said Church to have been deceived in that what he before had taught them and to be sorry for delivering such Doctrine to them But these men might pretend some Warrant from the King's Injunctions which they might conceive it neither fit nor safe to oppose and therefore that it was the wisest way to strike Sail betimes upon the shooting of the first Warning-Piece to bring them in But no man was so much before hand with Authority as one Doctour Glasier who as soon as the Fast of Lent was over and it was well he had the Patâ—ence to stay so long affirmed publickly in a Sermon at Saint Paul's Cross That The Lent was not ordained of God to be Fasted neither the Eating of Flesh to be forborn but that the same was a Politick Ordinance of men and might therefore be broken by men at their pleasures For which Doctrine as the Preacher was never questioned the Temper of the Times giving Incouragement enough to such Extravagancies so did it open such a Gap to Carnal Liberty that the King found it necessary to shut it up again by a Proclamation on the sixteenth of January commanding Abstinence from all Flesh for the Lent then following But there was something more then the Authority of a Minour King which drew on such a General Conformity to these Injunctions and thereby smoothed the way to those Alterations both in Doctrine and Worship which the Grandees of the Court and Church had began to fashion The Lord Protectour and his Party were more experienced in Affairs of State then to be told That All great Counsels tending to Innovation in the Publick Government especially where Religion is concerned therein are either to be back'd by Arms or otherwise prove destructive to the Undertakers For this cause he resolves to put himself into the Head of an Army as well for the security of His Person and the Preservation of his Party as for the carrying on of the Design against all Opponents And for the Raising of an Army there could not be a fairer Colour nor a more popular Pretence then a War in Scotland not to be made on any new emergent Quarrel which might be apt to breed suspicion in the Heads of the People but in Pursuit of the great Project of the King deceased for Uniting that Realm by the Marriage of their young Queen to His onely Son to the Crown of England On this pretense Levies are made in all parts of the Kingdom great store of Arms and Ammunition drawn together to advance the service considerable Numbers of Old Souldiers brought over from Bulloign and the Peeces which depended on it and good Provision made of Shipping to attend the Motions of the Army upon all occasions He entertained also certain Regiments of Walloons and Germanes not out of any great Opinion which he had of their Valour though otherwise of good Experience in the Wars but because they were conceived more likely to enforce Obedience if his Designs should meet with any Opposition then the Natural English But in the first place Care was taken that none of the neighbouring Princes should either hinder his Proceedings or assist the Enemy To which end Doctour Wotton the first Dean of Canterbury then Resident with the Queen Dowager of Hungary who at that time was Regent of the Estates of Flanders for Charls the Fifth was dispatched unto the Emperour's Court there to succeed in the place of Doctour Bonner Bishop of London who together with Sir Francis Bryan had formerly been â—ent Embassadours thâ—ther from King Henry the Eighth The Principal part of his Employment besides such matters as are incident to all Ambassadours was to divert the Emperour from concluding any League with France contrary to the Capitulations made between the Emperour and the King deceased but to deal with him above all things for declaring himself an Enemy to all of the Scotish Nation but such as should be Friends to the King of England And because some Remainders of Hostility did still remain between the English and the French notwithstanding the late peace made between the Crowns it was thought fit to sweeten and oblige that People by all the acts of Correspondence and friendly Neighbourhood In Order whereunto it was commanded by the King's Proclamation That Restitution should be made of such Ships and Goods which had been taken from the French since the Death of King Henry Which being done also by the French though far short in the value of such Reprisals as had been taken by the English there was good hope of coming to a better understanding of one another and that by this Cessation of Arms both Kings might come in short time to a further Agreement But that which seemed to give most satisfaction to the Court of France was the performance of a solemn Obsequie for King Francis the First who left this Life on the twenty second day of March and was Magnificently Interred amongst His Predecessours in the Monastery of Saint Dennis not far from Paris Whose Funerals were no sooner Solemnized in France but Order was given for a Dirige to be sung in all the Churches in London on the nineteenth of June as also in the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul in the Quire whereof being hung with black a sumptuous Herse had been set up for the present Ceremony For the next day the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury assisted with Eight other of the Bishops all in their Rich Mitres and other their Pontificals did sing a Mass of Requiem the Funeral Sermon being preached by Doctour Ridley Lord Elect of Rochester who if he did his part therein as no doubt he did could not but magnifie the Prince for His Love to Learning Which was so great and eminent in Him that He was called by the French L' pere des Arts des Sciences and The Father of the Muses by some Writers of other Nations Which Attributes as He well deserved so did He Sympathize in that Affection as he did in many other things with King Henry the Eighth of whose Munificence for the Encouragements of Learning we have spoke before This great Solemnity being thus Honourably performed the Commissioners for the Visitation were dispatched to their several Circuits and the Army drawn from all parts to their Rendez-vous for the War with Scotland Of which two Actions that of the Visitation as the easiest and meeting with a People which had been long trained up in the Schole of Obedience was carried on without any shew of Opposition submitted to upon a very small Dispute even by some of those Bishops who were conceived most likely to have disturbed the business The first who declared his aversness to the King's Proceedings was Dr. Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester who stomaching his being left out of the Lift of the Council appeared more cross to all their doings then other of his Order For which being brought before their Lordships and not giving them such satisfaction as they looked for from
threatned more Danger then the other To which Request He did not onely refuse to hearken except the King would promise to restore the Catholick Religion as He called it in all His Dominions but expresly commanded that neither His Men noâ— Ammunition should go to the Assistance of the English An Ingratitude not easie to be marked with a fitting Epithete considering what fast Friends the Kings of England had alwaies been to the House of Burgundy the Rights whereof remained in the person of Charles with what sums of Money they had helped them and what sundry Wayâ— they had made for them both in the Nether-Lands to maintain their Authority and in the Realm of France it self to increase their Power For from the Marriage of Maximilian of the Family of Austriâ— with the Lady Mary of Burgundy which happened in the year 1478. unto the Death of Henry the Eight which fell in the year 1546 are just threescore and eight years In which time onely it was found on a just account that it had cost the Kings of England at the least six Millions of Pounds in the meer Quarrels of that House But the French being more assured that the English held some secret Practice with the Emperour then certain what the Issue thereof might be resolved upon a Peace with EDVVARD in hope of getting more by Treaty then he could by Force To this end one Guidolti a Florentine is sent for England by whom many Overtures were made to the Lords of the Council not as from the King but from the Constable of France And spying with a nimble Eye that all Affairs were governed by the Earl of Warwick he resolved to buy him to the French at what price soever and so well did he ply the Business that at the last it was agreed that four Ambassadours should be sent to France from the King of England to treat with so many others of that Kingdom about a Peace between the Crowns but that the Treaty it self should be held in Guisnes a Town belonging to the English in the Marches of Calice In pursuance whereof the Earl of Bedford the new Lord Paget Sir William Peter Principal Secretary of Estate and Sir John Mason Clerk of the Council were on the twenty first of January dispatched for France But no sooner were they come to Calice when Guidolâ—i brings a Letter to them from Mounsieur d' Rochpot one of the four which were appointed for that Treaty in behalf of the French In which it was desired that the English Ambassadours would repair to the Town of Bulloign without putting the French to the Charge and Trouble of so long a Journey as to come to Guisnes Which being demurred on by the English and a Post sent unto the Court to know the pleasure of the Council in that particular they received word for so the Oracle had directed that they should not stand upon Punctilioes so they gained the point nor hazard the Substance of the Work to preserve the Circumstances According whereunto the Ambassadours removed to Bulloign and pitch'd their Tents without the Town as had been desired for the Reception of the French that so they might enter on the Treaty for which they came But then a new Dâ—fficulty appeared for the French would not cross the Water and put themselves under the Command of Bulloign but desired rather that the English would come over to them and fall upon the Treaty in an House which they were then preparing for their Entertainment Which being also yielded to after some Disputes the French grew confident that after so many Condescensions on the part of the English they might obtain from them what they liâ—ted in the main of the Business For though it cannot otherwise be but that in all Treaties of this Nature there must be some Condescendings made by the one or the other yet he that yields the first inch of Ground gives the other Party a strong Hope of obtaining the rest These Preparations being made the Commissioners on both sides begin the Treaty where after some Expostulations touching the Justice or Injustice of the War on either side they came to particular Demands The English required the payment of all Debts and Pensions concluded on between the two Kings deceased and that the Queen of Scots should either be delivered to their Hands or sent back to Her Kingdom But unto this the French replyed That the Queen of Scots was designed in Marriage to the Daulphin of France and that She looked upon it as an high Dishonour that their King should be esteemed a Pensioner or Tributary to the Crown of England The French on the other side propounded That all Arrears of Debts and Pensions being thrown aside as not likely to be ever paid they should either put the higher Price on the Town of Bulloign or else prepare themselves to keep it as well as they could From which Proposals when the French could not be removed the Oracle was again consulted by whose Direction it was ordered in the Council of England That the Commissioners should conclude the Peace upon such Articles and Instructions as were sent unto them Most of them ordinary and accustomed at the winding up of all such Treaties But that of most Concernment was That all Titles and Claims on the one side and Defences on the other remaining to either Party as they were before the Town of Bulloign with all the Ordnance found there at the taking of it should be delivered to the French for the Sum of four hundred thousand Crowns of the Sun Of which four hundred thousand Crowns each Crown being valued at the Price of six Shillings and six Pence one Moity was to be paid within three days after the Town should be delivered and the other at the end of six Moneths after Hostages to be given in the mean time for the payment of it It was agreed also in relation to the Realm of Scotland That if the Scots razed Lowder and Dowglass the English should raze Rox-borough and Aymouth and no Fortification in any of those places to be afterwards made Which Agreement being signed by the Commissioners of each side and Hostages mutually delivered for performance of Covenants Peace was Proclaimed between the Kings on the last of March and the Town of Bulloign with all the Forts depending on it delivered into the power of the French on the twenty fifth day of April then next following But they must thank the Earl of Warwick for letting them go away with that commodity at so cheap a Rate for which the two last Kings had bargained for no less then two Millions of the same Crowns to be paid unto the King of England at the end of eight years the Towns and Territory in the mean time to remain with the English Nor was young Edward backward in rewarding his Care and Diligence in expenditing the Affair Which was so represented to him and the extraordinary Merit of the Service so highly magnified
Englanâ— by Thomas Bolâ—n Viscount Rochford at his return from the Frenâ—h Court where he had been Ambassador for the King of England which firâ—t occasioned areport in the common people and afterwaâ—ds a mistake in our common Chronicles touching this Ladie 's being designed by Wolsie for a wife to his Master whereas she was at that time actually married to the Count of Aâ—bret King of Navarre in title and in title only But Rochford brought with him out of France another Piece which more excelled the picture of the Dutchesse of Alanzâ—n then that Dutchesse did the ordinary beauties in the Court of France that is to say his daughter Anne whom he had bred up for a time in the house of the Dutchesse which render'd her an exact mistresse of the gaities and garb of the great French Ladies Appearing in the Court of England she shewed her selfe with so many advantages above all other Ladies about the Queen that the King easily took notice of her Whether more captivated by the Allurements of her beauty or the facetiousnesse of her behaviour it is hard to say certain it is that he suffered himselfe to be so far transpoâ—ted in affection towards her that he could think of nothing else but what might tend to the accomplishment of his desires so that the separation from the bed of Katherine which was but coldly followed upon case of Conscience is now more hotly prosecuted in the heat of Concupiscâ—nce In the mean time the King adviseth with the Cardinal and the Cardinal with the most learned men in the Realm of England By whom it was modestly resolved that the King had a very just ground to consult the Pope and to 〈…〉 lawful means for extricating himselfe out of those perplexities in which this marriage had involved him The Pope had been beholden to the King for procuring his liberty when the Imperialists held him prisoner in the Fort of St Angelâ— and was in reason bound to gratifie him for so great a benefit But then withall he neither was to provoke the Emperour nor hazard the Authority and Reputation of the See Apostolick by running on the King's errand with more haâ—te then speed He therefore goes to work like a Pope of Rome and entertains the King with hopes without giving the Emperour and his adherents any cause of despair A Commission is therefore granted to two Cardinals that is to say Cardinal Thomas Wolsiâ— Archbishop of York and Laurene Campâ—gius whom Henry some few years before had made Bishop of Saâ—isbury both beneficiaries to the King and therefore like enough to consult more his interest then the Queen's contentment Of the erecting of a Court Lâ—gantâ—ne in the Convent of the Black Friers in London the citing of the King and Queen to appear before them the Kings patheticall Oration in the bemoaning of his own misfortunes and the Queen's Appeal from the two Cardinals to the Pope I shall now say nothing leaving the Reader for those passages to our common Annals Suffice in this place to note that while the businesse went on favourable in the King's behalfe Wolsie was given to understand of his desperate loves to Mistrisse Bollen which represented to him two ensuing mischiefs not to be otherwise avoided then by slackning the course of these proceedings For first he saw that if the King should be divorc'd definitively from his present wife he should not be able to draw him to accept of Madam Rhenee the French Queens sister which was the mark he chiefly aimed at And secondly he feared that Mistrisse Anne had brought so much of the Lutheran with her as might in time become destructive to the Church of Rome Of this he certifies the Pope the Pope recals Campegius and revokes his Commission leaving the King to cast about to some new wayes to effect his purpose And at this time it hapned that Dr Thomas Cramâ—er who afterwards obtained to the See of Canterbury discoursing with some of the Kings Ministers about the intricaâ—enesse and perplexity of this great affair declared for his opinion in it that it were better for the King to govern himselfe therein by the judgement and determination of the Universities beyond the seas then to depend upon the shifts and Artifices of the Court of Rome Which being told unto the King he dispatcheth Cramner unto Rome in the company of Rochford now made Earl of Wilâ—shire to maintain the King's cause by disputation and at the same time employs his agents to the Universities of France and Italy who being under the command of the French King or the power of the Pope gave sentence in behalfe of Henry condemning his marriage with the Lady Katherine the Relict of his brother to be simply unlawful in it selfe and therefore not to be made valid by a dispensation from the Popes of Rome The putting the King upon this course proved the fall of Wolsiâ— who growing every day lesse then other in the King's esteem was brought within 〈◊〉 compasse of a Pramunire and thereby stript of all his goods to an infinite value removed not long after unto York and there arrested of High Treason by the Earl of Northumberland and committed to the custody of Sir William Kingston being then Lievtenant of the Tower By whom conducted towards London he departed this life in the Abby of Leicester his great heart not being able to endure so many indignities as had been lately put upon him and having cause to fear much worse then his former sufferings But the removing of this Rub did not much smooth the way to the King's desires The Queen's appeal unto the Pope was the greatest difficulty from which since she could not be removed it must be made unprofitable and ineffectual for the time to come And thereupon a Proclamation is set forth on the 19 of September 1530. in these following words viz. The King's Highnesse streightly chargeth and commandeth That no manner of person of what estate degree or condition he or they be of do purchase or attempt to purchase from the Court of Rome or elsewhere nor use nor put in execution divulge or publish any thing heretofore within this year passed purchased or to be purchased hereafter containing matter prejudicial to the High Authority Jurisdiction and prerogative Royal of this his said Reâ—lm or to the lett hinderance or impeachment of his Grace's Noble and Vertuous intended purposes in the premises upon pain of incurring his Highnesse's indignation and imprisonment and farther punishment of their bodies for their so doing at his Graceâ—s pleasure to the dreadful example of all others This was the Prologue to the downfall of the Pope in England seconded by the Kings taking to himselfe the Title â—upream Head of the Churches of England and Ireland acknowledged in the Convocation and confirmed in Parliament and ending finally in an Act intituled An Act for extinguishing the authority of the Bishops of Rome And in all this the King did nothing but what
Appellation had been so entituled Which appeares more plainly by a particular of the Robes and Ornaments which were preparing for the day of this Solemnity as they are entred on Record in the book called The Catalogue of Honour published by Thomas Mills of Canterbury where it appeares also that they were prepared only but never used by reason of the Kings death which prevented the Sollemnities of it The ground of this Error I conceive first to be taken from John Stow who finding a creation of some Noble men and the making of many Knights to relate to the 18 day of October supposed it to have been done with reference to the Creation of a Prince of Wales whereas if I might take the liberty of putting in my own conjecture I should conceive rather that it was done with Reference to the Princes Christning as in like manner we find a creation of three Earles and five to inferiour Titles at the Christning of the Princesse Mary born to King James after his coming into England and Christened upon Sunday the fifth of May. 1604. And I conceive withall that Sir Edward Seimour Vicount Beauchamp the Queenes elder brother was then created Earle of Hartford to make him more capable of being one of the Godfathers or a Deputy-Godfather at the least to the Royall Infant the Court not being then in a condition by reason of the mournfull accident of the late Queenes death to show it selfe in any extraordinary splendour as the occasion had required at another time Among which persons so advanced to the Dignity and degree of Knighthood I find Mr. Thomas Seimour the Queenes youngest brother to be one of the number of whom we shall have frequent occasion to speak more fully and particularly in the course of this History No other alteration made in the face of the Court but that Sir William Pawlet was made Treasurer and Sir John Russell Comptroller of his Majesties Houshold on the said 18th day of October which I conceive to be the day of the Princes Christning both of them being principall Actors in the Afâ—aires and troubles of the following times But in the face of the Church there appeared some lines which looked directly towards a Reformation For besides the surrendring of divers Monasteries and the executing of some Abbots and other Religious Persons for their stiffenesse if I may not call it a perversenesse in opposing the Kings desires there are two things of speciall note which concurred this year as the Prognosticks or â—ore-runners of those great events which after followed in his Reign For it appeares by a Memoriall of the Famous Library of Sir Robert Cotton that Grafton now made known to Cromwell the finishing of the English Bible of which he had printed 1500. at his own proper charges amounting in the totall to 500. p. desiring stoppage of a surreptitions Edition in a lesse Letter which else would tend to his undoing the suit endeared by Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury at whose request Cromwell presents one of the Bibles to the King and procures the same to be allowed by his Authority to be read publiquely without comptrole in all his Dominions and for so doing he receives a letter of thanks from the said Arch-Bishop dated August the 13th of this present year Nor were the Bishops and Clergy wanting to advance the work by publishing a certain book in the English Tongue which they entituled The Institution of a Christian Man in which the Doctrine of the Sacraments the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Commandments were opened and expounded more perspicuously and lesse abhorrent from the truth then in former times By which clear light of Holy Scripture and the principall duties of Religion so laid opâ—n to them the people were the better able to discerne the errors and corruptionâ— of the Church of Rome From which by the piety of this Prince they were fully Freed And for a preamble thereunto the Rood of Boxley commonly called the Rood of Grace so Artificially contrived by reason of some secret wires in the body or concavities of it that it could move the eyes the lips c. to the great wonder and astonishment of the common people was openly discovered for a lewd imposture and broke in pieces at St. Pauls Cross on Sunday the 24. of February the Rood of Bermondsey Abby in South-work following the same fortune also within six dayes The next year brings an end to almost all the Monasteries and Religious houses in the Realme of England surrendered into the Kings hands by publâ—que instruments under the seales of all the severall and respective Convents and those surrenderies ratified and confirmed by Act of Parliament And this occasionally conduced to the future peace and quiet of this young Prince by removing out of the way some Great Pretenders who otherwise might have created to him no small disturbance For so it happened that Henry Earle of Devâ—nshire and Mary wife of Exceter descended from a daughter of King Edward the fâ—urth and Henry Pole Lord Mountacute descended from a daughter of George Duke of Clarence the second brother of that Edward under colour of preventing or revenging the Dissolution of so many famous Abbyes and religious houses associated themselves with Sir Edward Nâ—vill and Sir Nicholas Carew in a dangerous practise against the person of the King and the Peace of the Kingdom By whose endictment it appeares that it was their purpose and designe to destroy the King and advance Reginald Pole one of the younger brothers of the said Lord Mountacute of whom we shall hear more in the course of this History to the Regalâ— Throne Which how it could consist with the Pretensions of the Marquisse of Exceter or the Ambition of the Lord Mountacute the elder brother of this Reginald it is hard to say But having the Chronicle of John Speed to justifie me in the truth hereof in this particular I shall not take upon me to dispute the point The dangerous practise of which Persons did not so much retard the worke of Reformation as their execution did advance it to this year also appertaineth the suppressing of Pilgrimages the defacing of the costly and magnâ—ficent shrines of our Lady of Walsingham Ipswich Worcester c and more particularly of Thomas Becket once Arch-Bishop of Canterbury This last so rich in Jewells of most inestimable value that two great chests were filled with the spoyles thereoâ— so heavy and capacious as is affirmed by Bishop â—oodwin that each of them required no fewer then eight men to carry them out of the Church nothing inferiour unto Gold being charged within them More modestly in this then Sanders that malitious Sycophant who will have no lesse then twenty six waine load of silver Gold and precious stones to be seised into the Kings hands by the spoyle of that Monument Which proceedings so exasperated the Pope then being that without more delay by his Bull of January 1. he deprived the King
after another till they sunk to eight The French on the other side began as low at one hundred thousand but would be drawn no higher then to Promise two that being as they affirmed the greatest Portion which ever any of the French Kings had given with a Daughter But at the last it was accorded that the Lady should be sent into England at the French King's Charges when She was come within three Moneths of the Age of Marriage sufficiently appointed with Jewels Apparel and convenient Furniture for Her House That at the same time Bonds should be delivered for Performance of Covenants at Paris by the French and at London by the King of England and That in case the Lady should not consent after She should be of Age for Marriage the Penalty should be one hundred and fifty thousand Crowns The perfecting of the Negotiation and the settling of the Ladie 's Joynture referred to such Ambassadours as the French King should send to the Court of England Appointed whereunto were the Lord Marshal of France the Duke of Guise the President Mortuillier the Principal Secretary of that King and the Bishop of Perigeux who being attended by a Train of 400. men were conducted from Graves-end by the Lord Admiral Clinton welcomed with Great Shot from all the Ships which lay on the Thames and a Vollie of Ordnance from the Tower and lodged in Suffolk-Place in South-wark From whence attended the next day to the King's House at Richmond His Majesty then remaining at Hampton-Court by reason of the Sweating Sickness of which more anon which at that time was at the Highest Having refreshed themselves that night they were brought the next day before the King to whom the Marshal presented in the name of his Master the Collar and Habit of St. Michael being at that time the Principal Order of that Realm in testimony of that dear Affection which he did bear unto him greater then which as he desired him to believe a Father could not bear unto his Natural son And then Addressing himself in a short Speech unto His Highness he desired him amongst other things not to give entertainment to Vulgar Rumours which might breed Jealousies and Distrusts between the Crowns and that if any difference did arise between the Subjects of both Kingdoms they might be ended by Commissioners without engaging either Nation in the Acts of Hostility To which the King returned a very favourable Answer and so dismissed them for the present Two or three days being spent in Feasting the Commissioners on both sides settled themselves upon the matter of the Treaty confirming what had passed before and adding thereunto the Proportioning of the Ladie 's Jointure Which was accorded at the last to the yearly value of ten thousand Marks English with this Condition interposed that if the King died before the Marriage all her Pretensions to that Jointure should be buried with him All Matters being thus brought unto an happy Conclusion the French prepared for their Departure at which Time the Marshal presented Monsieur Boys to remain as Legier with the King and the Maâ—quess presented Mr. Pickering to be his Majestie 's Resident in the Court of France And so the French take leave of England rewarded by the King in such a Royal and Munificent Manner as shewed he very well understood what belonged to a Royal Suitour those which the French King had designed â—or the English Ambassadours not actually bestowed till all things had been fully settled and dispatched in England hardly amounting to a fourth part of that Munificence which the King had shewed unto the French Grown confident of his own Security by this new Alliance the King not onely made less Reckoning of the Emperour 's Interposings in the Case of Religion but proceeded more vigorously then before in the Reformation the Building up of which upon a surer and more durable Bottom was contrived this year though not established till the next Nothing as yet had been concluded positively and Dogmatically in Points of Doctrine but as they were to be collected from the Homilies and the Publick Liturgie and those but few in Reference to the many Controversies which were to be maintained against the Papists Anabaptists and other Sectaries of that Age. Many Disorders had grown up in this little time in the Officiating the Liturgie the Vestures of the Church and the Habit of Church-Men began by Calvin prosecuted by Hooper and countenanced by the large Immunities which had been given to John a Lasco and his Church of Strangers And unto these the change of Altars into Tables gave no small Encrease as well by reason of some Differences which grew amongst the Ministers themselves upon that Occasion as in regard of of that Irreverence which it â—bred in the People to whom it made the Sacrament to appear less Venerable then before it did The People had been so long accustomed to receive that Sacrament upon their Knees that no Rule or Canon was thought necessary to keep them to it which thereupon was not imprudently omitted in the Publick Rubricks The Change of Altars into Tables the Practise of the Church of Strangers and Lasco's Book in Maintainance of sitting at the Holy Table made maâ—y think that Posture best which was so much countenanced And what was like to follow upon such a Liberty the Proneness of those Times to Heterodoxies and Prophaness gave just cause to fear Somewhat was therefore to be done to prevent the Mischief and nothing could prevent it better then to reduce the People to their Antient Custome by some Rule or Rubrick by which they should be bound to receive it kneeling So for the Ministers themselves they seemed to be as much at a Loss in their Officiating at the Table as the People were in their Irreverences to the Blessed Sacrament Which cannot better be expressed then in the words of some Popish Prelats by whom it was objected unto some of our chief Reformers Thus White of Lincoln chargeth it upon Bishop Ridley to omit his prophane calling of the Lord's Table in what Posture soever scituated by the Name of an Oyster-Board That when their Table was Constituted they could never be content iâ—placing the same now East now North now one way now another untill it pleased God of his Goodness to place it quite out of the Church The like did Weston the Prolocutour of the Convocation in the first of Queen Mary in a Disputation held with Latimer telling him with Reproach and Contempt enough that the Protestants having turâ—ed their Table were like a Company of Apes that knew not which way to turn their Tails looking one day East and another West one this way and another that way as their Fancies lead them Thus finally one Miles Hubbard in a Book called The Display of Protestants doth report the Business How long say they were they learning to set their Tables to minister the Communion upon First they placed it aloft where the High
next followed not long after by Sir Thomas Holdcroft Sir Miles Partridg Sir Michael Stanhop Wingfield Banister and Vaughan with certain others for whose Commitment there was neither cause known nor afterwards discovered Onely the greater Number raised the greater Noise increas'd the Apprehension of the present Danger and served to make the Duke more Criminal in the Eyes of the People for drawing so many of all sorts into the Conspiracy Much time was spent in the Examination of such of the Prisoners as either had before discovered the Practice if any such Practice were intended or were now fitted and instructed to betray the Duke into the Power and Malice of his Enemies The Confessions which seemed of most importance were those of Palmer Crane and Hammond though the Truth and Reality of the Depositions may be justly questioned For neither were they brought face to face before the Duke at the time of his Trial as in ordinary course they should have been nor suffered loss of Life or Goods as some others did who were no more guilty then themselves And yet the Business stai d not here the Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget and two of the Earl of Arundel's Servants being sent Prisoners after the rest upon Crane's detection It was further added by Palmer that on the last St. George's-Day the Duke of Sommerset being upon a journey into the North would have raised the People if he had not been assured by Sir William Herbert that no Danger was intended to him Six Weeks there passed between the Commitment of the Prisoners and the Duke's Arraignment which might have given the King more then leisure enough to finde the depth of the Design if either he had not been directed by such as the new Duke of Northumberland had placed about him or taken by a Solemnity which served fiâ—ly for it For so it happened that the Queen Regent of Scotland having been in France to see Her Daughter and being unwilling to return by Sea in that cold time of the year obtained leave of the King by the mediation of the French Ambassadour to take Her journey through England Which leave being granted She put Her self into the Bay of Portsmouth where She was Honourably received and conveyed towards London From Hampton-Court She passed by Water on the second day of November to St. Paul's Wharf From whence She rode accompanied with divers Noble Men and Ladies of England besides Her own Train of Scotland to the Bishop's-Palace Presented at Her first coming thither in the name of the City with Muttons Beefs Veals Poultry Wine and all other sorts of Provisions necessary for Her Entertainment even to Bread and Fewel Having reposed Her self two days She was conveyed in a Chariot to the Court at White-Hall accompanied with the Lady Margaret Douglass Daughter of Margaret Queen of Scots by Her second Husband together with the Duchesses of Richmond Suffolk and Northumberland besides many other Ladies of both Kingdoms which followed after in the Train At the Court-Gate She was received by the Dukes of Suffolk and Northumberland and the Lord High-Treasurer the Guard standing on both sides as She went along and being brought unto the King whom She found standing at the end of the Great Hall She cast Her self upon Her knees but was presently taken up and Saluted by Him according to the Free Custom of the English Nation Leading Her by the Hand to the Queen's Chamber of Presence He Saluted in like manner all the Ladies of Scotland and so departed for a while Dinner being ready the King conducted Her to the Table prepared for them where they dined together but had their Services apart The Ladies of both Kingdomes were feaâ—ted in the Queen 's Great Chamber where they were most Sumptuously Served Dinner being done that Her Attendants might have time to partake of the Entertainment the King shewed Her His Gardens Galleries c. and about four of the clock He brought Her down by the Hand into the Hall where He Saluted Her and so She departed to the Bishop's-Paâ—ace as before Departing towards Scotland on the sixth of that Moneth She rode through all the Principal Streets of London betwixt the Bishop's House and the Church in Shore-ditch attended by divers Noble Men and Women all the way She went But more particularly the Duke of Northumberland shewed himself with one hundred Horse each having his Javelin in his hand and fourty of them apparelled in Black Velvet Guarded with White and Velvet Caps and White Feathers and Chains of Gold about their Necks Next to these stood one hundred and twenty Horsemen of the Earl of Pembroke's with black Javelins Hats and Feathers Next to them one hundred of the Treasurer's Gentlemen and Yeomen with Javelins These ranks of Horsemen reaching from the Cross in Cheap-side to the end of Birching-Lane in Cornhill Brought as far as Shoreditch-Church She was committed to the care of the Sheriffs of London by whom She was attended as far as Walâ—ham Conducted in like manner by the Sheriffs of all the Counties through which She passed till She came unto the Borders of Scotland Her Entertainment being provided by the King's appointment at the Charge of the Counties Which Passages not being otherwise Material in the Course of this History I have adventured to lay down the better to express the Gallantry and Glory of the English Nation before Puritanism and the Humour of Parity occasioned the neglect of all the laudable Solemnities which antiently had been observed both in Church and State The Discourse raised on this Magnificent Reception of the Scotish Queen so filled all Mouths and entertained so many Pens that the Danger of the Duke of Sommerset seemed for a time to be forgotten but it was onely for a time For on the first of December the Duke being brought by water to Westminster-Hall found all things there prepared for his Arraignment The Lord High-Steward for the time was the Marquess of Winchester who took his place under a Cloath of Estate raised three steps higher then the rest of the Scaffold The Peers to the number of twenty seven sitting one step lower Amongst these were the Duke of Northumberland the Marquess of North-hampton and the Earl of Pembroke who being Parties to the Charge ought in all Honesty and Honour to have excused themselves from sitting in Judgment on him at the time of his Trial. But no Challenge or Objection being made or allowed against them they took place with the rest The Court being sate and the Prisoner brought unto the Bar the Charge against him was divided into five Particulars viz. Firâ—â— His design of Raising men in the North Parts of the Realm and of assembling men at his House to kill the Duke of Northumberland 2. A resolution to assist his Attachment 3. The Plot for killing the Gens d' Arms. 4. His intent for raising London 5. His purpose of assaulting the Lords and devising their Deaths The whole Impeachment managed in the
which are herein mentioned and by degrees also did they the Te Deum the Magnificat and the Nunc dimittis Concerning the Position of the holy Table it was ordered thus viz. That no Altar should be taken down but by oversight of the Curat of the Church or the Church-wardens or one of them at the least wherein no riotous or disoâ—dered manner was to be used and that the holy Table in every Church be decently made and set in the place where the Altar stood and there commonly covered as thereto belongeth and as should be appointed by the Visitors and so to stand saving when the â—ommunion of the Sacrament is to be administred at which time the same shall be so placed in good sort within the Quire or Chancel as whereby the Minister may be more conveniently heard of the Communicants in his Prayer and Ministration and the Communicants also more conveniently and in more number communicate with the said Minister And after the Communion done from time to time the said holy Table to be placed where it stood before Which permission of removing the Table at Communion-times is not so to be understood as the most excellent King Charls declared in the case of St. Gregories as if it were ever left to the discretion of the Parish much less to the particular fancy of any humorous person but to the judgment of the Ordinary to whose place and function it doth properly belong to give direction in that point both for the thing it self or for the time when and how long as he may find cause By these Injunctions she made way to her Visitation executed by Commissioners in their several Circuits and regulated by a Book of Articles printed and published for that purpose Proceeding by which Articles the Commissioners removed all carved Images out of the Church which had been formerly abused to superstition defacing also all such Pictures Paintings and other monuments as served for the setting forth of feigned Miracles and this they did without any tumult and disorder and without laying any sacrilegious and ravenous hands on any of the Churches Plate or other Utensils which had been repaired and re-provided in the late Queens time They enquired also into the life and doctrine of Ministers their diligence in attending their several Cures the decency of their apparel the respect of the Parishioners towards them the reverent behaviour of all manner of persons in Gods publiâ—k worship Inquiry was also made into all sorts of crimes haunting of Taverns by the Clergy Adultery Fornication Drunkenness amongst those of the Laity with many other things since practised in the Visitations of particular Bâ—shops by means whereof the Church was setled and confirmed in so good an order that the work was made more easie to the Bishops when they came to govern than otherwise it could have been But more particularly in Londâ—â— which for the most part gives example to the rest of the Kingdom the Visitors were Sir Richard Sackvile father to â—homas Earl of Dorset Mr. Robert Hern after Bishop of Winchester Dr. Hâ—ick a Civilian and one Salvage possibly a Common Lawyer who calling before them divers persons of every Parish gave them an Oath to enquire and present upon such Articles and 〈◊〉 as were given unto them In persuance whereof both the Commissionâ—rs and the People shewed so much forwardness that on St. Bartholomews day and the morrow after they burned in St. Paul's Church-yard Cheap-side and other places of the City all the Roods and other Images which had been taken out of the Churches And as it is many times supposed that a thing is never well done if not over-done so hapned it in this case also zeal against superstition had prevailed so far with some ignorant men that in some places the Coaps Vestments Altar-cloaths Books Banners Sepulchres and Rood-lofts were burned altogether All matters of the Church being thus disposed of it will be time to cast our eyes on the concernments of the civil State which occurred this year in which I find nothing more considerable than the overtures of some Marriages which had been made unto the Queen Philip of Spain had made an offer of himself by the Count of Feria his Ambassadour but the Queen had heard so much of the disturbances which befell King Henry by marrying with his brothers wife that she had no desire to run into the like perplexities by marrying with her sisters husband and how he was discouraged from proceeding in it hath been shewed already Towards the end of the Parliament the Lords and Commons made an humble Addresse unto her in which they most earnestly besought her That for securing the peace of the Kingdom and the contentation of all her good and loving subjects she would think of marrying not pointing her particularly unto any one man but leaving her to please her self in the choice of the person To which she answered That she thanked them for their good affections and took their application to her to be well intended the rather because it contained no limitation of place or person which had they done she must have disliked it very much and thought it to have been a great presumption But for the matter of their sure she lets them know That she had long since made choice of that state of life in which now she lived and hoped that God would give her strength and constancy to go throw with it that if she had been minded to have changed that course she neither wanted many invitations to it in the reign of her brother not many strong impulsions in the time of her sister That as she had hitherto remained so she intended to continue by the grace of God though her Words compared with her Youth might be thought by some to be far different from her meaning And so having thanked them over again she licensed them to depart to their several businesses And it appeared soon after that she was in earnest by her rejecting of a motion made by Gustavus King of Sweden for the Prince Ericus for the solliciting whereof his second son John Duke of Finland who succeeded his Brother in that Kingdom is sent Ambassador into England about the end of September Received at Harwich in Essex by the Earl of Oxford and the Lord Robert Dudley with a goodly train of Gentlemen and Yeoman he was by them conducted honourably towards London where he was met by the Lords and Gentlemen of the Court attended through the City on the 5th of Octobâ—r to the Bishop of Winchesters house in Souâ—hwark there he remained with his Train consisting of about fifty persons till the Easter following magnificently feasted by the Queen but otherwise no farther gratified in the buâ—â—ness which he came about than all the rest who both before and after tried their fortunes in it The next great business of this year was a renewing of the Peace with the crown of France agreed on at the Treaty near the
of the Prisoners amongst which were the Archbishops of York ten Knights and many other persons of name and quality But nothing did him greater honour amongst the English than the great pains he took for procuring the enlargment of the Earl of Devonshire and the Princesse Elizabeth committed formerly on a suspition of having had a hand in Wyaâ—'s Rebellion though Wyat hâ—â—ettly disavowed it at the time of his death It was about the Feast of Easter that the Earl was brought unto the Court where having obtained the leave to travell for which before he had petitioned in vain he pass'd the Seas cross'd France and came into Italy but he found the air of Italy as much too hot for him as that of England was too cold dying at Padua in the year 1556. the eleventh and last Earl of Devonshire of that noble Family About ten days after his enlargement followed that of the Princesse Elizabeth whose comming to the Court her entertainment with the Queen and what else followed thereup on we shall see hereafter But we have run our selves too far upon these occasions and therefore must look back again on that which followed more immediately on the Kings reception the celebrating of whose Marriage opened a fair way for the Cardinals comming so long expected by the Queen and delayed by the Emperour by whom retarded for a while when he was in Italy and openly detained at Dilling a Town in Germany as he was upon his way towards England From thence he writes his Letters of Expostulation representing to the Emperor the great scandal which must needs be given to the Churches enemies in detaining a Cardinal-Legat Commissioned by his Holinesse for the peace of Christendom and the regaining of a Kingdom Which notwithstanding there he stayeth till the Articles of the Marriage were agreed on by the Queen's Commissioners and is then suffered to advance as far as Brussells upon condition that he should not passe over into England till the consummation of the Marriage The Interim he spends in managing a Treaty of Peace betwixt the Emperour and the French which sorted to no other effect but onely to the setting forth of his dexterity in all publick businesses And now the Marriage being past the Emperour is desired to give him leave to come for England and Pole is called upon by Letters from the King and Queen to make haste unto them that they might have his presence and assistance in the following Parliament and in the mean time that they might advise upon such particulars as were to be agreed on for the honour and advantage of the See Apostolick Upon the Emperor's dismission he repairs to Calais but was detained by cross winds till the 24 th of November at which time we shall find the Parliament sitting and much of the businesse dispatched to his hand in which he was to have been advised with The businesse then to be dispatched was of no small moment no lesse than the restoring of the Popes to the Supremacy of which they had been dispossessed in the time of King Henry For smoothing the way to which great work it was thought necessary to fill up all Episcopall Sees which either Death or Deprivation had of late made vacant Holgate Archbishop of York had been committed to the Tower on the 4 th of October Anno 1553. from whence released upon Philips intercession on the 18 th of January Marriage and Heresie are his crimes for which deprived during the time of his imprisonment Doctor Nicolas Heath succeeded him in the See of York and leaves the Bishoprick of VVorcester to Doctor Richard Pates who had been nominated by King Henry the Eighth Anno 1534. and having spent the intervening twenty years in the Court of Rome returned a true servant to the Pope every way fitted and instructed to advance that See Goodrich of Elie left his life on the 10 th of April leaving that Bishoprick to Doctor Thomas Thurlby Bishop of Norwich one that knew how to stand his ground in the strongest tempest and Doctor John Hopton heretofore Chaplain and Controuler of Queen Mary's Houshold when but Princess onely is made Bishop of Norwich Barlow of VVells having abandoned that dignity which he could not hold had for his Successor Doctor Gilbert Bourn Arch-Deacon of London and Brother of Sir John Bourn principal Secretary of Estate Sufficiently recompenced by this preferment for the great danger which he had incurred the year before when the Dagger was thrown at him as he preached in St. Paul's Church-yard Harley of Hereford is succeeded by Purefew otherwise called Wharton of St. Asaph who had so miserably wasted the Patrimony of the Church in the time of King Edward that it was hardly worth the keeping For the same sins of Protestantism and Mariage old Bujh of Briâ—â—ow and Bira of Chester the two first Bishops of those Sees were deprived also the first succeeded to by Holiman once a Monck of Reading the last by Coles sometimes Fellow of Magdalen and afterwards Master of Baliol College in Oxon. Finally in the place of Doctor Richard Sampson Bishop of Coventry and Liâ—hfield who lest this life on the 25th of September Doctor Radolph Bayne who had been Hebâ—ew Reader in Paris in the time of King Francis was consecrated Bishop of that Church a man of better parts but of a more inflexible temper than his Predecessor And now the Parliament begins opened upon the 11 th of November and closed on the 16 th of January then next following It had been offered to consideration in the former Session That all Acts made against the Pope in the Reign of King Henry might be declared null and void for the better encouragement of the Cardinal to come amongst us But the Queen had neither eloquence enough to perswade nor power enough to awe the Parliament to that Concession Nothing more hindred the designe than general fear that if the Popes were one restored to their former power the Church might challenge restitution of her former possessions Do but secure them from that fear then Pope and Cardinals might come and welcome And to secure them from that fear they had not onely the promise of the King and Queen but some assurance underhand from the Cardinal-Legat who knew right well that the Church Lands had been so chopped and changed by the two last Kings as not to be restored without the manifest ruine of many of the Nobility and most of the Gentry who were invested in the same Secured on both sides they proceed according to the King's desires and passe a general Act for the repealing of all Statutes which had been made against the Power and Jurisdiction of the Popes of Rome But first they are to be intreated to it by the Legate himself for the opening a way to whose reception they prepared a Bill by which he was to be discharged of the Attainture which had passed upon him in the year 1539. restored in Blood and rendred capable of
London to give God thanks for their conversion to the Catholick Church Wherein to set out their glorious pomp were ninety Crosses one hundred sixty Priests and Clarks each of them attired in his Cope and after them eight Bishops in their Pontificalibus followed by Bonner carrying the Popish Pix under a Canopy and attended by the Lord Mayor and Companies in their several Liveries Which solemn Procession being ended they all returned into the Church of St Paul where the King and Cardinal together with all the rest heard Mass and the next day the Parliament and Convocation were dissolved Nothing now rested but the sending of a solemn Embassery in the name of the King and Kingdom to the Court of Rome for testifying their submission to his Holiness and receiving his Apostolical benediction To which employment were designed Sir Anthony Brown who on the 2d of September had been created Viscoâ—nt Mountacute in regard of his descent from Sir John Nevil whom King Edward the 4th advanced unto the Title of Marquisse Mountacute as being the second son of Richard Nevil Earl of Sarisbury and Alâ—ce his wife daughter and heir of Thomas Mountacute the last and most renowned Earl of Sarisbury of that Name and Family With whom was joined in Commission an another Ambassador extraordinary Dr Thomas Thurlby Bishop of Ely together with Sir Edward Karâ— appointed to recide as Ordinary in the Papal Court. On the 18th day of February they began their journy but found so great an alteration when they came to Rome that Pope Juâ—â—â—us was not only dead but that Marcellus who succeeded him was deceased also so that the honour and felicity of this address from the King of England devolved on Cardinal Caraffa no great friend of Poles who took unto himself the name of Paul the 4th on the first day of whose Papacy it chanced that the three Ambassadors came first to Rome It was in the first Consistory also after his inauguration that the Ambassadors were brought before him Where prostrating themselves at the Pope's feet they in the name of the Kingdom acknowledged the faults committed relating them all in particular for so the Pope was pleas'd to have it confessing that they had been ungrateful for so many benefits received from the Church and humbly craving pardon for it The pardon was not only granted and the Ambassadors lovingly imbraced but as an overplus the Pope was pleas'd to honour their Majesties with the Title of Kings of Ireland Which Title he conferred upon them by the authority which the Popes pretend to have from God in erecting and subverting Kingdoms He knew right well that Ireland had been erected into a Kingdom by King Henry the 8th and that both Edward the 6th and the Queen now reigning had alwayes used the Title of Kings of Ireland in the style Imperial But he conceived himself not bound to take notice of it or to relinquish any privilege which had been exercised in that kind by his predecessors And thereupon he found out this temperament that is to say to dissemble his knowlege of that which had been done by Henry and of himself to erect the Island into a Kingdom that so the world might be induced to believe that the Queen rather used that Title as indulged by the Pope than as assumed by her Father And this he did according to a secret mystery of Government in the Church of Rome in giving that which they could not take from the possessor as on the other side some Kings to avoid contentions have received of them their own proper goods as gifts and others have dissembled the knowledge of the Gift and the pretence of the Giver These things being thus dispatched in publick the Pope had many private discourses with the Ambassadors in which he found fault that the Church goods were not wholly restored saying that by no means it was to be tolerated and that it was necessary to render all even to a farthing He added that the things which belong to God could never be applied to humane uses and that he who withholdeth the least part of them was in continual state of damnation that if he had power to grant them he would do it most readily for the fartherly affection which he bare unto them and for the experience which he had of their filial obedience but that his authority was not so large as to prophane things dedicated to Almighty God and therefore he would have the people of England be assured that these Church lands would be an Anathema or an accursed thing which by the just revenge of God would keep the Kingdom in perpetual infelicity And of this he charged the Ambassadors to write immediately not speaking it once or twice only but repeating it upon all occasions He also told them that the Peter-Pence ought to be paid assoon as might be and that according to the custome he would send a Collector for that purpose letting them know that himself had exercised that charge in England for three years together and that he was much edified by seeing the forwardness of the people in that contribution The discourse upon which particular he closed with this that they could not hope that St Peter would open to them the gates of Heaven as long as they usurped his goods on earth To all which talk the Ambassadors could not chuse but give a hearing and knew that they should get no more at their coming home At their departure out of England they left the Queen in an opinion of her being with child and doubted not but that they should congratulate her safe delivery when they came to render an account of their imployment but it proved the contrary The Queen about three months after her mariage began to find strong hopes not only that she had conceived but also that she was far gone with child Notice whereof was sent by Letters to Bonner from the Lords of the Council by which he was required to cause Te Deum to be sung in all the Churches of his Diocess with continual prayers to be made for the Queen 's safe delivery And for example to the rest these commands were executed first on the 28th of November Dr Chadsey one of the Prebends of Paul's preaching at the Cross in the presence of the Bishop of London and nine other Bishops the Lord Mayor and Aldermen attending in their scarlet Robes and many of the principal Citizens in their several Liveries Which opinion gathering greater strength with the Queen and belief with the people it was Enacted by the Lords and Commons then sitting in Parliament That if it should happen to the Queen otherwise than well in the time of her travel that then the King should have the politick Government Order and Administration of this Realm during the tender years of her Majestie 's issue together with the Rule Order Education and Government of the said issue Which charge as he was pleased to undergo at their humble
English Chruch in each of their several congregations Their principal retiring places amongst the last were Arrow Zurick and Geneva and in the first the Cities of Embden Stralsburge and Franckfort In Franckfort they enjoyed the greatest privileges and therefore resorted thither in the greatest numbers which made them the more apt unto Schisms and factions At their first coming to that place which was on the 27th of June Anno 1554. by the power and favour of John Glauberge one of the Senators of that City they were permitted to have the use of one of their Churches which had before been granted to such French exiles as had repaired thither on the like occasion yet so that the French were still to hold their right the English to have the use of it one day and the French another and on the Lords day so to divide the hours between them that the one might be no hinderance unto the other It hath been said also that there was another condition imposed upon them of being conform unto the French in Doctrine and Ceremonies Which condition if it were imposed by the Magistrates not sought by themselves must needs be very agreeable to the temper and complexion of their principal Leaders who being for the most part of the Zuinglian-Gospellers at their going hence became the great promoters of the Puritan faction at their comming home The names of Whittingham Williams Goodman Wood and Sutton who appeared in the head of this congregation declare sufficiently of what Principles and strain they were how willing they would be to lay aside the face of an English Church and frame themselves to any Liturgie but their own On July the 14th they first obtained a grant of their Church and on the 29th took possession of it The interval they spent in altering and disfiguring the English Lyturgie of which they left nothing but the reading of the Psalms and Chapters Those comfortable interlocutories between the Minister and the People were no longer used as savouring in their opinion of some disorder in the course of the ministration the Letany and the Surplice they cast aside as having too much in them of the Church of Rome the Confession they had altered so as they conceived most agreeable to their present condition and for the Hymns which intervened between the Chapters and the Creed they changed them for such Psalms in the English Meerer as had been made by Sternhold and Hopkins in the time of King Edward The Psalm being done the Preacher goes into the Pulpit in which the Minister prayed for the assistance of God's Spirit and so proceeded to the Sermon Which done an other Prayer was made for all orders and estates of men but more particularly for the welfare of the Church of England composed in imitation of the Prayer for the Church Militant here on earth but ending as that did not with the Pater-noster After which most extreamly out of order followed the rehearsal of the Articles of the Christian Faith another Psalm and finally the dismission of the people with The Peace of God This was the form devised for that Congregation for the imposing whereof on all the rest of the English Churches they did then use their best endeavours and for obtruding which on the whole Church of England they raised such tumults and commotions in the following times Growing in love with this fair Babe of their own begetting they write their Letters of the second of August to such of the English as remained at Stralsburge and Zurick inviting them to repair to Franckfort and unite themselves unto that Church which had been there erected with the leave of the Magistrate But they had heard in both places of those Alterations which had been made at Franckfort in the form of Gods publick Service and thereupon refused to accept of the invitation though it seemed to promise them some advantages by the commodious situation of that City in respect of England the great resort of strangers thither at the yearly Marts plenty of Books and other helps in the way of study which were not to be found in the other two Cities From Stralsburge modestly from Zurick resolutely but from both it was plainly signified that they resolved to maintain the Order of the Church of England The like Letter had been writ to the English at Embden of which Congregation Doctor Scory the late Bishop of Chichester was the Super-intendent and we may readily believe that they received the like repulse from his Church at Embden as they had from Gryndal Sandys and Haddon or who had the constituting of the Church of Stralsburge or from Horn Chambers Parkhurst and other of the Students which remained at Zurick The noise of this new Church at Franckfort occasioned Knox who after proved the great incendiary of the Realm and Church of Scotland to leave his Sanctuary in Geneva in hope to make a better market for himself in that Congregation He had not long before published a seditious Pamphlet entituled The first blast of the Trumpet in which he bitterly inveighed against the Government of Women aiming there especially at the three Queen Maries that is to say Mary Queen of England Mary Queen of Scots and Mary of Lorrain Queen Regent of Scotland By which seditious Pamphlet he had made not onely his own Country too hot for him but could assure himself of no safety in France or England To Geneva therefore he retires and from thence removes to Franckfort as the â—itter Scene for his intendments hoping to get as great a name in this new Plantation as Calvin had gotten in the old It was about the end of September that he came to Franckfort where he took the charge of that Church upon him Whittingham and the rest submitting unto his Apostleship This gave a new dis-satisfaction to the English at Stralsburge and Zurick who knew the spirit of the man and feared the dangerous consequents and effects thereof Nor was the condition of affairs much bettered by the coming of Whitehead who afterwards refused the Archbishoprick of Canterbury though far the more moderate of the two New Letters are reciprocated between Franckfort and Zurick from Franckfort on the 15th of November in open defiance as it were to the English Liturgy from Zurick on the 28th in defence thereof and of their constancy and resolution for adhering to it The breach growing every day more wide than other Gryndal and Chambers came from Stralsburge to attone the difference by whom it was proposed unto them That the substance of the English Liturgy being retained there might be a forbearance of some ceremonies and offices in it But Knox and Whittingham were as much bent against the substance of the Book as against any of the circumstantials and extrinsicals which belonged unto it So that no good effect following on this interposition the Agents of the Church of Stralsburge return back to their brethren who by their Letters of the 13th of December expostulate in
sorry Pittances were forced to put themselves into Gentlemens Houses and there to serve as Clerkâ— of the Kitching Surveyourâ— Receivers c. pag. 241. All which Enormities though tending so apparently to the Dâ—shonour of God the Disservice of the Church and the Disgrace of Religion were generally connived at by the Lords and others who onely had the power to Reform the same because they could not question those who had so miserably invaded the Churches Patrimony without condemning of themselves Thus leaving England for a while we are to take a short Survey of Affairs in Scotland into which the French had put ten thousand Souldiers three thousand of them being Almains under the Command of Mounsieur D' Essie who joyning with the Scots laid Siege before the Town of Haddington on Peter's-Eve For the Relief whereof a strength of one thousand three hundred Horse was sent from Berwick under the Conduct of Sir Robert Bowes and Sir Thomas Palmer who falling very unfortunately into the Hands of the Enemy were for the most part slain or taken The English notwithstanding made good the Town and held it out so long that in the end the Earl of Shrewsbury with a Power of sixteen thousand men of which there were four thousand Lansquenets or Germane Souldiers appeared in fight On whose approach the Enemy withdrew themselves and raised their Siege on or about the twentieth day of August giving great commendation to the English Garison for the notable service they had done in defence of the Town The Siege being raised the Earl of Shrewbury with his Forces returned for England leaving the Town well stored with Victuals and plentifully furnished with all manner of Ammunition which put the Souldiers of the Garison into so good heart that they made many Sallies out and frequently Skirmished with the French and Scots whom they found Quartered in the Villages and Towns adjoyning But the matter being taken into Debate by the Council of England it was Resolved especially by those who secretly envied at the Power and Greatness of the Lord Protectour That the keeping of the Town would not quit the Cost as being farthest from the Borders and not to be Relieved if it were distressed without the raising and imploying of a Royal Army And thereupon the Earl of Rutland was sent thither with three thousand of the Lansquenets and as many Borderers who coming to the Town on the twentieth of September sleighted the Works and having destroyed the Houses caused all the Ordnance and Carriages to be sent to Berwick and returned without Battail The voluntary quitting of which Town drew after it the loss of all the Peeces which we held in Scotland The English Forces being removed from the Town of Haddington the French immediately prepared for their going home-wards carrying a richer Lading with them then all the Arms and Ammunition which they brought at their coming For while the Army lay at the Siege at Haddington the Ministers of the French King were busied in Treaty with the Scots for putting the Young Queen into their Power transporting her into France and Marrying her unto the Daulphin But in this point they found the Council much divided Some thought That the Conditions offered by the Lord Protectour not till then generally known were to be embraced in regard it gave them an assurance of ten years Peace at the least and that if either of the Princes died within that time they should be left at Liberty to Order the Affairs of that Kingdom to the most Advantage But against this it was alledged by those of the opposite Party whom the French King had bought with ready Money and Anual Pensions That as long as the Queen remained amongst them they should never be Free from the Pretensions of the English From which there was no question but they would desist when they saw the Ground thereof to be taken away by the Queens Removal Of which Party besides those which were corrupted by the Gold of France were the Bishops and Clergy who being Zealous for the preservation of their Old Religion abominated nothing more then the Alliance with England And so the matter being carried in behalf of the French and there being now no further need of them for defence of the Countrey they gave Order to make ready their Shipping and nominated a set day for their Departure Which day being come they Coasted about Scotland by the Isles of Orkney took in the young Queen at Dunâ—britton-Castle and passing through St. George's Chanel arrived in Bretaigne whilest a strong Squadron of the English attended for their coming in the Narrow-Seas But this Departure of the French though it much weakened did not disanimate the Scots for making trial of their Fortune against the Hume-Castle and Fast-Castle remained amongst some others as Thorns in their Sides but they regained them both this year Hume-Castle they surprised by means of some of their own Nation who being reputed Friends and suffered to have free and frequent Access unto it had Opportunity both to discover the Weaknesses of it and by what Ways it might most easily be taken And being more cordially affected to their Old Country-men then their New Acquaintance they directed a select number of Souldiers to some secret Paâ—sages by which having fiâ—st climbed up a very steep Rock they found an Entrance into the Castle put the secure Garison to the Sword and possessed the Place leaving a fair warning unto all others Fast-Castle they surprised by a Warlike Stratageme For the Governour having Commanded the neighbouring Villages at a prefixed day to bring in their Contribution of Corn and other necessary Provision the Enemy makes Use of this Opportunity Souldiers habited like Peasants came at the day fraught with their Burthens whereof having eased their Horses they carry them on their shoulders over the Bridg which joyned two Rocks together and so gained Entrance the Watch-word being given they cast down their Burthens till the Sentinels open the Gates to their Fellows and become Masters of the Place The News of which Surprisals together with that of the Queens Removal being brought into the Court of England which then began to be divided into Sides and Factions there was no further Care taken for the Prosecution of the Scotish War which for the pâ—esent much refreshed that impoveâ—ished Kâ—ngdom Now while these Traverses of War were made in Scotland there was no solid Peace though no open Discord in the Church of England It hath been shewed that Bishop Gardiner having long lain Prisoner in the Fleet was on the Morrow after Twelâ—th-Day last restored to Liberty and permitted to return unto his Diocess Where contrary to the Promise made at his Enlargment he began to shew himself displeased with the King's Proceedings in the case of Images Concerning which he wrote a long Letter to the Lord Protectour on the twenty first of May and backed it with another of the sixth of June and otherwise appeared so cross to the
had been given before between the time of the Duke's Acknowledgment and the Sentence passed on him by the Lords and so disposed that none of the Factions might have any ground for a Complaint One of each side being taken out for these Advancements For on the nineteenth day of January William Lord St. John a most affectionate Servant to the Earl of Warwick was preferred unto the Title of Earl of Wiltshire the Lord Russell who had made himself the Head of those which were engaged on neither side was made Earl of Bedford and Sir William Paget Comptroller of his Majestie 's Houshold who had persisted faithfull to the Lord Protectour advanced to the Dignity of a Baron and not long after to the Chancellour-ship of the Dutchy of Lancaster Furnished with Offices and Honours it is to be presumed that they would finde some way to provide themselves of sufficient Means to maintain their Dignities The Lord Wentworth being a younger Branch of the Wentworths of Yorkshire had brought some Estate with him to the Court though not enough to keep him up in Equipage with so great a Title The want whereof was supplied in part by the Office of Lord Chamberlain now conferred upon him but more by the goodly Manours of Stebunâ—th commonly called Stepney and Hackney bestowed upon him by the King in consideration of the Good and Faithfull Services before performed For so it happened that the Dâ—an and Chapter of St. Paul's lying at the Mercy of the Times as before was said conveyed over to the King the said two Manours on the twelfth day after Christmâ—ss now last past with all the Members and Appertenances thereunto belonging Of which the last named was valued at the yearly rent of 41. pounds 9. â— 4 d. The other at 140. pounds 8 â— 11. â— ob And being thus vested in the King they were by Letters Patents bearing Date the sixteenth of April then next following transferred upon the said Lord VVâ—ntworth By means whereof he was possessed of a goodly Territory extending on the Thames from St. Katharine's near the Tower of London to the Borders of Essex near Black-wall from thence along the River Leâ— to Stratford le Bow and fetching a great compass on that side of the City contains in all no fewer then six and twenty Town-ships Streets and Hamlets besides such Rows of Building as have since been added in these later Times The like provision was made by the new Lord Pâ—get a Londoner by Birth but by good Fortune mixed with Merit preferred by degrees to be one of the Principal Secretaries to the late King Henry by whom he was employed in many Embassies and Negotiations Being thus raised and able to set up for himself he had his share in the division of the Lands of Chantery Free-Chapels c. and got into his hands the Episcopal House belonging to the Bishop of Exeter by him enlarged and beautified and called Paget-House sold afterwards to Robert Earl of Leicester from whom it came to the late Earls of Essex and from them took the name of Essex-House by which it is now best known But being a great House is noâ— able to keep it self he played his Game so well that he got into his possession the Manour of Beau-desart of which he was created Baron and many other fair Estates in the County of Stafford belonging partly to the Bishop and partly to the Dean and Chaâ—ter of Lichfield neither of which was able to contend with so great a Courtier who held the See and had the Ear of the Protectour and the King 's to boot What other Course he toâ—k to improve his Fortunes we shall see hereafter when we come to the last part of the Tragedy of the Duke of Sommerset For Sommerset having gained his Liberty and thereby being put into a Capacity of making use of his Friends found Means to be admitted to the King's Presence by whom he was not onely welcomed with all the kind Expressions of a Gracious Prince and made to sit down at his own Table but the same day the eighth of April he was again sworn one of the Lords of the Privy Council This was enough to make Earl Dudly look about him and to pretend a Reconciliation with him for the present whom he meant first to make secure and afterwards strike the last blow at him when he least look'd for it And that the knot of Amity might be tyed the faster and last the longer a True-Loves-Knot it must be thought or else nothing worth a Marriage was nâ—gotiated between John Lord Viscount L'isle the Earl's Eldest Son and the Lady Ann Seimour one of the Daughters of the Duke which Marriage was joyfully solemnized on the third of June at the King's Mannour-House of Shâ—â—e the King himself gracing the Nuptials with his Presence And now who could imagine but that upon the giving of such Hostages unto one another a most inviolable League of Friendship had been made between them and that all Animosities and Displeasures being quite forgotten they would more powerfully Co-operate to the publick Good But leaving them and their Adâ—erents to the dark Contrivances of the Court we must leave England for a time and see how our Affairs succeeded on the other side of the Sea Where in the middle of the former Dissensions the French had put us to the Worst in the way of Arms and after got the Better in a Treaty of Peace They had the last year taken in all the Out-works which seemed the strongest Ramparâ—s of the Town of Bulloign but had not strength enough to venture on the Town it self provided plentifully of all necessaries to endure a Siege and bravely Garisoned by men of too much Courage and Resolution to give it up upon a Summons Besides they came to understand that the English were then Practicing with Charles the Emperour to associate with them in the War according to some former Capitulations made between those Crowns And if they found such Dâ—ffiâ—ulties in maintaining the War against either of them when they fought singly by themselves there was no hope of any good Success against them should they unite and poure their Forces into France Most true it is that after such time as the French had bid Defiance to the King and that the King by reason of the Troubles and Embroilments at home was not in a Condition to attend the Affairs of France Sir William Paget was sent Ambassadour to Charles the Fifth to desire Succour of Him and to lay before Him the Infancy and several Necessities of the young King being then in the twelfth year of His Age. This desire when the Emperour had refused to hearken to they besought Him that he would at the least be pleased to take into His Hands the keeping of the Town of Bulloign and that for no longer time then untill King EDVVARD could make an End of the Troubles of His Subjects at home and compose the Discords of the Court which
1282. that they had a Synodal Authority unto them committed to make such Spiritual Laws as to them seemed to be nâ—câ—ssary or convenient for the use of the Church Had it been otherwise King Edward a most Pious and Religious Prince must needs be looked on as a Wicked and most Lewd Impostour in putting such an horrible Cheat upon all His Subjects by Fathering these Articles on the Convocation which begat them not nor ever gave consent unto them And yet it is not altogether improbable but that these Articles being debated and agreed upon by the said Commitee might also pass the Vote of the whole Convocation though we finde nothing to that purpose in the Acts thereof which either have been lost or were never Registred Besides it is to be observed that the Church of England for the first five years of Queen Elizabeth retained these Articles and no other as the publick Tenents of the Church in point of Doctrine which certainly She had not done had they been commended to Her by a less Authority then a Convocation Such hand the Convocation had in canvasing the Articles prepared for them and in concluding and agreeing to so much or so many of them as afterwards were published by the King's Authority in the name thereof But whether they had any such hand in Reviewing the Liturgie and passing their Consent to such Alterations as were made therein is another Question That some necessity appeared both for the Reveiwing of the whole and the altering of some Parts thereof hath been shew'd before And it was shewed before by whose Procurement and Sollicitation the Church was brought to that necessity of doing somewhat to that Purpose But being not sufficiently Authorised to proceed upon it because the King 's sole Authority did not seem sufficient they were to stay the Leasure and Consent of the present Parliament For being the Liturgie then in force had been confirmed and imposed by the King in Parliament with the Consent and Assent of the Lords and Commons it stood with Reason that they should not venture actually on the Alteration but by their permission first declared And therefore it is said expresly in the Act of Parliament made this present year That The said Order of Common Service Entituled The Book of Common-Prayer had been Perused Explained and made fully perfect not single by the King's Authority but by the King with the Assent of the Lords and Commons More then the giving of their Assent was neither required by the King nor desired by the Prelats and less then this could not be fought as the Case then stood The signifying of which Assent enabled the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy whom they had taken for their Assistants to proceed to the Digesting of such Alterations as were before considered and resolved on amongst themselves and possibly might receive the like Authority from the Convocation as the Articles had though no such thing remaining upon Record in the Registers of it But whether it were so or not certain it is that it received as much Authority and Countenance as could be given unto it by an Act of Parliament by which imposed upon the Subject under certain Penalties Imprisonments Pecuniarie Mulcts c. which could not be inflicted on them by Synodical Acts. The Liturgie being thus Settled and Confirmed in Parliament was by the King's Command translated into French for the Use of the Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and such as lived within the Marches and Command of Calais But no such Care was taken for Wales till the fifth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth nor of the Realm of Ireland from that time to this King Henry had so far prepared the Way to a Reformation as His own Power and Profit was concerned in it to which Ends he excluded the Pope's Authority and caused Himself to be declared Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of Ireland by Act of Parliament And by like Acts he had annexed to the Crown the Lands of all Monasteries and Religious Orders together with thetwentieth Part of all the Ecclesiastical Promotions within that Kingdom and caused the like Course to be settled for the Electing and Consecrating of Arch-Bishops and Bishops as had been done before in England Beyond which as he did not go so as it seems King Edward's Council thought not fit to adventure further They held it not agreeable to the Rules of Prudence to have too many Irons in the Fire at once nor safe in Point of Policy to try Conclusions on a People in the King's Minority which were so far tenacionsly addicted to the Superstitions of the Church of Rome and of a Nature not so tractable as the English were And yet that Realm was quiet even to Admiration notwithstanding the frequent Embroilments and Commotions which so miserably disturbed the Peace of England which may be reckoned for one of the greatest Felicities of this King's Reign and a strong Argument of the Care and Vigilancy of such of His Ministers as had the chief Direction of the Irish Affairs At the first Payment of the Money for the Sale rather then the Surrendry of Bulloign eight thousand pounds was set apart for the Service of Ireland and shortly after out of the Profits which were raised from the Mint four hundred men were Levied and sent over thither also with a Charge given to the Governours that the Laws of England should be Carefully and Duly administred and all such as did oppose suppressed by Means whereof great Countenance was given to those who embraced the Reformed Religion there especially within those Counties which are called commonly by the name of the English Pale The Common-Prayer-Book of England being brought over thither and used in most of the Churches of the English Plantation without any Law in their own Parliaments to impose it on them But nothing more conduced to the Peace of that Kingdom then that the Governours for the most part were men of such Choice that neither the Nobility disdained to endure their Commands nor the inferiour sort were oppressed to supply their Wants Besides which as the King drew many men from thence to serve him in his Wars against France and Scotland which otherwise might have disturbed the common Peace so upon notice of some great Preparations which were made in France for the Assistance of the Scots he sent over to guard the Coast of Ireland four Ships four Barks four Pinnaces and twelve Victuallers By the Advantage of which Strength He made good three Havens two on the South-side toward France and one toward Scotland which afterwards made themselves good Booties out of such of the French as were either cast away on the Coast of Ireland or forced to save themselves in the Havens of it For the French making choice rather of their Passage by Saint George's Chanel then by the ordinary Course of Navigation from France to Edenborough fell from one Danger to another and for fear of being
one another by the known Laws of the Land which neither Acts of Parliament nor the last Will and Testament of the King Deceased were of power to alter That the young Queen of Scots was an Alien born by Consequence uncapable of any Inheritance in the Realm of England and had besides preferred the Alliance of the French before that of His Majesty which rendered Her as unworthy as she was uncapable That for the better carrying on of that Blessed Work of Reformation the Peace and Happiness of His People the preventing of all Emergent Mischiefs and His own everlasting Fame it was not possible to make a more happy Provision then by transferring the Crown to the Lady Jane a Lady of such Excellent Virtues as were sufficient to adorn the Richest Diadem That there was no Question to be made but that His Majesty knew as well as any the admirable qualities of that Matchless Lady Her Zeal to the Religion here by Him established the agreeableness of Her Conversation with His own Affections and could not but conceive that Nation to be infinitely happier then all others which might fall under the Command of so mild a Government And finally That he was bound by His Duty to God the Light of His own Conscience and the Love He had to all His Subjects to lay aside all Natural Affections to His Father's House in respect of that great Obligation which He had to God's Glory and the true Religion following therein the Example of our Lord and Saviour who looked both for his Brothers and Sisters amongst his Disciples without relating to his nearest Kindred by Joseph or Mary By these Suggestions and Inducements he much enclined the King to hearken to his Propositions For furtherance whereof he caused such as were about Him to entertain Him with continual Discourses of the Divine Perfections and most Heavenly Graces of the Lady Jane the high Esteem in which She was with all the Subjects for Her Zeal and Piety the everlasting Fame which would wait upon Him by providing such a Successour to enjoy the Crown in whom Virtues would survive to succeeding Ages Then which no Musick could sound sweeter in the Ears of the King whom he knew to have an affectionate Sympathy with that Excellent Lady as being much of the same Age brought up in the same Studies as near to Him in the sweetness of Her Disposition as She was in Blood and of a Conversation so agreeable to Him as if They had been but the same Person in divers Habits And they all plied their Game so cunningly that the weak King not being able to withstand so many Assaults did at last condescend to that which he found not onely most conformable to their Importunities but to His own Affections also Order was taken thereupon that an Instrument should be drawn in due Form of Law for the transposing of the Crown to the Children of the Lady Frances Duchess of Suffolk and Daughter to Mary the French Queen one of the Sisters of King Henry His Majeâ—tie's â—â—ther In which Instrument nothing was to be defective which either could be drawn from the Grounds of Law or the Rules of Polity to justifie and endear the Action In drawing up whereof there was none thought fitter to be used then Sir William Cecil one of the Chief Secretaries of Estate who having before served Dudlie's Turn against his old Master the Duke of Sommerset was looked on as the Readiest Man for the present Service The Pretensions taken from the Law for excluding the King's two Sisters from the Right of Succession were grounded First Upon the Invalidity of their Mother's Marriage both being made void by Legal Sentences of Divorce and those Divorces ratified by Acts of Parliament In which the said two Sisters were declared to be illegitimate and consequently uncapable of any of those Favours which were intended to them by the Act of Succession made in the thirty fifth year of the late King Henry or by the last Will and Testament of that King which was built upon it In the next Place it was pretended that the said two Sisters Mary and Elizabeth being but of half Blood to the King now Reigning admitting them to have been born in lawfull Wedlock were not in any Capacity by the Common-Law the old good Law of England to be Heirs unto Him or to Succeed in any Part of that Inheritance which came unto Him by His Father It was considered also that by the known Rules and Principles of the Common-Law no manner of Person was Inheritable to any Estate of Lands or Tenements in the Realm of England who was not born under the King's Allegiance as King of England but in the case of Naturalization by Act of Parliament Which seemed to be a sufficient Bar against all Titles and Demands for the Line of Scotland although derived from Margaret the Eldest Daughter of King Henry the Seventh And whereas the Lady Frances Duchess of Suffolk might seem both by the Law of Nature and the Right of Succession to have precedency in Title before her Daughter yet was no Injury offered to her in regard that she was willing to pass by all her Personal Claims for the Preferment of her Children Which Pretermissions of the Mother were neither new nor strange in the Succession to the Crown of this Kingdom Not new because the like was done by Maud the Emperess for the Advancement of her Son King Henry the Second nor strange because it hâ—d been lately practised in the Person of the Lady Margaret Countess of Richmond in giving Way to the Preferment of King Henry the Seventh the first King of the House now Regnant The Reasons or Pretexts which seemed to be built on Polity and Point of State were first the unavoydable Danger of Reducing this Free and Noble Realm under the Vassalage and Servitude of the Bishop of Rome if either of the King 's two Sisters in their several Turns should marry with a Foreign Prince of that Religion or otherwise by the Transport of their own Affections submit their Scepters to the Pope It was considered also That by such Marriages not onely many Foreign Customs and Laws would be introduced but that there might follow an Abolishment of those Antient Laws upon which the Native Rights of all the Subjects seemed to have dependance Besides that possibly the Realm might hereby be annexed to some greater Kingdom of which in time it would be reckoned for a Member and consequently be reduced unto the Form of a Province to the utter Subversion of the Antient Dignity and Estate thereof Which whensoever it should happen it was neither impossible nor improbable that the People upon a just Sence of the Indignities Pressures might elect some popular and seditious man to be their King who to countenance his own unworthiness obscurity would little regard what Contumelie he cast upon the falling Family of the Kings before him To which perchance some further Countenance might be
the change and to assure those Princes of the Queens desire to maintain all former leagues between them and the Crown of England but more particular instructions were directed to her Agent in the Court of Spain to whom it was given in charge to represent unto the King the dear remembrance which she kept of those many humanities received from him in the time of her troubles Instructions are sent also to Sir Edward Karn the late Queens Agent with the Pope and now confirmed by her in the same imployment to make his Holiness acquainted with the death of Queen Mary and her succession to the Crown not without out some desire that all good offices might be reciprocally exchanged between them But the Pope answered hereunto according to his accustomed rigour That the Kingdom of England was held in Fee of the Apostolick See that she could not succeed being illegitimate that he could not contradict the declarations of Clement the 7th and Paul the 3d. that it was a great boldness to assume the name and government of it without him yet being desirous to shew a fatherly affection if she will renounce her pretensions and refer her self wholly to his free disposition he will do whatsoever may be done with the honour of the Apostolick See To the making of which sudden answer though there needed no other instigation of his own rough nature yet many thought that he was put upon it by some Ministers of the Court of France who fearing nothing more than that Philip will endeavour by a second mariage to assure himself of the possession of the Realm of England and to that end sollicit for a dispensation to make way unto it thought it expedient to prevent those practices in the first beginning by putting the Pope upon such counsels as would be sure to dash all his hopes that way But the new Queen having perform'd this office of civility to him as she did to others expected not the coming back of any answer not took much thought of it when she heard it She knew full well that her legitimation and the Popes supremacy could not stand together and that she could not possibly maintain the one without a discarding of the other But in this case it concerned her to walk very warily and not to unmask her self too much at once for fear of giving an alarum to the Papal party before she had put her self into a posture of ability to make good her actions Many who were imprisoned for the cause of Religion she restored to liberty at her first coming to the Crown Which occasioned Rainsford a Buffonly Gentleman of the Court to make a sute to her in the behalf of Mathew Mark Luke and John who had been long imprisoned in a Latine Translation that they also might be restored to liberty and walk abroad as formerly in the English Toung To whom she presently made answer That he should first endeavour to know the minds of the Prisoners who perhaps desired no such liberty as was demanded Which notwithstanding upon a serious debate of all particulars she was resolved to proceed to a reformation as the times should serve In order whereunto she constitutes her Privy Council which she compounds of such ingredients as might neither give encouragement to any of those who wish'd well to the Church of Rome or alienate their affections from her whose hearts were more inclined to the Reformation Of such as had been of the Coâ—ncil to the Quen her sister she retained the Lord Archbishop of York the Lord Marquess of Winchester the Earls of Arundel Shrewsbury Darby and Pembrock the Lords Clynton and Effingham Sir Thomas Cheiney Sir William Petice Sir John Mason Sir Richard Sackvile and Doctor Wotton To whom she added of her own the Marquess of Northampton the Earl of Bedford Sir Thomas Parre Sir Edward Roâ—ers Sir Ambrose Care Sir William Cecil and Sir Nicholas Bâ—câ—n To which last being then Attorney of the Dutchy of Lancaster and one that had been much employed by her in some former services which had relation to the Law she committed the custody of the Great Seal on the 22 of December the Title of Lord Chancellor remaining to Archbishop Heath as before it did and that of the Lord keeper being given to Bacon Which being a new Title and consequently subject unto some disputes an Act was passed in the second Parliament of her Reign for investing the said new Lord Keeper and all that should from thenceforth enjoy that Office with all the Powers Privileges and Preheminences which antiently had been exercised and enjoyed by the Lord Chancellor of England and for confirming of all sentences and decrees in Chancery which had or should be made by the said Lord Keepers in all times to come The like mixture she also caused to be made amongst other her subordinate Ministers in adding such new Commissioners for the Peace in every County as either were known to be of the Reformed Religion or to wish well to it The preferring of so many of the Protestant party as well to places of employment in their several Countries as to the ranck and dignity of Privy Counsellors and the refusal of her hand to Bishop Bonner at her very first comming to the Crown were taken to be strong presumptions as indeed they were that she intended to restore the Reformed Religion And as the Papists in the first beginning of the Reign of Queen Mary hoping thereby the better to obtain her favour began to build new Altars and set up the Mass before they were required so to do by any publick Authority so fared it now with many unadvised Zelots amongst the Protestants who measuring the Queens affections by their own or else presuming that their errors would be taken for an honest zeal employed themselves as busily in the demolishing of Altars and defacing of Images as if they had been licenced and commanded to it by some legal warrant It hapned also that some of the Ministers which remained at home and others which returned in great numbers from beyond the Seas had put themselves into the Pulpits and bitterly inveighed against the superstitions and corruptions of the Church of Rome The Popish Preachers did the like and were not sparing of invectives against the others whom they accused of Heresies Schisms and Innovation in the Worship of God For the suppressing of which disorders on the one side and those common disturbances on the other the Queen set out two Proclamations much about one time by one of which it was commanded that no man of what perswasion soever he was in the points of Religion should be suffered from thenceforth to preach in publick but onely such as should be licensed by her authority and that all such as were so licensed or appointed should forbear preaching upon any point which was matter of Controversie and might conduce rather to exasperate than to calm mens passions Which Proclamation was observed with such care and strictness that
City of Cambray in which all differences were concluded also between France and Spain all other Articles being accorded the restitution of Calais to the Queen of England seemed the onely obstacle by which the general peace of Christendom was at the point to have been hindred But the Queen either preferring the publick good before private interest or fearing to be left alone if she should stand too obstinately upon that particular came at the last to this agreement viz. That Calais should remain for the tearm of eight years then next following in the hands of the French that at the end of the said tearm it should be deliveâ—ed unto the English or otherwise the French King should pay unto the Queen the sum of 500000 Crowns According unto which Agreement Peace was proclaimed in London on the 7th of April between the Queens Majesty on the one part and the French King on the other as also between her and the King Dolphin with his wife the Queen of Scots and all the Subjects and Dominions of the said four Princes The Proclamation published by Garter and Norrey Kings at Arms accompanied with three other Heralds and five Trumpeters the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in their Scarlet Gowns being present on horseback But long the French King lived not to enjoy the benefit of this general Peace unfortunately wounded in Paris at a Tilt or Tournament by Count Monâ—gomery of which wound he shortly after died on the 10th of July leaving be hind him four sons Francis Charls Henry and another Francis of which the three first according to their seniority enjoyed that Kingdom And though she had just cause to be offended with the young King Francis for causing the Queen of Scots his wife to take upon her self the Title and Arms of England yet she resolved to bestow a royal Obsequy on the King deceased which was performed in St. Paul's Church on the 8th and 9th of September in most solemn manner with a rich Hearse made like an Imperial Crown sustained with eight pillars and covered with black Velvet with a Valence fringed with gold and richly hanged with Scâ—tcheous Pennons and Banners of the French Kings Arms the principal mourner for the first day was the Lord Treasurer Paulet Marquis of Winchester assisted with ten other Lords Mourners with all the Heralds in black and their Coat-Armours uppermost The divine Offices performed by Doctor Matthew Parker Lord elect of Canterbury Doctor William Barlow Lord elect of Chichester and Doctor Iâ—hn Scory Lord elect of Hereford all sitting in the Throne of the Bishop of London no otherwise at that time than in hoods and Surplices by whom the Derige was executed at that time in the English toung The Funeral Sermon preached the next morning by the Lord of Hereford and a Communion celebrated by the Bishops then attired in Copes upon their Surplices At which time six of the chief mourners received the Sacrament and so departed with the rest to the Bishops Palace where a very liberal Entertainment was provided for them By which magnificency and the like this prudent Queen not onely kept â—er own reputation at the highest amongst forein Princes but caused the greater estimation to be had by the Catholick party of the Religion here established Anno Reg. Eliz. 2. A. D. 1559 1560. WE must begin this year with the Consecration of such new Bishops as were elected to succeed in the place of those which had been deprived the first of which was that of the most reverend Doctor Matthew Parker elected to the See of Canterbury on the first of August but not consecrated till the 17th of December following That Dignity had first been offered as is said by some to Doctor Nicholas Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York who grown in years and still a well-willer to the Pope desired to be excused from undertaking of a charge so weighty And some say it was offered unto Whitehead also who had been Chaplain to Anne Bollen the Queen's mother but he returned the like refusal though on other grounds as more inclined by reason of his long abode in Calvin's Churches to the Presbyterians than the Episcopal form of Government and it was happy for the Church might have been betrayed by his dissaffection that he did refuse it The Chair being better filled by Parker another of Queen Bollen's Chaplains but better principled and of a far more solid judgment in affairs of moment The Congeâ—d ' sleiur which opened him the way to this eminent Dignity bears date on the 18th day of July within few days after the deprivation of the former Bishops to satisfie the world in the Queens intention of preserving the Episcopal Government And therefore why the consecration was deferred so long maybe made a question some think it was that she might satisfie her self by putting the Church into a posture by her Visitation before she passed it over to the care of the Bishops others conceive that she was so enamoured with the power and title of Supream Governess that she could not deny her self that contentment in the exercise of it which the present Interval afforded For what are Titles without Power and what pleasure can be took in Power if no use be made of it And it is possible enough that both or either of these considerations might have some influence upon her But the main cause for keeping the Episcopal Sees in so long a vacancy must be found else-where An Act had passed in the late Parliament which never had the confidence to appear in print in the Preamble whereof it was declared That by dissolution of Religious Houses in the time of the late King her Majesties father many Impropriations Tithes and portions of Tithes had been invested in the Crown which the Queen being a Lady of a tender conscience thought not fit to hold nor could conveniently dismember from it without compensation in regard of the present low condition in which she found the Crown at her comming to it And thereupon it was enacted that in the vacancy of any Archbishoprick or Bishoprick it should be lawful for the Queen to issue out a Commission under the Great Seal for taking a survey of all Castles Mannors Lands Tenements and all other Hereditaments to the said Episcopal Sees belonging or appertaining and on the return of such surveys to take into her hands any of the said Castles Mannors Lands Tenements c. as to her seemed good giving to the said Archbishops or Bishops as much annual Rents to be raised upon Impropriations Tithes and portions of Tithes as the said Castles Mannors Lands c. did amount unto The Church Lands certified according to the antient Rents without consideration of the Casualties and other Perqâ—isites of Court which belonged unto them the Retribution made in Pensions Tithes and portions of Tithes extended at the utmost value from which no other profit was to be expected than the Rent it self Which Act not being to take effect
her self to good counsel there should be place left unto her of regresse to the same honors from which for good causes she ought to be deprived This Act is intimated to the Queen Regent who now begins as seriously to provide for her own preservation as she had done before in maintenance of the Queens Authority Some Forces had been sent from France together with many Arms and Ammunition in proportion to them but these not being great enough to suppress those insolencies she is supplied at times with 3000 Foot beside Octavian's Regiment sent over to make way for the rest Some Horse were also shipt from France but so scattered and dispersed by tempest that few of them came safely thither Yet by the terrour of their comming and the noise of more she recovereth Edenborough compelleth the confederate Scots to go further North fortifies Lieth the Port-Town to Edenborough and the chief Key of all that Kingdom Garrisoned forthwith by the French not onely to make good their Entrance but second their Exit On these discouragements many of the Scots soldiers drop away and the rest refuse to stand unto their Arms without present pay Had the French gone to work like soldiers and poured such forces into that Kingdom as the condition of affairs did require at their hands they might easily have suppressed that scattered Faction before they were united under the protection of a forein Power but this doing of their work by halves proved the undoing of the whole and onely served to give the Scots sufficient time to renew their forces and call the English to their aid They had all along maintained a correspondence with some in England but more particularly with Crofts Governor of the Town of Barwick To him they send for a supply in this great necessity by whom their Agents are dispatched with four thousand Crowns but the Queen Regent was so seasonably advertised of it that she intercepted on the way both the men and the mony In this extremity they take counsel of despair with Knox by whom they are advised to cast themselves into the arms of the Queen of England the onely visible means then left to support the cause to whom the neighbourhood of the French upon just jealousies and reasons of State was not very acceptable No better counsel being offered as indeed none could Maitland and Melvin are dispatched â—o the Court of England by whom the Queen is made acquainted with the state of that Kingdom the difficulty under which it strugled the danger like to fall on her own Dominions if the French should grow too strong in Scotland and thereupon entreat her succours and assistance for the expulsion of that People who otherwise might to both Realms prove alike destructive The business being taken into consideration it was conceived by some of the Council that the Queen ought not to give ear unto their desires that it was a matter of dangerous consequence and of ill example to assist the Subjects of that or any other Kingdom against their own natural and lawful Princes and that she did not know how soon it might be her own case to have the like troubles and commotions raised against her by those who liked not her proceedings in the change of Religion By others it was thought a matter of no small impiety not to assist their brethren of the same profession imploring their assistance in the present exigency that it was a work of charity to defend their neighbours from the oppression of strangers that the French were always enemies to the Crown of England and therefore that it could not be consistent with the rules of prudence to suffer them to grow too strong upon their borders that the French King had already assumed the Title of England and it concerned them to take care that they gave him not by their improvidence the possession also These reasons carried it for the Scots And so they are dismist with promise of such present aid and on such conditions as should be agreed on by Commissioners on both sides in the Town of Barwick About the middle of February the Commissioners meet the Duke of Norfolk for the Queen the Lord James Stewart one of the bastard brothers of the Queen of Scots the Lord Ruthwen and some other principal men of the Congregation in the name of the rest By whom it was concluded on the 27th of that month That the Queen should send sufficient forces into Scotland both by Sea and Land furnished with Mony Arms and Ammunition that she should not recall her forces till that Kingdom was cleared of all the French that provision of Victuals for the Army should be made by the Scots that the Scots should shew themselves enemies to all such as were enemies to the Crown of England whether Scots or French But by all means that nothing should be done by vertue of this Agreement which might import the least withdrawing of the Scots from that loyalty duty and obedience which was due unto their natural Queen or the King her husband By which Agreement with the Scots the Queen abundantly provided for her own security from all Invasions on that side and by affording them such succours as their wants required but chiefly by conferring some small annual pensions on the Chiefs amongst them she made her self more absoâ—ute on that side of the Tweed than either the Queen of Scoâ—s her self or King James her son or any of their Predecessors in all times before According to these Capitulations an Army gallantly appointed is sent into Scotland consisting of 6000 Foot and 2000 Horse and commanded by the Lord Gray a right expert Soldier accompanied by some Lords and Gentlemen of eminent quality some ships were also sent to block up the Haven and hinder all relief which might come by Sea to the Town of Lieth on the defence whereof depended the whole hopes of the French together with the interest of that Crown in the Realm of Scotland It was about the beginning of April that the English Army came before it recruited afterwards by the comming of 2000 more which fresh supply together with some ill success which they found in the action did so disanimate the besieged that they conceived no possibility of a long resistance Ambassadors are therefore sent from France to Edenborough there to confer with such of the same quality as should also come thither authorised by the Queen of England by whom it was in fine concluded That all the French Forces should forthwith depart out of Scotland except 60 onely to be left in Dunbar and as many in the Fort of Nachkeeth that they should be transported for their greater safety in English Bottoms that all matters of Religion should be referred to the following Parliament that an act of Oblivion should be passed for the indemnity of all who had born Arms on either side that a general Bond of Love and Amity should be made betwixt the Lords and their Adherents of
the 9th the second brother and next heir to the King deceased Katherine de Medices the Relict of Henry the 2d and the Mother of Charls layes claim to the Regency for who could have a greater care either of the young Kings person or estate than his natural Mother But against her aâ— being a meer stranger to the Nation and affairs of France Anthony of Burboâ— Duke of Vendosme by descent and King of Navarr at the least in Title in the Right of Joan d' Albret his wife the sole Heir of that Crown layes his claim unto it as being the first Prince of the blood and therefore fitter to be trusted with the Regency by the rules of that government The Guisian faction joyn themselves to that of the Queen of whom they better knew how to make advantage than they could of the other and to that end endeavour by all subtil artifices to invest her in it To this end they insinuate themselves into the Duke perswade him either to relinquish his demands of the Regency or to associate himself with the Queen-Mother in the publick government and to joyn counsels with the Catholick party for suppressing the Hâ—gonots Which that they might allure him to or at least take him off from his first persute they offered to procure a Divorce from his present wife and that instead of holding the Kingdom of Navarr in Right of his wife he should hold it in his own personal capacity by a grant from the Pope his wife being first deprived of it by his Holiness as suspected of Lutheranism that being divorced from his wife he should marry Mary Queen of the Scots with whom he should not only have the Kingdom of Scotland but of England also of which Elizabeth was to be deprived on the same account that for the recovery of that Kingdom he should not only have the Popes authority and the power of France but also the forces of the King of Spain and finally that the Catholick King did so much study his contentment that if he would relinquish his pretensions to the Crown of Navarr he should be gratified by him with the soverainty and actual possession of the Isle of Sardinia of which he should receive the Crown with all due solemnities By which temptations when they had render'd him suspected to the Protestant party and thereby setled the Queen-Mother in that place and power which so industriously she aspired to they laid him by as to the Title permitting him to live by the air of hope for the short time of his life which ended on the 17th of November Anno 1562. And so much of the game was plaid in earnest that the Dâ—ke of Guise did mainly labour with the Pope to fulminate his Excommunications against Elizabeth as one that had renounced his authority apostated from the Catholick Religion and utterly exterminated the profession of it out of her Dominions But the Duke sped no better in this negotiation than the Count of Feria did before The Pope had still retained some hope of regaining England and meant to leave no way unpractised by which he might obtain the point he aimed at When first the See was vacant by the death of Pope Paul the 4th the Cardinals assembled in the Conclave bound themselves by oath that for the better setling of the broken and distracted estate of Christendome the Council formerly held at Trent should be resumed withall convenient speed that might be Which being too fresh in memory to be forgotten and of too great importance to be laid aside the new Pope had no sooner setled his affairs in Rome which had been much disordered by the harshness and temerity of his predecessor but he resolved to put the same in execution For this cause he consults with some of the more moderate and judicious Cardinals and by his resolution and dexterity surmounts all difficulties which shewed themselves in the design and he resolved not only to call the Council but that it should be held in 〈◊〉 to which it had been formerly called by Pope Paul the 3d. 1545. that it should rather be a continuance of the former Council which had been interrupted by the prosecution of the wars in Germany than the beginning of a new and that he would invite unto it all Christian Princes his dear daughter Queen Elizabeth of England amongst the rest And on these terms he stood when he was importuned by the Ministers of the Duke of Gvise to proceed against her to a sentence of Excommunication and thereby to expose her Kingdoms to the next Invader But the Pope was constantly resolved on his first intention of treating with her after a fair and amicable manner professing a readiness to comply with her in all reciprocal offices of respect and friendship and consequently inviting her amongst other Princes to the following Council to which if she should please to send her Bishops or be present in the same by her Ambassadors he doubted not of giving them such satisfaction as might set him in a fair way to obtain his ends Leaving the Pope in this good humour we shall go for England where we shall find the Prelates at the same imployment in which we left them the last year that is to say with setting forth the Consecrations of such new Bishops as served to fill up all the rest of the vacant Sees The first of which was Robert Horn Dr. in Divinity once Dean of Durham but better known by holding up the English Liturgy and such a form of Discipline as the times would bear against the schismaticks of Franckfort preferred unto the See of Winchester and consecrated Bishop in due form of Law on the 16th of February Of which we shall speak more hereafter on another occasion On which day also Mr. Edmond Scambler Batchelor of Divinity and one of the Prebendaries of the new Collegiat Church of St. Peter in Westminster was consecrated Bishop of the Church of Peterborough During the vacancy whereof and in the time of his incumbency Sir William Caecil principal Secretary of Estate possess'd himself of the best Mannors in the Soake which belonged unto it and for his readiness to confirm the same Mannors to him preferred him to the See of Norwich Anno 1584. Next followes the translation of Dr. Thomas Young Bishop of St. Davids to the See of York which was done upon the 25th of February in an unlucky hour to that City as it also proved For scarce was he setled in that See when he pulled down the goodly Hall and the greatest part of the Episcopal Palace in the City of York which had been built with so much care and cost by Thomas the elder one of his predecessors there in the year of our Lord 1090. Whether it were for covetousness to make money of the materials of it or out of fordidness to avoid the charge of Hospitality in that populous City let them guess that will Succeeded in the See of St. David's by Davis
her in short time not only to protect her Merchants but command the Ocean Of which the Spaniard found good proof to his great loss and almost to his total ruine in the last 20 years of her glorious government And knowing right well that mony was the â—inew of war she fell upon a prudent and present course to fill her coffers Most of the monies in the Kingdom were of forein coynage brought hither for the most part by the Easterling and Flemish Merchants These she called in by Proclamation â—â—ted the 15th of November being but two dayes before the end of this 3d. year commanding them to be brought to her Majesties Mint there to be coyned and take the stamp of her Royal authority or otherwise not to pass for current within this Realm which counsel took such good effect that monies came flowing into the Mint insomuch that there was weekly brought into the Tower of London for the space of half a year together 8000. 10000. 12000. 16000. 20000. 22000 l. of silver plate and as much more in Pistols and other gold of Spanish coins which were great sums according to the standard of those early dayes and therefore no small profit to be growing to her by the coynage of them The Genevians slept not all this while but were as busily imployed in practising upon the Church as were the Romanists in plotting against the Queen Nothing would satisfie them but the nakedness and simplicity of the Zuinglian Churches the new fashions taken up at Franckfort and the Presbyteries of Geneva According to the pattern which they saw in those mounts the Church of England is to be modell'd nor would the Temple of Jerusalem have served their turn if a new Altar fashioned by that which they found at Damascus might not have been erected in it And they drove on so fast upon it that in some places they had taken down the steps where the Aâ—tar stood and brought the Holy Table into the midst of the Church in others they had laid aside the antient use of Godfathers and Godmothers in the administration of Baptism and left the answering for the child to the charge of the father The weekly Fasts the time of Lent and all other dayes of abstinence by the Church commanded were looked upon as superstitious observations No fast by them allowed of but occasional only and then too of their own appointing And the like course they took with the Festivals also neglecting those which had been instituted by the Church as humane inventions not fit to be retained in a Church reformed And finally that they might wind in there outlandish Doctrines with such forein usages they had procured some of the inferiour Ordinaries to impose upon their several Parishes certain new books of Sermons and Expositions of the holy Scripture which neither were required by the Queens Injunctions nor by Act of Parliament Some abuses also were discovered in the Regular Clergy who served in Churches of peculiar or exempt jurisdiction Amongst whom it began to grow too ordinary to marry all such as came unto them without Bains or Licence and many times not only without the privity but against the express pleasure and command of their Parents For which those Churches past by the name of Lawlesse Churches in the voice of the people For remedy whereof it was found necessary by the Archbishop of Canterbury to have recourse unto the power which was given unto him by the Queens Commission and by a clause or passage of the Act of Parliament for the Uniformity of Common Prayer and Service in the Church c. As one of the Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical he was authorized with the rest of his associates according to the Statute made in that behalf To reform redresse order correct and amend all such Errours Heresies Schisms abuses offences conâ—empts and enormities whatsoever as might from time to time arise in the Church of England and did require to be redressed and reformed to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of vertue and conservation of the peace and unity of the Kingdom And in the passage of the Act before remembred it was especially provided That all such Ornaments of the Church and of the Ministers thereof should be retained and be in use as were in the Church of England by authority of Parliament in the second year of the Reign of King Edward the 6th until further Order should be therein taken by authority of the Queens Majesty with the advice of her Commissioners Appointed Ordered under the Great Seal of England for Causes Ecclesiastical or of the Metropolitan of this Realm And also if there shall happen any contempt or irreverence to be used in the Ceremonies or Rites of the Church by the misusing of the Orders of the said Book of Common Prayer the Queens Majesty might by the like advice of the said Commissioners or Metropolitan Ordain or publish such further Ceremonies or Rites as should be most for the advance of Gods glory the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy Mysteries and Sacraments Fortified and assured by which double power the Archbishop by the Queens consent and the advice of some of the Bishops Commissionated and instructed to the same intent sets forth a certain book of Orders to be diligently observed and executed by all and singular persons whom it might concern In which it was provided That no Parson Vicar or Curate of any exempt Church commonly called Lawless Churches should from thenceforth attempt to conjoin by solemnization of Matrimony any not being of his or their Parish Church without sufficient testimony of the Bains being ask'd in the several Churches where they dwel or otherwise were sufficiently licenced That there should be no other dayes observed for Holy days or Fasting dayes as of duty and commandment but only such Holy dayes as be expressed for Holy dayes in the Calendar lately set forth by the Queens authority and none other Fasting dayes to be so commanded but as the Lawes and Proclamations of the Queens Majesty should appoint that it should not be lawful to any Ordinary to assign or enjoyn the Parishes to buy any Books of Sermons or Expositions in any sort than is already or shall be hereafter appointed by publick Authority that neither the Curates or Parents of the children which are brought to Baptism should answer for them at the Font but that the antient use of Godfathers and Godmothers should be still retained and finally that in all such Churches in which the steps to the Altar were not taken down the said steps should remain as before they did that the Communion Table should be set in the said place where the steps then were or had formerly stood and that the Table of Gods Precepts should be fixed upon the wall over the said Communion Board Which passage compared with that in the Advertisements published in the year 1565. of which more hereafter make up this construction that
should be given to all of every Nation Province City and Place where any thing was preached taught believed contrary to that which was believed in the Church of Rome But the Legats might have spared themselves the trouble of these considerations the Protestant Bishops of England not being so forward to venture themselves into that Council on such weak assurance considering how ill the safe conduct had been formerly kept to John Hus and Jerom of Prague at the Council of Constance And as for those of the Papal party though they might have a good will to be gadding thither yet the Queen kept them safe enough from going abroad So that there was no hopes for any English Bishops of either party to attend that service The Queen had absolutely refused to admit the Nunciâ— when he was sent on purpose to invite them to it And some of the most learned of that sacred Order had shown sufficient reasons in their printed Manifest why no such service or attendance could be looked for from them One Scipio a Gentleman of Venice who formerly had some acquaintance with Bishop Jewel when he was a student in Padua had heard of Martiningo's ill success in his Negotiation which notwithstanding he resolved to spend some eloquence in labouring to obtain that point by his private Letters which the Nuncio could not gain as a public Minister And to this end he writes his Letters of expostulation to his old friend Mr. Jewel preferred not long before to the See of Salisbury in which he seemed to admire exceedingly that England should send no Ambassador nor Message or Letter to excuse their Nations absence from the general Appearance of Christianity in that Sacred Council In the next place he highly extolled the antiquity and use of General Councils as the onely means to decide controversies in Religion and compose the distractions in the Church concluding it a superlative sin for any to decline the authority of it But this Letter did not long remain unanswered that learned Prelate was not so unstudied in the nature of â—ouncils as not to know how little of a General Council could be found at Trent And therefore he returns an Answer to the Proposition so eloquently penned and so elaborately digested that neither Scipio himself nor any other of that party durst reply upon him the Answer to be found at large in the end of the history of this Council translated into English by Sir Nathaniel Brent late Warden of Merton College in Oxon c. which though it were no other than the Answer of one single Prelate and writ on a particular occasion to â— private friend yet since it speaks the sense of all the rest of the 〈◊〉 â—nd to justifie the result of the Council-Table on the debate about 〈◊〉 or refusing the Popes invitation it will not be amiss to present the sum and substance of it in a short Epitome In the first place he signifies to the said Scipâ—o that a great part of the world professing the name of Christ as Greeks Armenians Abâ—ssines c. with all the Eastern Church were neither sent â—o nor summoned to this Council Secondly That England's absence was not so great a wonder seeing many other Kingdoms and Free states as Denmark Sweden Scotland Princes of Germany and Hanse-towns were not represented in this Council by any of their Ambassadors Thirdly That this pretended Council was not called according to the antient custom of the Church by the Imperial Authority but by the Papal Usurpation Fourthly That Trent was a petty place not of sufficient receit for such multitudes as necessarily should repair to a General Council Fifthly That Pope Pius the 4th by whose command the Council was re-assembled purchaâ—â—d his place by the unjust practices of Simonie and Briberie and managed it with murder and cruelty Sixthly That repairing to Councils was a free act and none ought to be condemned of Contumacy if it stood more with their conveniency to stay at home Seventhly That antiently it was accepted as a reasonable excuse of holy Pisâ—ops absenting or withdrawing themselves from any Council if they vehemently suspected ought would be acted therein prejudicial to the truth lest their though not actual included concurrence might be interpreted a countenancing thereof Eighthly That our Bishops were employed in feeding their Flocks and governing their Churches and could not be spared from their charge without prejudice to their consciences Ninthly That the Members of that Council of Trent both Bishops and Abbots were by Oath pregaged to the Pope To defend and maintain his authority against all the world And lastly He desired to know in what capacity the English Clergy should appear in this Council not as free persons to debate matters therein in regard they had been pre-condemned as Hereticks by Pope Julius the 3d. nor as offenders to receive the sentence of condemnation to which they had no reason to submit themselves Of these refusals and the reasons of them neither the Pope at Rome nor the Cardinal Legâ—ts in the Council could pretend to be ignorant yet still the expectation of the comming of some English Bishops must be kept on foot partly for the encouragement of such as were there already and partly for the drawing on of others who came slowly forwards and sometimes also it was used for an artifice to divert the Prelates when any business was in agitation which seemed dangerous to them For so it hapned that some of the Prelates being earnest in the point of Residence none of the Legats could devise a better expedient to put off that Question than to propose that some means should be used to set at liberty the English Bishops which were imprisoned by their Queen that comming to the Council it might be said that that noble Nation was present also and not wholly alienated from the Church This pleased all but the common opinion was that it might sooner be desired than hoped for They concluded that the Queen having refused to receive a Nuncio expresly sent from the Pope it could not be hoped that she would hearken to the Council therefore all they could do was to perswade the Catholick Princes to mediate for them And mediate though they did as before was said both for the admitting of the Nuncio and the restoring of those Bishops to their former liberty they were not able to prevail especially as to the licensing of any of them to attend the Council which if the Queen had yielded to she must have armed so many of her enemies to disturb her peace who questionless would have practised with the Ambassadors of all Princes and with the Prelates of all Nations whom they found there present to work some notable alteration in the Government and affairs of England Of all the Bishops which were left in England at the end of the Parliament I find none but Pates of Worcester and Goldnel of St. Asaph who forsook the Kingdom though possibly many of the rest
of October but was so hindered by cross winds that he could not reach the Town till the 29th where he was solemnly received with a peal of Ordnance On the morrow after he received into the Town a Troop of Light-horse-men all Scots and of the Regiment of Count Montgomery which were sent to him from the Port of Diep and the next day he took the Oath of his principal Officers on whose fidelity and courage the safâ—ty of the place seemed most to depend On the 4th of November a Bark belonging to the Town brought in four Merchants Ships of Bretagne fraughted for the most part with Gascoin Wines as afterwards two more with the like commodity which proved a great refreshment to the souldiers in it And on the 6th the Reingrave shewed himself upon the top of the hills with two thousand foot betwixt whom and the garison souldiers of Hareflew on the one side and those of Newhaven on the other the remainder of the year was taken up in continual skirmishes Cross we next over into Scotland that we may see in what condition our affairs stood there The death of the late French King had made that Kingdom so uncomfortable to the Queen of Scots that she desired to hasten back into her own And thereunto she was much animated by the Heads of either faction but on different ends Her presence earnestly solicited by the Popish party in hope by her authority to suppress their opposites and by the Protestants on some strong presumptions that they could deal better with her when they had her there than when she was protected by the power of France and governed by the counsels of the Guisian faction Before her leaving of that Kingdom she had been pressed by Throgmorton the English Resident to ratifie the Pacification mâ—de at Edenborough to which she would by no means yield till she had advised with the nobility and other of her subjects of the Realm of Scotland This makes the Queen of England doubtful that she should be deserted by the Scots of the Congregation to whom she had done so many good offices in the time of their troubles But having dealt with some of the chief amongst them she found a resolution in them for adhering to her which so assured her on that side that she feared but little danger from the Queen and her party whensoever she came Which notwithstanding it was held to be the safer course to intercept her if they could in her passage thither And to that end a squadron of ships was sent to sea but under colour of suppressing some Pirates by whom the trade of merchandise was given out to be hindered But the taking of one of the Scotish ships with the Earl of Eglington and other passengers of that Nation were making homewards declared sufficiently that they looked for a far richer prize But for the Queen of Scots her self by reason of a thick fog which hung over the seas she past by the English unperceived and landed at the Port of Leeth on the 20th of August Anno 1561. From thence she sends Lethington the younger with Letters to the Queen of England tending especially to express that great love and kindness which she bare to her as to her dearest friend and Sister and the desire she had to continue in true and sincere friendship with her At what time she received letters also to the same effect from some of the Nobility of that Kingdom In which they signified withall That the surest way to continue amity and friendship betwixt them two were to declare the Queen of Scots to be her next and lawful heir to the Kingdom of England But this demand as it was unlooked for so was it of too high a nature to be hastily answered So that the Laird of Lethington could prevail no further at that time than to gain a promise from the Queen that she would do nothing to the prejudice of the Title of her Cosen of Scotland The rest was left to be considered of in a personal conference appointed to be held at York in the end of June Which motion first proceeded from the Queen of Scots who was thought to have been earnest and real in it partly for making a firm peace with her 〈◊〉 of England and partly to make her self known to the principal subjects of that Country Neither was the meeting disliked of the better sort as thinking it would serve besides the preservation of the common peace to bring her to a liking of the Reformed Religion But they who were popishly set fearing greatly the conference spake openly against it saying that of such interviews there was never seen any good effect and that it would not be safe for the Queen of Scots to put heâ— self into the power of her to whose Kingdom she had made a claim But notwithstanding these unprofitable deliberations the interview was agreed upon and the numbers on either side determined and all things provided for the journey when suddenly the Queen of England by her Letters excused her self desiring that it might be respited till the year next following Which the Scots Queen was not sorry to hear upon further thoughts considering how much the French King and her Uncles of the House of Guise might have been dissatisfied on the newes of that Inter-Parleance Neither did Queen Elizabeth want her reasons to decline the meeting which some believe was never really intended by her but that she hoped the fail would have been on 〈◊〉 other side which would have given her the same cause of quarrel against the daughter which King Henry took against the father on the like disappointment Others conceived that she might fear a growing less by it in the eyes of her people the Queen of Scots having so many advantages above her both in youth and beauty But it was generally concluded to be against all reason of State to give her Rival opportunity of growing gracious with the Nobility and Gentry of England and laying the foundation of a faction in the Court it self But the Queen had deeper matters to take up her thoughts than any such feminine jealousies and emulations though these perhaps might also have their place amongst them A spirit of sedition had begun to shew it self in the year last past upon the bare noise of the coming of the Nuncio hither Not much diminished if it were not much increased by the sitting of the Council of Trent in which it was believed that some proceedings would be had against her Which seeds being sowen began first to shew themselves in a petit rebellion in Merton College in Oxon sufficiently discovered by those small beginnings that some design of greater consequence was in agitation The Wardenship of that house being void by the death of Gervase one Man is chosen to the place But his election being questioned and his admission thereupon opposed by a contrary faction the goverâ—ment of the College devolved of course upon one Hall a
some artifices used to illude that purpose had not changed her mind She had scarce liv'd to the third year of her age when she was promised in marriage to the Daulphine of France with a Portion of 333000 Crowns to be paid by her Father and as great a Joynture to be made by the French King Francis as ever had been made by any King of that Country And so far did the businesse seem to be acted in earnest that it was publickly agreed upon in the treaty for the Town of Tournay that the Espousals should be made within four months by the said two Kings in the name of their children in pursuance whereof as the French King sent many rich gifts to some leading men of the Court of England to gain their good liking to this League so he sent many costly Presents to the Princesse Mary the designed wife if Princes could be bound by such designations of the heir of France But war beginning to break out between the French and the Spaniards it was thought fit by Charles the fifth being then Emperour of Germany and King of Spain to court the favour of the English for the obtaining whereof his neernesse to Queen Katherine being sister to the Queen his Mother gave him no small hopes Upon this ground he makes a voyage into England is royally feasted by the King installed solemnly Knight of the Order of the Garter in the Castle of Windsor and there capitulates with the King amongst other things to take to wife his daughter Mary as soon as she should come to the years of marriage it was also then and there agreed that as soon as she was twelve years old the Emperour should send a proxie to make good the contract espouse her per verba de praesenti in the usual form that in the mean time the King of England should not give her in marriage unto any other that a dispensation should be procured from the Pope at the charge of both Princes in regard that the parties were within the second degree of consanguinity that within four months after the contract the Princesse should be sent to the Emperour's Court whether it were in Spain or Flanders at the sole charge of the King of England and married within four dayes after her comming thither in the face of the Church her portion limited to 400000 crowns if the King should have no issue male but to be inlarged to 600000 crowns more if the King should have any such issue male to succeed in the Kingdom A jointure of 50000 crowns per annum to be made by the Emperour the one part thereof to be laid in Flanders and the other in Spain and finally that if either of the said two Princes should break off this marriage he should forfeit 400000 crowns to the party injured And now who could have thought but that the Princesse Mary must have been this Emperour's wife or the wife rather of any Prince then one that was to be begotten by this Emperour on another woman though in conclusion so it hapned As long as Charles had any need of the assistance and friendship of England so long he seemed to go on really in the promised marriage and by all means must have the Princesse sent over presently to be declared Empresse and made Regent of Flanders But when he had taken the French King at the battel of Pavia sackt Rome and made the Pope his prisoner he then conceived himselfe in a condition of seeking for a wife elsewhere which might be presently ripe for marriage without such a tedious expectation as his tarrying for the Princesse Mary must needs have brought him And thereupon he shuts up a marriage with the Lady Issabell Infanta of Pâ—lugull and daughter to another of his Mother's â—isters For which being questioned by the King he layes the blame upon the importunity of his Council who could not patiently permit him to remain unmarried till the Princesse Mary came to age and who besides had caused a scruple to be started touching her illegitimation as being born by one that had been wife to his elder brother King Henry thereupon proceeds to a new treaty with the French to whom his friendship at the time of their King's captivity had been very useful which is by them as cheerfully excepted as by him it had been franckly offered She had before been promised to the Daulphin of Francâ— but now she is design'd for the second son then Duke of Orleance who afterwards by the death of his elder brother succeeded his father in the Crown But whilst they were upon this treaty the former question touching her legitimation was again revived by the Bishop of Tarbâ—e one of the Commissioners for the French which though it seem'd not strong enough to dissolve the treaty which the French were willing to conclude as their affairs then stood upon any conditions yet it occasioned many troubles in the Court of Engâ—and and almost all Christendome besides For now the doubt being started a second time and started now by such who could not well subsist without his friendship began to make a deep impression in the mind of the King and to call baâ—k such passages to his remembrance as otherwise would have been forgotten He now bethinks himselfe of the Protestation which he had made in the presence of Bishop Fox before remembred never to take the Lady Katherine for his wife looks on the death of his two sons as a punishment on him for proceeding in the marriage and casts a fear of many inconveniences or mischiefs rather which must inevitably befall this Kingdome if he should dye and leave no lawful issue to enjoy the Crown Hope of more children there was none and little pleasure to be taken in a conversation which the disproportion of their years and a greater inequality in their dispositions must render lesse agreeable every day then other In this perplexity of mind he consults his Confessor by whom he was advised to make known his griefs to Cardinal Wolsie on whose judgement he relied in most other matters which hapned so directly to the Cardinal's mind as if he had contrived the project The Emperour had lately cross'd him in his suit for the Popedome and since denied him the Archbish prick of Tâ—ledo with the promise whereof he had before bound him to his side And now the Cardinal resolves to take the opportunity of the King's distractions for perfecting his revenge against him In order whereunto as he had drawn the King to make peace with France and to conclude a marriage for his daughter with the Duke of Orleance so now he hopes to separate him from the bed of Katherine the Emperour's Aunt and marry him to Madam Rhinee the French Queens sister who afterwards was wife to the Duke of Ferrara About which time the picture of Madam Margaret the sister of King Francis first married to the Duke of Alanzon was brought amongst others into
then Ordinary Diligence so was he encourâ—ged thereunto by a very Liberal Exhibition which he received annually from the late King Henry But the King being dead his Exhibition and encouragments dyed also with him So that the Lamp of his life being destitute of the Oyl which fed it after it had been in a langâ—ishing condition all the rest of hâ—s King's Reign was this year unfortunately Extinguâ—shed unfortunately in regard that he dyed distrâ—cted to the great Greif of all that knew him and the no small sorrow of maâ—y who never saw him but onely in his painful and laboâ—ious Writings Wâ—ich Writâ—ngs being by him Presented to the hands of King Henry came aâ—terwards into â—he power of Sr. John Cheâ—k Schole-master and Secretary for the Lâ—tine tongue to the King now Reigning And though collâ—cted Principally for the uâ—e of the Crown yet on the death of the young King his Tuâ—our kept thâ—m to himself as long as he lived and left them at his death to Henry his Eldest Son Secretary to the Councel Established at Yoâ—k for the Nâ—râ—hern parts From Cheâ—k but not without some intermediate conveyances four of them came into the possession of William 〈◊〉 of Leicâ—sâ—e shiâ—e who having served his turn of them as well as he could in his dâ—scription of that County bestowed them as a most choise Rarity upon Oxford Library where the Oâ—â—ginals â—tâ—ll â—emain Out of this Treasury whilest it remained entire in the hands of Cheek the learned Campden was supplyed with much Excellent matter toward the making up of his description of the â—sles of Britain but not without all due acknowledgment to his Benefactour whom he both frequent citeâ—h and very highly commendeth for his pains and industry In the last place comes in Cardanus an eminent Philosopher born in Italy and one not easily over matched by the then supposed Matchless Scâ—liger having composed a Book Entituled â— De varietate Rerum with an Epistlâ— Dedicatory to King Edward the Sixth he came over this year into England to present it to him which gave him the Occasion of much conference with â—â—m In which he found â—uch dexterity in Him for Encountring many of his Paradoxes in natural Philosophy that he seemed to be astonished between Admiration and Delight and divulged his Abilities to be miraculâ—uâ— Some Passages of which discourse Cardanus hath left upon Record in these words ensuâ—ng Decimâ—â—m quintum adhuc agâ—bat Annum cum interrogobat Latine c. Being yet saith he but of the age of fifteen years he asked me in Latine in which tongue he utterred his mind no less eloquently and readily then I could do my self what my Bookâ— which I had dedicated unto him De varietate Rerum did contain I answered that in the first Chapter was shewed the cause of Comâ—ts or blazing-stars which hath been long sought for and hitherto scarce fully found What cause sayd he is that The concourâ—e or meeting of the light of the wandring Planets or stars To this thâ— King thus replyed again For as much said he as the motion of the stars keepeth not one course but is diverse and variable by continual Alteration how is it then that the cause of these Comets doth not quickly vâ—de or vanish or that the Comet doth not keep one certain and uniform course and motion with the said stars and Planets Whereunto I anâ—wered that it â—oved indeed but with a far swifter motion then the Planets by reaâ—on of the diversity of Aspects as we see in Christal and the Sun when a Rainbow rebounds on a Wall for a little change makes a great difference of the place The King rejoyned How can that be done without a subject as the Wall is the Subject to the Rainbow To which I answered That as in the Galaxia or Via lactea and in the Reflection of Lights when many are set near one another they do produce a certain Lucid and bright Mean Which Conference is thus shut up by that Learned Men That he began to favour Learning before he could know it and knew it before he could tell what use he had of it And then bemoans his short life in these words of the Poet Immodicâ—s brevis est Aetas rara Senectus Anno Reg. Edw. Sexti 7º Anno Dom. 1552 1553. SUch being the excellent Abilities of this hopeful Prince in Matters of Abstruser Learning there is no question to be made but that he was the Master of so much Perspicacity in his own Affairs as indeed he was which might produce both Love and Admiration in the Neighbouring Princes Yet such was the Rapacity of the Times and the Unfortunateness of his Condition that his Minority was abused to many Acts of Spoil and Rapine even to an high degree of Sacrilege to the raising of some and the enriching of others without any manner of improvement to his own Estate For notwithstanding the great and most inestimable Treasures which must needs come in by the spoil of so many Shrines and Images the sale of all the Lands belonging to Chanteries Colleges Free Chapels c. And the Dilapidating of the Patrimony of so many Bishopricks and Cathedral Churches he was not onely plunged in Debt but the Crown-Lands were much diminished and impaired since his coming to it Besides which spoils there were many other helps and some great ones too of keeping him both beforeâ—hand and full of Money had they been used to his Advantage The Lands of divers of the Halls and Companies in London were charged with Annual Pensions for the finding of such Lights Obits and Chantry-Priests as were founded by the Donours of them For the redeeming whereof they were constrained to pay the sum of Twenty Thousand Pounds to the use of the King by an Order from the Council-Table not long before the payment of the first Money for the sale of Boloign Anno 1550. And somewhat was also paid by the City to the King for the Purchase of the Borough of Southwark which they bought of him the next year But the main glut of Treasure was that of the four hundred thousand Crowns amounting in our Money to 133333 l. 13 s. 4 d. paid by the French King on the sâ—rrendry of the Town and Territory of 〈◊〉 before remembred Of which vast sum but small in reference to the loss of so great a strength no less then fourscore thousand pounds was laid up in the Tower the rest assigned to publick uses for the peace and safety of the Kingdom Not to say any thing of that great Yearly Profit which came in from the Mint after the entercourse settled betwixt Him and the King of Sweden and the decrying so much Base Money had begun to set the same on work Which great Advantages notwithstanding He is now found to be in Debt to the Bankers of Anâ—weâ—p elsewhere no less then 251000 l of English money Towards which the sending of his own Ambassadours into France and the entertainment of the
French when they were in England the onely two great Charges which we finde Him at in the whole course of His Reign must be inconsiderable It was to no purpose for Him to look too much backward or to trouble Himself with enquiring after the ways and means by which He came to be involved in so great a Debt It must be now his own care and the endeavours of those who plunged Him in it to finde the speediest way for His getting out And first they fall upon a course to lâ—ssen the Expenses of His Court aâ—d Family by suppressing the Tables formerly appointed for young Lords the Masters of the Requests Serjeant at Arms c. which thought it saved some money yet it brought in none In the next place it was resolved to call such Officers to a present and publick Reckoning who either had embezelled any of the Crown Lands or inverted any of the King's Money to their private use On which course they were the more intent because they did both serve the King and content the People but might be used by them as a Scourge for the whipping of those against whom they had any cause of quarrel Amongst which I finde the new Lord Paget to have been fined six thousand pound as before was said for divers Offences of that nature which were charged upon him Bâ—aumont then Master of the Rolls had purchased Lands with the King's Money made longer Leases of some other Crown Lands then he was authorized to do by his Commission and was otherwise guâ—lty of much corrupt and fraudulent dealing For expiating of which Crimes he surrendred all his Lands and Goods to the King and seems to have been well befriended that he sped no worse The like Offences proved against one Whaley one of the King's Receivers for the County of York for which he was punished with the loss of his Offices and adjudged to â—tand to any such Fine as by his Majesty and the Lords of hâ—s Council shouâ—d be set upon him Which manner of proceeding though it be for the most part pleasing to the Common People and profitable to the Common-Wealth yet were it more unto the honour of a Pâ—ince to make choice of such Officers whom He thinks not likely to offend then to sacrifice them to the People and His own Displeasures having thus offended But the main Engine at this time for advancing Money was the speeding of a Commission into all parts of the Realm under pretence of selling such of the Lands Goods of Chanterys c as remained unsold but in plain truth to seize upon all Hangings Altar-Cloths Fronts Parafronts Copes of all sorts with all manner of Plate which was to be found in any Cathedral or Parochial Church To which Rapacity the demolishing of the foâ—mer Altars and placing the Communion Table in the middle of the Quires or Chancels of every Church as was then most used gave a very good hâ—â—t by rendring all such Furnitures rich Plate and other costly Utensils in a manner useless And that the business might be carryed with as much advantage to the King as might be He gave out certain Instâ—uctâ—ons under his Hand by which the Commissioners were to regulate themselves in their Proceedings to the advancement of the service Amongst which pretermitting those which seem to be Preparatoriâ—s onely unto all the rest I shall put down as many as I think material And that being done it shall be left to the Reader 's Judgment whether the King being now in the sixteenth year of his Age were either better studied in his own Concernments or seemed to be worse principled in Maâ—ters which concerned the Church Now the most Material of the said Instructions were these that follow 1. The said Commissioners shall upon their view and survey taken cause due Inventories to be made by Bills or Bookâ— indented of all manner of Goods Plates Jewels Bells and Ornaments as yet remaining or any wise forthcoming and belonging to any Churches Chapels Fraternities or Gilds and one part of the said Inventories to send and return to 〈◊〉 Privy Council and the other to deliver to them in whose hands the said Goods Plate Jewels Bells and Ornaments shall remain to be kept and preserved And thâ—y shall also give good Charge and Order that the same Goods and every part thereof be at all times forthcoming to be answered leaving nevertheless in every Parish-Church or Chapel of common resort one two or more Chalices or Cups according to the multitude of People in every such Church or Chapel and also such other Ornameâ—ts as by their discretion shall seem requisite for the Divine Service in every such place for the time 2. That because Information hath been made that in many Places great quantities of the said Plate Bells Jewels Ornaments hath been embezelled by certain private men contrary to his Majestie 's express Commandment in that behalf the said Commissioners shall substantially and justly enquire and attain the knowledge thereof by whose default the same is or hath been or in whose hands any part of the same is come And in that point the said Commissioners shall have good regard that they attain to certain Names and dwelling Places of every person or persons that hath sold alienated embezelled taken or carryed away or of such also as have counselled advised and commanded any part of the said Goods Plate Jewels Bells Vestments and Ornaments to be taken or carryed away or otherwise embezelled And these things they shall as certainly and duly as they can cause to be searched and understood 3. That upâ—n full search and enquiry thereof the said Commissioners four or three of them shall cause to be called before them all such persons by whom any of the said Goods Plate Jewels Bells Ornaments or any other the Premises have been alienated embezelled and taken away or by whose means and procurement the same or any part thereof hath been attempted or to whose hands or use any of the same or any profit for the same hath grown And by such means as to their discretions shall seem best cause them to bring into these the said Commissioners hands to Our use the said Plate Jewels Bells and other the Premises so alienated for the true and full value thereof certifying unto Our Privy Council the Names of all such as refuse to stand to or obey their Order touching their delivery or restitution of the same or the just value thereof To the intent that as cause and reason shall require every man may answer to his doings in this behalf 4. To these another Clause was added touching the moderation which they were to use in their Proceedings to the end that the effect of their Commission might go forward with as much quiet and as little occasion of trouble or disquiet to the Multitude as might be using therein such wise perswasions as in respect of the place and disposition of the People may seem to their Wisdoms most
who do less deserve it that it is therefore necessary that the ears of Princes should be open unto all complaints and their hands ready to receive Petitions from all sorts of people to the end that knowing their grievances and distresses they may commiserate them in the one and afford them remedy in the other that a good Prince must have somewhat in him of the Priest who if he be not sensible of the infirmities of his brethren cannot be thought to intercede so powerfully in their behalf as when he hath been touched with the true sense and feeling of their extremities and finally that the School is never better governed than by one who hath past through all the forms and degrees thereof and having been perfectly trained up in the ways of obedience must know the better how to use both the Rod and Ferula when he comes to be Master of the rest The first eight years of the Reign of QUEEN ELIZABETH An. Reg. Eliz. 1. An. Dom. 1558 1559. ELizabeth the only child then living of King Henry the 8th succeeded her Sister in the Throne on the 17th of November Anno 1558. Ferdinand of Austria being then Emperour Henry the 2d King of the French Philip the second King of Spain and Paul the 4th commanding in the Church of Rome Queen Mary not long before her death had called a Parliament which was then sitting when the news thereof was brought unto the Lords in the House of Peers The newes by reason of the Queens long sickness not so strange unto them as to take them either unresolved or unprovided for the declaring of their duty to the next successor though some of them perhaps had some secret wishes that the Crown might have fallen rather upon any oâ—her than upon her to whom it did of right belong so that upon a short debate amongst themselves a message is sent to the Speaker of the House of Commons desiring him and all the Members of that House to come presently to them upon a business of no small importance to the good of the Kingdom Who being come the Lord Chancellor Heath with a composed and setled countenance not without sorrow enough for the death of the one or any discontent for the succession of the other declared unto them in the name of the rest of the Lords that God had taken to his mercy the late Queen Mary and that the succession to the Crown did belong of right to the Princess Elizabeth whose Title they conceived to be free from all legal questions that in such cases nothing was more necessary than expedition for the preventing of all such plots and practices of any discontented or ambitious persons as might be set on foot to the disturbance of the common quiet and therefore that there concurrence was desired in proclaiming the new Queen with all speed that might be they being then so opportunely convened together as the Representees of the whole body of the Commons of the Realm of England Which being said the Knights and Burgestes gave a ready consent to that which they had no reason to deny and they which gave themselves some thoughts of inclining otherwise conceived their opposition to the general Vote neither safe nor seasonable So that immediately the Princess Elizabeth was proclaimed by the King at Arms first before Westminster Hall door in the Palace Yard in the presence of the Lords and Commons and not long after at the Cross in Cheapside and other places in the City in the presence of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and principal Citizens to the great joy of all peaceable and well-affected people It was not long before the Princess had advertisement of the death of her sister together with the general acknowledgement of her just and lawful Title to the Crown Imperial The newes whereof being brought unto her by some of the Lords she prepared for her removal from Hatfield on the Saturday after being the 19th of that month and with a great and Royal train set forwards to London At Higate four miles from the City she was met by all the Bishops then living who presented themselves before her upon their knees in testimony of their loyalty and affection to her In which address as she seemed to express no small contentment so she gave to each of them particularly her hand to kiss except only unto Bonner of London whose bloody butcheries had render'd him uncapable in her opinion of so great a favour At her first coming to the City she took her lodging in the Charterhouse where she staid some days till all things in the Tower might be fitted and prepared for her reception Attended by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen with a stately strain of Lords and Ladies and their several followers She entreth by Cripple gate into the City passeth along the wall till she came to Bishops gate where all the Companies of the City in their several Liveries waited her coming in their proper and distinct rancks reaching from thence until the further end of Mark Lane where she was entertained with a peal of great Ordnance from the Tower At her entrance into which place she render'd her most humble thanks to Almighty God for the great and wondrous change of her condition in bringing her from being a prisoner in that place to be the Prince of her people and now to take possession of it as a Royal Palace in which before she had received so much discomfort Here she remained till the 5th day of December then next following and from thence removed by water unto Sommerset House In each remove she found such infinite throngs of people who flocked from all parts to behold her both by land and water and testified their publick joy by such loud acclamations as much rejoyced her heart to hear and could not but express it in her words and countenance by which she doubled their affections and made her self the absolute Mistriss at all times of their hands and purses She had been forged upon the anvil of adversity which made her of so fine a temper that none knew better than her self how to keep her State and yet descend unto the meanest of her subjects in a popular Courtship In the mean time the Lords of the Council had given Order for the stopping of all Ports and Havens that no intelligence of the Queens death might be caried out of the Realm by which any disturbance might be plotted or contrived against it till all things were setled here at home But finding such a general concurrence in all sorts of people in acknowledging her just and lawful Title testified by so many outward signs of a publick joy that there was no fear of any danger from abroad that bar was speedily removed and the Ports opened as before to all sorts of passengers And in the next place care was taken for sending new Commissions unto such Embassadors as resided in the Courts of several Princes both to acquaint them with