not left to the pleasure of the Abbot or Religious House to whom the Church belonged But the Bishops endowed the Vicarages with what proportion of Tithes and Emoluments they thought fit in many places reserved to the Vicar one half of all manner of Tithes and the whole Fees of all Sacraments Sacramentals c. in most places reserved to them not some little part of but all the Vicarage-tithes and in other places appointed to them an annual pension of Money In succeeding times when the first Endowments appeared too slender they encreased them at their pleasure Of all which our ancient Registers and Records give abundant testimony This was the case of all Vicarages As for those impropriated Livings which have now no settled Endowment and are therefore called not Vicarages but perpetual or sometimes arbitrary Curacies they are such as belonged formerly to those Orders who could serve the oure of them in their own persons as the Canons Regular of the Order of St. Austin which being afterwards devolved into the hands of Laymen they hired poor Curates to serve them at the cheapest rate they could and still continue to doe so Pag. 25. lin 28. Ridley elect of Rochester designed for that See by King Henry but not consecrated till September this Year 1547. If King Henry designed Ridley to be Bishop of Rochester he could not do it by any actual Nomination but only by Prophetical foresight of Longland's Death and Holbeach's Translation For the King died 1547 Ianuary 28th Longland of Lincoln died 1547. May 7th Holbeach of Rochester was elected to Lincoln 9th August So that until August there was no room for Ridley at Rochester Pag. 30. lin 17. The Form of bidding Prayer was used in the times of Popery as will appear by the Form of bidding the Beads in King Henry the 7th's time which will be found in the Collection The Form published by the Historian out of the Festival Printed Anno 1509. seemeth by the length of it and comparing it with another undoubtedly true Form to have been rather a Paraphrase or Exposition of the Form of bidding Beads I have therefore presented to the Reader a much shorter and ancienter Form taken out of an old written Copy Pag. 32. lin 13. Tonstall searching the Registers of his See found many Writings of great consequence to clear the Subjection of the Crown of Scotland to England The most remarkable of these was the Homage King William of Scotland made to Henry the Second by which he granted that all the Nobles of his Realm should be his Subjects and do Homage to him and that all the Bishops of Scotland should be under the Archbishop of York It was said that the Monks in those days who generally kept the Records were so accustomed to the forging of Stories and Writings that little Credit was to be given to such Records as lay in their keeping But having so faithfully acknowledged what was alledged against the Freedom of Scotland I may be allowed to set down a Proof on the other side for my Native Countrey copied from the Original Writing yet extant under the Hands and Seals of many of the Nobility and Gentry of that Kingdom It is a Letter to the Pope c. The ancient and allowed Laws of History exclude Partiality yet this Historian's great Concern for the Honour of his Countrey cannot well be called by any other name which hath induced him to publish and Instrument of the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland not at all relating to the History of our English Reformation If he thinketh that this Liberty ought to be allowed to him in recompence of the great Obligation he hath laid upon the English Nation for having so faithfully acknowledged what was alledged against the Freedom of Scotland we pretend that all Persons conversant in the History of our Nation did before this very well know all these Allegations and ten times as many of no less weight and that either he did not perfectly understand the Controversie or hath not so faithfully represented the Arguments of our side For King William did not herein make any new Grant to King Henry but only confirmed and acknowledged the ancient Dependence and Subjection of Scotland to England nor did he then first subject the Bishops of Scotland to the Archbishop of York but engaged that hereafter they should be subject to him as of right they ought to be and had wont to be in the time of the former Kings of England The Bishops of Scotland had been all along subject to the Archbishops of York but having about Eleven years before this obtained an Exemption of this Jurisdiction by a Bull of Pope Alexander the King of Scotland now undertook that they should not claim the benefit of that Exemption but be subject to the Church of England as formerly and the Bishops of Scotland also then present concurred with the King and promised for themselves although within a short time after they broke their Faith and procured a new and fuller Exemption from the Pope which Dempster placeth in the Year 1178. The Charter of King William before mentioned was made in 1175. But after all the Bishoprick of Galloway continued to be subject unto the Archbishop of York until towards the end of the Fifteenth Century when it was by the Pope taken from York and subjected to Glasgow then newly erected into an Archbishoprick Now whereas the Historian would invalidate the Authority of this Charter insinuating that it may justly be suspected to have been forged by the Monks because taken out of their Records and coming out of their Custody he may please to know that this very Charter may be found entire in the Printed History of Roger de Hoveden who was no Monk but a a Secular Clergy-man a Domestick of this King Henry attending him in all his Expeditions As for the pretence of the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland in their Letter written to the Pope Anno 1320. and published by the Historian it is not to be wondered if their minds being elated with unusual Success against our unfortunate King Edward II. they enlarged their Pretences and affected an independency from the Crown of England which their Forefathers never pretended to nor had themselves at any other time dared to arrogate All the principal Nobility and Gentry of Scotland had in the Year 1291. made as ample and authentick an Instrument of the Subjection of the Crown of Scotland to England as could be conceived before Edward had either Conquered or invaded their Countrey which Instrument Tonstall taketh notice of in his Memorial and this was indeed the most remarkable of all the Testimonies produced by Tonstall at least accounted by King Edward to be of so great moment that he sent a Copy of it under the Great Seal to every noted Abbey and Collegiate Church in England that it might be safely preserved and inserted into their several Annals It may be seen at length in the Printed History
an Addition of his own For this Author on the contrary saith that a years time was allowed to the Clergy to abjure their heresy and put away their Wives although in some places their enemies were so zealous that they dispossessed many of them before the year expired The first deprivation which I find to have been made on this account was in the Church of Canterbury by Thornden then Vice-Dean who on the 16th of March 1554 deprived six Prebendaries one of them the Archbishops Brother Archdeacon also six Preachers and two minor Canons of that Church In the Register of the Vacancy may be found many Processes against and Deprivations of married Clergymen from whence it appears plainly that the usual forms of proceeding were at least in many Cases observed and that all were not summarily deprived Pag. 277. lin 2. Nor was this all but after they were deprived they were also forced to leave their Wives Which piece of severity was grounded on the Vow that as was pretended they had made though the falsehood of this Charge was formerly demonstrated It is true that the Secular Clergymen had made no Vow But it cannot be denied that as many of the Clergy as had formerly been Regulars had made solemn and express Vows Now the Number of these was very considerable among the beneficed Clergy of that time by reason that all Priests who had been ejected out of Religious Houses were enabled to hold Benefices and that the King also and other Patrons did more readily give Benefices to them that so by that means they might discharge themselves from the obligation of paying their Annual Pensions any longer to them These therefore were all forced to leave their Wives unless they evaded it by any base compliance by Connivance or by the Favour of any great Person But that any of the Seculars were forced to leave their Wives I do no where find Indeed it was necessary to all who would continue in their Benefices to renounce their Wives but we now speak of those Clergymen who had been already deprived of their Benefices Against many of them Processes were formed for their Marriage which may be found in the Register often made but therein I cannot find any beside Regulars to have been deprived by the Sentence of the Court or their Marriages to have been annulled And accordingly in the Articles of Enquiry or Interrogatories to be administred to every married Clergyman formed in March 1554. when the persecution of the married Clergy began in the Diocess of Canterbury the first is Whether he had been a Religious and of what Order and in what Monastery or House A Copy of these Articles I have given in the following Collection Pag. 292. lin 6. What Cardinal Pole's Instructions were I do not know nor is it falsly understood by Learned men what was the Power of a Legate a Latere in those days But I found the Original Bull of Cardinal Beacon's Legatine Power in Scotland and have given it a room in the Collection though it be large since no doubt Cardinal Pool's Bull was in the same form We have no such necessity of borrowing light from Scotland The Bull of Cardinal Pole's Legatine Power is entred in the beginning of his Register kept at Doctors Commons which ought in the first place to have been consulted I have caused it to be thence transcribed and have put it into the following Collection From thence it will appear how false the Conjecture of the Historian is that Pole's Bull was in the same form with Beacon's Bull which he pronounceth to be without all doubt For in truth they differ altogether both in matter and form Pag. 292. lin 39. The Queen was falsly believed to be with Child Notice was given of it to the Council who that Night wrote a Letter to Bonner about it ordering a Te Deum to be sung at Pauls and the other Churches of London The Council wrote and sent such Orders not onely to Bonner but to other Bishops of the Nation on the same day I have in the Collection subjoined the Letter wrote by the Council to the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury who had then the Spiritual Jurisdiction in that Diocess in the Vacancy of the See Pag. 297. lin 33. Upon Cardinal Pole's being called over there was a Commission sent him by the Great Seal bearing date 10. Nov. 1554. authorizing him to exercise his Legatine Power in England This License bears date on the 10th of Decemb that year as may be seen in the Cardinals own Register wherein it is enregistred In like manner Pole afterwards obtained a License from the Queen 1555. Nov. 2d to hold a Convocation as the Historian relateth pag. 324 in vertue of which License he sent his Mandate to Bonner on the 8th day of the same Month to summon a Convocation In obedience to which Bonner summoned the Clergy to meet on the 2d of December following Which I observe because the Historian in speaking of this Convocation hath not fixed the time of it Pag. 313. lin 1. Iohn Kardmaker that had been Divinity-Reader at St. Pauls and a Prebendary at Bath was burnt in Smithfield on the 30th of May 1555. There had been Monks in the Church of Bath until the Dissolution of the Monastery But since that time neither Monks nor Prebendaries had any place therein Kardmaker had been really Prebendary of Wells and in King Edwards's Council-Book I find ordered 1551. Febr. 18. A Letter to the Chapter of Wells in favour of Mr. John Kardmaker Chancellor of that Church Pag. 320. lin 45. Gardiner Bishop of Winchester was believed to be the base Son of Richard Woodvil that was brother to Queen Elizabeth Wife to King Edward IV. Bishop Godwin delivereth a more probable relation which he affirmeth to have received from a Kinsman of Gardiner that he was the base Son of Lionel Woodvil Bishop of Salisbury which Lionel was the Son of Richard Woodvil mentioned by the Historian With Godwin agreeth Mills in his Genealogical Catalogue of the Nobility of England Pag. 321. lin 44. Heath Archbishop of York had the Seals in Febr. after viz. in 1556. Hethe received the Great Seal on the first day of Ianuary 1556. according to Stow. Dugdale also writeth that he was constituted Chancellor on that day alledging undoubted authority Claus. 2. 3. Phil. Mar. Pag. 339. lin 3. The Chief of these faithfull Shepherds who were willing to hazard their Lives in feeding this Flock committed to their care privately were Scambler and Dentham c. Had none of the old deprived Bishops then who were at liberty courage sufficient to do their duty herein That would indeed reflect upon their Memory I doubt not that some of them performed their duty At least I am sure that Harley late Bishop of Hereford did of whom Dr. Humphreys sometimes his Scholar afterward his intimate Friend relateth that under the Reign of Queen Mary he instructed his Flock
Poloniae tali verborum contextu Concedentes ut omnibus Privilegiis c. quae ad Legatos Natos pertinent quae alii Legati Nati praesertim vero Legatus Cantuariensis in suis Provinciis utuntur libere licite valeat uti c. Pag. 360. lin 17. The Parliament was opened on the 20th of Ianuary 1558. In the House of Peers the Abbot of Westminster and the Prior of St. Iohn of Ierusalem took their places according to their Writs Tresham was now made Prior. Thomas Tresham had been made Prior of St. Iohn of Ierusalem by the Queen on the 30th of November 1557 as both Stow and Fuller witness Pag. 378. lin 45. In the beginning of the next year viz. 1559. the Bishops of Norwich and Glocester died They both died before the end of this year 1558. For in the Register of Pole I find that the See of Glocester was void by the Death of Iames Brooks 1558. Sept. 7. And in the Register of Canterbury the Dean and Chapter of the Church are said to have seized into their hands 1558. Decemb. 24. the Spiritualties of the See of Norwich void by the Death of Iohn Hopton Pag. 378. lin 44. Those now void were the Sees of Canterbury Hereford Bristol and Bangor It was of great importance to find men able to serve in these Imployments chiefly in the See of Canterbury For this Dr. Parker was soon thought on He was writ to on the 9th of December 1558. to come up to London From this Relation any Reader would conclude that the See of Bristol was void before the first Designation of Parker to the Archbishoprick viz. before the 9th of December But that doth not appear For the Spiritualties of the See of Bristol void by the Death of Iohn Holman were not seized by the Chapter of Canterbury untill the 18th of December Pag. 293. lin 48. Thus I have given the Substance of their Speeches of Heath and Fecknam made in Parliament in behalf of Popery being all that I have seen on that side Besides these I have seen a long Speech of Scot Bishop of Chester delivered at the same time in the same cause Pag. 396. lin 7. It doth not appear how soon after the Dissolution of the Parlament dissolved 1559 May 8. the Oath of Supremacy was put to them the Clergy and Bishops For the last Collation Bonner gave of any Benefice was on the 6th of May this Year It cannot be imagined that Bonner was deprived before the Dissolution of the Parliament On what days the several Bishops of the Province of Canterbury were deprived may be determined from the times of the Seisure of the Spiritualties of their Bishopricks made by the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury who then possessed and exercised the Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction in the Vacancy of the See These I will here present out of the Register of that Church The Spiritualties of the See of London void by the Deprivation of Edmund Bonner were seized 1559 Iune 2. The Spiritualties of Winchester void by the Deprivation of Iohn White 1559. Iuly 18. of Lincoln void by the Deprivation of Thomas Watson 1559. Iuly 2. these two Bishops had been committed to the Tower on the 5th of April preceding The Spiritualties of Ely void by the Deprivation of Thomas Thirleby 1559. Nov. 23. of Lichfield void by the Deprivation of Ralph Bayne 1559. Iune 24 he died before the end of the same Year The Spiritualties of Exeter void by the Deprivation of Iames Turbervil 1559. Nov. 16. Of Worcester void by the Deprivation of Richard Pates 1559. Iune 30. of Peterborough void by the Deprivation of David Pool 1559. Nov. 11. of St. Asaph void by the Deprivation of Thomas Goldwell 1559. Iuly 15. When the See of York was first voided by the Deprivation of Heath I shall relate hereafter The certain times of the Deprivation of Tunstall of Durham of Oglethorp of Carlisle and of Scot of Chester I cannot find In all 14 Bishops were deprived to whom may be added one Suffragan viz. Pursglove of Hull The whole Number of the Clergy deprived at this time is thus described by a Romish Dissenter Author of A sincere modest Defence of English Catholiques that suffer c. Published in 1583. He saith that in England were deprived 14 Bishops besides 3 Bishops Elect the Abbot of Westminster 4 Priors of Religious Houses 12 Deans 14 Archdeacons above 60 Canons of Cathedral Churches not so few as a 100 Priests of good Preferment 15 Heads of Colledges in Oxford and Cambridge and above 20 Proctours of divers Faculties therein No great Number to be deprived at a time of so great a Change in Religion I am willing to believe the Computation of this Authour to be exact because I find it to be so in the Number of Bishops and Deans deprived The 14 Bishops we have named already The Names of the 12 Deans follow Cole of St. Pauls Stuarde of Winchester Robertson of Durham Ramridge of Lichfield Goodman of Wells Reynolds of Exeter Harpsfield of Norwich Holland of Worcester Daniel of Hereford Salkel of Carlisle Ioliff of Bristol Boxal of Peterborough and Windsor Of the three Bishops Elect who are said to have been deprived I can recover the Names but of Two Viz. Thomas Rainolds Elect of Hereford and Thomas Wood. Pag. 396. lin 11. Pag. 397. lin 7. The Oath being offered to Heath Archbishop of York Christopherson Bishop of Chichester they did all refuse to take it They were upon their refusal deprived and put in Prison Christopherson chose to live still in England This is a fair Story But what if after all Christopherson died before Queen Mary This is affirmed by Pits At least it is most certain that he died within six Weeks after her In which time Queen Elizabeth far from depriving any Bishops had not declared her Resolution in matter of Religion on either side The Dean and Chapter of Canterbury seised the Spiritualties of the See of Chichester vacant per mortem naturalem Iohannis Christopherson ultimi Episcopi Pastoris ejusdem 1559. Ian. 2. Now although he should have died some few days before Queen Mary as Pits saith it is not to be wondred if amidst so much Confusion as attended the Death of the Queen and Cardinal Pole the Chapter of Canterbury neglected for some time to seize the Spiritualties of Chichester Pag. 402. lin 33. On the 8th Day of Iuly 1559. the Conge d'Elire for Matthew Parker was sent to Canterbury On the 22 of Iuly a Chapter was summoned to meet the first of August where the Dean and Prebendaries meeting they all elected him The Conge d'Elire was sent to the Chapter of Canterbury not on the 8th but on the 18th of Iuly in vertue of which Parker was elected on the first of August by the Dean and four Prebendaries then present in Chapter The other Canons were either absent or refused to appear But the Election was not thereby the less Canonical For