thereof Some of the Lutherans had given out on the former ground That the English had deservedly suffered the greatest Hardships both at home and abroad because they Writ and Spake so irreverently of the Blessed Sacrament Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the Lutherans detesting an English Protestant Nothing occurring more in this Queens Reign as to these matters of Religion we will now give an Account of the years when these Changes were made with an Addition of some works of Piety done by Her and in Her time IN the First year of this Queens Reign All Bishops that had been deprived in the time of King Edward the Sixth were restored to their Bishopricks and the new removed Also this year on the Twenty seventh of August the Service was sung in Latin in St. Paul's Church The Pope's Authority being likewise by Act of Parliament restored in England and the Mâ—…ss Commanded in all Churches to be used In her Second year the Realm is Absolved and Reconciled to the Church of Rome and First Fruits and Tenths restored to the Clergy In her Third year Eight hundred English Protestants sorsook the Kingdom who fell into great Confusions amongst themselves being in other Countries In her Fourth year Monasteries were be gun to be re-edified In her Fifth year great endeavors were used by Sectaries to raise Sedition by Seditious Books and unlawful Meetings or Conventicles In her Sixth year She built Publick Schools in the University of Oxford Which being decayed in tract of time and of no beautiful Structure when they were at the best were taken down In place whereof but upon a larger extent of Ground was raised that Goodly and Magnificent Fabrick which we now behold Works of Piety The Queen restored a great part of the Abbey-Lands that were in her Possession In her First year Sir Thomas white then Mayor Erected a College in Oxford called S. John's College He also Erected Schools at Bristow and Reading and gave Two thousand pounds to the City of Bristow to purchase Lands the profits whereof to be employed for the benefit of young Clothiers In her Third year died Sir John Gresham late Mayor of London who Founded a Free-School at Holt in Norfolk and gave to every Ward in London Ten pounds to be distributed to the Poor Also to Maids-Marriages Two hundred pounds Cuthbert Tunstal Bishop of Durham Erected a goodly Library in Cambridge storing it with many Excellent both Printed and Written Books He also bestowed much upon Building at Durham at Alnewick and at Tunbridge Thus Sir Richard Baker Here you have had a short View of the great Zeal and Piety that was in this Nation during the Reign of this Queen And this delivered from the mouths of her Enemies the most zealous Protestants This Account being here ended we will now proceed to relate what Changes were made as to Religion in Queen Elizabeths time Wherein the Scene was totally Altered She following the Example of her Father and Brother in going on with the Destructions and Confusions begun by them The Last Part Of these HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS Concerning A Fourth Change of Religion Made for POLITICK ENDS And of the Occurrences concerning it In the Reign of Queen Elizabeth A Preamble BEfore we begin this Queens Reign we will following Dr. Heylyn's order first make a Relation out of him of the various Fortunes of her Mother Anne Boleign of whom thus he writes in his History of Reformation pag. 86. Anne Boleign from her tender years was brought up in the Court of France Who returning into England was preferred to be Maid of Honor to Queen Catherine In whose Service the King falls in Love with her But so long concealed his Affections that there was a great League contracted betwixt her and the young Lord Peircy Son to the Earl of Northumberland But that being broken off by the endeavors of Cardinal Wolsey and the King laboring for a Divorce from Queen Catherine that he might Marry her that also was sought to be obstructed by the Cardinal Which being understood by Mrs. Anne Boleign she seeks all ways for his destruction and prevailed so far with the King that he was presently Indicted and Attainted of a Praemunire and not long after by the Counsel of Thomas Cromwel who had sormerly been the Cardinals Solicitor in his Legatine Court envolves the whole Clergy in the same Crime with him And by perswasion of this man he requires of the said Clergy to acknowledge him for Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England and to make no new Canons and Constitutions not to Execute any such when made by his consent And having thus brought his own Clergy under his Command he was the less solicitous how his matters went in the Court of Rome concerning his Divorce Whereupon he privately Marries Mistris Anne Boleign And a long time after to wit Three or Four Months after the Birth of the Princess Elizabeth began a Parliament in which the Kings first Marriage was declared Unlawful and the Succession of the Crown settled upon His Issue by this Second Marriage An Oath being devised in maintenance of the said Succession and not long after Moor and Fisher were Executed for refusing to take that Oath The New Queen being thus settled and considering that the Pope and She had such different Interests that they could not subsist together She resolved to suppress his Power what she could But finding that the Pope was too well entrenched to be dislodged upon a sudden it was advised by Cromwel to begin with taking in the Outworks first which being gained it would be no hard matter to beat him out of his Trenches In order whereunto a Visitation is begun in which a diligent Enquiry was to be made into all Abbey's Priories and Nunneries within the Kingdom an Account of which Visitation and the Dâ—…ssolution of Abbeys hath been formerly given in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth But the New Queen for whose sake Cromwel had contrived that Plot did not live to see this Dissolution For such is the uncertainty of Humane Affairs that when she thought her Self most Secure and free from Danger She became most obnoxious to the ruine prepared for Her It had pleased God upon the Eighth of January to put an end unto the Calamities of the Virtuous but unfortunate Queen unto whose Bed she had succeeded The News whereof she entertained with such contentment that she caused her self to be apparelled in lighter Colours than was agreeable to the season or the sad occasion Whereas if she had rightly understood her own Condition She could not but have known that the long Life of Queen Catherine was to be her best preservation against all changes which the King 's loose Affections or any other Alteration in the Affairs of State were otherwise like to draw upon her But this Contentment held not long For within Three Weeks after She fell in Travail in which she miscarried of a Son to the extreme discontent of the
Platform And others looked upon the Homilies as beggerly Rudiments scarce Milk for Babes But by no means to be looked upon as Meat for a stronger stomack In general thought by the Genevians and Zuinglian Gospellers to have too much in them of the Pope or too little of Calvin and therefore no way to be subscribed unto Of which number none so much remarkable as Father John Fox the Martyrologist who had before appeared in the Schism at Frankfort and left that Church when Cox had got the better in it to retire to Geneva Who being now called upon to subscribe that the opinion which was had of his parts and Piety might advance the work he is said to have appeared before the Bishop carrying the New-Testament in Greek with him before whom he spake these words To this Book I will subscribe and if this will not serve take my Prebend'ry at Salisbury the only Preferment which I hold in the Church of England and much good may it do you But notwithstanding this refractory Answer so much kindness was shewed to him that he both kept his resolution and place together The Genevians for the greater countenanceing of their inconformity had stirred up the most eminent Divines of the French and Zuinglian or Helvetian Churches to declare in favour of their doings And it appears also by remembrances in some Authors that Calvin apprehending some neglect from Mr. Secretary Cecill in making either no return or a return which signified nothing to his first Addresses had laid aside his care of the Church of England But Peter Martyr whilst he lived conceived himself to have some Interest in this Church in which he had enjoyed such a good preferment but more in some particular Persons and Members of it who seemed to depend upon his judgment and to ask counsel of him as their surest Oracle in which how much he countenanced the Faction in King Edward's time both by his Practice and Pen and what encouragement he gave them in this present Reign hath been shewn before But how much he was out-gone by Beza who next usurped a Super-intendency over all the Churches of this Island may be seen hereafter All that shall now be said of either of them or of altogether shall be briefly this That this poor Church might better have wanted their best helps in Points of Doctrine than have been troubled with their intermedlings in matter of Discipline Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the Calvinists Dr Heylyn having little or nothing in the Fourth and Fifth year of this Queens Reign that belongs to the matter of these Notes we will pass to the 6th year CHAP. XII Of one Cartwright a great Promoter of Presbytery and of the Earl of Leicester and the death of Calvin Anno Reg. Eliz. 6. Dr. Heylyn pag. 164. THis Summer in a Progress the Queen came to Cambridge where were sown the seeds of those Divisions and Combustions with which the Church of England hath been continually distracted to this very day For so it happened that one Preston and Cartwright were appointed to hold a Disputation In which the First was both liked and rewarded by Her the Other receiving neither reward nor commendation Which so incensed the proud man that he retired to Geneva Where having throughly informed himself in all particulars both of Doctrine and Discipline wherein the Churches of that Platform differed from the Church of England he returned home with an intent to repair his credit or rather to get himself a name by raising such a fire and such combustions in the Church of England as never were to be extinguished but by the immediate hand of Heaven The next considerable Action which followed on the Queens Reception at Cambridge was the preferring of Sir Robert Dudley the Second Son then living of the Duke of Northumberland to the Titles of Lord Denbigh and Earl of Leicester She had before Elected him into the Order of the Garter made him Master of her Horse and Chancellor of the University of Oxon suffered him to carry a great sway in all Affairs both of Court and Council and given unto him the fair Mannor of Denbigh being conceived to be one of the goodliest Territories in England And now She adds unto these Honors the goodly Castle and Mannor of Kenelworth part of the parrimony of the Duchy of Lancaster Advanced unto which height he engrossed unto himself the disposing of all Offices in the Court and State and of all Preferments in the Church proving in fine so unappeasable in his Malice and unsatiable in his Lusts so Sacrilegious in his Rapines so false in Promises and treacherous in point of Trust And finally so destructive of the Rights and Proprieties of particular Persons that his Little Finger lay heavier on the English Subjects than the Loins of all the Favourites of the Two last Kings And that his Monstrous Vices most insupportable in any other but himself might either be connived at or not complained of he cloaks them with a seeming zeal to the true Religion and made himself Head of the Puritan Faction Who spared no pains in seting forth his praises upon all occasions Nor was he wanting to caress them after such a manner as he found most agreeable to those Holy Hypocrites using no other language in his Speech and Letters than pure Scripture-phrase in which he was become so dextrous as if he had received the same Inspirations with the Sacred Pen-men But notwithstanding the viciousness of this man yet the Queen laboured further to advance him even to a Marriage with the Queen of Scots As appears by this Relation of Dr. Heylyn pag. 169. Queen Elizabeth kept a Stock still going in Scotland the returns whereof redounded more to her own security than to the profit and advantage of the Church of England The Queen of Scots being now a Widow possessed of that Kingdom and next Heir to this Queen Elizabeth proposes to her a Marriage with the Earl of Leicester whom she pretended to have raised to those Eminent Honors to make him in some sort capable of a Queens Affections Which Proposition proved agreeable to neither party the Queen of Scots disdaining the unequal offer and Leicester dealing under-hand with Randolph the English Resident to keep her still in that aversness having given himself a hope of Marrying Queen Elizabeth interpreting all her Favors to proceed in order to it I had not spoken so much of this Earl of Leicester but that he seemed to have been born for the destruction of the Church of England as will appear by what shall be here said concerning the Presbyterians in this Queens Reign But leaving this Court-Meteor to be gazed on by unknowing men we will now conclude this Sixth year with that which was very advantageous to the Church of England to wit the Death of Calvin By whose Authority if he had lived longer much more Disorders and Confusions must have necessarily succeeded For his Name was much Reverenced not only by
make it known what they were Prestons Chantery THis was Founded by John Preston for two Priests to Sing Mass daily for the good Estate of Him the said John during this mortal Life and afterwards for the health of his Soul as also for the Souls of his Parents and Benefactors and all the Faithful Deceased Thus Mr. Dugdale Of Gilds or Fraternities The word Gild Proceeds from the Saxon word Gelo or Gilo which signifies Money because that such as were either for Charity Religion or Merchandize sake associated did cast their Money Goods yea and sometimes Lands together for the publick support of their own common charge These had their Annual Feasts â—…nd Neighbourly Meetings The First and most Ancient of these Gilds here in Coventry was Founded in the Fourteenth year of Edward the Third At which time the King granted Licence to the Coventry men That they should have a Merchants Gild and a Fraternity of Brethren and Sisters of the same in this Town with a Master or Warden thereof to be chosen out of the same Fraternity And that they might make Chantries bestow Alms do other works of Piety and Constituted Ordinances touching the same with all Appurtenances thereto And in the Seventeenth year Edward the Third gave leave to several to enter into a Fraternity and make a Gild consisting of themselves and such others as would joyn with them to the Honor of St. John Baptist. As also to purchase certain Lands Tenements and Rents for the Founding of a Chantry of Six Priests to Sing Mass every day in the Church of the Holy Trinity and St. Michael in Coventry for the Souls of the King's Progenitors and for the good Estate of the King Queen Isabel his Mother Queen Philippa his Wife and their Children As also of Walter Chesthunt and William De-Belgrave during their lives here on Earth and for their Souls after their departure hence and for the good Estate of the said John John Tho. Rich. Pet. and William and the rest of the said Gild with their Benefactors and likewise for the Soul of John Eltham late Earl of Cornwal and all of the Faithful Deceased Which Gild being so Founded within Two years after the same King Edward gave Licence to Queen Isabel his Mother to Give and Assign thereunto a parcel of Land to build thereupon a Chappel to the Honor of our Bâ—…essed Saviour and St. John Baptist for Two Priests to Sing Mass daily for the good Estate of the said King Edward Queen Isabel his Mother Queen Philippa his Wife Edward Prince of Wales and of the Brethren and Benefactors of the same Gild whilst they lived in this World and for their Souls after their Departure hence As also for the Soul of John of Eltham Earl of Cornwal and the Souls of the said Brethren and Benefactors with all the Faithful Deceased Thus Mr. Dugdale p. 119. There were great store of these and such like Pious Foundations throughout all England as appears by the same History All destroyed by King Henry the Eighth and his Son This Change being made something must necessarily be established in order to Religion CHAP. III. A Book of Religion Published THE Clergy held a Convocation in St. Paul's Church where after much disputing and debating of matters they Published a Book of Religion Entituled Articles Devised by the King's Highness c. In which Book is mentioned but Three Sacraments Baptism Eucharist and Penance The Articles contained in this Book were Six And by an Act of Parliament all were condemned for Hereticks and to be Burnt that should hold the contrary to them Asserting 1. That the Body of Christ was not really present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist after Consecration 2. That Priests entred into Holy Orders might Marry 3. That the Sacrament might not truly be Administred in one kind 4. That Vows of Chastity made upon mature deliberation were not to be kept That Private Masses were not to be used That Auricular Confession was not necessary in the Church Thus Sir Rich. Baker pag. 408. Here followeth the Act it self out of the Statute Book An Act of Parliament made in King Henry the Eighth's time for abolishing diversity of Opinions in certain Articles concerning Religion THe King 's Most Royal Majesty most prudently considering that by occasion of various Opinions and Judgments concerning some Articles in Religion great discord and variance hath arisen as well amongst the Clergy of this Realm as amongst a great number of the vulgar People And being in a full hope and trust that a full and perfect Resolution of the said Articles would make a perfect Concord and Unity generally amongst all His Loving and Obedient Subjects of His most Excellent Goodness not only Commanded that the said Articles should Deliberately and Advisedly by His Archbishops Bishops and other Learned Men of His Clergy be Debated Argued and Reasoned and their Opinions therein to be Understood Declared and Known But also most Graciously vouchsafed in his own Princely Person to come unto his High Court of Parliament and Council and there like a wise Prince of most high Prudence and no less Learning opened and declared many Things of most high Learning and great Knowledge touching the said Articles Matters and Questions for an Unity to be had in the same Whereupon after a great and long deliberate and advised Disputation and Consultation had and made concerning the said Articles as well by the consent of the King's Highness as by the Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and other Leaned Men of His Clergy in their Convocations and by the Consent of the Commons in Parliament Assembled it was and is finally resolved accorded and Agreed in manner and form following that is to say 1. First That in the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar by the strength and efficacy of Christ's mighty Word it being spoken by the Priest is present really under the Forms of Bread and Wine the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ conceived of the Virgin Mary and that after the Consecration there remains no substance of the Bread or Wine nor any other Substance but the Substance of Christ God and Man 2. That the Communion in both kinds is not necessary to Salvation by the Law of God to all Persons and that it is to be Believed and not Doubted but that in the Flesh under the Form of Bread is the very Blood and with Blood under the Form of Wine is the very Flesh as well apart as if they were both together 3. That Priests after the Order of Priesthood received may not Marry by the Law of God 4. That Vows of Chastity Widowhood c. are to be kept 5. That it is meet and necessary that Private Masses be continued and admitted in the King 's English Church and Congregation as whereby good Christian People orcering themselves accordingly do receive both Godly and Goodly Consolations and Benefits and it is agreeable also to God's Law 6. That
at that time in special favor oâ—… known aversness to the Earl of Leicester and consequently no friend to the Puritan Faction This obstactle must be removed one way or other This Office Burchet undertakes and does it upon this opinion That it was Lawful to assassinate any man who opposed the Gospel But he mistakes the man and stabs one Hawkins desperately with a Ponyard conceiving him to be Hatton But by the terror of a Proclamation and the Execution of this Burchet they were restrained from practising any further at the present But what they durst not do directly and in open sight they found a way to act Obliquely and under disguise of setting up another Church of Strangers in the midst of London Many of the Low-country men had fled their Country and setled their Dwellings in the Ports and Sea Towns of England and good numbers of them at London For these there must be a Church in London And for this purpose a Suit is made by their Friends in Court for the obtaining of it And that they might proceed in setting up their Presbytery and New Forms of Worship they obtain not only a connivence or Toleration but a plain Approbation of their Acting in it This likewise gave the First Beginning to the now Dutch Churches in Canterbury Sandwich Yarmouth Norwich and some other places in the North to the great animation of the Presbyters and to the discomfort of all such who were of Judgment to fore-see the sad consequents of it With like felicity they drove on their designs in Jersey and Gernsey introducing their Discipline by degrees into all the Villages Furthered therein by the Sacrilegious avarice of their several Governors out of a hope to have the spoyl of the Deaneries to engross all the Tythes to themselves and then put off the Ministers with some sorry Stipends as in fine they did It was also thought fit That Snape and Cartwright the great Supporters of the Cause in England should be sent unto them to put their Churches in a posture and settle the Discipline amongst them in such Manner and Form as it was practised at Geneva Grindall's being Translated from the See of York unto that of Canterbury gave great hâ—…pes to the Presbyterians who soon found how plyant he was like to prove to their expectation Which happened accordingly he seeking in all things to promote their designs and making great Alterations in the Church of England A Breach happened betwixt him and Leicester that mighty Patron and Protector of the Puritan Faction occasioned by his denying at the Earl's request to Alienate his House and Mannor of Lambeth that it might serve for a Retiring-place to that mighty Favourite And hereunto he did contribute further by refusing to grant a Dispensation to Marry One that was neer of Kindred to him This Leicester thought he might command and was exceedingly vexed not to find obedience in one who had been raised by him and depended on him Upon which ground all passages which before where shut against his enemies were now left free and open for them Whereupon they acquainted the Queen what a neglect there was of the Publick Liturgy in most parts of the Kingdom what ruin and decay of Churches what Innovations made already and what more projected by which She would be eased in time of all Cares of Government and find the same to be transferred to the Puritan Consistories Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the sad state of the Church of England CHAP. XX. A further Relation concerning Cartwright and other Presbyterian Ministers and how they laboured to set up Presbytery in this Nation Dr. Heylyn pag. 290. CArtwright having setled the Presbytery in Jersey and Gernsey first sends back Snape to his old Lecture at Northampton there to pursue such Orders and Directions as they had agreed on And afterwards put himself into the Factory at Antwerp and was soon chosen for their Preacher The news whereof brings Travers to him who receives Ordination if I may so call it by the Presbytery of that City and thereupon is made his Partner in that Charge They easily perswaded the Merchants to admit the Discipline And they endeavoured it the rather that by their help they might effect the like in the City of London whensoever they should find the times to be ready for them The like they did also in the English Church at Middleborough the chief Town in Zealand in which many English Merchants had their constant Residence To which Two places they drew over many of the English Nation to receive admission into the Ministry in a different Form from that which is allowed in the Church of England Some of them following the Example of Cartwright himself renounced the Orders which they had from the hands of Bishops and took a new Vocation from those Presbyters and others there admitted to the rank of Ministers who never were ordained in England Not to say any thing of such as were Elected to be Elders or Deacons in those Forreign Consistories that they might serve the Churches in the same capacity at their coming home And now at last they are for England where Travers put himself into the Service of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh by whose recommendation he is chosen Lecturer of the Temple-Church which gave him opportunity for managing all affairs that concerned the Discipline with the London-Ministers Cartwright applies himself to the Earl of Leicester by whom he is sent down to Warwick and afterwards made Master of an Hospital of his Foundation In the chief Church of which Town he preached when he pleased making it his business to promote the Discipline and to undermine the Church of England But this was not done all at once or in the first year only after his Return but by degrees as opportunity was offered to them Yet so far he prevailed in the first year only that a Meeting of Sixty Ministers out of the Counties of Essex Cambridge and Norfolk was held at a Village called Corkhill where Knewstubs who was one of the Number had the Cure of Souls Which Meeting was held May the 8th Anno 1582 there to Confer about some passages in the Common-Prayer-Book as what might be tolerated in it and what refused The like Meeting was held at the Commencement in Cambridge then next ensuing Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these proceedings of the Calvinists It would be too tedious to relate all the particulars in the carrying on this business And therefore for this I remit the Reader to the History it self CHAP. XXI The Queens Resolution of maintaining Episcopal Government and the great Opposition that was made against it Dr. Heylyn pag. 302. THe Queen was resolved to hold Her Prerogative Royal at the very height and therefore would not hearken to such Propositions as had been made in favour of the Puritan-faction by their great Agents in the Court though She had been many times sollicited in it She acquaints Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury that She
the preservation of my Life than the profit of my Living Wherefore after I had weighed as many dangers as I could remember and was perswaded that to depart the Realm was the safest way I could take I resolved to take the benefit of a happy Wind to avoid the violence of a bitter Storm And knowing that the Actions of Those who go beyond Seas though their intent be never so good and dutiful were yet evil thought of I presume to write this Letter to your Majesty and in it to declare the true causes and reasons of this my departure I here take God and his Holy Angels to witness that I would not have taken this course if I might have staied still in England without danger of my Soul and peril of my Life And though the loss of Temporal Commodities be so grievous to Flesh and Blood that I could not desire to live if I were not comforted with the remembrance of his Mercy for whom I endure all this who endured ten thousand times more for me yet I assure your Majesty that your Displeasure would be more unpleasant to me than the bitterness of all my Losses and greater grief than the greatest of my Misfortunes The Earl having written the foregoing Letter and leaving it behind him to be delivered to the Queen after his departure attempted to have passed the Seas without License for the which he was committed to the Tower and condemned to pay Ten thousand Pound Fine for his contempt and to remain Prisoner at the Queens pleasure Thus Stow. This short Relation of these Severities may make it easily conceived what endeavours there were then used totally to extirpate Catholick Religion in England Thus you have had a short view of the state of Religion in this Queens Reign An Account of the Years in which these Changes in Religion were made IN her First year she being resolved upon an Alteration of Religion as knowing well that her Legitimation and the Pope's Supremacy could not stard together called a Parliament which totally complied with her Designs in order to such a Change But the Convocation of the Clergy which accompanied this Parliament totally opposed it and thereupon were deprived of their Ecclesiastical Benefices a company of Ignorant and Illiterate Men being Substituted in their places which gave occasion to the Calvinists or Presbyterians to obtain great Ecclesiastical Preserments here By which they have continually labored to supplant and undermine the Church of England It was the Second year of her Reign before any Protestant Bishops were elected The main cause for keeping the Episcopal Sees so long vacant was that in the mean time the best Flowers might be culled out of them Aid this year was sent to assist the Rebels in Scotland against their Lawful Queen The Presbyterians seeing Episcopal Government settled begin to play their Game The Bishops being thus settled begin the next year to make Laws and to compose Articles of Religion and to exact a Conformity to them upon which they find great oppositions from the Presbyterians In her Fourth year she was solicited by Pope Pius to send her Orators to the Council of Trent which she refused to do The Emperor also writ to her to desist from these Alterations of Religion and to return to the Ancient Catholick Faith of her Predecessors In her Fifth year the Articles of Religion were agreed on in the Convocation In her Sixth year she would have Married the Earl of Leicester to the Queen of Scots Calvin dies this year and Cartwright the great promoter of Presbytery retires out of England upon a discontent to Geneva In her Seventh year the Calvinists began first to be called Puritans Dr. Heylyn In her Eighth year the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops was Confirmed And for this we are beholding to Boner the late Bishop of London who being called up to take the Oath of Supremacy by Horn of Winton refused to take the Oath upon this account because Horn's Consecration was not good and valid by the Laws of the Land Which he insisted upon because the Ordinal Established in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth by which both Horn and all the rest of Queen Elizabeths Bishops received Consecration had been Repealed by Queen Mary and not restored by any Act of Parliament in the present Reign which being first declared by Parliament in the Eighth of this Queen to be Casus Omissus or rather that the Ordinal was looked upon as a part of the Liturgy confirmed in the First year of this Queen They next Enacted and Ordained That all such Bishops as were consecrated by it in time to come should be reputed to be lawfully Consecrated Baker In her Eleventh year there arose a Sect openly condemning the received Discipline of the Church of England together with the Church-Liturgy and the very Calling of Bishops This Sect so mightily encreased that in the Sixteenth year of her Reign the Queen and Kingdom was extreamly troubled with them In the same Sixteenth year were taken at Mass in their several Houses the Lord Morley's Lady and her Children the Lady Gilford and the Lady Brown who being thereof Endicted and Convicted suffered the penalties of the Laws In her Twentieth year the severe Laws against Roman Catholicks were Enacted In her Twenty third year a Proclamation was set forth That whosoever had any Children beyond Sea should by a certain day call them home and that no Person should harbour any Seminary Priest or Jesuit At this time also there arose up in Holland a certain Sect naming themselves The Family of Love In a Parliament held the 26th year of her Reign the Puritan party laboured to have Laws made in order to the destroying of the Church of England and the setting up of their own Sect. In her Twenty eighth year the Queen gave a special Charge to Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury to settle an Uniformity in the Ecclesiastical Discipline which lay now almost a gasping And at this time the Sect of Brownists derived from one Robert Brown did much oppose the Church of England In her One and Thirtieth year the Puritan-Flames broke forth again In her Thirty sixth year the Severity of the Laws were Executed upon Henry Barrow and his Sectaries for condemning the Church of England as no Christian Church Thus Sir Rich. Baker Here is an End of this Work Wherein I hope there is full Satisfaction given concerning the Alterations of Religion which have been made by Publick Authority in the Reigns of these Kings and Queens with a sufficient discovery of the Actings of the Presbyterians in this Nation and the ground of multiplying other Sects Here ends the Historical Collections AN APPENDIX CHAP. I. A Word concerning the Doctrins and Practices deserted by this Nation in these Changes of Religion NOw for a close to this Work I will add here in the first place one thing which I conceive deserves well to be taken notice of which is this to wit
and observe St. Benets Rule as strictly as the Jews did the Law of Moses And at the length Odo D. of Burgnndy favoring their devout purposes bestowed on them certain Lands in a place called Cisteaux in the Bishoprick of Chalons where the said Abbot Robert with the rest for some time inhabited by example of whose strict and holy life in that Wilderness many began to do the like But in time the Covent at Molisme wanting a Pastor to govern them complained to Pope Urban shewing unto him the inconveniences that they sustained by reason thereof who having a paternal affection to both places commanded Abbot Robert to go back thither substituting some one of those Monks at Cisteaux to supply his room as Abbot there whereupon he constituted one Alberic to whom afterwards one Stephen an Englishman of great piety succeeded This plantation at Cisteaux was in the year 1098. as the same Author affirmeth with whom agreeth an ancient Chronical of the Church of Durham further manifesting that this Abbot Robert was an Englishman his sirname Harding and a Monk of Shirburne who in his younger years forsaking his habit went over into France for advancement of his knowledge in learning and coming to the Monastery of Molesme before mentioned was there shorne a Monk the second time and shortly after became Abbot Which Monks increased so much by the great conflux of Men to Cisteaux that from thence almost 500 Abbies of that Order were sprung within the compass of 55 years so that in a general Chapter held there by the Abbots and Bishops that were of that Rule it was ordained that from thenceforth there should be no more erected of that Order for their Monastries were built in Deserts and Woody places by their own proper handywork unto many whereof they gave special holy Names as Domus-Dei Clara-vallis Curia-Dei and the like Having said thus much of their original I shall add a word or two of the strictness in their Rule and so proceed with my discourse touching the further endowment of this Monastery First of their Habit they wear no Leather nor Linnen nor indeed any fine Woollen Cloth neither except it be in a journey do they put on any Breeches and then upon their return deliver them fair washt Having two Coats with Cowles in Winter time they are not to augment but in Summer if they please may lessen them In which habit they are to sleep and after Mattins not to return to their Beds For Prayers the hour of Prime they so conclude that before the Laudes it may be Day-break strictly observing their Rule that not one jot or tittle of their service is omitted Immediately after Laudes they sing the Prime and after Prime they go out performing their appointed hours in work what is to be done in the day they act by day-light for none of them except he be sick is to be absent from his Diurnal hours or the Compline When the Compline is finished the Steward of the House and he that hath charge of the guests go forth but with great care of silence serve them For Diet the Abbot assumes no more liberty to himself than any of his Covent every where being present with them and taking care of his flock except at meat in regard his Table is always with the strangers and poor people nevertheless wheresoever he eats is he abstemious of talk or any dainty fair nor hath he or any of them ever above two dishes of meat neither do they eat of fat or flesh except in case of sickness and from the Ides of September till Easter they eat no more than once a day except on Sundays no not on any Festival Out of the precincts of their Cloyster they go not but to work neither there or any where do they discourse with any but the Abbot or Prior. They unweariedly continue their Canonical hours not piecing any service to another except the Vigils for the decased They observe the Office of St. Ambrose so far as they could have perfect knowledge thereof from Millain and taking care of strangers or sick people do do devise extraordinary afflictions for their own bodies to the intent their own souls may be advantaged Which Rules were duly observed by the first Abbot and Covent but afterwards somewhat was abated of that austerity but their Habit is still white and nothing different in the fashion from the Monks of St. Benedict's Rule except a girdle which these wear about their middle The Black Friers pag. 367. col 2. This Order was begun by St. Dominick a Spaniard in the time of Pope Innocent the III who being at first a Canon with a few that he chose to be his companions instituted a new Rule of strict and holy living and lest they should grow sluggish in the service of God by staying at home in imitation of our blessed Saviour he appointed them to travel far and wide to preach the Gospel their Habit being a white Coat with a black Cloak over it which Order Honorius the III. who succeded Pope Innocent confirmed and Gregory the Ninth canonized him for a Saint In Anno 1221. 20 H. 3. they first came into England The White Friers pag. 117. col 1. The first institution of this Order as divers Authors affirm was Elias the Prophet at Mount-Carmell in Syria where living a retired life in the service of God he gave example unto many devout Anchorites to repair thither for solitude but these being disperst over the whole mountain in private Cells were at length by Almeric Bishop of Antioch reduced into one Covent at which time they elected cut of themselves a Superior and first began the Fountain of a Monastery where the Chappel of the blessed Virgin stood viz. near the foundation of Helias Howbeit the observance of this life began not till the days of Pope Alexander the Third about the year 1170. Nor till the time of Innocent the Third near 40. years after had they any direct Order that Albert Bishop of Jerusalem prescribed unto them thus living in the wilderness a form out of St. Basills Rule and a parti-colored Mantle of white and red such a one as Helyas the Prophet anciently used which afterwards Honorius the Third altered conceiving it not to be so proper and instead of the party-color appointed that it should be all white calling the Covent of these Friers the family of the Blessed Virgin in regard the white colour being least spotted doth best accord with Virginity But the first mention that I find of their propagating in this Realm is in anno 1250. 34 H. 3. at which time Sir John de Vescy of Alnwike in Northumberland a great Baron in those days returning from the Holy-Land brought into England this Order of Friers and built for them a Monastery at Holme in Northumberland then a desert place and not unlike to Mount-Carmel before mentioned The Gray-Friers p. 113. col 1. First therefore as to their original we shall