Clergy had so disproportionable a share by way of excess in the Lands of the Kingdom yet when in 17 Edw. II. it came to the point that the Order of the Templars for their wickedness was overthrown the Parliament then wherein many of those no doubt that made the Statute of Mortmain were present would not give the Lands and Possessions of the Templars to the King or the Lords of whom they were holden but ordain'd that they should go to the Order of the Hospital of St. John's of Jerusalem then lately erected for the defence of Christendom and the Christian Religion Edward le Bruce brother to Robert le Bruce King of Scots invadeth the North parts of Ireland with 6000 Men and accompanied with many great persons of the Nobility conquer'd the Earldom of Ulster gave the English many overthrows and prevail'd so victoriously that he caus'd himself to be crown'd King of Ireland His Soldiers in the mean time burn Churches and Abbies with the People whom they found in the same sparing neither Man Woman nor Child And most wickedly entring into other Churches spoil'd and defac'd the same of all such Tombs Monuments Plate Copies and other Ornaments as they found there He thus prevailing and the Irish much revolting to him the Archbishop of Armagh blesseth and encourageth the English Army against him Whereupon they joyn'd battle overthrew the whole Power of the Scots slew 2000 of their Men and amongst them this their King Edward le Bruce himself King Edw. III. to begin his Wars with France in An. 1337. taketh all the Treasure that was laid up in the Churches throughout England for the defence of the Holy Land Speed p. 190. And whereas there were anciently in England many Cells and Houses of Religion 110 they were counted and more belonging to greater Monasteries beyond the Seas fraught with Aliens and Strangers especially French-men and those of the Orders of Clunis and Cistertien King Edward III. at his entry into his French Wars An. 1337 Regni 12. partly fearing that they might hold intelligence with his Enemies but seeking chiefly to have their Wealth toward the payment of his Soldiers confiscated their Goods and Possessions letting their Priories and Lands to farm for Rent and selling some of them right out to others of his Subjects Yet like a Noble and Religious Prince touch'd with remorse when the Wars were ended viz. An. 1361 regni 35. he granted them all save those few that he had put away back again unto them by his Letters Patents as freely as they had formerly enjoy'd them And divers of those that were purchas'd by his Subjects were by them new-founded and given back to Religious Uses This act of the King 's was a precedent of singular Piety yet was it but a lame Offering not an Holocaust He gave back the Possessions but he retain'd the Profits which he had taken for 23 Years Speed p. 211. King John whom they so much condemn did more than this if he had done it as willingly He restor'd the Lands with the Damages But let not this good King want the charitable Commendation due unto his Piety though having dipt his Hands in this We be driven by the course of our Argument to observe what after befell to him and his Off-spring There be some things saith ... are sweet in the Mouth but bitter in the Belly pleasant at the beginning but woful in the end If these Priories and their Churches were of that nature the sequel verifies the Proverb The middle part of the King's Life was most fortunate and victorious yea all the while that these things were in his Hands even as if God had bless'd him as he did Obed-Edom 1 Sam. 6. 10. whilst the Ark was in his House and had the King then dy'd he had been a most glorious pattern of earthly Felicity But the Wheel turn'd and his Oriental Fortunes became Occidental The Peace he had concluded with France for the solace of his Age brake out again into an unfortunate War Many of his Subjects there rebell Gascony in effect is lost Afflictions at home fall upon him in sequence his Son Lionel Duke of Clarence dieth without Issue-male and when he had greatest need of his renowned Son the Prince of Wales miracle of Chivalry and the Anchor of his Kingdom him even then did God take from him his Court and Nobles discontented and in Faction himself and all things much misgovern'd by his Son the Duke of Lancaster and others of that part who by the Parliament are therefore remov'd from him and by him recall'd notwithstanding to the grief of all the Kingdom Thus he dieth leaving his unweildy Scepters to the feeble Arms of a Child of Eleven Years old King Richard II. whose lamentable History for the honour of Kings is best unspoken of But so unfortunate he was among his other Calamities that he was not only deposed by his unnatural Subjects but imprison'd and murther'd dying without Issue and leaving an Usurper possessor of his Kingdoms which kindled such Fuel of Dissention as consum'd almost all the Royal Line and Ancient Nobility of the Kingdom by the Civil War between the Houses of York and Lancaster To return to the Restitution made by King Edw. III. of the Priories-Alien An Historian termeth it A rare Example of a just King it being seldom seen that Princes let go any thing whereon they have once fasten'd But this King having made a Door in this manner into the freedom and possession of the Church all the Power he had either ordinarily or by Prerogative could not now so shut it up but that this Precedent would for ever after be a Key to open it at the pleasure of Posterity which was well seen not long after For in the Parliament An. 9. of King Richard II. The Knights and Burgesses with some of the Nobility being in a great rage as John Stow saith against the Clergy for that William Courtney the Archbishop would not suffer them to be charged in Subsidy by the Laity exhibited a Petition to the King that the Temporalities might be taken from them saying That they were grown to such Pride that it was Charity and Alms to take them from them to compell them thereby to be more meek and humble And so near the Parliament-men thought themselves the point of their desire that one promised himself thus much of this Monastery another so much of another Monastery And I heard saith Tho. Walsingham one of the Knights deeply swear that of the Abbey of St. Albans he would have a thousand Marks by the Year of the Temporalities But the King hearing the inordinate crying out on the one side and the just defence on the other deny'd his consent and commanded the Bill to be cancell'd Stow p. 479. Two valiant Esquires John Shakel and Robert Hauley having taken the Earl of Dene Prisoner at the Battel of Nazers in Spain and receiv'd his Son Hostage for performing Conditions between
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
apud Malmes de gest Reg. lib. 1. p. 28. Sed fusiùs apud Baron in An. 745. nu 5. Ceolred King of the Mercians or Midland England was guilty also of spoiling Monasteries and defiling of Nuns and was the first with Osred before named that since the entrance of Austin brake the Privileges granted by the Saxon Kings unto Monasteries and for these sins saith Boniface and the other Bishops in the said Epistle Justo judicio Dei damnati de culmine regali hujus vitae abjecti immaturâ terribili morte praeventi c. For Ceolred as those that were present did testifie being at a great Feast among his Earls that Evil Spirit which before had mov'd him to do such wickedness struck him there with Madness and in that case he dy'd Impenitently the same Year that Osred his fellow in Sacrilege was murder'd viz. An. 716. Epist. praedict Beda in Epit. It seemeth his Line was also extinct Ethelbald the next Successor of Ceolred in the Kingdom of Mercia succeeded him also in his wicked Courses He forbeareth lawfull Marriage but liveth Adulterously with the Nuns and breaking the Privileges of Churches and Monasteries taketh away also their Substance which gave the occasion that Boniface Arch-bishop of Mentz and other German Bishops wrote the foremention'd Epistle unto him desiring him to mend his course and the wrongs he had done which like a good King he willingly did and at a Council holden at Clovesho now call'd Cliff in Kent acknowledging his Sin did also by his Charter restore what he had taken or broken with an Overplus and founded the Monastery of Crowland yet so was the hand of God upon him that in a War unwisely begun he was treacherously Slain by Bartred alias Beornred and the Kingdom by him usurp'd Epist. praedict Stow pag. 88. Bar. 742 nu 16. Celsus Veronensis THat many rare and excellent Men and all Nations attributed the fortunate Success of the Turks against the Venetians as the loss of their Island Cubaea the lamentable success of their Expedition of Achaia his last Victory which made his way broader and his enterance easier the Death and Calamity of their Euripus many think and affirm that God of his righteous and just Judgment hath brought upon you for your insolent Taxing and Polling of Holy Things belonging to the Church and your injurious troubling of the Estate of Religion pag. 212. Compilation and Pilling of Holy Things pag. 214. New and unusual Taxing and Tolling of the Church pag. 215. How many Victories Conquests Sports happy Events have you had in these so long Wars since you invented this strange and pestilent Counsel to lay violent Hands on Church Goods and Holy Things dedicated to God which Impiety believe me will not help you one whit in these your great Dangers and extream Necessity pag. 219. That the Captivity of Constantinople was from the discord and departing from the Church of Rome pag. 215. The Pisans Kingdom prosper'd by Sea and Land till they laid wicked and violent Hands on the Church and the Ministers of the high God Ibid. Caesar would not suffer his Sword hung up as a Spoil gotten from him in the Church of Avernia to be pull'd down Vita ejus pag. 219. Mithridates in the Life of Lucullus notably afflicted by Diana pag. 226. Historius Banish'd taken Captive by the barbarous the City burnt over his Head his Life always in danger fell into a most deadly Contagion his Tongue eaten out of his Head with Worms and miserably died Evagr. Hist. lib. 1. pag. 169. Lastly Propound unto your selves the late Example of Philip Maria when he had good Success in all his Affairs and all things fell out with him as well as he could wish At length he gave over himself to such a madness that all fear set apart he challeng'd Church Goods to himself But mark how duly he suffer'd worthy Punishment being wearied with continual Wars he not only lost a great part of his own Dominions his Enemies besieging him even hard unto his Walls but also he suffer'd dangerous and grievous Diseases so that he being blind led a most sorrowful life a long time after But what became of his Empire and by what means his Noble Family is now clear extinguish'd and no Succession left at all it may easily appear to every Man the thing being so fresh in Memory Cels. Veron pag. 241. Frederick II. made Emperor by Innocent III. having taken the Cross against the Christian Enemies even then feared not wickedly to take away the Goods of the Church to employ them profanely but made a Sacrilegious pact with the mighty King of Egypt the Soldan concerning the suppressing of Religion and Religious Houses but he did not long escape the just Vengeance of God for after he had spoil'd many Cities after many Dissensions had with the Church of Rome after he had devour'd many Temples after many most cruel and barbarous Sacrileges having his own Son in a jealousie that he affected the Empire he shut him up in most filthy Dungeons till he dy'd And he feeling the great and grievous censure of the Church as the righteous God had appointed was Strangled by his own Son Manfredus most cursedly Celsus of Verona pag. 289. The Princes of Carraria in like Impiety when they began once wickedly to challenge to themselves the ordering of those things which belong only to the Holy Function by reason of the Pestilent Counsel they had taken very soon after lost the famous City Patavium most strong by Situation and free which was thought almost to be invincible Cels. of Ver. pag. 239 240. Eudo alias Oda Duke of Aquitane not able to resist Charles Martel draweth an excessive Army of Saracens out of Spain unto his aid They being come into France waste all places and burn down the Churches as far as to Poictiers Charles Martel assisted by the Hand of God encountreth them and slayeth three Hundred seventy five Thousand others say three Hundred eighty Thousand of them together with their King Abdyrama losing not above an Hundred and Fifty of his own Men. Then Eudo himself reconcil'd to Charles spoileth the Camp of the Saracens and destroyeth the rest But fighting again with Charles in Gascony loseth both his Dukedom of Aquitane and his Life his Sons also Gaifer and Haimald are overcome and the Saracens wholly beaten out of France Sigeb An. 730 732. Guil. de Nanges Blond 10. Decad. 1. Platin. The Normans under Ragenarius their Captain besides other Sacrileges spoil the Church of St. Germans by Paris and attempting to cut down some of the Firr Beams to repair their Ships three of them attempting it are dasht in pieces Another hewing a Marble Pillar with his Sword to overthrow some part of the Church had his Hand like Jeroboam's dried up and the haft of his Sword stuck so to it as it parted not without the Skin Many were stricken with Blindness and as
saith Malmsbury that which I saw perform'd for not long after his Son Roger Possessing his Father's Inheritance was Banish'd by King Henry I. for putting an Officer of the King 's to Death in an head-long fury Malms de Gest. Pont. p. 271. And his Sheriffwick went to Beaumont who Married his Sister Camb. 578. Hugh Earl of Shrewsbury with Hugh Earl of Chester was sent by William Rufus to assail the Welch-men in Anglesey which they perform'd with great cruelty not sparing the Churches For the Earl of Shrewsbury made a Dog-kennel of the Church of St. Fridank laying his Hounds in it for the Night time but in the morning he found them mad But it chanced that Magnus King of Norway came in the mean time to take also the same Island and encountering the Earl of Shrewsbury at Sea shot him in the Eye where only he was unarm'd and the Earl thereupon falling out of the Ship into the Sea was both Slain and Drown'd and dy'd without Issue Girald Camb. Hov. in Ann. 1098. Holl. ib. Cat. EE Shrewsb Geoffrey the 16th Abbot of St. Albans living whilst he was young a Secular Man and teaching at Dunstable did there about the beginning of King Henry I. make a Play of St. Catharine call'd Miracula and for Acting of it did borrow of the Sexton of St. Albans divers Copes that belong'd to the Quire of St. Albans for the Service of God and having used them prophanely in his Play both the House wherein they were and the Copes themselves were the next Night casually Burnt Geoffery for great Grief hereupon gave over the World and by way of a Propitiatory Sacrifice offer'd up himself a Monk in St. Albans where afterward in the Year 1119. viz. 19 or 20. of Henry I. he was made Abbot Lib. MS. de Abbatibus Sti. Albani Madoc ap Meredith Prince of Powis spoiling two Churches in Anglesey and part of the Isle was with all his Men Slain in the return Stow p. 217. Sherbourne in Dorsetshire was made an Episcopal See in the Year 704 or 705. And as the use of the time was with many Curses no doubt against him or them that should violate it or should get or procure it to be alien'd from that Bishoprick St. Oswald who flourish'd 270 Years after fortifi'd those Curses as is reported with divers other bitter imprecations It continu'd peaceably in the Possession of the Bishops till the time of King Stephen then Roger Bishop of that See translated by his Predecessor to Salisbury building three sumptuous Castles one at Sherbourn another at Devizes and the third at Malmsbury the King supposing they might turn to his prejudice sent for the Bishop and took and imprison'd him with some others of his Coat and calling a Council of the Peers and Baronage obtain'd a Statute to this effect That all Towns of Defence Castles and Munitions through England wherein Secular business was went to be exercised should be the King 's and his Barons And that the Church-men and namely the Bishops as Divine Dogs should not cease to bark for the desence and safety of their Sheep and to take diligent heed that the invisible Wolf that malignant Enemy wory not or scatter the Lord's Flock Thus the King obtain'd these Castles that he thirsted after with the Bishop's Person and Treasure beside And being summon'd hereupon to a Synod at Winchester by his Brother Henry Bishop there and Legate of the Pope he sent Albery de Vere Earl of Guisne and Chamberlain of England a Man of excellent Speech and singularly well learned in the Law whom some report to be made Chief Justice of England after the said Roger him I say did the King send to the Synod as his Attorney or Sergeant at Law to defend his Cause which he did with so great Art and Dexterity that nothing was therein determin'd But mark the issue e'er a twelve Month came to an end the Earl Albery de Vere was Slain in London Florileg in Ann. 1140. The King himself within another twelve month taken Prisoner and being deliver'd upon an exchange for the Earl of Glocester spoileth divers Churches by his Flemish Soldiers and buildeth the Nunnery of Wilton into a Castle where the Town is fired about his Ears his Men slain his Sewer Plate and other things taken and himself driven to escape by a shameful Flight He continueth his Wars with unprofitable Success falleth at discord with his Barons and is driven to make Peace with Duke Henry his Adversary His Son Eustace displeased therewith applieth himself to spoil Cambridge-Shire and those parts falleth upon the Lands of the Abby of Bury and carrieth the Corn to his Castles and sitting down to Dinner as he put the first Morsel in his Mouth he fell Mad and dy'd miserably Mat. Par. Ann. 1152. Stow Ann. 1153. In the end he stated the Crown upon the Duke Henry being compell'd thereto and dying had no lawful Issue Male to propagate his Family his Sons of that sort being taken away in his Life time Having spoken of those Curses set of old like Bulwarks about the Castle of Sherbourn to defend it against Sacrilegious Assailants and of the Operation they had in those Ancient Days it falleth very fitly in my way to shew also in what manner they have uttered their venome since that time of old for tho Poison temper'd by an Apothecary with over long keeping will lose its strength yet the Poison that lurketh in the Veins of Curses lawfully imposed is neither wasted nor weakened by Antiquity but oftentimes breaketh forth as violently after many Ages as if they were but of late denounced Like the implicite Curse that devour'd the seven Sons of Saul for breaking the Covenant with the Gibeonites made above Five Hundred Years before their time See therefore a farther Collection touching this matter delivered unto me above three Years since by a Person of great Place and Honour The Castle of Sherbourne was granted to the See of Salisbury by St. Oswel with several bitter Imprecations and Cursings on him or them that should get or procure Sherbourne to be aliened from that See St. Oswel praying that he or they might die Issueless or Unfortunately that should so take it King Stephen was the first that got it from that See after the first Donation Ann. 1139. His Death and his Son 's Dying Mad make it observable Will. Martel King Stephen's Sewer had it who being taken Prisoner gave it for his Ransome Ann. 1142. Reg. 7. Hoved ibid. p. 488. In Edward III. time the Earl of Salisbury had it who dy'd Issueless and not Fortunate Then the Duke of Northumberland had it who was Attainted After the Duke of Somerset had it who was Attainted After the Lord Paget had a Lease from the Bishop who was Attainted After him Sir Walter Rawleigh had it who was Attainted After him the Earl of Somerset had it who was Attainted for Felony The Crown had it Prince Henry had it
miserable Fugitives saith the Story pa. 79 80. Dom. Touching their Issue I find that Fitz-Vrs fled into Ireland and I heard there that the Wild-Irish and Rebellious Family of Mac-Mahunde in the North Parts is of that Lineage The Family of another of them is at this Day prosecuted with a Fable if it be so that continueth the Memory of this Impiety for in Gloucestershire it is yet reported that wheresoever any of them Travelleth the Wind is commonly in their Faces The Quadripartite History call'd Quadrilogus printed at Paris An. 1495. saith The Murderers after this Horrible Fact rode that Night to a Manour of the Archbishops named there corruptly Sumantingues forty Miles Leucas distant from Canterbury lib. 3. c. 20. and that being Men of great Possessions active Soldiers and in the strength of their Age yet now they became like Men beside themselves stupid amaz'd and distracted repenting entirely of what they had done and for Penance took their way to the Holy-Land But Sir Will. Tracy being come to the City of Cossantia in Sicily and lingring there fell into an horrible Disease so that the parts of his Body rotted whilst he lived and his Flesh being dissolved by the Putrefaction himself did by piece-meal pull it off and cast it away leaving the Sinews and Bones apparent In this misery this wretched Murderer as it was testified by the Bishop of that City who was then his Confessor ended his Days but very penitently His other Complices lived not long after for all the four Murderers were taken away within three Years after the Fact committed Dicti Libri lib. 4. c. 71. RICHARD I. IT appeareth by a MS. Copy of Mat. Paris which I have wanting much of that which is Published and having much which the Published wanteth that King Richard I. had spoiled some Church of the Chalice and Treasure and that it was thereupon conceived that the revengeful Hand of God pursued him to his Death First by tickling his covetous Mind with the report of hidden Treasure found by one Vidomer a Viscount of Britain in France which he the King claim'd to belong to him by his Prerogative And then in stirring him to raise War against the Viscount for it and to besiege him in the Castle and Town of Chalus in the Countrey of Limosin whither the Viscount was fled and had carried the Treasure as it were to train the King to that fatal place importing the name of a Chalice But here it so fell out that the King being repelled in his Assault and surveying the Ground for undermining the Town-Walls one Peter Basil struck him in the left Arm or about the Shoulder with a Quarrel from a Cross-Bow out of the Castle The King little regarding his Wound pursued the Siege so as within twelve Days he took the Town and found little Treasure in it But his Wound in the mean time â—estering deprived him of his Life April 9. in the tenth Year of his Reign being about 44 Years old Hereupon a Satyrist of that time wrote this tart Dystichon related in the MS. Mat. Par. Christe tui Chalicis praedo fit praeda Chalucis Aere brevi rejicis qui tulit aera Crucis i. e. He that did prey upon thy Chalices Is now a prey unto the Chaluces And thou O Christ rejectest him as Dross That robb'd thee of the Treasure of thy Cross. King Edward I. Anno Regni 23. took all the Priories Aliens and their Goods into his Hands allowing every Monk 18 d. a Week reserving the overplus to his Treasury and Wars And in Anno 1295. Regni ejusdem caused all the Monasteries in England to be search'd and the Money in them to be brought up to London He also seiz'd into his Hands all the Lay-Fees because they refused to pay to him such a Tax as he demanded Stow in dicto An. p. 317. Mat. Westm. in An. 1296. saith it was a fifth part of their Revenues And for that being prohibited by the Council of Lions upon pain of ... they refused he seiz'd all their Lands and Goods as well of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Robert Winchelsea as other and put them out of his Protection c. Godwin p. 148. Presently after this the King's Forces were overthrown in Gascony Mat. Westm. p. 408. And tho' he prosper'd in his Wars against Scotland and wholly subdued it yet shortly after Rob. le Bruce recovered it from him and overthrew his Son Edward II. with a mighty Army at Burnocksbourne from whence escaping by flight he after suffer'd great Afflictions and Calamities by means of his own Wife and Barons and was at last Deposed Imprisoned and Murther'd Giraldus Cambrensis a good Author reporteth that one Hur Chaplain to William de Bruce a great Lord in Wales in the time of King John of his Chapel of St. Nicholas in the Castle of Aberhodni did Dream in a Night that one bid him tell his Lord that had taken away the Land given in Alms to that Chapel and presumed to detain it that Hoc aufert fiscus quod non accipit Christus Dabis impio Militi quod non vis dare Sacerdoti The King's Exchequer shall take that from thee that thou wilt not suffer Christ to enjoy and the impious Soldier that which thou wilt not permit unto the Priest The Words are St. Austin's in Serm. de Temp. spoken against them that invade Tithes and Church Rights and that which is there threatned against them saith Giraldus hapned most certainly in a very short time to this With-holder Vidimus quippe nostris diebus c. For we have seen saith he in our own Days and found certainly by undoubted verity that Princes and great Men Usurpers of Ecclesiastical Possessions and chiefly by name King H. II. Reigning in our time and tainted above others with this Vice a little Leven corrupting the whole Lump and new Evils falling thereby daily upon them to have consum'd all their whole Treasure giving that unto the hired Soldiers which they ought to have given unto the Priest He mentioneth not what it was particularly that hapned to Bruce but commiserating him as a singular good Man runneth out into a long Commendation both of him and his Wife The rest therefore of this Tragedy I must supply out of Mat. Par. who in An. 1209. reporteth thus That King John doubting the Fidelity of his Nobles sent a Troop of Soldiers to require of them their Sons or Nephews or near Kinsmen for Hostages Coming to Will Bruce's and demanding his Sons the Lady Maud his Wife in the humor of a Woman preventing her Husband said I will deliver no Sons of mine to your King John for that he beastly Murdered his Nephew Arthur whom he ought to have preserved Honourably Her Husband reproved her and offer'd to submit himself to the Tryal of his Peers if he had offended the King but that would not serve The King understanding it sent his Soldiers in all haste a privily as he could to
excommunicated the Earl who little regarded it The Earl so dieth the Bishop cometh into England and reneweth his Suit to Earl William his Son and Heir obtaining to have the King his Mediator but prevail'd not for Earl William and his Brethren answer'd That their Father did the Bishop no wrong having gotten the Mannors by right of War The Bishop in the agony of his Spirit reneweth the Curse against their Father and them and said That the Lord had cast it grievously upon Earl William as is written in the Psalm In a Generation his Name shall be put out and his Sons shall be Vagabonds as touching the Blessing promis'd by the Lord of Encrease and multiply Earl William the Father at the time of his Death and Burial which was in the New Temple at London 17. Kal. Apr. 1219. and 4 Hen. 3. left 5 Sons and as many Daughters Earl William the eldest Son first married Alice the Daughter and Heir of Baldwin Earl of Albermarle c. After Eleanor Daughter of King John and died without Issue 6. Apr. 1231. 15 Hen. 3. Earl Richard the second Brother succeeded he married the Lady Gervasia and was slain in Ireland 18 Hen. 3. leaving no Issue Earl Gilbert the 3d Brother succeeded He married Margaret Daughter of William King of Scots and was kill'd by his own Horse at a Tornement at Hartford 21 Hen. 3. 1241. leaving no Issue Earl Walter the fourth Brother succeeded He married Margaret Daughter and Co-heir of Robert Lord Quiney and died at London 6. Dec. 1245. 30 Hen. 3. or as others report the 24. Nov. and was buried at Tinterne leaving no Issue Earl Anselm the youngest was at the death of his Brother Walter Dean of Salisbury but admitted to be Earl of Pembroke and Marshal and in haste married Maud the Daughter of Humphrey de Bohun Earl of Hereford that he yet at last might propagate the most noble Family But Non est consilium contra Dominum for he died within 18 or 24 days after his Brother before he was actually possess'd of his County Thus according to the Malediction of the Bishop the Name of those great Earls Marshal was utterly extinct all the five Brethren being married and dying Childless within 15 Years Matt. Par. An. 1219 1245. p. 292 665 alibi King Edw. 1. in the zeal of his Religion his Father yet living took the Cross upon him and went to assist the Christians in the Wars of Jerusalem The Pope in recompence of his Charges granted unto him in the second Year of his Reign he being return'd the tenth part of all Ecclesiastical Benefices of the Kingdom for one Year and the like to his Brother Edmond for another But afterwards the King forgetting his old Devotion in the 11th Year of his Reign seiz'd all the Treasure of the Tenths collected for that purpose and laid up in divers places of the Kingdom and breaking open the Locks caus'd it to be brought unto him and employ'd it to his own use Stow. This taste of things separate to God drew him on to a further Appetite In the 23d Year of his Reign he took into his hands all the Priories Aliens throughout the Kingdom committing them as Charles Martel of old had done in France to Officers under him and allowing every Monk 18d a Week retain'd the rest for the charge of his War as he did also the Pensions going out of those Houses to the greater Monasteries beyond the Seas Yet obtain'd he further in the same Parliament of the Clergy and Religious Persons a Subsidy of half their Goods to the value of 100000l whereof the Abby of Bury paid 655 l. 11d q. Stow ib. p. 316. King Ed. l. being in great want by his subduing Scotland about the end of the 23th Year of his Reign caused all the Monasteries of England to be search'd and the Money found in them to be brought to London Wals. pa. 65. Cax l. 7. c. 39. Shortly after in the 24th Year of his Reign at a Parliament at St. Edmundsbury he required a Subsidy which the Laity granted But the Clergy pretending that Pope Boniface at the same time had forbidden upon pain of Excommunication that either Secular Princes should impose Tallages upon the Church-men or that Church-men should pay any they refus'd to supply the King's Necessity and having day to advise better on the matter till the next Parliament at London shortly after they persisted in the same mind Whereupon the King put them out of his Protection so that being robb'd and spoil'd by lewd persons without remedy to redeem the King's Favour the Archbishop of York and many of the Bishops laid down a fifth part of all their Goods in their Churches and some by other courses satisfy'd the King's desire and so recover'd his Protection But all the Monasteries within the Province of Canterbury were seiz'd into the King's hands and Wardens appointed in them to minister to the Monks and Religious Persons therein only what must be had of necessity taking all other Monies and Surplusage to the King's use So that the Abbots and Priors were glad to follow the Court and to repair their Error with the fourth part of their Goods The Archbishop of Canterbury after all this fearing the Pope's Excommunication continu'd in his refusal lost all he had was forsaken of his Servants forbidden to be receiv'd either in any Monastery or without and rested in the House of a poor Man only with one Priest and one Clerk How these Courses were censur'd in foro coeli is not in me to judge nor will I pry into the Ark of God's Secrets But see what followeth in the Story King Edward having with great Triumph subdu'd Scotland and taken the King Prisoner did at this present peaceably enjoy that Kingdom and govern'd it by his own Officers But e're three Months came to an end Wil. Wallis began such a Rebellion there as put all in hazard and in fine it was so reviv'd by Robert le Bruce the King 's natural Subject that at length he overthrew the King's Armies slew and beat out his Officers and without all recovery gain'd the Kingdom to himself and his Posterity King Edward attempting the recovery died at the entrance of Scotland His Son Edward II. pursuing his Father's intent with one of the greatest Armies that ever was raised by the English was miserably beaten and put to flight hardly escaping in his own person All his Life after full of Tumult not only his Nobles but his very Wife his Enemy abandoned of his Subjects turn'd out of his Kingdom imprison'd and traiterously murther'd In all which the Curse which his Father upon his Death-bed laid upon him if he should break the Precepts he gave him had no doubt a cooperation for he observ'd none of them Touching the pulling of Lands from the Church all have not always been of one mind For tho' the makers of the Statute of Mortmaine did truly think that the
at Noon Then the storm being ended the Irish by Boats fetch'd them to their Houses and reliev'd them It is said That Sir John Arundel lost in this storm besides his Life 52 Suits of very rich Apparel much princely stuff with his great Horse and other Horses and things of price to the value of Ten thousand Marks and twenty five other ships which followed him with Men Horses and other Provision all perishing with him Touching the residue not guilty of this Out-rage and Sacrilege Sir Thomas Piercy Sir Hugh Calverley Sir William Elmham and the rest of the Army they were far and near dispers'd on the Seas with the same dangers but it pleased God to preserve them Yet as soon as the storm was ended a new Misfortune fell upon Sir Tho. Piercy for being weak and weather-beaten with all his Company a Spanish Man of War now setteth upon him singled from the rest of the Navy and drives him to bestir himself as he could which he did so happily as at last he took the Spaniard and bringing him home brought also the occasion of double Joy one for his safety the other for his victory And then pawning that ship for 100 l. he presently furnish'd himself forth again and with as great Joy arriv'd safely at Brest whereof he was one of the Captains with Sir Hugh Calverly and thus supply'd that charge also very fortunately Sir Hugh Calverley also and Sir William Elmham with the rest of those Ships return'd safely into other parts and by the great Mercy of God lost not either Man Horse or any other thing in all this so furious a Tempest All this is much largerly related by Tho. Walsingham in An. 1379 p. 231. seq Though the Attempts of Rebels and Traitors be usually suppress'd by the Power of the Prince yet that notorious Rebel Wat Tyler and his Confederates prevail'd so against King Richard II. that neither his the King's Authority nor the Power of the Kingdom could resist them insomuch as they became Lords of the City and Tower of London and had the King himself so far in their disposition as they got him to come and go to do and forbear when and what they requir'd But after they had spoil'd and burnt the Monastery of St. John's of Jerusalem beheaded the Archbishop of Canterbury and done some other acts of Sacrilege their Fortune quickly chang'd and their Captain Wat Tyler being in the greatest height of his Glory with his Army behind him to do what he commanded and the King fearfully before him not able to resist was upon the sudden wounded and surpriz'd by the Mayor of London his prosperous Success over-turn'd and both he and they whom an Army could not earst subdue are now by the Act of a single Man utterly broken and discomfited and justly brought to their deserved Execution Holinshed and Stow in 4 Rich. II. CHAP. VI. The Attempt and Project upon the Lands of the Clergy in the Time of Henry IV. disappointed BY that Time King Henry IV. was come to the Crown the Clergy of England had passed the Meridian of their greatness and were onward in their declination For the People now left to admire them as before they had done and by little and little to fall off from them in every Place being most distracted though not wholly led away by the prime Lectures Sermons and Pamphlets of them that laboured for an alteration in Religion The Commons also of Parliament which usually do breath the Spirit of the People not only envied their greatness but thought it against reason that those whom the Laity had raised fed and fatted by their Alms and Liberality should use such rigorous Jurisdiction so they accounted it over their Patrons and Founders and against Religion also that they who had devoted themselves to Spiritual contemplation should be so much intangled with the Secular affairs But above all that they who laboured not in the Common-wealth nor were the hundredth part of the People should possess as great a Portion almost of the Kingdom as the whole Body of the Laity For an Estimate hereof had been taken anciently by the Knight's Fees of the Kingdom which in Edward I. Time were found to be 67000 and that 28000 of them were in the Clergy's hands So that they had gotten well towards one half of the Knight's Fees of the Kingdom and had not the Statutes of Mortmain come in their way they were like enough in a short time to have had the better part Yet did not the Statutes otherwise hinder them but that with the King's Licence they daily obtained great accessions and might by the Time of King Henry IV. be thought probably enough to have half the Kingdom amongst them if not more considering that out of that part which remained to the Laity they had after a manner a tenth part by way of Tithe and besides that an inestimable Revenue by way of Altarage Offerings Oblations Obventions Mortuaries Church-Duties Gifts Legacies c. The Parliament therefore 6 Henry IV. called the Laymen's Parliament that all Lawyers were shut out of it casting a malevolent Eye hereon did not seek by a Moderate course a Reformation but as may be observed in other cases to cure a great excess by an extreme defect and at one blow to take from the Clergy all their Temporalities This was propounded to the King by Sir John Cheiney their Speaker who in former time had been himself a Deacon and lapping then some of the Milk of the Church found it so sweet as he now would eat of the Breasts that gave it He inforced this proposition with all the Rhetorick and Power he had and tickled so the Ears of the King that if the Archbishop of Canterbury had not that day stood like Moses in the gap the evils that succeeded might even then have fallen upon the Clergy But the Archbishop declaring that the Commons sought thereby their own enriching knowing well that they should be sharers in this Royal prey assured the King that as he and his Predecessors Edward III. and Richard II. had by the Counsel of the Commons confiscated the Goods and Lands of the Cells or Monasteries that the Frenchmen and Normans did possess in England being worth many thousands of Gold and was not that day the richer thereby half a Mark so if he should now which God forbid fulfill their wicked desire he should not be one Farthing the richer the next Year following This demonstrative and prophetical Speech pronounced with great vehemency by the Archbishop it so wrought upon the Heart of the King that he professed he would leave the Church in better State than he found it rather than in worse And thus that Hideous Cloud of Confusion which hung over the Head of the Clergy vapoured suddenly at this time into nothing Yet did it lay the Train that Henry V. did make a sore Eruption and in Henry VIIIth's Time blew up at the Monasteries The event of which
Lalale in Ireland left himself as little Land in England as his great Grandfather left to the Monasteries and was I think the first and only Peer of the Realm not having any Land within it by the feudal Law his Barony I doubt if it had been feudal had likewise gone but by the Mercy of God a Noble Gentleman now holds the Stile of it and long may he Having sailed thus far in this Ocean we will advance yet further if it please God to give us a favourable passage and take a view of the Parliament themselves that put the wrackful Sword in the King's Hands The chief whereof was as we have said before that of the 27 Year of his Reign touching smaller Houses and that of 31 touching the greater I have sought the Office of the Clerk of the Upper House of Parliament to see what Lords were present at the passing of the Acts of Dissolution but so ill have they been kept as that the Names of 27 H. 8. were not then to be found and farther since I have not search'd for them The other of 31 H. 8. I did find and doubt not but the most of them were the same which also sate in the Parliament of 27 tho' some of them of 27 were either dead or not present in 31. Those that were present at the passing of the Bill of 31 I have here under mention'd in such order as I therein did find them and will as faithfully as I can attain unto the knowledge of them relate what after hath befaln themselves and their Posterity The Names of the Lords Spiritual who were present in the Parliament upon Friday the 23d of May 31 Hen. VIII being the 15th day of the Parliament when the Bill for assuring the Monasteries c. to the King was pass'd 1. The Lord Cromwell Vicegerent for the King in the Spiritualties and having place thereby both in the Parliament and Convocation-house above the Archbishops was beheaded the 28th of July in the next Year being the 32 of the King Confessing at his death publickly That he had been seduced but died a Papist 2. The Archbishop of Canterbury Tho. Cranmer D. D. was burnt in the Castle-ditch at Oxford 21. March 1556 3 Mary 3. The Archbishop of York Dr. Edw. Lee died 13th of Septemb. 1544. 36 H. 8. 4. The Bishop of London John Stokesley died within 4 Months after viz. 3. Septemb 1539. 5. The Bishop of Durham Cuthbert Tonstal was imprisoned in the Tower all King Edwards time for Religion and depriv'd of his Bishoprick and the same inter alia Sacrilegia non pauca saith Godwin dissolv'd and given to the King by Parliament 7 Edw. VI. but the King being immediately taken away Queen Mary restor'd both it and him An. 1 o. Parl. 2. c. 3. and Queen Elizabeth again depriv'd him and committed him to the Archbishop of Canterbury where he died in July 1559. 6. The Bishop of Winchester Stephen Gardiner was committed to the Tower 30 June 1548 in Edw. VI's time for that he had not declared in his Sermon the day before at Paul's-Cross certain Opinions appointed to him by the Council Two Years after because he approv'd not the Reformation he was depriv'd of his Bishoprick and kept in Prison all King Edward's days but restor'd by Queen Mary He died of the Gout 12. Nov. 1555 being the 3d of her Reign 7. The Bishop of Exeter John Voisey alias Horman had the Education of the King's Daughter the Lady Mary and discontented with the Reformation aliened the Lands of the Bishoprick to Courtiers or made long Leases of them at little Rent leaving scarcely 7 or 8 Mannors of 22 and them also of the least and leased or laden with Pensions Nefandum Sacrilegium saith Godwin Being suspected of the Rebellion of Devonshire about the change of Religion he was put from his Bishoprick but restor'd by Queen Mary and died 1555 Mar. 3. 8. The Bishop of Lincoln John Longland the King's Confessor died 1547 1 Edw. VI. 9. The Bishop of Bath and Wells John Clerk carried and commended in an Oration to the Cardinals the King's Book against Luther with much commendation But being afterwards sent in Ambassage to the Duke of Cleve to shew the reason why the King renounc'd his Marriage with the Lady Ann the Duke's Sister for the reward of his unwelcome Message was poison'd as they said in Germany and returning with much adoe died in England in Febr. 1540 i.e. 32 Hen. 8. 10. The Bishop of Ely Thomas Goodrick continu'd from and in 26 Hen. 8. till 1. Maii 1. Mariae 11. The Bishop of Bangor John Salcot alias Capen Abbot of Hide was consecrated 19. Apr. next before this Parliament and translated to Salisbury in August following where it seems he continu'd till Q. Mary's time 12. The Bishop of Salisbury Nic. Shaxton being consecrated 27 Hen 8. was put out July 1539 i. e. 31 Hen. 8. together with Latimer and for the same cause but recanted 13. The Bishop of Worcester Hugh Latimer made 27 Hen. 8. renounc'd his Bishoprick in July 31 of the King and was burnt with Dr. Ridley at Oxon. 16. October 1559. 14. The Bishop of Rochester Nich. Heath made 4. April before this Parliament in 31 Hen. 8. and about 4 Years after translated to Worcester was depos'd by Edw. 6. but made Archbishop of York 1 Mariae afterwards also Chancellor of England 15. The Bishop of Chichester Richard Sampson made June 5. 1536 and 28 Hen. 8. was translated to Lichfield 12. May 1543. To flatter the King he wrote an Apology for his Supremacy yet in the Year of this Parliament 31. he was committed to the Tower for relieving such as were imprison'd for denying it But it seems his Apology was written after this Commitment to recover Favour About 2 Ed. 6. he declared himself for the Pope whom he had written against and so after divers turnings and returnings he died 1554 2 Mar. 16. The Bishop of Norwich William Rugg alias Rupp made 1536 28 Hen. 8. and died 1550 about 4 or 5 Edw. 6. 17. The Bishop of St. David's William Barlow was translated hither from St. Asaph in April 1536 28 Hen. 8. and by King Edw. after to Bath and Wells fled into Germany in Qu. Mary's time and 2 Eliz was made Bishop of Chichester 18. The Bishop of St. Asaph Robert Porpey alias Werbington or Warton was made 2. July 28. Hen. 8. where having sate 18 Years and nequissimo Sacrilegio sold and spoil'd the Lands of the Bishoprick by long Leases he was by Qu. Mary An. 1. translated to Hereford where he sate almost till her death 19. The Bishop of Landaff Rob. Holgate 25. March 1537 28. Hen. S. and in the 36th of his Reign translated to the Archbishoprick of York and by Qu. Mary at her entrance committed to the Tower where within half a Year he was depriv'd 20. The Bishop of Carlisle Rob. Aldrich was elected 18. July 1537 29 Hen. 8. and died 5 Mar.
third Daughter was married to Martin Reyes a Groom-porter and their Father himself was also beheaded 5. The Earl of Oxon was John Vere the fiftieth of that Name whose Grandchild Edward Earl of Oxon not only utterly wasted the great and most ancient Inheritance of that Earldom but defaced also the Castles and Houses thereof and leaving a Son by his second Wife named Henry the 18th Earl of that Noble Family The same Henry died without Issue and this Male Line thus failing the Office of Great Chamberlain of England which had ever since Hen. the 1st's time gone in this Family was now by the Lady Mary Sister of this Edward being married to the Lord Willoughby of Eresby by Judgment of the Upper House of Parliament Anno ... transposed to her Son and Heir the now Earl of Lindsey 6. The Earl of South-Hampton was William Fitz-Williams who being Lord Privy Seal and Admiral of England was created Earl of South-Hampton at Hampton-Court Anno 29 Hen. 8. He married Mabell Daughter of Henry Lord Clifford of Westmorland and Sister and Heir of Henry the first Earl of Cumberland but died without Issue Anno 34 H. 8. 7. The Earl of Arundel was William Fitz-Alam who died 35 Hen. 8. He had a Son and by two Wives four Daughters which died without Issue His Son Henry Fitz-Alam succeeded in the Earldom a Man of great Dignities He was twice married by Catharine his first Wife he had Issue H. Lord ... who being married died without Issue in the life of his Father An. 1556. And so ended the Noble Family and Male line of these Earls of Arundel But he had also by that Wife two Daughters and Heirs whereof Jane the eldest was married to the Lord Lumley who had Issue by her Thomas Charles and Mary who died all without Issue Mary his second Daughter and Co-heir was married to Tho. Howard the last Duke of Norfolk and by her the Earldom Castles and Honours of Arundel were transported to Philip Howard her Son and so to her Grandchild Tho. Earl of Arundel and Earl Marshal of England now living in whose line God hold them 8. The Earl of Shrewsbury was Francis Talbott who by his first Wife Mary Daughter of Tho. Lord Dacres of Gilsland had Issue George his eldest Son the sixth Earl of Shrewsbury and Tho. who died at Sheffield without issue Earl George had two Wives and four Sons besides three Daughters by his first Wife no Issue by his second Francis Lord Talbott his eldest Son was married but died without Issue Gilbert his second Son was the 7th Earl of that Family married and had Issue two Sons John and George but both of them died in their Infancy without other Issue-Male of their Father whose Heirs therefore were three Daughters Edward 3d. Son of George was the 8th Earl he married but died without Issue 2 Feb. 1617. Henry the 4th's Son married and died without Issue-Male Thus was all the Issue-Male of Francis Earl of Shrewsbury one of the Peers of the Upper-House at the passing of the Act aforesaid utterly extinct and the Earldom translated to another Family of that Name the Talbotts of Grafton descending from John Talbott the second Earl of Shrewsbury who died Anno 39. Henry VI. by his 3d. Son Sir Gilbert Talbott Captain of Calice York in Tit. Shrewsbury 9. The Earl of Essex Henry Bourchier that was a Peer of Parliament at the Act of Dissolution in 27. Henry VIII broke his Neck by a fall from an Horse about 10 Weeks before this Parliament viz on the 12th of March in 31. Henry VIII and having no Issue-Male the King gave his Earldom to Thomas Lord Cromwell who in his Bipartite Dignity sate among the Ecclesiastical Peers and first of the Rank as the King's Vicegerent in Spiritualibus and here among the Lay-Peers as in his own Right a Temporal Earl and Temporal indeed for not long after he was turned out of all his Offices attainted and beheaded as we have formerly shewed He brought in the Bill the 3d. time and it was expedited the 23d of May but within two Months following viz 29. July himself was attainted in the same Parliament and condemned so that vengeance fell speedily upon him 10. The Earl of Darby was Edward Lord Stanley a Peer of the Realm both in this and in 27. of the King he had divers Sons and Daughters his eldest Son Henry was Earl after him and left two Sons Ferdinando and William Ferdinando succeeded in the Earldom and died without Issue-Male 1594. leaving 3 Daughters and Heirs who shared so deep in the Patrimony of his goodly Earldom as they not only pulled the Feathers from the Wings of it whereby in times past it hath been so powerfull but the Wings from the very Body 11. The Earl of Worcester was Henry Somerset Lord Herbert a Peer also in 27. This honourable Family seems more fortunate than any of the precedent for their lineal descent remains entire and without blemish having at this day many Noble Branches Yet was not the Issue of Earl Henry free from the Hand of God for his 3d. Son Thomas Somersett died in the Tower of London Francis his 4th and youngest Son was slain at Massellborough-Field and his Son-in-Law the Earl of Northumberland that married his Daughter the Lady Anne was beheaded at York 1572. 12. The Earl of Rutland was Tho. Manours both in this Parliament and the 27th He had 5 Sons and 6 Daughters and died in 35. Henry VIII his eldest Son Henry was Earl after him and had Issue Edward the 3d. Earl of that Family who had only a Daughter an Heir and died without Issue-Male John Brother of Edward was the 4th Earl he had 3 Sons Edward that died an Infant Roger and Francis Roger succeeded and was the 5th Earl he had only one Daughter his sole Heir married to Sir Philip Sydney slain at Zutphen and died without Issue-Male Francis after his Brother Roger was the 6th Earl he was twice married by his first Wife he had Issue only the Lady Catherine married to the Duke of Buckingham who was murthered by Felton And two Sons by his second Wife Henry Lord Rosse and Francis Lord Rosse of Homelake who died both young without Issue 13. The Earl of Cumberland both in 27 and 31. Henry VIII was Henry Clifford who died 34. of the King He had Issue Henry the 2d Earl of Cumberland who had Issue George the 3d. Earl a valiant Soldier successfull in his Enterprizes He had Issue two Sons Francis Lord Clifford and Robert that died young and a Daughter the Lady Anne married to Richard Sackvill Earl of Dorsett who died as did also this Earl of Cumberland without Issue-Male Francis Brother of George was the 4th Earl who had Issue Henry Lord Clifford 14. The Earl of Sussex was Robert Ratcliff created 8. Decemb. 21. Henry 8. He had three Wives and more Sons besides Daughters and died 28. Nov. 1541. 34. Henry 8. his Son and Heir Henry
Barkenham a Miller who sold it to Mr. John Rivett now living The Augustine Friars came from Eyer to one Shavington a Bastard who died without Issue and by his Will gave it to one Waters other than the former and to the Heirs of his Body This Waters died without Issue whereupon the Augustine Friars was to revert to his Heir but having none because he was a Bastard great Suit ensued about it But John Ditefield being then in Possession of it left it by Descent as it seemeth to his Son John Ditefield who gave it in Marriage with Thomasin his sister to Christopher Pickering brother of the then Lord Keeper and he then recovered it in Chancery and sold it to John Lease John Lease pulling down the Buildings selleth first the Stones and then dividing the Ground into divers Garden-rooms sold the same to divers Persons The Cell of Priests was near the Guild-hall and the Prior's House was somewhat remote from it by St. Margaret's Church The College was sometime Mr. Houghton's after Parker's then Ball 's lately Sendall's and now Hargott's all of them save Hargott are extinct and gone and Mr. Hargott is on the declining Hand the Site of the Prior's House was lately consecrated and annexed to St. Margaret's Church-yard for a Burying-place Shouldham-Abbey Sir Francis Gaudy of the Justices of the King's Bench was owner of it he married the Daughter and Heir of Christopher Cunningsby Lord of the Manour of Wallington and having this Manour and other Lands in right of his Wife induced her to acknowledge a Fine thereof which done she became a distracted Woman and continued so to the day of her Death and was to him for many Years a perpetual affliction He had by her his only Daughter and Heir Eliz. married to Sir William Hatton who died without Issue-Male leaving also a Daughter and Heir who being brought up with her Grandfather the Judge was secretly married against his Will to Sir Robert Rich now Earl of Warwick The Judge shortly after being made chief Justice of the Common-pleas at a dear Rate as was reported was suddenly stricken with an Apoplexy or double Palsie and so to his great loss died without Issue-Male e'er he had continued in his Place one whole Michaelmas Term and having made his appropriate Parish-Church a Hay-house or a Dog-kennel his dead Corps being brought from London unto Walling could for many days find no Place of Burial but in the mean time growing very offensive by the Contagious and ill Savours that issued through the Chinks of Lead not well soder'd he was at last carry'd to a poor Church of a little Village there by called Runcto and buried there without any Ceremony lieth yet uncovered if the Visitors have not reformed it with so small a Matter as a few paving Stones Sir Robert Rich now Earl of Warwick succeeded in the Inheritance by his Wife of this Abby with the Impropriation and his great Possessions amounting by Estimation to 5000 l. a Year and hath already sold the greatest part of them together with this Abbey and Impropriation unto the Family of Mr. Nich. Hare the Judge's Neighbour and chiefest Adversary For among divers other goodly Manours that Sir John Hare hath purchased of him or his Feoffees he hath also bought this Abbey of Shouldham and the Impropriation there with the Manour belonging to the Abbey valued together at 600 l. yearly Rent Binham-Priory Binham Priory a Cell of St. Albans was granted by King Henry 8. to Sir Thomas Paston he left it to Mr. Edward Paston his Son and Heir who living above 80 Years continued the Possession of it till Caroli R. and having buried ... his Son and Heir apparent left it then unto his Grandchild Mr. Paston the third Owner of it and thereby now in the Wardship to the King Mr. Edward Paston many Years since was desirous to build a Mansion-house upon or near the Priory and attempting for that purpose to clear some of that Ground a Piece of Wall fell upon a Workman and slew him perplexed with this Accident in the beginning of this Business he gave it wholly over and would by no means all his Life after be perswaded to re-attempt it but built his Mansion-house a very fair one at Appleton Castle-Acre-Abbey Sir Tho. Cecil Earl of Exeter was owner of it and of the impropriate Personage here he had Issue Sir William Cecil Earl Exeter who married Eliz. the Daughter and Heir of Edw. Earl of Rutland and had Issue by her dying as I take it in Child-bed his only Son William Lord Rosse This William Lord Rosse married Anne the Daughter of Sir Tho. Lake and they living together in extreme Discord many infamous Actions issued thereupon and finally a great Suit in the Star-Chamber to the high Dishonour of themselves and their Parents In this Affliction the Lord Rosse dyeth without Issue and the Eldest Male-line of his Grandfather's House is extinguished Sir Richard Cecil was second Son of Sir Thomas Cecil Earl of Exeter and had Issue David who married Eliz. the Daughter of John Earl of Bridgewater and is now in expectation to be Earl of Exeter His third Son was Sir Edw. Cecil Knight his 4th and 5th Tho. Cecil and Christopher drowned in Germany Sir Tho. the Grandfather Earl of Exeter made a Lease of this Monastery and Impropriation to one Paine as I take it by whose Widow the same came in Marriage to Mr. Humfrey Guibon Sheriff of Norfolk Anno 38. Eliz. whose Grand-child and Heir Tho. Guibon consumed his whole Inheritance and lying long in the Fleet either died there a Prisoner or shortly after Sir Edw. Coke Lord Chief Justice married for his second Wife the Lady Eliz. Hatton one of the Daughters of the said Earl Tho. and afterwards bought the Castle of Acre with this Monastery and Impropriation of his Brother-in-Law Earl William Son of Earl Thomas since which time he hath felt abundantly the Change of Fortune as we have partly touched in Flitcham-Abbey West-Acre-Abbey This also belonged to Sir Tho. Cecil of whom we have now spoken he sold both it and the Impropriation of West Acre to Sir Horatio Palvicini an Italian that before his coming into England had dipt his Fingers very deep in the Treasure of the Church Being in his Youth in the Low-countries as his Son Edward affirmed to me he there secretly married a very mean Woman and by her had Issue him this Edward but durst never discover it to his Father as long as they lived together his Father being dead he came into England and here married a second Wife by whom he had Issue his Son Toby and for his Wive's sake disinherited him his eldest Son Edward and conferred all his Lands with the Abbey and Impropriation of West Acre to Toby and his Heirs Edward after the Death of his Father grows into contention with his Brother Toby and in a Petition to King James accuseth both his Father and his Brother for