often reproved him boldly for it he grew weary of him The Clergy perceiving this were resolved to fall upon him So he withdrew to Berwick but wrote to the King that if he would hear him make his defence he would return and justifie all that he had taught He taxed the cruelty of the Clergy and desired the King would restrain their Tyranny and consider that he was obliged to protect his Subjects from their severity and malice But receiving no satisfactory answer he lived in England where he was entertain'd by the Duke of Suffolk as his Chaplain Not long after this one Forrest a simple Benedictin Monk was accused for having said that Patrick Hamilton had died a Martyr yet since there was no sufficient proof to convict him a Frier one Walter Lainge was sent to confess him to whom in Confession he acknowledged he thought Hamilton was a good man and that the Articles for which he was condemned might be defended This being revealed by the Frier was taken for good evidence So the poor man was condemned to be burnt as an Heretick As he was led out to his Execution he said Fie on falshood fie on Friers revealers of Confession Let never man trust them after me they are despisers of God and deceivers of men When they were considering in what place to burn him a simple man that attended the Arch-bishop advised to burn him in some low Cellar for said he the smoak of Mr. Patrick Hamilton has infected all those on whom it blew Soon after this Abbot Hamiltons Brother and Sister were brought into the Bishops Courts but the King who favoured this Brother perswaded him to absent himself His Sister and six others being brought before the Bishop of Ross who was deputed by the Arch-Bishop to proceed against them the King himself dealt with the Woman to abjure which she and the other six did Two others were more resolute The one was Normand Gowrlay who was charged with denying the Popes Authority in Scotland and saying there was no Purgatory The other was David Straiton He was charged with the same Opinions They also alledged that he had denied that Tithes were due to Church-men and that when the Vicar came to take the Tith out of some Fish-boats that belonged to him he alledged the Tith was to be taken where the stock grew and therefore ordered the tenth fish to be cast into the Sea and bade the Vicar to seek them there They were both judged obstinate Hereticks and burnt at one Stake the 27th of August 1534. Upon this persecution some others who were cited to appear fled into England Those were Alexander Alesse Iohn Fife Iohn Mackbee and one Mackdowgall The first of these was received by Cromwel into his Family and grew into great favour with King Henry and was commonly called his Scholar of whom see what was said Page 214. But after Cromwels death he took Fife with him and they went into Saxony and were both Professors in Leipsick Mackbee was at first entertained by Shaxton Bishop of Salisbury but he went afterwards into Denmark where he was known by the name of Doctor Maccabeus and was Chaplain to King Christian the second But all these violent proceedings were not effectual enough to quench that light which was then shining there Many by searching the Scriptures came to the knowledg of the Truth and the noise of what was then doing in England awakned others to make further enquiries into matters of Religion Pope Clement the 7th apprehending that King Henry might prevail on his Nephew to follow his example wrote Letters full of earnest exhortations to him to continue in the Catholick Faith Upon which King Iames called a Parliament and there in the presence of the Popes Nuncio declared his zeal for that Faith and the Apostolick See The Parliament also concurred with him in it and made acts against Hereticks and for maintaining the Popes authority That same Pope did afterwards send to desire him to assist him in making war against the King of England for he was resolved to divide that Kingdom among those who would assist him in driving out King Henry But the firm peace at that time between the King of England and the French King kept him quiet from any trouble which otherwise the King of Scotland might have given him Yet King Henry sent the Bishop of St. Davids with the Duke of Norfolks Brother Lord William Howard to him so unexpectedly that they came to him at Sterlin before he had heard of their being sent The Bishop brought with him some of the Books that had been writ for the justifying King Henry's proceeding and desired that King would impartially examine them But he put them into the hands of some about him that were addicted to the interests of Rome who without ever reading them told him they were full of pestilent Doctrine and Heresie The secret business they came for was to perswade that King to concur with his Uncle and to agree an Interview between them and they offered him in their Masters name the Lady Mary in Marriage and that he should be made Duke of York and Lord Lieutenant of all England But the Clergy diverted him from it and perswaded him rather to go on in his design of a match with France And their Counsels did so prevail that he resolved to go in person and fetch a Queen from thence On the first of Ianuary 1537. he was married to Magdalen daughter to Francis the First But she being then gone far in a Consumption died soon after he had brought her home on the 28th of May. She was much lamented by all persons the Clergy only excepted for she had been bred in the Queen of Navarres Court and so they apprehended she might incline the King to a Reformation But he had seen another Lady in France Mary of Guise whom he then liked so well that after his Queens death he sent Cardinal Beaton into France to treat for a match with her This gave the Clergy as much joy as the former marriage had raised fear for no Family in Christendome was more devoted to the interests of the Papacy than that was And now the King though he had freer thoughts himself yet was so engaged to the pretended old Religion that he became a violent persecutor of all who differed from it The King grew very expensive he indulged himself much in his pleasures he built four noble Palaces which considering that Kingdom and that Age were very extraordinary Buildings he had also many natural Children All which things concurred to make him very desirous of Money There were two different parties in the Court The Nobility on the one hand represented to him the great wealth that the Abbots had gathered and that if he would do as his Uncle had done he would thereby raise his Revenue to the triple of what it was and provide plentifully for his Children The Clergy on
and many Clerks advanced in the Realm were put out of their Benefices by those Provisors therefore the King being bound by Oath to see the Laws kept did with the assent of all the great men and the Commonalty of the Realm ordain that the free Elections Presentments and Collations of Benefices should stand in the Right of the Crown or of any of his Subjects as they had formerly enjoyed them notwithstanding any Provisions from Rome And if any did disturb the Incumbents by vertue of such Provisions those Provisors or others employed by them were to be put in Prison till they made Fine and Ransome to the King at his will or if they could not be apprehended writs were to be issued out to seize them and all Beneficeâ— possessed by them were to fall into the Kings hands except they were 〈◊〉 or Priories that fell to the Canons or Colledges By another Act the Provisors were put out of the Kings Protection and if any man offended against them in Person or Goods he was excused and was never to be impeached for it And two years after that upon another Complaint of their Suing the Kings Subjects in other Courts or beyond Sea it was Ordained that any who Sued either beyond Sea or in any other Court for things that had been Sued and about which judgment had been given in former times in the Kings Courts were to be Cited to answer for it in the Kings Courts within two Months and if they came not they were to be put out of the Kings Protection and to forfeit their Lands Goods and Chattels to the King and to be imprisoned and ransomed at the Kings will Both these Statutes received a new Confirmation Eleven years after that But those Statutes proved ineffectual and in the beginning of the Reign of Richard the 2d the former Acts were Confirmed by another Statute and appointed to be Executed and not only the Provisors themselves but all such as took Procuratories Letters of Attourney or Farms from them were involved in the same Guilt And in the 7th year of that King Provisions was made against Aliens having Benefices without the Kings Licence and the King promised to abstain from granting them Licences for this was another Artifice of the Roman Court to get the King of their side by accepting his Licence which by this Act was restrained This failing they betook themselves to another course which was to prevail with the Incumbents that were presented in England according to Law to take Provisions for their Benefices from Rome to Confirm their Titles This was also forbidden under the former Pains As for the Rights of Presentations by the Law they were tryed and judged in the Kings Courts and the Bishops were to give Institution according to the Title declared in these judgments This the Popes had a mind to draw to themselves and to have all Titles to Advousons tryed in their Courts and Bishops were Excommunicated who proceeded in this matter according to the Law Of which great Complaint was made in the 16th year of the Reign of Richard the 2d And it was added to that that the Pope intended to make many Translations of Bishops some to be within and some out of the Realm which among other Inconveniences reckoned in the Statute would produce this effect That the Crown of England which had been so free at all times should be subjected to the Bishop of Rome and the Laws and Statutes of the Realm by him defeated and destroyed at his Will They also found those things to be against the Kings Crown and Regality used and approved in the time of his Progenitors Therefore all the Commons resolved to live and dye with him and his Crown and they required him by way of Iustice to Examine all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal what they thought of those things and whether they would be with the Crown to uphold the Regality of it To which all the Temporal Lords answered they would be with the Crown But the Spiritual Lords being asked said they would neither deny nor affirm that the Bishop of Rome might or might not Excommunicate Bishops or make Translations of Prelates But upon that Protestation they said that if such things were done they thought it was against the Crown and said they would be with the King as they were bound by their Leageance whereupon it was ordained that if any did purchase Translations Sentences of Excommunication Bulls or other Instruments from the Court of Rome against the King or his Crown or whosoever brought them to England or did receive or execute them they were out of the Kings Protection and that they should forfeit their Goods and Chattels to the King and their Persons should be imprisoned And because the Proceedings were to be upon a writ called from the most material words of it Premunire facies this was called the Statute of Premunire When Henry the 4th had Treasonably Usurped the Crown all the Bishops Carlisle only excepted did assist him in it and he did very gratefully oblige them again in other things yet he kept up the force of the former Statutes For the Cistercian Order having procured Bulls discharging them of paying Tithes and forbiding them to let their Farms to any but to possess them themselves This was complained of in Parliament in the 2d year of his Reign and those Bulls were declared to be of no force and if any did put them in Execution or procured other such Bulls they were to be proceeded against upon the Statutes made in the 13th year of the former Kings Reign against Provisors But all this while though they made Laws for the future yet they had not the Courage to put them in Execution And this Feebleness in the Government made them so much despised and so oft broken whereas the severe execution of one Law in one Instance would more effectually have prevenâ—ed the Mischief than all these Laws did without Execution In the 6th year of his Reign Complaints being made of the excessive Rates of Compositions for Arch-Bishopricks and Bishopricks in the Popes Chamber which were raised to the treble of what had been formerly payed it was Enacted That they should pay no more than had been formerly wont to be payed In the 7th year of his Reign the Statuâ—e made in the 2d year was confirmed and by another Act the Licences which the King had Granted for the Executing any of the Popes Bulls are declared of no force to prejudice any Incumbent in his Right Yet the abuses and Encroachments of the Court of Rome still encreasing all former Statutes against Provisors were Confirmed again and all Elections declared free and not to be interrupted either by the Pope or the King But at the same time the King pardoned all the former Transgressions against these Statutes By those Pardon 's the Court of Rome was more encouraged than terrified by the Laws therefore there was a
with the Lutherans he did not think it was then seasonable to call one That as for sending a Proxy to Rome if he were a private Person he could do it but it was a part of the Prerogative of his Crown and of the Priviledges of his Subjects That all Matrimonial Causes should be originally judged within his Kingdom by the English Church which was consonant to the general Councils and Customs of the ancient Church whereunto he hoped the Pope would have regard And that for keeping up his Royal Authority to which he was bound by Oath he could not without the consent of the Realm submit himself to a Forreign Jurisdiction hoping the Pope would not desire any violation of the Immunities of the Realm or to bring these into publick Contention which had been hitherto enjoyed without intrusion or molestation The Pope had confessed that without an urgent cause the Dispensation could not be granted This the King laid hold on and ordered his Ambassador to show him that there was no War nor appearance of any between England and Spain when it was granted To verifie that he sent an attested Copy of the Treaty between his Father and the Crown of Spain at that time By the words of which it appeared that it was then taken for granted that Prince Arthur had Consummated the Marriage which was also proved by good witnesses In fine since the thing did so much concern the Peace of the Realm it was fitter to judg it within the Kingdom than any where else therefore he desired the Pope would remit the discussing of it to the Church of England and then confirm the Sentence they should give To the obtaining of this the Ambassador was to use all possible diligence yet if he found real intentions in the Pope to satisfie the King he was not to insist on that as the Kings final Resolution And to let the Cardinal of Ravenna see that the King intended to make good what was promised in his name the Bishoprick of Coventry and Litchfield falling vacant he sent him the offer of it with a promise of the Bishoprick of Ely when it should be void Soon after this he Married Anne Boleyn on the 14th of November upon his landing in England but Stow says without any ground that it was on the 25th of Ianuary Rowland Lee who afterward got the Bishoprick of Coventry and Liechfield officiate in the Marriage It was done secretly in the presence of the Duke of Norfolk and her Father her Mother and Brother and Dr. Cranmer The grounds on which the King did this were That his former Marriage being of it self null there was no need of a Declarative Sentence after so many Universities and Doctors had given their judgments against it Soon after the Marriage she was with-Child which was looked on as a signalEvidence of her Chastity and that she had till then kept the King at a due distance But when the Pope and the Emperor met at Bononia the Pope expressed great Inclinations to favour the French King from which the Emperor could not remove him nor engage him to accept of a Match for his Neece Katherine de Medici with Francis Sforza Duke of Milan But the Pope promised him all that he desired as to the King of England and so that matter was still carried on Dr. Bennet made several propositions to end the matter either that it should be judged in England according to the Decree of the Council of Nice and that the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with the whole Clergy of his Province should determine it or that the King should name one either Sir Thomas More or the Bishop of London the Queen should name another the French King should name a third and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to be the fourth or that the cause should be heard in England and if the Queen did Appeal it should be referred to three Delegates one of England another of France and a third to be sent from Rome who should sit and judge the Appeal in some indifferent place But the Pope would hearken to none of these Overtures since they were all directly contrary to that height of Authority which he resolved to maintain Therefore he ordered Capisucci the Dean of the Rota to cite the King to answer to the Queens Appeal Karne at Rome protested against the Citation since the Emperor's Power was so great about Rome that the King could not expect justice there and therefore desired they would desist otherwise the King would Appeal to the Learned men in Universities and said there was a nullity in all their proceedings since the King was a Soveraign Prince and the Church of England a free Church over which the Pope had no just Authority But while this depended at Rome another Session of Parliameot was held in England which began to sit on the 4th of February In this the Breach with Rome was much forwarded by the Act they passed against all Appeals to Rome The Preamble bears that the Crown of England was Imperial and that the Nation was a compleat Body within it self with a full Power to give justice in all cases Spiritual as well as Temporal and that in the Spiritualty as there had beed at all times so there were them men of that sufficiency and integrity that they might declare and determine all doubts within the Kingdom and that several Kings as Edward the 1st Edward the 3d Richard the 2d and Henry the 4th had by several Laws preserved the Liberties of the Realm both Spiritual and Temporal from the annoyance of the See of Rome and other forreign Potentates yet many inconveniences had arisen by Appeals to the See of Rome in Causes of Matrimony Divorces and other cases which were not sufficiently provided against by these Laws by which not only the King and his Subjects were put to great charges but justice was much delayed by Appeals and Rome being at such a distance Evidences could not be brought thither nor Witnesses so easily as within the Kingdom Therefore it was Enacted that all such Causes whether relating to the King or any of his Subjects were to be determined within the Kingdom in the several Courts to which they belonged notwithstanding any Appeals to Rome or Inhibitions and Bulls from Rome whose Sentences should take effect and be fully Executed by all Inferior Ministers and if any Spiritual Persons refused to Execute them because of Censures from Rome they were to suffer a years Imprisonment and fine and ransom at the Kings will and if any Persons in the Kings Dominions procured or executed any Process or Censures from Rome they were declared liable to the pains in the Statute of Provisors in the 16th of Rich. the 2d But that Appeals should only be from the Arch-Deacon or his Official to the Bishop of the Diocess or his Commissary and from him to the Arch-Bishop of the Province or the Dean of the Arches where the
to which it related which was also shewed him having considered of them he said he would neither blame these that made the Act nor those that Swore the Oath but for his part though he was willing to Swear to the Succession if he might be suffered to draw an Oath concerning it yet for the Oath that was offered him his Conscience so moved him that he could not without hazarding his Soul take it Upon this the Lord Chancellour told him that he was the first who had refused to Swear it and that the King would be highly offended with him for denying it and so he was desired to withdraw and consider better of it Several others were called upon and did all take the Oath except the Bishop of Rochester who answered upon the matter as More had done When the Lords had dispatched all the rest More was again brought before them they shewed him how many had taken it he answered he judged no man for doing it only he could not do it himself Then they asked the reasons why he refused it He answered he feared it might provoke the King more against him if he should offer reasons which would be called a disputing against Law but when he was further pressed to give his reasons he said if the King would command him to do it he would put them in Writing The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury urged him with this Argument that since he said he blamed no other person for taking it it seemed he was not perswaded it was a Sin but was doubtful in the matter but he did certainly know he ought to obey the King and the Law so there was a certainty on the one hand and only a doubt on the other therefore he was obliged to do that about which he was certain notwithstanding these his doubtings This did shake him a little especially as himself writes coming out of so Noble a Prelates mouth but he answered that though he had examined the matter very carefully yet his Conscience leaned positively to the other side and he offered to purge himself by his Oath that it was purely out of a Principle of Conscience and out of no light Fantasie or Obstinacy that he thus refused it The Abbot of Westminster pressed him that however the matter appeared to him he might see his Conscience was Erroneous since the great Council of the Realm was of another mind and therefore he ought to change his Conscience A Reasoning very fit for so rich an Abbot which discovers of what temper his Conscience was But to this More answered that if he were alone against the whole Parliament he had reason to suspect his own understanding but he thought he had the whole Council of Christendome on his side as well as the great Council of England was against him Secretary Cromwell who as More writes tenderly favoured him seeing his ruin was now inevitable was much affected at it and protested with an Oath he had rather his own only Son had lost his head than that he should have refused the Oath Thus both he and the Bishop of Rochester refused it but both offered to Swear another Oath for the Succession of the Crown to the issue of the Kings present Marriage because that was in the Power of the Parliament to determine it Cranmer who was a moderate and wise man and foresaw well the ill effects that would follow on contending so much with persons so highly esteemed over the World and of such a temper that severity would bend them to nothing did by an earnest Letter to Cromwell dated the 27th of April move that what they offered might be accepted for if they once Swore to the Succession it would quiet the Kingdom for they acknowledging it all other persons would acquiesce and submit to their Judgments But this sage advice was not accepted The King was much irritated against them and resolved to proceed with them according to Law and therefore they were both indicted upon the Statute and Committed Prisoners to the Tower And it being apprehended that if they had Books and Paper given them they would write against the Kings Marriage or his Supremacy these were denyed them The Old Bishop was hardly used his Bishoprick was seized on and all his goods taken from him only some old rags were left to cover him and he was neither supplyed well in diet nor other necessaries of which he made sad complaints to Cromwell But the remander of this Tragical business which left one of the greatest blots on this Kings proceedings falling within the limits of the next Book I haste on to the Conclusion of this The Separation from Rome was made in the former Session of Parliament but the Kings Supremacy was not yet fully setled This was reserved for the next Session that sate in November from the 3d of that month to the 18th of December about which we can have no light from the Journals they being lost The first Act Confirmed what had been already acknowledged by the Clergy that the King was the Supream Head in Earth of the Church of England which was to be annexed to his other Titles it was also enacted that the King and his heirs and Successors should have Power to visit and reform all Heresies Errors and other Abuses which in the Spiritual jurisdiction ought to be reform'd By the Second Act they Confirmed the Oath about the Succession concerning which some doubts had been made because there was no Oath specified in the former Act though both Houses had taken it it was now Enacted that all the Subjects were obliged to take it when offered to them under the pains contained in the Act pass'd in the former Session By the Third Act the first Fruits and Tenths of all Ecclesiastical Benefices were given to the King as the Supream Head of the Church The Clergy were easily prevailed on to consent to the putting down of the Annates pay'd to the Court of Rome for all men readily concur to take off any Imposition but at that time it had perhaps abated much of their heartiness if they had imagined that these duties should have been still payed therefore that was kept up till they had done all that was to be done against Rome And now as the Commons and the Secular Lords would no doubt easily agree to lay a taxe on the Clergy so the others having no forreign support were not in a condition to wrestle against it In the Thirteenth Act among other things that were made Treason one was the denying the King the Dignity Title or name of his Estate Royal or the calling the King Heretick Schismatick Tyrant Infidel or Usurper of the Crown This was done to restrain the Insolencies of some Friars and all such offenders were to be denyed the Priviledge of Sanctuaries By the Fourteenth Act provision was made for Suffragan Bishops which as is said had been accustomed to be had within this Realm for the
Monks of his House and the Abbot of Gervanx with a monk of his House and the Abbot of Sawley in Lancashire with the Prior of that House and the Prior of Burlington who were all attainted of High Treason and Executed The Abbots of Glastenbury and Reading were men of great power and Wealth The one was rated at 3508. lib. and the the other at 2116. lib. They seeing the storm like to break out on themselves sent a great deal of the Plate and Money that they had in their House to the Rebels in the North. Which being afterwards discovered they were attainted of High Treason a year after this but I mention it here for the affinity of the matter Further particulars about the Abbot of Reading I have not yet discovered But there is an account given to Cromwel of the proceedings against the Abbot of Glastenbury in two Letters which I have seen the one was writ by the Sheriff of the County the other by Sir Iohn Russell who was present at his Trial and was reputed a man of as great Integrity and Virtue as any in that time which he seems to have left as an inheritance to that Noble Family that has descended from him These inform that he was indicted of Burglary as well as Treason for having broken the House in his Monastery where the Plate was kept and taken it out which as Sir William Thomas says was sent to the Rebels The evidence being brought to the Jury who as Sir Iohn Russel writes were as good and worthy men as had ever been on any Jury in that County they found him guilty He was carried to the place of Execution near his own Monastery where as the Sheriff writes he acknowledged his guilt and begged God and the King pardon for it The Abbot of Colchester was also attainted of High Treason What the particulars were I cannot tell For the Record of their Attainders was lost But some of our own Writers deservs a severe censure who Write it was for denying the King Supremacy whereas if they had not undertaken to write the History without any information at all they must have seen that the whole Clergy but most particularly the Abbots had over and over again acknowledged the Kings Supremacy For clearing which and discovering the Impudence of Sanders Relation of this matter I shall lay before the Reader the Evidences that I find of the Submission of these and all the other Abbots to the Kings Supremacy First in the Convocation in the 22d year of this Reign they all acknowledged the King Supream Head of the Church of England They did all also swear to maintain the Act of the Succession of the Crown made in the 25th year of his Reign in which the Popes Power was plainly condemned For in the proceedings against More and Fisher it was frequently repeated to them that all the Clergy had sworn it It is also entred in the Journal of the House of Lords that all the members of both Houses swore it at their breaking up And the same Journals inform us that the Abbots of Colchester and Reading sate in that Parliament and as there was no Protestation made against any of the Acts passed in that Session so it is often entred that the Acts were agreed to by the Unanimous consent of the Lords It appears also by several Original Letters that the heads of all the Religious Houses in England had Signed that Position that the Pope had no more Iurisdiction in this Kingdom than any forreign Bishop whatsoever And it was rejected by none but some Carthusians and Franciscans of the Observance who were proceeded against for refusing to acknowledg it When they were so pressed in it none can imagine that a Parliamentary Abbot would have been dispenced with And in the last Parliament in which the second Oath about the Succession to the Crown was enacted it was added that they should also swear the King to be the Supream head of the Church The Abbots of Glassenbury and Reading were then present as appears by the Journals and consented to it So little reason there is for Imagining that they refused that or any other Complyance that might secure them in their Abbies In particular the Abbot of Reading had so got into Cromwels good opinion that in some differences between him and Shaxton Bishop of Salisbury that was Cromwels creature he had the better of the Bishop Upon which Shaxton who was a proud ill-natured man wrote an high expostulating Letter to Cromwell Complaining of an Injunction he had granted against him at the Abbots desire He also shewed that in some contests between him and his Residentiaries and between him and the Major of Salisbury Cromwel was always against him he likewise challenged him for not answering his Letters He tells him God will judge him for abusing his Power as he did he prays God to have pity on him and to turn his heart with a great deal more provoking Language He also adds many insolent praises of himself and his whole Letter is as extravagant a piece of vanity and insolence as ever I saw To this Cromwel wrote an answer that shews him to have been indeed a great man The Reader will find it in the Collection and see from it how modestly and discreetly he carryed his Greatness But how justly soever these Abbots were attainted the seizing on their Abbey-Lands pursuant to those Attainders was thought a great stretch of Law since the Offence of an Ecclesiastical Incumbent is a Personal thing and cannot prejudice the Church no more than a secular man who is in an Office does by being Attainted bring any diminution of the Rights of his Office on his successors It is true there were some words cast into the thirteenth Act of the Parliament in the 26th year of this Reign by which divers Offences were made Treason that seemed to have been designed for such a purpose The words are that whatsoever Lands any Traytor had of any Estate of Inheritance in use or possession by any Right Title or Means should be forfeited to the King By which as it is certain Estates in Tayl were comprehended so the Lands that any Traytor had in Possession or use seem to be included and that the rather because by some following words their heirs and Successors are for ever excluded This either was not thought on when the Bishop of Rochester was Attainted or perhaps was not claimed since the King intended not to lessen the number of Bishopricks but rather to increase them Besides the words of the Statute seem only to belong to an Estate of Inheritance within which Church-Benefices could not be included without a great force put on them 'T is true the word Successor favoured these seisures except that be thought an expletory word put in out of form but still to be limited to an Estate of Inheritance That word does also import that such Criminals might have successors But if the whole Abbey
of them than to direct their belief by them The King leaned neither to the right nor to the left hand neither to the one nor the other Party but set the pure and sincere Doctrine of the Christian Faith only before his eyes And therefore was now resolved to have this set forth to his Subjects without any corrupt mixtures and to have such decent Ceremonies continued and the true use of them taught by which all abuses might be cut off and Disputes about the Exposition of the Scriptures cease that so all his Subjects might be well instructed in their Faith and directed in the reverent worship of God and resolved to punish severely all transgressors of what sort or side soever they were The King was resolved That Christ That the Gospel of Christ and the truth should have the victory And therefore had appointed some Bishops and Divines to draw up an Exposition of those things that were necessary for the Institution of a Christian-man Who were the two Arch-Bishops the Bishop of London Duresm Winchester Rochester Hereford and St. Davids and Doctors Thirleby Robertson Cox Day Oglethorp Redmayn Edgeworth Crayford Symonds Robins and Tresham He had also appointed others to examine what Ceremonies should be retained and what was the true use of them who were the Bishops of Bath and Wells Ely Sarum Chichester Worcester and Landaff The King had also commanded the Judges and other Justices of the Peace and persons commissioned for the Execution of the Act formerly passed to proceed against all transgressors and punish them according to Law And he Concluded with an high Commendation of the King whose due praises he said a man of far greater Eloquence than himself was could not fully set forth The Lords approved of this Nomination and ordered that these Committees should sit constantly on Mundays Wedensdays and Fridays and no other days they were to sit in the afternoon But their Proceedings will require so full a Relation that I shall first open the other Affairs that passed in this Session and leave these to the last On the 14th of April the King created Cromwel Earl of Essex the Male line of the Bourchiers that had carryed that Title being extinguished This shews that the true Causes of Cromwels fall must be found in some other thing than his making up the Kings Marriage who had never thus raised his Title if he had intended so soon to pull him down On the 22d of April a Bill was brought in for Suppressing the Knights of St. Iohn of Ierusalem Their first Foundation was to be a Guard to the Pilgrims that went to the Holy Land For some Ages that was extolled as the highest expression of devotion and reverence to our Saviour to go and view the places of his abode and chiefly the places where he was Crucified Buried and ascended to Heaven Upon which many entred into a Religious Knighthood who were to defend the Holy Land and conduct the Pilgrims Those were of two sorts The Knights-Templars and Hospitallers The former were the greater and richer but the other were also very considerable The Popes and their Clergy did every-where animate all Princes and great persons to undertake expeditions into these parts Which were very costly and dangerous and proved fatal to almost all the Princes that made them Yet the belief of the pains of Purgatory from which all were delivered by the Popes Power who went on this Expedition such as dyed in it being also reckoned Martyrs wrought wonderfully on a blind and Superstitious Age. But such as could not go were perswaded That if on their death-beds they vowed to go upon their recovery and left some Lands to maintain a Knight that should go thither and fight against the Infidels it would do as well Upon this great and vast Endowments were made But there were many Complaints made of the Templars for betraying and robbing the Pilgrims and other horrid abuses which may reasonably be believed to have been true though other Writers of that Age lay the blame rather on the Covetousness of the King of France and the Popes malice to them Yet in a General Council the whole Order was Condemned and Suppressed and such of them as could be taken were cruelly put to death The Order of the Hospitallers stood yet did not grow much after that They were beaten out of the Holy-Land by the Sultans and lately out of the Isle of Rhodes and were at this time in Malta Their great Master depended on the Pope and the Emperor so it was not thought fit to let a House that was subject to a Forreign Power stand longer And it seems they would not willingly Surrender up their House as others had done Therefore it was necessary to force them out of it by an Act of Parliament which on the 22d of April was read the first time and on the 26th the 2d time and on the 29th the third time by which both their House in England and another they had in Kilmainam in Ireland were suppressed great pensions being reserved by the Act to the Priors a 1000 lib. to him of St. Iohns near London and 500 Marks to the other with very considerable allowances for the Knights which in all amounted near to 3000 lib. yearly But on the 14th of May the Parliament was Prorogued to the 25th and a vote passed that their Bills should remain in the State they were in Upon their next mâ—eting as they were going on in their business a great Change of Court broke out For on the 13th of Iune at the Council Table the Duke of Norfolk in the Kings name challenged the Lord Cromwel of high Treason and Arresting him sent him Prisoner to the Tower He had many Enemies among all sorts of persons The Nobility despised him and thought it lessened the greatness of their Titles to see the Son of a Black-Smith raised so many degrees above them His aspiring to the Order of the Garter was thought inexcusable vanity and his having so many places heaped on him as Lord Privy Seal Lord Chamberlain of England and Lord Vice-gerent with the Mastership of the Rolls with which he had but lately parted drew much envy on him All the Popish party hated him out of measure The Suppression of the Abbies was laid wholly at his door The Attaindors and all other severe proceedings were imputed to his Counsels He was also thought to be the person that had kept the King and the Emperor at such distance And therefore the Duke of Norfolk and Gardiner beside private Animosities hated him on that account And they did not think it impossible if he were out of the way to bring on a Treaty with the Emperor which they hoped would open the way for one with the Pope But other more secret reasons wrought his ruin with the King The fear he was in of a Conjunction between the Emperor and France did now abate For he understood that it went no further
Punishments and Fines and Imprisonment upon such as sold or kept such Books But Bibles that were not of Tindals Translation were still to be kept only the Annotations or Preambles that were in any of them were to be cut out or dashed and the Kings Proclamations and Injunctions with the Primmers and other Books Printed in English for the instruction of the people before the year 1540 were still to be in force and among these Chancers Books are by name mentioned No Books were to be Printed about Religion without the Kings Allowance In no Playes nor Enterludes they might make any Expositions of Scripture but only reproach Vice and set forth virtue in them None might read the Scripture in any open Assembly or expound it but he who was Licensed by the King or his Ordinary with a Proviso that the Chancellors in Parliament Judges Recorders or any others who were wont in publick occasions to make Speeches and commonly took a place of Scripture for their Text might still do as they had done formerly Every Noble-man or Gentle-man might cause the Bible to be read to him in or about his House quietly and without disturbance Every Merchant that was a Housholder might also read it But no Woman nor Artificers Apprentices Journeymen Serving-men under the degree of Yeomen nor no Husbandmen or Labourers might read it Yet every Noble Woman or Gentlewoman might read it for her self and so might all other persons but those who were excepted Every person might read and teach in their Houses the Book set out in the year 1540. with the Psalter Primmer Paternoster the Ave and the Creed in English All Spiritual persons who preached or taught contrary to the Doctrine set forth in that Book were to be admitted for the first conviction to renounce their errors for the second to abjure and carry a Faggot which if they refused to do or fell into a third offence they were to be burnt But the Laity for the third offence were only to forfeit their Goods and Chattels and be liable to perpetual Imprisonment But these offences were to be objected to them within a year after they were committed And whereas before the Party accused was not allowed to bring Witnesses for his own Purgation this was now granted him But to this a severe Proviso was added which seemed to overthrow all the former favour that the Act of the six Articles was still in the same force in which it was before the making of this Act. Yet that was moderated by the next Proviso That the King might at any time hereafter at his pleasure change this Act or any Provision in it This last Proviso was made stronger by another Act made for the due execution of Proclamations in pursuance of a former Act to the same effect of which mention was made in the 31st year of the Kings Reign By that former Act there was so great a number of Officers of State and of the Kings Houshold of Judges and other persons to sit on these Trials that those not being easily brought together the Act had never taken any effect Therefore it was now appointed that nine Counsellors should be a sufficient number for these Trials At the passing of that Act the Lord Montjoy protested against it which is the single Instance of a Protestation against any publick Bill through this Kings whole Reign The Act about Religion freed the Subjects from the fears under which they were before For now the Laity were delivered from the hazard of burning and the Spirituality were not in danger but upon the third Conviction They might also bring their own witnesses which was a great favour to them Yet that high power which was given the King of altering the Act or any parts of it made that they were not absolutely secured from their fears of which some instances afterwards appeared But as this Act was some mitigation of former severities so it brought the Reformers to depend wholly on the Kings Mercy for their Lives since he could now chain up or let loose the Act of the six Articles upon them at his pleasure Soon after the end of this Parliament a League was sworn between the King and the Emperour on Trinity Sunday Offensive and Defensive for England Calais and the places about it and for all Flanders with many other particulars to be found in the Treaty set down at large by the Lord Herbert There is no mention made of the Legitimation of the Lady Mary but it seems it was promised that she should be declared next in the Succession of the Crown to Prince Edward if the King had no other Children which was done in the next Parliament without any reflections on her Birth and the Emperor was content to accept of that there being no other terms to be obtained The Popish party who had set up their rest on bringing the King and Emperour to a League and putting the Lady Mary into the Succession no doubt prest the Emperor much to accept of this which we may reasonably believe was vigorously driven on by Bonner who was sent to Spain an Ambassador for concluding this Peace by which also the Emperor gained much for having engaged the Crowns of England and France in a War and drawn off the King of England from his League with the Princes of Germany he was now at more leisure to prosecute his designs in Germany But the negotiation in Scotland succeeded not to the Kings mind though at first there were very good appearances The Cardinal by forging a Will for the dead King got himself and some of his party to be put into the Government But the Earl of Arran Hamilton being the nearest in blood to the young Queen and being generally beloved for his Probity was invited to assume the Government which he managed with great moderation and an universal applause He summoned a Parliament which confirmed him in his Power during the Minority of the Queen The King sent Sir Ralph Sadler to him to agree the Marriage and to desire him to send the young Queen into England And if private ends wrought much on him Sadler was empowered to offer another Marriage of the Kings second Daughter the Lady Elizabeth to his Son The Earl of Arran was himself inclinable to Reformation and very much hated the Cardinal So he was easily brought to consent to a Treaty for the Match which was concluded in August By which the young Queen was to be bred in Scotland till she was ten years of age but the King might send a Nobleman and his Wife with other persons not exceeding 20 to wait on her And for performance of this six Noblemen were to be sent from Scotland for Hostages The Earl of Arran being then Governor kept the Cardinal under restraint till this Treaty was Concluded But he corrupting his Keepers made his escape and joyning with the Queen Mother they made a strong faction against the Governor all the Clergy joyned with the
questioned for Heresie But Cranmers carriage in this matter was suitable to the other parts of his Life for he withdrew to Croydon and would not so much as be present in Parliament when so unjust an Act was passed and his absence at this time was the more considerable since the King was so dangerously ill that it must be concluded it could be no slight Cause that made him withdraw at such a time But the Duke of Norfolk had been his constant Enemy therefore he would not so much as be near the publick Councils when so strange an Act was passing But at the same time the Bishop of Winchester was officiously hanging on in the Court and though he was forbid to come to Council yet always when the Councellors went into the Kings Bed-Chamber he went with them to the door to make the World believe he was still one of the number and staying at the door till the rest came out he returned with them But he was absolutely lost in the Kings Opinion There is but one other step of Forreign business in this Reign which was an Embassy sent over by the Duke of Saxony to let the King know of the League between the Pope and the Emperor for the Extirpation of Heresie And that the Emperor was making War on him and the other Princes in pursuance of that League Therefore he desired the Kings Assistance But at the same time the Emperor did by his Agents every-where disown that the War was made upon a Religious Account And said it was only to maintain the Rights of the Empire which those Princes had affronted So the King answered that as soon as it did appear to him that Religion was the cause of the War he would Assist them But that which made this so involved was That though at Rome the Pope declared it was a Holy War and ordered Prayers and Processions to be made for Success yet the Emperor in all his Declarations took no notice of Religion He had also divided the Protestant Party so that some of them joyned with him and others were Neutrals And when in Germany it self this matter was so little understood it was easie to abuse Strangers by giving them a wrong Account of it The King was now overgrown with corpulency and fatness so that he became more and more unwieldy He could not go up or down stairs but as he was raised up or let down by an Engine And an old sore in his Leg became very uneasie to him so that all the humors in his Body sinking down into his Leg he was much pained and became exceeding froward and intractable to which his inexcusable severity to the Duke of Norfolk and his Son may be in a great measure imputed His Servants durst scarce speak to him to put him in mind of his approaching end And an Act of Parliament which was made for the security of the Kings Life had some words in it against the Foretelling of his death which made every one afraid to speak to him of it lest he in his angry and imperious humors should have Ordered them to be Endicted upon that Statute But he felt nature declining apace and so made the Will that he had left behind him at his last going into France be written over again with â—his only difference That Gardiner Bishop of Winchester whom he had appointed one of the Executors of his Will and of the Councellors to his Son till he came of Age was now left out Of which when Sir Anthony Brown put the King in mind apprehending it was only an Omission he answered That he knew Gardiners temper well enough and though he could Govern him yet none of them would be able to do it and that he would give them much trouble And when Brown at another time repeated the motion to the King he told him if he spake more of that he would strike him out of his Will too The Will was said to be Signed the 30th of December It is Printed at large by Fuller and the most Material parts of it by Heylin So I need say little of it only the most signal Clause in it was That he excluded the Line of Scotland out of the Succession and preferred the two Daughters of the French Queen by Charles Brandon to them And this leads me to discover several things concerning this Will which have been hitherto unknown I draw them from a Letter written to Sir William Cecil then Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth afterwards Lord Burleigh by William Maitland of Leithingtoun Secretary of State to the Queen of Scotland This Maitland was accounted a man of the greatest parts of any in his Nation at that time though his Treachery in turning over to the Party that was against the Queen very much blemished his other Qualities but he expiated his fault by a real Repentance which appeared in his returning to his duty and losing all afterwards in her quarrel His Letter will be found in the Collection The Substance and design of it is to clear the Right his Mistress had to the Crown of England in case the Queen should die without Heirs of her Body Therein after he had answered other Objections he comes to this of the Will To it he says That according to the Act of Parliament the Kings Will was to be Signed with his own hand but this Will was only Signed by the Stamp Then the King never Ordered the Stamp to be put to it He had been oft desired to Sign it but had always put it off but when they saw his death approaching one William Clark servant to Thomas Hennage put the Stamp to it and some Gentlemen that were waiting without were called in to Sign it as Witnesses For this he appeal'd to the deposition of the Lord Paget and desired the Marquess of Winchester and Northampton the Earl of Pembroke Sir William Petre Sir Henry Nâ—vil Sir Maurice Berkley Sir Anthony Denny Doctor Buts and some others might be examined and that their Depositions might be entred in the Chancery He also appealed to the Original Will by which it would appear That it was not Signed but only Stamped and that not being according to the Act of Parliament which in such extraordinary things must be strictly taken the Will was of no force Thus it appears what vulgar Errors pass upon the World And though for seventy five years the Scotish Race has enjoyed the Crown of England and after so long a possession it is very superfluous to clear a Title which is universally acknowledged yet the Reader will not be ill pleased to see how ill-grounded that pretence was which some managed very seditiously during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth for excluding that Line But if this Will was not signed by the King other Grantâ— was certainly made by him on his death-bed one was to the City of London of 500 Marks a year for endowing an Hospital which was called Christs
Abbeys All those Sir Edward Nevill only excepted pleaded Guilty and so they were condemned but Sir Geofrey Pole was the only person of the number that was not Executed for he had discovered the matter At the same time also Cardinal Pole Michael Throgmorton Gentleman Iohn Hilliard and Thomas Goldwell Clerks and William Pâ—â—to a Franciscan of the Observance were Attainted in Absence because they had cast off their duty to the King and had subjected themselves to the Bishop of Rome Pole being made Cardinal by him and for writing Treasonable Letters and sending them into England On the 4th of February following Sir Nicholas Carew that was both Master of the Horse and Knight of the Garter was Arraigned for being an adherent to the Marquess of Exeter and having spoke of his Attaindor as unjust and cruel he was also Attainted and Executed upon the 3d of March When he was brought to the Scaffold he openly acknowledged the errors and superstition in which he had formerly lived and blessed God for his Imprisonment for he then began to relish the Life and sweetness of Gods holy Word which was brought him by his Keeper one Phillips who followed the Reformation and had formerly suffered for it After these Executions followed the Parliament in the year 15â—9 in which not only these Attaindors that were already passed were confirmed but new ones of a strange and unheard-of nature were Enacted It is a blemish never to be washed off and which cannot be enough condemned and was a breach of the most sacred and unalterable Rules of Justice which is capable of no excuse it was the Attainting of some persons whom they held in custody without bringing them to a Tryal Concerning which I shall add what the great Lord Chief Justice Cook writes although I question not the Power of the Parliament for without question the Attaindor stands of force in Law yet this I say of the manner of proceeding Aâ—ferat Oblivio si potest si non utrumque silentium tegat For the more high and absolute the Jurisdiction of the Court is the more just and honourable it ought to be in the proceedings and to give Example of Justice to inferior Courts The chief of these were the Marchioness of Exeter and the Countess of Sarum The special matter charged on the former is her confederating her self to Sir Nicolas Carew in his Treasons to which is added that she had committed divers other abominable Treasons The latter is said to have confederated her self with her Son the Cardinal with other aggravating words It does not appear by the Journal that any Witnesses were examined only that day that the Bills were read the third time in the House of Lords Cromwell shewed them a Coat of white silk which the Lord Admiral had found among the Countess of Sarums Cloaths in which the Arms of England were wrought on the one side and the Standard that was carryed before the Rebels was on the other side This was brought as an evidence that she approved of the Rebellion Three Irish Priests were also Attainted for carrying Letters out of Ireland to the Pope and Cardinal Pole as also Sir Adrian Fortescue for endeavouring to raise Rebellion Thomas Dingley a Knight of St. Iohn of Ierusalem and Robert Granceter Merchant for going to several Forreign Princes and perswading them to make War upon the King and assist the Lords Darcy and Hussie in the Rebellion they had raised Two Gentlemen a Dominican Frier and a Yeoman were by the same Act Attainted for saying that that venemous Serpent the Bishop of Rome was Supream Head of the Church of England Another Gentleman two Priests and a Yeoman are Attainted for Treason in general no particular crime being specified Thus sixteen persons were in this manner Attainted and if there was any Examination of Witnesses for convicting them it was either in the Star-Chamber or before the Privy Council for there is no mention of any evidence that was brought in the Journals There was also much haste made in the passing this Bill it being brought in the 10th of May was read that day for the first and second time and the 11th of May for the third time The Commons kept it five days before they sent it back and added some more to those that were in the Bill at first but how many were named in the Bill Originally and how many were afterwards added cannot be known Fortescue and Dingley suffered the 10th of Iuly As for the Countess of Sarum the Lord Herbert saw in a Record that Bulls from the Pope were found in her House that she kept correspondence with her Son and that she forbade her Tenants to have the new Testament in English or any other of the Books that had been published by the Kings Authority She was then about seventy years of Age but shewed by the answers she made that she had a vigorous and masculine mind She was kept two years Prisoner in the Tower after the Act had passed the King by that reprieve designing to oblige her Son to a better behaviour but upon a fresh provocation by a new Rebellion in the North she was beheaded and in her the name and line of Plantagenet determined The Marchioness of Exceter died a natural death In November this year were the Abbots of Reading Glossenbury and Colechester Attainted of Treason of which mention was made formerly In the Parliament that sate in the year 1540 they went on to follow that strange precedent which they had made the former year By the 56th Act Giles Heron was Attainted of Treason no special matter being mentioned By the 57th Act Richard Fetherstoun Thomas Abell and Edward Pole Priests and William Horn a Yeoman were Attainted for denying the Kings Supremacy and adhering to the Bishop of Rome by the same Act the Wife of one Tirrell Esquire was Attainted for refusing her duty of Alleageance and denying Prince Edward to be Prince and heir of the Crown and one Laurence Cook of Doncaster was also Attainted for contriving the Kings death By the 58th Act Gregory Buttolph Adam Damplip and Edward Brindeholm Clerks and Clement Philpot Gentleman were Attainted for adhering to the Bishop of Rome for corresponding with Cardinal Pole and endeavouring to surprize the Town of Callais By the same Act Barnes Gerard and Ierome were Attainted of whose sufferings an account has been already given By the 59th Act William Bird a Priest and Chaplain to the Lord Hungerford was attainted for having said to one that was going to Assist the King against the Rebels in the North I am sorry thou goest seest thou not how the King plucketh down Images and Abbies every day and if the King go thither himself he will never come home again nor any of them all which go with him and in truth it were pity he should ever come home again and at another time upon ones saying O good Lord I ween all the World will be
signified unto you as by inferring the high and extream dishonour and intolerable prejudice that the Pope's Holiness thereof should do to his said Legates and also the contrariety both of his Bull and Commission and also of his Promise and Pollicitation passed upon the same beside the notable and excellent displeasure thereby to be done by his Holiness to us and our Realm clear contrary to our merits and deserts extending also the other dangers mentioned in the said former Writings apparent to ensue thereby to his Holiness and the See Apostolick with the manifold and in manner inâ—inite inconveniences like to follow of the same to all Christendom and all other such reasons introductions and perswasions ye can make and devise for that purpose putting him also in remembrance of the great Commodity coming unto his Holiness herein by reason that this Cause being here decided the Pope not only is delivered from the pains that he should in this time of Disease and Sickness to the extream peril of his Life sustain with the same seeing that it is of such moment and importance as suffereth no tract or delay but also his Holiness shall by such decision here eschew and avoid all displeasure that he should not fail to have if it were or should be passed elsewhere which matter is no little wisdom well to foresee and consider and not only to forbear to do or pass any thing derogatory or prejudicial to his said Commission but also by all means possible to corroborate and fortify the same and all such Acts judicial as shall pass by his said Legates by virtue thereof Like-as we doubt not but that the Pope's Holiness of his Uprightness Vertue and perfect Wisdom will do and rather like a most loving Father and Friend tender and favour our good just and reasonable Causes and Desires putting thereunto all the furtherance he may do than to do or consent to be done any thing hurtful prejudicial dammageable or displeasant unto us or this our said Cause And finally If need shall be we will ye also infer as the case shall require how inconvenient it were this our Matter should be decided in the Court of Rome which now dependeth totally in the Emperor's Arbitre having such puissance near thereunto that as hath been written by the Pope's own Letters their State and Life there is all in the Emperor's hands whose Armies may famish or relieve them at their pleasure And semblably ye shall not forget the prerogative of our Crown and Jurisdiction Royal by the ancient Laws of our Realm which admitteth nothing to be done by the Pope to the prejudice thereof and also what danger they should incur that would presume to bring or present any such thing unto the same as in our last Letters sent by Alexander was touched at good length Wherein since ye be already so well and amply instructed knowing also how much the Matter imports and toucheth us and what profit and agreeable service ye may do unto us herein with the high thanks that ye may deserve for the same We shall not be more prolix but refer the substantial perfect and assured handling hereof to your circumspections fidelities and diligences not doubting but that ye will now above all other things look vigilantly hereunto and so acquit your selves in the same as it may well appear that your Acts shall be correspondent to our firm trust and expectation and no less tender this thing than ye know it to be imprinted in the bottom of our Heart nor then as ye know both the importance and high moment and also the very necessity of the Matter doth require In which doing beside the laud and praise that ye shall consecute thereby of all good Men we shall so have your acquittals in our remembrance as ye shall have cause to think your travels pains and studies herein in the best wise collocate and emploied Given under our Signet at our Palace of Bridewel the 23 d day of Iune Rome 9 Iuly 1529. XXIX Doctor Bennet's Letter to the Cardinal shewing how little they might expect from the Pope An Original PLease it your Grace to understand that the 6 th day of this month the Pope's Holiness send for us Albeit we had made great sute for audience before to his Holiness soon after that we had understanding that his Holiness was recovered of this his last Sickness into the which he fell the second day after I had my first audience of his Holiness which was the 21 day of the last month And after our long communication and reasoning in the King's Highness Cause which at length we have written to your Grace in our common Letter for a confirmation of many inconveniences and dangers which we perswaded to his Holiness to follow both to himself and to the See Apostolick in case his Holiness should avoke the cause I thought much convenient at that same time to deliver the King 's familiar and likewise your Grace's Letter and so to shew your Grace's Credence to his Holiness After the foresaid Letters delivered and by his Holiness read his Holiness shewed me that he perceived by your Grace's Letters that I had certain Credence to shew unto him of great moment and importance concerning him and the See Apostolick I shewed to his Holiness your Grace's Faith and observance his Holiness doth best know most humbly besought his Holiness to believe these undoubtedly to follow That if his Holiness should at the labours of the Caesareans avoke the Cause he should not alonely offend the King's Highness which hitherto hath been a stay a help and a defence of the See Apostolick but also by reason of this injury without remedy shall alienate his Majesty and Realms with others from the devotion and obedience of the See Apostolick This I shewed his Holiness that your Grace doth evidently perceive to follow in case his Holiness should incline to the Caesareans desire on this behalf Yea further I said that your Grace most clearly perceiveth also by that Act the Church of England utterly to be destroyed and likewise your Person and that these your Grace with weeping tears most lamentably committed unto me to shew to his Holiness Furthermore I shewed to his Holiness that your Grace howsoever you should proceed in this Cause did intend to proceed so sincerely indifferently and justly that you would rather suffer to be jointed Joint by Joint than either for affection or fear do any act either against your Conscience or Justice Furthermore I said that seeing his Holiness may be so well assured that your Grace will do nothing but according to Justice in this Cause he may the more boldly deny Avocations to the Caesareans seeing that the Queen and the Emperor can desire but Justice which they may have at your Grace's hand and my Lord Campegius as well there as here and by this means his Holiness should deliver himself from great pains and unquietness of mind which he should sustain
monumenta literas scripturas censuras conclusiones Magistrales opiniones consilia assertiones affirmationes tractatus foedera pacis processus res alias caetera promissa coram nobis in dicta causa respective habita gesâ—a facta exhibita producta Necnon ex eisdem diversis aliis ex causis considerationibus argumentisque probationum generibus variis multiplicibus validis quidem efficacibus quibus animum nostrum hac in parte ad plenum informavimus plene evidenter invenimus comperimus dictum Matrimonium inter praefatos Illustrissimum Potentissimum Principem Dominum nostrum Henricum Octavum ac Serenissimam Dominam Catharinam ut praemittitur contractum consummatum nullum omnino invalidum fuisse esse Divino Jure prohibente contractum consummatum extitisse Idcirco nos Thomas Archiepiscopus Primas Legatus antedictus Christi nomine primitus invocato ac solum Deum prae oculis nostris habentes pro nullitate invaliditate dicti Matrimonii pronunciamus decernimus declaramus ipsumque praetensum Matrimonium fuisse esse nullum invalidum ac Divino Jure prohibente contractum consummatum nulliusque valoris aut momenti esse sed viribus firmitate juris caruisse carere praefatoque Illustrissimo Potentissimo Principi Henrico Octavo Serenissimae Dominae Catharinae non licere in eodem praetenso Matrimonio remanere pronunciamus decernimus declaramus ipsosque IllustrissimuÌ„ Potentissimum Principem Henricum Octavum ac Serenissimam Dominam Catharinam quatenus de facto non de jure dictum praetensum Matrimonium ad invicem contraxerunt consummarunt ab invicem separamus divorciamus atque sic separatos divorciatos necnon ob omni vinculo Matrimoniali respectu dicti praetensi Matrimonii liberos immunes fuisse esse pronunciamus decernimus declaramus per hanc nostram sententiam definitivam sive hoc nostrum finale Decretum quam sive quod ferimus promulgamus in his scriptis In quorum praemissorum fidem testimonium has literas nostras testimoniales sive praesens publicum sententiae vel Decreti instrumentum exinde fieri ac per Notarios Publicos subscriptos scribas actuarios nostros in ea parte specialiter assumptos subscribi signari nostrique sigilli appensione jussimus fecimus communiri He likewise passed Iudgment confirming the King's Marriage with Queen Ann at Lambeth May 28 1533. which is in the same Inspeximus Act 5. Anno Regni 25. XLVIII An Act concerning the Deprivations of the Bishops of Salisbury and Worcester WHere before this time the Church of England by the King 's most noble Progenitors and the Nobles of the same have been founded ordained and established in the Estate and degree of Prelatie Dignities and other Promotions Spiritual to the intent and purpose that the said Prelates and other Persons having the said Dignities and Promotions Spiritual continually should be abiding and Reseants upon their said Promotions within this Realm and also keep use and exercise Hospitality Divine Services teaching and preaching of the Laws of Almighty God to such Persons as were and have been within the precinct of their Promotions or Dignities for the Wealth of the Souls of their Givers and Founders greatly to the honour of Almighty God Of the which said Spiritual Persons the King's Highness and his most noble Progenitors have had right honourable and well-learned Personages apt meet and convenient for to guide and instruct his Highness and his most noble Progenitors in their Counsels concerning as well their Outward as Inward Affairs to be devised and practised for the utility and preservation of this Realm by reason whereof the Issues Revenues Profits and Treasure rising and coming of the said Spiritual Promotions and Dignities were and should be spent employed and converted within this Realm to the great profit and commodity of the King's Subjects of the same And where also by the laudable Laws and Provisions of this Realm before this time made it hath been ordained used and established that no Person nor Persons of whatsoever Estate Degree or Quality he or they were should take or receive within this Realm of England to Farm by any Procuracy Writ Letter of Attorney Administrations by Indenture or by any other Mean any Benefice or other Promotion within this Realm of any Person or Persons but only of the King 's true and lawful Subjects being born under the King's Dominions And also that no Person or Persons of what estate and degree soever he or they were by reason of any such Farm Procuracie Letter of Attorney Administration Indenture or by any other mean as is aforesaid should carry conveigh or cause to be carried and conveighed out of this Realm any Gold Silver Treasure or other Commodity by Letter of Exchange or by way of Merchandise or otherwise for any of the Causes aforesaid to the profit or commodity of any Alien or other Stranger being born out of this Realm having any such Promotion Spiritual within the same without license of the King's Highness by the advice of his Council as by the same Laws Statutes and Provisions more plainly at large it may appear which said laudable Laws Statutes and Provisions were made devised and ordained by great policy and foresight of the King 's most noble Progenitors the Nobles and Commons of this Realm for the great profit utility and benefit of the same to the intent that the Gold Silver Treasure Riches and other Commodity of the same by the occasion aforesaid should not be exhausted employed converted and otherwise transported out of this Realm and Dominions of the same to the use profit and commodity of any Stranger being born out of this Realm or the Dominions of the same But only to be spent and used and bestowed within the same to the great comfort and consolation of the Subjects of this Realm Notwithstanding which said wholsome Laws Statutes and Provisions the King's Highness being a Prince of great benignity and liberality having no knowledg nor other due information or instruction of the same Laws Statutes and Provisions heretofore hath nominated and preferred and promoted Laurence Campegius Bishop of Sarum with all the Spiritual and Temporal Possessions Promotions and other Emoluments and Commodities in any wise belonging or appertaining to the same And also hath nominated preferred and promoted Hierome being another Stranger born out of the King 's said Realm and Dominions to the See and Bishoprick of Worcester with all the Spiritual and Temporal Promotions and other Emoluments and Commodities in any wise belonging or appertaining to the same Which said two Bishops and namely the Bishop of Sarum nothing regarding their Duties to Almighty God nor their Cures of the said Bishopricks eversith or for the more part of the time of their said Promotions or Profections into the same have been and yet be resident dwelling
over to England But is much disliked by the King 1539. 1540. But yet Marries her And could never love her A Parliament called Where Cromwel speaks as Lord vice-gerent 1540. He is made Earl of Essex The Suppression of the Knights of St. Iohn at Ierusalem Cromwel◠〈◊〉 The King in love with Mistress Katharine Howard 1539. Cranmers friendship to Cromwel Journal Procâ—â— Parag. 58. Item Billa attincâ—â—rae Tâ—â—me Cromwel Comitis Essex de crimine Herisis Laesae Majestatis per Communes de novo concepta Allâ—nsa 〈◊〉 cum praâ—isione eidem annexa Quae quidem Billa 1º 2 do 3 â—io lecta est provisio ejusdem concernens Dâ—canatum Wellensem â—er lecta est communi omnium Procâ—rum consensu nemine discrepante expedita simul cum ea referebatur Billa Attiâ—cturae quae prius missa erat in Doâ—â—â— Communium Cromwels attaindor Collect. Numb 16. Censures past upon it The King designs a divorce from his Queen It 's referred to the convocation Collect. Numb 17. Collect. Numb 18. Reasons pretended for it 1540. Convocation agreed to it Collect. Numb 19. It is censured Collect. Numb 17. 1529. Report made to the Parl. The Queen consents to it Collect. Numb 20. An Act about the Incontinence of Priests Another about Religion 1540. Subsidies granted by thâ— Clergy And Laiety Cromweâ—s Death His Character Designs against Cranmer A Commission sits about Religion An Explanation of Faith 1539. Cranmers Opinion about it They explain the Apostles Creed 1540. The seven Sacraments With greaâ— maturity Collect. Numb 21. 1539. The ten Commandments 1540. The Lords Prayer The Ave Maria Free-will Justification Good Works All this set forth in a Book And published by the Kings Authority It is variously censured Corrections of the Mass-Book and other Offices Ex M S S. D.D. Stillingflâ—â—t A Persecution of Protestants Of Barnes and others Collect. Numb 22. Who were condemned in Parliament Their Speeches at the Stake Bonners cruelty New Bishopricks â—ounded Collect. Nâ—mb 23. Cranmer's design miscarries These Foundations censured 1541. The State of the Court at this time The Bible in English set up in all Churches Collect. Numb 24. Collect. Nuâ—b 25. 1541. Aâ—tiq Brit. in Râ—g Pâ—lo A Rule about Churchmens housekeeping * Bellaria The King goes to â—ork An account of the State of Scotland The beginings of Learning there And of the Reformation Arch-Bishop Spotswood Lesley Spotswood The Clergy were both ignorant and cruel Hamilton's sufferings The Kings Conâ—essor favâ—urs the Reâ—ormation Forrest's sufferings A further persecution in Sâ—otland The progress of the Reâ—ormation Lesley Buchanan * Regni Angliâ—i Vicarius The King wholly guided by the Clergy Two other Martyrs The Queens ill life is discovered And confessed by her self and others 1542. A new Parliament called 1542. The Act about the Queen Censures pasâ— uponit Act about Hospitals c. The Papists design to suppress the English Bible 〈◊〉 Injuâ—ctions Coll. Numâ— 26. The manner of Preaching at that time Plays and Erâ—erludes then actâ—d War between England and Scotland Duke of 〈◊〉 inroad into Scotlanâ— The Scotish Army defeated Many Prisoners taken 1543. 1543. A new Parliament Cranmer promotes a Reformation An Act â—bout it A League between the King and Emperor A Treaty for a match with the Queen of Scotland The different Interests there The French party prevails A War with France A new persecution of Protestants 〈◊〉 great ingeniousness Three burnt at Windsor Their Persecuters are perjured A Conspiracy against Cranmer 〈…〉 His Christian â—emper of wind 1544. 1544. A new Parliament Act about the Successioâ— 1542. Act against Conspiracies Collect. Numb 27. 1544. The Wars against Sâ—otlanâ— succesfulâ— Colâ—ect Numb 2â— 1545. 〈…〉 1545. The German 〈…〉 peace Church resentments given to Informers 〈◊〉 suffâ—rings in Sâ—â—â—land Spotswood A Parliament sits Chapters and Chanteries given to the King The Kings speech to the Houses The King confirms the Rights of the Universities 1546. Peace with France A new design for Reformation Shaxtons Apostacy Collect. Numb 23. The troubles of Anne Askew She endures the Râ—ck And is burnt with some others A new design against Crâ—nmâ—â— The Kâ—ngs great â—aâ—e of him Antiqu. Brit. in vita Cranmer Another design against the Queen The causes of the Duke of Norfolks disgrace 1547. The Earl of Surrey Executed The Dukes submission to the King 1547. The Parliament meets The Duke of Norfolk Attainted His death prevented by the Kings Fox The Emperors designs against the Protestants The Kings sickness Collect. Numb 30. His latter will a Forgery 1542. 1547. An account of the Kings severities against the Popish Party Some 〈◊〉 executed for denying the Kings Supremacy And Hall a Priest for conspiring against the King Three other Monks Exeâ—â—â—d 1535. Fishers Tryal and death His Character His Character A â—aindors afâ—â—â— the Rebâ—llâ—on was quâ—â—â—d 1537. Hall Censures past upon it 1538. Forrests equivocation and Heresie Hall 1538. The proceedings against Cardinal Pools friends 1539. Some Attaindors without hearing the parties 1539. 4 Instit. 37.38 1540. 1535. The Conclusion Câ—llect Aâ—denda 〈◊〉 1. Colâ—ect Addenda Nâ—mb 2. Collect. Addenda Nâ—mb 3. Collect. Addenda Numb 4. Collect. Addenda Numb 5. Collect. Addenda Numb 6. Collect. Addenda Numb 7. Collect. Addenda Numb 8. Collect. Addenda Numb 9. Collect. Addenda Numb 10. Collect. Addenda Numb 11. Collect. Addenda Numb 12. Treat Rolls Registrum Warhami Fol. 26. Tonst Regist. Fol. 33. Regist. Fitz-Williams Anno Dom. 1523. Regist. Cuthberti Tonstall Folio 40 Regist. Tonst Fol. 138. Cott. libr. Vitel. B. 12. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 12. Cotton libr. Vitellius B. 9. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 10 Cotton Libr. Vâ—â—el B. 10. Cotton libr. Vitel. â— 10. Cotton libr. Vitel. B. 10. Câ—tt libr. Vitel. B. 10. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 10. Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 12. Cott. libr. Vitel. B. 10. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 10. Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 10. Cotton libr. Vitel. B. 10. Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 12. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 10. Cotton libr. Vitel. B. 10. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 10 Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 10. Cotton libr. Vitel. B. 11. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 11. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 11. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 11. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 11. Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 11 Cotton libr. Vitel. B. 11. Cotton libr. Vitel. B. 11. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 11. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 13. Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 13. Cotton Libr. Vesp. B. 5. Ex M S. D. Petyt Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 13. Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 13. This is all written with his own hand and was sent over by him to the King Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 13. Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 13. Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 13. In an Inspeximus Rot. Pat. 25. Reg. 2 d. Paâ—t Cotton Libr. Cleopat E. 4. Cott. Libr. Cleop. E. 4. Cott. Libr. Cleop. E. 4. Anno Regni 28. Regni 27. Regni 28. Regni 29. Regni 30. * In the Houses of this Order there were Cloisters for both Sexes St. Gilbert L. of Semperingham founded it
THE Historie of the REFORMATION of the CHURCH of ENGLAND LONDON Printed for Ric Chiswell Whitehall May 23. 1679. THis Book entituled The History of the Reformation of the Church of ENGLAND having been perused and approved by Persons of eminent Quality and several Divines of great Piety and Learning who have recommended it as a Work very fit to be made publick as well for the Usefulness of the Matter as for the Industry and Integrity the Author hath used in compiling of it the Honourable Mr. SECRETARY COVENTRY doth therefore allow it to be Printed and Published IO. COOKE THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION OF THE Church of England The First Part OF THE Progress made in it during the Reign OF K. Henry the VIII By GILBERT BVRNET LONDON Printed by T. H. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXIX TO THE KING SIR THE first step that was made in the Reformation of this Church was the restoring to your Royal Ancestors the Rights of the Crown and an entire Dominion over all their Subjects of which they had been disseised by the craft and violence of an unjust Pretender to whom the Clergy though your Majesties Progenitors had enriched them by a bounty no less profuse than ill-managed did not only adhere but drew with them the Laity over whose Consciences they had gained so absolute an Authority that our Kings were to expect no Obedience from their people but what the Popes were pleased to allow It is true the Nobler part of the Nation did frequently in Parliament assert the Regal Prerogatives against those Papal invasions yet these were but faint endeavours for an ill-executed Law is but an unequal match to a Principle strongly infused into the Consciences of the people But how different was this from the teaching of Christ and his Apostles They forbad men to use all those Arts by which the Papacy grew up and yet subsists They exhorted them to obey Magistrates when they knew it would cost them their Lives They were for setting up a Kingdom not of this World nor to be attained but by a holy and peaceable Religion If this might every-where take place Princes would find Government both easie and secure It would raise in their Subjects the truest courage and unite them with the firmest charity It would draw from them Obedience to the Laws and Reverence to the persons of their Kings If the Standards of Justice and Charity which the Gospel gives of doing as we would be done by and loving our Neighbours as our selves were made the measures of mens actions how steadily would Societies be governed and how exactly would Princes be obeyed The design of the Reformation was to restore Christianity to what it was at first and to purge it of those Corruptions with which it was over-run in the later and darker Ages GREAT SIR This work was carryed on by a slow and unsteady Progress under King Henry the VIII it advanced in a fuller and freer course under the short but blessed Reign of King Edward was Sealed with the blood of many Martyrs under Queen Mary was brought to a full settlement in the happy and glorious days of Queen Elizabeth was defended by the learned Pen of King Iames but the established frame of it under which it had so long flourished was overthrown with your Majesties blessed Father who fell with it and honoured it by his unexempled Suffering for it and was again restored to its former beauty and order by your Majesties happy Return What remains to compleat and perpetuate this Blessing the composing of our differences at home the establishing a closer correspondence with the Reformed Churches abroad the securing us from the restless and wicked practices of that Party who hoped so lately to have been at the end of their designs and that which can only entitle us to a Blessing from God the Reforming of our manners and lives as our Ancestors did our Doctrine and Worship All this is reserved for your Majesty that it may appear that your Royal Title of Defender of the Faith is no empty sound but the real strength and Glory of your Crown For attaining these ends it will be of great use to trace the steps of our first Reformers for if the land-marks they set be observed we can hardly go out of the way This was my chief design in the following sheets which I now most humbly offer to your Majesty hoping that as you were graciously pleased to command that I should have free access to all Records for composing them so you will not deny your Royal Patronage to the History of that Work which God grant your Majesty may live to raise to its perfection and to compleat in your Reign the Glory of all your Titles This is a part of the most earnest as well as the daily Prayers of May it please Your Sacred Majesty Your Majesties most Loyal most Faithful and most devoted Subject and Servant G. BVRNET THE CONTENTS OF THIS VOLUME BOOK I. A Summary View of King Henry the Eighths Reign till the Process of his Divorce was begun in which the State of England chiefly as it related to Religion is opened Page 1. BOOK II. Of the Process of Divorce between King Henry and Queen Katherine and of what passed from the 19th to the 25th year of his Reign in which he was declared Supream Head of the Church of England Page 34. BOOK III. Of the other Transactions about Religion and Reformation during the rest of the Reign of King Henry the 8th Page 179. COLLECTION OF RECORDS c. Ad Librum Primum Page 3. Ad Librum Secundum Page 9. Ad Librum Tertium Page 131. An Appendix concerning the Errors and Falsehoods in Sanders's Book of the English Schism Page 273. ADDENDA Page 305. ERRATA in the Historical part PAge 12. Line 6. Margent for 15. read 1st p. 49. l. 19. for chiefly r. clearly p. 54. l. 15. for 10. r. 13. p. 103. l. 32. Abisha r. Abishag p. 109. l. 47. had r. has p. 115. l. 10. having r. had p. 126. l. 9. before officiate r. did p. 151. l. 31. speak r. spake p. 173. l. 31. dele a. p. 186. l. 25. Pachon r. Pachom p. 198. l. 8. co r. to p. 203. l. 41. then r. that p. 205. l. 20. being her last words r. her last words being p. 235. l. 44. that so r. so that p. 239. l. 33. was r. is p. 259. l. 42. As r. All. p. 264. l. 15. down r. out p. 275. l. 5. no r. on p. 283. l. 49. in that r. that in l. 51. the great charges of r. of the great charges p. 284. l. 21. person r. prison p. 327. l. 31. desertion r. discovery p. 333. Marginal Note resentments r. preâ—erments Informers r. Reformers p. 344. l. 22. before he r. that p. 369. l. 5. utrumque r. utcumque Some Literal faults and mistakes in the Punctuation the Reader will more easily Correct THE
other faults have been As Phocas Brunichild Irene Mathildis Edgar of England and many more But our Church is not near so much concerned in the persons of those Princes under whom the Reformation began as theirs is in the persons of their Popes who are believed to have far higher Characters of a Divine Power and Spirit in them than other Princes pretend to And yet if the lives of those Popes who have made the greatest advances in their Iurisdiction be examined particularly Gregory the Seventh and Boniface the Eighth vices more eminent than any can be charged on King Henry will be found in them And if a leud and wicked Pope may yet have the holy Ghost dwelling in him and directing him infallibly why may not an ill King do so good a Work as set a Reformation forward And if it were proper to enter into a dissection of Four of those Popes that sate at Rome during this Reign Pope Julius will be found beyond him in a vast Ambition whose bloody Reign did not only embroil Italy but a great part of Christendome Pope Leo the Tenth was as extravagant and prodigal in his expence which put him on baser Shifts than ever this King used to raise money not by embasing the Coin or raising new and heavie taxes but by embasing the Christian Religion and prostituting the pardon of sin in that foul trade of Indulgences Clement the Seventh was false to the highest degree a vice which cannot be charged on this King And Paul the 3d. was a vile and lewd Priest who not only kept his whore but gloried in it and raised one of his Bastards to an high Dignity making him Prince of Parma and Piacenza and himself is said to have lived in Incest with others of them And except the short Reign of Hadrian the Sixth there was no Pope at Rome all this while whose example might make any other Prince blush for his faults so that Guicciardine when he calls Pope Clement a good Pope adds I mean not Goodness Apostolical for in those days he was esteemed a good Pope that did not exceed the wickedness of the worst of men In sum Gods ways are a great deep who has often shewed his Power and Wisdom in raising up unlikely and unpromising instruments to do great services in the World not always employing the best men in them lest good Instruments should share too deep in the Praises of that which is only due to the Supreme Creator and Governour of the World And therefore he will stain the pride of all Glory that such as Glory may only Glory in the Lord. Jehu did an acceptable Service to God in destroying the Idolatry of Baal though neither the way of doing it be to be imitated being grosly insincere nor was the Reformation compleat since the Worshipping the two Calves was still kept up and it is very like his chief design in it was to destroy all the Party that favoured Ahab's Family yet the thing was good and was rewarded by God So whatever this Kings other faults were and how defective soever the Change he made was and upon what ill motives soever it may seem to have proceeded yet the things themselves being good we ought not to think the worse of them because of the Instrument or manner by which they were wrought but are to adore and admire the paths of the Divine Wisdom that brought about such a Change in a Church which being subjected to the See of Rome had been more than any other part of Europe most tame under its Oppressions and was most deeply drenched in Superstition And this by the means of a Prince who was the most devoted to the Interest of Rome of any in Christendome and seemed to be so upon knowledg being very learned and continued to the last much leavened with Superstition and was the only King in the World whom that See declared Defender of the Faith And that this should have been carried on so far with so little Opposition some risings though numerous and formidable being scattered and quieted without Blood And that a mighty Prince who was Victorious almost in all his undertakings Charles the 5th and was both provoked in point of Honour and Interest yet could never find one spare season to turn his Arms upon England are great Demonstrations of a particular Influence of Heaven in these Alterations and of its watchful care of them But the other prejudice touches the Reformation in a more vital and tender part and it is That Cranmer and the other Bishops who promoted the Reformation in the Succeeding Reign did in this comply too servilly with King Henry's humours both in carrying on his frequent Divorces and in retaining those Corruptions in the worship which by their throwing them off in the beginning of King Edward's Reign we may conclude were then condemned by them so that they seem to have praevaricated against their Consciences in that Complyance It were too faint a way of Answering so severe a Charge to turn it back on the Church of Rome and to shew the base Compliances of some even of the best of their Popes as Gregory the Great whose Congratulations to the Usurper Phocas are a strain of the meanest and undecentest flattery that ever was put in writing And his Complements to Brunichild who was one of the greatest Monsters both for Lust and Cruelty that ever her Sex produced show that there was no person so wicked that he was ashamed to flatter but the blemishing them will not I confess excuse our Reformers therefore other things are to be considered for their Vindication They did not at once attain the full knowledg of divine Truth so that in some particulars as in that of the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament both Cranmer and Ridley were themselves then in the dark Bertram's Book first convinced Ridley and he was the chief instrument in opening Cranmer's eyes So if themselves were not then enlightned they could not instruct others As for other things such as the giving the Cup to the Laity the Worshiping God in a known tongue and several reformations about the Mass though they judged them necessary to be done as soon as was possible yet they had not so full a perswasion of the necessity of these as to think it a sin not to do them The Prophets words to Naaman the Syrian might give them some colour for that mistake and the practice of the Apostles who continued not only to worship at the Temple but to Circumcise and to offer Sacrifices which must have been done by St. Paul when he purified himself in the Temple even after the Law was dead by the appearing of the Gospel seemed to excuse their Compliance They had also observed that as the Apostles were all things to all men that so they might gain some so the Primitive Christians had brought in many rites of Heathenism into their worship Upon which inducements they were wrought on to comply in some uneasie
that Greatness But while the War went on the Emperor did cajole the King with the highest Complements possible which always wrought much on him and came in person into England to be installed Knight of the Garter where a new League was Concluded by which beside mutual assistance a Match was agreed on between the Emperor and the Lady Mary the Kings only Child by his Queen of whom he had no hopes of more Issue This was sworn to on both hands and the Emperor was obliged when She was of Age to marry Her Per verba de praesenti under pain of Excommunication and the forfeiture of 100000 Pounds The War went on with great success on the Emperors part especially after the Battel of Pavia in which Francis his Army was totally defeated and himself taken Prisoner and carried into Spain After which the Emperor being much offended with the Pope for joyning with Francis turned his Arms against him which were so successful that he besieged and took Rome and kept the Pope prisoner Six Months The Cardinal finding the publick Interests concur so happily with his private Distastes engaged the King to take part with France and afterwards with the Pope against the Emperor his Greatness now becoming the Terror of Christendome for the Emperor lifted up with his success began to think of no less than an Universal Empire And first that he might unite all Spain together he preferred a Match with Portugal to that which he had before Contracted in England and he thought it not enough to break off his sworn Alliance with the King but he did it with an heavy Imputation on the Lady Mary for in his Council it was said that she was illegitimate as being born in an unlawful Marriage so that no Advantage could be expected from her Title to the Succession as will appear more particularly in the Second Book And the Pope having dispensed with the Oath he Married the Infanta of Portugal Besides though the King of England had gone deep in the Charge he would give him no share in the Advantages of the War much less give him that Assistance which he had promised him to recover his Ancient Inheritance in France The King being irritated with this manifold ill usage and led on by his own Interests and by the offended Cardinal joyned himself to the Interests of France Upon which there followed not only a firm Alliance but a personal Friendship which appeared in all the most obliging expressions that could be devised And upon the Kings threatning to make War on the Emperor the French King was set at liberty though on very hard terms if any thing can be hard that sets a King out of Prison but he still acknowledged he owed his Liberty to King Henry Then followed the famous Clementine League between the Pope and Francis the Venetians the Florentines and Francis Sforza Duke of Milan by which the Pope absolved the French King from the Oath he had sworn at Madrid and they all united against the Emperor and declared the King of England Protector of the League This gave the Emperor great distaste who complained of the Pope as an ungrateful and perfidious person The first beginning of the storm fell heavy on the Pope for the French King who had a great mind to have his Children again into his own hands that lay Hostages in Spain went on but slowly in performing his part And the King of England would not openly break with the Emperor but seemed to reserve himself to be Arbiter between the Princes So that the Colonna's being of the Imperial Faction with 3000 men entered Rome and sack't a part of it forcing the Pope to fly into the Castle of St. Angelo and to make peace with the Emperor But as soon as that fear was over the Pope returning to his old arts complained of the Cardinal of Colonna and resolved to deprive him of that Dignity and with an Army entred the Kingdom of Naples taking divers places that belonged to that Family But the Confederates coming slowly to his Assistance and he hearing of great forces that were coming from Spain against him submitted himself to the Emperor and made a Cessation of Arms but being again encouraged with some hopes from his Allies and by a Creation of 14 Cardinals for Money having raised 300000 Duckats he disowned the Treaty and gave the Kingdom of Naples to Count Vaudemont whom he sent with forces to subdue it But the Duke of Bourbon prevented him and went to Rome and giving the Assault in which himself received his mortal wound the City was taken by Storm and plundered for several days about 5000 being killed The Pope with 17 Cardinals fled to the Castle St. Angelo but was forced to render his person and to pay 400000 Duckats to the Army This gave great offence to all the Princes of Christendome except the Lutherans of Germany but none resented it more loudly than this King who sent over Cardinal Wolsey to make up a new Treaty with Francis which was chiefly intended for setting the Pope at Liberty Nor did the Emperor know well how to justifie an Action which seemed so inconsistent with his Devotion to the See of Rome yet the Pope was for some months detained a Prisoner till at length the Emperor having brought him to his own terms ordered him to be setat liberty but he being weary of his Guards escaped in a disguise and owned his Liberty to have flowed chiefly from the Kings endeavours to procure it And thus stood the King as to forreign affairs he had infinitely obliged both the Pope and the French King and was firmly united to them and engaged in a War against the Emperor when he began first to move about his Divorce As for Scotland the near Alliance between him and Iames the Fourth King of Scotland did not take away the standing Animosities between the two Nations nor interrupt the Alliance between France and Scotland And therefore when he made the first War upon France in the Fourth year of his Reign the King of Scotland came with a great Army into the North of England but was totally defeated by the Earl of Surrey in Floudon field The King himself was either killed in the Battel or soon after so that the Kingdom falling under Factions during the Minority of the new King the Government was but feeble and scarce able to secure its own quiet And the Duke of Albany the chief Instrument of the French Faction met with such opposition from the Parties that were raised against him by King Henry's means that he could give him no disturbance And when there came to be a lasting peace between England and France then as the King needed fear no trouble from that Warlike Nation so he got a great Interest in the Government there And at this time Money becoming a more effectual Engine than any the War had ever produced and
upon their Mothers Title which might have been a dangerous competition to him that was so little beloved by his Subjects took this Method for amusing them with other things thence it was that his Son was the most learned Prince that had been in the World for many Ages and deserved the Title Beau-Clerke on a better account than his Predecessor that long before had carried it The Learning then in credit was either that of the Schools about abstruse Questions of Divinity which from the days of Lombard were debated and descanted on with much subtlety and nicety and exercised all Speculative Divines or the Study of the Canon-Law which was the way to Business and Preferment To the former of these the King was much addicted and delighted to read often in Thomas 〈◊〉 and this made Cardinal Wolsey more acceptable to him who was 〈◊〉 conversant in that sort of Learning He loved the purity of the 〈◊〉 tongue which made him be so kind to Erasmus that was the great Resâ—â—â—er of it and to Polidore Virgil though neither of these made their Court dextrously with the Cardinal which did much intercept the Kingâ— favour to them so that the one left England and the other was but coâ—rsly used in it who has sufficiently revenged himself upon the Cardinal's Memory The Philosophy then in fashion was so intermixed with their Divinity that the King understood it too and was also a good Musician as appears by two whole Masses which he composed He never wrote well but scrawled so that his hand was scarce legible Being thus inclined to Learning he was much courted by all hungry Scholars who generally over Europe dedicated their Books to him with such flattering Epistles that it very much lessens him to see how he delighted in such stuffe For if he had not taken pleasure in it and rewarded them it is not likely that others should have been every year writing after such ill Copies Of all things in the World Flattery wrought most on him and no sort of Flattery pleased him better than to have his great Learning and Wisdom commended And in this his Parliaments his Courtiers his Chaplains Forreigners and Natives all seemed to vie who should exceed most and came to speak to him in a Stile which was scarce fit to be used to any Creature But he designed to entail these praises on his Memory cherishing Church-men more than any King in England had ever done he also Courted the Pope with a constant submission and upon all occasions made the Popes Interests his own and made War and Peace as they desired him So that had he dyed any time before the 19th year of his Reign he could scarce have scaped being Canonized notwithstanding all his faults for he abounded in those vertues which had given Saintship to Kings for near 1000 years together and had done more than they all did by writing a Book for the Roman Faith England had for above 300 years been the tamest part of Christendome to the Papal Authority and had been accordingly dealt with But though the Parliaments and two or three high-spirited Kings had given some interruption to the cruel exactions and other illegal proceedings of the Court of Rome yet that Court always gained their designs in the end But even in this Kings days the Crown was not quite stript of all its Authority over Spiritual persons The Investitures of Bishops and Abbots which had been originally given by the delivery of the Pastoral Ring and Staffe by the Kings of England were after some opposition wrung out of their hands yet I find they retained another thing which upon the matter was the same When any See was vacant a Writ was issued out of the Chancery for seizing on all the Temporalties of the Bishoprick and then the King recommended one to the Pope upon which his Bulls were expeded at Rome and so by a Warrant from the Pope he was consecrated and invested in the Spiritualties of the See but was to appear before the King either in Person or by Proxie and renounce every clause in his Letters and Bulls that were or might be prejudicial to the Prerogative of the Crown or contrary to the Laws of the Land and was to swear Fealty and Allegiance to the King And after this a new Writ was issued out of the Chancery bearing that this was done and that thereupon the Temporalties should be restored Of this there are so many Precedents in the Records that every one that has searched them must needs find them in every year but when this began I leave to the more Learned in the Law to discover And for proof of it the Reader will find in the Collection the fullest Record which I met with concerning it in Henry the 7th his Reign of Cardinal Adrian's being Invested in the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells So that upon the matter the Kings then disposed of all Bishopricks keeping that still in their own hands which made them most desired in those Ages and so had the Bishops much at their Dovotion But King Henry in a great degree parted with this by the above-mentioned power granted to Cardinal Wolsey who being Legate as well as Lord Chancellour it was thought a great errour in Government to lodge such a trust with him which might have past into a Precedent for other Legates pretending to the same Power since the Papal greatness had thus risen and oft upon weaker grounds to the height it was then at Yet the King had no mind to suffer the Laws made against the suing out of Bulls in the Court of Rome without his leave to be neglected for I find several Licenses granted to sue Bulls in that Court bearing for their Preamble the Statute of the 16 of Richard the Second against the Popes pretended Power in England But the immunity of Ecclesiastical persons was a thing that occasioned great complaints And good cause there was for them For it was ordinary for persons after the greatest Crimes to get into Orders and then not only what was past must be forgiven them but they were not to be questioned for any Crime after holy Orders given till they were first degraded and till that was done they were the Bishops Prisoners Whereupon there rose a great dispute in the beginning of this Kings Reign of which none of our Historians having taken any Notice I shall give a full account of it King Henry the Seventh in his Fourth Parliament did a little lessen the Priviledges of the Clergy enacting that Clerks convicted should be burnt in the hand But this not proving a sufficient restraint it was Enacted in Parliament in the Fourth year of this King that all Murderers and Robbers should be denyed the benefit of their Clergy But though this seemed a very Just Law yet to make it pass through the House of Lords they added two Proviso's to it the one for excepting all such as were within
their Provinces the Stile of which will be found in the Collection It differs in nothing from what is now in use but that the King did not prefix the day requiring them only to be Summoned to meet with all convenient speed and the Arch-Bishops having the King's pleasure signified to them did in their Writs prefix the day Other Convocations were called by the Arch-Bishops in their several Provinces upon great Emergencies to meet and treat of things relating to the Church and were Provincial Councils Of this I find but one and that called by Warham in the first year of this King for restoring the Ecclesiastical Immunities that had been very much impaired as will appear by the Writ of Summons But the Cardinal did now as Legate issue out Writs for Convocations In the year 1522. I find by the Register there was a Writ issued from the King to Warham to call one who upon that Summoned it to meet at St. Pauls the 20 th of April But the Cardinal prevailed so far with the King that on the 2 d. of May after he by his Legantine Authority dissolved that Convocation and issued out a Writ to Tonstall Bishop of London to bring the Clergy of Canterbury to St. Peter's in Westminster there to meet and reform Abuses in the Church and consider of other important Matters that should be proposed to them What they did towards Reformation I know not the Records being lost But as to the Kings Supply it was proposed That they should give the King the half of the full value of their Livings for one year to be paid in Five years The Cardinal laid out to them how much the King had merited from the Church both by suppressing the Schism that was like to have been in the Papacy in Pope Iulius his time and by Protecting the See of Rome from the French Tyrannie but most of all for that excellent Book written by him in Defence of the Faith against the Hereticks and that therefore since the French King was making War upon him and had sent over the Duke of Albany to Scotland to make War also on that side it was fit that on so great an occasion it should appear that his Clergy were sensible of their Happiness in having such a King which they ought to express in granting somewhat that was as much beyond all former Presidents as the King had merited more from them than all former Kings had ever done But the Bishops of Winchester and Rochester opposed this For they both hated the Cardinal The one thought him ungrateful to him who had raised him The other being a man of a strict Life hated him for his Vices Both these spake against it as an unheard-of Tax which would so oppress the Clergy that it would not be possible for them to live and pay it and that this would become a Precedent for after-times which would make the condition of the Clergy most miserable But the Cardinal who intended that the Convocation by a great Subsidy should lead the way to the Parliament took much pains for carrying it thorough and got some to be absent and others were prevailed on to consent to it And for the fear of its being made a Precedent a Clause was put in the Act That it should be no Precedent for after-times Others laughed at this and said It would be a Precedent for all that if it once passed But in the end it was granted with a most glorious Preamble and by it all the Natives of England that had any Ecclesiastical Benefice were to pay the full half of the true value of their Livings in Five years and all Forreigners who were Beneficed in England were to pay a whole years Rent in the same time out of which number were excepted the Bishops of Worcester and Landaffe Polidore Virgil Peter the Carmelite Erasmus of Roterdam Silvester Darius and Peter Vannes who were to pay only as Natives did This encreased the hatred that the Clergy bore the Cardinal But he despised them and in particular was a great Enemy to the Monks and looked on them as idle mouths that did neither the Church nor State any Service but were through their scandalous Lives a reproach to the Church and a burden to the State Therefore he resolved to suppress a great number of them and to change them to another Institution From the days of King Edgar the State of Monkery had been still growing in England For most of the Secular Clergy being then Married and refusing to put away their Wives were by Dunstan Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Ethelwald Bishop of Winchester and Oswald Bishop of Worcester who were all Monks turned out of their Livings There is in the Rolls an Inspeximus of King Edgars Erecting the Priory and Convent of Worcester which bears date Anno 964. Edgari 6 to on St. Innocents-day Signed by the King the Queen Two Arch-Bishops Five Bishops Six Abbots but neither Bishoprick nor Abbey are named Six Dukes and Five Knights but there is no Seal to it It bears that the King with the Council and Consent of his Princes and Gentry did Confirm and Establish that Priory and that he had Erected 47 Monasteries which he intended to encrease to 50. the number of Jubilee and that the former Incumbents should be for ever excluded from all pretensions to their Benefices because they had rather chosen with the danger of their Order and the prejudice of the Ecclesiastical Benefice to adhere to their Wives than to serve God Chastly and Canonically The Monks being thus setled in most Cathedrals of England gave themselves up to Idleness and Pleasure which had been long complained of but now that Learning began to be restored they being every-where possessed of the best Church-Benefices were looked upon by all Learned-men with an evil eye as having in their hands the chief encouragements of Learning and yet doing nothing towards it they on the contrary decrying and disparaging it all they could saying It would bring in Heresie and a great deal of mischief And the Restorers of Learning such as Erasmus Vives and others did not spare them but did expose their Ignorance and ill Manners to the world Now the King naturally loved Learning and therefore the Cardinal either to do a thing which he knew would be acceptable to the King or that it was also agreeable to his own Inclinations resolved to set up some Colledges in which there should be both great Encouragements for eminent Scholars to prosecute their Studies and good Schools for teaching and training up of Youth This he knew would be a great honour to him to be lookt upon as a Patron of Learning and therefore he set his heart much on it to have Two Colledges the one at Oxford the other at Ipswich the place of his Birth well constituted and nobly Endowed But towards this it was necessary to suppress some Monasteries which was thought every-whit as justifiable
Carnalis Copula But in this perhaps is left out and 't is plainly said That they had Consummated their Marriage This the King's Council who suspected that the Breve was forged made great use of when the Question was argued whether Prince Arthur knew her or not Though at this time 't was said the Spaniards did put it in on design knowing it was like to be proved that the former Marriage was Consummated which they intended to throw out of the debate since by this it appeared that the Pope did certainly know that and yet granted the Breve and that therefore there was to be no more enquiry to be made into that which was already confessed so that all that was now to be debated was the Popes power of granting such a Dispensation in which they had good reason to expect a favourable Decision at Rome But there appeared great grounds to reject this Breve as a forged writing It was neither in the Records of England nor Spain but said to be found among the Papers of D. de Puebla that had been the Spanish Ambassador in England at the time of concluding the Match So that if he only had it it must have been cassated otherwise the Parties concerned would have got it into their hands Or else it was forged since Many of the names were written false which was a presumption that it was lately made by some Spaniards who knew not how to write the names true For Sigismund who was Secretary when it was pretended to have been Signed was an exact man and no such errors were found in Breves at that time But that which shewed it a manifest Forgery was that it bore date the 26th of December Anno 1503. on the same day that the Bull was granted It was not to be imagined that in the same day a Bull and a Breve should have been expedited in the same business with such material differences in them And the stile of the Court of Rome had this singularity in it That in all their Breves they reckon the beginning of the year from Christmas-day which being the Nativity of our Lord they count the year to begin then But in their Bulls they reckon the year to begin at the Feast of the Annunciation So that a Breve dated the 26th of December 1503. was in the vulgar account in the year 1502. therefore it must be false for neither was Iulius the 2d who granted it then Pope nor was the Treaty of the Marriage so far advanced at that time as to admit of a Breve so soon But allowing the Breve to be true they had many of the same Exceptions to it that they had to the Bull since it bore that the King desired the Marriage to avoid a Breach between the Crowns which was false It likewise bore that the Marriage had been Consummated between the Queen and Prince Arthur which the Queen denied was ever done so that the suggestion in her name being as she said false it could have no force though it were granted to be a true Breve And they said it was plain the Imperialists were convinced the Bull was of no force since they betook themselves to such arts to fortifie their Cause When Cardinal Campegio came to England he was received with the publick Solemnities ordinary in such a case and in his speech at his first Audience he called the King the Deliverer of the Pope and of the City of Rome with the highest complements that the occasion did require But when he was admitted to a private Conference with the King and the Cardinal he used many arguments to diswade the King from prosecuting the matter any further This the King took very ill as if his errand had been rather to confirm than annul his Marriage and complained that the Pope had broken his word to him But the Legate studied to qualifie him and shewed the Decretal Bull by which he might see that though the Pope wished rather that the business might come to a more friendly conclusion yet if the King could not be brought to that he was empowered to grant him all that he desired But he could not be brought to part with the DecretalBull out of his hands or to leave it for a minute either with the King or the Cardinal saying That it was demanded on these terms that no other person should see it and that Gardiner and the Ambassador had only moved to have it expedited and sent by the Legate to let the King see how well the Pope was affected to him With all this the King was much dissatisfied but to encourage him again the Legate told him he was to speak to the Queen in the Popes name to induce her to enter into a Religious life and to make the Vows But when he proposed that to her she answered him modestly that she could not dispose of her self but by the advice of her Nephews Of all this the Cardinal of York advertised the Cassalies and ordered them to use all possible endeavours that the Bull might be showen to some of the Kings Council Upon that Sir Gregory being then out of Rome the Proto-Notary went to the Pope and complained that Campegio had disswaded the Divorce The Pope justified him in it and said He did as he had ordered him He next complained that the Legate would not proceed to execute the Legantine Commission The Pope denied that he had any order from him to delay his proceedings but that by vertue of his Commission they might go on and pass Sentence Then the Proto-Notary pressed him for leave to shew the Bull to some of the Kings Council complaining of Campegio's stiffness in refusing it and that he would not trust it to the Cardinal of York who was his equal in the Commission To this the Pope answered in passion That he could shew the Cardinals Letter in which he assures him that the Bull should only be shewed to the King and himself and that if it were not granted he was ruined therefore to preserve him he had sent it but had ordered it to be burnt when it was once shewed He wished he had never sent it saying he would gladly lose a Finger to recover it again and expressed great grief for granting it and said They had got him to send it and now would have it showed to which he would never consent for then he was undone for ever Upon this the Proto-Notary laid before him the danger of losing the King and the Kingdom of England of ruining the Cardinal of York and of the undoing of their Family whose hopes depended on the Cardinal and that by these means Heresie would prevail in England which if it once had great footing there would not be so easily rooted out That all persons judged the Kings Cause right but though it were not so some things that were not good must be born with to avoid greater evils And at last he fell
lately there had been one granted by Pope Alexander the 6th to the King of Hungary against the Opinion of his Cardinals which had never been questioned and yet he could not pretend to such Merits as the King had And all that had ever been said in the Kings Cause was Sum'd up in a short Breviate by Cassali and offered to the Pope a Copy whereof taken from an Original under his own hand the Reader will find in the Collection The King ordered his Ambassadors to make as many Cardinals sure for his cause as they could who might bring the Pope to consent to it if he were still averse But the Pope was at this time possessed with a new jealousie of which the French King was not free as if the King had been tampering with the Emperor and had made him great offers so he would consent to the Divorce about which Francis wrote an anxious Letter to Rome the Original of which I have seen The Pope was also surprized at it and questioned the Ambassadors about it but they denyed it and said the union between England and France was inseparable and that these were only the Practices of the Emperors Agents to create distrust The Pope seemed satisfied with what they said and added that in the present conjuncture a firm union between them was necessary Of all this Sir Francis Brian wrote a long account in cipher But the Popes relapse put a new stop to business of which the Cardinal being informed as he ordered the Kings Agents to continue their care about his Promotion so he charged them to see if it were possible to get Access to the Pope and though he were in the very Agony of Death to propose two things to him the one that he would presently command all the Princes of Christendom to agree to a Cessation of Arms under pain of the Censures of the Church as Pope Leo and other Popes had done and if he should die he could not do a thing that would be more meritorious and for the good of his Soul than to make that the last Act of his Life The other thing was concerning the Kings business which he presseth as a thing necessary to be done for the clearing and eâ—se of the Popes Conscience towards God And withal he orders them to gain as many about the Pope and as many Cardinals and Officers in the Rota as they could to promote the Kings desires whether in the Popes sickness or health The Bishop of Verona had a great Interest with the Pope so by that and another Dispatch of the same Date sent another way they were ordered to gain him promising him great Rewards pressing him to remain still about the Popes person to ballance the ill Offices which Cardinal Angell and the Arch-Bishop of Capua did who never stirred from the Pope And to assure that Bishop that the King laid this Matter more to heart than any thing that ever befel him and that it would trouble him as much to be overcome in this Matter by these two Friers as to loose both his Crowns and for my part writes the Cardinal I would expose any thing to my life yea life it self rather than see the Inconveniencies that may ensue upon disappointing of the Kings desire For promoting the Business the French King sent the Bishop of Bayon to assist the English Ambassadors in his name who was first sent over to England to be well Instructed there They were either to procure a Decretal for the Kings Divorce or a new Commission to the two Legates with ampler Clauses in it than the former had to judge as if the Pope were in person and to emit compulsorie Letters against any whether Emperor King or of what degree soever to produce all manner of Evidences or Records which might tend towards the clearing the Matter and to bring them before them This was sought because the Emperor would not send over the pretended Original Breve to England and gave only an Attested Copy of it to the Kings Ambassadors least therefore from that Breve a new Suit might be afterwards raised for Annulling any Sentence which the Legates should give they thought it needful to have the Original brought before them In the penning of that new Commission Dr. Gardiner was ordered to have special care that it should be done by the best advice he could get in Rome It appears also from this Dispatch that the Popes Pollicitation to Confirm the Sentence which the Legates should give was then in Gardiner's hands for he was ordered to take care that there might be no disagreement between the date of it and of the new Commission And when that was obtained Sr. Francis Brian was commanded to bring them with him to England Or if neither a Decretal nor a new Commission could be obtained then if any other expedient were proposed that upon good advice should be found sufficient and effectual they were to accept of it and send it away with all possible diligence And the Cardinal conjured them by the Reverence of Almighty God to bring them out of their Perplexity that this Virtuous Prince may have this thing sped which would be the most joyous thing that could befal his heart upon Earth But if all things should be denyed then they were to make their Protestations not only to the Pope but to the Cardinals of the Injustice that was done the King and in the Cardinals name to let them know that not only the King and his Realm would be lost but also the French King and his Realm with their other Confederates would also withdraw their Obedience from the See of Rome which was more to be regarded than either the Emperors Displeasure or the Recovery of two Cities They were also to try what might be done in Law by the Cardinals in a Vacancy and they were to take good Counsel upon some Chapters of the Canon-Law which related to that and Govern themselves accordingly either to hinder an Avocation or Inhibition or if it could be done to obtain such thing as they could grant towards the Conclusion of the Kings Business At this time also the Cardinals Bulls for the Bishoprick of Winchester were expedited they were rated high at 15000 Ducats for though the Cardinal pleaded his great Merits to bring the composition lower yet the Cardinals at Rome said the Apostolick Chamber was very poor and other Bulls were then coming from France to which the favour they should show the Cardinal would be a Precedent But the Cardinal sent word that he would not give past 5 or 6000 Ducats because he was exchanging Winchester for Duresm and by the other they were to get a great Composition And if they held his Bulls so high he would not have them for he needed them not since he enjoyed already by the Kings Grant the Temporalities of Winchester which it is very likely was all that he considered in a Bishoprick They were
at last expedited at what Rates I cannot tell but this I set down to show how severe the Exactions of the Court of Rome were As the Pope recovered his health so he inclined more to joyn himself to the Emperor than ever and was more alienated than formerly from the King and the Cardinal which perhaps was increased by the distaste he took at the Cardinals aspiring to the Popedom The first thing that the Emperor did in the Kings Cause was to protest in the Queen of Englands name that she refused to submit to the Legates The one was the Kings chief Minister and her mortal enemy The other was also justly suspected since he had a Bishoprick in England The Kings Ambassador pressed the Pope much not to admit the Protestation but it was pretended that it could not be denyed either in Law or Justice But that this might not offend the King Salviati that was the Popes Favourite wrote to Campegio that the Protestation could not be hindred but that the Pope did still most earnestly desire to satisfie the King and that the Ambassadors were much mistaken who were so distrustful of the Popes good mind to the Kings Cause But now good words could deceive the King no longer who clearly discovered the Popes mind and being out of all hopes of any thing more from Rome resolved to proceed in England before the Legates and therefore Gardiner was recalled who was thought the fittest person to manage the Process in England being esteemed the greatest Canonist they had and was so valued by the King that he would not begin the Process till he came Sr. Francis Brian was also recalled and when they took leave of the Pope they were ordered to Expostulate in the Kings name Upon the Partiality he expressed for the Emperor notwithstanding the many assurances that both the Legates had given the King that the Pope would do all he could toward his Satisfaction which was now so ill performed that he expected no more justice from him They were also to say as much as they could devise in the Cardinals name to the same purpose upon which they were to try if it were possible to obtain any Enlargement of the Commission with fuller Power to the Legates for they saw it was in vain to move for any new Bulls or Orders from the Pope about it And though Gardiner had obtained a Pollicitation from the Pope by which he both bound himself not to recal the cause from the Legates and also to confirm their Sentence and had sent it over they found it was so conceived that the Pope could go back from it when he pleased So there was a new Draught of a Pollicitation formed with more binding Clauses in it which Gardiner was to try if he could obtain by the following Pretence He was to tell the Pope that the Courier to whom he trusted it had been so little careful of it that it was all wet and defaced and of no more use so that he durst not deliver it And this might turn much to Gardiners prejudice that a matter of such Concern was through his neglect spoiled upon which he was to see if the Pope would renew it If that could be obtained he was to use all his Industry to get as many pregnant and material words added as might make it more binding He was also to assure the Pope that though the Emperor was gone to Barcellona to give reputation to his affairs in Italy yet he had neither Army nor Fleet ready so that they needed not fear him And he was to inform the Pope of the Arts he was using both in the English and French Court to make a separated Treaty But that all was to no pâ—rpose the two Kings being so firmly linked together But the Pope was so great a Master in all the Arts of Dissimulation and Policy that he was not to be overreached easily and when he understood that his Polliâ—itation was defaced he was in his heart glad at it and could not be prevailed with to renew it So they returned to England and Dr. Bennet came in their place He carryed with him one of the fullest and most important Dispatches that I find in this whole matter from the two Legates to the Pope and the Consistory who wrote to them that they had in vain endeavoured to perswade either party to yield to the other That the Breve being shewed to them by the Queen they found great and evident Presumptions of it's being a meer forgery and that they thought it was too much for them to sit and try the Validity or Authenticalness of the Popes Bulls or Breves or to hear his Power of Dispencing in such cases disputed therefore it was more expedient to Avocate the cause to which the King would consent if the Pope obliged himself under his hand to pass Sentence speedily in his favour but they rather advised the Granting a Decretal Bull which would put an end to the whole matter in order to which the Bearer was Instructed to show very good Precedents But in the mean while they advised the Pope to press the Queen most effectually to enter into a Religious life as that which would compose all these differences in the softest and easiest way It pitied them to see the rack and torments of Conscience under which the King had smarted so many years and that the Disputes of Divines and the Decrees of Fathers had so disquieted him that for clearing a matter thus perplexed there was not only need of Learning but of a more singular Piety and Illumination To this were to be added the desire of Issue the Settlement of the Kingdom with many other pressing reasons that as the matter did admit of no further delays so there was not any thing in the opposite scale to ballance these Considerations There were false Suggestions surmised abroad as if the hatred of the Queen or the desire of another wife who was not perhaps yet known much less designed were the true causes of this Suit But though the Queen was of a rough Temper and an unpleasant Conversation and was passed all hopes of Children yet who could imagine that the King who had spent his most youthful days with her so kindly would now in the decline of his Age be at all this trouble to be rid of her if he had no other Motives But they by searching his sore found there was rooted in his heart both an awe of God and a respect to Law and Order so that though all his people pressed him to drive the Matter to an issue yet he would still wait for the decision of the Apostolick See Therefore they most pressingly desire the Pope to grant the Cure which his distemper required and to consider that it was not fit to insist too much on the Rigour of the Law but since the Soul and Life of all the Laws of the Church was in the Popes breast in doubtful cases
the Father Son Uncle and other such Relations there is no ground to disjoynt this so much from the rest as to make it only extend to a Marriage before the Husbands death And for any Presidents that were brought they were all in the latter Ages and were never Confirmed by any publick Authority Nor must the Practices of later Popes be laid in the Ballance against the Decisions of former Popes and the Doctrine of the whole Church and as to the Power that was ascribed to the Pope that began now to be enquired into with great Freedom as shall appear afterwards These Reasons on both sides being thus opened the Censures of them it is like will be as different now as they were then for they prevailed very little on the Queen who still persisted to justifie her Marriage and to stand to her Appeal And though the King carryed it very kindly to her in all outward appearance and employed every body that had credit with her to bring her to submit to him and to pass from her Appeal remitting the Decision of the matter to any Four Prelates and Four Secular men in England she was still unmovable and would hearken to no Proposition In the judgments that people passed the Sexes were divided the Men generally approved the Kings cause and the Women favoured the Queen But now the Session of Parliament came on the Sixteenth of Ianuary and there the King first brought in to the House of Lords the Determination of the Universities and the Books that were written for his cause by Forreigners After they were read and Considered there the Lord Chancellor did on the 20th of March with Twelve Lords both of the Spiritualty and Temporalty goe down to the House of Commons and shewed them what the Universities and Learned men beyond Sea had written for the Divorce and produced Twelve Original Papers with the Seals of the Universities to them which Sr. Brian Tuke took out of his hand and read openly in the House Translating the Latine into English Then about an Hundred Books written by Forreign Divines for the Divorce were also showed them none of which were read but put off to another time it being late When that was done the Lord Chancellor desired they would report in their Countries what they had heard and seen and then all men should clearly perceive that the King hath not attempted this matter of Will and Pleasure as strangers say but only for the Discharge of his Conscience and the Security of the Succession to the Crown Having said that he left the House The matter was also brought before the Convocation and they having weighed all that was said on both sides seemed satisfied that the Marriage was unlawful and that the Bull was of no force more not being required at that time But it is not strange that this matter went so easily in the Convocation when another of far greater consequence passed there which will require a â—ull and distinct account Cardinal Wolsey by exercising his Legantine Authority had fallen into a Premunire as hath been already shewn and now those who had appeared in his Courts and had sutes there were found to be likewise in the same guilt by the Law and this matter being excepted out of the Pardon that was granted in the former Parliament was at this time set on foot Therefore an Indictment was brought into the Kings Bench against all the Clergy of England for breaking the Statutes against Provisions or Provisors But to open this more clearly It is to be Considered that the Kings of England having claimed in all Ages a Power in Ecclesiastical Matters equal to what the Roman Emperors had in that Empire they exercised this Authority both over the Clergy and Laity and did at first erect Bishopricks grant Investitures in them call Synods make Laws about Sacred as well as Civil Concerns and in a word they Governed their whole Kingdom Yet when the Bishops of Rome did stretch their Power beyond either the limits of it in the Primitive Church or what was afterward granted them by the Roman Emperors and came to assume an Authority in all the Churches of Europe as they found some Resistance every where so they met with a great deal in this Kingdom and it was with much Difficulty that they gained the Power of giving Investitures Receiving Appeals to Rome and of sending Legates to England with several other things which were long contested but were delivered up at length either by feeble Princes or when Kings were so engaged at home or abroad that it was not safe for them to offend the Clergy For in the first Contest between the Kings and the Popes the Clergy were generally on the Popes side because of the Immunity and Protection they enjoyed from that See but when Popes became ambitious and warlike Princes then new Projects and Taxes were every where set on foot to raise a great Treasure The Pall with many Bulls and high Compositions for them Annates or first Fruits and Tenths were the standing Taxes of the Clergy besides many new ones upon emergent occasions So that they finding themselves thus oppressed by the Popes fled again back to the Crown for Protection which their Predecessors had abandoned From the days of Edward the 1st many Statutes were made to restrain the Exactions of Rome For then the Popes not satisfied with their other oppressions which a Monk of that time lays open fully and from a deep sense of them did by Provisions Bulls and other Arts of that See dispose of Bishopricks Abbeys and lesser Benefices to Forreigners Cardinals and others that did not live in England Upon which the Commonalty of the Realm did represent to the King in Parliament That the Bishopricks Abbeys and other Benefices were founded by the Kings and people of England To inform the people of the Law of God and to make Hospitality Alms and other works of Charity for which end they were endowed by the King and people of England and that the King and his other Subjects who endowed them had upon Voidances the Presentment and Collations of them which now the Pope had Usurped and given to Aliens by which the Crown would be disinherited and the ends of their endowments destroyed with other great Inconveniences Therefore it was ordained that these Oppressions should not be suffered in any manner But notwithstanding this the abuse went on and there was no effectual way laid down in the Act to punish these Transgressions The Court of Rome was not so easily driven out of any thing that either encreased their Power or their Profits Therefore by another Act in his Grand-Child Edward the 3ds time the Commons complained that these abuses did abound and that the Pope did daily reserve to his Collation Church-Preferments in England and raised the first-Fruits with other great Profits by which the Treasure of the Realm was carried out of it
not then just cause to distrust all that came from him when at one time he condemned what he had allowed at another So that the King saw clearly he did not Consider the ease of his Conscience but other worldly respects that had put him on Consulting so many Learned men whose judgments differed much from those few that were about the Pope who thought the Prohibition of such Marriages was onely positive and might be dispensed with by the Pope whereas all other Learned men thought the Law was Moral and indispensable He perceived the Apostolick See was destitute of that Learning by which it should be directed and the Pope had oft professed his own Ignorance and that he spake by other mens mouths but many Universities in England France and Italy had declared the Marriage unlawful and the Dispensation null None honoured the Apostolick See more than he had done and therefore he was sorry to write such things if he could have been silent If he should obey the Popes Letters he would offend God and his own Conscience and give scandal to those who condemned his Marriage he did not willingly dissent from him without a very urgent cause that he might not seem to despise the Apostolick See therefore he desired the Pope would forgive the freedom that he used since it was the Truth that drew it from him And he added that he intended not to Impugn the Popes Authority further except he compelled him and what he did was only to bring it within its first and Ancient Limits to which it was better to reduce it than to let it always run on headlong and do amiss therefore he desired the Pope would Conform himself to the opinions of so many Learned men and do his Duty and Office The Letter ends with a Credence to the Ambassador The Pope seeing his Authority was declining in England resolved now to do all he could to recover it either by force or Treaty and so ordered a Citation to be made of the King to appear in Person or by Proxie at Rome to answer to the Queens appeal upon which Sir Edward Karne was sent to Rome with a new Character of Excusatour His Instructions were to take the best Counsel for pleading an Excuse of the Kings appearance at Rome First upon the grounds that might be found in the Canon Law and these not being sufficient he was to Insist on the Prerogatives of the Crown of England Doctor Bonner went with him who had expressed much zeal in the Kings cause though his great zeal was for Preferment which by the most servile ways he always Courted He was a forward bold man and since there were many Threatnings to be used to the Pope and Cardinals he was thought fittest for the employment but was neither Learned nor discreet They came to Rome in March where they found great heats in the Consistory about the Kings business The Imperialists pressed the Pope to proceed but all the wise and indifferent Cardinals were of another mind And when they understood what an Act was passed about Annates they saw clearly that the Parliament was resolved to adhere to the King in every thing he intended to do against their Interests The Pope expostulated with the Ambassadors about it but they told him the Act was still in the Kings Power and except he provoked him he did not intend to put it in execution The Ambassadors finding the Cardinal of Ravenna of so great reputation both for Learning and Vertue that in all matters of that kind his opinion was heard as an Oracle and gave Law to the whole Consistory they resolved to gain him by all means possible And Doctor Bennet made a secret address to him and offered him what Bishoprick either in France or England he would desire if he would bring the Kings matter to a good issue He was at first very shie at length he said he had been oft deceived by many Princes who had made him great Promises but when their business was ended never thought of performing them therefore he would be sure and so drave a Bargain and got under Doctor Bennets hand a promise of which a Copy being sent to the King written by Bennet himself will be found at the end of this Volume Bearing that he having Powers from the King for that effect dated the 29th of December last did promise the Cardinal for his help in the Kings affair Monasteries or other Benefices in France to the value of 6000 Ducates a year and the first Bishoprick that fell vacant in England and if it were not Ely that when ever that See was vacant upon his resigning the other he should be provided with the Bishoprick of Ely dated at Rome the 7th of February 1532. This I set down as one of the most Considerable Arguments that could be used to satisfie the Cardinals Conscience about the justice of the Kings cause This Cardinal was the fittest to work secretly for the King for he had appeared visible against him I find also by other Letters that both the Cardinals of Anâ—ona and Monte afterwards Pope Iulius the 3d were prevailed with by arguments of the same nature though I cannot find cut what the Bargains were Providellus that was accounted the greatest Canonist in Italy was brought from Bononia and entertained by the Ambassadors to give Counsel in the Kings cause and to plead his Excuse from appearing at Rome The plea was summed up in 28 Articles which were offered to the Pope and he admitted them to be examined in the Consistory appointing three of them to be opened at a Session But the Imperialists opposed that and after fifteen of them had been heard procured a new order that they should be heard in a Congregation of Cardinals before the Pope pretending that a Consistory sitting but once a week and having a great deal of other Business it would be long before the matter could be brought to any issue So Karne was served with a new order to appear in the Congregation the 3d. of April with this Certification That if he appeared not they would proceed Upon which he protested that he would adhere to the former Order yet being warned the second time he went first and protested against it which he got entered in the Datary This being considered in the Congregation they renewed the Order ofhearing it in the Consistory on the 10th of April and then Providellus opened three Conclusions Two of them related to Karne's Powers the third was concerning the Safety of the place to both parties But the Imperialists and the Queens Council being dissatisfied with this Order would not appear Upon which Karne complained of their Contumacy and said By that it was visible they were distrustful of their Cause On the 14th of April a new intimation was made to Karne to appear on the 17th with his Advocates to open all the rest of the Conclusions but he according to the first Order would onely plead
final Determination was to be made without any further Process and in every Process concerning the King or his Heirs and Successors an Appeal should lie to the upper House of Convocation where it should be finally Determined never to be again called in question As this Bill passed the sense of both Houses of Parliament about the Kings Marriage did clearly appear but in the Convocation the business was more fully debated The Convocation of the Province of Canterbury was at this time destitute of its Head and principal Member For Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was dead since August last year He was a great Canonist an able States-man a dextrous Courtier and a favourer of Learned men He always hated Cardinal Wolsey and would never stoop to him esteeming it below the Dignity of his See He was not so peevishly engaged to the Learning of the Schools as others were but set up and encouraged a more generous way of Knowledge yet he was a severe persecutor of them whom he thought Hereticks and enclined to believe idle and Fanatical people as will afterwards appear when the Impostures of the Maid of Kent shall be related The King saw well of how great importance it was to the designes he was then forming to fill that See with a Learned Prudent and resolute man but finding none in the Episcopal Order that was qualified to his mind and having observed a native simplicity joyned with much courage and tempered with a great deal of wisdom in Dr. Cranmer who was then Negotiating his business among the Learned men of Germany he of his own accord without any adresses from Cranmer designed to raise him to that Dignity and gave him notice of it that he might make hast and come home to enjoy that reward which the King had appointed for him But Cranmer having received this did all he could to excuse himself from the burden which was coming upon him and therefore he returned very slowly to England hoping that the Kings thoughts cooling some other person might step in between him and a Dignity of which having a just and primitive sense he did look on it with fear and apprehension rather than joy and desire This was so far from setting him back that the King who had known well what it was to be importuned by ambitious and aspiring Churchmen but had not found it usual that they should decline and fly from Preferment was thereby confirmed in his high opinion of him and neither the delays of his Journey nor his Intreaties to be delivered from a Burden which his Humility made him imagine himself unable to bear could divert the King So that though six moneths elapsed before the thing was settled yet the King persisted in his Opinion and the other was forced to yield In the end of Ianuary the King sent to the Pope for the Bulls for Cranmers Promotion and though the Statutes were passed against procuring more Bulls from Rome yet the King resolved not to begin the breach till he was forced to it by the Pope It may be easily imagined that the Pope was not hearty in this Promotion and that he apprehended ill consequences from the Advancement of a Man who had gone over many Courts of Christendom disputing against his Power of Dispensing and had lived in much Familiarity with Osiander and the Lutherans in Germany Yet on the other hand he had no mind to precipitate a Rupture with England therefore he consented to it and the Bulls were expedited though instead of Annates there was onely 900 Ducats paid for them They were the last Bulls that were received in England in this Kings Reign and therefore I shall give an account of them as they are set down in the beginning of Cranmers Register By one Bull he is upon the Kings Nomination promoted to be Archbishop of Canterbury which is directed to the King By a second directed to himself he is made Archbishop By a third he is absolved from all Censures A fourth is to the Suffragans A fifth to the Dean and Chapter A sixth to the Clergy of Canterbury A seventh to all the Laity in his See An eighth to all that held Lands of it requiring them to receive and acknowledge him as Archbishop All these bear Date the 21th of February 1533. By a ninth Bull dated the 22th of February he was ordained to be consecrated taking the Oath that was in the Pontifical By a tenth Bull dated the second of March the Pall was sent him And by an eleventh of the same Date the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of London were required to put it on him These were the several Artifices to make Compositions high and to enrich the Apostolick Chamber for now that about which S. Peter gloried that he had none of it neither silver nor gold was the thing in the world for which his Successors were most careful When these Bulls were brought into England Thomas Cranmer was on the 13th of March consecrated by the Bishops of Lincoln Exeter and S. Asaph But here a great Scruple was moved by him concerning the Oath that he was to swear to the Pope which he had no mind to take and Writers near that time say the dislike of that Oath was one of the motives that made him so unwillingly accept of that Dignity He declared that he thought there were many things settled by the Laws of the Popes which ought to be reformed and that the Obligation which that Oath brought upon him would bind him up from doing his Duty both to God the King and the Church But this being communicated to some of the Canonists and Casuists they found a temper that agreed better with their Maxims than Cranmers sincerity which was that before he should take the Oath he should make a good and formal Protestation That he did not intend thereby to restrain himself from any thing that he was bound to either by his Duty to God or the King or the Countrey and that he renounced every thing in it that was contrary to any of these This Protestation he made in S. Stephens Chapel at Westminster in the hands of some Doctors of the Canon Law before he was consecrated and he afterwards repeated it when he took the Oath to the Pope by which if he did not wholly save his Integrity yet it was plain he intended no Cheat but to act fairly and above board As soon as he was consecrated and had performed every thing that was necessary for his Investiture he came and sate in the Upper House of Convocation There were there at that time hot and earnest Debates upon these two Questions Whether it was against the Law of God and Indispensable by the Pope for a man to marry his Brothers Wife he being dead without Issue but having consummated the Marriage And whether Prince Arthur had consummated his Marriage with the Queen As for the first it was brought first into the Lower
them a few Bishops in the Northern and Western Parts When afterwards the Patriarch of Constantinople was declared by the Emperor Mauritius The Vniversal Bishop Gregory the great did exclaim against the Ambition of that Title as being equal to the Pride of Lucifer and declared that he who assumed it was the Forerunner of Antichrist saying that none of his Predecessors had ever claimed such a Power And this was the more observable since the English were Converted by those whom he sent over so that this was the Doctrine of that See when this Church received the Faith from it But it did not continue long within those limits for Boniface the Third assumed that Title upon the Grant of Phâ—â—as And as that Boniface got the Spiritual Sword put in his hand so the Eighth of that name pretended also to the Temporal Sword but they owe these Powers to the Industry of those Popes and not to any Donation of Christs The Popes when they are Consecrated promise to obey the Canons of the Eight first General Councils which if they observe they will receive no Appeals nor pretend to any higher Jurisdiction than these give to them and the other Patriarchs equally As for the Decrees of Latter Councils they are of less Authority For those Councils consisted of Monks and Friers in great part whose exemptions obtained from Rome obliged them to support the Authority of that Court and those who sate in them knew little of the Scriptures Fathers or the Tradition of the Church being only conversant in the Disputes and Learning of the Schools And for the Florentine Council the Eastern Churches who sent the Greek Bishops that sate there never received their Determination neither then nor at any time since Many places were also brought out of the Fathers to show that they did not look on the Bishops of Rome as superior to other Bishops and that they understood not those places of Scripture which were afterwards brought for the Popes Supremacy in that sense so that if Tradition be the best Expounder of Scripture those latter glosses must give place to the more ancient But that passage of St. Ierome in which he equals the Bishops of Eugubium and Constantinople to the Bishop of Rome was much made use of since he was a Presbyter of Rome and so likely to understand the Dignity of his own Church best There were many things brought from the Contests that other Sees had with Rome to show that all the Priviledges of that and other Sees were only founded on the practice and Canons of the Church but not upon any Divine Warrant Constantinople pretended to equal priviledges Ravenna Milan and Aquileia pretended to a Patriarchal Dignity and Exemption Some Arch-Bishops of Canterbury contended that Popes could do nothing against the Laws of the Church so Laurence and Dunstan Robert Grostest Bishop of Lincoln asserted the same and many Popes confessed it And to this day no Constitution of the Popes is binding in any Church except it be received by it and in the daily practice of the Canon Law the customs of Churches are pleaded against Papal Constitutions which shows their Authority cannot be from God otherwise all must submit to their Laws And from the latter Contests up and down Europe about giving Investitures receiving Appeals admitting of Legates and Papal Constitutions it was apparent that the Papal Authority was a Tyranny which had been managed by cruel and fraudulent Arts but was never otherwise received in the Church than as a Conquest to which they were constrained to yield And this was more fully made out in England from what passed in William the Conqueror and Henry the 2d's time and by the Statutes of Provisors in many Kings Reigns which were still renewed till within an hundred years of the present time Upon these grounds they Concluded that the Popes Power in England had no Foundation neither in the Law of God nor in the Laws of the Church or of the Land As for the Kings Power over Spiritual persons and in Spiritual causes they proved it from the Scriptures In the old Testament they found the Kings of Israel intermedled in all matters Ecclesiastical Samuel though he had been Judge yet acknowledged Sauls Authority So also did Abimelech the High-Priest and appeared before him when cited to answer upon an Accusation And Samuel 1 Sam. 15.18 sayes he was made the head of all the Tribes Aaron in that was an Example to all the following High-Priests who submitted to Moses David made many Laws about sacred things such as the Order of the Courses of the Priests and their Worship and when he was dying he declared to Solomon how far his Authority extended He told him 1 Chron. 28.21 That the Courses of the Priests and all the people were to be wholly at his commandment pursuant to which Solomon 2 Chron. 8.14 15. did appoint them their charges in the service of God and both the Priests and Levites departed not from his commandment in any matter and though he had turned out Abiathar from the High-Priesthood yet they made no opposition Iehosophat Hezekiah and Iosias made likewise Laws about Eccledsiastical Matters In the New Testament Christ himself was obedient he payed Taxes he declared that he pretended to no earthly Kingdom he charged the people to render to Caesar the things that were Caesars and his Disciples not to affect temporal dominion as the Lords of the Nations did And though the Magistrates were then Heathens yet the Apostles wrote to the Churches to obey Magistrates to submit to them to pay Taxes they call the King Supream and say he is Gods Minister to encourage them that do well and to punish the evil doors which is said of all persons without exception and every Soul is charged to be subject to the Higher Power Many passages were cited out of the Writings of the Fathers to show that they thought Church-men were included in these places as well as other persons so that the Tradition of the Church was for the Kings Supremacy and by one place of Scripture the King is called Supream by another he is called Head and by a third every Soul must be subject to him which laid together make up this conclusion That the King is the Supream Head over all persons In the primitive Church the Bishops in their Councils made rules for ordering their Dioceses which they only called Canons or Rules nor had they any compulsive Authority but what was derived from the Civil Sanctions After the Emperors were Christians they made many Laws about sacred things as may be seen in the Codes and when Iustinian digested the Roman Law he added many Novel Constitutions about Ecclesiastical persons and causes The Emperors called general Councils presided in them and confirmed them And many Letters were cited of Popes to Emperors to call Councils and of the Councils to them to Confirm their Decrees The Election of the Popes themselves was
sometimes made by the Emperors and sometimes confirmed by them Pope Hadrian in a Synod decreed that the Emperor should choose the Pope And it was a late and unheard of thing before the dayes of Gregory the 7th for Popes to pretend to depose Princes and give away their Dominions This they compared to the pride of Anti-Christ and Lucifer They also argued from Reason that there must be but one Supream and that the King being Supream over all his Subjects Clergy-men must be included for they are still Subjects Nor can their being in Orders change that former relation founded upon the Law of Nature and Nations no more than Wives or Servants by becoming Christians were not according to the Doctrine of the Apostles discharged from the Duties of their former Relations For the great Objection from those Offices that are peculiar to their Functions It was answered that these notwithstanding the King might well be Supream Head for in the Natural body there were many vital motions that proceeded not from the Head but from the Heart and the other inward parts and vessels and yet the Head was still the chief seat and root of Life So though there be peculiar functions appropriated to Church-men yet the King is still Head having Authority over them and a Power to direct and coerce them in these From that they proceeded to show that in England the Kings have allwayes assumed a Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters They began with the most Ancient Writing that relates to the Christian Religion in England then extant Pope Elentherius Letter to King Lucius in which he is twice called by him Gods Vicar in his Kingdom and he writ in it that it belong'd to his Office to bring his Subjects to the Holy Church and to maintain protect and govern them in it Many Laws were cited which Canutus Ethelred Edgar Edmond Athelstan and Ina had Enacted concerning Church-men many more Laws since the Conquest were also made both against appeals to Rome and Bishops going out of the Kingdom without the Kings leave The whole business of the Articles of Clarendon and the Contests that followed between King Henry the 2d and Thomas Becket were also opened And though a Bishops Pastoral care be of Divine Institution yet as the Kings of England had divided Bishopricks as they pleased so they also converted Benefices from the Institution of the Founders and gave them to Cloisters and Monasteries as King Edgar did all which was done by the Consent of their Clergy and Nobility without dependance on Rome They had also granted these Houses Exemption from Episcopal Jurisdiction so Ina exempted Glastenbury and Offa St. Albans from their Bishops visitation and this continued even till the dayes of William the Conqueror for he to perpetuate the Memory of the Victory he obtained over Harald and to endear himself to the Clergy founded an Abbey in the Field where the Battel was fought and called it Battel-Abbey and in the Charter he granted them these words are to be found It shall be also free and quiet for ever from all subjection to Bishops or the Dominion of any other persons as Christs Church in Canterbury is Many other things were brought out of King Alfreds Laws and a speech of King Edgars with several Letters written to the Popes from the Kings the Parliaments and the Clergy of England to show that their Kings did always make Laws about Sacred matters and that their Power reach't to that and to the persons of Church-men as well as to their other Subjects But at the same time that they pleaded so much for the Kings Supremacy and Power of making Laws for restraining and Coercing his Subjects it appeared that they were far from vesting him with such an absolute Power as the Popes had pretended to for they thus defined the extent of the Kings Power To them specially and principally it pertaineth to defend the Faith of Christ and his Religion to conserve and maintain the true Doctrine of Christ and all such as be true Preachers and setters forth thereof and to abolish Abuses Heresies and Idolatries and to punish with corporal pains such as of malice be the occasion of the same And finally to oversee and cause that the said Bishops and Priests do execute their pastoral office truly and faithfully and specially in these points which by Christ and his Apostles was given and Committed to them and in case they shall be negligent in any part thereof or would not diligently execute the same to cause them to redouble and supply their lack and if they obstinately withstand their Princes kind monition and will not amend their faults then and in such case to put others in their rooms and places And God hath also commanded the said Bishops and Priests to obey with all humbleness and Reverence both Kings and Princes and Governors and all their Laws not being contrary to the Laws of God whatsoever they be and that not only propter Iram but also propter Conscientiam that is to say not only for fear of punishment but also for Discharge of Conscience Thus it appears that they both limited obedience to the Kings Laws with the due Caution of their not being contrary to the Law of God and acknowledged the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the discharge of the Pastoral Office committed to the Pastors of the Church by Christ and his Apostles and that the Supremacy then pretended to was no such Extravagant Power as some imagine Upon the whole matter it was Concluded that the Popes Power in England had no good Foundation and had been managed with as much Tyranny as it had begun with Usurpation the Exactions of their Courts were every-where heavy but in no place so intolerable as in England and though many complaints were made of them in these last 300 years yet they got no ease and all the Laws about Provisors were still defeated and made ineffectual Therefore they saw it was impossible to moderate their proceedings so that there was no other Remedy but to extirpate their pretended Authority and thenceforth to acknowledge the Pope only Bishop of Rome with the jurisdiction about it defined by the Ancient Canons and for the King to re-assume his own Authority and the Prerogatives of his Crown from which the Kings of England had never formally departed though they had for this last Hundred years connived at an Invasion and Usurpation upon them which was no longer to be endured These were the Grounds of casting off the Pope's Power that had been for two or three years studied and enquired into by all the Learned men in England and had been debated both in Convocation and Parliament and except Fisher Bishop of Rochester I do not find that any Bishop appeared for the Popes Power and for the Abbots and Priors as they were generally very ignorant so what the Cardinal had done in suppressing some Monasteries and what they now heard that the
Order to another By whom And for what Cause What Mortmains they had And whether their Founders were sufficiently Authorized to make such Donations Upon what suggestions and for what Causes they were exempted from their Diocesans Their Local Statutes were also to be seen and examined The Election of their Head was to be enquired into The Rule of every House was to be considered How many professed And how many Novices were in it And at what time the Novices Professed Whether they knew their Rule and observed it Chiefly the three Vows of Poverty Chastity and Obedience Whether any of them kept any money without the Masters knowledge Whether they kept company with women within or without the Monastery Or if there were any back-doors by which women came within the precinct Whether they had any boys lying by them Whether they observed the Rules of Silence Fasting Abstinence and Hair-shirts Or by what warrant they were dispenced with in any of these Whether they did Eat Sleep wear their Habit and stay within the Monastery according to their Rules Whether the Master was too cruel or too remiss And whether he used the Brethren without partiality or malice Whether any of the Brethren were incorrigible Whether the Master made his accompts faithfully once a year Whether all the other Officers made their accompts truely And whether the whole Revenues of the House were imployed according to the intention of the Founders Whether the Fabrick was kept up and the Plate and Furniture were carefully preserved Whether the Covent-Seal and the Writings of the House were well kept And whether Leases were made by the Master to his Kindred and Friends to the damage of the House Whether Hospitality was kept and whether at the receiving of Novices any money or reward was demanded or promised What care was taken to instruct the Novices Whether any had entred into the House in hope to be once the Master of it Whether in giving Presentations to Livings the Master had reserved a Pension out of them Or what sort of Bargains he made concerning them An account was to be taken of all the Parsonages and Vicarages belonging to every House and how these Benefices were disposed of and how the Cure was served All these things were to be inquired after in the Houses of Monks or Friars And in the Visitation of Nunneries they were to Search Whether the House had a good Enclosure and if the Doors and Windows were kept shut so that no man could enter at inconvenient hours Whether any men conversed with the Sisters alone without the Abbesses leave Whether any Sister was forced to profess either by her Kindred or by the Abbess Whether they went out of their precinct without leave And whether they wore their Habit then What employment they had out of the times of Divine Service What familiarity they had with Religious men Whether they wrote Love-Letters Or sent and received Tokens or Presents Whether the Confessor was a discreet and learned man and of good reputation And how oft a year the Sisters did Confess and Communicate They were also to visit all Collegiate Churches Hospitals and Cathedrals and the Order of the Knights of Ierusalem But if this Copy be compleat they were only to view their Writings and Papers to see what could be gathered out of them about the Reformation of Monastical Orders And as they were to visit according to these Instructions so they were to give some Injunctions in the Kings Name That they should endeavour all that in them lay that the Act of the Kings Succession should be observed where it is said that they had under their Hands and Seals confirmed it This showes that all the Religious Houses of England had acknowledged it and they should teach the people that the Kings Power was Supreme on Earth under God and that the Bishop of Rome's Power was Usurped by Craft and Policy and by his ill Canons and Decretals which had been long tolerated by the Prince but was now justly taken away The Abbot and Brethren were declared to be absolved from any Oath they had Sworn to the Pope or to any Forreign Potentate and the Satutes of any Order that did bind them to a Forreign Subjection were abrogated and ordered to be razed out of their Books That no Monk should go out of the precinct nor any woman enter within it without leave from the King or the Visitor and that there should be no entry to it but one Some Rules were given about their Meals and a Chapter of the Old or New Testament was ordered to be read at every one The Abbots Table was to be served with common Meats and not with delicate and strange Dishes and either he or one of the Seniors were to be always there to entertain strangers Some other Rules follow about the distribution of their Alms their accommodation in Health and Sickness One or two of every House was to be kept at the University that when they were well Instructed they might come and teach others And every day there was to be a Lecture of Divinity for a whole hour The Brethren must all be well employed The Abbot or Head was every day to explain some part of the Rule and apply it according to Christ's Law and to shew them that their Ceremonies were but Elements introductory to true Christianity and that Religion consisted not in Habits or in such like Rites but in cleanness of Heart pureness of Living unfeigned Faith Brotherly Charity and true honouring of God in Spirit and Truth That therefore they must not rest in their Ceremonies but ascend by them to true Religion Other Rules are added about the Revenues of the House and against Wastes and that none be entred into their House nor admitted under twenty four years of Age. Every Priest in the House was to say Mass daily and in it to pray for the King and Queen If any brake any of these Injunctions he was to be denounced to the King or his Visitor-general The Visitor had also Authority to punish any whom he should find guilty of any Crime and to bring the Visitor-general such of their Books and Writings as he thought fit But before I give an account of this Visitation I presume it will not be ingrateful to the Reader to offer him some short view of the Rise and Progress of Monastick Orders in England and of the state they were in at this time What the Ancient British Monks were or by what Rule they were Governed whether it was from the Eastern Churches that this Constitution was brought into Britain and was either suited to the Rule of St. Anthony St. Pachon or St. Basil or whether they had it from France where Sulpitius tells us St. Martin set up Monasteries must be left to conjecture But from the little that remains of them we find they were very numerous and were obedient to the Bishop of Caerleon as all the Monks of the
If full Forty days be necessary for a Summons then the Writs must have been issued forth the day before the late Queens disgrace so that it was designed before the Justs at Greenwich and did not flow from any thing that then appeared When the Parliament met the Lord Chancellor Audley in his speech told them That when the former Parliament was dissolved the King had no thoughts of Summoning a new one so soon But for two reasons he had now called them The one was that he finding himself subject to so many infirmities and considering that he was Mortal a rare thought in a Prince he desired to settle an apparent heir to the Crown in case he should die without Children lawfully begotten The other was to repeal an Act of the former Parliament concerning the Succession of the Crown to the issue of the King by Queen Anne Boleyn He desired them to reflect on the great troubles and vexation the King was involved in by his first unlawful Marriage and the dangers he was in by his second which might well have frighted any body from a third Marriage But Anne and her Conspirators being put to death as they well deserved the King at the humble request of the Nobility and not out of any Carnal concupiscence was pleased to Marry again a Queen by whom there were very probable hopes of his having children Therefore he recommended to them to provide an heir to the Crown by the Kings direction who if the King dyed without children lawfully begotten might Rule over them He desired they would pray God earnestly that he would grant the King issue of his own body and return thanks to Almighty God that preserved such a King to them out of so many eminent dangers who imployed all his care and endeavours that he might keep his whole people in quiet peace and perfect charity and leave them so to those that should succeed him But though this was the chief cause of calling the Parliament it seems the Ministers met with great difficulties and therefore spent much time in preparing mens minds For the Bill about the Succession to the Crown was not brought into the House of Lords before the 30th day of Iune that the Lord Chancellor offered it to the House It went through both Houses without any Opposition It contained first a repeal of the former Act of Succession and a Confirmation of the two Sentences of Divorce the issue of both the Kings former Marriages being declared illegitimate and for ever excluded from claiming the inheritance of the Crown as the Kings Lawful heirs by lineal descent The Attainder of Queen Anne and her Complices is confirmed Quen Anne is said to have been inflamed with pride and Carnal desires of her body and having confederated her self with her complices to have committed divers Treasons to the danger of the Kings Royal person with other aggravating words for which she had justly suffered death and is now attainted by Act of Parliament And all things that had been said or done against her or her Daughter being contrary to an Act of Parliament then in force are pardoned and the inheritance of the Crown is established on the issue of Queen Iane whether Male or Female or the Kings issue by any other Wife whom he might Marry afterwards But since it was not fit to declare to whom the Succession of the Crown belonged after the Kings death lest the person so designed might be thereby enabled to raise trouble and Commotions therefore they considering the Kings wise and excellent Government and confiding in the love and affection which he bore to his Subjects did give him full Power to declare the Succession to the Crown either by his Letters Patents under the great Seal or by his last will Signed with his hand and promised all faithful obedience to the persons named by him And if any so designed to succeed in default of others should endeavor to usurp upon those before them or to exclude them they are declared Traytors and were to forfeit all the Right they might thereafter claim to the Crown And if any should maintain the Lawfulness of the former Marriages or that the issue by them was legitimate or refused to swear to the Kings issue by Queen Iane they were also declared Traytors By this Act it may appear how absolutely this King Reigned in England Many question'd much the validity of it and as shall afterwards appear the Scots said that the Succession to the Crown was not within the Parliaments Power to determine aboutit but must go by inheritance to their King in default of issue by this King Yet by this the King was enabled to settle the Crown on his Children whom he had now declared Illegitimate by which he brought them more absolutely to depend upon himself He neither made them desperate nor gave them any further Right than what they were to derive purely from his own good pleasure This did also much pacifie the Emperor since his Kinswoman was though not restored in blood yet put in a capacity to succeed to the Crown At this time there came a new Proposition from Rome to try if the King would accommodate matters with the Pope Pope Clement the Seventh dyed two years before this in the year 1534. and Cardinal Farnese succeeded him called Pope Paul the Third He had before this made one unsuccessful attempt upon the King but upon the beheading of the Bishop and declared Cardinal of Rochester he had Thundered a most terrible Sentence of Deposition against the King and designed to commit the Execution of it to the Emperor Yet now when Queen Katharine and Queen Anne who were the occasions of the Rupture were both out of the way he thought it was a proper conjuncture to try if a Reconciliation could be effected This he proposed to Sir Gregory Cassali who was no more the Kings Ambassador at Rome but was still his Correspondent there The Pope desired he would move the King in it and let him know that he had ever favoured his Cause in the former Popes time and though he was forced to give out a Sentence against him yet he had never any intention to proceed upon it to further Extremities But the King was now so entirely alienated from the Court of Rome that to cut off all hopes of reconciliation he procured two Acts to be passed in this Parliament The one was for the utter extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome It was brought into the House of Lords on the 4th of Iuly And was read the first time the 5th and the second time on the 6th of Iuly and lay at the Committee till the 12th And on the 14th it was sent down to the Commons who if there be no mistake in the Journal sent it up that same day They certainly made great haste for the Parliament was dissolved within Four days The Preamble of this first Act contains severe Reflections on
the Bishop of Rome whom some called the Pope who had long darkned Gods word that it might serve his Pomp Glory Avarice Ambition and Tyranny both upon the Souls Bodies and Goods of all Christians excluding Christ out of the Rule of mans Soul and Princes out of their Dominions And had exacted in England great Sums by dreams and vanities and other Superstitious ways â—pon these reasons his Usurpations had been by Law put down in this Nation yet many of his Emissaries were still practising up and down the Kingdom and perswading people to acknowledg his pretended Authority Therefore every person so offending after the last of Iâ—ly next to come was to incur the pains of a Premunire and all Officers both Civil and Ecclesiastical were commanded to make enquiry about such offences under several penalties On the 12th of Iuly a Bill was brought in concerning Priviledges obtained from the See of Rome and was read the First time And on the 17th it was agreed to and sent down to the Commons who sent it up again the next day It bears that the Popes had during their Usurpation granted many Immunities to several Bodies and Societies in England which upon that Grant had been now long in use Therefore all these Bulls Breves and every thing depending on or flowing from them were declared void and of no force Yet all Marriages celebrated by vertue of them that were not otherwise contrary to the Law of God were declared good in Law and all Consecrations of Bishops by vertue of them were confirmed And for the future all who enjoyed any Priviledges by Bulls were to bring them in to the Chancery or to such persons as the King should appoint for that end And the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was Lawfully to grant anew the effects contained in them which â—rant was to pass under the great Seal and to be of full force in Law This struck at the Abbots Rights But they were glad to bear a Diminution of their Greatness so they might save the whole which now lay at stake By the Thirteenth Act they corrected an Abuse which had come in to evade the force of a Statute made in the Twenty First year of this King about the Residence of all Ecclesiastical persons in their Livings One qualification that did excuse from Residence was their staying at the University for the compleating of their Studies Now it was found that many dissolute Clergymen went and lived at the Universities not for their Studies but to be excused from serving their Cures So it was Enacted that none above the Age of Forty that were not either Heads of Houses or Publick Readers should have any Exemption from their Residence by vertue of that Clause in the former Act. And those under that Age should not have the Benefit of it except they were present at the Lectures and perform'd their Exercises in the Schools By another Act there was Provision made against the prejudice the Kings Heirs might receive before they were of Age by Parliaments held in their Non-Age That whatsoever Acts were made before they were Twenty Four years of Age they might at any time of their lives after that Repeal and Annul by their Letters Patents which should have equal force with a Repeal by Act of Parliament From these Acts it appears that the King was absolute Master both of the affections and fears of his Subjects when in a new Parliament called on a sudden and in a Session of six weeks from the 8th of Iune to the 18th of Iuly Acts of this Importance were passed without any Protest or publick Opposition But having now opened the business of the Parliament as it relates to the State I must next give an account of the Convocation which sate at this time and was very busie as appears by the Journal of the House of Lords in which this is given for a reason of many Adjournments because the Spiritual Lords were busie in the Convocation It sate down on the 9th of Iune according to Fullers Extract it being the Custom of all this Reign for that Court to meet two or three days after the Parliament Hither Cromwell came as the Kings Vicar-General But he was not yet Vice-Gerent For he sate next the Arch-Bishop but when he had that Dignity he sate above him Nor do I find him Stiled in any Writing Vice-gerent for some time after this though the Lord Herbert says he was made Vice-gerent the 18th of Iuly this year the same day in which the Parliament was Dissolved Latimer Bishop of Worcester preached the Latine Sermon on these words The Children of this World are wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light He was the most Celebrated Preacher of that time The simplicity and plainness of his matter with a serious and fervent Action that accompanied it being preferred to more learned and elaborate Composures On the 21st of Iune Cromwell moved that they would Confirm the Sentence of the Invalidity of the Kings Marriage with Queen Anne which was accordingly done by both Houses of Convocation But certainly Fuller was asleep when he wrote That Ten days before that the Arch-Bishop had passed the Sentence of Divorce on the day before the Queen was beheaded Whereas if he had considered this more fully he must have seen that the Queen was put to death a Month before this and was Divorced two days before she dyed Yet with this animadversion I must give him my thanks for his pains in copying out of the Journals of Convocation many remarkable things which had been otherwise irrecoverably lost On the 23d of Iune the lower House of Convocation sent to the upper House a Collection of many opinions that were then in the Realm which as they thought were abuses and errors worthy of special Reformation But they began this Representation with a Protestation That they intended not to do or speak any thing which might be unpleasant to the King whom they acknowledged their Supream Head and were resolved to obey his Commands renouncing the Popes usurp'd Authority with all his Laws and Inventions now extinguisht and abolisht and did addict themselves to Almighty God and his Laws and unto the King and the Laws made within this Kingdom There are Sixty Seven opinions set down and are either the Tenets of the Old Lollards or the New Reformers together with the Anabaptists opinions Besides all which they complained of many unsavory and indiscreet expressions which were either feigned on design to disgrace the New Preachers or were perhaps the extravagant Reflexions of some illiterate and injudicious persons who are apt upon all occasions by their heat and folly rather to prejudice than advance their party and affect some petulant jeers which they think witty and are perhaps well entertained by some others who though they are more judicious themselves yet imagining that such jests on the contrary opinions will take with the people do give them too much Encouragement Many of these
But this work was put in a better Form afterwards where the Reader will find a more particular account of it When all these Proceedings of the Kings were known at Rome all the Satyrical Pens there were employed to paint him out as the most Infamous Sacrilegious Tyrant that ever was They represented him as one that made War with Heaven and the Saints that were there That committed outrages on the bodies of the Saints which the Heathenish Romans would have punished severely for any that committed the like on those that were dead how mean or bad soever they had been All his proceedings against the Priests or Monks that were Attainted and Executed for high Treason were represented as the effects of savage and barbarous Cruelty His suppressing the Monasteries and devouring what the Devotion of former Ages had Consecrated to God and his Saints was called Ravenous and Impious Sacrilege nor was there any thing omitted that could make him appear to posterity the blackest Tyrant that ever wore a Crown They compared him to Pharaoh Nabuchadonosor Belshazar Nero Domitian and Dioclesian but chiefly to Iulian the Apostate This last Paralel liked them best and his Learning his Apostacy and pretence of Reforming were all thought copied from Iulian only they said his manners were worse These things were every day Printed at Rome and the Informations that were brought out of England were generally addressed to Cardinal Pool whose style was also known in some of them All which possest the King with the deepest and most implacable hatred to him that ever he bore to any person and did provoke him to all these severities that followed on his Kindred and Family But the malice of the Court of Rome did not stop there For now the Pope published all these Thunders which he had threatned three years before The Bull of Deposition is Printed in Cherubins Bullarum Romanum which since many have the confidence to deny matters of fact the Most publickly acted shall be found in the Collection of Papers the substance of it is as follows The Pope being Gods Vicar on Earth and according to Ieremy's Prophecy set over Nations and Kingdoms to root out and destroy and having the supream power over all the Kings in the whole World was bound to proceed to due correction when milder courses were ineffectual therefore since King Henry who had been formerly a Defender of the Faith had fallen from it had contrary to an Inhibition made put away his Queen and marryed one Anne Bollein and had made impious and hurtful Laws denying the Pope to be the Supream Head of the Church but assuming that Title to himself and had required all his Subjects under pain of death to swear it and had put the Cardinal of Rochester to death because he would not consent to these Heresies and by all these things had rendred himself unworthy of his Regal Dignity and had hardened his heart as Pharoah did against all the Admonitions of Pope Clement the 7th therefore since these his crimes were so notorious he in imitation of what the Apostle did to Elimas the Magician proceeds to such Censures as he had deserved and with the advice of his Cardinals does first exhort him and all his Complices to return from their errours to annull the Acts lately made and to proceed no farther upon them which he requires him and them to do under the pains of Excommunication and Rebellion and of the Kings losing his Kingdom whom he required within 90 dayes to appear at Rome by himself or Proxy and his Complices within 60 dayes to give an account of their Actions otherwise he would then proceed to a further sentence against them And Declares that if the King and his Complices do not appear he has fallen from the right to his Crown and they from the right to their Estates and when they die they were to be denied Christian Burial He puts the whole Kingdom under an Interdict and declares all the Kings Children by the said Anne and the Children of all his Complices to be under the same pains though they be now under age and Incapacitates them for all honours or employments and declares all the Subjects or Vassals of the Kings or his Complices absolved from all Oaths or Obligations to them and requires them to acknowledg them no more And declares him and them Infamous so that they might neither be witnesses nor make Wills He requires all other persons to have no dealings with him or them neither by Trading nor any other way under the pain of Excommunication the annulling their Contracts and the exposing goods so Traded in to all that should catch them And that all Clergymen should within five dayes after the expiration of the time prefixed go out of the Kingdom leaving only so many Priests as would be necessary for Baptizing Infants and giving the Sacrament to such as died in Penitence under the pains of Excommunication and Deprivation And Charges all Noble-men and others in his Dominions under the same pains to rise up in Arms against him and to drive him out of his Kingdom and that none should take Arms for him or any way assist him and Declares all other Princes absolved from any Confederacies made or to be made with him and earnestly obtests the Emperour and all Kings and requires other Princes under the former pains to trade no more with him and in case of their disobedience he puts their Kingdomes under an Interdict And requires all Princes and Military persons in the vertue of Holy Obedience to make War upon him and to force him to return to the Obedience of the Apostolick See and to seize on all Goods or Merchandizes belonging to the King or his Complices where-ever they could find them and that such of his Subjects that were seized on should be made Slaves And requires all Bishops Three dayes after the time that was set down was elapsed to intimate this Sentence in all their Churches with putting out of Candles and other Ceremonies that ought to be used in the most solemn and publick manner that might be And all who hindered the Publication of this Sentence are put under the same Pains He ordained this Sentence to be affixed at Rome Tournay and Dunkirk which should stand for a sufficient publication and concludes that if any should endeavour to oppose or enervate any of the premises he should incur the indignatition of Almighty God and the Holy Apostles St. Peter and Paul Dated at Rome the 30th of August 1635. But the Pope found the Princes of Christendom liked the precedent of using a King in that manner so ill that he suspended the Execution of this Bull till this time that the suppression of Abbies and the burning of Thomas Beckets Bones for it was so represented at Rome though our writers say they were buried did so inflame the Pope that he could forbear no longer and therefore by a new sentence he did all he could
Beauty But he excused himself that he thought the thing was so far gone that it was decent to write as he had done The King lamented his condition in that Marriage and expressed great trouble both to the Lord Russel Sir Anthony Brown Sir Anthony Denny and others about him The last of those told him this was one Advantage that mean persons had over Princes That great Princes must take such Wives as are brought them whereas meaner persons go and chuse Wives for themselves But when the King saw Cromwel he gave his grief a freer vent to him He finding the King so much Troubled would have cast the chief blame on the Earl of Southampton for whom he had no great kindness And said when he found her so far short of what reports and Pictures had made her he should have stayed her at Callice till he had given the King notice of it But the Earls Commission being only to bring her over he said It had been too great a presumption in him to have interposed in such a manner And the King was convinced he was in the right So now all they had to insist on was the clearing of that Contract that had passed between her and the Marquess of Lorain which the Ambassadors who had been with the King had undertaken should be fully done and brought over with her in due form of Law So after the Lady was brought in great State to Greenwich the Council met and sent for the Ambassadors of the Duke of Cleves that conducted her over and desired to see what they had brought for clearing the breach of that Contract with the Marquess of Lorrain But they had brought nothing and made no account of it saying that the Contract was in their Minority when they could give no consent and that nothing had followed on it after they came to be of Age. But this did not satisfie the Kings Council who said these were but their words and they must see better proofs The Kings Marriage was Annulled with Anne Boleyn upon a pre-contract therefore he must not again run the like hazard So Olisleger and Hogâ—sden the Ambassadors from Cleve did by a formal Instrument Protest before Cromwel that in a peace made between their late Master Iohn Duke of Cleve and Anthony Duke of Lorrain one of the conditions was that this Lady being then under Age should be given in Marriage to Francis Son to the Duke of Lorrain who was likewise under Age which Treaty they affirmed they saw and read But that afterwards Henry de Groffe Ambassador of Charles Duke of Gueldres upon whose mediation that peace had been concluded declared in their hearing that the Espousals were Annulled and of no effect and that this was Registred in the Chancery of Clâ—ve of which they promised to bring an Authentical Extract within three Months to England Some of the Counsellors who knew the Kings secret dislike of her person would have insisted more on this But the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Duresm said if there was no more than that it could be no just hindrance to the Solemnization of the Marriage So the King seeing there was no remedy and being much pressed both by the Ministers of Cleve and by the Lord Cromwel Marryed her on the 6th of Ianuary But expressed so much aversion and dislike of her that every body about him took notice of it Next day the Lord Cromwel asked him how he liked her then He told him He was not every man therefore he would be free with him He liked her worse than he did He suspected she was no Maid and had such ill smells about her that he loathed her more than ever and did not believe he should ever consummate the Marriage This was sad news to Cromwel who knew well how delicate the King was in these matters and that so great a Misfortune must needs turn very heavy on him that was the chief Promoter of it He knew his Enemies would draw great advantages from this and understood the Kings temper too well to think his Greatness would last long if he could not induce the King to like the Queen better But that was not to be done for though the King lived five Months with her in that State and very oft lay in the Bed with her yet his Aversion rather encreased than abated She seemed not much concerned at it and as their Conversation was not great so she was of an heavy Composition and was not much displeased to be delivered from a Marriage in which she had so little satisfaction Yet one thing shews that she wanted not Capacity For she learned the English Language very soon and before her Marriage was Annulled she spoke English freely as appears by some of the Depositions There was an Instrument brought over from Cleve taken out of the Chancery there by which it appeared That Henry de Groffe Ambassador from the Duke of Gueldres had on the 15th of February in the year 1535. declared the Nullity of the former Contract in express words which are set down in high Dutch but thus put in Latine Sponsalia illa progressum suum non habitura I will not answer for the Latine ex quo dictus Dux Carolus admodum doleret propterea quaedam fecisset amplius facturus esset And Pallandus that was Ambassador from the Duke of Cleves in the Duke of Guelders Court wrote to his Master Illustrissimum Ducem Gueldriae certo scire prima illa Sponsalia inter Domicellam Annam fore inania progressum suum non habitura When this was shewed the King his Council found great exceptions to it upon the Ambiguity of the word Sponsalia it not being expressed whether they were Espousals by the words of the present or of the future tense and intended to make use of that when there should be a fit opportunity for it On the 12th of April a Session of Parliament was held The Journal shews that neither the Abbot of Westminster nor any other Abbot was present After the Lord Chancellor had opened the reasons for the Kings meeting them at that time as they related to the Civil Government Cromwel as Lord Vice-gerent spake next in the Kings name and said There was nothing which the King so much desired as a firm union among all his Subjects in which he placed his chief security He knew there were many Incendiaries and much Cockle grew up with the Wheat The rashness and licentiousness of some and the inveterate Superstition and stiffness of others in the Ancient Corruptions had raised great dissensions to the sad regret of all good Christians Some were called Papists others Hereticks which bitterness of Spirit seemed the more strange since now the Holy Scriptures by the Kings great care of his people were in all their hands in a Language which they understood But these were grosly perverted by both sides who studied rather to justifie their passions out
laid very close and managed with great dexterity chiefly by the Duke of Norfolk and Gardinâ—r pursued the ruine of those whom they called Hereticks knowing well that if the King was once set against them and they provoked against the Government he would be not only alienated from them but forced for securing himself against them to gain the hearts of his other Subjects by a Conjunction with the Emperor and by his means with the Pope The first on whom this design took effect were Doctor Barnes Mr. Gerard and Mr. Ierome all Priests who had been among the earliest Converts to Luther's Doctrine Barnes had in a Sermon at Cambridg during the Cardinals greatness reflected on the Pomp and State in which he lived so plainly that every body understood of whom he meant So he was carried up to London but by the interposition of Gardiner and Fox who were his friends he was saved at that time having abjured some opinions that were objected to him But other accusations being afterwards brought against him he was again Imprisoned and it was believed that he would have been burnt But he made his escape and went to Germany where he gave himself to the study of the Scriptures and Divinity In which he became so considerable that not only the German Divines but their Princes took great notice of him and the King of Denmark sending over Ambassâ—dors to the King he was sent with them though perhaps Fox was ill informed when he says he was one of them Fox Bishop of Hereford being at Smalcald in the year 1536. sent him over to England where he was received and kindly entertained by Cromwel and well used by the King And by his means the correspondence with the Germans was chiefly kept up For he was often sent over to the Courts of the several Princes But in particular he had the misfortune to be first employed in the project of the Kings Marriage with the Lady Anne of Cleves for that giving the King so little satisfaction all who were the main promoters of it fell in disgrace upon it But other things concurred to destroy Barnes In Lent this year Bonner had appointed him and Gerrard and Ierome turns in the Course of Sermons at St. Pauls Cross they being in favour with Cromwel on whom Bonner depended wholly But Gardiner sent Bonner word that he intended himself to preach on Sunday at St. Pauls Cross and in his Sermon he treated of Justification and other points with many reflections on the Lutherans Barnes when it came to his Turn made use of the same Text but preached contrary Doctrine not without some unhandsome reflections on Gardiners person and he played on his name alluding to a Gardiners setting ill Plants in a Garden The other two preached the same Doctrine but made no reflections on any person Gardiner seemed to bear it with a great appearance of neglect and indifferency But his friends complained to the King of the unsufferable insolencies of these Preachers who did not spare so great a Prelate especially he being a Privy Councellor So Barnes was questioned for it and commanded to go and give the Bishop of Winchester satisfaction And the Bishop carried the matter with a great shew of moderation and acted ouâ—wardly in it as became his Function though it was believed the matter stuck deeper in his heart which the effects that followed seemed to demonstrate The King concerned himself in the matter and did argue with Barnes about the points in difference But whether he was truly convinced or overcome rather with the fear of the King than with the force of his reasonings he and his two Friends William Ierome and Tho. Gerrard signed a paper which will be found in the Collection in which he acknowledged That having been brought before the King for things preached by him His Highness being assisted by some of the Clergy had so disputed with him that he was convinced of his rashness and oversight and promised to abstain from such indiscretions for the future and to submit to any orders the King should give for what was past The Articles were First That though we are Redeemed only by the death of Christ in which we participate by Faith and Baptism yet by not following the Commandments of Christ we lose the benefits of it which we cannot recover but by Pennance Secondly That God is not the Author of Sin or evil which he only permits Thirdly That we ought to reconcile our selves to our neighbours and forgive before we can be forgiven Fourthly That good works done sincerely according to the Scriptures are profitable and helpful to Salvation Fifthly That Laws made by Christian Rulers ought to be obeyed by their Subjects for conscience sake and that whosoever breaks them breaks Gods Commandments It 's not likely that Barnes could say any thing directly contrary to these Articles though having brought much of Luthers heat over with him he might have said some things that sounded ill upon these heads There were other points in difference between Gardiner and him about Justification but it seems the King thought these were of so subtile a nature that no Article of Faith was controverted in them and therefore left the Bishop and him to agree these among themselves which they in a great measure did So the King commanded Barnes and his friends to preach at the Spittle in the Easter-week and openly to recant what they had formerly said And Barnes was in particular to ask the Bishop of Winchester's pardon which he did and Gardiner being twice desired by him to give some signe that he forgave him did lift up his Finger But in their Sermons it was said they justified in one part what they recanted in another Of which complaints being brought to the King he without hearing them sent them all to the Tower And Cromwels interest at Court was then declining so fast that either he could not protect them or else would not prejudice himself by interposing in a matter which gave the King so great offence They lay in the Tower till the Parliament met and then they were attained of Heresie without ever being brought to make their answer And it seems for the Extraordinariness of the thing they resolved to mix attaindors for things that were very different from one Another For four others were by the same Act attainted of Treason who were Gregory Buttolph Adam Damplip Edmund Brindholme and Clement Philpot for assisting Reginald Pool adhering to the Bishop of Rome denying the King to be the Supream Head on earth of the Church of England and designing to surprize the Town of Callice One Derby Gunnings was also attainted of Treason for assisting one Fitz-Girald a Traitor in Ireland And after all these Barnes Gerard and Ierome are attainted of Heresie being as the Act sayes Detestable Hereticks who had conspired together to set forth many Heresies and taking themselves to be men of learning had expounded the Scriptures perverting
Christs express Command was to be drunk by all and that they were kept in a worship to which the unlearned could not say Amen since they understood not what was said either in the Collects or Hymns So the King had many Complaints brought him of the Abuses that were said to have risen from the Liberty given the people to read the Scriptures Upon which Bonner no doubt having obtained the Kings leave set up a new Advertisement in which he complained of these Abuses in the reading the Bible for which he threatned the people that he would remove these Bibles out of the Church if they continued as they did to abuse so high a favour Yet these Complaints produced no further severity at this time But by them the Popish party afterwards obtained what they desired This Summer the King turned the Monastery of Burton upon Trent into a Collegiat Church for a Dean and four Prebends and the Monastery of Thornton in Lincolnshire into another for a Dean and four Prebends In this year Cranmer took it into Consideration to what excess the Tables of the Bishops had risen whereby those Revenues that ought to have been applyed to better purposes were wasted on great Entertainment which though they passed under the decent name of Hospitality yet were in themselves both too high and expensive and proved great hindrances to Church-mens Charity in more necessary and profitable Instances He therefore set out an Order for Regulating that Expence by which an Arch-Bishops Table was not to exceed six dishes of meat and four of Banquet a Bishops five dishes of meat and three of Banquet a Deans or Arch-Deacons Table was not to exceed four dishes and two of Banquet and other Clergy-men might be served only with two dishes But he that gives us the account of this laments that this Regulation took no effect And complains that the people expecting generally such splendid House-keeping from the Dignified Clergy and not considering how short their Revenues are of what they were anciently they out of a weak Complyance with the Multitude have disabled themselves from keeping Hospitality as our Saviour ordered it not for the Rich but the Poor not to mention the other ill effects that follow too sumptuous a Table In the end of this year the Tragical fall of the Queen put a stop to all other proceedings The King had invited his Nephew the King of Scotland to meet him at York who was resolved to come thither The King intended to gain upon him all he could and to engage him to follow the Copy he had set him in Extirpating the Popes Supremacy and Suppressing Abbeys and to establish a firm agreement in all other things The Clergy of Scotland feared the ill effects of that Interview especially their King being a Prince of most extraordinary parts who had he not blemished his Government with being so extreamly addicted to his pleasures was the Greatest Prince that Nation had for several Ages He was a great Patron of Learning and Executor of Justice he used in person and Incognito to go over his Kingdom and see how Justice was every-where done He had no very good opinion of the Religious Orders and had encouraged Buchanan to write a severe and witty Libel against the Franciscan Friars So that they were very apprehensive that he might have been wrought on by his Uncle Therefore they used all their endeavours to divert his Journey But the French King that had him fast engaged to his Interests falling then off from the King wrought more on him So instead of meeting the King at York where magnificent preparations were made for his Reception he sent his Excuse which provoked his Uncle and gave occasion to a breach that followed not long after But here I shall crave the Readers leave to give a full representation of the state of Religion at this time in Scotland and of the footing the Reformation had got there Its neighbourhood to England and the union of these Kingdoms first in the same Religion and since under the same Princes together with the intercourse that was both in this and the next Reign between these Nations seem not only to justifie this Digression but rather to challenge it as a part of the History without which it should be defective And it may be the rather expected from one who had his Birth and Education in that Kingdom The Correspondence between that Crown and France was the cause that what Learning they had came from Paris where our Kings generally kept some Schollars and from that great Nursery they were brought over and set in the Universities of Scotland to propagate Learning there From the year 1412 in which Wardlaw Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews first founded that University Learning had made such a progress that more Colledges were soon after founded in that City Universities were also founded both at Glasgow and Aberdeen which have since furnished that Nation with many eminent Scholars in all professions But at the time that Learning came into Scotland the knowledg of true Religion also followed it and in that same Arch-Bishops time one Iohn Resby an English man a follower of Wickliffs opinions was charged with Heresie Forty Articles were objected to him of which two are only mentioned The one was that The Pope is not Christs Vicar The other was that he was not to be esteemed a Pope if he was a man of wicked life For maintaining these he was burnt Anno 1407. 24 years after that one Paul Craâ— came out of Germany and being a Bohemian and an Hussite was infusing his Doctrine into some at St. Andrews which being discovered he was judged an obstinate Heretick and burnt there Anno 1432. And to encourage people to prosecute such persons Fogo who had discovered him was rewarded with the Abbey of Melross soon after It does not appear that those Doctrines which were called Lollardies in England had gained many followers in Scotland till near the end of that Century But then it was found that they were much spread over the Western parts which being in the neighbourhood of England those who were persecuted there might perhaps fly into Scotland and spread their Doctrine in that Kingdom Several persons of Quality were then charged with these Articles and brought to the Arch-Bishop of Glasgows Courts But they answered him with such confidence that he thought fit to discharge them with an admonition to take heed of new Doctrines and to content themselves with the Faith of the Church At this time the Clergy in Scotland were both very ignorant and dissolute in their manners The Secular Clergy minded nothing but their Tithes and did either hire some Friers to Preach or some poor Priests to sing Masses to them at their Churches The Abbots had possessed themselves of the best seats and the greatest wealth of the Nation and by a profuse Superstition almost the one half of
reading of Sermons grew into a practise in this Church in which if there was not that heat and fire which the â—ryars had shewed in their Declamations so that the passions of the Hearers were not so much wrought on by it yet it has produced the greatest Treasure of weighty grave and solid Sermons that ever the Church of God had which does in a great measure compensate that seeming â—atness to vulgar ears that is in the delivery of them The Injunctions take notice of another thing which the sincerity of an Historian obliges me to give an account of tho it was indeed the greatest blemish of that time These were the Stage-plays and Enterludes that were then generally acted and often in Churches They were representations of the corruptions of the Monks and some other feats of the Popish Clergy The Poems were ill contrivâ—d and worse expressed if there lies not some hidden wit in these Ballads for verses they were not which at this distance is lost But from the representing the immoralities and disorders of the Clergy they proceeded to act the Pageantry of their Worship This took with the people much who being provoked by the miscarriages and cruelties of some of the Clergy were not ill pleased to see them and their Religion exposed to publick scorn The Clergy complained much of this and said it was an introduction to Atheism and all sort of Irreligion For if once they began to mock sacred things no stop could be put to that petulant humour The grave and learned sort of Reformers disliked and condemned these courses as not sutable to the genius of true Religion but the political men of that party made great use of them encouraging them all they could for they said Contempt being the most operative and lasting affection of the mind nothing would more effectually drive out many of those Abuses which yet remained than to expose them to the contempt and scorn of the people In the end of this year a war broke out between England and Scotland set on by the instigation of the French King who was also beginning to be an uneasie Neighbour to those of the English pale about Callice The King set out a long Declaration in which he very largely laid out the pretensions the Crown of England had to an Homage from the Kings of Scotland In this I am no fit person to interpose the matter being disputed by the learned men of both Nations The Scots said it was only for some Lands their Kings had in England that they did Homage as the Kings of England did for Normandy and Guienne to the Kings of France But the English Writers cited many Records to shew that the Homage was done for the Crown of Scotland To this the Scots replied that in the Invasion of Edward the first he had carried away all their ancient Records so these being lost they could only appeal to the Chronicles that lay up and down the Nation in their Monasteries That all these affirmed the contrary and that they were a free Kingdom till Edward the first taking advantage of their disputes about the Succession to their Crown upon the death of Alexander the third got some of the Competitors to lay down their pretensions at his feet and to promise Homage That this was also performed by Iohn Balliol whom he preferred to the Crown of Scotland but by these means he lost the hearts of the Nation and it was said that his Act of Homage could not give away the Rights of a free Crown and People And they said that whatsoever submissions had been made since that time they werâ— only extorted by force as the effects of Victory and Conquest but gave no good right nor just Title To all this the English Writers answered That these submissions by their Records which were the solemn Instruments of a Nation that ought never to be called in question were sometimes freely made and not by their Kings only but by the consent of their States In this uncertainty I must leave it with the Reader But after the King had opened this Pretension he complained of the disorders committed by the Scots of the unkind returns he had met with from their King for his care of him while he was an Infant taking no advantage of the confusions in which that Kingdom then was but on the contrary protecting the Crown and quieting the Kingdom But that of â—ate many depredations and acts of hostility had been committed by the Scots and though some Treaties had been begun they were managed with so much shufling and inconstancy that the King must now try it by a War Yet he concluded his Declaration ambiguously neither keeping up nor laying down his Pretensions to that Crown but expressing them in such a manner thaâ— which way soever the success of the War turned he might be bound up to nothing by what he now declared But whatsoever justice might be in the Kings Title or Quarrel his Sword was much the sharper He ordered the Duke of Norfolk to march into Scotland about the end of October with an Army of 30000 men Hall tells us they burnt many Towns and names them But these were only single Houses or little Villages and the best Town he names is Kâ—lso which is a little open Market-Town Soon after they returned back into England whether after they had spoiled the Neighbouring Country they felt the incoveniencies of the season of the year or whether hearing the Scots were gathering they had no mind to go too far I cannot determine for the Writers of both Nations disagree as to the reason of their speedy return But any that knows the Country they spoiled and where they stopt must conclude that either they had secret Orders only to make an Inroad and destroy some Places that lay along the River of Tweed and upon the Border which done without driving the Breach too far to retire back or they must have had apprehensions of the Scotish Armies coming to lie in these Moors and Hills of Saâ—trey or Lammer-Moor which they were to pass if they had gone farther and there were about 10000 men broughâ— thither but he that commanded them was much blamed for doing nothing his excuse was that his number did not equal theirs About the end of November the Lord Mâ—xâ—ell brought an Army of 15000 men together with a Train of Artillery of 24 peeces of Ordnance And since the Duke of Norfolk had retired towards Berwick they resolved to enter England on the Western side by Solway Frith The King went thither himself but fatally left the Army and yet was not many miles from them when they were defeated The truth of it was that King who had hitherto raised the greatest expectation was about that time disturbed in his fancie thinking that he saw apparitions particularly of one whom it was said he had unjustly put to death so â—hat he could not rest nor be at quiet But as his leaving
to the Commons with words to be put in or put out of it On the 6th the Commons sent it up with some alterations And on the 8th the Lords sent it down again to the Commons where it lay till the 17th and then it was sent up with their agreement And the Kings Assent was given by his Letters Patents on the 29th of March. The Preamble was That whereas untrue accusations and presentments might be maliciously contrived against the Kings Subjects and kept secret till a time were espied to have them by malice convicted Therefore it was Enacted That none should be Endited but upon a presentment by the Oaths of twelve men to at least three of the Commissioners appointed by the King and that none should be Imprisoned but upon an Enditement except by a special Warrant from the King and that all Presentments should be made within one year after the Offences were committed and if words were uttered in a Sermon contrary to the Statute they must be complained of within forty dayes unless a just cause were given why it could not be so soon Admittiâ—g also the parties Endited to all such Challenges as they might have in any other case of Felony This Act has clearly a Relation to the Conspiracies mentioned the former year both against the Arch-Bishop and some of the Kings Servants Another Act passed continuing some former Acts for revising the Canon-Law and for drawing up such a body of Ecclesiastical Laws as should have Authority in England This Cranmer pressed often with great vehemence and to shew the necessity of it drew out a short Extract of some passages in the Canon-Law which the Reader will find in the Collection to shew how undecent a thing it was to let a Volume in which such Laws were be studyed or considered any longer in England Therefore he was earnest to have such a Collection of Ecclesiastical Laws made as might regulate the Spiritual Courts But it was found more for the greatness of the Prerogative and the Authority of the Civil Courts to keep that undetermined so he could never obtain his desire during this Kings Reign Another Act passed in this Parliament for the remission of a Loan of Money which the King had raised This is almost copied out of an Act to the same effect that passed in the twenty first year of the Kings Reign with this addition That by this Act those who had got payment either in whole or in part of the Sums so lent the King were to repay it back to the Exchequer All business being finished and a general pardon passed with the ordinary exceptions of some Crimes among which Heresie is one the Parliament was Prorogued on the 29th of March to the 4th of November The King had now a War both with France and Scotland upon him And therefore to prepare for it he both enhanced the value of Money and embased it for which he that writes his vindication gives this for the reason That the Coin being generally embased all over Europe he was forced to do it lest otherwise all the Money should have gone out of the Kingdom He resolved to begin the War with Scotland and sent an Army by Sea thither under the command of the Earl of Hartford afterwards Duke of Somerset who landing at Grantham a little above Leith burnt and spoiled Leith and Edenburgh in which they found more riches than they thought could possibly have been there and they went through the Countrey burning and spoiling it every-where till they came to Berwick But they did too much if they intended to gain the hearts of that people and too little if they intended to subdue them For as they besieged not the Castle of Edinburgh which would have cost them more time and trouble so they did not fortifie Leith nor leave a Garrison in it which was such an inexcusable Omission that it seems their Counsels were very weak and ill laid For Leith being fortified and a Fleet kept going between it and Berwick or Tinmouth the Trade of the Kingdom must have been quite stopt Edinburgh ruined the Intercourse between France and them cut off and the whole Kingdom forced to submit to the King But the spoils this Army made had no other effect but to enrage the Kingdom and unite them so entirely to the French Interests that when the Eaâ—l of Lâ—nnâ—x was sent down by the King to the Western parts of Scotland where his Power lay he could get none to follow him And the Governor of Dunbritton Castle though his own Lieutenant would not deliver that Castle to him when he understood he was to put it in the King of Englands hands but drove him out others say he â—â—ed away of himself else he had been taken Prisoner The King was now to cross the Seas but before he went he studied to settle the matters of Religion so that both Parties might have some content Audley the Chancellor dying he made the Lord Wriothesley that had been Secretary and was of the Popish Party Lord Chancellor but made Sir William Petre that was Cranmers great friend Secretary of State He also committed the Government of the Kingdom in his absence to the Queen to whom he joyned the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Lord Chancellor the Earl of Hartford and Secretary Petre. And if there was need of any Force to be raised he appointed the Earl of Hartford his Lieutenant under whose Government the Reformers needed not fear any thing But he did another Act that did wonderfully please that whole Party which was the Translating of the Prayers for the Processions and Litaâ—ies into the English tongue This was sent to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury on the 11th of Iune with an Order that it should be used over all his Province as the Reader will find in the Collection This was not only very acceptable to that Party because of the thing it self but it gave them hope that the King was again opening his ears to motions for Reformation to which they had been shut now about six years And therefore they looked that more things of that nature would quickly follow And as these Prayers werâ— now set out in English so they doubted not but there being the same reason to put all the other Offices in the vulgar tongue they would prevail for that too Things being thus setled at home the King having sent his Forces over before him crossed the Seas with much pomp the Sails of his Ship being of Cloth of Gold He Landed at Calais the 14th of Iuly The Emperor pressed his marching straight to Paris But he thought it of more importance to take Bulloign and after two months Siege it was surrendred to him into which he made his Entry with great Triumph on the 18th of September But the Emperor having thus engaged those two Crowns in a War and designing while they should fight it out to make himself Master of Gâ—rmanâ— concluded a Treaty
durst adventure on making any complaints against her Yet the Kings distempers encreasing and his peevishness growing with them he became more uneasie and whereas she had frequently used to talk to him of Religion and defend the Opinions of the Reformers in which he would sometimes pleasantly maintain the Argument now becoming more impatient he took it ill at her hands And she had sometimes in the heat of discourse gone very far So one night after she had left him the King being displeased vented it to the Bishop of Winchester that stood by And he craftily and maliciously struck in with the Kings anger and said all that he could devise against the Queen to drive his resentments higher and took in the Lord Chancellor into the design to assist him They filled the Kings head with many stories of the Queen and some of her Ladies and said They had favoured Anne Askew and had Heretical Books amongst them and he perswaded the King that they were Traitors as well as Hereticks The matter went so far that Articles were drawn against her which the King Sigâ—ed for without that it was not safe for any to Impeach the Queen But the Lord Chancellor putting up that Paper carelesly it dropt from him And being taken up by one of the Queens Party was carryed to her Whether the King had really designed her ruin or not is differently represented by the Writers who lived near that time But she seeing his hand to such a Paper had reason to conclude her self lost Yet by advice of one of her Friends she went to see the King who receiving her kindly set on a Discourse about Religion But she answered that women by their first Creation were made subject to men and they being made after the Image of God as the Women were after their Image ought to instruct their Wives who were to learn of them and she much more was to be taught by his Majesty who was a Prince of such excellent Learning and Wisdom Not so by St. Mary said the King you are become a Doctor able to Instruct us and not to be Instructed by us To which she answered That it seemed he had much mistaken the freedom she had taken to argue with him since she did it partly to engage him in discourse and so put over the time and make him forget his pain and partly to receive Instructions from him by which she had profited much And is it even so said the King then we are friends again So he embraced her with great affection and sent her away with very tender assurances of his constant Love to her But the next day had been appointed for carrying her and some of her Ladies to the Tower The day being fair the King went to take a little air in the Garden and sent for her to bear him company As they were together the Lord Chancellor came in having about forty of the Guard with him to have arrested the Queen But the King stept aside to him and after a little discourse he was heard to call him Knave Fool and Beast and he bade him get him out of his Sight The Innocent Queen who understood not that her danger was so near studied to mitigate the Kings displeasure and interceded for the Lord Chancellor But the King told her she had no reason to plead for him So this design miscarried which as it absolutely disheartned the Papists so it did totally alienate the King from them and in particular from the Bishop of Winchester whose sight he could never after this endure But he made an humble Submission to the King which though it preserved him from further punishment yet could not restore him to the Kings favour But the Duke of Norfolk and his Son the Earl of Surrey fell under a deeper Misfortune The Duke of Norfolk had been long Lord Treasurer of England He had done great services to the Crown on many signal Occasions and success had always accompanied him His Son the Earl of Surrey was also a brave and noble person Witty and Learned to an high degree but did not command Armies with such Success He was much provoked at the Earl of Hertfords being sent over to France in his room and upon that had said That within a little-while they should smart for it with some other expressions that savoured of Revenge and a dislike of the King and a hatred of the Counsellors The Duke of Norfolk had endeavoured to ally himself to the Earl of Hertford and to his Brother Sir Thomas Seimour perceiving how much they were in the Kings favour and how great an Interest they were like to have under the succeeding Prince And therefore would have engaged his Son being then a Widower to Marry that Earls Daughter And pressed his Daughter the Dutchess of Richmond Widow to the Kings Natural Son to Marry Sir Thomas Seimour But though the Earl of Surrey advised his Sister to the Marriage projected for her yet he would not consent to that designed for himself nor did the Proposition about his Sister take effect The Seimours could not but see the Enmity the Earl of Surrey bore them and they might well be jealous of the Greatness of that Family which was not only too big for a Subject of it self but was raised so high by the dependence of the whole Popish Party both at home and abroad that they were like to be very dangerous Competitors for the chief Government of Affairs if the King were once out of the way whose disease was now growing so fast upon him that he could not live many weeks Nor is it unlikely that they perswaded the King that if the Earl of Surrey should marry the Lady Mary it might embroil his Sons Government and perhaps ruine him And it was suggested That he had some such high project in his thoughts both by his continuing unmarried and by his using the Armes of Edward the Confessor which of late he had given in his Coat without a Diminution But to compleat the Duke of Norfolks ruin his Dutchess who had complained of his using her ill and had been separated from him about four years turned Informer against him His Son and Daughter were also in ill terms together So the Sister Informed all that she could against her Brother And one Mrs Holland for whom the Duke was believed to have an unlawful affection discovered all she knew but all amounted to no more than some passionate Expressions of the Son and some Complaints of the Father who thought he was not beloved by the King and his Councellors and that he was ill used in not being trusted with the secret of affairs And all persons being encouraged to bring Informations against them Sr. Richard Southwell charged the Earl of Surreâ— in some points that were of a higher nature which the Earl denied and desired to be admitted according to the Martial Law to fight in his shirt with Southwel But that not being granted he and his
within this Realm other or otherwise than hereafter in this present Act is declared And that no manner Person nor Persons hereafter to be named elected presented or postulated to any Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick within this Realm shall pay the said Annates or First-Fruits for the said Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick nor any other manner of Sum or Sums of Mony Pensions or Annates for the same or for any other like exaction or cause upon pain to forfeit to our said Sovereign Lord the King his Heirs and Successors all manner his Goods and Chattels for ever and all the Temporal Lands and Possessions of the same Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick during the time that he or they which shall offend contrary to this present Act shall have possess or enjoy the Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick wherefore he shall so offend contrary to the form aforesaid And furthermore it is enacted by Authority of this present Parliament That if any Person hereafter named and presented to the Court of Rome by the King or any of his Heirs or Successors to be Bishop of any See or Diocess within this Realm hereafter shall be letted deferred or delayed at the Court of Rome from any such Bishoprick whereunto he shall be so represented by means of restraint of Bulls Apostolick and other things requisite to the same or shall be denied at the Court of Rome upon convenient suit made any manner Bulls requisite for any of the Causes aforesaid any such Person or Persons so presented may be and shall be consecrated here in England by the Arch-Bishop in whose Province the said Bishoprick shall be so alway that the same Person shall be named and presented by the King for the time being to the same Arch-Bishoprick And if any Persons being named and presented as aforesaid to any Arch-Bishoprick of this Realm making convenient suit as is aforesaid shall happen to be letted deferred delayed or otherwise disturbed from the same Arch-Bishoprick for lack of Pall Bulls or other to him requisite to be obtained in the Court of Rome in that behalf that then every such Person named and presented to be Arch-Bishop may be and shall be consecrated and invested after presentation made as is aforesaid by any other two Bishops within this Realm whom the King's Highness or any of his Heirs or Successors Kings of England for the time being will assign and appoint for the same according and in like manner as divers other Arch-Bishops Bishops have been heretofore in ancient time by sundry the King 's most noble Progenitors made consecrated and invested within this Realm And that every Arch-Bishop and Bishop hereafter being named and presented by the King's Highness his Heirs or Successors Kings of England and being consecrated and invested as is aforesaid shall be installed accordingly and shall be accepted taken reputed used and obeyed as an Arch-Bishop or Bishop of the Dignity See or Place whereunto he so shall be named presented and consecrated requireth and as other like Prelates of that Province See or Diocess have been used accepted taken and obeyed which have had and obtained compleatly their Bulls and other things requisite in that behalf from the Court of Rome And also shall fully and entirely have and enjoy all the Spiritualities and Temporalities of the said Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick in as large ample and beneficial manner as any of his or their Predecessors had or enjoyed in the said Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick satisfying and yielding unto the King our Sovereign Lord and to his Heirs and Successors Kings of England all such Duties Rights and Interests as before this time had been accustomed to be paid for any such Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick according to the Ancient Laws and Customs of this Realm and the King's Prerogative Royal. And to the intent our said Holy Father the Pope and the Court of Rome shall not think that the pains and labours taken and hereafter to be taken about the writing sealing obtaining and other businesses sustained and hereafter to be sustained by the Offices of the said Court of Rome for and about the Expedition of any Bulls hereafter to be obtained or had for any such Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick shall be irremunerated or shall not be sufficiently and condignly recompensed in that behalf And for their more ready expedition to be had therein it is therefore enacted by the Authority aforesaid That every Spiritual Person of this Realm hereafter to be named presented or postulated to any Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick of this Realm shall and may lawfully pay for the writing and obtaining of his or their said Bulls at the Court of Rome and ensealing the same with Lead to be had without payment of any Annates or First-Fruits or other charge or exaction by him or them to be made yielden or paied for the same five pounds Sterling for and after the rate of the clear and whole yearly value of every hundreth pounds Sterling above all charges of any such Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick or other mony to the value of the said five pounds for the clear yearly value of every hundreth pounds of every such Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick and not above nor in any other wise any things in this present Act before written notwithstanding And forasmuch as the King's Highness and this his High Court of Parliament neither have nor do intend to use in this or any other like cause any manner of extremity or violence before gentle courtesie or friendship ways and means first approved and attempted and without a very great urgent cause and occasion given to the contrary but principally coveting to disburden this Realm of the said great exactions and intolerable charges of Annates and First-Fruits have therefore thought convenient to commit the final order and determination of the Premisses in all things unto the King's Highness So that if it may seem to his high wisdom and most prudent discretion meet to move the Pope's Holiness and the Court of Rome amicably charitably and reasonably to compound other to extinct and make frustrate the payments of the said Annates or First-Fruits or else by some friendly loving and tolerable composition to moderate the same in such wise as may be by this Realm easily born and sustained That then those ways and compositions once taken concluded and agreed between the Pope's Holiness and the King's Highness shall stand in strength force and effect of Law inviolably to be observed And it is also further ordained and enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament That the King's Highness at any time or times on this side the Feast of Easter which shall be in the Year of our Lord God a thousand five hundred and three and thirty or at any time on this side the beginning of the next Parliament by his Letters Pattents under his Great Seal to be made and to be entred of Record in the Roll of this present Parliament may and shall have full power and liberty to declare by the said Letters
dread and fear to detect or accuse such detestable known Hereticks the particularities and specialities of which said abominable Heresies Errors and Offences committed and done by the said Thomas Cromwell being over-tedious long and of too great number here to be expressed declared or written And to the intent to have those damnable Errors and Heresies to be inculcated impressed and infixed in the Hearts of your Subjects as well contrary to God's Laws as to your Laws and Ordinances Most Gracious Soveraign Lord the same Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex hath allured and drawn unto him by Retainours many of your Subjects sunderly inhabiting in every of your said Shires and territories as well erroneously perswading and declaring to them the Contents of the false erroneous Books above-written to be good true and best standing with the most Holy Word and Pleasure of God as other his false and heretical Opinions and Errors whereby and by his Confederacies therein he hath caused many of your faithful Subjects to be greatly infected with Heresies and other Errors contrary to the right Laws and Pleasure of Almighty God And the same Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex by the false and traiterous means above-written supposing himself to be fully able by force and strength to maintain and defend his said abominable Treasons Heresies and Errors not regarding his most bounden Duty to Almighty God and his Laws nor the natural Duty of Allegiance to your Majesty in the last day of March in the 30 year of our most gracious Reign in the Parish of St. Peter the Poor within your City of London upon demonstration and declaration then there made unto him that there were certain new Preachers as Robert Barnes Clerk and other whereof part been now committed to the Tower of London for preaching and teaching of leud Learning against your Highness's Proclamations the same Thomas affirming the same preaching to be good most detestably arrogantly erroneously wilfully maliciously and traiterously expresly against your Laws and Statutes then and there did not lett to declare and say these most traiterous and detestable words ensuing amongst other words of like matter and effect that is to say That if the King would turn from it yet I would not turn And if the King did turn and all his People I would fight in the Field in mine own Person with my Sword in my hand against him and all others and then and there most traiterously pulled out his Dagger and held it on high saying these words Or else this Dagger thrust me to the heart if I would not die in that Quarrel against them all And I trust if I live one year or two it shall not lie in the King's Power to resist or lett it if he would And further then and there swearing by a great Oath traiterously affirmed the same his traiterous saying and pronunciation of words saying I will do so indeed extending up his Arm as though he had had a Sword in his Hand to the most perrilous grievous and wicked Example of all other your loving faithful and obedient Subjects in this your Realm and to the peril of your most Royal Person And moreover our most Gracious Soveraign Lord the said Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex hath acquired and obtained into his possession by Oppression Bribery Extort Power and false Promises made by him to your Subjects of your Realm innumerable Sums of Mony and Treasure and being so enriched hath had your Nobles of your Realm in great disdain derision and detestation as by express words by him most opprobriously spoken hath appeared And being put in remembrance of others of his estate which your Highness hath called him unto offending in like Treasons the last day of Ianuary in the 31 year of your most noble Reign at the Parish of St. Martin in the Field in the County of Middlesex most arrogantly willingly maliciously and traiterously said published and declared That if the Lords would handle him so that he would give them such a Break-fast as never was made in England and that the proudest of them should know to the great peril and danger as well of your Majesty as of your Heirs and Successors For the which his most detestable and abominable Heresies and Treasons and many other his like Offences and Treasons over-long here to be rehearsed and declared Be it Enacted Ordained and Established by your Majesty with the Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That the said Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex for his abominable and detestable Heresies and Treasons by him most abominably heretically and traiterously practised committed and done as well against Almighty God as against your Majesty and this your said Realm shall be and stand by Authority of this present Parliament convicted and attainted of Heresie and High Treason and be adjudged an abominable and detestable Heretick and Traitor and shall have and suffer such pains of death losses and forfeitures of Goods Debts and Chattels as in 〈◊〉 of Heresie and High Treason or as in cases of either of them at the pleasure of your most Royal Majesty And that the same Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex shall by Authority abovesaid lose and forfeit to your Highness and to your Heirs and Successors all such his Castles Lordships Mannors Mesuages Lands Tenements Rents Reversions Remainders Services Possessions Offices Rights Conditions and all other his Hereditaments of what names natures or qualities soever they be which he the said Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex or any other to his use had or ought to have had of any Estate of Inheritance in Fee-Simple or Fee-Tail in Reversion or Possession at the said last day of March in the said thirtieth Year of your most Gracious Reign or at any time sith or after as in Cases of High Treason And that all the said Castles Lordships Mannors Lands Mesuages Tenements Rents Reversions Remainders Services Possessions Offices and all other the Premisses forfeited as is abovesaid shall be deemed invested and adjudged in the lawful real and actual possession of your Highness your Heirs and Successors for ever in the same and such estate manner and form as if the said Castles Lordships Mannors Mesuages Lands Tenements Rents Reversions Remainders Services Possessions Offices and other the Premisses with their Appurtenances and every of them were specially or particularly founden by Office or Offices Inquisition or Inquisitions to be taken by any Escheator or Escheators or any other Commissioner or Commissioners by virtue of any Commission or Commissions to them or any of them to be directed in any County or Counties Shire or Shires within this your Realm of England where the said Castles and other the Premisses or any of them been or do lay and returned into any of your Majesties Courts Saving to all and singular Person and Persons Bodies politick and corporate their Heirs and Successors and their Successors and Assignes of
of Bread and Wine The Tenth The Church of Christ hath doth and may lawfully order some Priests to be Ministers of the Sacraments altho the same do not preach nor be not admitted thereunto The Eleventh Priests being once dedicated unto God by the Order of Priesthood and all such Men and Women as have advisedly made Vows unto God of Chastity or Widowhood may not lawfully marry after their said Orders received or Vows made The Twelfth Secret auricular Confession is expedient and necessary to be retained continued and frequented in the Church of Christ. The Thirteenth The Prescience and Predestination of Almighty God altho in it self it be infallible induceth no necessity to the Action of Man but that he may freely use the power of his own will or choice the said Prescience or Predestination notwithstanding I Nicholas Shaxton with my Heart do believe and with my Mouth do confess all these Articles above-written to be true in every part Ne despicias hominem avertentem se a peccato neque improperes ei memento quoniam omnes in corruptione sumus Eccles. 8. XXX A Letter written by Lethington the Secretary of Scotland to Sir William Cecil the Queen of England's Secretary touching the Title of the Queen of Scots to the Crown of England By which it appears that K. Henry's Will was not signed by him I Cannot be ignorant that some do object as to her Majesties Forreign Birth and hereby think to make her incapable of the Inheritance of England To that you know for answer what may be said by an English Patron of my Mistriss's Cause although I being a Scot will not affirm the same that there ariseth amongst you a Question Whether the Realm of Scotland be forth of the Homage and Leageance of England And therefore you have in sundry Proclamations preceding your Warsmaking and in sundry Books at sundry times laboured much to prove the Homage and Fealty of Scotland to England Your Stories also be not void of this intent What the judgment of the Fathers of your Law is and what commonly is thought in this Matter you know better than I and may have better intelligence than I the Argument being fitter for your Assertion than mine Another Question there is also upon this Objection of Forreign Birth that is to say Whether Princes inheritable to the Crown be in case of the Crown exempted or concluded as private Persons being Strangers born forth of the Allegiance of England You know in this case as divers others the State of the Crown the Persons inheritable to the Crown at the time of their Capacity have divers differences and prerogatives from other Persons many Laws made for other Persons take no hold in case of the Prince and they have such Priviledges as other Persons enjoy not As in cases of Attainders and other Penal Laws Examples Hen. 7. who being a Subject was attainted and Ed. 4. and his Father Richard Plantagenet were both attainted all which notwithstanding their Attainders had right to the Crown and two of them attained the same Amongst many Reasons to be shewed both for the differences and that Forreign Birth doth not take place in the case of the Crown as in common Persons the many experiences before the Conquest and since of your King 's do plainly testify 2. Of purpose I will name unto you Hen. 2d Maud the Empress Son and Richard of Bourdeaux the Black Princes Son the rather for that neither of the two was the King of England's Son and so not Enfant du Roy if the word be taken in this strict signification And for the better proof that it was always the common Law of your Realm that in the case of the Crown Forreign Birth was no Bar you do remember the words of the Stat. 25. Ed. 3. where it is said the Law was ever so Whereupon if you can remember it you and I fell out at a reasoning in my Lord of Leicester's Chamber by the occasion of the Abridgment of Rastal wherein I did shew you somewhat to this purpose also these words Infant and Ancestors be in Praedicamento ad aliquid and so Correlatives in such sort as the meaning of the Law was not to restrain the understanding of this word Infant so strict as only to the Children of the King's Body but to others inheritable in remainder and if some Sophisters will needs cavil about the precise understanding of Infant let them be answered with the scope of this word Ancestors in all Provisions for Filii Nepotes and Liberi you may see there was no difference betwixt the first degree and these that come after by the Civil Law Liberorum appellatione comprehenduntur non solum Filii verum etiam Nepotes Pronepotes Abnepotes c. If you examine the Reason why Forreign Birth is excluded you may see that it was not so needful in Princes Cases as in common Persons Moreover I know that England hath oftentimes married with Daughters and married with the greatest Forreign Princes of Europe And so I do also understand that they all did repute the Children of them and of the Daughters of England inheritable in succession to that Crown notwithstanding the Forreign Birth of their Issue And in this case I do appeal to all Chronicles to their Contracts of Marriages and to the opinion of all the Princes of Christendom For tho England be a noble and puissant Country the respect of the Alliance only and the Dowry hath not moved the great Princes to match so often in marriage but the possibility of the Crown in succession I cannot be ignorant altogether in this Matter considering that I serve my Sovereign in the room that you serve yours The Contract of Marriage is extant betwixt the King my Mistris's Grandfather and Queen Margaret Daughter to King Henry the 7 th by whose Person the Title is devolved on my Sovereign what her Fathers meaning was in bestowing of her the World knoweth by that which is contained in the Chronicles written by Polidorus Virgilius before as I think either you or I was born at least when it was little thought that this Matter should come in question There is another Exception also laid against my Soveraign which seems at the first to be of some weight grounded upon some Statutes made in King Hen. 8. time viz. of the 28 th 35 th of his Reign whereby full power and authority was given him the said King Henry to give dispose appoint assign declare and limit by his Letters Patents under his Great Seal or else by his last Will made in writing and signed with his hand at his pleasure from time to time thereafter the Imperial Crown of that Realm c. Which Imperial Crown is by some alledged and constantly affirmed to have been limited and disposed by the last Will and Testament of the said King Hen. 8. signed with his hand before his death unto the Children of the Lady Francis and Elenor Daughter to
whosesoever Daughter she was she should be his Wife and upon that Sir Thomas instructed his Daughter how she should hold the King in her toils Sir Thomas must have thought the King had an ill memory if he had forgot such a Story but the one part of this makes him afraid that the King should marry his Daughter and the other part makes him afraid they should miss their hopes in it Not to mention how little likely it is that a King of such high vanity would have done that which the privatest Person has an aversion to I mean the marrying the Daughter of one whom they know to be a common Prostitute 23. He says Wolsey before his return from France sent Gambara to the Pope desiring him to name himself Vicar of the Papacy during his captivity This was not done till almost a year after this and the motion was sent by Staphileus Dean of the Rota for which see pag. 50. 24. He says None but ill Men and ignorant Persons wrote against the Marriage but all learned and good Men wrote for it The whole Doctors of the Church in all Ages were against it and no Doctor ancienter than Cajetan could ever be found to have writ for it 25. He says That tho great endeavours were used to perswade Sir Tho. More of the unlawfulness of the marriage all was in vain Is it probable that the King would have made him Lord Chancellor when he was so earnest in this business if he had not known that he would have gone along with him in it By one of his Letters to Cromwel out of the Tower it appears that he approved the Divorce and had great hopes of success in it as long as it was prosecuted at Rome and founded on the defects in the Bull. And in the 22 d year of the King's Reign when the Opinions of the Universities and the Books of Learned Men were brought to England against the Marriage he carried them down to the House of Commons and made read them there after which he desired they would report in their Country what they had heard and seen and then all Men would openly perceive that the King had not attempted this matter of his Will and Pleasure but only for the discharge of his Conscience More was a Man of greater integrity than to have said this if he had thought the Marriage good so that he has either afterwards changed his mind or did at this time dissemble too artificially with the King 26. After a long flourish about the King 's secret fears and apprehensions and the perplexities the Cardinal was in which must pass for a piece of his Wit that is to say Lying for he knew none of their thoughts He says That Gardiner and Sir Francis Brian were sent to the Pope together Gardiner being then Secretary of State In this there are only three gross mistakes First Gardiner was not sent with the first Message to the Pope Secretary Knight carried it 2. Sir Francis Brian went never to Rome with Gardiner It is true a year after the commencing the Sute Sir Francis Brian was sent to Rome and about a month after him Gardiner was also sent so tho they were both together at Rome yet they were not sent thither together 3. Gardiner was not Secretary of State but was Wolsey's Secretary when he went first to Rome and was made a Privy Counsellor when he was sent thither the second time and was not Secretary of State till some months after his return from his Journey the last time 27. He says They made the Pope believe that the Queen would willingly retire into a Monastery This was on the contrary a contrivance of the Popes who thought it the easiest way to bring the Matter to a good issue but in England they had no hopes of it and so always diverted the motion when it was proposed by the Pope 28. He says ' The Pope said he would consult with some Cardinals and Divines and do all that he could lawfully do to give the King satisfaction Upon the first motion of it the Pope frankly granted the King's desire and gave a Bull with a Commission upon it And only consulted some Cardinals about the methods of doing it And did assure the King that he would not only do every thing that could be granted in Law or Justice but whatsoever he could grant out of the fulness of his Power It is true afterwards when the Pope changed his measures and resolved to agree with the Emperor he pretended he understood not these things himself but would needs turn it over upon the Cardinals and Divines 29. He says All the Cardinals were of a mind that the Marriage was good Cardinal Sanctorum Quatuor by the force of that mighty Argument of 4000 Crowns changed his mind All the other Cardinals were forward in granting the King's desires for which he wrote them a Letter of Thanks 30. He says The Pope granted the Commission to the two Legats not doubting but it was true that had been told him of the Queens readiness to go into a Monastery The Pope knew she would not yield to any such thing but when he granted that Commission he sent with Campegio a Decretal Bull annulling the Marriage and sent afterwards a promise never to avocate the Process but to confirm what Sentence the Legats should give tho soon after he broke his promise most signally And since he had often dispensed with others for breaking their Faith he might think that it was hard to deny him the same priviledg for himself 31. He says The Pope understanding that the Queen did not consent to the Propositions that were made and that he had been abused sent after Campegio when he was on his Journey that he should not proceed to a Sentence without a new order The Pope sent Campana to England after Campegio to assure the King he would do every thing for him that he could do out of the fulness of his Power And ordered the same Person to charge Cardinal Campegio to burn the Decretal Bull which he had sent by him In all which the Pope as appears by the Original Letters was only governed by politick Maxims and considered nothing but the dangers himself was like to fall in tho Sanders would perswade us he was ready to run the hazard of all these 32. He says The King by his Letters to the Pope did at the same time that he was moving scruples about his own Marriage transact about a Dispensation for a marriage betwixt his own natural Son the Duke of Richmond and his Daughter the Lady Mary Tho the whole Dispatches at that time both to and from Rome be most happily preserved there is not the least mention of any such design and can any body think that if any such motion had been made the Pope would not have taken great advantages from it and that these Letters would not