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A58691
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An account of Queen Mary's methods for introducing popery, and procuring a Parliament to confirm it seasonable to be published in this time of imminent danger and dedicated to the Right Honourable the Earl of Shaftsbury.
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T. S.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing S150; ESTC R8480
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4,846
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17
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AN ACCOUNT OF Queen MARY's Methods For Introducing POPERY And procuring a PARLIAMENT To Confirm it Seasonable to be published in this Time of Imminent Danger AND Dedicated to the Right Honourable the EARL of SHAFTSBURY LONDON Printed for John Gay at the Flying-Horse between St Dunstans Church and Chancery lane in Fleet-street 1681. TO THE Right Honourable ANTHONY EARL of SHAFTSBVRY c. My Lord IT is I confess a great presumption to prefix your Lordships Name to so small a Treatise but since the Design of it is to inform all true English Men of what Ways the Papists used in endeavouring to bring their Religion into England that they may be prevented in all their Designs I hope your Lordship will pardon this boldness in me And my Lord I believe the English Nation have so great a Reverence for your Lordship that they will the better esteem this Piece for your Lordships Name being set before it because they will imagine that none durst have presumed to have laid it at your Feet unless it were agreeable to your Sentiments My Lord I think nothing of this kind was ever yet printed which was a great Motive to me to publish it who am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant T. S. AN ACCOUNT OF Queen MARY's Methods For Introducing POPERY SEveral Persons of great Worth and Learning have already given Account of the great Cruelties that have been Exercised by Papists on Protestants an some particularly have wrote of the Dismal Condition of the Reformed Christians in Queen Maries days but none have yet as I remember acquainted the World with the Methods Queen Mary used to introduce Popery which was at her coming to the Crown in a fair way of being Extirpated And Considering that the discovering of a Rock on which some have formerly split may be of great use for others to avoid it I have undertaken to give you this Following Account Henry the Eighth King of England having left the Kingdom of England in great peace and in a fair way to shake off the burthensome Yoke of Rome Edward the 6th his Son succeeded him and Prince so hopeful that in six years time he had almost perfected the Good Work begun by his Father King Henry but unkind death snatch'd him away on the 6th of July 1553 in the 16th year of his Age whose death was much lamented throughout the Nation most people Prophetically Presaging the misfortunes which were coming on them After which the Duke of Northumberland caused his Daughter the Lady Jane to be Proclaimed Queen but her Reign lasted only ten days for the Council turning to the Lady Mary in the latter end of July 1553 caused her to be Proclaimed Queen of England in London and other parts of the Realm upon which she removed from her Castle of Framlingham towards London and being come to Warsted in Essex on the Thirtieth of July the Lady Elizabeth her Sister with a Train of a Thousand Horse went from her place in the Strand to meet her On the Third of August the Queen rode through London to the Tower where she set free Steven Gardiner late Bishop of Winchester and restored him to his Bishoprick On the Fifth of Agust Edmond Bonner late Bishop of London Prisoner in the Marshallsey and Cuthberd Tunstal the Old Bishop of Durham Prisoner in the Kings-Bench had then Pardons and were restored to their Sees On the Twelfth of August the Queen made an open Declaration in Council That tho her Conscience was staid in Matters of Religion yet she would not restrain or compel others otherwise then as God should put into their Hearts to embrace that Religion she was in which she hoped would be done by putting of Godly and Virtuous Men into Livings to Preach the Word of God Upon this all Parties hoped for a Tolleration to Worship God their own way but the Papists presuming upon the Queen being of their Religion openly commended their own Religion and reproached the Reformed So that on the Thirteenth one Bourn Canon of Pauls Preaching at Pauls Cross not onely Prayed for the Dead but Declared that Dr. Bonner Bishop of London late restored and then in presence for a Sermon by him made four years before on the same Text and in the same place had been unjustly cast into the Marshallseas which speech so offended the people who had a great Veneration for the good King Edward that a great disturbance arose and a Dagger was thrown at him but he with much difficulty was conveyed into Pauls School by Mr. Rogers whilst Mr. Bradford stept into the Pulpit and appeased the people This being repeated to the Queen she makes another Declaration That she would have all her Subjects live in Amity and charged them not to use the words Papist or Heretick Shortly after all the Bishops which had been deprived in the time of King Edward the Sixth were restored to their Bishopricks and the new removed also all Beneficed men that were married and would not renounce their Religion were put out of their Livings and others of a Contrary Opinion were put into their room These men when restored urge the Queen to re-establish Popery whom she answers That she designs nothing more yet must act with so much caution as not to inflame her Reformed Subjects In the mean time private Cabals were held by the Queen and some of the most vigorous Papists and after several Consultations it was fully resolved that Popery should be suddenly restored On the Nineteenth of August John Duke of Northumberland who professed himself a Protestant in King Edwards time and perswaded the King to declare his Daughter the Lady Jane his Successor was tryed and condemned for High Treason and on the Two and twentieth executed and at his death declared himself a Papist and to have been so always by which you may note what Temporizers Papists are who can seem to be any thing for Interest Now things seeming to be a little settled the Queen thinks it convenient to make another step towards Popery which is by a Proclamation to prohibit Preaching it being certain that when man is ignorant he is ready to embrace any Novelty not being capable of considering whether it be good or evil Many Censures past upon this Proclamation but none durst openly testify their resentment for fear of being clapt up and though the Queen seemed to carry all things fair yet some of the wisest of the Reformed being sensible that Persecution was coming on them held several Consultations but their Consciences will not let them rebel against their Soveraign yet on the Fiftteenth of September Arch-bishop Cranmer couragiously declares against the Mass of which Bonner makes use to Inflame the Queen against him and within two or three days Cranmer and Latimer are sent to the Tower upon it several Reformed Christians fly beyond Sea The Queen who had all this while contented her self with being Queen by Proclamation seeing thing something settled proceeds to her Coronation
which was accordingly splendidly performed on the last of September After which she discharges a Tax published a general Pardon but interlac'd with so many Exceptions of Matters and Persons that very few took benefit of it and those that did were by the Commissioners assigned to compound with them despoil'd of Offices and Estates Soon after this Justice Hales was Imprison'd for that at a Quarter Sessions in Kent he gave charge upon the Statutes of Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth in Derogation of the Primacy of the Church of Rome which was a high ingratitude in the Queen he having in King Edwards time refused to sign a Warrant for Disinheriting the Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth On the Tenth of October the Queen summons a Parliament and Members are chose by force and threats in some places and in others those imployed by the Court did by violence hinder the people from coming in to chuse in many places false Returns were made and when the Parliament met some were violently turn'd out of the House Several Bishops were thrust out of the House of Lords for not Worshipping the Mass and soon after imprisoned On the Third of November Cranmer was arraigned in Westminster-Hall and found guilty of High-Treason which by the way note was only for not Worshipping Mass tho other things were alledged against him and was condemned to die After which an Act was made for repealing the Law made by King Edward touching Religion see what a Parliament can do when one is pickt out for the purpose then they passed another Act for preventing affronts to Popish Priests who then began mightily to appear Then another Act was passed for preventing unlawful Assemblies which was meant the meeting of the Reformed Protestants The Queen having brought things to this point begins to shew her self more openly and publickly declares her resolution of being reconciled to the See of Rome and accordingly sends Cardinal Pool to the Pope for his Blessing and Directions but he was stopt by the Emperor as he was on his Journey but the Queen sending to the Emperor to desire him not to hinder Cardinal Pool went on his Journey In the mean while Gardiner at home proposes to the Queen the several methods for rooting out the Reformed Religion which are excepted of but not put in execution till other necessaries are dispatcht viz. the match with Prince Philip of Spain which Match the House of Commons disliked alledging that it would bring England under a forreign yoke and since the Commons cannot be perswaded to consent to it the Parliament is Dissolved the constant practice when they would not do what they thought destructive to the Nation and a new one pickt out by the former methods to agree to the Match they were such men as could be bribed to do any thing the Queen would have them for there were 1200000 Crowns sent from Spain to corrupt them They Confirm the Marriage set up the Mass and concurr with the Queen in all Acts for Persecuting the Protestants but thanks be to God we are not now in danger of such Parliaments peoples understandings being every where enlightned and the whole Nation sensible of what will be the Consequence of such Parliaments who shall concurr with a Popish King for destroying the Lives Liberties and Properties of those that are of the Protestant Religion A Religion which authorizes not Murders and Rapines that teacheth the way to Heaven by Meekness and Humility by Loyalty and Faithfulness to their Prince and Love to one another But on the contrary the Popish Religion pretends to Convert people by Gaols Fire and Faggot The first Instance of which in this Queens Reign is Cranmer Ridley and Latimer Three Reformed Bishops being adjudged Hereticks and condemned to die After which follows the burning of Rogers a Minister Hooper and Farrar two Bishops and Bradford another Minister On the 25th of July 1554 Prince Philip comes to Winchester attended by several Nobles who were sent to Spain to fetch him and on the 25th the Marriage was solemnized there An infinite number of Papists of all Countries came over with him The King and Queen send for Cardinal Pool from Rome who being come his Attainder was taken off and he makes a Speech to the Parliament exhorting them wholly to the Mother Church upon which they desire pardon and repent of their former errors and profess themselves ready to abrogate all Laws prejudicial to the See of Rome upon which he gives them and the whole Nation Absolution In March the Queen delivers up all the Abby Lands and leaves them to the disposal of the Pope and his Legate so that by this Gentlemen may see what they are to expect from a Popish Prince viz. to have all their Estates taken away their Families ruin'd and even suffer the loss of their Lives at his pleasure Soon after this Ridley Latimer and Cranmer are burnt with Thousands all over England the repetition of who they were and where executed I shall not trouble you since published at large in Fox I shall onely beg every honest English-man who is willing to serve his God in Peace and injoy the Priviledges which God and the Laws hath given him to consider how sad the change of the present Religion and Government would be when it shall lie in the power of the Pope to order the Destruction of Protestants and a Popish Prince think himself obliged to execute such his Holiness Orders when we who are free-born English-men should be Priest-ridden when those that will not rack their Conscience to save their Estates and Lives shall be murdered For such and much worse will be certainly the consequence of Popery since all their Learned Authors do publish That every man is obliged to Convert or Confound Hereticks and 't is by that name they stile us Let us reflect a little upon the late Designs of the Papists Was not the Scene of Converting England to be laid in blood of even the King himself who hath been so favourable to them as well as of all the Protestants in England Nay they intended to have cut off even the Duke himself upon whom they built all their hopes if he should not absolutely hold his Crown from the Pope What care ought then to be taken for preventing the Designs of such men how diligent ought we to be in Counterplotting how Industrious ought we to be in chusing good Members for Parliment who if bad can make such a Figure in altering the Government and bringing the Countrey to Destruction How ought we to amend our Lives and live answerable to Gods great Mercies hitherto bestowed upon us and send up our Hearty Prayers that God would continue his Majesties Life to us and Destroy and Confound all his and the Nations Enemies and give a Blessing to the Endeavours of the approaching Parliament that the fears of the people may be quieted and a hearty Union between his Majesty and the Nation may be fully compleated FINIS