Auricular Confession is expedient and necessary to be retained and continued used and frequented in the Church of God For the which most Godly study pain and travel of His Majesty and determination and resolution of the Premises His humble and obedient Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled not only render and give unto His Highness their most high and hearty Thanks and think themselves most bound to Pray for the long continuance of his Graces most Royal Estate and Dignity And being also desirous that his most Godly enterprize may be well accomplished and brought to a full end and perfection and so Established that the same might be to the Honor of God and after to the common Quiet Unity and Concord to be had in the whole Body of this Realm for ever Do most humbly beseech His Royal Majesty that the Resolution and Determination above written of the said Articles may be established and perpetually perfected by the Authority of this present Parliament It is therefore Ordained and Enacted by the King our Sovereign Lord and by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and by the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That if any Person or Persons within this Realm of England or in any other of the Kings Dominions do by Word Writing Printing Ciphering or any otherwise Publish Preach Teach Say Affirm Declare Dispute Argue or Hold any Opinion 1. That in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar under the Form of Bread and Wine after the Consecration thereof there is not present really the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ conceived of the Virgin Mary or that after the said Consecration there remains any Substance of Bread or Wine or any other Substance but the Substance of Christ God and Man or likewise to Publish Preach Teach Say Affirm Declare Dispute Argue or Hold Opinion that in the Flesh under the Form of Bread there is not the very Blood of Christ or that with the Blood under the Form of Wine there is not the very Flesh of Christ as well apart as though they were both together or by any the means abovesaid or otherwise do Preach Teach Declare or Affirm the said Sacrament to be of other Substance than is abovesaid or do by any means Contemn Deprave or Despise the said Blessed Sacrament that then such Person or Persons so offending shall be deemed and adjudged Hereticks and that every such offence shall be judged manifest Heresie and that every such Offender and Offenders shall therefore have and suffer Judgment Execution Pain and Pains of Death by way of Burning without any Abjuration Clergy or Sanctuary and their Estates to be Confiscated to the King as in Cases of High Treason 2. And moreover if any do obstinately Affirm Uphold Maintain or Defend that the Communion of the Blessed Sacrament in both kinds that is to say in Form of Bread and also of Wine is necessary for the health of Man's Soul or that it ought or should be Given and Administred to any Persons in both kinds or that it is necessary so to be taken or received by any Person other than Priests being at Mass and Consecrating the same 3. Or that any Man after having received the Order of Priesthood may marry 4. Or that any Man or Woman who hath advisedly vowed or professed Chastity or Widowhood may marry 5. Or that Private Masses be not lawful or not laudable or should not be celebrated had nor used in the Realm nor be not agreeable to the Laws of God 6. Or that Auricular Confession is not expedient and necessary to be retained and continued used and frequented in the Church of God Such Persons are to suffer pains of death as in cases of Felony without any benefit of Clergie or Priviledge of Church or Sanctuary and shall forfeit all their Lands and Goods as in cases of Felony Thus far out of the same Book CHAP. IV. Of another Effect of this Change which was a horrid Effusion of Blood QUeen Anne Boleign who had been the first occasion of this Change of Religion was beheaded Whereof there is this Relation Baker pag. 407. It was now the Twenty eighth year of King Henries Reign When there were solemn Justs at Greenwich from whence the King suddenly departed and came to Westminster Whose sudden departure struck amazement into many but to the Queen especially And not without cause For the next day the Lord Rochford her Brother and Henry Norris were brought to the Tower Prisoners Whither also the same day was brought Queen Anne her self Who at the Tower-gate fell on her knees beseeching God to help her as she was innocent of that whereof she was accused Soon after this she was arraigned in the Tower and found guilty and had Judgment pronounced Immediately the Lord Rochford her Brother was likewise Arraigned Who together with Henry Norris Mark Smeton William Brierton and Francis Weston all of the King's Privy-Chamber about matters touching the Queen were beheaded on Tower-hill Within Two days Queen Anne her self on a Scaffold upon the Green within the Tower was also beheaded At her death she spake these words God save my Master and Sovereign the King the most Goodliest Noblest and Gentlest Prince that is and grant him that he may long Reign over you which words she spake with a smiling countenance which done she kneeled down and the Hangman of Calais smote off her head at one stroke For her Religion she was an earnest Professor and one of the first Counternancers of the Gospel The Crimes for which she died were Adultery and Incest She had many Enemies as being a Protestant and perhaps in that respect the King himself not greatly her Friend For though he had excluded the Pope yet he continued a Papist still Her Death cast upon King Henry a dishonorable Imputation Insomuch that whereas the Protestant Princes of Germany had resolved to chuse him for Head of their League after they heard of this Queens Death they utterly refused him Thus far Sir Rich. Baker The next day after her Death the King Married the Lady Jane Seymour Stow Page 573. In the next place Thomas Cromwel who had been the grand Promoter of this business was likewise beheaded Whereof thus writes Howes upon Stow page 508. THomas Cromwel Earl of Essex being in the Council-Chamber was suddenly apprehended and committed to the Tower of London and soon after attainted of Heresie and High Treason When he was brought to the Scaffold on Tower-hill to be executed he spake these words I pray you that be here to bear me witness that I die in the Catholick Faith not doubting in any Article of my Faith or in any Sacrament of the Church Many have slandered me and reported that I have been an A better of such as have maintained evil Opinions which is untrue But I confess that like as God by his holy Spirit does instruct us
First-Fruits For the better drawing on of which Concession it was pretended that the Patrimony of the Crown had been much dilapidated and that it could not be Supported with such Honor as it ought to be if Restitution were not made of such Rents as were of late dismembred from it Upon which ground they also passed an Act for the Dissolution of all such Monasteries Convents and Religious Orders as had been Founded and Established by the Queen deceased When the Act of Parliament concerning the Supremacy came to be Debated it seemed to be a thing abhorrent even in Nature and Policy that a Woman should be declared Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England But those of the Reformed Party meant nothing else than to contend about words so they might gain the Point they aimed at Which was the stripping of the Pope of all Authority within these Dominions and fixing the Supream Ecclesiastical Power in the Crown Imperial And this they did not by the Name of Supreme Head which they perceived might be lyable to some just Exceptions but which comes all to one of Supreme Governess Thus Dr. Heylyn I will here insert a Speech made in this Parliament against this Supreme Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Authority granted to the Queen The Person that spake it was Nicholas Heath who was First Bishop of Worcester and Lord President of Wales Afterwards Archbishop of York and Embassador into Germany And made Lord Chancellor of England by Queen Mary in the year of our Lord 1555 and continued until he did surrender it up in Queen Elizabeth's time to Sir Nicholas Bacon The Person from whom I had this Speech is yet living who told me That he found it in Manuscript amongst Papers and Notes of his great Grandfather George Parry who had been High Sheriff of Hereford-shire in the Second year of the said Queen A Speech Made in the Upper House of Parliament against the Supremacy to be in her Majesty by Nicholas Heath Lord Chancellor of England in the first year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth above 100 years since In the Original Copy it is stiled A Tale told in Parliament For Oaths the Land shall be cloathed in Mourning My Lords WIth all humble Submission of my whole Discourse to your Wisdoms I purpose to speak to the Body of this Act touching the Supremacy that so what this Honourable Assembly is now a doing concerning the passing of this Act may thereby be better weighed and considered by your Wisdoms First When by the Virtue of this Act of the Supremacy we must forsake and fly from the See of Rome it would be considered what matter lieth therein and what matter of danger or inconvenience or else whether there be none at all Secondly If the intent of this Act be to grant or settle upon the Queens Majesty a Supremacy it would be considered of your Wisdoms what this Supremacy is and whether it doth consist in Spiritual Government or Temporal If in Temporal what further Authority can this House give Her more than what She already hath by right of Inheritance And not by our Gift but by the Appointment of God Being our Sovereign Lord and Lady our King and Queen our Empress and Emperor And if further than this we acknowledge Her to be Head of the Church of England we ough also to grant that the Emperor or any other Prince being Catholick and their Subjects Protestants are to be Heads of their Church Whereby we shall do an Act as disagreeable to Protestants as this seems to Catholicks If you say The Supremacy consists in Spiritual concernments Then it would be considered what the Spiritual Government is and in what points it doth chiefly consist Which being first agreed upon it would be further considered of your Wisdoms whether this House may grant it to her Highness or not And whether her Highness be an apt Person to receive the same So by through Examination of these parts your Honors shall proceed in this matter groundedly upon such sure knowledge as not to be deceived by ignorance Now to the First Point wherein I promised to examine what matter of weight danger or inconvenience might be incurred by this our forsaking and flying from the Church of Rome if there were no further matter therein than the with-drawing our Obedience from the Popes Person supposing that he had declared himself to be a very Austere and Severe Father to us then the business were not of so great importance as indeed it is as will immediately here appear For by relinquishing and forsaking the Church or See of Rome we must forsake and fly from all General Councils Secondly From all Canonical and Ecclesiastical Laws of the Church of Christ. Thirdly From the Judgment of all other Christian Princes Fourthly and Lastly We must forsake and fly from the Holy Unity of Christ's Church and so by leaping out of Peter's Ship we hazard our selves to be over-whelmed in the waves of Schism of Sects and Divisions First Touching the General Councils I shall name unto you these Four The Nicene Council the Constantinopolitan Council the Ephesine and the Chalcedon All which are approved by all Men. Of these same Councils Saint Gregory writeth in this wise Sicut enim Sancti Evangelii quatuor Libros sic haec quatuor Concilia Nicenum Constantinopolitanum Ephesinum Chalcedonense suscipere ac venerari me fareor That is to say in English I confess I do receive and reverence those Four General Councils of Nice Constantinople c. even as I do the Four Holy Evangelists At the Nicene Council the first of the Four the Bishops which were there Assembled did write there Epistles to Sylvester then Bishop of Rome That their decrees then made might be confirmed by his Authority At the Council kept at Constantinople all the Bishops there were obedient to Damasus then Bishop of Rome He as chief in the Council gave Sentence against the Hereticks Macedonius Sabellius and Eunomius Which Eunomius was both an Arrian and the first Author of that Heresie That only Faith doth justifie And here by the way it is much to be lamented that we the Inhabitants of this Realm are much more inclined to raise up the Errors and Sects of Ancient condemned Hereticks than to follow the True Approved Doctrine of the most Catholick and Learned Fathers of Christ his Church At the Ephesine Council Nestorius the Heretick was condemned by Celestine the Bishop of Rome he being chief Judge there At the Chalcedon Council all the Bishops there Assembled did write their humble Submission unto Leo then Bishop of Rome wherein they did acknowledge him there to be their Chief Head Six Hundred and Thirty Bishops of them Therefore to deny the See Apostolick and its Authority were to contemn and set at nought the Authority and Decrees of those noble Councils Secondly We must forsake and fly from all Canonical and Ecclesiastical Laws of Christ his Church whereunto we have already professed our
Historical COLLECTIONS Out of several Grave Protestant Historians Concerning the CHANGES OF RELIGION AND The strange Confusions following In the Reigns of KING HENRY the Eighth EDWARD the Sixth QUEEN MARY and ELIZABETH With an Addition of several Remarkable Passages taken out of Sir Will. Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire relating to the Abbies and their Institution Published with Allowance LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty for His Houshold and Chappel And for him and Matâ—… Turâ—…er at the Lamb in High holbourn 1686. THE PREFACE HAving perused several of our Histories of England and standing amazed to find in them That the Alteration of Religion here hath been totally carried on by worldly Interest I thought it would not be ungrateful to the Reader to have those various Passages concerning the Changes of Religion collected together out of those Histories for the informing him exactly how those Changes have been made And withal of the Beginning and Progress of Presbytery in this Nation and the Ground of Multiplying other Sects which hath been the cause of all our late Confusions I have laboured to connect these Passages together in as good an order as I think could be expected in matters â—…ulled out of such large volumns Much more might have been Collected concerning these matters out of diverse other Histories But I think the chief matters are here sufficiently handled which may satisfie the curiosity of any indifferent Reader To add more Authority to what shall be here taken out of Dr. Heylyns History of Reformation from whence the chiefest matters of these Collections are gathered I will here Insert a Passage out of the Preface of it by which it will appear what diligence he hath used in composing this History The words of the Preface are these IN this following History you will find more to satisfie your curiosity and inform your judgment then can be possibly drawn up in this general view As for my performance in this work In the first place I am to tell you that towards the raising of this Fabrick I have not borrowed my materials only out of vulgar Authors but searched into the Records of the Convocation consulted all such Acts of Parliament as concerned my purpose advised with many Forein Writers of great name and credit exemplified some Records and Charters of no common quality many rare pieces in the Cottonian Library and not a few Debates and Orders of the Council-Table which I have laid together in as good a form and beautified it with a trimming as agreeable as my hands could give it Thus Dr. Heylyn A Preamble to the following Collections concerning the great Kindness and good Correspondence between King Henry the Eighth and some Popes FIrst King Henry the Eighth for writing a Book against Luther received a Bull from the Pope whereby he had the Title given him to be Defender of the Faith for him and his Successors for ever The Relation concerning which Book and the Reception of it by the Pope is thus set down in the History of the Lord Herbert of Cherbury pag. 104. OUr King being at leisure now from Wars and delighting much in learning thought he could not give better proof either of his Zeal or Education then to write against Luther To this also he was exasperated That Luther had oftentimes spoken contemptuously of the learned Thomas of Aâ—…uin who yet was in so much requst with the King that he was therefore called Thomistious Hereupon the King compiles a Book wherein he strenuously opposed Luther in the point of Indulgences Number of Sacraments the Papal Authority and other particulars to be seen in that his work Entitled de Septem Sacramentis c. a principal Copy whereof richly bound being sent to Leo I remember my self to have seen in the Vatican Library The manner of the delivery whereof as I find it in our Records was thus Doctor John Clark Dean of Windsor our Kings Embassador appearing in full Consistory the Pope knowing the glorious Present he brought first gave him his cheek to kiss and then receiving the Book promised to do so much for the Approbation thereof as ever was done for St. Augustine or St. Hierome's Works Assuring him withal that the next Consistory he would bestow a publick Title on our King which having been heretofore privately debated among the Cardinals those of Protector Defensor Romanae Ecclesiae or Sedis Apostolicae or Rex Apostolicus or Orthodoxus produced they at last agreed on Defensor Fidei a Transcript of which Bull out of an Original sub plumbo in our Records I have here inserted Leo Bishop Servant of the Servants of God to his most dear Son Henry King of England Defender of the Faith All health and happiness God having called Us although infinitely unworthy of it to the Government of the whole Church We bend all Our thoughts to promote the Catholick Faith without which none can be saved and labour by all means as belongs to Our duty to make use of and promote all such helps as have been wisely ordained for the preserving the integrity of Christian Faith amongst all but most especially amongst Princes and to suppress the endeavours of those who labour to corrupt it by lies and false Doctrines And as other Bishops of Rome our Predecessors have been accustomed to confer special favours upon Catholick Princes according to the exigency of Times and Affairs Especially upon such as have not only remained unmovable in their Obedience to the Holy Roman Catholick Church with an entire Faith and servent Devotion in the tempestuous times and raging perfidious fury of Schismaticks and Hereticks But likewise as legitimate Children and stout Champions of the same Church have opposed themselves both temporally and spiritually against the mad fury of such Schismaticks and Hereticks as have opposed it So we also desire to extol your Majesty with condign and immortal Praises for your excellent and immortal works and actions in favour of Us and this Holy See where by Gods permission we are established and to grant you those things which may enable and engage you to have a care to preserve our Lords Flock from Wolves and to cut off with the material Sword rotten members that seek to infect the mystical Body of Christ confirming in the solidity of Faith the Hearts of such as waver or are in danger of falling When our beloved Son John Clark your Majesties Orator or Embassador deliver'd unto Us in Our Consistory before Our Venerable Brethren Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church and many other Prelates of the Roman Court a Book which your Majesty hath composed out of your great Charity and Zeal of Catholick Faith enflamed with a fervour of Devotion towards Us and this Holy See as a Noble and proper Antidote against the errors of divers Hereticks often condemned by this Holy See and lately raised up again by Martin Luther he then likewise further declared unto Us your Majesties desire that this
Book might be approved by Our Authority and withal in a copious Oration manifested unto Us that as your Majesty hath confuted the notorious Errors of the same Martin Luther from true and convincing Reasons and unanswerable Authorities of the holy Scriptures and Fathers so that you will be ready with all the Forces and Arms of your Kingdom to punish and prosecute all such as shall presume to follow or defend any of the said Opinions Whereupon we have with all care and diligence perused the same Book and finding it to contain admirable Doctrine and full of the Spirit of God do give God infinite thanks from whom proceeds every good and perfect Gift for having thus inspir'd your mind and enabled you by his Grace to compose this Work for the defence of his holy Faith against this raiser up of old condemned Errors and to the inviting of other Kings and Christian Princes to follow your example in protecting Orthodox Faith and Evangelical Truth now expos'd to great danger and many oppositions We upon this likewise judging it just and reasonable to confer all Honour and Praises upon such as have employ'd their pious Labours in the defence of the said Christian Faith do not only extol and magnifie approve and confirm by Our Authority what your Majesty hath with so much solid Learning and Eloquence written against the same Martin Luther but do likewise confer upon your Majesty such a Title of Honour that by it all the Faithful may understand both now and for all future times how grateful and acceptable this your Majesties Gift hath been unto Us especially offered at this time We who are the true Successor of St Peter whom Christ ascending up to Heaven lest as his Vicar upon Earth committing to him the care of his Flock We I say sitting in this holy See having with mature Deliberation considered of this business with Our Brethren do with their unanimous Counsel and consent grant unto your Majesty the Title of Defender of the Faith which We do by these presents confirm unto you commanding all the Faithful to give your Majesty this Title and when they write unto you after the word King to annex this other of Defender of the Faith And assuredly if the excellency and dignity of this Title and your singular merits be well weigh'd and considered We could not have thought of any name more Noble nor better agreeable to your Majesty then this which as often as you hear and read you will have occasion to reflect upon your own Virtue and Merit not becoming more proud thereby but according to your wonted Prudence rather more humble and more establish'd in the Faith of Christ and respect towards this holy See rejoycing in our Lord the Giver of all Good things and leaving unto your Posterity this perpetual and immortal monument of your Glory shewing them the way that if they desire to possess this Title they labour to do works of this kind and to imitate your Majesties example who having deserv'd so much from Us and this See We give you Our Benediction and also to your Wife and Children and all that shall be born of them In the name of him from whom We have receiv'd this Power Beseeching the Almighty who said By me Kings reign and Princes command and in whose Hands the Hearts of all Kings are that he will confirm you in this holy Resolutiand encrease your Devotion and make your Actions for the preservation of Faith so illustrious throughout the whole World That no Man may have occasion to judge that this Title is confer'd upon you in vain And lastly Our Prayer is That your Majesty having happily pass'd the course of this present life may be made partaker of Eternal Glory Dated at Rome at St. Peters c. Thus far my Lord Herberts History I will now relate some other favours shew'd to him by Popes HE receiv'd from Pope Clement a Rose of Gold for a Present The reception of it is thus related by Sir Rich. Baker page 391. Doctor Thomas Hannibal Master of the Rolls was receiv'd into London by Earls Bishops and diverse Lords and Gentlemen as Embassador from Pope Clement who brought with him a Rose of Gold for a Present to the King and on the day of the Nativity of our Lady after a Solemn Mass sung by the Cardinal of York the said Present was delivered to the King which was a Tree forged of fine Gold with Branches Leaves and Flowers resembling Roses Thus far Sir Rich. Baker ANother Present was sent him by Pope Julius whereof there is this Relation in the same History page 376. Pope Julius the second sent to King Henry a Cap of Maintenance and a Sword and being angry with the King of France tranferred by Authority of the Lateran Council the Title of Christianissimo from him upon King Henry which with great solemnity was published the Sunday following at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul Thus far Sir Rich. Baker CHAP. I. The First Ground of the change of Religion in England was the business of the Kings Divorce from Queen Catherine which when it came to be publickly examined the Queen made this following Speech THe Queen according to the Form being called upon to come into the Court made no Answer but rose out of her Chair and came to the King kneeling down at his Feet to whom she said The Queens Speech SIR IN what have I offended you or what occasion of displeasure have I given you intending thus to put me from you I take God to be my Judge I have been to you a true and humble Wife ever conformable to your Will and Pleasure never contradicting or gain-saying you in any thing being always contented with all things wherein you had any delight or took any pleasure without grudge or countenance of discontent or displeasure I lov'd for your sake all them whom you lov'd whether I had cause or no whether they were my Friends or my Enemies I have been your Wife these twenty years or more and you had by me divers Children and when you had me at first I take God to be my Judg that I was a Maid and whether it be true or no I put it to your own Conscience If there be any just cause that you can alledge against me either of dishonesty or matter lawful to put me from you I am content to depart to my shame and confusion and if there be none then I pray you to let me have Justice at your Hands The King your Father was in his time of such an excellent Wit that he was accounted amongst all men for Wisdom to be a second Salomon and the King of Spain my Father Ferdinand was accounted one of the wisest Princes that had reign'd in Spain for many years It is not therefore to be doubted but that they had gathered as wise Counsellors unto them of every Realm as to their Wisdoms they thought meet and I conceive that there were in
those days as wise and well-learned men in both the Realms as be now at this day who thought the Marriage between you and me good and lawful Therefore it is a wonder to me what new inventions are now invented against me And now to put me to stand to the Order and Judgment of this Court seems very unreasonable For you may condemn me for want of being able to answer for my self as having no Counse but such as you assigned me who cannot be indifferent on my part since they are your own Subjects and such as you have taken and chosen out of your own Council whereunto they are privy and dare not disclose your Will and Intent Therefore I humbly pray you to spare me until I may know what Counsel my Friends in Spain will advise me to take And if you will not then your Pleasure be fulfilled And with that she rose up and departed never more appearing in any Court The King perceiving that she was gone said I Will now in her Absence declare this unto you all That She has been unto me as True and Obedient a Wife as I would wish or desire She has all the virtuous qualities that ought to be in a Woman of her Dignity or in any other of Mean Condition She is also surely a Noble Woman born Her Condition will well declare it After this the King sent the Two Cardinals Campeius and Wolsey to speak with her WHen the Queen was told that the Cardinals were come to speak with Her She rose up and with a Skein of white Thred about her neck came into her Chamber of Presence The Cardinals said they were sent by the King to understand her mind concerning the business between Him and Her My Lords saith the Queen I cannot answer you so suddenly for I was set among my Maids at work little thinking of any such matter wherein there needs a longer deliberation and a better head then mine to make Answer For I have need of Counsel in this case which concerns me so near and for any Counsel or Friends that I can find in England they are not for my Profit For it is not likely that any English man will Counsel me or be a Friend to me against the King's Pleasure since they are his Subjects And for my Counsel in which I may trust they are in Spain The Cardinals returning to the King gave him an account of what She said Thus the case went forward from Court to Court till it came to Judgment The King's Counsel at the Bar called for Judgment unto whom Cardinal Campeius said thus I will not give Judgment till I have made relation to the Pope of all our proceedings whose Counsel and Command I will observe The matter is too high for us to give an hasty Judgment considering the Highness of the Persons and doubtfulness of the Case and also whose Commissioners we be under whose Authority we sit It were therefore reason that we should make our Chief Head a Counsel in the same before we proceed to a definitive sentence I come not to please for Favour Need or Dread of any Person alive be he King or otherwise I have no such respect to the Person that I will offend my Conscience I will not for the Favour or Disfavour of any High Estate do that thing which shall be against the Will of God I am an old man both weak and sickly that look daily for death I will not wade any further in this matter until I have the Opinion and Assent of the Pope Wherefore I will adjourn the Court for this time according to the Order of the Court of Rome from whence such Jurisdiction is deriv'd Upon this the Court was dissolv'd and no more done Then step'd forth the Duke of Suffolk from the King and uttered with an haughty Countenance these words It was never merry in ENGLAND since we had any Cardinals amongst us Thus far Stow. Upon this there was a Debate held in Council Whether it were convenient for the King to Assume to himself the Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs In opposition to which there was this Speech made related in my Lord Herbert ' s History pag. 362. SIR YOur Highness is come to a point which needs a strong and firm Resolution it being not only the most important in its self that can be presented but likewise of that consequence that it will comprehend your Kingdom and Posterity It is whether in this business of your Divorce and Second Marriage as well as in all other Ecclesiastical Affairs in your Dominions you would make use of your own or the Popes Authority For my own part as an Englishman and your Highnes's Subject I must wish all Power in your Highness But when I consider the Ancient practice of this Kingdom I cannot but think any Innovation dangerous For if in every Temporal Estate it be necessary to come to some Supream Authority whence all inferior Magistracy should be derived it seems much more necessary in Religion both as the Body thereof seems more susceptible of a Head than any else and as that Head again must direct so many others We should therefore above all things labour to keep an unity in the parts thereof as being the Sacred bond which knits and holds together not its own alone but all other Government But how much Sir should we recede from the Dignity thereof if we at once retrenched this its chief and most eminent part And who ever liked that Body long whose Head was taken away Certainly Sir an Authority received for many Ages ought not rashly to be rejected For is not the Pope Communis Pater in the Christian World and Arbiter of their Differences Does not he Support the Majesty of Religion and vindicate it from neglect Does not the holding his Authority from God keep Men in awe not of Temporal alone but Eternal punishments and therein extend his Power beyond death it self And will it be secure to lay aside those potent means of reducing People to their Duty and trust only to the Sword of Justice and Secular Arms Besides who shall mitigate the rigor of Laws in those Cases which may admit exception if the Pope be taken away Who shall presume to give Orders or Administer the Sacraments of the Church Who shall be Depository of the Oaths and Leagues of Princes Or Fulminate against the perjur'd Infractors of them For my part as Affairs now stand I find not how either a general Peace amongst Princes or any equal moderation in Humane Affairs can be well conserved without him For as his Court is a kind of Chancery to all other Courts of Justice in the Christian World so if you take it away you subvert that Equity and Conscience which should be the Rule and Interpreter of all Laws and Constitutions whatsoever I will conclude that I wish your Highness as my King and Sovereign all true Greatness and Happiness but think it not fit in this
Case that your Subjects should either examine by what right Ecclesiastical Government is Innovated or enquire how far they are bound thereby since beside that it might cause Division and hazzard the Overthrow both of the one and the other Authority it would give that Offence and Scandal abroad that Forein Princes would both reprove and disallow all our Proceedings in this kind and upon occasion be disposed easily to joyn against us Thus my Lord Herbert relates this excellent Speech But notwithstanding this Speech or whatsoever could be said against it the Popes Supremacy was excluded and the King Married Anne Boleign which is thus set down by Stow continued by How 's Pag. 554. KIng Henry upon occasion of these delays made by the Pope in his Controversie of Divorce and through Displeasure of such Reports as he heard had been made of him to the Court of Rome and Thirdly moved by some Counsellors to follow the example of the Germans caused a Proclamation to be made in the Two and twentieth year of his Reign forbidding all his Subjects to purchase any manner of thing from the Court of Rome And obtaining a Divorce from Queen Catherine his Wife by an Act of Parliament he privately Married Anne Boleign And upon that by another Act of Parliament the Pope with all his Authority was clean banished his Realm and Order taken that he should no more be called Pope but Bishop of Rome and the King to be taken and reputed as Supream Head of the Church of England having full Authority to Reform all Errors Heresies and Abuses in the same It was further Enacted by another Act of Parliament That no Person should Appeal for any Cause out of this Realm to the Court of Rome but from the Commissary to the Bishop from the Bishop to the Archbishop from the Archbishop to the King and all Causes of the King to be tryed in the Upper-House of Parliament Moreover the First-Fruits and Tenths of all Ecclesiastical Dignities and Promotions were granted to the King Thus far Stow. This Deserting of the Pope is thus related by Dr. Heylyn in the Preface of his History of Reformation KIng Henry the Eighth being violently hurried with the Transport of some private Affections And finding that the Pope appeared the greatest Obstacle to his desires he extinguished his Authority in the Realm of England This opened the first way to the Reformation and gave encouragement to those who inclined unto it To which the King afforded no small countenance out of Politick Ends. But for his own part he adhered to his Old Religion severely Persecuting those that Dissented from it And died though Excommunicated in that Faith and Doctrine which he had sucked in as it were with his Mothers milk And of which he shewed himself so stout a Champion against Luther Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the beginning of this prodigious Change of Religion The first Opposition against this sudden Change was a Sermon of one Friar Peto in opposition to the King 's second Marriage Thus related by Howes upon Stow Pag. 562. THe First that openly resisted or reprehended the King touching his Marriage with Anne Boleign was one Friar Peto a simple Man yet very Devout of the Ordâ—… of the Observants This Man Preaching at Greenwich upon the Two and twentieth Chapter of the third Book of the Kings to wit the last part of the story of Achab saying Even where the Dogs licked the Blood of Nabaoth even there shall Dogs lick thy Blood also O King And therewithal spake of the Lying Prophets which abused the King c. I am saith he that Micheas whom you will hate because I must tell you truly that this Marriage is unlawful And I know that I shall eat the Bread of Affliction and drink the Water of Sorrow yet because our Lord hath put it into my mouth I must speak it And when he had strongly enveighed against the King's second Marriage to diswade him from it he also said There are many other Preachers yea too many which Preach and Perswade you otherwise feeding your folly and frail Affections upon hope of their own worldly Promotion and by that means betray your Soul your Honour and Posterity to obtain Fat Benefices to become Rich Abbots and get Episcopal Jurisdiction and other Ecclesiastical Dignities These I say are the Four hundred Prophets who in the spirit of Lying seek to deceive you But take good heed lest you being seduced find Achab ' s punishment which was to have his Blood licked up by Dogs saying that it was one of the greatest miseries in Princes to be daily abused by Flatterers The King being thus reproved endured it patiently and did no violence to Peto But the next Sunday Dr. Curwin Preached in the same place who most sharply reprehended Peto and his Preaching calling him Dog Slanderer base beggarly Friar Rebel Traytor saying that no Subject should speak so audaciously to Princes And having spoken much to that effect and in Commendation of the King's Marriage thereby to Establish his Seed in his Seat for ever c. He then supposing that he had utterly suppressed Peto and his partakers lifted up his voice and said I speak to thee Peto which makest thy self Micheas that thou mayst speak evil of Kings But now thou art not to be found being fled for fear and shame as being unable to answer my Arguments And whilst he thus spake there was one Elstow a fellow Friar to Peto standing in the Rood-loft who said to Dr. Curwin Good Sir you know that Father Peto as he was Commanded is now gone to a Provincial Council held at Canterbury and not fled for fear of you for to morrow he will return again In the mean time I am here as another Micheas and will lay down my Life to prove all those things true which he hath taught out of the holy Scripture and to this Combate 〈◊〉 challenge thee before God and all equal Judges even unto thee Curwin I say which art one of the Four hundred false Prophets into whom the spirit of Lying is entred and seekest by Adultery to establish a Succession betraying the King unto endless Perdition more for thine own vain Glory and hope of Promotion than for discharge of thy clogged Conscience and the King's Salvation This Elstow waxed hot and spake very earnestly so as they could not make him cease his Speech until the King himself bad him hold his peace And gave Order that He and Peto should be Convented before the Council which was done the next day And when the Lords had rebuked them then the Earl of Essex told them that they had deserved to be put into a Sack and cast into the Thames Whereunto Elstow smiling said Threaten these things to Rich and Dainty Persons who are clothed in Purple fare Deliciously and have their chiefest hope in this World For we esteem them not but are joyful that for the discharge of our Duty we are driven hence
And with thanks to God we know the way to Heaven to be as ready by Water as by Land and therefore we care not which way we go These Friars and all the rest of their Order were banish'd shortly after And after that none durst openly oppose themselves against the Kings affections Thus far Stow. Now more perfectly to Establish this Change It was Ordered That there should be Sermons Preached at Paul's-Cross against the Popes Supremacy Thus related by Howes upon Stow Pag. 571. Every Sunday at Paul's-Cross Preached a Bishop declaring the Pope not to be Supream Head of the Church Also in other Places of this Realm great Troubles were raised about Preaching namely at Bristow where Mr. Latimer preach'd and there preach'd against him one Mr. Hobberton and Dr. Powel So that there was great partakings on both sides insomuch that divers Priests and others set up Bills against the Mayor and against Mr. Latimer But the Mayor permitting Laymen to Preach caused divers Priests to be apprehended and put in Newgate with Bolts upon them and divers others ran away and lost their Livings rather than come into the Mayor's handling Thus Howes The King being thus Establish'd Head of the Church of England makes one Thomas Cromwel his Vicar General which is thus set down by Sir Rich. Baker Pag. 408. Thomas Cromwell Son to a Black smith in Putney being raised to High Dignities was lastly made Vicar General under the King in all Ecclefiastical Affairs who sate divers times in the Convocation-House amongst the Bishops as Head over them Thus Sir Richard Baker And thus far of the first beginning of this prodigious Change of Religion CHAP. II. Of the Dissolution of Abbeys being the first Effect of this Change of Religion Stow Pag. 572. THE King sent the said Cromwel and others to visit the Abbeys and Nunneries in England the said Cromwel being ordained Principal Visitor He put forth all Religious Persons that would go and all under the Age of Four and Twenty And after closed up the residue that would remain so that they should not come out of their places All Religious Men that departed the Abbot or Prior gave them for their Habit a Priests Gown and Forty Shillings in Money The Nuns had such Apparel given them as Secular Women wear and had liberty to go whither they would They took out of the Monasteries and Abbeys their Reliques and chiefest Jewels to the Kings use they said Thus Stow. Here follows a more particular Account of the Dissolution of these Abbeys The first Religious House that the King took into his hands was the Hospital of St. James near Charing-cross with all the Means to the same belonging compounding with the Sisters of the House who were to have Pensions during their lives And built in place of the said Hospital a Goodly Mansion retaining still the Name of St. James Stow p. 560. In a Parliament were granted to the King and his Heirs All Religious Houses in the Realm of England of the value of Two hundred pounds and under with all Lands and Goods to them belonging The Number of these Houses then suppressed were about Three Hundred Seventy Six and the value of their Lands then Thirty two thousand pounds and more by the Year The Moveable Goods as they were then sold at Robin-Hood's peny-worths amounted to more than Ten thousand pounds The Religious Persons that were in the said Houses were clearly put out whereof some went to other Greater Houses and some went abroad to the World It was saith my Author a pitiful thing to hear the lamentation that People in the Countrey made for them for there was great Hospitality kept amongst them and as it was thought more than Ten thousand Persons Masters and Servants lost their Living by the putting down of these Houses Thus Stoâ—…v Not long after by the means of the said Cromwel All the Orders of Friars and Nunns with their Cloysters and Houses were suppressed and put down First the Black-Friars in London the next day the White-Friars the Grey-Friars and the Monks of Charter-House and so all the others Thus Baker page 415. Here follows a particular Relation concerning the Shrine at Canterbury Thus deliver'd by Sir Rich Baker pag. 411. SAint Augustines Abbey at Canterbury was suppress'd and the Shrine and Goods taken to the Kings Treasury as also the Shrine of Thomas Becket in the Priory of Christs-Church was likewise taken to the Kings use This Shrine was built about a man's height all of Stone and then upwards of Timber plain within the which was a Chest of Iron containing the Bones of Thomas Becket Scull and all with the wound on his Head and the piece cut out of his Scull in the same wound These Bones by the Command of the Lord Cromwel were burnt The Timber-work of This Shrine on the out-side was covered with Plates of Gold Damasked with Gold-wyre which Ground of Gold was again cover'd with Jewels of Gold as Ten or Twelve Rings â—…ramped with Gold-wyre into the said Ground of Gold many of these Rings having Stones in them There were likewise Images of Angels Precious Stones and Great Pearls The Spoyl of which Shrine in Gold and Precious Stones fill'd two great Chests such as six or seven strong men could do no more than remove one of them at once out of the Church The Monks of that Church were commanded to change their Habits into the Apparel of Secular Priests Thus Baker The Knights of the Rhodes and Knights of St. John of Jerusalem in England and Ireland were utterly Dissolv'd and made void The King his Heirs and Successors to have and enjoy all the Mansion-House Church and all other Buildings and Gardens to the same belonging near to the City of London call'd the House of St. John of Jerusalem in England and also the Hospital-Church an House of Kilwarin in Ireland with all Castles Honours Mannors Measees Lands Tenements Rents Revenues Services Woods Downs Pastures Parks Warrens c. in England and Ireland with all the Goods Cattels c. Thus Stow pag. 579. Besides these Religious Houses there were likewise by Act of Parliament given the King All Colleges Chanteries Hospitals Free Chappels Fraternities Brother-hoods and Gilds The Number of Monasteries suppress'd were 645 besides 90 Colleges 110 Hospitals and of Chanteries and Free Chappels 2374. Thus Baker in the former page Now to give a more exact Account of the Grounds and Progress of the Dissolution of these Monasteries We will here insert a Discourse taken out of Mr. Dugdales Antiquities of Warwick-shire Pag. 801. where he treats of the Dissolution of a particular Monastery of Nunnes called Poles-worth and upon that occasion of the Dissolution of all other Monasteries in the Kingdom The Discourse is thus delivered I Find it left Recorded by the Commissioners that were imploy'd to take Surrender of the Monasteries in this Shire Anno 29. Hen. 8. viz. That after strict scrutiny not only by the fame of the Countrey but
submitting themselves to the King for being found guilty of a Premunire were the first that called him Supreme Head of the Church yet with this restriction So far as it was according unto Gods Word and not otherwise In his Four and twentieth year an Act of Parliament was made That no Person should Appeal for any Cause out of this Realm to the Court of Rome In his Twenty sixth year an Act was made which Authoriz'd the King to be Supreme Head of the Church of England and the Authority of the Pope to be abolish'd and then also was given to the King the First Fruits and Tenths of all Spiritual Livings and this Year were many put to death Papists for denying the Kings Supremacy Protestants for denying the Real Presence in the Sacrament nor is it credible what numbers suffered death for these two Causes in the last Ten Years of the Kings Reign of whom if we should make particular mention it would reach a great way in the Book of Martyrs In his Eight and twentieth Year the Lord Cromwel was made Vicar General under the King over the Spirituality and at least Four Hundred Monasteries were suppress'd and all their Lands and Goods conferred upon the King by an Act of Parliament In his One and thirtieth Year was set forth by the Bishops the Book of the Six Articles and all the rest of the Monasteries were conferred upon him Lastly In his Thirty fifth Year all Colleges Chantries and Hospitals were given to him Thus Sir Rich. Baker Here you have had a short view of the Beginning and sad Effects of this Prodigious Change of Religion begun by King Henry the Eighth A Further PROSECUTION Of these HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS Concerning a Second Change of Religion Made for POLITICK ENDS And of the Occurrences concerning it In the Reign of King EDWARD the Sixth A Preamble THIS is a Summary Account of this King's Reign as to these matters of Religion taken out of the Preface of Dr. Heylyn's History of Reformation Where after a brief Narration of King Henry the Eighth's Deserting the Pope he gives this following Account of his Son King Edward the Sixth The Relation whereof begins thus Next comes his Son Edward the Sixth upon the Stage whose Name was made use of to serve Turns withal and his Authority abused to his own undoing In his First year the Reformation was resolved on but on different ends endeavoured by some Bishops and others of the Lower Clergy and promoted with the like Zeal and Industry but not with like Integrity by some great Men about the â—…rt Who under Colour of removing corruptions out of the Church had cast their eyes upon the Spoil of Shrines and Images though still preserved in the greatest part of the Lutheran Churches and the improving their own Fortunes by the Chantry Lands All which they most Sacrilegiously divided amongst themselves without admitting the poor King to share with them though nothing but the filling his Coffers by the Spoil of the one and the Encrease of his Revenue by the fall of the other was openly pretended in the Conduct of it But to speak no more of this the work chiefly intended was vigorously carried on by the King and his Counsellors as appears by the Doctrinals in the Book of Homilies and by the Practical part of Christian Piety And here the business might have rested if Calvin's Pragmatical Spirit had not interposed He first began to quarrel at some passages in the Liturgy and afterwards never left Soliciting the Lord Protector and practising by his Agents on the Court the Country and the Universities till he had laid the first Foundation of the Zuinglian Faction who laboured nothing more than Innovation both in Doctrine and Discipline to which they were encouraged by nothing more than some improvident Indulgence granted unto John Alasco who bringing with him a mixed multitude of Poles and Germans obtained the Priviledge of a Church for himself and his distinct in Government and Form of Worship from the Church of England This much animated the Zuinglian Gospellers to practice first upon the Church who being Countenanced if not Headed by the Earl of Warwick who then began to undermine the Lord Protector first quarrelled the Episcopal Habit and afterwards enveighed against Caps and Surplices against Gowns and Tippets But fell at last upon the Altars which were left standing by the Rules of the Liturgy The touching upon this string made excellent Musick to most of the Grandees of the Court who had before cast many an envious eye on those costly Hangings that massy Plate and other Rich and Precious things which adorned those Altars And what need all this wast said Judas when one poor Chalice only and perhaps not that might have served the turn Beside there was no small spoil to be made of Copes in which the Priest Officiated at the Holy Sacrament Some of them being made of Cloth of Tissue Cloth of Gold and Silver or Embroydred Velvet the meanest being made of Silk or Sattin with some decent Trimming And might not these be handsomely converted unto private uses to serve as Carpets to their Tables Coverlets to their Beds or Cushions for their Chairs and Windows Hereupon some rude People are encouraged under-hand to beat down some Altars which makes way for an Order of the Council-Table to take down the rest and set up Tables in their places followed by a Commission to be executed in all parts of the Kingdom for seizing on the Premises for the King's use But as the Grandees of the Court intended to defraud the King of so great a booty and the Commissioners to put a cheat upon the Court-Lords who employed them in it So they were both prevented in some places by the Lords and Gentry of the Country who thought the Altar-cloths together with the Copes and Plate of their several Churches to be as necessary for themselves as for any others This Change drew on the Alteration of the former Liturgy but almost as unpleasing to the Zuinglian Faction as the former was In which conjuncture of Affairs King Edward the Sixth died From the begining of whose Reign the Reformation began All that was done in order to it under King Henry the Eighth seemed but accidental only and by the by rather designed on Private Ends than out of any settled purpose of a Reformation and therefore intermitted and resumed again as those Ends had variance But now the great Work was carried on with a constant hand the Clergy cooperating with the King and the Council for the effecting of it But scarce had they brought it to this pass when King Edward died whose Death I cannot reckon for an infelicity to the Church of England For being ill principled in himsels and easily enclined to embrace such Counsels as were offered to him it is not to be thought but that the rest of the Bishopricks before sufficiently impoverished must have followed Durham and the poor Church be left as destitute
of Lands and Ornaments as when she came into the World in her Natural Nakedness Nor was it like to happen otherwise in the following Reign of Queen Jane if it had lasted longer than a Nine-days wonder For Dudley of Northumberland who then ruled the rost and had before dissolved and in hope devoured the wealthy Bishoprick of Durham might easily have possessed himself of the greatest part of the Revenues of York and Carlisle By means whereof he would have made himself more absolute on the North-side of Trent than the poor Titular Queen had been on the South-side of it To carry on whose Interest and maintain her Title the poor remainder of the Churches Patrimony was in all probability to have been shared amongst those of the Party to make them sure unto that side Thus far out of Dr. Heylyn ' s Preface Summarily concerning this Rapine and Sacriliege which followed this Second Change of Religion Now in the History it self Page 33. Dr. Heylyn begins orderly to treat of the Reign of this King as to matters of Religion as will appear by what shall be here said CHAP. I. Of the many Policies used in the Introducing this Second Change of Religion Anno Regni Edwardi Sexti 1. THE Solemnities of the Coronation being passed the Grandees of the Court began to entertain some thoughts of a Reformation In which they found Archbishop Cranmer and some other Bishops to be as forward as themselves but on different ends endeavoured by the Bishops out of Zeal but by the Courtiers upon a hope of enriching themselves by the spoil of Bishopricks To the Advancement of which Work the Conjuncture seemed to be as proper as they could desire Fot first the King being of such tender Age and wholly governed by the Wâ—…ll of the Lord Protector who had declared himself a Friend to the Lutheran party in the time of King Henry was easie to be moulded into any form And as the Champions of the Papacy were removed out of all Office so it was thought expedient for the better carrying on of the Design not only to release all such as had been committed unto Prison but also to recal all such as had been forced to abandon the Kingdom for not submitting to King Henries Six Articles But the business was of greater moment than to expect the coming back of these Men. Wherefore neither to lose time nor to press too much at once upon the People it was thought fit to smooth the way to the intended Reformation by setting out some Preparatory Injunctions and this to be done by sending out Commissioners into all parts of the Kingdom armed with Instructions to enquire into all Ecclesiastical Concernments Which Commissioners were accompanied with Preachers appointed to instruct the People And that they might not cool or fall off again from what they had been taught they were to leave some Homilies with the Parish-Priest which the Archbishop had composed Now besides the Points contained in the said Injunctions the Preachers were to perswade them from Invocation of Saints Praying for the Dead Images Use of Beads Ashes Processions Mass Dirges c. All which was done to this intent That the People being prepared by little and little might with more ease and less opposition admit the total Alteration in the face of the Church which was intended in due time to be introduced Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Policy Another Policy But there was something more than the Authority of a Minor King which drew on such a general Conformity to these Injunctions and thereby smoothed the way to those Alterations both in Doctrine and Worship which the Grandees of the Court and Church had began to fashion The Lord Protector and his Party were more experienced in Affairs of State than to be told That all great Counsels tending to Innovation in the Publick Government especially where Religion is concerned are either to be back'd by Arms or otherwise prove destructive to the undertakers For this cause he resolves to put himself at the Head of an Army as well for the security of his Person and the preservation of his Party as for the carrying on of the Design against all Opponents And for the raising of an Army there could not be found a fairer colour nor a more popular pretence than a Wat with Scotland not to be made on any new Emergent Quarrel which might be apt to bread suspition in the heads of the People but in pursuit of the great Project of the King Deceased for uniting that Realm by a Marriage to the Crown of England On this Pretence Levies are made in all parts of the Kingdom He entertained also certain Regiments of Walloons and Germans because they were conceived more likely to enforce Obedience if his Design should meet with any opposition than the natural English Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this War with Scotland A Third Policy But in the first place care was taken that none of the Neighboring Princes should either hinder his Proceedings or assist the Enemy That which seemed to give most satisfaction to the Court of France was the performance of a Solemn Obsequy for King Francis the First Whose Funerals were no sooner Solemnized in France but Order was given for a Dirge to be sung in all the Churches of London as also in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in the Quire whereof hung with Black a sumptuous Hearse was set up for the present Ceremony And the next day Archbishop Cranmer assisted with Eight other of the Bishops all in their rich Miters and other their Pontificals did sing a Mass of Requiem the Funeral Sermon being Preached by Dr. Ridley This great Solemnity being thus honorably performed the Commissioners for the Visitation were dispatched to their several Circuits and the Army drawn to their Rendezvous Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning what was done before the calling of a Parliament CHAP. II. Of what was done in Parliament in order to the Establishing this Change of Religion Dr. Heylyn Page 47. A Parliament began upon the Fourth of November in which the Cards were so well pack'd by Sir Ralph Sadler that there was no need of any further Shuffling till the end of the Game This very Parliament without any sensible Alteration of the Members of it being continued until the Death of the King And though this Parliament consisted of such Members as disagreed amongst themselves in respect of Religion yet they agreed well enough together in one common Principle which was to serve the present time and preserve themselves which appears plainly by the strange mixture of the Acts and Results thereof some tending to the present Benefit and Enriching of particular Persons And some again being devised on purpose to prepare a way for exposing the Revenues of the Church unto spoil and rapine There was an Act made in King Henry the Eighths time Inhibiting the reading of the Old and New Testament in the English Tongue But this was here abrogated together with all
Glory which by rash talk and words many have pretended And in so doing they should best please God and live without danger of the Laws and maintain the tranquillity of the Realm And furthermore for as much as it is well known That Sedition and false Rumors have been nourished and maintained in this Realm by the subtilty and malice of some evil-disposed Persons who take upon them without sufficient Authority to Preach and Interpret the Word of God after their own brains in Churches and other places both Publick and Private and also by playing Enterludes and Printing of false fond Books Ballads Rhymes and other lewd Treatises concerning Doctrine in matters now in Question Her Highness therefore strictly Charges and Commands That nothing in this kind be evermore Acted Thus Dr. Heylyn Relates Her moderate Proceedings as to Religion CHAP. III. A full Relation of the Reconciling this Nation to its former Obedience and Subjection to the Church of Rome Anno Reg. Mar. 2. Dr. Heylyn pag. 41. THe next work was the Reconciling this Nation to its former Obedience and Subjection to the Church of Rome But before the attempting this it was thought fit to remove one Difficulty which was most likely to hinder the progress of this Design The Difficulty was this There was a general fear That if the Popes were restored to their former Power the Church might challenge Restitution of her former Possessions Now to secure them against this Fear they had not only the Promise of the King and Queen but some Assurance underhand from the Cardinal Legat who knew right well that the Church Lands had been so chopped and changed by the Two last Kings as not to be restored without the manifest ruine of many of the Nobility and most of the Gentry who were invested in the same Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Obstacle Which being removed the work goes on The Relation whereof is thus delivered by Sir Rich. Baker Page 461. Cardinal Pool being sent for by the King and Queen came over into England from Rome as Legat à Latere Whereupon a Parliament being called and the King and Queen sitting there under a Cloth of State with the Cardinal on their right hand All the Lords Knights and Burgesses being present the Bishop of Winchester Lord Chancellor made a short Speech signifying the Presence of the Lord Cardinal and that he was sent from the Pope as his Legat à Latere to do a work tending to the Glory of God and the Benefit of them all which says he you may better hear from his own Mouth Thus Sir Rich. Baker Dr. Heylyn pag. 41. Then the Cardinal rose up and made a very grave and eloquent Speech First giving them Thanks for being restored unto his Country In recompence whereof he told them That he was come to restore them to the Country and Court of Heaven from which by their departure from the Church they had been estranged He therefore earnestly exhorts them to acknowledge their Errors and chearfully to receive the benefit which Christ was ready by his Vicar to extend unto them His Speech was said to have been long and Artificial but it concluded to this purpose That he had the Keys to open them away into the Church which they had shut against themselves by making so many Laws to the dishonor and reproach of the See Apostolick On the revoking of which Laws they should find him ready to make use of the Keys in opening of the door of the Church unto them It was concluded hereupon by both Houses of Parliament That a Petition should be made in the Name of the Kingdom wherein should be declared how sorry they were That they had withdrawn their Obedience from the Apostolick See and consented to the Statutes made against it promising to do their best endeavor hereafter That the said Laws and Statutes should be Repealed beseeching the King and Queen to intercede for them with his Holiness that they might be Absolved from their Crimes and Censures which they had incurred and be received as Penitent Children into the bosom of the Church These things being thus resolved upon both Houses are called again to the Court on Sr. Andrews day Where being Assembled in the Presence of the King and Queen they were asked by the Lord Chancellor Gardiner Whether they were pleased that Pardon should be demanded of the Legat and whether they would return to the Unity of the Church and Obedience of the Pope Supreme Head thereof To which they assenting the Petition was presented to their Majesties in the Name of the Parliament Which being publickly read they arose with a purpose to have moved the Cardinal in it who meeting their desires declared his readiness in giving them that Satisfaction which they would have craved And having caused the Authority given him by the Pope to be publickly read he shewed how acceptable the repentance of a Sinner was in the sight of God and that the very Angels in Heaven rejoyced at the Conversion of this Kingdom Which said they all kneeled upon their Knees and imploring the Mercy of God received Absolution for themselves and the rest of the Kingdom Which Absolution was pronounced in these following words viz. Our Lord Jesus Christ who with his most precious Blood hath redeemed and washed us from all our sins and iniquities that he might purchase to himself a glorious Spouse without spot or wrinkle and whom the Father hath appointed Head over all his Church He by his Mercy Absolve you And we by Apostolical Authority given unto us by his Holiness Pope Julius the 3d. his Vice-gerent here on Earth do Absolve and Free you and every one of you with the whole Realm and the Dominions thereof from all Heresie and Schism and from all and every Judgment Censures and Pains for that cause incurred and also we do restore you again to the Unity of our Mother the Holy Church as in our Letters more plainly it shall appear In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Which words of his being seconded by a loud Amen by such as were present he concluded that days work with a solemn Procession to the Chappel for rendring Prayers and Thanks to Almighty God And because this great work was wrought on St. Andrews day the Cardinal procured a Decree or Canon to be made in the Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy That from thenceforth the Feast of St. Andrews-day should be kept in the Church of England for a Majus Duplex as the Rituals call it and Celebrated with as much Solemnity as any other in the year It was thought fit also That the Actions of that Day should be communicated on the Sunday following at St. Paul's Cross in the hearing of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and the rest of the City According to which appointment the Cardinal went from Lambeth by Water and landing at St. Paul's-wharf from thence proceeded to the Church with a Cross two Pillars
Preached and Written partly by divers the natural born Subjects of this Realm and partly being brought in hither from sundry other Forein Countries hath been sowen and spread abroad within the same By reason whereof as well the Spirituality as the Temporality of this Kingdom have swerved from the Obedience of the See Apostolick and declined from the Unity of Christ's Church and have so continued until such time as your Majesty being settled in the Royal Throne the Pope's Holiness and the See Apostolick sent hither unto your Majesty as a Person undefiled and by God's Goodness preserved from the common infection aforesaid and to the whole Realm the most Reverend Father in God the Lord Cardinal Pool to call us home again into the right way from whence we have all this long while wandred and strayeâ—… abroad And we after sundry long and grievous Plagues and Calamities seeing by the Goodness of God our own Errors have acknowledged the same unto the same most Reverend Father in God and by him been and are received and embraced into the Unity and bosom of Christ's Church upon our humble submission and promise made for a Declaration of our Repentance to Repeal and Abrogate such Acts and Statutes as had been made in Parliament since the said Twentieth year of the said King against the Supremacy of the See Apostolick as in our Submission exhibited appears The tenor whereof here ensueth We the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons Assembled in this present Parliament in the Name of our selves and the whole Kingdom do declare our selves very sorry and repentant of the Schism and Disobedience committed in this Realm and the Dominions thereof against the See Apostolick either by making agreeing or executing any Laws Ordinances or Commands against the Supremacy of the said See or otherwise by doing or speaking any thing that might impugn the same Offering our selves and promising by this our Supplication that for a token and acknowledgment of our said repentance we be and shall be always ready to the utmost of our Power to do what lies in us for the abrogating and the repealing of the said Acts and Ordinances in this present Parliament c. Whereupon we most humbly desire your Majesty to set forth this our most humble Suit That we may obtain from the See Apostolick release and discharge from all danger of such Censures and Sentences as by the Laws of the Church we are fallen into and that we may as Children repentant be received into the bosom and unity of Christ's Church so as this Noble Realm withal the members thereof may in this unity and perfect obedience to the See Apostolick serve God and your Majesty to the furtherance and advancement of his Honor and Glory c. This Petition being granted They further add We being now at the Intercession of your Majesty assoiled discharged and delivered from Excommunication Interdiction and other Censures Ecclesiastical which have hanged over our heads for our said faults since the time of the said Schism mentioned in our Supplication May it therefore now please your Majesty That for the better accomplishment of our promise made in the said Supplication we may Repeal All Laws and Statutes made contrary to the said Supremacy and See Apostolick during the said Schism Thus as to the Repealing of all such Laws made in the Reign of King Henry the 8th Another Act for the Repealing of certain Statutes made in the time of King Edward the Sixth FOrasmuch as by divers and several Acts of Parliament made in the time of King Edward the Sixth as well the Divine Service and good Administration of the Sacraments as divers other matters of Religion which we and our Fore-fathers found in this Church of England to us left by the Authority of the Catholick Church be partly altered and in some part taken from us and in place thereof New Things imagined and set forth by the said Acts such as a few of singularity have of themselves devised Whereof hath ensued amongst us in a very short time numbers of diverse and strange Opinions and diversity of Sects and thereby grown great unquietness and much discord to the great disturbance of the Kingdom And in a very short time like to grow to extreme peril and utter confusion of the same unless some remedy be in that behalf provided Which Thing all True Loving and Obedient Subjects ought to fore-see and to provide against to the utmost of their power c. Be it therefore Enacted c. A third Act for the Repeal of Two several Acts made in the time of King Edward the Sixth touching the Dissolution of the Bishoprick of Durham WHereas there hath been time out of mind of any man to the contrary a See of a Bishop of Durham commonly called The Bishoprick of Durham which hath been one of the most Ancient and worthiest Bishopricks in Dignity and Spiritual Promotion within the Realm of England and the same place always supplied and furnished with a man of great Learning and Virtue which was both to the Honor of God and the encrease of his True Religion and a great Surety to that part of the Realm Nevertheless the said Bishoprick was without any just cause or consideration by Authority of Parliament Dissolved Extinguished and Exterminated And further by the Authority of the said Parliament it was Ordained and Enacted That the said Bishoprick together with all the ordinary Jurisdiction thereunto appertaining should be adjudged clearly dissolved and extinguished and that King Edward the Sixth should from thence-forth have possess and enjoy to him his heirs and successors for ever whatsoever did appertain or belong to the said Bishoprick in as large and ample manner and form as any Bishop thereof had held or possessed or of right ought to have had held or possessed c. Be it therefore Enacted c. Thus far as to these Acts of Parliament CHAP. IV. A Relation of some English Protestants that forsook the Kingdom and of the Factions and Schisms that were amongst them being in other Countries Anno Reg. Mar. 3. Dr. Heylyn pag. 59. MAny English Protestants forsook the Kingdom to the number of Eight Hundred who having put themselves into several Cities partly in Germany and partly amongst the Switzers and their Confederates kept up the Face and Form of an English Church in each of their several Congregations Their principal retiring places amongst the last were Arow Zurick and Geneva And in the first the Cities of Emden Strasburgh and Frankfort In Frankfort they enjoyed the greatest privileges and therefore resorted thither in greatest numbers which made them the more apt unto Schisms and Factions At their first coming to the place they were permitted to have the use of one of their Churches which had before been granted to such French exiles as had repaired thither on the like occasion yet so that the French were still to hold their Right the English to have the use of it one day
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
stretching forth her body her head aâ—… two blows was taken off This end had Mary Queen of Scots in the Forty Sixth year of her Age and of her Imprisonment in England the Eighteenth A Lady so compleat in all excellent parts of Body and mind that it must needs have made her a happy Woman if she had not been a Queen and perhaps a happy Queen too if she had not been Heir to the Crown of England Thus Baker I will insert here one Passage more concerning this Queen which hath been omited in order of this story Dr. Heylyn pag. 160. Certain of the Queens Servants being assembled for their Devotions in the Chappel Royal of the Palace of Holy-rood House in Edenburgh the doors were broken open some of the company haled to the next Prison and the rest dispersed The Priest escaping with much difficulty by a private passage The Queen was then absent in the North but questioned Knox at her return as the cause of the uproar By which Expostulation she got nothing from that fiery Spirit but neglect and scorn Thus Dr. Heylyn ' concerning this ' barbarous action CHAP. VIII A short Relation concerning the Affairs of Ireland as to Religion And how the Hugonots in France betrayed the English Dr. Heylyn pag. 128. WE shall find the Queen there as active in advancing the Reformation as she had been in either of the other Kingdoms King Henry had first broke the Ice by taking to himself the Title of Supream Head on Earth of the Church of Ireland exterminating the Popes Authority and suppressing all the Monasteries and Religious Houses In matters of Doctrine and Forms of Worship as there was nothing done by him so neither much endeavoured in the time of King Edward the Sixth It being thought perhaps unsafe to provoke that people in the King's Minority considering with how many troubles he was else here exercised If any thing were done thereâ—…n it was rather done by toleration than command But Queen Elizabeth having setled her Affairs in England and undertaken the protection of the Scots conceived her self obliged in point of Piety to promote the Reformation in that Kingdom likewise A Parliament is therefore held where pass'd an Act restoring to the Crown the Jurisdiction over all Ecclesiastical persons By which Statute were established both the Oath of Supremacy and the High Commission as before in England There also pass'd an Act for the Uniforâ—…ity of Common-Prayer with permission of saying the same in Latin where the Minister had not the knowledge of the English Tongue But for translating it into Irish as it was afterwards done into Welch there was no care taken The people are required by that Statute under several penalties to frequent their Churches and to be frequent at the reading of the English Liturgy which they understand no more than they do the Mass. By which means the Irish were not only kept in continual ignorance as to the Doctrines and Devotions of the Church of England but we have likewise furnished the Papist with an excellent Argument against our selves for having the Divine Service celebrated in such a language as the people do not understand There also pass'd another Statute for restoring to the Crown the first Fruits and Twenty parts of all Ecclesiastical promotions as also of all Impropriated Parsonages of which there are more in number than those Rectories which have Cure of Souls The like Act passed for the Restitution of all Lands belonging to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem with the Annulling of all Leases and other Grants made by the late Lord Prior of the same The Bishops of Ireland finding how things went in England and knowing that the like Alteration would ensue amongst themselves resolved to make such use of the present times as to enrich their Friends and Kindred by the the spoyl of their Churches To which end they so dissipated the Revenues of their several Bishopricks by long Leases Fee-farms and plain Alienations that to some of their Sees they left no more than a Rent of Five Marks Per Annum To others a bare yearly Rent of Forty shillings to the high displeasure of God the reproach of Religion and the perpetual ignominy of themselves for that horrible Sacriledge Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning Ireland How the English were betrayed by the Hugonots Dr. Heylyn pag. 161. A Peace being concluded betwixt the King and the Hugonots they betrayed the English whom they had brought into the Country and joyned their Forces with the rest to drive them out of Newhaven a Town besieged where the Pestilence had gotten amongst them and raged so terribly that the Living were scarce able to bury the Dead And to compleat the misery of the Besieged the Prince of Conde and Duke of Monpensier who had been the Heads of the Hugonot party shewed themselves openly amongst the rest in the Camp of the Enemies whereupon they were necessitated to yield This might be looked upon as an Argument of God's displeasure on this Nation for giving Aid unto the Rebels of a Christian Prince masked with the vizard of Religion And for a further punishment of this Action the Plague brought out of France by the Garrison Soldiers of Newhaven had so dispersed it â—…elf and made such a desolation in many parts of the Realm that it swept away above Twenty Thousand in the City of London Thus Dr. Heylyn And thus far as to these particul Relations of other Countries We will now prosecute our story of England CHAP. IX A Word concerning the then Pope's Letter to the Queen with a long Relation concerning the Presbyterians Dr. Heylyn pag. 131. WE find the new Bishops in England very high and resolute in opposing the Church of Rome Whereof the then Pope being informed directs unto the Queen an affectionate Letter calling Her his Dearest Daughter and declaring unto Her how sollicitous he was for her Salvation and the prosperity of her People which he told Her was not to be found by wandring out of the Communion of the Catholick Church Unto which he again invites Her with much Christian meekness But the Queen had set up her Resolution to go forward with the Change Wherefore all was lost labour But all this while there was no care taken to suppress the practices of the Calvinists who secretly endeavored to subvert the English Liturgy For whilst the Prelates of the Church of England bent all their forces towards the confuting of the Papists another Enemy appeared which seemed not openly to aim at the Churches Doctrine but quarrelled rather at some Rites and Extrinsecals of it Their purpose was to take in the Outworks of Religion first before they levelled their Artillery at the Fort it self The Schismaticks of Frankfort had no sooner heard of Queen Maries Death but they make what hast they could for England in hope of fishing better for themselves in a troubled water than a quiet Followed not long after by the Brethren of the Separation which
determined to discharge her Self from the Trouble of all Church-Concernments and leave them wholly to his care That She was sensible enough into what Disorder and Confusion the Affairs of the Church were brought by the connivance of some Bishops the obstinacy of some Ministers and the Power of some great Lords both in Court and Country But that notwithstanding he must resolve not only to assert the Episcopal Power but also to restore the Uniformity in God's Publick Worship which by the weakness of his Predecessor was so much endangered It is not easie to imagine what clamors were raised amongst the Brethren upon this occasion how they moved Heaven and Earth the Court and Country and all the Friends they had of the Clergy or Laity to come to their assistance in this time of their tryal By means whereof they raised so strong an opposition against his proceedings that it put him to great difficulties Some great Men about the Court who had engaged themselves in the Puritan Quarrels thought best to stand a while behind the Curtain and set Beal upon him of whose impetuosity and edge against him they were well assured This Beal was in himself a most eager Puritan trained up by Walsingham to draw dry-foot after Priests and Jesuits his extream hatred to those men being looked on as the only good quality which he could pretend to But being over-blinded with zeal he conceived that whatsoever was not Puritan must needs be Popish And that the Bishops were to be esteemed no otherwise than the Sons of Antichrist because they were not looked upon as Fathers by the Brotherhood And so far was he hurried on by these disaffections that though he were raised to be one of the Clerks of the Council yet he preferred the Interest of that Faction before that of the Queens Insomuch that he was noted to Jeer and Gibe at all such Sermons as did most commend her Majesties Government and move the Auditory to Obedience not sparing to accuse the Preachers to have broached false Doctrine From this man the Archbishop received great affronts The Lord Burleigh upon some complaint made against the Liturgy by some of the Brethren required them to compose another such as they thought might generally be accepted by them The first Classis thereupon devised a new one agreeable in most things to the Form of Geneva But this draught being offered to the Consideration of the second Classis for so the wise States-men had of purpose contrived the plot there were no fewer than Six-hundred Exceptions made against it and consequently so many Alterations to be made therein before it was to be admitted The Third Classis quarrelled at those Alterations and resolved therefore on a new Model which should have nothing of the other And against this the Fourth Classis was able to pretend as many Objections as had been made against the first So that no likelihood appearing of any other Form of Worship either better or worse to be agreed upon between them he dismiss'd their Agents for the present with this assurance that whensoever they could agree upon any Liturgy which might be universally received amongst them they should find him very ready to serve them in the setling of it Walsingham tries his Fortune next in hope to bring them to allow of the English Liturgy on the removal of such things as seemed most offensive And thereupon he offered in the Queens Name that the Three Ceremonies at which they seemed most to boggle that is to say Kneeling at the Communion the Surplice and the Cross in Baptism should be expunged out of the Book of Common-Prayer if that would content them But thereunto it was replied That they would have a total Abolition of the Book without retaining any part or office in it in their next New-nothing Which peremptory Answer did much alienate his Affections from them as afterwards he affirmed to some from whose Pen I have it The Brethren on the other-side finding how little they had gotten by their Application to the Lords of the Council began to steer another course by practising upon the temper of the following Parliaments into which they had procured many of their chief Friends to be received for Knights or Burgesses as they could prevail By whose means notwithstanding that the Queen had commanded them not to deal in any thing which was of concernment to the Church they procured a Bill to pass in the House of Commons 1585 for making tryal of the Sufficiency of such as were to be ordained or admitted Ministers by Twelve Lay-men whose Approbation and Allowance they were first to pass before they were to receive Institution into any Benefice Another Bill was also passed for making Marriage lawful at all times of the year which had been formerly attempted by the Convocation They were in hand also with a Third concerning Ecclesiastical Courts and the Episcopal Visitations pretending only a redress of some Exorbitancies in excessive Fees but aiming plainly at the overthrow of the Jurisdiction The like attempts were made in some following Sessions in which some Members shewed themselves troublesome to sober men alienated from the present Government and disrespective towards the Queen Thus Dr. Heylyn CHAP. XXII Their Design is promoted from Scotland and from many Great Men about the Court. Dr. Heylyn pag. 261. THe chief Zealots of the Faction of Scotland finding that they could not have their Wills on the young King James whose Mother was Prisoner in England and his Council came into England where they were much countenanced by Mr. Secretary Walsingham who had set them at work and therefore was obliged to gratifie them The Lords and great Men of that Nation were ordered to retire to Norwich and many of the Ministers permitted to prepare for London Oxford Cambridge and some other places At London they are suffered by some Zealous Brethren to possess the Pulpits in which they rail without controul against their King the Council and their Natural Queen labouring withal to beget amongst the People an ill opinion against the present Government and to engage them for advancing that of the Presbytery It would be too tedious to relate all that they acted in this kind The Lords of this Faction obtained such Assistance from Queen Elizabeth that they got the King into their hands put a new Guard upon him and conducted him whither they pleased Upon this the English Puritans shewed themselves to have more of the Scot in them than in former times For presently upon the News of the good Success which their Scottish Brethren had a scandalous Libel in the nature of a Dialogue is published and dispersed in most parts of England in which the state of this Church is pretended to be laid open They likewise had prepared their way to the Parliament then sitting Anno 1586 by telling them That if the Reformation they desired were not granted they should betray God his Truth and the whole Kingdom That they should declare
Patriarchal Councils yea of Oecumenical Synods are called into Examination All their Laws so far as to them seemed meet reformed the whole regard that England had to all other Catholick Churches as a Member of the whole is utterly broken by one National Church Nay not so much By one Luxurious King By one Child and by one Woman Even when the whole Body of the Clergy protested against it Let the world now be judge Whether this Action can be justified Thus of the Schism of the Church of England CHAP. VII The Assertions of some Protestants concerning Church-Authority And of some of them concerning the Dignity and Authority of the Church of Rome SChism and Heresie being here so evidently demonstrated to consist in denying Obedience to Church-Authority it may seem strange to find any Protestants so much to their own condemnation to write any thing in defence of such Church-Authority and particularly of the Authority of the Church of Rome from which they have separated totally casting off all obedience to it But yet this they have done as will appear by these following Testimonies of some very Eminent amongst them See Sir Edwyn Sands in his Europae Speculum Numb 12. where he has this following Discourse of the Security in submitting to the Authority of the Church of Rome Which although he delivers in the Person of a Catholick yet it is without Reply or seeking to deny the Truth of any thing here said The Discourse then is this SInce Christianity is a Doctrin of Faith a Doctrin whereof all Men are capable as being in gross and in general to be believed by all and since the high Vertue of Faith is in the Humility of the Understanding and the Merit thereof in the readiness of Obedience to Embrace it and withal since of outward proofs of our Faith where the true sense of Scripture is disputed the Churches Testimony whether for declaring to us the sense of Scripture or the judgments of the Ancients is a proof of most weight What madness were it for any man to tire out his Soul and to wast away his Spirits in tracing out all the thorny paths of the Controversies of these days wherein to err is no less easie than dangerous what through forgery of Authors abusing him what through sophistry beguiling him what through passion and prejudice transporting him and not rather betake himself to the right path of Truth whereunto God Nature Reason and Experience do all give witness And that is to associate himself to the Church whereunto the custody of this Heavenly and supernatural Truth hath been from Heaven it self committed To weigh discreetly which is the true Church and that being once found to receive faithfully and obediently without doubt or discussion whatsoever it delivers Now to discover this let him reflect that besides the Roman Church and such others as are United with it he finds all other Churches to have had their end or decay long since or their beginning but of late This Church was founded by the Prince of the Apostles with a promise to him from Christ That Hell Gates should never prevail against it Matt. 16. 18. And that himself would be assistant to it to the Consummation of the World It hath now continued Sixteen hundred years with an Honorable and certain Line of near Two hundred and forty Popes Successors of St. Peter both Tyrants Traytors Pagans and Hereticks in vain wresting raging and undermining it All the Lawful general Councils that ever were in the World have from time to time approved and honored it God hath so miraculously blessed it from above that many Learned and wise Doctors have enriched it with their Writings Armies of Saints with their Holiness and Virtues Armies of Martyrs with their Blood and of Virgins with their Purity have sanctified and embellished it And even at this day in such difficulties of unjust Rebellions and unnatural Revolts of her nearest Children yet she stretcheth out her arms to the utmost corners of the World newly embracing whole Nations into her bosom Lastly in all other opposite Churches there are found inward dissensions and contrarieties change of opinions uncertainty of resolutions with robbing of Churches rebelling against Governors confusion of Order Whereas contrariwise in this Church there is the Unity undivided the resolutions unaltered the most heavenly Order reaching from the hight of all Power to the lowest of all Subjection all with admirable Harmony and undefective correspondence bending the same way to the effecting of the same work all which do promise no other than a continual encrease and victory Wherefore let no Man doubt to submit himself to this glorious Spouse of Christ. This then being accorded to be the true Church of God it follows that she be reverently obeyed in all things without further inquisition she having the warrant that he that hears her hears Christ and whosoever hears her not hath no better place with God than a Publican or Pagan And what folly were it to receive Scriptures upon the credit of her Authority and not to receive the interpretation of them upon her Authority also and credit And if God should not always protect his Church from Error and yet peremptorily command Men always to obey her then had he made very slender provision for the Salvation of Mankind which conceit concerning God whose care of us even in all things touching this transitory Life is so plain and evident would render us very ungratefully impious And hard were the case and mean had his regard been of the vulgar People whose wants and difficulties in this life and whose capacities will not suffice to sound the deep and hidden Mysteries of Divinity and to search the truth of intricate Controversies if there were not others whose Authority they might safely follow and rely upon Blessed are they who believe and have not seen Joh. 20. 29. The merit of whose Religious Humility and Obedience exceeds perhaps in honor and acceptation before God the subtle and profound knowledge of many others Thus Sir Edwyn Sands To the same purpose Dr. Jeremy Taylor in his Treatise of the Liberty of Prophesying These following Considerations says he may very easily perswade persons of much reason and more Piety to maintain that which they know to have been the Religion of their Fore-fathers which had actual possession and seizure of Mens minds and understandings before the opposite Professions had a name As first its Doctrin having had a long continuance and possession of the Church Which therefore cannot easily be supposed in the present professors to be a design since they have received it from so many Ages And it is not likely that all Ages should have the same purposes or that the same Doctrin should serve the several ends of divers Ages Secondly its long prescription which is such an advantage that it cannot with many Arguments be retrenched as relying upon these grounds to wit that Truth is more Ancient than Falshood and that God would not
great Zeal to Gods glory so cheerfully given and bestowed on the structure endowment and adorning of this sometimes famous Monastery and that with such heavy Imprecations and Curses upon any that should take away or diminish ought thereof as the Charters before cited do manifest Against which Violators of the Church its Patrimony the Representative body of this Realm had also so often in terrorem pronounced Solemn Curses in open Parliament as whosoever shall cast his eye upon our Statutes and publick Histories may discern was subverted torn away and scattered in 30 of King Henry the Eighths Reign after it had stood near Five hundred years the Glory of all these parts At which time the very Church it self tho a most beautiful Cathedral and the Mother Church of this City escaped not the Rude hands of the destroyers but was pull'd in pieces and reduced to Rubbish For the countenance of which sad Act the then Prior and Covent seeing the fate of some others that refused was no less than to be hanged up at their Gates were brought to make surrender of the same into the hands of Commissioners for the Kings use as appears by their publick Instrument under Seal bearing date 15 Jan. in the year abovesaid with all the names of those that subscribed thereunto Of the Charter-House at Coventry he has as follows pag. 134. Col. 1. After which viz. 17 Junii 34 H. 8. was the site of this Monastery inter alia granted out of the Crown to Richard Andrews Gent. and Leonard Chamberlain Esq and to the Heirs of Andrews How short a time these Two kept it I cannot say But I do not perceive that they enjoyed it many years for in 9 Eliz. Henry Waver alias Over a Coventry Mercer dyed seized thereof leaving Richard his Son and Heir 36 years of Age who in 11 Eliz. sold it to Robert Earl of Leicester Neither have any other that did since possess it continued owners thereof very long For from the Earl of Leicester it was sold to one Tho. Riley from him to Sampson Baker from Baker to Edw. Holt of Dudston Esq whose Son and Heir Thomas now of Aston K t. and Bar t. sold it to Rich. Butler of Coventry Gent. which Richard shortly after pass'd it away to one Lodge a Londoner from whom Edw. Hill Gent. purchased it whose Son Edward now enjoys it And Col. 2. he has thus But it was neither their Devout and strict lives nor these Charitable allowances that could preserve them from the common Ruine which befel all the rest of the Religious houses in 30 H. 8. as the Instrument of surrender whereunto their publick Seal is affixed bearing date 16 Jan. the same year and subscribed by the particular persons whose names I have here Inserted with the several pensions granted to each of them for life doth manifest The following account he gives of the Dissolurion of Wroxhall Monastery in Warwickshire pag. 492. col 2. But I now return to this Religious house of Wroxhall from the Ruin and Destruction whereof as also of the Church and Altar before specified no Consecration or Dedication were it never so Solemn and Sacred could affright that barbarous Generation which under â—…he Power and Authority of King Henry the Eighth subverted this and the rest of those Goodly structures of that kind wherewith England was so much adorned as a Preamble whereunto was that fatal Survey in 26 H. 8. made whereby it appears that the value of this then extended to 72 l. 12 s. 6 d. above all reprises Sir Edward Ferrers K t. being High Steward thereof and his â—…ee 3 l. 6 s. 8 d. per Ann. And that there then was every Maundy-Thursday distributed to poor people for the Founders Soul in Bread and Herrings with 13 d. in Money the Sum of 20 shillings After which viz. the next year following it was dissolved with the rest of the small Houses by Act of Parliament Anne Little being then Prioress and having a Pension of 7 l. 10 s. per Ann. granted to her by the King during life But the rest of her fellow Nuns were exposed to the wide World to seek their fortune And in 36 H. 8. granted inter alia I mean the site thereof with the Church Belfrey Church-yard and all the Lands in Wroxhall thereto belonging as also the Rectory and Tithes of Wroxhall unto Rob. Burgoyn and John Scudamore and their Heirs from which Robert is Sir John Burgoyn of Sutton in Com. Bedf. Baronet the present possessor thereof Descended And in the same place he takes occasion to make this discourse of the Dedication of Churches and of their bearing Saints Names pag. 492. col 1. Now the reason and signification of all these Ceremonies follows which I here for Brevity omit resolving to speak a word or two of the cause wherefore Churches do bear the Name of some Saint by which many of them are yet distinguished altho the Consecration or Dedication were unto none but unto God alone wherein I shall make use of St. Augustines Testimony To them saith he speaking of Angels and Saints we appoint no Churches because they are not to us as Gods Again The Nations to their Gods Erected Temples we not Temples unto our Martyrs as unto Gods but Memorials as unto dead Men whose Spirits with God are still living So that hereby is clearly manifest that as they were dedicated to God alone so was it in memory of some special Saint either as Mr. Hooker observes because by the Ministery of Saints it pleased God there to shew some rare effect of his power or else in regard of Death which those Saints having suffered for the Testimony of Jesus Christ did thereby make the places where they died venerable Thirdly for that it liked good and vertuous men to give such occasion of mentioning them often to the end that the naming of their Persons might cause enquiry to be made and meditation to be had of their virtues And here since these strange confusions began with a Dissolution of the Religious Houses I think it will not be amiss to give the Reader an account of the Institution of these Houses and of the Methods and Rules observed by the Monks that made profession in them And this out of Sir William Dugdales History of Warwickshire And first Of the Order of Benedictin Monks That the word Monachus which is derived from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth such a one as doth solitariam vitam degere I need not stand to demonstrate but who it was that may be said to have been absolutely the first that begun this course of Life I find no direct certainty Divers ascribe it to the Prophet Samuel others to Helias and Helyseâ—…s that liv'd in poor Cottages and Desert places near the River Jordan and long after them St. John the Baptist To whom may be added some of the Apostles as also St. Mark the Evangelist and by their example certain others viz. Paul