he had example and Authority for at that very time for in the year 1520 being but ten years before the setting forth of this Proclamation Monseiur a' Lautreth Governour for the French King in the Dukedome of Millain taking a displeasure against Pope Leo the tenth deprived him of all his jurisdiction within the Dukedom And that being donâ— he so disposed of all Ecclesiasticall affairs that the Church there was supremely governed by the Bishop of Bigorre a Bishop of the Church of France without the intermedling of the Pope at all The like we find to have been done by the Emperour Charles the fifth who being no lesse displeased with Pope Clement the eighth abolished the Papal power and jurisdiction out of all the Churches of his Kingdome in Spain which though it held but for a while till the breach was closed yet left he an example by it as my Author noteth that there was no necessity of any Pope or supreme Pastor in the Church of Christ. And before either of these Acts or Edicts came in point of practice the learned Gerson Chancellor of the University of Paris when the Popes power was greater far then it was at the present had writ and published a discourse entituled De auferibilitaâ—e Papae touching the totall abrogating of the Papall Office Which certainly he had never done had the Papall Office been found essentiall and of intrinsecall concernment to the Church of Christ. According unto which position of that learned man the greatest Princes of those times did look upon the Pope and the Papall power as an Excrescence at the least in the body mysticall subject and fit to be pared off as occasion served And if they did or do permit him to retain any part of his former greatnesse it is permitted rather upon selfe-ends or Reasons of state or otherwise to serve their turn by him as their 〈◊〉 requireth then out of any opinion of his being so necessary that the Church cannot be well governed or subsist without him But leaving these disputes to some other place we must return unto the Queen To whom some Lords are sent in the end of May an 1531. declaring to her the determinations of the Universities concerning the pretended â—â—rriage betwixt her and the King And therewith they demanded of her whether for quieting the King's conscience and putting an end to that debate she would be content to refer the matter to four Bishops and four temporall Lords But this she absolutely refused saying She was his lawful Wife that she would stand to her Appeal and condescend to nothing in that particular but by the counsel of the Emperour and the rest of her friends This answer makes the King more resolute more open in the demonstration of his affections to the Lady Anne Bollen whom he makes Marchionesse of Pembrook by his Letters Patents bearing date the first of September 1532. takes her along with him to Callis in October following there to behold the glorious enterview betwixt him and the French King and finally privately marrieth her within few dayes after his return the divorce being yet unsentenced betwixt him and the Queen Not long after which it was thought necessary to the King to call a Parliament wherein he caused an Act to passe that no person should appeal for any cause out of this Realm to the Pope of Rome but that all Appeals should be made by the party grieved from the Commissary to the Bishop from the Bishop to the Archbishop and from the Archbishop to the King as had been anciently observed amongst the first Kings of the House of Normandy It was also enacted in the same that all causes Ecclesâ—aticall Cognisances in which the King himself was a Party should be determined finally in the Upper-House of Convocation without being bound to make recourse to the Court of Rome During the sitting of which Parliament it is declared by Proclamation that Queen Katherine should no longer be called Queen but Princesse Dowager as being the Widow of Prince Arthur not the Wife of King Henry Warham Archbishop of Canterbury in the mean time dying Cranmer is designed for his Successor in that eminent dignity which he unwillingly accepts of partly in regard that he was married at that time and partly in reference to an Oath which he was to take unto the Pope at his Consecration But the King was willing for his own ends to wink at the one and the Pope was not in a condition as the case then stood to be too peremptory in the other So that a Protestation being admitted of not being otherwise bound to the Pope than should be found agreeable to the Word of God and the Laws and Statuâ—es of the Realm he takes his Oath and receives the Episcopall Consecration the 30th of March 1533. the Parliament still sitting which before we spake of At his first entrance into the House of Convocation he propounds two Questions to be considered and disputed by the Bishops and Clergy the first was Whether the marrying of a Brother's wife carnally known though without any issue by him be so prohibited by the Will and Word of God as not to be dispenc'd withall by the Pope of Rome The second was Whether it did appear upon the Evidence given in before the Cardinalls that Katherine had been carnally known by Prince Arthur or not Both Questions being carried in the Affirmative though not without some Opposition in either House in the first especially it was concluded thereupon in the Convocation and not long after in the Parliament also That the King might lawfully proceed to another Marriage These preparations being made the Marriage precondemned by Convocation and all Appeals to Rome made ineffectuall by Act of Parliament the new Archbishop upon his own desire motion contain'd in his Letters of the 11th of April is authorised by the King under his Signe Manuall to proceed definitively in the Cause Who thereupon accompanied with the Bishops of London Winchester Wells and Lincoln and diveâ—s other persons to serve as Officers in that Court repaired to Dunstable in the begining of May and having a convenient place prepared in the form of a Consistory they sent a Citation to the Princesse Dowager who was then at Amptill a Mannor-house of the King 's about six miles off requiring her to appear before them at the day appointed which day being come and no appearance by her made either in Person or by Proxie as they knew there would not she is called peremptorily every day fifteen days together and every day there was great poasting betwixt them and the Court to certifie the King and Cromwell a principall stickler in this businesse how all matters went In one of which from the new Archbishop extant in the Cottonian Library a Resolution is signified to Cromwelâ— for comming to a finall Sentence on Friday the 18 th of that Month but with a vehement conjuration both to him and the King
not to divâ—lge so great a secret for fear the Princesse Dowager on the hearing of it either before or on the day of passing Sentence should make her appearance in the Court For saith he if the noble Lady Katherine should upon the bruit of this matter either in the mouthes of the Inhabitants of the Country or by her Friends or Counsell hearing of this bruite be moved stirred counselled or perswaded to appear before me in the time or afore the time of Sentence I should be thereby greatly staid and let in the Processe and the King's Grace's Councell here present shall be much uncertain what shall be then further done therein For a great bruite and voice of the people in this behalf might perchance move her to do the thing which peradventure she would not if she hear little of it And therefore I pray you to speak as little of this matter as you may and to move the King's Highnesse so to do for consideration above recited But so it hapned to their wish that the Queen persisting constant in her Resolution of standing to the Judgment of no other Court than the Court of Rome vouchsafed not to take any notice of their proceeding in the Cause And thereupon at the day and time before designed she was pronounced to be Contâ—max for defect of Appearance and by the generall consent of all the Learned men then present the Sentence of the Divorce was passed and her Marriage with the King declared void and of none effect Of all these doings as the Divorced Queen would take no notice so by her Officers and Attendants she was served as in her former capacity Which comming to the King's knowledge he sends the Duke of Suffolk and some others in the month of July with certain Instructions given in Writing to perswade her to submit to the Determinations of the King and State to lay aside the Title of Queen to content her self with that of the Princesse Dowager and to remove her from the Bishop of Lincoln's house at Bayden where she then remained to a place called Someâ—sham belonging to the Bishop and Church of Eli. To none of which when she would hearken an Oath is tendred to her Officers and the rest of her Houshold to serve her onely in the capacity of Princesse Dowager and not as formerly in the noâ—ion of a Queen of England Which at the first was generally refused amongst them upon a Resolution which had been made in the Case by Abel and Berker her two Chaplains that is to say That having already took an Oath to serve her as Queen they could not with a good conscience take any other But in the end a fear of losing their said places but more of falling into the King's displeasure so prevailed upon them that the Oath was taken by most of them not suffered from thenceforth to come into the Queen's presence who looked upon them as the betrayers of her Cause or to perform any service about her Person Some Motives to induce her to a better conformity were ordered to be laid before her none like to be more prevalent than that which might concern the Interest of her daughter Mary And therefore it was offered to her consideration That chiefly and above all things she should have regard to the Honourable and her most dear Daughter the Lady Princesse from whom in case the King's Highnesse being thus enforced exagitated and moved by the unkindnesse of the Dowager might also withdraw his Princely estimation goodnesse zeal and affection it would be to her no little regret sorrow and extream calamity But the wise Queen knew well enough that if she stood her Daughter could not do amisse whereas there could be nothing gained by such submissions but the dishonour of the one the Bastardising of the other and the exâ—luding of them both from all possibility of being restored in time to come to their first condition Finding small hopes of any justice to be done her in the Realm of England and not well able to endure so many indignities as had been daily put upon her she makes her complaint unto the Pope whom she found willing to show his teeth though he could not bite For presently hereupon a Bull is issued for accursing both the King and the Realm the Beaâ—er hereof not daring to proclaim the same in England caused it to be set up in some publick places in the Town of Dunkirk one of the Haven Towns of Flanders that so the roaring of it might be heard on this side of the Sea to which it was not safe to bring it But neither the Pope nor the Queen Dowager got any thing by this rash adventure which onely served to exasperate the King against them as also against all which adheared unto them For in the following Parliament which began on the 25 th of January and ended on the 30 th of March an Act was pass'd inhibiting the payment of First-fruits to the Bishop of Rome and for the Electing Consecrating and Confirming of the Archbishops and Bishops in the Realm of England without recourse unto the Pope cap. 20. Another Act for the Attaindure of Elizabeth Barton commonly called the holy Maid of Kâ—nt with many other her adhearents for stickling in the cause of the Princesse Dowager cap. 12. and finally of Establishing the Succession in the Crown Imperiall of this Realm cap. 22. In which last Act the Sentence of the Divorce was confirmed and ratified the Princesse Mary deâ—lared to be illegitimate the Succession of the Crown entailed on the King's Issue by Queen Anne Bollen an Oath prescribed for all the Subjects in maintenance of the said Statute of Succession and taken by the Lords and Commons at the end of that Parliament as generally by all the Subjects of the Kingdom within few months after For the refusall whereof as also for denying the King's Supremacy and some suspition of confederacy with Elizabeth Barton Doctor John Fisher Bishop of Rochester not many days before created Cardinall by Pope Paul the 3 d. was on the 22 of June beheaded publickly on the Tower-hill and his head most disgracefully fixed upon a Pole and set on the top of the Gate on London-Bridge And on the 6 th of July then next following Sir Thomas Moor who had succeeded Wolsie in the place of Lord Chancellor was beheaded for the same cause also But I find him not accused as I do the other for having any hand in the Conspiracy of Elâ—zabeth Barton The Execution of which great persons and of so many others who wish'd well unto her added so much affliction to the desolate and disconsolate Queen that not being able longer to bear the burden of so many miseries she fell into a languishing sicknesse which more and more encreasing on her and finding the near approach of death the onely remedy now left for all her sorrows she dictated this ensuing Letter which she caused to be delivered to the King by one of her
Edward Wotton Doctour Wotton and Sir Richard Southwell Of which some shewed themselves against him upon former Grudges as the Earl of South-hampton some out of hope to share those Offices amongst them which he had ingrossed unto himself many because they loved to follow the strongest side few in regard of any Benefit which was like to Redound by it to the Common-Wealth the greatest part complaining that they had not their equal Dividend when the Lands of Chanteries Free-Chapels c. were given up for a Prey to the greater Courtiers but all of them disguising their private Ends under pretense of doing service to the Publick The Combination being thus made and the Lords of the Defection convented together at Ely-House in Holborn where the Earl then dwelt they sent for the Lord Mayour and Aldermen to come before them To whom it is declared by the Lord Chancellour Rich a man of Sommerset's own preferring in a long Oration in what dangers the Kingdom was involved by the mis-Government and Practices of the Lord Protectour against whom he objected also many Misdemeanours some frivolous some false and many of them of such a Nature as either were to be condemned in themselves or forgiven in him For in that Speech he charged him amongst other things with the loss of the King's Peeces in France and Scotland the sowing of Dissension betwixt the Nobility and the Commons Embezelling the Treasures of the King and inverting the Publick stock of the Kingdom to his private use It was Objected also That he was wholly acted by the Will of his Wife and therefore no fit man to command a Kingdom That he had interrupted the ordinary Course of Justice by keeping a Court of Requests in his own House in which he many times determined of mens Free-holds That he had demolished many Consecrated Places and Episcopal Houses to Erect a Palace for himself spending one hundred pounds per diem in superflous Buildings That by taking to himself the Title of Duke of Sommerset he declared plainly his aspiring to the Crown of this Realm and finally having so unnaturally laboured the Death of his Brother he was no longer to be trusted with the Life of the King And thereupon he desires or conjures them rather to joyn themselves unto the Lords who aimed at nothing in their Counsels but the Safety of the King the Honour of the Kingdom and the Preservation of the People in Peace and Happiness But these Designs could not so closely be contrived as not to come unto the Knowledg of the Lord Protectour who then remained at Hampton-Court with the rest of the Lords who seemed to continue firm unto him And on the same day on which this meeting was at London being the sixth day of October he causeth Proclamation to be made at the Court-Gates and afterwards in other places near adjoyning requiring all sorts of persons to come in for the defence of the King's Person whom he conveyed the same night unto Windsore-Castle with a strength of five hundred men or thereabouts too many for a Guard and too few for an Army From thence he writes his Letters to the Earl of Warwick to the rest of the Lords as also to the Lord Mayour and City of London of whom he demanded a supply of a thousand men for the present service of the King But that Proud City seldom true to the Royal Interess and secretly obsequious to every popular Pretender seemed more inclinable to gratifie the Lords in the like Demands then to comply with his Desires The News hereof being brought unto him and finding that Master Secretary Peter whom he had sent with a secret Message to the Lords in London returned not back unto the Court be presently flung up the Cards either for want of Courage to play out the Game or rather choosing willingly to lose the Set then venture the whole Stock of the Kingdom on it So that upon the first coming of some of the opposite Lords to Windsore he puts himself into their hands by whom on the fourteenth day of the same Moneth he is brought to London and committed Prisoner to the Tower pitied the less even by those that loved him because he had so tamely betrayed himself The Duke of Sommerset no longer to be called Protectour being thus laid up a Parliament beginneth as the other two had done before on the fourth of November In which there passed two Acts of especial consequence besides the Act for removing all Images out of the Church and calling in all Books of false and superstitious Worship before-remembred to the concernments of Religion The first declared to this Effect That Such form and manner of making and Consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishopt Priests Deacons and other Ministers of the Church as by six Prelates and six other Learned Men of this Realm learned in God's Law by the King to be appointed and assigned or by the most number of thâ—m shall be devised for that purpose and set forth under the Great Seal before the First of April next coming shall be lawfully exercised and used and no other The number of the Bishops and the Learned Men which are appointed by this Act assure me that the King made choice of the very same whom he had formerly imployed in composing the Liturgie the Bishop of Chichester being left out by reason of his Refractoriness in not subscribing to the same And they accordingly applyed themselves unto the Work following therein the Rules of the Primitive Church as they are rather recapitulated then ordained in the fourth Councel of Carthage Anno 401. Which though but National in it self was generally both approved and received as to the Form of Consecrating Bishops and inferiour Ministers in all the Churches of the West Which Book being finished was made use of without further Authority till the year 1552. At what time being added to the second Liturgie it was approved of and confirmed as a part thereof by Act of Parliament An. 5. Edw. 6. cap. 1. And of this Book it is we finde mention in the 36th Article of Queen Elizabeth's Time In which it is Declared That Whosoever wâ—re Consecrated and Ordered according to the Rites thereof should be reputed and adjudged to be lawfully Consecrated and rightly Ordered Which Declaration of the Church was afterwards made good by Act of Parliament in the eighth year of that Queen in which the said Ordinal of the third of King EDVVARD the Sixth is confirmed and ratified The other of the said two Acts was For enabling the King to nominate Eight Bishops as many Temporal Lords and sixteen Members of the Lower House of Parliament for reviewing all such Canons and Constitutions as remained in force by Virtue of the Statute made in the 25th year of the late King HENRY and fitting them for the Vse of the Church in all Times succeeding According to which Act the King directed a Commission to Arch-Bishop Cranmer and the rest of the Persons whom he
Spoil though not to the Loss of their Bishopricks Of which last Sort were Kitching Bishop of Landaff Salcot otherwise called Capon Bishop of Salisbury and Sampson of Coventry and Lichfield Of which the last to keep his ground was willing to fling up a great part of his Lands and out of those which either belonged unto his See or the Dean and Chapter to raise a Baron's Estate and the Title of the Baronie too for Sir William Paget not born to any such fair Fortunes as he thus acquired Salcot of Salisbury knowing himself obnoxious to some Court-Displeasures redeems his Peace and keeps himself out of such Danger by making long Leases of the best of his Farms and Manours known afterwards most commonly by the Name of Capons-Feathers But none of them more miserably Dilapidated the Patrâ—mony of his See then Bishop Kitching of Landaff A Church so liberally endowed by the Munificence and Piety of some Great Persons in those Times that if it were possessed but of a tenth Part of what once it had it might be reckoned as is affirmed by Bishop Godwine one of Kitching's Successours amongst the Richest Churches in these Parts of Christendom But whatsoever Kitching found it it was made poor enough before he left it so poor that it is hardly able to keep the Pot boiling for a Parson's Dinner Of the first Rank I reckon Voysie of Exeter Heath of Worcester and Day of Chichester for the Province of Canterbury together with Bishop Tonstal 〈◊〉 Durham in the Province of York The first once Governour to the Princess Mary Preferred afterwards by King Henry to the Lord-President-ship of Wales and the See of Exeter Which See he found possessed at his coming to it of twenty two goodly Manours and fourteen mansion-Mansion-Houses Richly furnished But the Man neither could approve the Proceedings of the King in the Reformation nor cared in that respect to Preserve the Patrimony of the Church for those who might differ in Opinion from him And being set upon the Pin he made such Havock of his Lands before he was brought under a Deprivation that he left but seven or eight of the worst Manours and those let out into long Leases and charged with Pensions and not above two Houses both bare and naked Having lost so much Footing within his Diocess it is no marvail if he could no longer keep his Standing For being found an open Hinderer of the Work in hand and secretly to have fomented the Rebellion of the Devonshire-Men in the year 1549 he either was deprived of or as some say resigned his Bishoprick within few Moneths after the Sentence passed on Gardiner but lived to be restored again as Gardiner also was in the Time of Queen Mary Of Day and Heath I have nothing to remember more particularly but that they were both Deprived on the tenth of October and lived both to a Restitution in Queen Marie's Reign Heath in the mean time being Liberally and Lovingly entertained by the Bishop of London and afterwards Preferred to the Arch-Bishoprick of York and made Lord Chancellour of England Nor shall I now say more of Tonstal but that being cast into the Tower on the twentieth day of December he was there kept untill the Dissolution of his Bishoprick by Act of Parliament of which we shall speak more at large in its proper place We must not leave these Churches vacant considering that it was not long before they were supplyed with new Incumbents To Gardiner in the See of Winton succeeded Doctour John Poynet Bishop of Rochester a better Scholar then a Bishop and purposely Preferred to that Wealthy Bishoprick to serve other Mens Turns For before he was well warm in his See he dismembred from it the Goodly Palace of Marwel with the Manours and Parks of Marwel and Twiford which had before been seised upon by the Lord Protectour to make a Knight's Estate for Sir Henry Seimour as before was signified The Palace of Waltham with the Park and Manour belonging to it and some good Farms depending on it were seised into the hands of the Lord Treasurer Pawlet Earl of Wiltshire who having got into possession so much Lands of the Bishoprick conceived himself in a fit Capacity to affect as shortly after he obtained the Title of Lord Marquess of Winchester But this with many of the rest of Poynet's Grants Leases and Alienations were again recovered to the Church by the Power of Gardiner when being restored unto his See he was by Queen Mary made Lord Chancellour To Voysie in the See of Exeter succeeded Doctour Miles Coverdale one who had formerly assisted Tyndal in Translating the Bible into English and for the most part lived at Tubing an Vniversity belonging to the Duke of Saxonie where he received the Degree of Doctour Returning into England in the first year of King Edward and growing into great Esteem for Piety and Diligent Preaching he was Consecrated Bishop of this Church the thirtieth of August the Bones whereof were so clean picked that he could not easily leave them with less Flesh then he found upon them Nor have we more to say of Scory who succeeded Day but that being Consecrated Bishop of Rochester in the place of Poynet on the thirtieth of August also he succeeded Day at Chichester in the year next following Of which Bishoprick he was deprived of in the Time of Queen Mary and afterwards preferred by Queen Elizabeth to the See of Hâ—reford in which place he dyed To Heath at Worcester no Successour was at all appointed that Bishoprick being given in Commendam to Bishop Hooper who having been Consecrated Bishop oâ— Glocester on the eighth of March was made the Commendatory of this See to which he could not legally be Translatâ—d as the Case then stood both Latimer and Heath being stâ—ll alive and both reputed Bishops of it by their several Parties And here we have a strange Conversion of Affairs for whereas heretofore the County of Glocester was a part of the Diocess of Worcester out of which it was taken by King Henry when first made a Bishoprick the Diocess of Worcester was now lay'd to the See of Glocester Not that I think that Hooper was suffered to enjoy the Temporal Patrimony of that Wealthy Bishoprick but that he was to exercise the Jurisdiction and Episcopality with some short Allowance for his Pains The Pyrates of the Court were too intent on all Advantages to let such a Vessel pass untouched in which they might both finde enough to enrich themselves and yet leave that which was sufficient to content the Merchant Anâ— this perhaps may be one Reason why Latimer was not restored unto his Bishoprick upon this Avoydance not in regard of any sensible Dislike which was taken at him by the Court for his down-right Preaching or that the Bishops feared from him the like Disturbances which they had met withall in Hooper But I conceive the Principal Reason of it might proceed from his own Unwillingness to cumber his
after another till they sunk to eight The French on the other side began as low at one hundred thousand but would be drawn no higher then to Promise two that being as they affirmed the greatest Portion which ever any of the French Kings had given with a Daughter But at the last it was accorded that the Lady should be sent into England at the French King's Charges when She was come within three Moneths of the Age of Marriage sufficiently appointed with Jewels Apparel and convenient Furniture for Her House That at the same time Bonds should be delivered for Performance of Covenants at Paris by the French and at London by the King of England and That in case the Lady should not consent after She should be of Age for Marriage the Penalty should be one hundred and fifty thousand Crowns The perfecting of the Negotiation and the settling of the Ladie 's Joynture referred to such Ambassadours as the French King should send to the Court of England Appointed whereunto were the Lord Marshal of France the Duke of Guise the President Mortuillier the Principal Secretary of that King and the Bishop of Perigeux who being attended by a Train of 400. men were conducted from Graves-end by the Lord Admiral Clinton welcomed with Great Shot from all the Ships which lay on the Thames and a Vollie of Ordnance from the Tower and lodged in Suffolk-Place in South-wark From whence attended the next day to the King's House at Richmond His Majesty then remaining at Hampton-Court by reason of the Sweating Sickness of which more anon which at that time was at the Highest Having refreshed themselves that night they were brought the next day before the King to whom the Marshal presented in the name of his Master the Collar and Habit of St. Michael being at that time the Principal Order of that Realm in testimony of that dear Affection which he did bear unto him greater then which as he desired him to believe a Father could not bear unto his Natural son And then Addressing himself in a short Speech unto His Highness he desired him amongst other things not to give entertainment to Vulgar Rumours which might breed Jealousies and Distrusts between the Crowns and that if any difference did arise between the Subjects of both Kingdoms they might be ended by Commissioners without engaging either Nation in the Acts of Hostility To which the King returned a very favourable Answer and so dismissed them for the present Two or three days being spent in Feasting the Commissioners on both sides settled themselves upon the matter of the Treaty confirming what had passed before and adding thereunto the Proportioning of the Ladie 's Jointure Which was accorded at the last to the yearly value of ten thousand Marks English with this Condition interposed that if the King died before the Marriage all her Pretensions to that Jointure should be buried with him All Matters being thus brought unto an happy Conclusion the French prepared for their Departure at which Time the Marshal presented Monsieur Boys to remain as Legier with the King and the Maâ—quess presented Mr. Pickering to be his Majestie 's Resident in the Court of France And so the French take leave of England rewarded by the King in such a Royal and Munificent Manner as shewed he very well understood what belonged to a Royal Suitour those which the French King had designed â—or the English Ambassadours not actually bestowed till all things had been fully settled and dispatched in England hardly amounting to a fourth part of that Munificence which the King had shewed unto the French Grown confident of his own Security by this new Alliance the King not onely made less Reckoning of the Emperour 's Interposings in the Case of Religion but proceeded more vigorously then before in the Reformation the Building up of which upon a surer and more durable Bottom was contrived this year though not established till the next Nothing as yet had been concluded positively and Dogmatically in Points of Doctrine but as they were to be collected from the Homilies and the Publick Liturgie and those but few in Reference to the many Controversies which were to be maintained against the Papists Anabaptists and other Sectaries of that Age. Many Disorders had grown up in this little time in the Officiating the Liturgie the Vestures of the Church and the Habit of Church-Men began by Calvin prosecuted by Hooper and countenanced by the large Immunities which had been given to John a Lasco and his Church of Strangers And unto these the change of Altars into Tables gave no small Encrease as well by reason of some Differences which grew amongst the Ministers themselves upon that Occasion as in regard of of that Irreverence which it â—bred in the People to whom it made the Sacrament to appear less Venerable then before it did The People had been so long accustomed to receive that Sacrament upon their Knees that no Rule or Canon was thought necessary to keep them to it which thereupon was not imprudently omitted in the Publick Rubricks The Change of Altars into Tables the Practise of the Church of Strangers and Lasco's Book in Maintainance of sitting at the Holy Table made maâ—y think that Posture best which was so much countenanced And what was like to follow upon such a Liberty the Proneness of those Times to Heterodoxies and Prophaness gave just cause to fear Somewhat was therefore to be done to prevent the Mischief and nothing could prevent it better then to reduce the People to their Antient Custome by some Rule or Rubrick by which they should be bound to receive it kneeling So for the Ministers themselves they seemed to be as much at a Loss in their Officiating at the Table as the People were in their Irreverences to the Blessed Sacrament Which cannot better be expressed then in the words of some Popish Prelats by whom it was objected unto some of our chief Reformers Thus White of Lincoln chargeth it upon Bishop Ridley to omit his prophane calling of the Lord's Table in what Posture soever scituated by the Name of an Oyster-Board That when their Table was Constituted they could never be content iâ—placing the same now East now North now one way now another untill it pleased God of his Goodness to place it quite out of the Church The like did Weston the Prolocutour of the Convocation in the first of Queen Mary in a Disputation held with Latimer telling him with Reproach and Contempt enough that the Protestants having turâ—ed their Table were like a Company of Apes that knew not which way to turn their Tails looking one day East and another West one this way and another that way as their Fancies lead them Thus finally one Miles Hubbard in a Book called The Display of Protestants doth report the Business How long say they were they learning to set their Tables to minister the Communion upon First they placed it aloft where the High
next followed not long after by Sir Thomas Holdcroft Sir Miles Partridg Sir Michael Stanhop Wingfield Banister and Vaughan with certain others for whose Commitment there was neither cause known nor afterwards discovered Onely the greater Number raised the greater Noise increas'd the Apprehension of the present Danger and served to make the Duke more Criminal in the Eyes of the People for drawing so many of all sorts into the Conspiracy Much time was spent in the Examination of such of the Prisoners as either had before discovered the Practice if any such Practice were intended or were now fitted and instructed to betray the Duke into the Power and Malice of his Enemies The Confessions which seemed of most importance were those of Palmer Crane and Hammond though the Truth and Reality of the Depositions may be justly questioned For neither were they brought face to face before the Duke at the time of his Trial as in ordinary course they should have been nor suffered loss of Life or Goods as some others did who were no more guilty then themselves And yet the Business stai d not here the Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget and two of the Earl of Arundel's Servants being sent Prisoners after the rest upon Crane's detection It was further added by Palmer that on the last St. George's-Day the Duke of Sommerset being upon a journey into the North would have raised the People if he had not been assured by Sir William Herbert that no Danger was intended to him Six Weeks there passed between the Commitment of the Prisoners and the Duke's Arraignment which might have given the King more then leisure enough to finde the depth of the Design if either he had not been directed by such as the new Duke of Northumberland had placed about him or taken by a Solemnity which served fiâ—ly for it For so it happened that the Queen Regent of Scotland having been in France to see Her Daughter and being unwilling to return by Sea in that cold time of the year obtained leave of the King by the mediation of the French Ambassadour to take Her journey through England Which leave being granted She put Her self into the Bay of Portsmouth where She was Honourably received and conveyed towards London From Hampton-Court She passed by Water on the second day of November to St. Paul's Wharf From whence She rode accompanied with divers Noble Men and Ladies of England besides Her own Train of Scotland to the Bishop's-Palace Presented at Her first coming thither in the name of the City with Muttons Beefs Veals Poultry Wine and all other sorts of Provisions necessary for Her Entertainment even to Bread and Fewel Having reposed Her self two days She was conveyed in a Chariot to the Court at White-Hall accompanied with the Lady Margaret Douglass Daughter of Margaret Queen of Scots by Her second Husband together with the Duchesses of Richmond Suffolk and Northumberland besides many other Ladies of both Kingdoms which followed after in the Train At the Court-Gate She was received by the Dukes of Suffolk and Northumberland and the Lord High-Treasurer the Guard standing on both sides as She went along and being brought unto the King whom She found standing at the end of the Great Hall She cast Her self upon Her knees but was presently taken up and Saluted by Him according to the Free Custom of the English Nation Leading Her by the Hand to the Queen's Chamber of Presence He Saluted in like manner all the Ladies of Scotland and so departed for a while Dinner being ready the King conducted Her to the Table prepared for them where they dined together but had their Services apart The Ladies of both Kingdomes were feaâ—ted in the Queen 's Great Chamber where they were most Sumptuously Served Dinner being done that Her Attendants might have time to partake of the Entertainment the King shewed Her His Gardens Galleries c. and about four of the clock He brought Her down by the Hand into the Hall where He Saluted Her and so She departed to the Bishop's-Paâ—ace as before Departing towards Scotland on the sixth of that Moneth She rode through all the Principal Streets of London betwixt the Bishop's House and the Church in Shore-ditch attended by divers Noble Men and Women all the way She went But more particularly the Duke of Northumberland shewed himself with one hundred Horse each having his Javelin in his hand and fourty of them apparelled in Black Velvet Guarded with White and Velvet Caps and White Feathers and Chains of Gold about their Necks Next to these stood one hundred and twenty Horsemen of the Earl of Pembroke's with black Javelins Hats and Feathers Next to them one hundred of the Treasurer's Gentlemen and Yeomen with Javelins These ranks of Horsemen reaching from the Cross in Cheap-side to the end of Birching-Lane in Cornhill Brought as far as Shoreditch-Church She was committed to the care of the Sheriffs of London by whom She was attended as far as Walâ—ham Conducted in like manner by the Sheriffs of all the Counties through which She passed till She came unto the Borders of Scotland Her Entertainment being provided by the King's appointment at the Charge of the Counties Which Passages not being otherwise Material in the Course of this History I have adventured to lay down the better to express the Gallantry and Glory of the English Nation before Puritanism and the Humour of Parity occasioned the neglect of all the laudable Solemnities which antiently had been observed both in Church and State The Discourse raised on this Magnificent Reception of the Scotish Queen so filled all Mouths and entertained so many Pens that the Danger of the Duke of Sommerset seemed for a time to be forgotten but it was onely for a time For on the first of December the Duke being brought by water to Westminster-Hall found all things there prepared for his Arraignment The Lord High-Steward for the time was the Marquess of Winchester who took his place under a Cloath of Estate raised three steps higher then the rest of the Scaffold The Peers to the number of twenty seven sitting one step lower Amongst these were the Duke of Northumberland the Marquess of North-hampton and the Earl of Pembroke who being Parties to the Charge ought in all Honesty and Honour to have excused themselves from sitting in Judgment on him at the time of his Trial. But no Challenge or Objection being made or allowed against them they took place with the rest The Court being sate and the Prisoner brought unto the Bar the Charge against him was divided into five Particulars viz. Firâ—â— His design of Raising men in the North Parts of the Realm and of assembling men at his House to kill the Duke of Northumberland 2. A resolution to assist his Attachment 3. The Plot for killing the Gens d' Arms. 4. His intent for raising London 5. His purpose of assaulting the Lords and devising their Deaths The whole Impeachment managed in the
and Chancellor of the Realm of Ireland who having held it but a year it was again kept vacant twenty years together and then bestowed on Dr. John Underhil who was consecrated Bishop thereof in Dâ—cember 1589. but he dying also shortly after viz. Anno 1592. it was once more kept void till the year 1603. and then took up by Dr. John Bridges Dean of Salisbury rather to satisfie the desires of others than his own ambition So that upon the point this Church was filled but little more than three years in forty sâ—x the Jurisdiction of it was in the mean time managed by some Officers thereunto authorised by the Archbishop of Canterbury the Patrimony and Revenues of it remaining in the hands of the Earl of Leicester and after his decease of the Earl of Eâ—â—ex by whom the Lands thereof were so spoiled and wasted that they left nothing to the last Bishops but Impropriations by means of which havock and destruction all the five Bishopricks erected by King Henry the 8th were so impoverished and destroyed that the new Bishops were necessitated to require the benevolence of their Clergy at their first comming to them to furnish their Episcopal Houses and to enable them to maintain some tolerable degree of Hospitality in their several Diocesses of which we shall hear more hereafter from the pen of an Adversay An. Reg. Eliz. 5. An. Dom. 1562 1563. THe last years practices of the Papists and the dangers thereby threatning both the Queen and State occasioned her to call a Parliament on the 12th of January in which first passed an Act For assurance of the Queens Royal power over all Estates and Subjects within her Dominions In the body whereof it was provided That no man living or residing in the Queens Dominions under the pains and penalties therein appointed should from thenceforth either by word or writing or any other open deed willingly and advisedly endeavour to maintain the Power and Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome heretofore claimed and usurped within this Realm And for the better discovery of all such persons as might be popishly affected it was enacted That none should be admitted unto holy Orders or to any Degree in either of the Universities or to be Barrester or Bencher in any of the Inns of Court c. or to practise as an Atturney or otherwise to bear any Office in any of the Courts at Westminster Hall or any other Court whatsoever till he or they should first take the Oath of Supremacy on the holy Evangelists With a Power given to every Archbishop and Bishop within this Realm and the Dominions of the same to tender or minister the Oath aforesaid to all and every spiritual person in their proper Diocesses as well in places exempt as else-where Of which last clause the Reader is to take especial notice because of the great controversie which ensued upon it of which more hereafter And because many of the Popish party had lately busied themselves by Conjurations and other Diabolical Arts to enquire into the length or shortness of her Majesties life and thereupon had caused some dark and doubtful prophecies to be spread abroad There passed two other Statutes for suppressing the like dangerous practices by which her Majesties person might be endangered the people stirred to rebellion or the peace otherwise disturbed For which consult the Acts of Parliament 5 Eliz. c 15 16. By which three Acts and one more for the better executing of the Writ de Excommunicato capiendo the Queen provided very well for her own security but more provoked the Pope his adherents to conspire against her in the time to come against whose machinations back'd by the power and counsels of forein Princes nothing was more conducible than her strength at Sea for the encrease whereof and the continual breeding of a Seminary of expert Mariners an Act was made for adding Wednesday to the number of the weekly Fasâ—s which from thenceforth was called Jejunium Cecilianum as being one of the devices of Sir William Cecil In reference to Religion and the advancement of the service and worship of God it had been declared by the Bishops and Clergy assembled at the same time in their Convocation To be a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God and the custom of the Primitive Church to have publick prayer in the Church or to minister the Sacraments in a Toung not understood by the people To comply with which pious Declaration and take off all retortion which possibly might be made by those of Rome when they were charged with the administration of the Service and Sacraments in an unknown Toung it was enacted That the Bishops of Hereford St. Davids Bangor Landaff and St. Asaph should take care amongst them for translating the whole Bible with the Common-Prayer Book into the Weâ—ch or British Toung on pain of forfeiting 40 l. a piece in default thereof And to encourage them thereunto it was ordered That one Book of either sort being so translated and imprinted should be provided and bought of every Cathedral or Parish Church as also for all Parish Churches Chapels of Ease where the said Toung is commonly used the Ministers to pay one half of the price and the Parishioners the other The like care was also taken for translating the Books of Homilies but whether it were done by any new order from the Queen or the piety of the four Welch Bishops or that they were considered as a necessary part of the publick Lituâ—gy by reason of the Rubrick at the end of the Nicene Creed I have no whâ—â—e found As for the Convocation which accompanied the present Parliament it began on the 13â—h day of Jaâ—uary in the Cathedral of St. Paâ—l the Latine Sermon 〈◊〉 by Mr. William Day then Provost of Eaton College afterwards 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 also and Bishop of Winchester which being finished the Bishop of Lâ—ndâ—â— presents a list of the several Bishops Deans and Chapters which had been cited to appear the catalogue of the Bishops ending with Gabriel Goodman Dean of Westminster that of the Deans beginning on another file with Alexander Novel Dean of St. Pauls elected by the Clergy for their Prolocutor The Convocation after this is adjourned to Westminster for the conveniency of the Prelates by reason of their attendance on affairs of Parliament Goodman the Dean of Westminster had made his Protestation in the Church of St. Paul that by appearing as a Member of the Convocation by veâ—tue of the Arch-bishops Mandat he subjected not himself nor the Church of Westminster to the authority or jurisdiction of the See of Canterbury And now on the Archbishops personal comming to the Church of Westminster he delivers the like Protestation in writing for preserving the Liberties of the Church in which it was declared according to the privilege just rights therof that no Archbishop or Bishop could exercise any Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in it without leave of the Dean for the time
unquietness in her people by interpreting the Laws of this Realm after their brains and fantasies but quietly to continue for the time till 〈◊〉 before is said further Order may be taken and therefore willeth and strâ—ightly chargeth and commondeth all her good loving subjects to live together in quiet sort and Christian Charity leaving those new found devilish terms of Papist and Heretick and such like and applying their whole care study and travail to live in the fear of God exercising their conversations in such charitable and Godly doing as their lives may indeed express the great hunger and thirst of God's glory which by rash talk and words many have pretended And in so doing they shall best please God and live without danger of the Laws and maintain the tranquility of the Realm Whereof as her highness shall be most glad so if any man shall rashly presume to make any assemblies of people or at any publick assemblies or otherwise shall go about to stir the people to disorder or disquiet she mandeth according to her duty to see the same most severely reformed and punished according to her Highnese's Lawes And furthermore for asmuch as it is well known that sedition and false rumours have been nourished and maintained in this Realâ— by the subtilty and malice of some evil-disposed persons which take upon them without sufficient authority to preach and to interpret the word of God after their own brains in Churches and other places both publick and private and also by playing of Interludes and Printing of false fond Books and Ballads Rimes and other lewd Treatises in the English Tongue conteining Doctrine in matter now in question and controversies touching the high points and mysteries in Christian Religion which Books Ballads Rimes and Treatises are chiefly by the Printers and Stationers set out to sale to her Graces subjects of an evil zeal for lucre and covetousnesse of vile gain Her Highnesse therefore streightly chargeth and commandeth all and every of her said subjects of whatsoever state condition or degree they be that none of them presume from henceforth to preach or by way of reading in Châ—rches or other publick or prâ—vate places except in Schools of the University to interpret or teach any Scriptures or any manner of points of Doctrine concerning Religion Neither also to Print any Boâ—k Matâ—er Ballad Rime Enterlude Processe or Treatise nor to play any Enterlude except they have her Graces special Licence in writing for the same upon pain to incur her Highnesse indignation and displeasure It cannot be denied but that this Proclamation was very cautiously and cunningly penned giving encouragement enough to those which had a mind to outrun the Law or otherwise to conform themselves to the Queen's Religion to follow their own course therein without dread or danger and yet commanding nothing contrary to the Lawes established which might give trouble or offence to the other party For hereupon many of the people shewed themselves so ready for receiving their old Religion that in many places of the Realm before any Law was made for the same they erected again their Altars and used the Masse and Latin Service in such sort as was wont to be in King Henry's time Which was so well taken by the Queen that all such as stood upon the Lawes which were made to the contrary before had a mâ—â—k of displeasure set upon them Which being observed by some of the Clergy they were as forward as the rest in setting up the Pageants of St Catherine and St Nicholas formerly erected in the Chancels and to set forth their Processions which they celebrated in the Latin tounge with their old solemnities contrary to the Lawes and Ordinances of King Edward's time All which irregular activities in the Priest and People were sheltred under the name of setting forward the Queens proceedings And by that name the official of the Arch-Deacon of Ely gave it in charge amongst the Articles of his visitation that the Church Wardens should present all such as did disturb the Queen's proceedings in letting the Latin Service setting up of Altars saying of Mass c. But more particularly at Cambridge the Vicechancellor challenged one Pierson on the 3d. of October for officiating the communion in his own Parish Church in the English tounge and on the 26. displaced Dr Madew Master of Clare Hall for being maried though they had both as much authority on their side as the Lawes could give them In like manner some of the Popish party in King's Colledge not tarrying the making of any Law on the 28th of the same officiated the Divine Service in the Latin tounge and on the 6th of November then next following a Sermon is preached openly at St Michaels contrary to the Lawes in that behalf not as then repealed Not altogether so eager on the scent at Oxon as they were at Cambridge though with more difficulty brought at first to the Reformation Only it pleased Dr Tresham one of the Canons of Christ Church of the last foundation to cause the great bell there to be new cast and christned by the name of Mary much comforting himself with the melodious found thereof when it toll'd to Mass which Marshall the new Dean by his help and counsel had again restored But these were only the Essays of those alterations which generally were intended in all parts of the Church assoon as the times were ripe for them and the people fitted to receive them in order whereunto it was not thought sufficient to displace the Bishopâ— and silence the Old Protestant Preachers also unless they brought them under some exemplary punishment that others might be terrified from the outward profession of that truth out of which they could not be disputed Of Ridley's being brought prisoner to the Tower and of Coxe's committing to the Marshalâ—ey we have spoke before On the 22d of August Letters are sent from the Lords of the Council commanding Bishop Coverdale and Bishop Hooper to appear before them By whom after two or three appearances committed to their several Prisons the one reserved for the stake the other sent upon request to the King of Denmark On the 5th of September the like Letters are dispatched to old Bishop Latimer committed close prisoner to the Tower on the 8th day after followed the next morning by Archbishop â—ranmeâ— whose Story doth require a more particular account of which more anon Harley of Hereâ—ord to which he had been conâ—ecrated in May foregoing and â—aylor of Lincoln another of the lâ—â—t of King Edward's Bishops were present at the opening of the Parliament on the 10th of October But no sooner was the Mass began though not then restoâ—ed by any Law than they left the Church For which the Bishop of Lincoln being first examined and making profession of his Faith prevented the malice of his enemies by a timely death And Harley upon information of his marriage was presently exâ—luded from the Parliament House and not long after
Ricot in reference perhaps to his fatheâ—s suffering in the cause of her mother from whom descended Francis Lord Norris advanced by King James to the Honors of Viscount Tame and Earl of Berkshire by Letters Patens bearing date in January Anno 1620. After him on the 7th of April comes Sir Edward North created Baron of Charâ—eleg in the Country of Cambridge who having been Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations in the time of King Henry and raised himself a fair Estate by the fall of Abbyes was by the King made one of his Executors and nominated to be one of the great Councill of Estate in his Son's Minority Sir John Bâ—ugis brings up the rear who being descended from Sir John Chandois a right noble Banneret and from the Bottelers Lords of Sudley was made Lord Chandois of Sudley on the 8th of April whiâ—h goodly Mannor he had lately purchased of the Crown to which it was Escheated on the death of Sir Thomas Seymour Anno. 1549. the Title still enjoyed though but little else by the seventh Lord of this Name and Family most of the Lands being dismembred from the House by the unparallel'd Impudence to give it no worse name of his elder brother Some Bishops I find consecrated about this time also to make the stronger party for the Queen in the House of Peers no more Sees actually voided at that time to make Rome for others though many in a fair way to it of which more hereafter Hooper of Glocester commanded to attend the Lords of the Council on the 22 of August and committed prisoner not long after was outed of his Bishoprick immediately on the ending of the Parliament in which all Consecrations were declared to be void and null which had been made according to the Ordinall of King Edward the 6 th Into whose place succeeded James Brooks Doctor in Divinity sometimes Fellow of Corpus Christi and Master of Bâ—liol Colledge in Oxon employed not long after as a Delegat from the Pope of Rome in the proceedings against the Archbishop of Canterbury whom he condemned to the stake To Jaylor of whose death we have spoken before succeeded Doctor John White in the See of Lincoln first School-master and after Warden of the Colledge near Winchester to the Episcopall See whereof we shall find him translated Anno 1556. The Church of Rochester had been void ever since the removall of Doctor Story to the See of Chichester not suffered to return to his former Bishoprick though dispoiled of the later But it was now thought good to fill it and Maurice Griffin who for some years had been the Archdeacon is consecrated Bishop of it on the first of April One suffrage more was gained by the repealing of an Act of Parliament made in the last Session of King Edward for dissolving the Bishoprick of Durham till which time Doctor Cuthbert Tunstall though restored to his Liberty and possibly to a good part also of his Churches Partimony had neither Suffrage as a Peer in the House of Parliament not could act any thing as a Bishop in his own Jurisdiction And with these Consecrations and Creations I conclude this year An. Reg. Mar. 2º An. Dom. 1554 1555. THe next begins with the Arrivall of the Prince of Spain wafted to England with a Fleet of one hundred and sixty sail of Ships twenty of which were English purposely sent to be his Convoy in regard of the warrs not then expired betwixt the French and the Spaniards Landing at Southampton on the 19 th of July on which day of the month in the year foregoing the Queen had been solemnly proclaimed in London he went to Winchester with his whole Retinue on the 24 th where he was received by the Queen with a gallant Train of Lords and Ladies solemnly married the next day being the Festival of St. James the supposed Tutelary Saint of the Spanish Nation by the Bishop of Winchester at what time the Queen had passed the eight and thirtieth year of her age and the Prince was but newly entred on his twenty seventh As soon as the Marriage-Rites were celebrated Higueroa the Emperors Embassador presented to the King a Donation of the Kingdoms of Naples and Cicily which the Emperor his father had resigned unto him Which presently was signified and the Titles of the King and Queen Proclaimed by sound of Trumpet in this following Style PHILIP and MARY by the grace of the God King and Queen of England France Naples Jerusalem Ireland Defenders of the Faith Princes of Spain and Cicily Arch-Dukes of Austria Dukes of Millain Burgundy and Brabant Counts of Ausperge Flanders and Tirroll c. At the proclaiming of which Style which was performed in French Latine and English the King and Queen showed themselves hand in hand with two Swords born before them for the greater state or in regard of their distinct Capacity in the publick Government From VVinchester they removed to Basing and so to VVindsor where Philip on the 5 th of August was Installed Knight of the Garter into the fellowship whereof he had been chosen the year before From thence the Court removed to Richmond by land and so by water to Suffolk-place in the Burrough of Southwark and on the 12 th of the same month made a magnificent passage thorow the principal streets of the City of London with all the Pomps accustomed at a Coronation The Triumphs of which Entertainment had continued longer if the Court had not put on mourning for the death of the old Duke of Norfolk who left this life at Framingham Castle in the month of September to the great sorrow of the Queen who entirely loved him Philip thus gloriously received endeavoureth to sow his Grandure to make the English sensible of the benefits which they were to partake of by this Marriage and to engratiate himself with the Nobility and People in all generous ways To which end he caused great quantity of Bullion to be brought into England loaded in twenty Carts carrying amongst them twenty seven Chests each Chest containing a Yard and some inches in length conducted to the Tower on the second of October by certain Spaniards and English-men of his Majesties Guard And on the 29 th of January then next following ninety nine Horses and two Carts laden with Treasures of Gold and Silver brought out of Spain was conveyed through the City of the Tower of London under the conduct of Sir Thomas Grosham the Queens Merchant and others He prevailed also with the Queen for discharge of such Prisoners as stood committed in the Tower either for matter of Religion or on the account of Wyaâ—'s Rebellion or for engaging in the practice of the Duke of Northumberland And being gratified therein according unto his desire the Lord Chancellor the Bishop of Ely and certain others of the Councill were sent unto the Tower on the 18 th of January to see the same put in execution which was accordingly performed to the great joy
other Ecclesiastical Orders declaring them moreover to be no members of the Church and therefore to be committed to the secular powers to receive due punishment according to the Tenor of the temporal Laws According to which Sentence they were both degraded on the 15 th of October and brought unto the Stake in the Town-ditch over against Baliol College on the morrow after where with great constancy and courage they endured that death to which they had been pre-condemned before they were heard Cranmer was prisoner at that time in the North-gate of the City called Bocardo from the top whereof he beheld that most dolefull spectacle and casting himself upon his knees he humbly beseeched the Lord to endue them with a sufficient strength of Faith and Hope which he also desired for himself whensoever he should act his part on that bloody Theater But he must stay the Popes leisure before he was to be brought on the Stage again The Queen had been acquainted with such discoutses as had passed betwixt the Pope and her Ambassadors when they were at Rome and she appeared desirous to have gratified him in his demands But the Kings absence who set sail for Calais on the fourth of September and the next morning took his journey to the Emperor's Court which was then at Bâ—uxels rendred the matter not so feasible as it might have been if he had continued in the Kingdom For having called a Parliament to begin on the 21 of October she caused many of the Lords to be dealt withall touching the passing of an Act for the restoring of all such Lands as had belonged unto the Church and were devolved upon the Crown and from the Crown into the hands of privat persons by the fall of Monasteries and other Religious Houses or by any other ways or means whatsoever But such a general aversâ—ess was found amongst them that she was advised to desist from that unprofitable undertaking Certain it is that many who were cordially affected to the Queens Religion were very much startled at the noise of this Restitution insomuch that some of them are said to have clapt their hands upon their swords affirming not without some Oaths that they would never part with their Abbey-Lands as long as they were able to were a sword by their sides Which being signified to the Queen it seemed good to her to let fall that sute for the present and to give them good example for the time to come by passing an Act for releasing the Clergy from the payment of first Fruits and Tenths which had been formerly vested in the Crown in the Reign of her Father Against which when it was objected by some of the Lords of the Council that the state of her Kingdoms and Crown Emperial could not be so honourably maintained as in former times if such a considerable part of the Revenue were dismembered from it she is said to have returned this answer That she prefetted the salvation of her Soul before ten such Kingdoms She procured another Act to be passed also which very much redounded to the benefit of the two Universities inhibiting all Purveyors from taking up any provisions for the use of the Court within five miles of Oxon or Cambridge by meanâ— whereof those Markets were more plentifully served with all sorts of Provisions than in former times and at more reasonable rates than otherwise they could have been without that restraint In her first Parliament the better to indear her self to the common subject she had released a Subsidie which was due unto her by an Act of Parliament made in the time of King Edward the sixth And now to make her some amends they gave her a Subsidie of four shillings in the Pound for Lands and two shillings eight-pence in the pound for Goods In the drawing up of which Act an Oath which had been formerly prescribed to all manner of persons for giving in a just account of their estates was omitted wholly which made the Subsidie sinck beneath expectation But the Queen came unto the Crown by the love of the people and was to do nothing to the hazard of their affections which she held it by At the same time was held a Convocation also for summoning whereof a Writ was issued in the name of the King and Queen to the Dean and Chapter of the Metropolitical Church of Canterbury the See being then vacant by the attaindure of Archbishop Craâ—â—er Bonnâ—r presides in it as before Boxhall then Warden of Winchester preacheth though not in the capacity at the opening of it and Doctor John Christoperson Dean of Norwich is chosen Prolotor for the House of the Clergy But the chief businesse done therein was the granting of a Subsidie of six shillings in the pound to be paid out of all their Ecclesiastical Promotions in three years then following Nor was it without reason that they were enduced to so large a grant The Queen â—ad actually restored unto them their First-fruits and Tenths though at that time the Crown was not in such a plentiful condition as to part with such an annual income And she had promised also as appears by the Records of the Convocarion to render back unto the Church all such Impropriations Tithes and portion of Tithes as were still remaining in the Crown For the disposing of which Grant to the best advantage the Cardinal-Legat at the Queens desire had conceived an Instrument which was then offered to the consideration of the Prolocutor and the rest of the Clergy it was proposed also by the Bishop of Elie that some certaâ—n learned men might be chosen out of the House to review all the antient Canons to fit them to the present state of the Church and were they sound any thing defective in them to sâ—pply that defect by making such new Câ—nons and Constitutions as being approved of by the Lords should be made obligatory to the Clergy and the rest of the Kingdom This was well mov'd and serv'd to entertain the time but I find nothing in pursuance of it But on the other side the Prolocutor bringing up the Bill of the Subsidies in the end of October propounds three points unto their Lordships which much conduced to the establishment and advantage of the prejudiced Clergy The first was That all such of the Clergy as building on the common report that the Tenths and First fruits were to be released in the following Parliament had made no composition for the same with her Majesties Officers might be discharged from the penalty inflicted by the Laws in that behalf The second That their Lordships would be pleased to intercede with the Lord Cardinal-Legat for setling and confirming them in their present Benefices by some special Bull. The third That by their Lordships means an Act may be obtained in the present Parliament for the repealing of the Statute by which the Citizens of London which refused to make payment of their Tithes were to be ordered at the discretion of the
the Grant of the said Chanteries Free-Chapels c. came to take Effect In the mean time It will not be amiss to shew that these Chanteries consisted of Salaries allowed to one or more Priests to say daily Mass for the Souls of their deceased Founders and their Friends Which not subsisting on themselves were generally Incorporated and United to some Parochial Collegiate or Cathedral Church No fewer then 47. in Number being found and Founded in Saint Paul's Free-Chapels though Ordained for the same Intent were Independent of themselves of stronger Constitution and Richer Endowment then the Chanteries severally were though therein they fell also short of the Colleges which far exceeded them both in the Beauty of their Building the number of Priests maintained in them and the Proportion of Revenue allotted to them All which Foundations having in them an Admixture of Superstition as Pre-supposing Purgatory and Prayers to be made for Deliverance of the Soul from thence were therefore now suppressed upon that Account and had been granted to the late King upon other Pretences At what time it was Preached at Mercers-Chapel in London by one Doctour Cromer a Man that wished exceeding well to the Reformation That If Trentals and Chantery-Masses could avail the Souls in Purgatory then did the Parliament not well in giving away Colleges and Chanteries which served principally for that purpose But if the Parliament did well in dissolving and bestowing them upon the King which he thought that no man could deny then was it a plain Case that such Chanteries and private Masses did confer no Relief on the Souls in Purgatory Which Dilemma though it were unanswerable yet was the matter so handled by the Bishops seeing how much the Doctrine of the Church was concerned therein that they brought him to a Recantation at Saint Paul's Cross in the June next following this Sermon being Preached in Lent where he confessed himself to have been seduced by naughty books contrary to the Doctrine then received in the Church But the Current of these Times went the other way and Cromer might now have Preached that safely for which before he had been brought into so much trouble But that which made the greatest Alteration and threatened most danger to the State Ecclesiastical was the Act entituled An Act for Election of Bishops and what Seals and Styles shall be used by Spiritual Persons c. In which it was Ordained for I shall onely repeat the Sum thereof That Bishops should be made by the King's Letters Patents and not by the Election of the Deans and Chapters That all their Processes and Writings should be made in the King's Name onely with the Bishop's Teste added to it and sealed with no other Seal but the King 's or such as should be Authorised and Appointed by Him In the Compounding of which Act there was more Danger couched then at first appeared By the last Branch thereof it was plain and evident that the Intent of the Contrivers was by degrees to weaken the Authority of the Episcopal Order by forcing them from their Strong-hold of Divine Institution and making them no other then the King's Ministers onely His Ecclesiastical Sheriffs as a man might say to execute His Will and disperse His Mandates And of this Act such use was made though possibly beyond the true intention of it that the Bishops of those Times were not in a Capacity of conferring Orders but as they were thereunto enpowered by especial Licence The Tenour whereof if Sanders be to be believed was in these words following viz. The King to such a Bishop Greeting Whereas all and all manner of Jurisdiction as well Ecclesiastical as Civil flows from the King as from the Supreme Head of all the Body c. We therefore give and grant to thee full Power and Liceâ—ce to continue during Our Good Pleasure for holding Ordination within thy Diocess of N. and for promoting fit Persons unto Holy Orders even to that of the Priest-hood Which being looked on by Queen Mary not onely as a dangerous Diminution of the Episcopal Power but as an Odious Innovation in the Church of Christ â— She caused this Act to be repealed in the first Year of Her Reign leaving the Bishops to depend on their former claim and to act all things which belonged to their Jurisdiction in their own Names and under their own Seals as in former Times In which Estate they have continued without any Legal Interruption from that time to this But in the first Branch there was somewhat more then what appeared at the first sighâ— For though it seemed to aim at nothing but that the Bishops should depend wholly on the King for their preferment to those great and eminent Places yet the true Drift of the Design was to make Deans and Chapters useless for the time to come and thereby to prepare them for a Dissolution For had nothing else been intended in it but that the King should have the sole Nomination of all the Bishops in His Kingdoms it had been onely a Reviver of an Antient Power which had been formerly Invested in His Predecessour's and in all other Christian Princes Consult the Stories and Records of the Eâ—der Times and it will readily appear not onely that the Romane Emperours of the House of France did nominate the Popes themselves but that after they had lost that Power they retained the Nomination of the Bishops in their own Dominions The like done also by the German Emperours by the Kings of England and by the Antient Kings of Spain the Investiture being then performed Per Annulum Baculum as they used to Phrase it that is to say by delivering of a Ring together with a Crosier or Pastoral Staff to the Party nominated Examples of which Practice are exceeding obvious in all the Stories of those Times But the Popes finding at the last how necessary it was in order to that absolute Power which they ambitiously affected over all Christian Kings and Princes that the Bishops should depend on none but them challenged this power unto themselves declaring it in several Petit Councels for no less then Simony if any man should receive a Bishoprick from the Hands of his own Natural Prince From hence those long and deadly Quarrels begun between Pope Hildebrand and the Emperour Henry the Fourth and continued by their Successours for many years after From hence the like Disputes in England between Pope Vrban the Second and King William Rufus between Pope Innocent and King Iâ—hn till in the end the Popes prevailed both here and elsewhere and gained the point unto themselves But so that to disguise the matter the Election of the future Bishop was committed to the Prior and Convent or to the Dean and Chapter of that Cathedral wherein he was to be Installed Which passing by the Name of Free Elections were wholly in a manner at the Pope's Disposing The Point thus gained it had been little to their Profit if they had
the Lord Protectour with whom she might enjoy all Content and Happiness which a vertuous Lady could desire And that they might appear in the greater Splendour he took into his hands the Episcopal House belonging to the Bishop of Bath and Wells which being by him much Enlarged and Beautified came afterwards to the Possession of the Earls of Arundel best known of late Times by the name of arundel-Arundel-House And so far all things went on smoothly betwixt him and his Bâ—other though afterwards there were some distrust between them but this last Practice gave such an hot Alarum to the Duchess of Sommerset that nothâ—ng could content her but his absolute Ruin For what hope could she have of Disputing the Precedence with any of King Henâ—â—e's Daughters who if they were not married out of the Realm might Create many Troubles and Disturbances in it Nor was the Lord Prâ—tectâ—ur so insensible of his own Condition as not to fear the utmost Danger which the Effecting of so great an Enterprise might bring upon him so that the Rupture which before had began to close became more open then before made widâ—r by the Artifices of the Earl of Warwick who secretly playing with both hands exasperated each of them against the other that so he might be able to destroy them both The Plot being so far carried on the Admiral was committed to the Tower on the sixteenth of January but never called unto his Answer it being thought safer to Attaint him by Act of Parliament where Power and Faction might prevail then put him over to his Peers in a Legal way And if he were guilty of the Crimes which I finde charged upon him in the Bill of Attainder he could not but deserve as great a Punishment as was laid upon him For in that Act he stands condemned for Attempting to get into his Custody the Person of the King and the Government of the Realm for obtaining many Offices retaining many Men into his Service for making great Provision for Money and Victuals for endeavouring to marry the Lady Elizabeth the King's Sister and for perswading the King in His Tender Age to take upon Him the Rule and Order of Himself But Parliaments being Governed by a â—allible Spirit the Business still remaineth under such a Cloud that he may seem rather to have fallen a Sacrifice to the Private Malice of a Woman then the Publick Justice of the State For the Bill of Attainder passing at the End of the Parliament which was on the fourteenth day of March he was beheaded at Tower-Hill on the sixth day after the Warrant for his Execution coming under the hand oâ— his own Brother at what time he took it on his Death That he had never committed or meant any Treason against King or Kingdom Thus as it is affâ—â—med of the Emperour Valentinian that by causing the right Noble Aetius to be put to Death he had cut off his Right Hand with his Left so might it be affirmed of the Lord Protectour that when he signed that unhappy Warrant he had with his Right Hand robbed himself of his greatest Strength For as long as the two Brothers stood together they were good support unto one another but now the one being taken away the other proved not Subâ—tantive enough to stand by himself but fell into his Enemies hands within few Moneths after Comparing them together we may finde the Admiral to be Fierce in Courage Courtly in Fashion in Personage Stately in Voice Magnificent the Duke to be Mild Affable Free and Open more easie to be wrought upon and no way Malicious the Admiral generally more esteemed amongst the Nobles the Duke Honoured by the Common People the Lord Protectour to be more desired for a Friend the Lord Admiral to be more feared for an Enemy Betwixt them both they might have made one excellent man if the Defects of each being taken away the Virtues onely had remained The Protectour having thus thrown away the chief Prop of his House hopes to repair that Ruin by erecting a Magnificent Palace He had been bought out of his purpose for building on the Deanery and Close of Westminster and casts his Eye upon a piece of Ground in the Strand on which stood three Episcopal Houses and one Parish-Church the Parish-Church Dedicated to the Virgin Mary the Houses belonging to the Bishops of Worcester Lichfield and Landaff All these he takes into his Hands the Owners not daring to oppose and therefore willingly consenting to it Having cleared the place and projected the intended Fabrick the Workmen found that more Materials would be wanting to go thorough with it then the Demolished Church and Houses could afford unto them He thereupon resolves for taking down the Parish-Church of Saint Marâ—arets in Westminster and turning the Parishioners for the celebrating of all Divine Offices into some part of the Nave or main Body of the Abby-Church which should be marked out for that purpose But the Workmen had no sooner advanced their Scafâ—olds when the Parishioners gathered together in great Multitudes with Bows and Arrows Staâ—es and Clubs and other such offensive Weapons which so terrified the Workmen that they ran away in great Amazement and never could be brought again upon that Imployment In the next place he is informed of some superfluous or rather Superstitious Buildings on the North-side of Saint Paul's that is to say a goodly Cloyster environing a goodly piece of Ground called Pardon-Church-Yard with a Chapel in the midst thereof and beautified with a piece of most curious Workmanship called the Dance of Death together with a fair Charnel-House on the South-side of the Church and a Chapel thereunto belonging This was conceived to be the safer undertaking the Bishop then standing on his good Behaviour and the Dean and Chapter of that Church as of all the rest being no better in a manner by reason of the late Act of Parliament then Tenant at Will of their great Landlords And upon this he sets his Workmen on the tenth of April takes it all down converts the Stone Timber Lead and Iron to the use of his intended Palace and leaves the Bones of the dead Bodies to be buried in the Fields in unhallowed Ground But all this not sufficing to compleat the Work the Steeple and most parts of the Church of Saint John's of Jerusalem not far from Smithfield most beautifully built not long before by Dockwray a late Priour thereof was blown up with Gunpowder and all the Stone thereof imployed to that purpose also Such was the Ground and such were the Materials of the Duke 's New Palace called Sommerset-House which either he lived not to finish or else it must be very strange that having pulled down two Churches two Chapels and three Episcopal Houses each of which may be probably supposed to have had their Oratories to finde Materials for this Fabrick there should be no room purposely erected for Religious Offices According unto this Beginning all the
Shifts on his part and much patience on theirs he is taken pro confesso on the twenty third and in the beginning of October deprived of his Bishoprick To whom succeded Doctour Nicholas Ridley Bishop of Rochester a Learned Stout and Resolute Prelate as by the Sequel will appear not actually translated till the twelâ—th of April in the year next following and added not long after to the Lords of the Council The necessary Execution of so many Rebels and this seasonable Severity against Bishop Bonner did much facilitate the King's Proceedings in the Reformation As certainly the Opposition to Aâ—thority when it is suppressed both makes the Subject and the Prince more absolute Howsoever to make sure Work of it there passed an act of Parliament in the following Session which also took beginning on the fourth of November for taking down such Images as were still remaining in the Churches as also for the bringing in of all Antiphonaries Missalls Breviaries Offices Horaries Primers and Processionals with other Books of False and Superstitious Worship The Tenour of which Act was signified to the Subject by the King's Proclamations and seconded by the Missives of Arch-Bishop Cranmer to the Suffragan Bishops requiring them to see it put in execution with all Care and Diligence Which so secured the Church on that side that there was no further Opposition against the Liturgie by the Romish Party during the rest of this King's Reign For what can any workman do when he wants his Tools or how could they Advance the Service of the Church of Rome when the Books by which they should officiate it were thus taken from them But then there started up another Faction as dangerous to the Church as opposite to the Publick Liturgie and as destructive of the Rules of the Reformation then by Law established as were those of Rome The Arch-Bishop and the rest of the Prelates which co-operated with him in the Work having so far proceeded in abolishing many Superstitions which before were used resolved in the next place to go forwards with a Reformation in a Point of Doctrine In Order whereunto Melancthon's coming was expected the year before but he came not then And therefore Letters were directed by the archâ—Archâ—Bishop of Canterbury to Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr two Great and Eminent Divines but more addicted to the Zuinglian then the Lutheran Doctrines in the point of the Sacrament Martyr accordingly came over in the end of November and having spent some timewith the Arch-Bishop in his House at Lambeth was dispatched to Oxford where he was made the King's Professour for Divinity and about two years after made Canon of Christ-Church In his first Lectures he is said by Sanders if he may be credited to have declared himself so much a Zuinglian in that point as to give great offence to Cranmer and the rest of the Bishops but afterwards upon notice of it to have been more moderate and to conform his Judgment to the Sense of those Learned Prelates Which whether it be true or not certain it is that his Readings were so much disliked by some of that University that a publick Disputation was shortly had betwixt him and some of those who disliked his Doings in which he publickly maintained these two Propositions 1. That the Substance of the Bread and Wine was not changed and 2. That the Body and Blood of Christ was not Carnally and Bodily in the Bread and Wine but united to the same Sacramentally And for the better Governing of the Disputation it was appointed by the King that Doctour Cox Chancellour of that University assisted by one Mr. Morrison a right Learned man should preside as Judges or Moderatours as we call them by whom it was declâ—red in the open Scholes that Martyr had the upper hand and had sufficiently answered all Arguments which were brought against him But Chadsey the chief of the Opponents and the rest of those who disputed with him acknowledged no such Satisfaction to be given unto them their party noising it abroad according to the Fate of such Dispuâ—ations that they had the Victory But Bucer not coming over at the same time also he was more earnestly invited by Pet. Alexander the Arch-Bishop's Secretary whose Letters bear Date March 24. which so prevailed with him at the last that in June we finde him here at Canterbury from whence he writes to Peter Martyr who was then at Oxford And being here he receives Letters from Calvin by which he was advised to take heed of his old fault for a fault he thought it which was to run a moderate course in his Reformations The first thing that he did at his coming hither as he saith himself was to make himself acquainted with the English Liturgie translated for him into Latine by Alexander Alesius a Learned Scot and generally well approved of by him as to the main Frame and Body of it though not well satisfied perhaps in some of the particular Branches Of this he gives account to Calvin and desires some Letters from him to the Lord Protectour with whom Câ—lvin had already began to tamper that he might finde the greater favour when he came before him which was not till the Tumults of the time were composed and quieted Having received a courteous entertainment from the Lord Protectour and being right heartily welcomed by Arch-Bishop Cranmer he is sent to take the Chair at Cambridg Where his first Readings gave no such distast to the Learned Academicks as to put him to the necessity of challenging the Dissentients to a Disputation though in the Ordinary Form a Disputation was there held at his firstâ—coming thither concerning the Sufficiency of Holy Scripture the Fallibility of the Church and the true Nature of Justification But long he had not held the place when he left this life deceasing on the nineteenth of January 1550. according to the computation of the Church of England to the great loss and grief of that University By the chiefest Heads whereof and most of the Members of that Body he was attended to his Grave with all due Solemnity of which more hereafter But so it was that the Account which he had given to Calvin of the English Liturgie and his desiring of a Letter from him to the Lord Protectour proved the occasions of much trouble to the Church and the Orders of it For Calvin not forgetting the Repulse he found at the hands of Cranmer when he first offered his Assistance had screwed himself into the Favour of the Lord Protectour And thinking nothing to be well done which either was not done by him or by his Direction as appears by his Letters to all Princes which did but cast an eye towards a Reformation must needs be meddling in such Matters as belonged not to him He therefore writes a very long Letter to the Lord Protectour in which approving well enough of set Forms of Prayer he descends more particularly to the English Liturgy in canvasing whereof he
had been given before between the time of the Duke's Acknowledgment and the Sentence passed on him by the Lords and so disposed that none of the Factions might have any ground for a Complaint One of each side being taken out for these Advancements For on the nineteenth day of January William Lord St. John a most affectionate Servant to the Earl of Warwick was preferred unto the Title of Earl of Wiltshire the Lord Russell who had made himself the Head of those which were engaged on neither side was made Earl of Bedford and Sir William Paget Comptroller of his Majestie 's Houshold who had persisted faithfull to the Lord Protectour advanced to the Dignity of a Baron and not long after to the Chancellour-ship of the Dutchy of Lancaster Furnished with Offices and Honours it is to be presumed that they would finde some way to provide themselves of sufficient Means to maintain their Dignities The Lord Wentworth being a younger Branch of the Wentworths of Yorkshire had brought some Estate with him to the Court though not enough to keep him up in Equipage with so great a Title The want whereof was supplied in part by the Office of Lord Chamberlain now conferred upon him but more by the goodly Manours of Stebunâ—th commonly called Stepney and Hackney bestowed upon him by the King in consideration of the Good and Faithfull Services before performed For so it happened that the Dâ—an and Chapter of St. Paul's lying at the Mercy of the Times as before was said conveyed over to the King the said two Manours on the twelfth day after Christmâ—ss now last past with all the Members and Appertenances thereunto belonging Of which the last named was valued at the yearly rent of 41. pounds 9. â— 4 d. The other at 140. pounds 8 â— 11. â— ob And being thus vested in the King they were by Letters Patents bearing Date the sixteenth of April then next following transferred upon the said Lord VVâ—ntworth By means whereof he was possessed of a goodly Territory extending on the Thames from St. Katharine's near the Tower of London to the Borders of Essex near Black-wall from thence along the River Leâ— to Stratford le Bow and fetching a great compass on that side of the City contains in all no fewer then six and twenty Town-ships Streets and Hamlets besides such Rows of Building as have since been added in these later Times The like provision was made by the new Lord Pâ—get a Londoner by Birth but by good Fortune mixed with Merit preferred by degrees to be one of the Principal Secretaries to the late King Henry by whom he was employed in many Embassies and Negotiations Being thus raised and able to set up for himself he had his share in the division of the Lands of Chantery Free-Chapels c. and got into his hands the Episcopal House belonging to the Bishop of Exeter by him enlarged and beautified and called paget-Paget-House sold afterwards to Robert Earl of Leicester from whom it came to the late Earls of Essex and from them took the name of Essex-House by which it is now best known But being a great House is noâ— able to keep it self he played his Game so well that he got into his possession the Manour of Beau-desart of which he was created Baron and many other fair Estates in the County of Stafford belonging partly to the Bishop and partly to the Dean and Chaâ—ter of Lichfield neither of which was able to contend with so great a Courtier who held the See and had the Ear of the Protectour and the King 's to boot What other Course he toâ—k to improve his Fortunes we shall see hereafter when we come to the last part of the Tragedy of the Duke of Sommerset For Sommerset having gained his Liberty and thereby being put into a Capacity of making use of his Friends found Means to be admitted to the King's Presence by whom he was not onely welcomed with all the kind Expressions of a Gracious Prince and made to sit down at his own Table but the same day the eighth of April he was again sworn one of the Lords of the Privy Council This was enough to make Earl Dudly look about him and to pretend a Reconciliation with him for the present whom he meant first to make secure and afterwards strike the last blow at him when he least look'd for it And that the knot of Amity might be tyed the faster and last the longer a True-Loves-Knot it must be thought or else nothing worth a Marriage was nâ—gotiated between John Lord Viscount L'isle the Earl's Eldest Son and the Lady Ann Seimour one of the Daughters of the Duke which Marriage was joyfully solemnized on the third of June at the King's Mannour-House of Shâ—â—e the King himself gracing the Nuptials with his Presence And now who could imagine but that upon the giving of such Hostages unto one another a most inviolable League of Friendship had been made between them and that all Animosities and Displeasures being quite forgotten they would more powerfully Co-operate to the publick Good But leaving them and their Adâ—erents to the dark Contrivances of the Court we must leave England for a time and see how our Affairs succeeded on the other side of the Sea Where in the middle of the former Dissensions the French had put us to the Worst in the way of Arms and after got the Better in a Treaty of Peace They had the last year taken in all the Out-works which seemed the strongest Ramparâ—s of the Town of Bulloign but had not strength enough to venture on the Town it self provided plentifully of all necessaries to endure a Siege and bravely Garisoned by men of too much Courage and Resolution to give it up upon a Summons Besides they came to understand that the English were then Practicing with Charles the Emperour to associate with them in the War according to some former Capitulations made between those Crowns And if they found such Dâ—ffiâ—ulties in maintaining the War against either of them when they fought singly by themselves there was no hope of any good Success against them should they unite and poure their Forces into France Most true it is that after such time as the French had bid Defiance to the King and that the King by reason of the Troubles and Embroilments at home was not in a Condition to attend the Affairs of France Sir William Paget was sent Ambassadour to Charles the Fifth to desire Succour of Him and to lay before Him the Infancy and several Necessities of the young King being then in the twelfth year of His Age. This desire when the Emperour had refused to hearken to they besought Him that he would at the least be pleased to take into His Hands the keeping of the Town of Bulloign and that for no longer time then untill King EDVVARD could make an End of the Troubles of His Subjects at home and compose the Discords of the Court which
Elizabeth to the See of York as also Doctour Rowland Merick preferred by the same Queen to the See of Bangor though they appeared not visibly in the Information which was made against him In which I finde him charged amongst other things for Celebrating a Marriage without requiring the Married Persons to receive the Communion contrary to the Rubrick in the Common-Prayer-Book for going ordinarily abroad in a Gown and Hat and not in a Square Cap as did the rest of the Clergy for causing a Communion-Table which had been placed by the Official of Caer-marthen in the middle of the Church the High Alltar being then demolished to be carried back into the Chancel and there to be disposed of in or near the place where the Altar stood for suffering many Superstitious Uâ—ages to be retained amongst the people contrary to the Laws in that behalf But chiefly for exercising some Acts of Episcopal Jurisdiction in his own name in derogation of the King's Supremacy and grounding his Commissions for the exercise thereof upon foreign and usurped Authority The Articles fifty six in number but this last as the first in Rank so of more Danger to him then all the reâ—t preferred against him but not prosecuted as long as his great Patron the Duke of Sommerset was in place and Power But he being on the sinking hand and the Bishop too stiff to come to a Compliance with those whom he esteemed beneath him the Suit is followed with more noise and violence then was consistent with the credit of either Party The Duke being dead the four Knights Executed and all his Party in Disgrace a Commission is Issued bearing Date the ninth of March to enquire into the Merit of the Articles which were charged against him On the return whereof he is Indicted of a Prâ—â—munire at the Assizes held in Caer-marthen in the July following committed thereupon to Prison where he remained all the rest of King Edward's time never restored to Liberty till he came to the Stake when all his Sufferings and Sorrows had an end together But this Business hath carried us too far into the next year of this King to the beginning whereof we must now return Anno Regni Edw. Sexti 6o. An. Dom. 1551 1552. WE must begin the sixth year of the King with the fourth Session of Parliament though the beginning of the fourth Session was some days before that is to say on the twenty third day of January being the next day after the Death of that Great Person His Adversaries possibly could not do it sooner and found it very unsafe to defer it longer for fear of being over-ruled in a Parliamentary way by the Lords and Commons There was Summoned also a Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy of the Province of Canterbury to begin upon the next day after the Parliament Much business done in each as may appear by the Table of the Statutes made in the one and the passing of the Book of Articles as the Work of the other But the Acts of this Convocation were so ill kept that there remains nothing on Record touching their Proceedings except it be the names of such of the Bishops as came thither to Adjourn the House Onely I finde a Memorandum that on the twenty ninth of this present January the Bishoprick of Westminster was dissolved by the King's Letters Patents by which the County of Middlesex which had before been laid unto it was restored unto the See of London made greater then in former times by the Addition of the Arch-Deaconry of St. Alban's which at the dissolution of that Monastery had been laid to Lincoln The Lands of Westminster so dilapidated by Bishop Thirlby that there was almost nothing left to support the Dignity for which good service he had been preferred to the See of Norâ—ich in the year foregoing Most of the Lands invaded by the Great men of the Court the rest laid out for Reparation to the Church of St. Paul pared almost to the very quick in those days of Rapine From hence first came that significant By-word as is said by some of Robbing Peter to pay Paul But this was no Business of that Convocation though remembred in it That which most specially doth concern us in this Convocation is the settling and confirming of the Book of Articles prepared by Arch-Bishop Cranmer with the assistance of such Learned men as he thought fit to call unto him in the year last past and now presented to the consideration of the rest of the Clergy For that they were debated and agreed upon in that Convocation appears by the Title of the Book where they are called Aâ—ticuli de quibus in Synodo Londinensi An. Dom. 1552 c. that is to say Articles Agreed upon in the Synod of London An. 1552. And it may be concluded from that Title also that the Convocation had devolved their Power on some Grand Committee sufficiently Authourised to Debate Conclude and Publish what they had Concluded in the name of the rest For there it is not said as in the Articles Published in Queen Elizabeth's time An. 1562. That they were agreed upon by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of both Provinces and the whole-Clergy in the Convocation holden at London but that they were agreed upon in the Synod of London by the Bishops and certain other Learned Men inter Episcopos â—lios Eruditos viros as the Latin hath it Which seems to make it plain enough that the debating and concluding of the Articles contained in the said Book was the Work onely of some Bâ—shops and certain other Learned men sufficiently empowered for that end and purpose And being so empowered to that end and purpose the Articles by them concluded and agreed upon may warrantably be affirmed to be the Acts and Products of that Convocation Confirmed and Published for such by the King's Authority as appears further by the Title in due form of Law And so it is resolved by Philpot Arch-Deacon of Winchester in behalf of the Catechism which came â—ut An. 1553. with the Approbation of the said Bishops and Learned men Against which when it was objected by Doctour Weston Prolocutour of the Convocation in the first of Queen Mary that the said Catechism was not set forth by the Agreement of that House it was Answered by that Reverend and Learned man That The said House had granâ—ed the Authority to make Ecclesiastical Laws unto certain Persons to be appointed by the King's Majesty and therefore whatsoever Ecclesiastical Laws they or the most part of them did set forth according to the Statute in that behalf provided might be well said to be done in the Synod of London And this may also be the Case of the Book of Articles which may be truly and justly said to be the Work of that Convocation though many Members of it never saw the same till the Book was published in regard I still use Philpot's words in the Acts and Mon. Fol.
of ordinary attendance about his Person which was on the same Day when his Father was created Duke For whereas most men gave themselves no improbable hopes that betwixt the Spring time of his life the Growing season of the year and such Medicinal applications as were made unto him the disease would wear it self away by little and little yet they found the contrary It rather grew so fast upon him that when the Parliament was to begin on the first of March the Lords Spiritual and Temporal were Commanded to attend him at White-Hall instead of waiting on him from thence to Westminster in the usual manner Where being come they found a Sermon ready for them the Preacher being the Bishop of London which otherwise was to have been Preached in the Abby-Church and the Great Chamber of the Court accomodated for an House of Peers to begin the Session For the opening whereof the King then sitting under the Cloth of State and all the Lords according to their Ranks and Orders he declared by the Lord Chancellor Goodrick the causes of his calling them to the present Parliament and so dismist them for that time A Parliament which began and ended in the Month of March that the Commissions might the sooner be dispatched to their several Circuits for the speedier gathering up of such of the Plate Copes Vestments and other Furnitures of which the Church was to be spoyled in the time of his sickness Yet in the midst of these disorders there was some care taken for advancing both the honour and the interest of the English-Nation by furnishing Sebastian Cabol for some new discoveries Which Sebastian the Son of John Cabol a Venetian born attended on his first imployment under Henry the seventh Anno 1497. At what time they discovered the Barralaos and the Coasts of Caenada now called New-France even to the 67½ degree of Northern Latitude Bending his Course more toward the South and discovering a great part of the shoars of Florida he returned for England bringing with him three of the Natives of that Country to which the name of New-Found-Land hath been since appropriated But finding the KING unhappily Embroyled in a War with Scotland and no present Encouragements to be given for a further Voiage he betook himself into the service of the KING of SPAIN and after fourty years and more upon some distast abandoned SPAIN and offered his service to this KING By whom being made Grand Pilot of England in the year 1549. he animated the English-Merchants to the finding out of a passage by the North-East Seas to Cathay and China first enterprised under the Conduct of Sr. Hugh Willoughby who unfortunately Perished in the Action himself and all his Company being Frozen to Death all the particulars of his Voiage being since committed to Writing as was certified by the Adventures in the year next following It was upon the twentith of May in this present year that this Voiage was first undertaken three great Ships being well manned and fitted for the Expedition which afterwards was followed by Chancelour Burrought Jackman Jenkinson and other noble Adventurers in the times Succeding Who though they failed of their Attempt in finding out a shorter way to Cathay and China yet did they open a fair Passage to the Bay of S. Nicholas and thereby layd the first foundation of a Wealthy Trade betwixt us and the Muscovites But the KING'S Sickness still encreasing who was to live no longer then might well stand with the designs of the DVKE of Northumber-land some Marriages are resolved on for the Daughters of the DVKE of Suffolk in which the KING appeared as forward as if he had been one of the Principalls in the Plot against him And so the matter was Contrived that the Lady IANE the eldest Daughter to that DVKE should be Married to the Lord Guilford Dudly the fourth Son then living of Northumberland all the three Elder Sons having Wives before that Katherine the second Daughter of Suffolk should be Married to the Lord Henry Herbert the Eldest Son of the Earl of Pembrock whom Dudly had made privy to all his Counsels and the third Daughter named Mary being Crook-Backed and otherwise not very taking affianced to Martin Keys the KING'S Gentleman-Porter Which Marriages together with that of the Lady Katherine one of the Daughters of Duke Dudly to Henry Lord Hastings Eldest Son of the Earl of Huntington were celebrated in the end of May or the beginning of June for I finde our Writers differing in the time thereof with as much Splendour and solemnity as the KING' 's weak Estate and the sad Condition of the Court could be thought to bear These Marriages all solemnized at Dâ—rham House in the Strand of which Northumberland had then took possession in the name of the Rest upon a Confidence of being Master very shortly of the whole Estate The noise of these Marriages bred such Amazement in the Hearts of the common People apt enough in themselves to speak the worst of Northumberland's Actions That there was nothing left unsaid which might serve to shew their hatred against him or express their Pity toward the KING But the DVKE was so little troubled at it that on the contrary he resolved to Dissemble no longer but openly to play his Game according to the Plot and Project which he had been Hammering ever â—ince the Fall of the DVKE of Somerset whose Death he had Contrived on no other Ground but for laying the way more plain and open to these vast ambitions The KING was now grown weak in Body and his Spirits much decaied by a languishing Sickness which Rendred him more apprehensive of such fears and Dangers as were to be presented to him then otherwise he could have been in a time of strength In which Estate Duke Dudly so prevailed upon him that he conâ—ented at the last to a transposition of the Crown from his natural sisters to the Children of the Dutchess of Suffolk Confirming it by Letters Patents to the Heirs Males of the Body of the said Dutchess And for want of such Heirs Males to be Born in the lifetime of the KING the Crown immediately to descend on the Lady IANE the eldest Daughter of that House and the Heirs of her Body and so with several Remainders to the rest of that Family The carriage of which Business and the Rubs it met with in the way shall be reserved to the particular story of the Lady IANE when she is brought unwilling upon the Stage there on to Act the part of a Queen of England It sufficeth in this place to note that the KING had no sooner caused these Leters Patents to passe the Seal but his Weakeness more visibly encreased then it did before And as the KING'S Weakeness did encrease so did the Northumberland's Diligence about him for he was little absent from him and had alwaies some well-assured to Epy how the State of his Health changed every Hour And the more joyful he
Moor and Fisher executed as before was said for the refusal of that oath The Kings cause all this while depended in the Court of Rome not like to be determined for him and yet the Pope not willing to declare against him till by the solicitation of the Emperour and for the vindication of the honour of the See Apostolick he seemed to be necessitated to some acts of rigour which at last proved the total ruine of his power and party in the Realm of England For the new Queen considering that the Pope and she had such different interesses that they could not both subsist together resolved upon that course which Nature and self-preservation seem'd to dictate to her But finding that the Popes was too well intrenched to be dislodged upon a sudden it was advised by Cromwel made Mr of the Rols on her commendation to begin with taking in the out-works 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 the month of October 1535. in which a diligent enquiry was to be made into all Abbies Priories and Nunneries within the Kingdome Cromwel himself Dr Lee and others being named for Visitors Who governing themselves according to certain instructions of their own devising dismist all such religious persons as were under the age of â—4 or otherwise were willing to relinquish their several houses shutting up such from going out as were not willing to accept the benefit of that permission all such religious persons as departed thence to be gratified by the Abbot or Prior with a Priests Gown and forty shillings in mony and all Nuns to be put into a secular habit and suffered to go where they would They took order also that no men should go into the houses of women nor women into the houses of men but only for the hearing of Divine Service making thereby that course of life less pleasing unto either Sex than it had been formerly They also inventaried or else directly â—ook away the Relicts and chief Jewels out of most of the said Monasteries or Religious houses pretending that they took them for the Kings use but possibly keeping them for their own And having made a strict and odious inquisition into the lives of all the Votaries of both Sexes they return'd many of them guilty of exorbitant luâ—ts and much carnal uncleanness representing their offences in such multiplying glasses as made them seem both greater in number and more horrid in nature than indeed they were And in the February following was held a Parliament in which all Monasteries Priories and other Religious houses under the yearly value of 200l were granted unto the King and his heirs for ever The number of the Houses then suppressed were said to be 376 their yearly Rents then valued at the sum of thirty two thousand pounds and upwards their movable goods as they were sold at Hood's penny-worths amounting to one hundred thousand pounds and more The Religious persons thus despoiled of their Estates either betook themselves to some of the greater Houses of their several Orders or went again into the world and followed such secular businesses as were offered to them towards the getting of their livings Much lamentation made in all parts of the Country for want of that relief and sustenance which the poor of all sorts received daily from their hospitality and for the want of that employment which they found continually in and about those Houses in their several Trades insomuch that it was commonly thought that more than ten thousand persons as well Masters as Servants had lost their livelyhoods by that act of suppression To the passing whereof the Bishops and the Mitred Abots which made the prevalent part of the House of Peers contributed their Votes and Suffrages as the other did whether it were out of pusillanimity as not daring to appear in behalf of their brethren or out of a weak hope that the Rapacity of the Queen and her Ministers would proceed no farther it is hard to say Certain it is that by their improvident assenting to the present Grant they made a rod for their own backs as the saying is with which they were sufficiently scourged within few years after till they were all finally whipt out of the Kingdom though the new Queen for whose sake Cromwel had contrived the plot did not live to see it For such is the uncertainty of human affairs that when she thought her self most safe and free from danger she became most obnoxious to the ruine prepared for her It had pleased God on the eighth of January to put an end unto the calamities of the vertuous but unfortunate Queen into whose Bed she had succeeded the news whereof she entertained with such contentment that she caused her self to be apparalled 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 Katherine was to be her best preservative against all changes which the Kings loose affections or any other alterations in 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 extream grief of the Mother and discontent of the Father who looked upon it as an argument of Gods displeasure as being as much offended at this second Marriage as he was at the first He then began to think of his ill forâ—une with both his Wives both Mariages subject to dispute and the Legitimation of his daughter Elizabeth as likely to be called in question in the time succeeding as that of Mary in the former He much therefore cast about for another wife of whose marriage and his issue by her there could arise no conâ—roversie or else must die without an heir of his own body or leave the Crown to be contended for by those who though they were of his own body could not be his heirs His eye had carried him to a Gentlewoman in the Queens attendance of extraordinary beauty and superlative modesty on the enjoying of whom he so fixed his thoughts that he had quite obliterated all remembrance of his former loves As resolute but more private in this pursute than he was in the former yet not so private but that the Queen so piercing are the eyes of Love and Jealousie had took notice of it and signified her suspitions to him of which more anon In the mean time she was not wanting in all those honest arts of Love Obsequiousness and Entertainment which might endear her to the King who now began to be as weary of her gaities and jocular humor as formerly of the gravity and reservedness of Katherine And causing many eyes to observe her actions they brought him a return of some particulars which he conceived might give him a sufficient ground to
thee delivereâ— to thee only be thanks honour and praâ—se for ever Amen Which said she mounted into her Chariot with so cleer a spirit as if she had been made for that dayes solemnity Entertained all the way she went with the joyful shouts and acclamations of God save the Queen which she repaid with such a modest affability and so good a grace that it drew tears of joy from the eyes of some with infinite prayers and thanksgiving from the hearts of all but nothing more indeared her to them than the accepting of an English Bible richly gilt which was let down unto her from one of the Pageants by a child representing Truth At the sight whereof she first kissed both her hands with both her hands she received the book which first she kiss'd and after laid unto her bosome as the nearest place unto her heart giving the City greater thanks for that excellent Gift than for all the rest which plentifully had been that day bestowed upon her and promised to be diligent in the reading of it By which and many other acts of a popular piety with which she passed away that day she did not only gain the hearts of all them that saw her but they that saw her did so magnifie her most eminent Graces that they procured the like affections in the hearts of all others also On the next morning with like magnificence and splendor she is attended to the Church of St Peter in Westminster where she was crowned according to the Order of the Roman Pontifical by Dr Owen Oglethorp Bishop of Carlisle the only man among all the Bishops who could be wrought on by her to perform that office Whether it were that they saw some alteration coming to which they were resolved not to yield conformity so that they could not be in a worse case upon this refusal than they should be otherwise or that they feared the Popes displeasure if they should do an act so contrary unto his pretensions without leave first granted or that they had their own particular animosities and spleens against her as the Archbishop of York particularly for his being deprived of the seal is not certainly known None more condemned for the refusal than the Bishop of Ely as one that had received his first preferments from the King her father and who complyed so far in the time of King Edward as to assist in the composing of the publick Liturgy and otherwise appeared as forward in the reformation as any other of that Order So that no reason can be given either for his denial now to perform that service or afterwards for his not complying with the Queens proceedings but that he had been one of those which were sent to Rome to tender the submission of the Kingdom to the Pope still living and could not now appear with honour in any such action as seemed to carry with it a repugnancy if not a manifest inconsistency with the said ingagement It cannot be denyed but that there were three Bishops living of King Edward's making all of them zealously affected to the reformation And possibly it may seem strange that the Queen received not the Crown rather from one of their hands than to put her self unto the hazard of so many denyals as had been given her by the others But unto this it may be answered that the said Bishops at that time were deprived of their Sees but whether justly or unjustly could not then be questioned and therefore not in a capacity to perform that service Besides there being at that time no other form established for a Coronation than that which had much in it of the Ceremonies and superstitions of the Church of Rome she was not sure that any of the said three Bishops would have acted in it without such alterations and omissions in the whole course of that Order as might have render'd the whole action questionable amongst captious men and therefore finally she thought it more conducible to her reputation amongst forein Princes to be Crowned by the hands of a Catholick Bishop or one at least which was accounted to be such than if it had been done by any of the other Religion And now the Parliament draws on summoned to begin on the 25th of that month being the Anniversary day of St Paul's conversion a day which seemed to carry some good Omen in it in reference to that great work of the Reformation which was therein to be established The Parliament opened with an eloquent and learned Sermon preached by Dr Cox a man of good credit with the Queen and of no less esteem with the Lords and Commons who caried any good affection to the memory of King Edward the 6th The chusing of which man to perform that service was able of it self to give some intimation of the Queens design to most of the Auditors though to say truth the Bishops refusing to perform the Ceremony of the Coronation had made themselves uncapable of a further trust Nor could the Queens design be so closely caried but that such Lords and Gentlemen as had the managing of elections in their several Countries retained such men for Members of the House of Commons as they conceived most likely to comply with their intentions for a Reformation Amongst which none appeared more active than Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk whom the Queen had taken into her Council Henry Fitz-allen Earl of Arundel whom she continued in the Office of Lord Steward and Sir William Coecil whom she had restored to the place of Secretary to which he had been raised by King Edward the 6th Besides the Queen was young unmaried and like enough to entertain some thoughts of an husband so that it can be no great marvel not only if many of the Nobility but some even of the Gentry also flattered themselves with possibilities of being the man whom she might chuse to be her partner in the Regal Diadem Which hopes much smoothed the way to the accomplishment of her desires which otherwise might have proved more rugged and unpassable than it did at the present Yet notwithstanding all their care there wanted not some rough and furious spirits in the House of Commons who eagerly opposed all propositions which seemed to tend unto the prejudice of the Church of Rome Of which number none so violent as Story Dr. of the Lawes and a great instrument of Bonner's butcheries in the former Reign Who being questioned for the cruelty of his executions appeared so far from being sensible of any errour which he then committed as to declare himself to be sorry for nothing more than that instead of lopping off some few boughs and branches he did not lay his axe to the root of the tree and though it was not hard to guess at how high a mark the wretches malice seemed to aim and what he meant by laying his axe to the root of the tree yet passed he unpunished for the present though divine vengeance brought him in
with Excommunication in that publick Audience for which they were committed to the Tower on the fifth of April The rest of the Bishops were commanded to abide in London and to give bond for their appearance at the Council-Table whensoever they should be râ—quired And so the whole Assembly was dismist and the conference ended before it had been well begun the Lord Keeper giving to the Bishops this sharp remembrance Sincâ— said he you are not wâ—lling that we should hear you you shall very shortly hear from us Which notwithstanding produced this good effect in the Lords and Commons that they conceived the Bishops were not able to defend their Doctrin in the points disputed which made the way more easie for the passing of the publick Liturgy when it was brought unto the Vote Two Speeches there were made against it in the House of Peers by Scot and Fecknam and one against the Queens Supremacy by the Archbishop of York but they prevailed as little in both points by the power of their Eloquence as they had done in the first by their want of Arguments It gave much matter of discourse to most knowing men that the Bishops should so wilfully fall from an appointment to which they had before agreed and thereby forfeit their whole Cause to a Condemnation But they pretended for themselves that they were so straightned in point of time that they could not possibly digest their Arguments into form and order that they looked upon it as a thing too much below them to humble themselves to such a Conference or Disputation in which Bacon a meer lay-man and of no great learning was to sit as Judge and finally that the points had been determined already by the Catholick Church and therefore were not to be called in question without leave from the Pope Which last pretence if it were of any weight and moment it must be utterly impossible to proceed to any Reformation in the state of the Church by which the power and pride of the Popes of Rome may be any thing lessened or that the corruptions of the Church should be redressed iâ— it consist not with their profit For want of time they were no more straightned than the opposite party none of them knowing with what arguments the other side would fortifie and confirm their cause nor in what forms they would propose them before they had perused â—heir reciprocal Papers But nothing was more weakly urged than their exception against the Presidency of Sir Nicholas Bacon which could not be considered as a matter either new or strange not strange because the like Presidency had been given frequently to Cromwel in the late Reign of King Henry the 8th and that not only in such general Conferences but in several Convocations and Synodical meetings Not new because the like had been frequently practised by the most godly Kings and Emperors of the Priâ—â—itive times for in the Council of Chalceâ—on the Emperor appointed certain Noblemen to sit as Judges whose names occur in the first Action of that Counâ—il The like we find exemplified in the Ephesine Council in which by the appointment of Theodosius and Vulentinian then Roman Emperors Candidianus a Count Imperial sate as Judge or President who in the managing of that trust over-acted any thing which was done by Cromwel as Vicar-General to that King or Bacon was impowered to do as the Queens Commissioner No such unreasonable condescention to be found in this as was pretended by the Bishops and the rest of that party to save themselves from the guilt and censure of a Tergiversation for which and other their contempts we shall find them called to a reckoning within few months after In the Convocation which accompanied the present Parliament there was little done and that little which they did was to little purpose Held under Bonner in regard of the Vacancy of the See of Canterbâ—ry it began without the ordinary preamble of a Latine Sermon all preaching being then prohibited by the Queens command The Clergy for their Prolocutor made choice of Doctor Nicholas Harâ—sâ—ield Archdeacon of Canterbâ—ry a man of more ability as his works deâ—lare than he had any opportunity to make use of in the present service The Aâ—t of the submission of the Clergy to King Henry the 8th and his Successors Kings of England had been repealed in the first year of Queen Mary so that the Clergy might have acted of their own authority without any license from the Queen and it is much to be admired that Bonner White or Watson did not put them to it but such was either their feaâ— or modesty or a despair of doing any good to themselves and the cause that there was nothing done by the Bishops at all and not much more by the lower Clergy than a declaration of their judgment in some certain points which at that time were conceived fit to be commended to the sight of the Parliament that is to say 1. That in the Sacrament of the Altar by vertue of Christs assisting after the word is duly pronounced by the Priest the natural body of Christ conceived of the Virgin Mary is really present under the species of Bread and Wine as also his natural Blood 2. That after the Câ—nsecration there remains not the substance of Bread and Wine not any substance save the substance of God and Man 3. That the true body of Christ and his Blood is offered for a propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead 4. That the supream power of feeding and governing the militant Church of Christ and of confirming their brethren is given to Peter the Apostle and to his lawful Successors in the See Apostolick as unto the Vicars of Christ. 5. That the authority to handle and define such things which belong to Faith the Sacraments and Discipline Ecclesiastical hath hitherto ever belonged and onely ought to belong unto the Pastors of the Church whom the holy Spirit hath placed in the Church and not unto Lay-men These Articles they caused to be engrossed so commended them to the care and consideration of the Higher House By Bonner afterwards that is to say on the 3d. of March presented to the hands of the Lord Keeper Bacon by whom they were candidly received But they prevailed no further with the Queen or the House of Peers when imparted to them but that possibly they might help forwards the disputation which not long after was appointed to be held at Westminster as before was said It was upon the 8th of May that the Parliament ended and on the 24th of June that the publick Liturgy was to be officiated in all the Churches of the Kingdom In the performanâ—e of which service the Bishops giving no encouragement and many of the Clergy being backward in it it was thought fit to put them to the final test and either to bring them to conformity or to bestow their places and preferments on more tractable persons The Bishops at that time
had been reduced into a narrower number than at any other time before The Sees of Salisbâ—ry and Oxon had been made vacant in the year 1557. by the death of Capâ—n in the one and of King in the other neither of which Churches had since been filled and that of Oxon not in ten years after Pacefew of Hereford Holyman of Bâ—istow and Glyn of Bangor died some few weeks before the Queen Cardinal Poâ—e of Canterbury on the same day with her Hopton of Norwich and Broâ—ks of Glâ—cester within few weeks after Gryssin of Rochester departed this life about the beginning of the Parliament about which time also Paâ—es of Worcester forsook the Kingdom and was followed by Goldwel of St Asaph in the end of May so that there were no more than fifteen living of that sacred Order And they being called in the beginning of July by certain of the Lords of the Council commissionated thereunto in due form of Law were then and there required to take the oath of Supremacy according to the law made in that behalf Kitchin of Landaff only takes it who having formerly submitted unto every change resolved to shew himself no Changling in not conforming to the pleasure of the Higher Powers By all the rest it was refused that is to say by Dr Heath Archbishop of York Bonner of London Tonstall of Duâ—ham White of Winchester Thirlby of Ely Watson of Lincoln Pool of Peteâ—borough Christopherson of Chichester Bourn of Wels Turbervile of Exeter Morgan of St Davids Bain of Lichfield Scot of Chester and Oglethorp Bishop of Carlisle And yet these men which makes it seem the greater wonder had either taken the like oath as Priests or Bishops in some part or other of the Reign of the two last Kings But now they had hardened one another to a resolution of standing out unto the last and were thereupon deprived of their several Bishopricks as the Law required A punishment whiâ—h came not on them all at once some of them being borne withall in hope of their conformity and submission till the end of September And when it came it came accompanied with so much mercy that they had no reason to complain of the like extremity as they had put upon their brethren in the late Queens time So well were they disposed of and accommodated with all things necessary that they lived more at ease and in as prosperous a condition as when they were possessed of their former dignities Archbishop Heâ—th was suffered to abide in one of his own purchased houses never restrained to any place and died in great favour with the Queen who bestowed many gratious visits on him during this retirement Tonstall of Durham spent the remainder of his tâ—â—e with Archbishop Parker by whom he was kindly entertained and honourably buried The like civility afforded also in the same house to â—hirlby of Ely and unto Bourn of Wâ—lls by the Dean of Exon in which two houses they both dyed about ten years after White though at first imprisoned for his hauts and insolencies after some cooling of himself in the Tower of London was suffered to enjoy his liberty and to retire himself to what friend he pleased Which favour was vouchsafed unto Tuâ—bervile also who being by birth a Gentleman of an ancient Family could not want friends to give him honest entertainment Wâ—tson of Lincoln having endured a short restraint spent the remainder of his time with the Bishops of Rochester and Ely till being found practising against the State he was finally shut up in Wisbich Castle where at last he died Oglethorp died soon after his deprivation of an Apoplexy Bayne of the Stone and Morgan of some other disease in December following but all of them in their beds and in perfect liberty Poole by the clemency of the Queen injoyed the like freedom courteously treated by all persons amongst whom he lived and at last died upon one of his own Farms in a good old age And as for Christopherson he had been in his time so good a Benefactor to Trinity College in Cambridge whereof he had been sometimes Master that he could not want some honest and ingenuous retribution if the necessity of his estate had required the same Bonner alone was doomed to a constant imprisonment which was done rather out of care for his preservation than as a punishment of his crimes the prison proving to that wretch his safest sanctuary whose horrid tyrannies had otherwise exposed him to the popular fury So loud a lie is that of Genebrard though a good Chronologer that the Bishops were not only punished with imprisonment and the loss of their livelihoods but that many of them were destroyed by poyson famine and many other kinds of death The Bishops being thus put to it the Oath is tendered next to the Deans and Dignitaries and by degrees also to the Rural Clergy refused by some and took by others as it seemed most agreeable to their consciences or particular ends For the refusal whereof or otherwise for not conforming to the publick Liturgy I find no more to have been deprived of their preferments than fourteen Bishops six Abbots Priors and Governours of Religious Orders twelve Deans and as many Arch-Deacons fifteen Presidents or Masters of Colleges fifty Prebendaries of Cathedral Churches and about eighty Parsons of Vicars The whole number not amounting to 200 men which in a Realm consisting of nine thousand Parishes and 26 Cathedral Churches could be no great matter But then we are to know withall that many who were cordially affected to the interess of the Church of Rome dispensed with themselves in these outward conformities which some of them are said to do upon a hope of seeing the like revolution by the death of the Queen as had before hapned by the death of King Edward and otherwise that they might be able to relieve their brethren who could not so readily frame themselves to a present compliance Which notwithstanding so it was that partly by the deprivation of these few persons but principally by the death of so many in the last years sickness there was not a sufficient number of learned men to supply the cures which filled the Church with an ignorant and illiterate Clergy whose learning went no further than the Liturgy or the Book of Homilies but otherwise conformable which was no small felicity to the Rules of the Church And on the other side many were raised to great preferments who having spent there time of exile in such forein Churches as followed the platform of Geneva returned so disaffected to Episcopal Government unto the Rites and Ceremonies here by law established as not long after filled the Church with most sad disorders not only to the breaking of the bond of peace but to the grieving and extinguishing of the spirit of Unity Private opinions not regarded nothing was more considered in them than their zeal against Popery and their abilities in learning to confirm that zeal On which account
which are herein mentioned and by degrees also did they the Te Deum the Magnificat and the Nunc dimittis Concerning the Position of the holy Table it was ordered thus viz. That no Altar should be taken down but by oversight of the Curat of the Church or the Church-wardens or one of them at the least wherein no riotous or disoâ—dered manner was to be used and that the holy Table in every Church be decently made and set in the place where the Altar stood and there commonly covered as thereto belongeth and as should be appointed by the Visitors and so to stand saving when the â—ommunion of the Sacrament is to be administred at which time the same shall be so placed in good sort within the Quire or Chancel as whereby the Minister may be more conveniently heard of the Communicants in his Prayer and Ministration and the Communicants also more conveniently and in more number communicate with the said Minister And after the Communion done from time to time the said holy Table to be placed where it stood before Which permission of removing the Table at Communion-times is not so to be understood as the most excellent King Charls declared in the case of St. Gregories as if it were ever left to the discretion of the Parish much less to the particular fancy of any humorous person but to the judgment of the Ordinary to whose place and function it doth properly belong to give direction in that point both for the thing it self or for the time when and how long as he may find cause By these Injunctions she made way to her Visitation executed by Commissioners in their several Circuits and regulated by a Book of Articles printed and published for that purpose Proceeding by which Articles the Commissioners removed all carved Images out of the Church which had been formerly abused to superstition defacing also all such Pictures Paintings and other monuments as served for the setting forth of feigned Miracles and this they did without any tumult and disorder and without laying any sacrilegious and ravenous hands on any of the Churches Plate or other Utensils which had been repaired and re-provided in the late Queens time They enquired also into the life and doctrine of Ministers their diligence in attending their several Cures the decency of their apparel the respect of the Parishioners towards them the reverent behaviour of all manner of persons in Gods publiâ—k worship Inquiry was also made into all sorts of crimes haunting of Taverns by the Clergy Adultery Fornication Drunkenness amongst those of the Laity with many other things since practised in the Visitations of particular Bâ—shops by means whereof the Church was setled and confirmed in so good an order that the work was made more easie to the Bishops when they came to govern than otherwise it could have been But more particularly in Londâ—â— which for the most part gives example to the rest of the Kingdom the Visitors were Sir Richard Sackvile father to â—homas Earl of Dorset Mr. Robert Hern after Bishop of Winchester Dr. Hâ—ick a Civilian and one Salvage possibly a Common Lawyer who calling before them divers persons of every Parish gave them an Oath to enquire and present upon such Articles and 〈◊〉 as were given unto them In persuance whereof both the Commissionâ—rs and the People shewed so much forwardness that on St. Bartholomews day and the morrow after they burned in St. Paul's Church-yard Cheap-side and other places of the City all the Roods and other Images which had been taken out of the Churches And as it is many times supposed that a thing is never well done if not over-done so hapned it in this case also zeal against superstition had prevailed so far with some ignorant men that in some places the Coaps Vestments Altar-cloaths Books Banners Sepulchres and Rood-lofts were burned altogether All matters of the Church being thus disposed of it will be time to cast our eyes on the concernments of the civil State which occurred this year in which I find nothing more considerable than the overtures of some Marriages which had been made unto the Queen Philip of Spain had made an offer of himself by the Count of Feria his Ambassadour but the Queen had heard so much of the disturbances which befell King Henry by marrying with his brothers wife that she had no desire to run into the like perplexities by marrying with her sisters husband and how he was discouraged from proceeding in it hath been shewed already Towards the end of the Parliament the Lords and Commons made an humble Addresse unto her in which they most earnestly besought her That for securing the peace of the Kingdom and the contentation of all her good and loving subjects she would think of marrying not pointing her particularly unto any one man but leaving her to please her self in the choice of the person To which she answered That she thanked them for their good affections and took their application to her to be well intended the rather because it contained no limitation of place or person which had they done she must have disliked it very much and thought it to have been a great presumption But for the matter of their sure she lets them know That she had long since made choice of that state of life in which now she lived and hoped that God would give her strength and constancy to go throw with it that if she had been minded to have changed that course she neither wanted many invitations to it in the reign of her brother not many strong impulsions in the time of her sister That as she had hitherto remained so she intended to continue by the grace of God though her Words compared with her Youth might be thought by some to be far different from her meaning And so having thanked them over again she licensed them to depart to their several businesses And it appeared soon after that she was in earnest by her rejecting of a motion made by Gustavus King of Sweden for the Prince Ericus for the solliciting whereof his second son John Duke of Finland who succeeded his Brother in that Kingdom is sent Ambassador into England about the end of September Received at Harwich in Essex by the Earl of Oxford and the Lord Robert Dudley with a goodly train of Gentlemen and Yeoman he was by them conducted honourably towards London where he was met by the Lords and Gentlemen of the Court attended through the City on the 5th of Octobâ—r to the Bishop of Winchesters house in Souâ—hwark there he remained with his Train consisting of about fifty persons till the Easter following magnificently feasted by the Queen but otherwise no farther gratified in the buâ—â—ness which he came about than all the rest who both before and after tried their fortunes in it The next great business of this year was a renewing of the Peace with the crown of France agreed on at the Treaty near the
then being and therefore that he could not consent to the holding of a Convocation in that place without some Declaâ—ation to be made by the Archbishops Bishops that their holding the Convocation in the same should not be taken or intended for any violation of the rights privileges that belong'd unto it which was accordingly perform'd It was â—n the 19th day of January that these formalities were transacted at whâ—t time the Archbishops and Bishops having first had some secret communication amongst themselves about the Articles of Religion established in King 〈◊〉 time râ—quired the Prolocutor and six others of the Lower Hâ—use of Convocation to repair unto them By whom it was signified unto their Lordships that some of the Clergy had prepared certain Bills containing a specification of such matters as were conceived to be amiss in the state of the Church and that the Articles of Religion agreed upon in the Reign of King Edward the 6th had been delivered unto others to be considered of corrected and accommodated as they found it necessary Being encouraged in the last and furthered by the diligence of some of the Bishops who were employed in the same work the Articles were agreed upon publickly read before the Bishops in the Chapter-house of St. Paul on the 29th of the same month and by all of them subscribed with great unanimity The Prelates had observed some deviation from the Doctrine of King Edward's Reign which had been made by the Calviniâ—n on Zuinglian Gospellers in the Articles of Predestination Grace Free-will and final perseverance Nor could they but take notice with how little reverence the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administred and the Authority of the Church despised by too many of the same party also which they were willing to impute to the want of some known rule amongst them by which they were to regulate their judgments and conform their actions To which end it was thought expedient that the Book of Articles agreed upon in Convocation Anno 1552. should be revised and accommodated to the use of the Church the Queens leave being first obtained for their warrant in it In the managing of which great business I know not whether I should more admire their moderation or their wisdome Their wisdome eminent in not suffering any Outlandish Divine who might drive on a different interess from that of the Church either to vote amongst them or carry any stroke in their consultations Their moderation no less visible in declining all unnecessary determinations which rather tended to the multiplying of controversies and ingendring strifes than either unto edification or increase of piety So that they seemed to have proceeded by those very Rules which King James so much approved of in the conference at Hampton Court First in not separating further from the Church of Rome in points of Discipline or Doctrine than that Church had separated from what she was in her purest times Secondly in not stuffing the Book of Articles with all Conclusions Theological in which a latitude of judgement was to be allowed as far as it might be consistent with peace and charity and Thirdly in not thrusting into it every opinion or Position negative which might have made it somewhat like Mr. Craiges Confession in the Kirk of Scotland who with his I renounce and I abhor his detestations and abrenunciations did so amaze the simple people as the King observeth that not being able to conceive or understand all those points utterly gave over all and fell back to Popery or else remained in their former ignorance Upon which grounds as they omitted many whole Articles and qualified the expressions of some others in King Edward's book so were they generally very sparing in defining any thing which was meerly matter of moduliâ—y or de modo only As namely touching the manner of Christs presence in the Holy Eucharist the manner of effecting grace by the blessed Sacraments or of the operation of Gods grace in a mans conversion Which rules being carefully observed by all the Bishops on whose authority and consent the greatest part of the whole Work did seem to rest and all particulars agreed upon amongst themselves it was no wonder if they passed their Votes without contradiction But in taking the subscriptions of the lower house there appeared more difficulty For though they all testified their consent unto them on the said 29th of January either by words express or by saying nothing to the contrary which came all to oâ—e yet when subscription was required many of the Calvinians or Zuinglian-Gospellers possibly some also which enclined rather to their old Religion and who found themselves unsatisfied in some particulars had demurred upon it With this demur their Lordships are acquainted by the Prolocutor on the 5th of February By whom their Lordships were desired in the name of that House that such who had not hitherto subscribed the Articles might be ordered to subscribe in their own proper house or in the presence of their Lordships Which request being easily granted drew on the subscription of some others but so that many still remained in their first unwillingness An Order thereupon is made by their Lordships on the â—oth then following that the Prolocutor should return the names of all such persons who refused subscription to the end that such further course might be taken with them as to their Lordships should seem most fit After which we hear no news of the like complaints and informations which makes it probable if not concluded that they all subscribed And being thus subscribed by all they were soon after published both in English and Latine with this following Title that is to say Articles agreed upon by the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London in the year 1562. for the avoiding of diversities of opinions and establishing consent touching true Religion But what they were and wherein they agreed or differed with or from those established by King Edward the 6th shall be referred for the avoiding of all interruptions in the course of this History to a place more proper Nothing else brought to a conclusion by them but the Bill of Subsidy which having past that House was confirmed in Parliament Nothing else brought into conclusion though many things were had in deliberation On Friday the 5th of February the Bishops of Salisbury Exon St David's and Lichfield were appointed by the rest of the Prelates to examine a Catechism which it seems was presented to them But being by them remitted to the consideration of the lower house they were advertised by Day and Sampson on the 3d. of March that the said house unanimously had approved thereof And there it rested for that time and for ever after nothing being done in confirmation of it as a publick Doctrine by whomsoever it was written nor any further speech made of it in the time succeeding Which fortune also hapned to a Book of Discipline projected
amongst some of the Clergy and render'd to the Bishops by the Prolocutor and ten others of that House on the 26th of February To which some additionals being made by the first contrivers it was a second time tender'd to them by the Prolocutor in the name of the lower House of Convocation by whom it had been generally and unanimously recommended to them But the Bishops let this sleep also as they did the other More was it to the profit of the Clergy generally to make inquiry into certain Articles which by the Archbishop with the consent of all the rest of the Prelates were delivered in writing The Tenour of which Articles was 1. Whether if the Writ of Melius inquirendum be sent forth there be any likelyhood that it will return to the Queens profit 2. Whether some Benefices ratably be not less than they be already valued 3. That they enquire of the manner of dilapidations and other spoliations that they can remember to have passed upon their Livings and by whom 4. To signifie how they have been used for the levying of the arrerages of tenths and Subsidies and for how many years past 5. As also how many Benefices they find that are charged with pensions newly imposed to discharge the pensions of Religious persons 6. And lastly to certifie how many Benefices are vacant in every Diocess But what return was made upon these enquiries I find as little in the Acts of this Convocation as either in allowance of the Catechism or the Book of Discipline Religion and the State being thus fortified and secured in England it will not be amiss to see what they do in Scotland where the young Queen was graciously enclined to forget all injuries and grant more liberty to her subjects in the free exercising and enjoying of their own perswasions than she could gain unto her self For in a Parliament held in May within few months after the end of that in England the Act for oblivion formerly condescended to in the Treaty at Edenborough was confirmed and ratified but without reference to that Treaty the results whereof the Queen by no means would acknowledge to be good and valid And thereupon it was advised that the Lords should supplicate on their knees in the House of Parliament for the passing of it which was accordingly performed by them and vouchsafed by her There also past some other Acts of great advantage to the Church as affairs then stood that is to say one Act for the repairing and upholding of Parish Churches and the Church-yards of the same for burial of the dead Another against letting Parsonages Glebes or Houses into long Leases or Fee But this came somewhat of the latest a great part of the Tythes Houses and possessions which belonged to the Church having been formerly aliened or demised for a very long term by the Popish Clergy when they perceived they were not likely to enjoy them longer for themselves But on the other side no safety or protection could be found for her own Religion no not so much as in the Chapel-Royal or the Regal City In contempt whereof a force was violently committed in the month of August in the Chapel of the Palace of Holy Rood House the Whitehall of Edenborough where certain of the Queens servants were assembled for their own devotions the dores broke 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 Return we back again to France where we find some alternations of affairs between the French King and the Reingrave on the one side the English and confederate Princes on the other but so that fortune seemed most favourable to the English party The Church of Hattivil a neighbouring Village to Newhaven taken and garrison'd by the Reingrave but presently abandoned and repossessed by the English The Castle of Tankervile cunningly taken by the English and soon after regained by the Reingrave The City and Castle of Cane held with a strong Garison by the Marquiss d' Elbeuffe and besiâ— ged by the confederate forces both French and English and finally surrender'd to the Admiral Chastilion to the use of the Princes March the 2d After which followed the surrendry of Bayeulx Faleise St. Lods and divers other Towns and Castles The Town of Hareflew on the Seine gallantly taken by the help of the English of Newhaven on the 10th and garrison'd by such souldiers and inhabitants as was sent from thence Which fortunate successes so amazed the heads of the Guisian faction that they agreed unto an Edict of pacification by which the French Princes were restored to the Kings favor the Hugonots to the free exercise of their own Religion and all things setled for the present to their full contentment But they must buy this happiness by betraying the English whom they had brought into the Country and join their forces with the rest to drive them out of Newhaven if they would not yield it on demand Of this the Queen had secret notice and offereth by Throgmorton to deliver up Newhaven in exchange for Callis The French resolve to hold the one and recover the other so that new forces are sent over to make good the Town The French draw toward it in great numbers under the conduct of the Marshals of Brissack and Mont Morency followed not long after by the Constable himself with many other French Lords of the highest quality The siege growes close and the service very hot on both sides but the English had a fiercer enemy within the Town than any whom they found without The pesâ—ilence had got in amongst them and raged so terribly for the time that the living were scarce able to bury the dead And to compleat the miseries of the besieged the Prince of Conde and the Duke of Montpensier shewed themselves openly amongst the rest in the Camp of the enemies that the last act of the Tragedy might be plaid in their presence All things conspiring thus against them the English are necessitated to a capitulation by which they left the Town behind them on the 29th of July but carried the plague with them into England Which might by some be looked on as an argument of Gods displeasure on this Nation for giving aid unto the Rebels of a Christian Prince though masked with the vizard of Religion Passe we on further toward Trent where we find the Fathers in high displeasure against Queen Elizabeth exasperated by her aiding the French Hugonots against their King But more for passing the Statute above mentioned for punishing all those which countenanced and maintained the Popes authority within her dominions The Pope hereby so much incensed that he dispatched a Commission to the Fathers of Trent to proceed to an