesus Christ is truly taught and his Sacraments rightly Administred how can we disburthen our selves of our forsaking and flying from that Church which we do confess and acknowledge to be of God When with that Church which is of God we ought to be One and not to admit of any Separation If you Answer the Church of Rome is not of God but a Malignant Church then it will follow that we the Inhabitants of this Realm have not as yet received any Benefit of Christ seeing we have received no Gospel or other Doctrine nor no other Sacraments but what was sent unto us from the Church of Rome First in King Lucius his days at whose humble Epistle the Holy Martyr Elutherius then Bishop of Rome did send into this Realm two Holy Monks Fugatius and Damianus by whose Doctrine and Preaching we were first brought to the knowledge of the Faith of Jesus Chrrst of his Holy Gospel and his most Holy Sacraments Then Secuâ—…y 〈◊〉 St. Gregory being Bishop of Rome did senâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Realm two other Holy Monks St. Austin 〈◊〉 the Apostle of England and Milletus to receive the very self same Faith that had been before planted here in this Realm in the days of King Lucius Thirdly and Last of all Paulus Tertius being Bishop of Rome did send hither the Lord Cardinal Pool his Grace by Birth a Nobleman of this Land his Legate to restore us unto the same Faith which the Martyr St. Eleutherius and St. Gregory had Planted here many years before If therefore the Church of Rome be not of God but a false and Malignant Church then have we been deceived all this while seeing the Gospel the Doctrine Faith and Sacraments must be of the same nature as that Church is from whence it and they came and therefore in relinquishing and forsaking that Church the Inhabitants of this Realm shall be forced to seek further for another Gospel of Christ other Doctrine other Faith and Sacraments than we have hitherto received Which will breed such a Schism and Error in Faith as was never in any Christian Realm And therefore of your Wisdoms worthy of Consideration and maturely to be pondered and be provided for before you pass this Act of Supremacy Thus much touching the First chief Point Now to the Second Deliberation wherein I promised to move your Honors to consider What this Supremacy is which we go about by vertue of this Act to give unto the Queen and wherein it doth consist whether in Spiritual Government or Temporal But if Spiritual as these words in the Act do import Supream Head of the Church of England immediately and next unto God Then it would be considered in what Points this Spiritual Government doth consist and the Points being well known it would be considered Whether this House hath Authority to grant them and her Highness Ability to receive them And as concerning the Points wherein Spiritual Government doth consist I have in reading the Gospel and the whole course of Divinity thereupon as to my Vocation belongeth observed these Four as chief among many others whereof the first is The Power to loose and bind Sins When our Saviour in ordaining Peter to be Chief and Head-Governor of his Church said unto him Tibi dabo Claves Regni Coelorum c. That is To thee will I give the the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. Now it would be considered by your Wisdoms whewhether you have sufficient Authority to grant unto her Majesty this first Point of Spiritual Government and to say unto Her Tibi dabimus c. To Thee will we give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven If you say Yea then do we require the sight of Warrant and Commission by the Virtue of God's Word And if you say No then you may be well assured and perswade your selves that you have not sufficient Authority to make her Highness Supream Head of the Church of Christ here in this Realm The Second Point of Spiritual Government is gathered out of these words of our Saviour Christ spoken to St. Peter in the 20th Chapter of St. John's Gospel Pasce Pasce Pasce That is Feed my Lambs Feed my Lambs Feed my Sheep Now whether your Honors have Authority by this Court of Parliament to say unto our Sovereign Lady Pasce Pasce Pasce c. That is to say Feed you the Flock of Christ you must shew your Warrant and Commission for it And further it is evident that Her Majesty being a Woman by Birth and Nature is not qualified by God's word to feed the Flock of Christ appears most plainly by St. Paul in this wise Taceant Mulieres in Ecclesiis sicut lex dicit Ler Women be silent in the Church for it is not Lawful for them to speak but to be in subjection as the Law saith And it followeth in the same place Turpe est enim Mulieres loqui in Ecclesiâ that is for that it is not seemly for a Woman to speak in the Church And in his second Epistle to Timothy Dominari in virum sed esse silentes that is to say I allow not that a Woman be a Teacher or to be above her Husband but to keep her self in silence Therefore it appears likewise as your Honors have not Authority to give her Highness this second Point of Spiritual Government to Feed the Flock of Christ So by St. Pauls Doctrine her Highness may not intermeddle her self with the same And therefore She cannot be Supream Head of the Church here in England The Third chief Point of Spiritual Government is gathered out of those words of our Saviour Christ spoken to St. Peter in the 22th Chapter of St. Lukes Gospel Ego rogavi pro Te ut non deficiat fides Tua Tu aliquando conversus confirma fratres Tuos That is I Prayed for Thee that thy Faith shall not fail and thou being converted Confirm thy Brethren and ratifie them in wholesome Doctrine and Administration of the Sacraments which are the Holy Instruments of God so Instituted and Ordained for our Sanctification that without them his Grace is not to be received But to Preach or to administer the Sacraments a Woman may not be admitted to do neither may she be Supream of Christ's Church The Fourth and Last chief point of Spiritual Government which I promised to Note unto you doth consist in the Excommunication and Spiritual Punishment of all such as shall approve themselves not to be the Obedient Children of Christ's Church Of which Authority our Saviour Christ speaks in St. Matthew's Gospel in the 18th Chapter saying If your Brother offending will not hear your charitable admonition whether secretly at first or yet before one or two Witnesses then we must complain of him to the Church and If he will not hear the Church let him be taken as an Heathen or Publican So the Apostle did Excommunicate the
vertue of Christ's Assistance after the words of Consecration are duly pronounced by the Priest the Natural Body of Christ conceived of the Virgin Mary is really present under the species of Bread and Wine As also his Natural Blood Secondly That after the Consecration there remains not the Substance of Bread and Wine nor any Substance but the Substance of God and Man Thirdly that the true Body of Christ and his Blood is offered for a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Quick and Dead Fourthly That the Supream Power of Feeding and Governing the Militant Church of Christ and of Confirming their Brethren is given to Peter the Apostle and to his lawful Successors in the See Apostolick as unto the Vicars of Christ. Fifthly That the Authority to handle and define such things as belong to Faith the Sacraments and Ecclesiastical Discipline hath hitherto ever belonged and only ought to belong unto the Pastors of the Church whom the Holy Spirit hath placed in the Church and not unto Lay-men These Articles they caused to be Engrâ—…ssed and so commended them to the Care and Consideration of the Higher House presented by Boner to the hands oâ—… the Lord Keeper Bacon by whom they were candiâ—…ly received But they prevailed no further with the Queen or House of Peers when imparted to them than that possibly they might help forwards the aforementioned Disputation It was on the Four and twentieth of June that that the 〈◊〉 Liturgy was to be officiated in all the Churches of the Kingdom In the performance oâ—… which service the Bishops giving no encouragement and many of the Clergy being backwâ—…d in it it was thought fit to put them to a Final Tâ—…st and either to bring them to Conformity or to bestow their â—…laces and 〈◊〉 on mâ—…re â—…actable Pâ—…sons The Bishops at that time were reduced into a narrowâ—… 〈◊〉 than at any other time befâ—… â—…ere being no more than Fifteen of that 〈◊〉 Order 〈◊〉 alive These being â—…alled by certain of the Lords of the 〈◊〉 were required to take the Oath of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Landaff only takes it who having â—…merly submitted to every Change resolved to shew himself no Changâ—…ing in not conforming to the pleasures of the Higher Powers By all the rest it was refused Whereupon they were deprived of their Bishopricks The Bishops being thus put out the Oath is tendred next to the Deans and Chapters and lastly to the rural Clergy Thus â—…r Heylyn It is here to be noted That during the forementioned Convocation there came from both the Universities a Writing signed by a publick Notary by which they both signified their concurrence to the aforesaid Articles only with a little alteration of the last But these Declarations and Protestations of the whole Representative Clergy and Universities were not like to signifie much since a Change of Religion was absolutely resolved on CHAP. V. Of an Ignorant and Illiterate Clergy and a medley of Calvinists introduced to Govern this New Church and of some other particulars concerning the Settlement of it Dr. Heylyn pag. 115. BY the Deprivations of these Persons and the death of so many in the last years sickness there was not to be found a sufficient number of Learned men to supply the Cures Which filled the Church with an Ignorant and Illiterate Clergy Whose Learning went no further than the Liturgy or the Book of Homilies but otherwise conformable which was no small felicity to the rules of the Church And on the otherside many were raised to great preferments who having spent their time of 〈◊〉 in such Forreign Churches as followed the Platform of Geneva returned so disaffected to Episcopal Government and unto the Rites and Ceremonies here by Law established as not long after filled the Church with most sad disorders not only to the breaking of the Bond of Peace but likewise to the extinguishing the Spirit of Unity And not to speak of private Opinions nothing was more considered in them than their zeal against Popery On which account we find the Queens Professor at Oxford to pass amongst the Non-Conformists though some-what more moderate than the rest And Cartwright at Cambridge to prove an unextinguished Fire-brand to the Church of England Wittington the chef Ring-leader of the Frankfort-Schismaticks preferred unto the Deanry of Durham From thence encouraging Knox and Goodman in setting up Presbytery and Sedition in the Kirk of Scotland Sampson advanced to the Deanry of Christ's-Church and within a few years after turned out again for an incorrigible Non-conformist Hardiman one of the first Twelve Prebends of the Church of Westminster deprived soon after for throwing down the Altar and defacing the Vestments of the Church The Pope being informed of these proceedings labours to Perswade the Queen from going on with these Alterations in Religion But that not succeeding She sent out by the Advice of her Council a certain Body of Injunctions the same in effect with those which had been published in the First of King Edward but more accommodated to the temper of the present time Nothing more singular in them than the severe course taken about Ministers Marriages But this was long since worn out of use and not much observed when it first came out As if it had been published only in way of Caution to make the Clergy-men more wary in the choice of their Wives rather than with any purpose of pursuing it to an Execution Concerning the Position of the Holy Table it was ordered thus by these Injunctions viz. That no Altar should be taken down but by over-sight of the Curate of the Church or the Church-wardens or one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at least wherein no riotous or disordered manners were to be used And that the Holy Table in every Church should be decently made and set in the place where the Altar stood and there commonly covered as thereto belonged and as should be appointed by the Visitors And so to stand saving when the Communion of the Sacrament was to be Administred At which time the same should be placed within the Quire or Chancel as whereby the Minister might be more conveniently heard of the Communicants in his Prayer and Administration and the Communicants also more conveniently and in more number Communicate with the said Minister And after the Communion done from time to time the said Table to be placed where it stood before By these Injunctions she made way for her visitation regulated by the Book of Articles By which Articles all Images were removed out of the Church and all the Roods and other Images which had been taken out of the Churches were burnt in St Paul's Church-Yard Cheapside and other places of the City And in some places the Copes Vestments Altar-cloths Books Sepulchers and Rood-lofts were burnt altogether Thus far Dr. Heylyn concerning the first progress of this Change of Religion established by Parliament A short Note conclâ—…g the Occurrences of this year I Will end the Occurrences of this year with the Relation of a
new and strange Obsequy performed for Henry the 2d King of France Howe 's upon Stow pag. 639. A solemn Obsequy was kept in Paul's Church at London for Henry the Second King of France This Obsequy was kept very solemnly with a rich Hearse but without any Lights The Bishops of Canterbury Chester and Hereford executing the Dirge of the Even song in English they siting in the Bishop of London's Seat in the upper Quire in Surplices with Doctors Hoods about their shoulders The next day after the Sermon Six of the Lords Mourners received the Communion with the Bishops Who were in Copes upon their Surplices only at the ministration of the Communion Howe 's in the same Page The Second of October in the Afternoon and the next day in the Forenoon a solemn Obsequy was held in St. Paul's Church in London for Ferdinand the late Emperor departed Thus Howes CHAP. VI. Of the great Havock this Queen made of Bishopricks although She retained Episcopal Government Anno Reg. Eliz. 2. Dr. Heylyn pag. 120. IN the Second year of Her Reign some days after the Deprivation of the former Bishops She Elected other Bishops to satisfie the world that She intended to preserve Episcopal Government But why this was deferred so long may be a question Some think it was That She might satisfie her self by putting the Church into a posture by her Visitation before she passed it over to the care of the Bishops Others conceive That she was so enamoured with the Power and Title of Supream Governess that she could not deny Her self the contentment in the exercise of it which the present Interval afforded And it is possible enough that both or either of these Considerations might have some influence upon Her But the main cause for keeping the Episcopal Sees in so long a vacancy must be found elsewhere An Act had passed in the late Parliament Anno Reg. Eliz. 1. which never had the confidence to appear in Print In the Preamble whereof it was declared That by the Dissolution of Religious Houses many Impropriations Tythes and portions of Tythes had been invested in the Crown which the Queen could not well dismember from it in regard of the present low condition in which she found the Crown at her coming to it And thereupon it was Enacted that in the vacancy of any Archbishoprick or Bishoprick it should be lawful for the Queen to issue out a Commission under the great Seal for taking a Survey of all Castles Mannors Lands Tenements and all other Hereditaments to the 〈◊〉 Episcopal Sees belonging and upon the return of such Survey to take into Her hands any of the said Castles Mannors Lands Tenements c. as to Her seemed good giving to the said Archbishops and Bishops as much Annual Rents to be raised upon Impropriations Tythes and portions of Tythes as the said Castles Mannors Lands c. did amount unto The Church-Lands certified according to the ancient Rents without consideration of the Casualties or other Perquisites of the Court which belonged to them The retribution made in Pensions Tythes and portions of Tythes extended to the utmost value from which no other profit was to be expected than the Rent it self Which Act being not to take effect till the end of the Parliament the Interval between the end of that Parliament the deprivation of the old Bishops and the Consecration of the new was to be taken up in the execution of such Surveys and making such Advantages of them as most redounded to the profit of the Queen and her Courtiers Upon which ground as all the Bishops Sees were so long kept vacant before any one of them was filled so in the following times they were kept void one after another as occasion served till the best Flowers in the Garden of the Church had been culled out of it There was another Clause in the said Statutes by which the Patrimony of the Church was as much Dilapidated even after the restoring of the Bishops as it was in the times of vacancy For by that Clause all Bishops were restrained from making any Grants of their Farms and Mannors for more than One and Twenty years or Three Lives at the most except it were to the Queen her Heirs and Successors And under that pretence they might be granted to any of Her hungry Courtiers in Fee-farm or for a Lease of Fourscore and Nineteen years as it pleased the parties By which means Crediton was dismembred from the See of Excester and the goodly Mannor of Sherbourn from that of Salisbury Many fair Mannors were likewise Alienated for ever from the rich Sees of Winchester Ely and indeed what not Moreover when the rest of the Episcopal Sees were supplied with new Bishops yet York and Winchester were not so soon provided That they might afford on Michaelmas-Rent more to the Queens Exchequer before the Lord Tresurer could give way to a new Incumbent But notwithstanding this great Havock that was made of the Bishopricks yet Episcopacy was now setled with the retaining of many Rites and Ceremonies belonging to Catholick Religion Whereof one was that she had caused a Massy Crucifix of Silver to be placed upon the midst of the Altar in her Chappel But this so displeased Sir Francis Knolls the Queens neer Kinsman by the Caries a great Zelot for the Reformation that he caused it to be broken in pieces There was at this time a Sermon preached in defence of the Real presence For which the Queen openly gave the Preacher Thanks for his Pains and Piety Thus Dr. Heylyn But it is here to be noted Tâ—…t in the beginning of Her Reign out of scruple of Conscience she did forbid the Elevation of the Sacrament So that although Christ were acknowledged to be really present yet he was not to be Adored I could not omit to take notice of this contradiction CHAP. VII Of the Disturbance the Presbyterians gave to the Setling of this New Church and of a Rebellion in Scotland and the Death of the Queen of Scots Dr. Heylyn pag. 124. THe Queen having thus regulated and setled Ecclesiastical Affairs the same settlement might have longer continued had not Her Order been confounded and her Peace disturbed by some factious Spirits who having had their wills at Frankfort or otherwise Ruling the Presbytery when they were at Geneva thought to have carried all before them with the like facility when they were in England But leaving them and their designs to some other time we must next look upon the Aid which the Queen sent to those of the Reformed Religion in Scotland but carried under the pretence of dislodging such French Forces as were Garrison'd there Such of the Scots as desired a Reformation of Religion taking advantage by the Queens absence the easiness of the Earl of Arran and want of Power in the Queen Regent to suppress their practices had put themselves into a Body headed by some of the Nobility they take unto themselves the Name of
stretching forth her body her head aâ—… two blows was taken off This end had Mary Queen of Scots in the Forty Sixth year of her Age and of her Imprisonment in England the Eighteenth A Lady so compleat in all excellent parts of Body and mind that it must needs have made her a happy Woman if she had not been a Queen and perhaps a happy Queen too if she had not been Heir to the Crown of England Thus Baker I will insert here one Passage more concerning this Queen which hath been omited in order of this story Dr. Heylyn pag. 160. Certain of the Queens Servants being assembled for their Devotions in the Chappel Royal of the Palace of Holy-rood House in Edenburgh the doors were broken open some of the company haled to the next Prison and the rest dispersed The Priest escaping with much difficulty by a private passage The Queen was then absent in the North but questioned Knox at her return as the cause of the uproar By which Expostulation she got nothing from that fiery Spirit but neglect and scorn Thus Dr. Heylyn ' concerning this ' barbarous action CHAP. VIII A short Relation concerning the Affairs of Ireland as to Religion And how the Hugonots in France betrayed the English Dr. Heylyn pag. 128. WE shall find the Queen there as active in advancing the Reformation as she had been in either of the other Kingdoms King Henry had first broke the Ice by taking to himself the Title of Supream Head on Earth of the Church of Ireland exterminating the Popes Authority and suppressing all the Monasteries and Religious Houses In matters of Doctrine and Forms of Worship as there was nothing done by him so neither much endeavoured in the time of King Edward the Sixth It being thought perhaps unsafe to provoke that people in the King's Minority considering with how many troubles he was else here exercised If any thing were done thereâ—…n it was rather done by toleration than command But Queen Elizabeth having setled her Affairs in England and undertaken the protection of the Scots conceived her self obliged in point of Piety to promote the Reformation in that Kingdom likewise A Parliament is therefore held where pass'd an Act restoring to the Crown the Jurisdiction over all Ecclesiastical persons By which Statute were established both the Oath of Supremacy and the High Commission as before in England There also pass'd an Act for the Uniforâ—…ity of Common-Prayer with permission of saying the same in Latin where the Minister had not the knowledge of the English Tongue But for translating it into Irish as it was afterwards done into Welch there was no care taken The people are required by that Statute under several penalties to frequent their Churches and to be frequent at the reading of the English Liturgy which they understand no more than they do the Mass. By which means the Irish were not only kept in continual ignorance as to the Doctrines and Devotions of the Church of England but we have likewise furnished the Papist with an excellent Argument against our selves for having the Divine Service celebrated in such a language as the people do not understand There also pass'd another Statute for restoring to the Crown the first Fruits and Twenty parts of all Ecclesiastical promotions as also of all Impropriated Parsonages of which there are more in number than those Rectories which have Cure of Souls The like Act passed for the Restitution of all Lands belonging to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem with the Annulling of all Leases and other Grants made by the late Lord Prior of the same The Bishops of Ireland finding how things went in England and knowing that the like Alteration would ensue amongst themselves resolved to make such use of the present times as to enrich their Friends and Kindred by the the spoyl of their Churches To which end they so dissipated the Revenues of their several Bishopricks by long Leases Fee-farms and plain Alienations that to some of their Sees they left no more than a Rent of Five Marks Per Annum To others a bare yearly Rent of Forty shillings to the high displeasure of God the reproach of Religion and the perpetual ignominy of themselves for that horrible Sacriledge Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning Ireland How the English were betrayed by the Hugonots Dr. Heylyn pag. 161. A Peace being concluded betwixt the King and the Hugonots they betrayed the English whom they had brought into the Country and joyned their Forces with the rest to drive them out of Newhaven a Town besieged where the Pestilence had gotten amongst them and raged so terribly that the Living were scarce able to bury the Dead And to compleat the misery of the Besieged the Prince of Conde and Duke of Monpensier who had been the Heads of the Hugonot party shewed themselves openly amongst the rest in the Camp of the Enemies whereupon they were necessitated to yield This might be looked upon as an Argument of God's displeasure on this Nation for giving Aid unto the Rebels of a Christian Prince masked with the vizard of Religion And for a further punishment of this Action the Plague brought out of France by the Garrison Soldiers of Newhaven had so dispersed it â—…elf and made such a desolation in many parts of the Realm that it swept away above Twenty Thousand in the City of London Thus Dr. Heylyn And thus far as to these particul Relations of other Countries We will now prosecute our story of England CHAP. IX A Word concerning the then Pope's Letter to the Queen with a long Relation concerning the Presbyterians Dr. Heylyn pag. 131. WE find the new Bishops in England very high and resolute in opposing the Church of Rome Whereof the then Pope being informed directs unto the Queen an affectionate Letter calling Her his Dearest Daughter and declaring unto Her how sollicitous he was for her Salvation and the prosperity of her People which he told Her was not to be found by wandring out of the Communion of the Catholick Church Unto which he again invites Her with much Christian meekness But the Queen had set up her Resolution to go forward with the Change Wherefore all was lost labour But all this while there was no care taken to suppress the practices of the Calvinists who secretly endeavored to subvert the English Liturgy For whilst the Prelates of the Church of England bent all their forces towards the confuting of the Papists another Enemy appeared which seemed not openly to aim at the Churches Doctrine but quarrelled rather at some Rites and Extrinsecals of it Their purpose was to take in the Outworks of Religion first before they levelled their Artillery at the Fort it self The Schismaticks of Frankfort had no sooner heard of Queen Maries Death but they make what hast they could for England in hope of fishing better for themselves in a troubled water than a quiet Followed not long after by the Brethren of the Separation which
Mortality amongst the rest of the Clergy that a great part of the Parochial Churches were without Incumbents The rest of the Bishops Twelve Deans and as many Archdeacons Fifteen Masters of Colleges and Halls Fifty Prebendaries of Cathedral Churches and about Fourscore Beneficed Men were deprived at once for refusing to submit to the Queens Supremacy For the filling of which vacant places it cannot be imagined but many past amongst the rest who either had not hitherto discovered their dissatisfaction or were connived at in regard of their Parts and Learning Wherefore there is no question to be made but that some numbers of them were admitted unto Country-Cures by means whereof they had as great an opportunity as they could wish or desire not only to Dispute their Genevian Doctrines but likewise to prepare the People committed to them for receiving such Innovations both in Worship and Government as were resolved in time convenient to be put upon them For a Preparative whereunto they brought along with them the Genevian Bible with their Notes upon it together with David's Psalms in English Meeter that by the one they might effect an Innovation in points of Doctrine and by the other bring this Church more near to the Rules of Geneva in some chief Acts of Publick Worship The Notes upon the same Bible in many places savour of Sedition and in some of Faction destructive of the Persons and Power of Kings and of all Civil Intercourse and Human Society There is a Note on 2 Chron. 8. 15 16. where Asa is taxed by them for not putting his Mother to death but deposing her only from the Regency which before She executed Of which Note the Scottish Presbyterians made especial use not only in deposing Mary their lawful Queen but prosecuting her openly and underhand till they had taken away her life Now with this Bible and these Notes which proved so advantageous to them in their main projectments they also brought in David's Psalms in English Meeter of which they served themselves to some Tune in the time succeeding For they came to be esteemed the most Divine part of God's Publick Worship the Reading Psalms together with the First and Second Lessons being heard in many places with a covered head but all Men sitting Bareheaded when the Psalm is Sung And to that end the Parish-clark must be taught to call upon the people to Sing it To the Praise and Glory of God no such preparatory Exhortation being used at the naming of the Chapter or the Daily Psalms By these Preparatives they hoped in time to bring in the whole Body of Calvinism as well in reference to Government and Forms of Worship as in Points of Doctrine In all this time they could obtain no Countenance from this State though it was once endeavoured for them by the Earl of Leicester whom they had gained to their Party But it was only to make use of them for Politick Ends. Finding this opposition they not only repined and grudged at the Reformation which was made in this Church because not fitted to their Fancies and to Calvin's Platform but have laboured to sow those Seeds of Heterodoxy and Disobedience which afterwards brought forth those Troubles and Disorders which ensued upon it Thus Dr. Heylyn These Islands the only remainder of the Crown of England in the Dukedom of Normandy had admitted the Reformation in the Reign of King Edward by whose command the Publick Liturgy had been turned into French But the Reformed Religion being suppressed in the time of Queen Mary was revived again immediately after her decease by such French Ministers as had resorted thither for Protection in the days of their troubles These French Ministers desiring to have all things Modelled by the Rules of Calvin endeavored by all the friends they could make to advance his Discipline to which they were encouraged by their Brethren here and the Governors there The Governors in each Island advanced the Plot out of a covetous intent to enrich themselves with the spoils of the Deaneries the Brethren here having by this means a hope to gain ground by little and little for the Erecting of the same in most parts of England And in pursuance of this project both Islands joyn in a Confederacy to Petition the Queen for an Allowance of this Discipline Anno 1563. In the year next following some French were delegated to the Court to sollicite it where they received a Gracious Answer and returned full of hopes In the mean time the Queen being strongly perswaded that this design would much advance the Reformation in those Islands was contented to give way unto it in the Towns of St. Peter's Port and St. Hilaries only in Jersey and in the Port of St. Peters in Gernsey but no further Other parts of the Islands being to be Conform to the Church of England Now although there be no express mention in their Grant of Allowing their Discipline but only of their Form of Prayer and Administration of Sacraments yet they presumed so far on the general words as to put it presently in practice intending to advance it by degrees in all the rest of the Parishes as opportunity should serve and the condition of Affairs permit Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these Islands CHAP. XVII A further Account of their labouring to Undermine the Church of England Dr. Heylyn pag. 252. IN England they found not such success as they did abroad not a few of them being deprived of their Benefices and other preferments in the Church for their Inconformity The news of which severity flies to France and Scotland occasioning Beza in the one and Knox and his Comrades in the other to interpose themselves in behalf of their Brethren With what Authority Beza acted in it we shall see anon In Knox his Letter sent from the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland the Church-Vestments are called Trifles and Rags of Rome With more Authority writes Beza as the greater Patriarch and he writes too concerning things of greater consequence than Caps and Surplices For in a Letter of his to Grindal he makes a sad complaint of suspending these Men from the Ministry for not subscribing to some new Rites and Ceremonies imposed upon them But he seems more offended That Women were suffered to Baptize in extream necessity That Power was granted to the Queen for Ordaining such other Rites and Ceremonies as should seem convenient and that the Bishops had so much Authority He excepts likewise against many other such things The Copies of these Letters were presently dispersed if not also Printed Some of the Brethren in their Zeal to the name of Calvin preferred him once before St. Paul and Beza without doubt would have taken it ill if he had been esteem'd of less Authority than any of the Successors of St. Peter So good a Foundation being laid the Building could not chuse but go on apace But first they must prepare the Matter and remove all doubts which otherwise might
the preservation of my Life than the profit of my Living Wherefore after I had weighed as many dangers as I could remember and was perswaded that to depart the Realm was the safest way I could take I resolved to take the benefit of a happy Wind to avoid the violence of a bitter Storm And knowing that the Actions of Those who go beyond Seas though their intent be never so good and dutiful were yet evil thought of I presume to write this Letter to your Majesty and in it to declare the true causes and reasons of this my departure I here take God and his Holy Angels to witness that I would not have taken this course if I might have staied still in England without danger of my Soul and peril of my Life And though the loss of Temporal Commodities be so grievous to Flesh and Blood that I could not desire to live if I were not comforted with the remembrance of his Mercy for whom I endure all this who endured ten thousand times more for me yet I assure your Majesty that your Displeasure would be more unpleasant to me than the bitterness of all my Losses and greater grief than the greatest of my Misfortunes The Earl having written the foregoing Letter and leaving it behind him to be delivered to the Queen after his departure attempted to have passed the Seas without License for the which he was committed to the Tower and condemned to pay Ten thousand Pound Fine for his contempt and to remain Prisoner at the Queens pleasure Thus Stow. This short Relation of these Severities may make it easily conceived what endeavours there were then used totally to extirpate Catholick Religion in England Thus you have had a short view of the state of Religion in this Queens Reign An Account of the Years in which these Changes in Religion were made IN her First year she being resolved upon an Alteration of Religion as knowing well that her Legitimation and the Pope's Supremacy could not stard together called a Parliament which totally complied with her Designs in order to such a Change But the Convocation of the Clergy which accompanied this Parliament totally opposed it and thereupon were deprived of their Ecclesiastical Benefices a company of Ignorant and Illiterate Men being Substituted in their places which gave occasion to the Calvinists or Presbyterians to obtain great Ecclesiastical Preserments here By which they have continually labored to supplant and undermine the Church of England It was the Second year of her Reign before any Protestant Bishops were elected The main cause for keeping the Episcopal Sees so long vacant was that in the mean time the best Flowers might be culled out of them Aid this year was sent to assist the Rebels in Scotland against their Lawful Queen The Presbyterians seeing Episcopal Government settled begin to play their Game The Bishops being thus settled begin the next year to make Laws and to compose Articles of Religion and to exact a Conformity to them upon which they find great oppositions from the Presbyterians In her Fourth year she was solicited by Pope Pius to send her Orators to the Council of Trent which she refused to do The Emperor also writ to her to desist from these Alterations of Religion and to return to the Ancient Catholick Faith of her Predecessors In her Fifth year the Articles of Religion were agreed on in the Convocation In her Sixth year she would have Married the Earl of Leicester to the Queen of Scots Calvin dies this year and Cartwright the great promoter of Presbytery retires out of England upon a discontent to Geneva In her Seventh year the Calvinists began first to be called Puritans Dr. Heylyn In her Eighth year the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops was Confirmed And for this we are beholding to Boner the late Bishop of London who being called up to take the Oath of Supremacy by Horn of Winton refused to take the Oath upon this account because Horn's Consecration was not good and valid by the Laws of the Land Which he insisted upon because the Ordinal Established in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth by which both Horn and all the rest of Queen Elizabeths Bishops received Consecration had been Repealed by Queen Mary and not restored by any Act of Parliament in the present Reign which being first declared by Parliament in the Eighth of this Queen to be Casus Omissus or rather that the Ordinal was looked upon as a part of the Liturgy confirmed in the First year of this Queen They next Enacted and Ordained That all such Bishops as were consecrated by it in time to come should be reputed to be lawfully Consecrated Baker In her Eleventh year there arose a Sect openly condemning the received Discipline of the Church of England together with the Church-Liturgy and the very Calling of Bishops This Sect so mightily encreased that in the Sixteenth year of her Reign the Queen and Kingdom was extreamly troubled with them In the same Sixteenth year were taken at Mass in their several Houses the Lord Morley's Lady and her Children the Lady Gilford and the Lady Brown who being thereof Endicted and Convicted suffered the penalties of the Laws In her Twentieth year the severe Laws against Roman Catholicks were Enacted In her Twenty third year a Proclamation was set forth That whosoever had any Children beyond Sea should by a certain day call them home and that no Person should harbour any Seminary Priest or Jesuit At this time also there arose up in Holland a certain Sect naming themselves The Family of Love In a Parliament held the 26th year of her Reign the Puritan party laboured to have Laws made in order to the destroying of the Church of England and the setting up of their own Sect. In her Twenty eighth year the Queen gave a special Charge to Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury to settle an Uniformity in the Ecclesiastical Discipline which lay now almost a gasping And at this time the Sect of Brownists derived from one Robert Brown did much oppose the Church of England In her One and Thirtieth year the Puritan-Flames broke forth again In her Thirty sixth year the Severity of the Laws were Executed upon Henry Barrow and his Sectaries for condemning the Church of England as no Christian Church Thus Sir Rich. Baker Here is an End of this Work Wherein I hope there is full Satisfaction given concerning the Alterations of Religion which have been made by Publick Authority in the Reigns of these Kings and Queens with a sufficient discovery of the Actings of the Presbyterians in this Nation and the ground of multiplying other Sects Here ends the Historical Collections AN APPENDIX CHAP. I. A Word concerning the Doctrins and Practices deserted by this Nation in these Changes of Religion NOw for a close to this Work I will add here in the first place one thing which I conceive deserves well to be taken notice of which is this to wit
very Gall of Schism by usurping an Authority which express Scripture says belongs only to Pastors I fear much fewer than is ordinarily imagined of those who have any liberal Education will be excused from this sin by any Ignorance Surreptition Provocation c. by reason of that great evidence and light which they have of the continued Succession Unity of Doctrin perfect Obedience to their spiritual Superiors Pennances and Retirements from the World and several other signal marks of the One Holy Catholick and Apostclick Church Some may be more deeply guilty and obnoxious to a heavier damnation than others as Ring-leaders more than their Followers But Damnation is by the Fathers generally denounced as the portion of them all Thus of the sin of Schism CHAP. VI. Of the Schism of the Church of England NOw whereas some Protestants seek to vindicate the Church of England from Schism by likening it to the Church of St. Cyprian of whom it is said That it condemned no man nor separated none from its Communion yet you are to know that this Plea helps them not at all For although this Moderation did exempt St. Cyprian from Schism because as St. Augustin says The Church had not then decided the dispute to whose decision St. Cyprian would certainly have submitted Yet this Moderation does not at all exempt the Church of England from Schism because her separation from her Mother-Church is for very many Doctrins of Faith defined and determined by the same Church This following Example will make the Case of the Church of England evidently appear For if for Example a Province in England had with-drawn it self from the Publick Civil Authority this Excuse would not exempt them from being Rebels to say We do not intend to quarrel with Those that continue in Obedience to the King we mean neither him nor them any harm They shall be welcome to come among us if they will we will be good friends we will not meddle with their doings but we will be governed only by our own Laws and Magistrates c. I believe I say This would not take from them the Guilt of Rebellion Their Civility in such their Rebellion would not change the Title of their crime nor free them from the punishment due unto it It may perhaps qualifie the Prince's resentment but the civilest Treason is Treason In this Point of Schism to the end that Doctor Peirce in his Court-Sermon may clear Protestants and lay the weight of so great a crime on the Catholick Church he argues thus Since besides the corruptions in Practice which yet alone cannot justifie separation there were in the Roman Church so many corruptions in Doctrin likewise entrenching on Fundamentals the Schism could not be on the Church of England's side which was obliged to separate so just cause being given but on theirs who gave the cause of the separation This Plea of the Doctors if it be admitted totally destroys all Governments and lays all the Guilt of Schisms and Rebellions in Church and State upon Civil and Ecclesiastical Governors For if Subjects may accuse their Governors and be themselves Judges of the Justice of such their Accusations the Governors are always sure to be condemned and pronounced guilty and the Subject justified Now to admit this Liberty of the Subject in Church-Government above all others is the most unjust Thing imaginable because that Government is protected from all error in Doctrins of Faith by the assistance of the Holy Ghost who was sent by our Saviour to teach it all Truth Wherefore to tax that Government with Errors in Faith is either to tax the Holy Ghost with them or to blaspheme against our Saviour by saying he has not kept his word in sending the Holy Ghost to teach the Church All truth Besides There is this other consideration which doth further manifest the weakness of this the Doctor 's Plea For if the Church of Rome be our Mother-Church as King James acknowledged her to be in a publick Speech made to his Parliament wherein he says I acknowledge the Church of Rome to be our Mother-Church See Stow pag. 840. then it will follow as it was urg'd in Parliament by Doctor Heath Archbishop of York in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth That if now after so many Ages this Church of Rome be found an Erroneous Church then we have hitherto received no benefit by our Christianity but rather have been all along deceived Since if this Mother-Church be false the Doctrin which she taught us must necessarily be false A Church being said to be false because she teacheth false Doctrin Thus the Doctor may see what he has gotten by his Reformation There is one thing yet that deserves well to be taken notice of in this change of Religion here in England For if all the Clergy and the Universities had generally assented to this Change it might have seemed a lesser crime But to have this done as de facto it was done in Queen Elizabeths Reign by Laymen only and this only with the Difference of Six Voices in Parliament although that Parliament was pack'd for this purpose and in opposition to the contrary Protestations and Declarations of all the Clergy and Universities This does heighten this crime to the utmost of all Impiety I will yet for a close add one thing more which does not a little manifest this Impiety For although Reformation of Religion was here pretended yet it evidently appears by our English History that nothing but worldly and carnal Interests carried on this business For was not the Liberty obtained by King Henry the Eighth to bring into his Bed a new handsom Wife instead of his former vertuous Queen a very carnal Interest Was not his invading all the Possessions and Treasure of Monasteries a great Secular Interest Was not the dividing the said Lands amongst the Nobility and Gentry at very easie rates a very great Interest In King Edward's days was not the Protector 's seizing on the remainder of Churchspoyls a great Interest Was not the freeing of Clergy-men from a necessity of saying daily and almost hourly long Ecclesiastical Offices from lying alone without Bedfellows c. matters of great both carnal and secular Interest Was not the exempting of All both Layity and Ecclesiasticks from the Duty of confessing their Sins and submitting themselves to Penitential Satisfactions from rigorous Fasts out of Conscience and Religion and other Austerities a matter of considerable Interest to Flesh and corrupt Nature By what hath been hitherto said appears but even too clearly how that the Fundamental Rule of all Government and Subordination was utterly neglected in England at the time that the pretended Reformation was contrived and executed Here is a new and thorough moulding of a Church both in Doctrins and Discipline called a Reformation Wherein all the Synodical Acts of this Church since Christianity entred among us are as to any obliging Power by their Authority reversed wherein all the Decisions of
Patriarchal Councils yea of Oecumenical Synods are called into Examination All their Laws so far as to them seemed meet reformed the whole regard that England had to all other Catholick Churches as a Member of the whole is utterly broken by one National Church Nay not so much By one Luxurious King By one Child and by one Woman Even when the whole Body of the Clergy protested against it Let the world now be judge Whether this Action can be justified Thus of the Schism of the Church of England CHAP. VII The Assertions of some Protestants concerning Church-Authority And of some of them concerning the Dignity and Authority of the Church of Rome SChism and Heresie being here so evidently demonstrated to consist in denying Obedience to Church-Authority it may seem strange to find any Protestants so much to their own condemnation to write any thing in defence of such Church-Authority and particularly of the Authority of the Church of Rome from which they have separated totally casting off all obedience to it But yet this they have done as will appear by these following Testimonies of some very Eminent amongst them See Sir Edwyn Sands in his Europae Speculum Numb 12. where he has this following Discourse of the Security in submitting to the Authority of the Church of Rome Which although he delivers in the Person of a Catholick yet it is without Reply or seeking to deny the Truth of any thing here said The Discourse then is this SInce Christianity is a Doctrin of Faith a Doctrin whereof all Men are capable as being in gross and in general to be believed by all and since the high Vertue of Faith is in the Humility of the Understanding and the Merit thereof in the readiness of Obedience to Embrace it and withal since of outward proofs of our Faith where the true sense of Scripture is disputed the Churches Testimony whether for declaring to us the sense of Scripture or the judgments of the Ancients is a proof of most weight What madness were it for any man to tire out his Soul and to wast away his Spirits in tracing out all the thorny paths of the Controversies of these days wherein to err is no less easie than dangerous what through forgery of Authors abusing him what through sophistry beguiling him what through passion and prejudice transporting him and not rather betake himself to the right path of Truth whereunto God Nature Reason and Experience do all give witness And that is to associate himself to the Church whereunto the custody of this Heavenly and supernatural Truth hath been from Heaven it self committed To weigh discreetly which is the true Church and that being once found to receive faithfully and obediently without doubt or discussion whatsoever it delivers Now to discover this let him reflect that besides the Roman Church and such others as are United with it he finds all other Churches to have had their end or decay long since or their beginning but of late This Church was founded by the Prince of the Apostles with a promise to him from Christ That Hell Gates should never prevail against it Matt. 16. 18. And that himself would be assistant to it to the Consummation of the World It hath now continued Sixteen hundred years with an Honorable and certain Line of near Two hundred and forty Popes Successors of St. Peter both Tyrants Traytors Pagans and Hereticks in vain wresting raging and undermining it All the Lawful general Councils that ever were in the World have from time to time approved and honored it God hath so miraculously blessed it from above that many Learned and wise Doctors have enriched it with their Writings Armies of Saints with their Holiness and Virtues Armies of Martyrs with their Blood and of Virgins with their Purity have sanctified and embellished it And even at this day in such difficulties of unjust Rebellions and unnatural Revolts of her nearest Children yet she stretcheth out her arms to the utmost corners of the World newly embracing whole Nations into her bosom Lastly in all other opposite Churches there are found inward dissensions and contrarieties change of opinions uncertainty of resolutions with robbing of Churches rebelling against Governors confusion of Order Whereas contrariwise in this Church there is the Unity undivided the resolutions unaltered the most heavenly Order reaching from the hight of all Power to the lowest of all Subjection all with admirable Harmony and undefective correspondence bending the same way to the effecting of the same work all which do promise no other than a continual encrease and victory Wherefore let no Man doubt to submit himself to this glorious Spouse of Christ. This then being accorded to be the true Church of God it follows that she be reverently obeyed in all things without further inquisition she having the warrant that he that hears her hears Christ and whosoever hears her not hath no better place with God than a Publican or Pagan And what folly were it to receive Scriptures upon the credit of her Authority and not to receive the interpretation of them upon her Authority also and credit And if God should not always protect his Church from Error and yet peremptorily command Men always to obey her then had he made very slender provision for the Salvation of Mankind which conceit concerning God whose care of us even in all things touching this transitory Life is so plain and evident would render us very ungratefully impious And hard were the case and mean had his regard been of the vulgar People whose wants and difficulties in this life and whose capacities will not suffice to sound the deep and hidden Mysteries of Divinity and to search the truth of intricate Controversies if there were not others whose Authority they might safely follow and rely upon Blessed are they who believe and have not seen Joh. 20. 29. The merit of whose Religious Humility and Obedience exceeds perhaps in honor and acceptation before God the subtle and profound knowledge of many others Thus Sir Edwyn Sands To the same purpose Dr. Jeremy Taylor in his Treatise of the Liberty of Prophesying These following Considerations says he may very easily perswade persons of much reason and more Piety to maintain that which they know to have been the Religion of their Fore-fathers which had actual possession and seizure of Mens minds and understandings before the opposite Professions had a name As first its Doctrin having had a long continuance and possession of the Church Which therefore cannot easily be supposed in the present professors to be a design since they have received it from so many Ages And it is not likely that all Ages should have the same purposes or that the same Doctrin should serve the several ends of divers Ages Secondly its long prescription which is such an advantage that it cannot with many Arguments be retrenched as relying upon these grounds to wit that Truth is more Ancient than Falshood and that God would not