flowed into it by Act of Parliament the next year following being the 33d of his Reign to the Number one and other of But as the Red-sea by the miraculous Hand of God was once dried up so was this Sea of Wealth by the wastfull Hand of this Prince immediately so dried up as the very next year viz. Regni 34. the Parliament was drawn again to grant him a great Subsidy for in the Statute-book it is so stiled and this not serving his turn he was yet driven not only to enhance his Gold and Silver-money in Anno 36 but against the Honour of a Prince to coin base Money and when all this served not his turn in the very same year to exact a Benevolence of his Subjects to their grievous Discontent Perceiving therefore that nothing could fill the gulf of his effusion and that there was now a just cause of great expence by reason of his Wars at Bulloign and in France they granted him in the 37th Year 2 Subsidies at once and four Fifteens and for a Corollary all the Colleges Free-Chapels Chantries Hospitals c. before-mentioned in Number 2374. upon confidence that he should dispose them as he promised solemnly in the Parliament to the Glory of God who in truth for ought that I can hear had little part thereof The next year was his fatal Period otherwise it was much to be feared that Deans and Chapters if not Bishopricks which have been long levelled at had been his next design for he took a very good Say of them by exchanging Lands with them before the Dissolution giving them rackt Lands and small things for goodly Manners and Lordships and also Impropriations for their solid Patrimony in finable Lands like the exchange that Palamedes made with Glaucus much thereby encreasing his own Revenues as he took 72 from York besides other Lands Tenements Advowsons Patronages c. in the 37th of his Reign which are mentioned particularly in the Statute 37. Henry VIII cap. 16. He took also 30 and above as I remember in the 27th Year from the Bishop of Norwich whom he left not that I can learn one Foot of the goodly Possessions of his Church save the Palace at Norwich and how many I know not in the 37th Year also from the Bishop of London I speak not of his prodigal Hand in the Blood of his Subjects which no doubt much alienated the Hearts of them from him But God in these eleven Years space visited him with 5 or 6 Rebellions In Lincolnshire Anno 28 and 3 one after another in Yorkshire Anno 33 one in Somersetshire Anno 29 and again in Yorkshire Anno 33. And though Rebellions and Insurrections are not to be defended yet they discover unto us what the displeasure and dislike was of the common People for spoiling the Revenues of the Church whereby they were great losers the Clergy being mercifull Landlords and bountifull Benefactors to all Men by their great Hospitality and Works of Charity Thus much touching his own Fortunes accompanying the Wealth and Treasure gotten by him as we have declared by confiscating the Monasteries wherein the prophetical Speech that the Archbishop of Canterbury used in the Parliament 6. Henry IV. seemeth performed That the King should not be one farthing the richer the next Year following II. What happened to the King's Children and Posterity Touching his Children and Posterity after the time that he entered into these Courses he had two Sons and three Daughters whereof one of each kind died Infants the other three succeeding in the Crown without Posterity His base Son the Duke of Richmond died also without Issue and as the Issue of Nebuchodonosor was extinct and his Kingdom given to another Nation the 68th Year after he had rifled the Temple of Jerusalem and taken away the holy Vessels so about the same period that King Henry VIII began to sack the Monasteries with their Churches and things dedicated to God was his whole Issue extinct Male and Female base and legitimate and his Kingdom transferred to another Nation and therein to another Royal Family which is now His Majesty's singular happiness that had no hand in the like depredation of the Monasteries and Churches of that Kingdom there committed by the tumultuous if not rebellious Subjects Contrary as it seems to the good liking of our late Sovereign King James who as is reported said that if he had found the Monasteries standing he would not have pulled them down not meaning to continue them in their superstitious Uses but to employ them as Chorah's censers to some godly purposes Wherein most piously he declared himself both in restoring as I hear some Bishopricks and divers Appropriations in Scotland and also by moving the Universities of England to do the like as by his gracious Letter doth appear which shall here following be expressed in the end So his Grandfather King James the 4th of Scotland when he was solicited by Sir Ralph Sadler then Embassador from King Henry to augment his Estate by taking into his Hands the Abbies James refus'd saying What need I take them into mine Hands when I may have any thing I require of them And if there be Abuses in them I will reform them for there be a great many good Which was a wise answer and if King Henry had done the like here he might have had an immense and ample Revenue out of the Monasteries and old Bishopricks while they enjoyed their Lands being a third part of the Kingdom as appears by Doomsday-Book by way of First-fruits Tenths Pensions and Corrodies yearly that he should never have needed at any time to ask one Subsidy of his Subjects To return where we left off having spoken of the extinguishment of the Issue of King Henry whereof the immortally renown'd Princess Queen Elizabeth was the golden period Let us cast our Eyes upon the principal Agents and Contrivers of this Business III. What happen'd to the Principal Agents The Lord Cromwel was conceived to be the principal mover and prosecutor thereof both before and in the Parliament of 27 and 37 Hen. VIII and for his good service impenso impendendo upon the 18th of April before the beginning of the Parliament of 31 which was on the last of the Month he was created Earl of Essex and his Son Gregory made Lord Cromwell yet e're the Year was past from the end of the Parliament of 31 he fell wholly into the King's Displeasure and in July 32 he was attainted and beheaded professing at his Death that he had been seduc'd and dy'd a Catholick His Son Gregory Lord Cromwell being as I said made a Baron in the life time of his Father and invested with divers great Possessions of the Church supported that new risen Family from utter ruine but his Grandchild Edward Lord Cromwell wasting the whole Inheritance sold the head of his Barony Oukham in Rutlandshire and exchanging some of the rest all that remained with the E. of Devonshire for
Man's Inheritance very few not having their Tenure certain from the King by Patent can assure themselves to be free from this Calamity The truth is that originally none held in Capite but Peers of the Realm who were therefore called the King's Barons and such as by this their Tenure as appears by the Council of Clarendon 10 Hen. 2. had the privilege to sit in the King's House and to hear and judge all Causes brought before the King and to be of his great Council And tho' afterwards the meaner of them were neglected yet King John was tied by his great Charter to call them all to Parliament where the Knights of the Shires in that respect have their place at this day I am too prone you see to run out of my way into this Discourse but to hold me nearer to my Center I cannot but admire what mov'd the Parliament in 27 Henry 8. cap. 27. to enact that a Tenure in Capite by Knights Service should be reserv'd to the King upon their granting out of their Abbies and their Lands as tho' it were some singular benefit to the Commonwealth It may be they conceiv'd that according to the Project of the Parliament at Leicester in 2 Hen. 5. that the King should thereby have a perpetual means to support a standing Army or to have it ready whensoever need required and so ease the Subject of all Military Contribution O how far was that great School of Wisdom deceived or what hath that Art of theirs produc'd other than as if some Scholars had bound their Masters for to whip them soundly and I suppose they have had their fill of it long e're this time But these Tenures by being by this means multiply'd in such excessive manner the Kings former Officers that before could span their Business with their Hand could not now fathom this with both their Arms. The greater Harvest must have greater Barns and more Labourers and therefore in 32 Hen. 8. cap. 46. and 33 Hen. 8. cap. 22. and 39. the Court now called of Wards and Liveries with the Orders Officers and Ministers thereto belonging was erected What is thereby fallen upon the Subject I need not relate heavy Experience makes it generally known and generally felt one while by Wardship and Marriage another while by suing out Livery and Ouster se main by Pardons of Alienation Concealments Intrusions respite of Homage and other Calamities accompanying this Tenure almost innumerable consuming the Fruit of the Wards Lands for many Years and as sometimes I have seen for many Ages the Grandfathers Fathers and Sons Inheritance militant together in this Court the Mother equally lamenting the Death of her Husband and the Captivity of her Child the Confiscation of his Lands for the 3d part of his Age and the Ransom of his Person before he can enter into the World the Family oftentimes so ruin'd and impoverish'd as if at last it recover yet it stands tottering and lame for a long time after Marriage is honourable and instituted by God in Paradise do you think that a Man by the Word of God may be compelled to pay for a Licence to marry I doubt the Schoolmen would not so determine it nor did any civil or moral Nation of old admit it the Custom rose from the barbarous Goths and Loâ—gobards and yet I confess not without reason as the Genius of their Nation did then lead them and by their Example all others where they conquered It was an impious manner of those times to hold Malice and Enmity one Family against another and against their Friends and Alliances from one Generation to another our Ancestors called it deadly feude the Feudists feudam and Tacitus in his time noteth it of Germans saying Inimicitias mutuo ponunt suscipiunt It was therefore of urgent necessity that the Lord should be well assur'd that his Tenant married not unto any Family that might be either in feud with him or in alliance with them that were and to prevent that danger as appears by the Charter of Hen. 1. cap. 4. the Lord would have him bound not to marry without his consent for which in the beginning the Tenant gave his Lord some small matter as munus honorarium but from thence it grew afterwards to Nundinaria gratissima And as Bondmen used to pay to their Lords Chiefage for their Marriage so the Tenants by Knights Service which in the Feudal Law is called Feudum nobile is likewise subject to this brand of Servitude and more grievously in some respect But I reverence the Law I live under and hath been so long receiv'd and practis'd all I aim at is only to shew in the course of my Argument the Evils that have either fallen newly upon us or been encreased since the Confiscation of the Churches and Church-patrimony which if it be not offensive I may say doth seem to be foretold 800 Years since by one Egelzedus an Hermit who assigned three Causes of those Evils viz. First Effusion of Blood 2ly Drunkenness and 3ly Contempt of the House of God telling us farther That we should know the time of the fulfilling this Prophecy by the various fashions and mutability of Apparel that should be in use the very ear-mark of the Age we live in How this Contempt of the House of God worketh upon the Sacrilegious Instruments thereof is to be seen in the Particulars before recited to which if I should run higher into former Ages or further from home in other Countries I might tire you with thousands of Examples But for a Conclusion mark this by the way that as England hath not been faulty alone in this kind of Transgression so other Nations offending in like manner have likewise tasted of the same Corrections or others like them Scotland after the rasing of their Monasteries hath had the Royal Throne removed from them and placed in another Kingdom The Low-Countries harrassed with a continued War of 60 Years and more The Palsgrave beaten out of his own Dominions and living now with his Royal Wife and Children in lamentable Exile to which may be added as concurring with the usual Infelicity of meddling with Church Lands that the Palsgrave having attained the Crown of Bohemia and seizing the Ecclesiastical Livings there for maintenance of his Wars as the Report goes he was presently cast out both of that Kingdom and of his other Inheritance Having mentioned this unfortunate Prince I must add also another accident that befell him in this kind The State of the Low Countries while he lived in Exile among them gave unto him as a place of Recreation the Abby of Regutian near Vtrecht where intending a sumptuous Building he drew out thereof such Materials of Stone and Timber as might be usefull to his new Designs and making a Store-house of the Abby-Church laid them up there to be in readiness It chanc'd that the truly noble Lord Craven returning out of Italy where my Son was very happily fallen into his Company
he went to this place to visit the Prince whom they called the King of Bohemia My Son seeing what the King was about and how he had prophaned the Church by making it a Store-house said to my Lord Craven That he fear'd it might be ominous to the King my Lord answer'd I will tell him what you say and turning to the King said This Gentleman fears this that your Majesty doth will not be prosperous to you the King answered That was but a Conceit and so pass'd it over But mark what follow'd upon it The King within a few Months after passing in a Bark with the Prince his eldest Son over the Delf of Harlam his Boat was casually stemm'd and overturn'd by a Barge that met him in the Night and tho' he himself with great difficulty was sav'd yet that hopefull Prince his Son had not that wofull happiness to be drowned right-out but after he was drench'd in the Water and gotten upon the Mast of the Bark wherein they perish'd he was there most miserably starv'd with Cold and frozen to Death And the Father himself while he lamented the death of his Son was by an unusual death of Princes taken away by the Plague laying thus the first Stone of his unfortunate Building like that of the Walls of Jericho in the death of his eldest Son and prevented in the rest by his own death God's Judgments are his Secrets I only tell Concurrences The other German Princes persecuted with the Sword and spoil'd of their Liberties How carefull the Heathens were not to misuse things consecrated to Almighty God When the Philistines had taken the Ark they with all Reverence plac'd it in the House of their God Dagon and fearing to keep it return'd it back with Oblations So Nabuchodonosor having taken away the holy Vessels of the Temple abused them not to prophane uses but kept them religiously in the House of his God And when Belshazar and his Kingdom was by the Justice of God extinguished for abusing of them and that thereby they came to the Hands of Cyrus in the Conquest of Babylon he understanding that they belonged to the Temple of God in Jerusalem would not be owner of them but sent them back to Jerusalem St. Jerom notes on Dan. 5. Quam diu vasa fuerunt in idolis Babylonicis non est iratus Dominus videbantur enim rem Dei secundum pravam quandam opinionem tamen divino cultui consecrâsse postquam autem humanis usibus divina contaminant statim poena sequitur post sacrilegium Most remarkable is the Piety of the Heathen King Darius 2 Macab 1 34 who hearing of the Pit wherein the holy Fire had been hid by the Prophet Jeremy and being turn'd into Water was after a long time taken thence by Nehemiah for the kindling of the Altar-Fire he caused the very place wherein these sanctified things had once been laid to be walled about and as holy Ground to be for ever sequestred from Prophanation Pompey the Great having taken the City Jerusalem by force and broken into the Temple seeing the inestimable Treasure and Riches thereof would neither take nor suffer any â—hing to be taken thence but commanded all things to be cleansed and the Sacrifices to be continued as they were formerly The Copy of His Majesty's Letter to the Vniversity of Oxon touching Glebe Tythes in Parsonages impropriated to be reduced to the sufficient and incumbent Minister as is here mention'd before James Rex RIght trusty and well belov'd We greet you well the Zeal that Religion might be well planted in this Realm and all other our Dominions hath caused Vs to enter into Consideration of all means that might best serve to the furtherance hereof Wherein finding that no one thing is a greater impediment than want of competent living to maintain Learned Men in such places of our Kingdom where the ordinary Benefit of the Vicarages doth not suffice and the Parsonages are impropriate and in Lay-mens Hands We have found that there could not be a readier way to supply that defect than if those Impropriations of Tythes might be converted again to the right use for which they were at present instituted wherein by God's Grace we have a purpose to do in such of of them as now are or shall be in Our Hands whatsoever Our State may well bear By which Example of Ours we presume to induce all others possess'd of the like to imitate Vs as far as with their Ability they may In the mean time We have consider'd that to give beginning to so good a work none were more fit than the Colleges in the Vniversities who being so eminent Members of Our State and having divers of them many such Impropriations and some of them also a desire as We are inform'd to provide for such persons out of such Livings as shall fall within their powers to dispose their Example should have great efficacy into all good men in this sort to advance the Glory of Christ's Gospel And because there may occur in the performance hereof some such particular difficulties as are unknown to Vs We have thought good before We entred further into it to recommend this Matter to your Consideration requiring you Our Chancellour and in your absence the Vice-Chancellour and Heads of Houses to assemble your selves and such discreet Men of all the Colleges as you shall think meet for such a Consultation and to propose that matter amongst you and to consider and set down some speedy course how upon the Expiration of the Years in being of any Lease of Tythes or Glebe impropriate the same may afterwards be so devised as Ecclesiastical Persons bred in the Houses to whom the same do belong respectively may be maintain'd and enabled to execute their Functions and yet the College provided of such things as are necessary for maintaining the same whereof We have no intention to wish any prejudice knowing well how fit it is that they be supported by all good means whatsoever of which your Deliberation and Resolution We do require you to advertise Vs with as convenient speed as you may both by Writing under your Hands and by some discreet Persons to be sent to Vs or Our Council to make Report of your doings therein Given under Our Sign at our Castle of Windsor the 10th of July 1603 in the first Year of the Reign of England France and Ireland and of Scotland 30th CHAP. VIII The particulars of divers Monasteries in Norfolk whereof the late Owners since the Dissolution are extinct or decayed or overthrown by Misfortunes and grievous Accidents ABout the Year I suppose 1615 or 1616 I described with a Pair of Compasses in the Mapp of Norfolk a Circle of 12 Miles the Semi-diameter according to the Scale thereof placing the Center about 24 the chief Seat of the Yelvertons within this Circle and the Borders of it I inclosed the Mansion-houses of about 24 Families of Gentlemen and the sight of as many Monasteries
St. Malo's in Britain fourteen of them were drowned at the entrance of that Harbour Whereupon it is a by-word at this day in these parts when any strong East-wind bloweth there to say The Bells of Jersey now ring Ex relatione M. Bandinell Decani ibidem More to this purpose may appear in the Discourse next following which lying now at my hand I thought good to insert not only for coherence of the matter but also to shew the Opinion Piety and Tenderness herein of the greatest Father and Magistrate of our Church under the King at that time living Dining yesterday at Lambeth with my Lord of Canterbury his Grace falling casually into a Discourse of Spanish matters and the Wealth of their Churches said That he had heard that the very Lamps of Spain were worth half the Treasure of that Kingdom And calling to him Mr ... Barkley of ... who had been a great Traveller and long in Spain demanded his Opinion herein Mr. Barkley answer'd That he thought it to be true and gave a reason for that every body for their delivery from any notable danger either of Sickness or otherwise used to present a Saint by way of gratuity with a Lamp to burn before it and commonly of Silver So that before some one Saint there were 4 or 5 thousand Lamps His Grace suggested St. James of Compostella And Mr. Barkley affirm'd it of St. James but added That the Bells in Spain and in other places of France and Italy were few and small yet holden to be very powerfull for driving away the Devils and Evil-spirits I upon this recited out of Gregorius Turonensis the History of Lupus Bishop of Swessons who by sudden ringing of Bells drave away the Pagan Army of Normans besieging that City having never heard of a Bell before Much being then said of the Nature and Office of Bells his Grace esteem'd the Bells of England comparatively with the Lamps of Spain and condemning the pulling of them down complained of the Deformity they had thereby brought upon the Churches of Scotland saying That at his being there and lodging first at Dunbar he went to see the Church which being shew'd unto him by a crumpt unseemly Person the Minister thereof he asked him how many Bells they had there The Minister answer'd None His Grace thinking that somewhat strange demanded how it chanced The Minister thinking that Question as strange reply'd It was one of the Reformed Churches From thence his Grace went to Edinborough where he found accordingly no Bell in all the City save one only in the Church of St. Andrew And enquiring What became of all the rest it was told him That they were shipp'd to be carried into the Low-Countries but were drowned in Leigh Haven I said That it was reported that Queen Elizabeth hearing that Sir John Shelton for want of other Prey had brought a Bell from the sacking of Cales was highly offended at it and said By God's death she would make him carry it thither again I might have added that that Peerless Princess was so far against defacing the Monuments in Churches and the pulling down of Bells and Lead from them as in the second Year of her Reign she caused many Proclamations not only to be printed but signed them also with her own Hand and sent them in that manner the more to manifest her Zeal and restrain the Sacrilege about into the Counties But because I had spoken of sending the Bell back again his Grace then requited me with this Relation A Gentleman quoth he of great descent richly married and of fair Estate yet not naming him shewed me on a time a piece of Unicorns Horn Sea Unicorn as much as the Cover of a great Salt-celler which was then standing upon the Table before Dinner was about at the bottom the piece of Unicorn's Horn having a Crucifix graven upon it and a gapp in one of the Quarters where part had been cut or scrap'd away for curing Infirmities I desired to know of him where he had it but he refus'd to tell it me till after some pressure he discover'd to me That in his Travels beyond the Seas he came to a Nunnery where the Nuns in courtesie shewing him the Relicks of their House he whilst they heeded him not slipt this into his Pocket and brought it away His Grace reproving him for it told him It was Sacrilege and that although it were superstitiously us'd yet it was dedicated unto God advising him to use some means for sending it back again saying that the Nuns no doubt suffer'd great Displeasure from their Abbess upon the missing of it The Gentleman notwithstanding quoth his Grace refus'd my Counsel but I observ'd said he that he never prosper'd after and at length having consumed his Estate died Childless It came not then to my Mind upon the sudden but I might very truly have added the like of Sir John Shelton That having married the Daughter of Henry Lord Cromwell he died very little or nothing worth and without any Issue as I take it but certainly without any Issue-male to continue his Family Subscrib'd Henry Spelman I Jeremy Stephens being then present do testify the truth of this Relation Having made mention of Cales and Queen Elizabeth I will add further what was lately told me by a Knight of worth who was himself in the Voyage much conducing to the Honour of that renowned Princess and to the scope also of this our Discourse It is said That when she set forth her Expedition for Cales or other Spanish Towns she gave particular and streight Instructions that in no Case any Violence should be offered to any Church or consecrated thing This notwithstanding Sir Coniers Clifford upon the taking of Cales fired and burnt the Cathedral-Church there and Sir Charles Blunt in the return from thence the Cathedral-Church of Pharos in Portugal It followed that Sir Coniers Clifford never after prospered in any thing and was at last slain by the Natives in Ireland leaving no Son to continue his Nominal-line and that Sir Charles Blunt about 2 Years after the Fact was drowned at Sea in passing for Ireland Ex relat Will. Slingsby Mil. 22. Nov. 1634. FINIS He had a violent Fall out of his Chariot and he was termented with an horrible Disease Worms came out of his Body and his flesh fell off for pain and no Man could endure his Stink 2 Maccab. 9. 7 8 c. Within 30 Years after the Sacrilege * This larger Account of Crassus's Sacrilege was found in a loose Paper written with Sir Hen. Spelman's own Hard. Ezek. 45. 1. Her transmutation into these Shapes is thus expounded Euseb. l. 8. cap. 1. seqq Oros. l. 7. c. 25. Carion in Ann. 288 * 1. †Constantius Carion in Ann. 288. ‖ Resumed the Purple lib. 9. c. 8. Ann. 356. Am. 362. Ann. 433. An. 508. An. 556. Circ 570. An. 576. * Divinitus †Semoti * Alii à Daemone correpti An. 579. An. 596. An. Dom. 684. Bed l. 4. c. 26. Lib. 4. p. 337. l. 14. An. 710. circ An. 712. circ Circ Ann. 742. Ann. 730. An. 845. An. 865. An. 874. Circ An. 888. Circ Ann. 880. Circ Ann. 964. Ann. Dom. 974. Ann. 975. Ranulph Cestr. lib. c. 11. Verba Authoris An. 1054. Hoved. in An. 1055. p. 443. Hist. of Cambria p. 99. Hist. Eliens l. 2. Hollinsh p. 866. Circ Ann. 1068. Ann. Dom. 1078. * Alias Hightest i. e. Thou art nam'd or call'd Ann. 1098. Circa Ann. 1100. Ann. 1157. Contin Florent in An. 1161. pag. 28. * Cat. Com. Essex Hov. Ann. 1179. Ann. Dom. 1199. K. John O mira formidabilis Dei S. Martyris ultrice Sententia Ann. Dom. 1224. 8 Hen. 3. Matt. Par. p. 308. An. Dom. 1245. Edw. 1. There were at that time about 110. An. 1315. 9 Edw. II. Chron. Irel. in eod An. p. 66. seq Edw. III. Richard II. Richard II. An. 4. A D. 1414. 2. Hen. V. A. D. 1527. 16. H. VIII circiter 25. H. VI. A. D. 1447. Cign Cant. Voc. Hursta Hollinsh Stow in hoc An. pa 639. In Chron Stow. in An. 1447. York pa. York pa. 480. Leland Hollinsh pag. 627. f. trust Speed p. 231. Number 128. De Vitâ Const. l. 4. c. 1. Judg. 16. i e. Sir John Spelman Mr. Stephen's Treat 27 Feb. 1625 Friars Preachers The Augustine Friars The Cell or College 1. Owner His 2d Son drowned Two of his eldest Sons are Vagabonds All disinherited 1. No Issue 2. Without Issue-male His Brother slain 3. Wasted His Brother attainted and drowned His Son no Issue-male 4. Ruin'd 5 Owner 6 Owner selleth it 7 Owner â— died suddenly without Issue-male 2 Owner His eldest Sâ—n died without Issue His 2d an unthrift 3 Owner without Issue-male His eldest Daughter distracted His yongest Daughter distracted Quere Whether these two Daughters of Sir Nich. are of his Son Michael or other Son Slew Blackwell and obtain'd a Pardon with 1200. Wapham 1st no Issue 2d ruined 3d litigious and no Issue Male. Kent Dorsetshi Glocestershire Val. l. s. d. 65 14 8. Val. l. s. 99 16. Nov. 13. 1632.