lodging in the Charter-house where she staid some dayes till all things in the Tower might be fitted for her reception Attended by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen with a stately Train of Lords and Ladies she entreth by Cripple-gate into the City passeth along the Wall till she came to Bishops-gate where all the Companies of the City in their several Liveries waited her coming in their proper and distinct ranks reaching from thence until the further end of Mark-lane where she was entertained with a peal of great Ordinance from the Tower At her entrance into which place she rendred her most humble thanks to Almighty God for the great and wondrous change of her condition in bringing her from being a prisoner in that place to be the Ruler of her people and now to take possession of it as a Royal Palace Here she emained till December the fifth then next following and from thence removed by water to Sommerset-house In each remove she found such infinite throngs of people which flocked from all parts to see her both by land and water and testified their publick joy by such loud acclamations as much rejoyced her heart to hear and could not but express it in her words and countenance As she passed through London the Bible was presented to her at the little Conduit in Cheapside which she received with both her hands and kissing it laid it to her breast saying That the same had ever been her delight and should be the rule by which she meant to frame her Government She was crowned by Owen Oglethorp Bishop of Carlisle Camden's Hist of Q. Elizab. on January the fourteenth for that the Archbishop of York and the rest of the Bishops refused to perform that office suspecting her Religion who had been first bred in the Protestants Religion and also for that she had very lately forbidden the Bishop in saying Mass to lift up the Host to be adored and permitted the Liâ—any with the Epistle and Gospel to be read in the vulgar tongue For the first six weeks things stood in their former state without the least alteration She being now twenty five years of age and taught by Experience and Adversity had gathered wisdom above age the proof whereof she gave in chusing her Counsellors which were as follow Nicholas Heath Archbishop of York William Pawlet Marquess of Winchester Lord Treasurer Henry Fitz-Alan Earl of Arundel Francis Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury Edward Stanley Earl of Darby William Herbert Earl of Pembrook Edward Lord Clinton Lord Admiral of the Sea William Lord Howard of Effingham Lord Chamberlain Sir Thomas Cheiney Sir William Peter Sir John Mason Sir Richard Sackvill Nicholas Wotton Dean of Canterbury All these were Papists and of Queen Maries Council To these she joyned of her own William Par Marquess of Northampton Francis Russel Earl of Bedford Edward Rogers Ambrose Cave Francis Knollys William Cecil who had been Secretary to King Edward the Sixth and soon after Nicholas Bacon whom she made Lord Keeper of the Great Seal All these were of the Protestants Religion and had been in no place under Queen Mary Proclamations came forth that Preachers should abstain from questions controverted in Religion Then care was taken for sending new Commissions unto such Ambassadors as resided in the Courts of several Princes both to acquaint them with the change and to assure those Princes of the Queen's desire to maintain all former leagues between them and the Crown of England To her Agent in the Court of Spain it was given in charge to represent to the King the dear remembrance which she kept of those many Humanities received from him in the time of her Troubles Instructions are sent also to Sir Edward Karn the late Queen's Agent with the Pope and now confirmed by her in the same employment to make the Pope acquainted with the death of Queen Mary and her succession to the Crown not without some desire that all good Offices might be reciprocally exchanged between them But the Pope answered Heylin Hist of Q. Elizab. An. Reg. 1. That the Kingdom of England was held in Fee of the Apostolick See That she could not succeed being Illegitimate That He could not contradict the declaration of Clement the Seventh and Paul the Third That it was a great boldness to assume the Name and Government of it without him yet being desirous to shew a Fatherly affection if she would renounce her pretensions and refer her self wholly to his free disposition He will do whatsoever may be done with the Honour of the Apostolick See The new Queen having performed this office of Civility to him as she did to others expected no answer nor took much thought of it when she heard it Many who were imprisoned for Religion she restored to liberty at her first coming to the Crown which occasioned Rainsford a Gentleman of the Court to make a sute to her in the behalf of Matthew Mark Luke and John who had been long imprisoned in a Latin Translation that they also might walk abroad as formerly in the English Tongue To whom she made answer That he should first endeavour to know the minds of the prisoners who perhaps desired no such liberty as he demanded King Philip fearing least he should lose the strength and title of the Kingdom of England and that the Kingdom of England Scotland and Ireland would by Mary Queen of Scots be annexed unto France dealt seriously with Queen Elizabeth about a Marriage to be contracted with her promising to procure a special dispensation from the Bishop of Rome The Queen weighing in her mind the unlawfulness of such a Marriage puts off King Philip by little and little with a modest answer but indeed out of scruple of Conscience And now she thought nothing more pleasing to God than that Religion should be forthwith be altered Thereupon the care of correcting the Liturgy was committed to Doctor Matthew Parker Bill May Grindal Whitehead and Pilkinton Learned and moderate Divines and to Sir Thomas Smith Knight the matter being imparted to no man but the Marquess of Northampton the Earl of Bedford Sir John Grey of Pyrgo and Sir William Cecil A Parliament was summoned to begin on January 25. which opened with an Eloquent and Learned Sermon Preached by Dr. Cox In the House of Commons there were some furious Spirits who eagerly opposed all propositions which seemed to tend unto the prejudice of the Church of Rome Of which number none so violent as Scory Doctor of the Laws and a Great Instrument of Bonner's Butcheries in Queen Mary's Reign who being questioned for the cruelty of his Executions declared himself to be sorry for nothing more That instead of lopping off some few boughes and branches he did not lay his Ax to the Root of the Tree Yet passed He unpunished for the present though Divine Vengeance brought him in the end to his just reward In this Parliament passed an Act for recognizing the Queen's just Title to the
was found an Altar ready furnished with many Plates Jewels rich Pictures and Manuscripts Wax-candles c. with many Books in a Study In another Study of his many curious Tools and Engines three Rapiers one Pistol and a Fowling piece the pictures of Queen Elizabeth King James Queen Anne and King Charles He had also in his custody all the Keeper's Warrants for committing of his prisoners which were found in his Chamber together with some store of Plate which he said he kept for the Keeper's wife In Warrington's Chamber were found Books Beads Boxes of Oyl for extreme Unction c. But the wall thereof was broken down into another house adjoyning to the Prison through which it is conceived the rest of Warrington's stuffe was convaied away in the Interim of the search made in the two former Chambers Prator was first committed to Glocester Gaol but a Warrant was procured by the Papists for his remove to the Clink where he was found a prisoner But a countermand was brought from the Archbishop and Mr. Atturney whereby the proceeding of that business was staid and the Marshal prohibited to remove or take any thing so much as a paper The Keeper and his Wife and the Priests did grievously threaten the Marshall and all his Assistants with very high terms especially wi h Arrests and Imprisonments for this action The Marshall also informed the Committee that upon the twenty second of March last by a like Warrant from the Lord Conway he searched the Bishop's prison called the New prison in Maidâ—n-lane in London where he found six several Priests in several Chambers an Altar with all furniture thereto belonging c. as much as three Porters could carry away it being in the hands of the Lord Conway The House of Commons agreed upon a petition to his Majesty concerning Recusants That he would give order to remove from all places of Authority and Government all such persons as are either Popish Recusants or justly to be suspected Here they named many Lords Knights and Esquires in divers Counties of England But this Parliament was soon after dissolved A generalâ— Fast was observed July 5. in the Cities of London and Westminster and places adjacent and on the second of August throughout the Kingdom to implore a blessing upon the endeavours of the State and the diverting of those judgments which the sins of the Land deserved and threatned Divers Lords of the Council were appointed to repair into their several Countries for the advancement of a Loan to the King This business occasioned a complaint to the Lords of the Council against the Bishop of Lincoln for publickly speaking words concerning it which was conceived to be against the King and Government Whereupon Sir John Lamb and Dr. Sibthorp informed the Council to this purpose That many were grieved to see the Bishop of Lincoln give place to unconformable Ministers when he turned his back to those that were conformable and how the Puritans ruled all with him c. The Informations given against the Bishop of Lincoln being transmitted to the Council-Table were ordered to be sealed up and committed to the custody of Mr. Trumbal one of the Clerks of the Council nevertheless the Bishop of Lincoln got a copy of them Dr. Sibthorp published a Sermon in Print Preached by him at Northampton February 22. 1626. at Lent Assizes entitled Apostolick Obedience This Book was Licensed by the Bishop of London who approved thereof It was dedicated to the King it was brought forth upon his Majesties Commission for raising of moneys by way of Loan Dr. Roger Manwaring promoted the same business in two Sermons Preached before the King and Court at Whitehall The Papists at this time were very liberal on this occasion that it was then said That in the point of Allegiance then in hand the Papists were exceeding Orthodox and the Puritans were the onely Recusants 1627. Archbishop Abbot having been long slighted at Court now fell under the King 's high displeasure for refusing to License Dr. Sibthorp's Sermon forementioned and not long after was suspended from his Office and confined to his House at Ford in Kent and a Commission was granted to the Bishops of London Durham Rochester Oxford and Doctor Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells to execute Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction The occasion of this Commission was not discovered otherwise than by what was expressed in the Commission it self viz. That the said Archbishop could not at that present in his own person attend those services which were otherwise proper for his cognisance and jurisdiction and which as Archbishop of Canterbury he might and ought in his own Person have performed and Executed The Archbishop for a memorial of these proceedings left to posterity a Narrative penned with his own hand The City of London was filled with the report of his Confining and divers men spake diversly of it The Papists in Ireland proffer to pay five thousand men if they might but enjoy a toleration But that motion was crushed by Bishop Downham's Sermon in Dublin on Luke 1.74 After this the King being resolved upon the calling of a Parliament Archbishop Abbot the Earl of Bristol and the Bishop of Lincoln notwithstanding the cloud they are under are had in consideration by the King and Council and Writs are Ordered to be sent unto them to sit in the House as Peers in the ensuing Parliament A little before the Parliament assembled a Society of Recusants was taken in Clarkenwel Divers of them were found to be Jesuites and the house wherein they were taken was designed to be a Colledge of that Order Vid. Rushw Collects Ad Anno 1627. Among their Papers was found a Copy of a Letter written to their Father Rector at Bruxels discovering their designs upon this State and their judgement of the temper thereof with a conjecture of the success of the ensuing Parliament A Parliament assembleth March 17. which proveth full of troubles Money came from them heavily to the supply of the King's necessities the rather because they complained of Doctrines destructive to their Propriety Preached at Court For towards the end of the Session of this Parliament Mr. Rouse brought in a charge against Dr. Manwaring which some days after was seconded with a Declaration He was severely censured for two Sermons he had Preached and Printed about the power of the King's Prerogative Four days after it was ordered by the House of Lords against him I. To be imprisoned during the pleasure of the House II. To be fined a thousand pounds III. To make his submission at the Bar in this House IV. To be suspended from his Ministerial function three years V. To be disabled for ever hereafter from Preaching at Court VI. To be uncapable of any Secular Office VII That his Books are worthy to be burnt and His Majesty to be moved that it may be so in London But much of this Censure was remitted in Consideration of the performance of his humble submission at
Parliament House and Order seven Commissioners for the management of the Army Colonel Morley upon this change had his Regiment restored and with it the Government of the Tower conferred on him The Irish Brigade was brought off to General Monk by Redman and Bret. Dublin-castle is surprized and Sir Charles Coot reduceth all Connaught to a compliance with the present Design The Lord Fairfax and several of Monk's party joyning with him rise in York-shire Now General Monk begins his march into England By that time he came to Morpeth he was informed that Lambert's whole party was of themselves dispersed into several quarters in submission to the Parliament's Orders There he receive's an Address from the City of London by Mr. William Man their Sword-bearer as likewise from the Gentry of the Countrey in all parts as he marched along The new restored Members on January 2. name 31. Counsellors of State passing an Act for their Constitution and several Instructions for them to Act by among which it was provided that â—one should sit but such as should take an Oath of Abjuration of the King His family and Government The Oath was opposed by divers of the House Scot and Robinson are sent from the House to complement and attend General Monk upon his journey Mr. Clarges gives him an account how affairs stand at London he sends a letter by Mr. Clarges to the House from St. Albans Several addresses are made to him in his March pleading for a free Parliament He marcheth with his forces into the City of London Being come to the Council of State the Oath of Abjuration was tendred to him which he refuseth to take He is conducted with much Ceremony into the House where he receives the gratulations of the House The City continued malecontent whereupon the General is Ordered by the Council of State to march into the City and pull down the Gates and Percullices of the City which he unwillingly caused to be done The same day a Factious party of Citizens presented a Petition to the House by one Praise-God Barebone to countenance the Action The General sends a letter to the House signed by Himself and several Officers complaining against the admission of Ludlow and others into the House that had been by Sir Charles Coot accused of high Treason and that they had countenanced too much a late Petition to exclude the most sober and conscientious both Ministers and others by Oaths from all employment and maintenance he requested them that by Friday next they should Issue out Writs to fill up their House and when filled should rise in some short time to give place to a full and free Paliament Scot and Robinson are sent from the House to the General with their answer to his letter The General excuseth his late proceedings in the City before the Lord Mayor and Common Council of the City He tells them what he had written to the House touching a free Parliament The City joyfully receives the news of a free Parliament The Council of State write to him to desire his presence with them but he excuseth his stay in the City for some longer time till the minds of the Citizens were more composed The City and Chief Officers of his Army disswade him from going to White-hall The General is sollicited from all parts to admit the secluded Members He admits of a conference before him of the sitting with some of the secluded Members The Officers of the Army consent to the admission of the secluded Members upon certain conditions The General and the Officers at length agree upon their admission and on the Tuesday morning following they were guarded to the House and took their places in the Parliament Then was a letter signed by the General and his Chief Officers drawn up and Copies of it sent to all the Regiments and Garrisons in England and to the Commanders in Chief of the Armies in England Scotland and Ireland to acquaint them with what he had done The Parliament repealed the Act for the Council of State and the Oath of Abjuration and passed an Act for another Council consisting of one and thirty persons most of them men of integrity and well-affected to Kingly-government Then the General sends Colonel Fairfax to take possession of Hull and Colonel Overton submits to his Orders The Army in Scotland were well-satisfied with the General 's Actions About the thirteenth of March the Parliament abrogated the Engagement appointed formerly to be taken by each Member of Parliament in these words viz. I do declare and promise That I will be true and faithful to the Common Wealth of England as the same is now established without King or House of Lords and appointed it should be taken off the file and made Null The Common Wealth Faction desire the General rather to take the Government upon himself than to bring in the King and treat with him about it The General refuseth their offer Then the Republicans attempt to make a mutiny in the Army The long Parliament was now dissolved The King removes to Breda The Council of State appointed by the late Parliament set forth a Proclamation for the preventing of tumults Lambert escape's out of the Tower Colonel Ingoldsby and Colonel Streater march against Lambert defeat his party and take him prisoner Colonel Lambert Colonel Cobbet and Major Creed are sent prisoners to the Tower Hereupon several seditious Pamphlets were published in Print and dispersed to deprave the mindes of the people and Tickets were thrown into the Courts of Guard in the night to divide the Souldiers But none of them was penned with more virulency and malice than that suppositious paper carrying in it's Frontispiece A letter from Bruxels c. Several letters were also sent to the General from unknown hands Then came forth a Declaration of the Nobility and Gentry that adhered to the late King residing in and about the City of London A new Parliament met at Westminster April 25. 1660. The Lords chose the Earl of Manchester to be their Speaker and the House of Commons Sir Harbottle Grimston On April 27. Sir John Greenvil presents the General with a Commission from His Majesty to Constitute him Captain General of all the Armies of England Scotland and Ireland and a letter for the Council of State The Letter had a Declaration in it which were both read in the House After the reading thereof the House of Lords voted That according to the Antient and fundamental Laws of this Kingdom the Government is and ought to be by King Lords and Commons The Officers of the Army present an Address to the General in compliance with His Majestie 's Letter and Declaration it is read by the Commons and approved Commissary Clarges is appointed by the General to wait upon the King with this Address Six of the Lords and of the Commons and divers Aldermen and divers Episcopal and Presbyterial Divines and some other eminent Citizens are sent to attend on his Majesty
maintained were mighty and likely to oppose viz. the French and Spaniards They that were friends as the Protestants in France and the Netherlands were weak and needed her help But the Lord of Hosts made her a terrour to his and her enemies and a succour to all his people at home and abroad And it seemeth the Lord began betimes to cause his terrour to fall upon the Adversaries for the Council of Trent ended in a very few years after she began her Reign and a motion was made that the Heads or chief of the Protestants should be excommunicated and in particular Queen Elizabeth But the Emperour Ferdinand sent them a message to cool their heat Hist Concil Trid. lib. 8. and wrote to the Pope and the Legates that if the Council would not yield that fruit as was desired that they might see an union of all Catholicks to reform the Church at the least they should not give occasion to the Protestants to unite themselves more which they would do in case they proceeded against the Queen of England for undoubtedly they would by that means make a general league against the Catholicks which would bring forth great inconveniences And his admonition was so effectual that the Pope desisted in Rome and revoked the Commission given to the Legats in Trent About that time Christianity began to dawn in the Kingdom of Ireland and suddenly after the Kingdom of Scotland embraced the Gospel of Christ and Queen Elizabeth is made Instrumental that way who ayded the Reformed party in Scotland with great supplies of men and money against the Pope's faction both of French and Scotch The Gospel did so prevail in France also at that time and the Protestants grew so numerous and considerable the Queen-Mother who was an enemy yet seemed to temporize and speak them fair and wrote to the Pope for Reformation of divers abuses to give them content insomuch that a Learned man then living in Germany though born in Italy breaketh out in an Epistle to his friend Totus terrarum orbis parturit Christum But now let us mark how the enemies of the Churches peace raged in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth what hideous and damnable treasons did they commit and how did they thirst after the Royal blood of that peerless Princess And when the Lord had confounded their plots how did they seek to overwhelm and swallow us up with the power of Spain in the year 1588. But after that in despite of the Pope and his Adherents that Noble Queen was carried to her grave in peace full of dayes riches and honour and her Successour both in her Kingdom and Religion was established in his Throne how did these Romish Cannibals seek to exceed themselves in wickedness and horrible cruelty they sought at one blow as it were to cut off the neck of this Church and State Thâ—an Hist lib. 54. Anno 1572. A French Historian speaking of the bloody Massacre saith Wise men which were not addicted to the Protestants part seeking all manner of excuse for that fact did notwithstanding think that in all Antiquity there could not be found an example of like cruelty But the English Powder-plot doth so far exceed the French Massacre that there is no degree of comparison This cannot be paralelled It was of such a transcendency saith M. Mason that all the Devils may seem to have holden a black Convocation in Hell and there to have concluded such a Sulphurious and Acherontical device as was never heard of since the world began That wicked Popish crew being made drunk with the cup of spiritual fornications held forth unto them by the Whore of Babylon with unspeakable fury and madness did violate the Sacred Lawes and break the strongest bands of common humanity and meant to have represented a shadow of Hell and Hellish-malice here upon earth far exceeding the wickedness of Kain their Elder-brother and exceeding all examples of Treason Cruelty and Murther Except that of Judas The Pope and Court of Rome who were wont to account England Puteum inexhaustum a well never drawn dry whilst they had the drawing of it now seeing the golden springs like to run low or rather to run another way and not to empty themselves in their Cisterns they like Balaam loving the Wages of unrighteousness were Raging mad and cared not how much of the best Blood in the Land were spilt so that it might make way for them again to the English gold But the greater their rage was the greater was God's mercy the greater the danger the greater the deliverance The Lord was known by executing judgement and those wicked wretches were snared in the work of their own hands Now let us consider what we were before the Christian Religion was first known to this Nation What were the Britains but Pagans and Barbarous people Yea we read that from the first submission of the Britans to the Romans that Ambassadours came from Britain to Rome swearing Fealty in the Temple of Mars offering gifts in the Capitol to the gods of the Romans And for the Saxons they were at first no better than the Britans the Saxons were a Dutch and Pagan-nation and served Saturn Jupiter and Mercury till they were converted to the Faith of Christ and renounced their Idols to serve the true and living God Earcombent Reigning in Kent after the death of his father King Ethelbald is said to be the first of English Saxon Kings that commanded Idols to be destroyed in his whole Kingdom about the year of Christ 640. 2. Consider we the Apostasie of our forefathers in adhereing to the Roman faction and then the renewed Apostasie at the death of King Edward the sixth together with our unworthy and unfruitful walking under the Gospel since the restoring of it by Queen Elizabeth 3. Consider likewise the mighty out-stretched Arm of God in protecting his Church and in preserving the truth of Religion among us still notwithstanding the plots designs and contrivances of Satan and his Instruments and the many Enterprizes of the Papal power ever since the days of K. James the great droves of Sectaries swarming like Locusts since our late unhappy Wars who seemed to be Spirited and acted by the Jesuites their crying down Magistracy and Ministry notwithstanding all which the Christian Religion hath prevailed against all its adversaries The consideration of all these things may give us ground of hope that God will still vouchsafe to dwell with his Antient Inheritance and therefore we may confidently commend the care of this Church his old habitation to himself who I trust will never suffer the Devils Instruments to ruine his palace and to pull down the place of his Antient possession THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF Great Britain CENTURY I. IEsus Christ the Son of God the true Prince of Peace was born in Bethlehem-Judah of the Virgin Mary in the 42 year of the Reign of Augustus Coesar the Roman Emperour under the 194 Olympiad in the XIX
year of the Reign of Kymbeline King of Britain Divers Writers of note do tell us Baron Annal. Tom. 1. An. 61. Usser de Brit. Eccles primord c. 1. p. 7. Parker de vetust Eccl. Britan. p. 2 3. Fox Act. Monum vol. 1. Sir H. Spelm. Concil Tom. 1. Per Josephum Evangelii lucerna primum in Britania accensa est Georg. Major that the Gospel was preached and received in this Land even in the days of the Apostles Baronius and the Learned Archbishop Vsher tell us that St. Peter came into Britain in the twelfth year of the Emperour Nero and staid a long time here many being by him illightned Nicephorus saith that Simon Zelotes carried the Doctrine of the Gospel unto the Western Sea and to the Britannick Islands The Learned Archbishop Matthew Parker Bishop Godwin Mr. Camden and others do assert that St. Paul himself that great Apostle of the Gentiles Preached the Gospel to this Island after his enlargement from his first captivity at Rome where some say he continued Preaching five years And this say they he did at the instigation of Claudia a Noble British Woman Gildas our own Countrey-man Polydor Virgil Mr. Fox Sir Henry Spelman and many others tell us that Joseph of Arimathea that Holy Man after he had buried the body of Christ in his own Tomb came into this Island and Preached the Gospel here being sent hither by Philip and James the Apostles That he was in this Land is confirmed not onely by divers Histories but also by Antient Monuments Baleus alledgeth many other witnesses It doth not appear that the first Preachers of the Gospel in Britain did so much as touch at Rome much less that they received any command or commission thence to convert Britain which should lay an Eternal obligation of gratitude on this Island to the Sea of Rome Insomuch that Parsons himself flyes at last to this slight and slender shift That albeit St. Joseph came not immediately from Rome yet he taught in this Island the Roman Faith whereof St. Paul hath written to the Romans themselves that your Faith is spoken of through the whole World Rom. 1.8 Hereby the Jesuite hopes to keep on foot the engagement of this Island to Rome Fuller Church Histor lib. 1. for her first conversion But why should he call the Christian Religion the Roman Faith rather than the Faith of Jerusalem or the Faith of Antioch seeing it issued from the former and was received and first named in the latter City before any spark of Christianity was kindled at Rome as Dr. Fuller well observeth CENT II. WE read that the Gospel in our Land had the countenance of publick Authority through the gratious providence of God very early Omnium Provinciarum prima Britannia publicitus Christi nomen recipit Sabellic Enn. 7. l. 5. A Learned Writer speaking of the dignity of this Nation saith That of all the Provinces of the Roman Empire yea it seemeth of the whole World this Island of Great Britain did first receive the Gospel by publick Authority Lucius King of Britain was the first Christian King we read of in Ecclesiastical Stories He embraced the Faith about an hundred and fifty years after the death of Christ It is said of this King Lucius that at first he shewed himself an enemy to the Christians but observing the holiness of their lives he was enclined to embrace the Christian Faith but was held off for a time partly by the Heathenish superstition of his Ancestors wherein he had been bred up and partly because he found the Christians reputed infamous by the Romans then the Lords of a great part of the World under whom it seemeth he was a tributary King but being afterward informed that many of the Nobles or Senators of the Romans had embraced the Christian Religion he made an open profession of it and made a notable reformation in his Dominions Moreover he being much taken with the Miracles which he beheld truly wrought by pious Christians was the more drawn to embrace their Religion and sent Elvanus and Meduinus men of known Piety and Learning in the Scriptures to Eleutherius Bishop of Rome with a Letter requesting several things of him but principally that he might be instructed in the Christian Faith Eleutherius returneth him this Answer That having recâ—â—ved in his Kingdom the Law and Faith of Christ Holinsh descr of Brit. c. 7. Annals of England by John Stow. and having now the Old and New Testaments he should by a Council of his Realm take Laws from thence to govern thereby That he was the Vicar of God in his Kingdomes That the People and Nations of the Kingdom of Britain were His even His children That such as were divided he should gather them together unto the Law of Christ his holy Church unto peace and concord and should cherish maintain protect govern and defend them c. When Christian Religion first was publickly received and established in this Land by King Lucius here were then of Heathen institution eight and twenty Flamines and three Archflamines The places of the Flamines the King turned to so many Bishopricks the places of the Archflamines to so many Archbishopricks the one at London translated afterward to Canterbury the other at York the third at Caerleon in Wales where seaven of those Bishopricks with this Archbishoprick were remaining when Austin the Monk came into England Here were Temples also builded for the worship of Paynim-gods of which he made Churches for the service of Jesus Christ Thomas Rudbourn a Moâ—â—â—â— Winchester Moratus an old British Writer and others testifie that 〈◊〉 was Bishop of Winchester and all the possessions of the â—gaâ— â—es there were conferred upon him and his Clergy which were â—o ample that even about the City all the Lands within twelve miles of it on all sides were belonging unto it containing in number 32 Villages And thus the Britains had for their greatest glory the happiness to see and enjoy the first Christian Prince in the World It is reported that King Lucius was the Founder of St. Peter's Church at Cornhil in London placing therein one Thean an Archbishop and that the Metropolitan See continued in a succession of Archbishops there about 400 years until the coming of Austin the Monk who translated the Archbishop's seat from London to Canterbury In that Church was a Table wherein is written that King Lucius founded the same Church to be an Archbishop's See and that it so endured the space of 400 years There are the name of these Archbishops of London Thean Elvanus Cadar Obinus Conan Paladius Stephen Iltut Theodwyn or Dedwin Thedrid Hilary Restitutus Guertelinus or Guitelinus Fastidius Vodinus Theonus c. Elvanus built a Library near St. Peter's Church in Cornhil he was a Godly Learned and Grave Man brought up in the School of Joseph of Arimathea and Converted many of the Druydes to the Christian Faith Bishop Godwin saith That the Archbishoprick
the remarkable particulars thereof saith Dr. Fuller in his Church History of Britain Let us now return to our Augustine who all this while was very industrious and no less successful in converting the Saxons to the Christian Faith insomuch that a certain Author reporteth how in the River Swale near Richmond in York-shire Augustine in one day Baptized above ten thousand but Bede makes no mention at all hereof and ascribeth this numerous baptizing to Paulinus Bishop of York many years after In that age nothing was used with Baptism but Baptism the word and the water made the Sacrament At Corn in Dorset-shire Austin destroyed the Idol of Heale or Aesculapius which the Saxons formerly adored Sebert King of Essex Nephew to Ethelbert King of Kent by Ricula his sister embraced the Faith with all his Kingdome by the Ministry of Mellitus whom Augustine ordained Bishop of London making also one Justus a Roman Bishop of Rochester Bed Eccl. Hist liâ— 2. ca. 3. Augustine died and was buried in the Northern part of the new Church in Canterbury dedicated to Peter and Paul Bede saith this inscription was written upon his Monument Here resteth Lord Augustine the first Archbishop of Canterbury who being in times past sent hither by blessed Gregory Bishop of the Roman City and supported by God with the working of Miracles brought King Ethelbert and his Country from the Worshiping of Idols to the faith of Christ and the daies of his Office being finished in peace he died the seventh of the Calends of June the same King reigning But in this Epitaph one thing is wanting and that mainly material namely the year that he did After the death of Augustine Laurentius a Roman succeeded him whom Augustine in his life-time ordained in that place King Ethelbert having reigned fifty Six and been a Christian one and twenty years died and was buried nigh to Queen Bertha who died a little before him in the Porch of St. Martins Church in Canterbury which fabrick with some other Churches by him were beautifully built and bountifully endowed After the death of Ethelbert Anno 616. Eadbald his son and the sons of Sebert King of the East Saxons succeeding them refused to be baptized or imbrace the Christian faith professed and set up Idolatry expelled their Bishops driving them out of this land into France til at last King Eadbald being converted to Christianity by Laurentius Archbishop of Canterbury presently began to take care of the affaires of the Church and at the desire of Laurentius Justus and Mellitus returned again into England Rochester readily received their Bishop but London refused to entertain good Mellitus who led a private life in London til that after the death of Laurentius he succeeded him in the Church of Canterbury Five years sate Mellitus in Canterbury after whose death Justus Bishop of Rochester succeeded him and had his Pall solemnly sent him by Pope Boniface Ethelfred being slain by the Britains Edwin succeedeth him and was setled in the general government of the Saxons who by the perswasion of Paulinus embraced and professed the Christian Religion destroyed the Temples Altars and Images of their Idol-Gods and was with all his Nobles and much people baptized in the City of York by Paulinus Anno 627. About this time Pope Boniface V. directed diverse Epistles to England wherein were many passages fighting against Christ's satisfaction A few years after the conversion of the East Angles was advanced by King Sigebert and after the death of Earpwald his successor in the Kingdome Bede give 's him this character that he became vir Christianissimus Doctissimus being assisted by the preaching of Felix a Monk of Burgundy he converted his Subjects to Christianity This Felix was made the first Bishop of Dunwich in Suffolk a place formerly furnished with fifty and two Churches and hath scarce two now remaining the rest being swallowed up by the Sea This Sigebert is generally reputed the founder of the University of Cambridge Edwin fell out with Cadwallan King of the Britains and slew many thousand Christian Britains in battle putting him and the rest to flight Anno 633. After the victory Edwin led his Army through the Provincâ— of Britain burning their Cities and wasting their Colonies and brought those Provinces under his subjection chasing Cadwallan into Ireland But Cadwallan returning from thence with ten thousand men assisted by Penda King of Mercia wasted the Countrey of King Edwin Both these Kings at last met in a field called Heath-field where Edwin was slaine and his whole Army overthrown Cadwallan slew both the Sons of King Edwin and for a whole year â—â—stroyed the Provinces of the Northumbrians After the death of Edwin his whole Kingdome â—el apsed to Paganism and Paulinus Arch-Bishop of York taking with him Queen Ethelburga sister to Eadbald King of Kent returned into Kent and there became Bishop of Rochester After the death of King Edwin his Kingdome of Northumberland was divided into two parts both petty Kingdomes Osrich Cousin-German of King Edwin was King of Deira and Eanfrith the eldest son of Ethelfred was King of Bernicia They were both Christians but became Apostates and were slain by Cadwallan in the first year Oswald the second son of Ethelfred succeeded unto them and overthrew Cadwallan Bishop Aidan converted Oswald Usher's Religion of the antient Irish p. 115. which King disdained not to preach and expound to his Subjects and Nobles in the English tongue that which Aidan preached to the Saxons in the Scottish tongue By the Ministry of Aidan the first Bishop of Linsfarn was the Kingdome of Northumberland recovered from Paganism Petry Church hist Cent. 7. Aidan parted all that was given him by the King or Potent men among the poor and ceased not to go from town to town and from house to house not on hors-back but on foot always catechizing whether he met with rich or poor if they were Pagans he instructed them if they were Christians he confirmed them in the faith and exhorted unto the works of Pieâ—y and Charity especially to read the Scriptures diligently he died Anno 651. From Northumberland the word of God was spread among many others of the Saxon Kingdomes The Scotch that professed no subjection to the Church of Rome were they that sent preachers to the conversion of these Countries Ephr. Pagit Religion of the antient Britains and ordained Bishops to govern them as Aidan forementioned Finan and Colman for the East Saxons Cedd and for the Mercians Diuma for the paucity of Priests saith Beda constrained one Bishop to be appointed over two people Finan converted the Kingdomes of the East Saxons and Mercia Pope Honorius sent Birinus unto the West Saxons who by his preaching converteth many and among the rest Kyngils the West Saxon King whom he Baptized Oswald King of Northumberland was present at that time and was first God-father then father in law to King Kyngils to whom he gave his Daughter to Wife Dorchester
encreased the number of Christian folk daily waxing greater IX That no man commit Advoutry nor Fornication that no man forsake his own Wife but for onely Fornication as the holy Gospel teacheth And if any Man put away his Wife being lawfully married unto him if he will be a right Christian Man let him be joyned to none other but let him so continue still sole or else be reconciled again to his own Wife This Synod Stapleton calleth the first of the English Nation that is whose Canons are completely extant Theodorus Archbishop of Canterbury envyed Wilfrid Bishop of York and endeavoured that the Diocess of York might be divided whereat Wilfrid being offended goes to Rome and in his passage thither by a Tempest he is cast on the Shoar of Freezland in Belgia where the Inhabitants as yet Pagans were by his Preaching converted to Christianity Returning into England he returned not unto York but stayed in the Pagan Kingdom of the South Saxons who also by God's blessing on his endeavours were perswaded to embrace the Christian Faith These South Saxons of all the seven Kingdomes were the last that were converted to Christ and yet their Countrey was next in situation unto Kent where the Gospel was first planted Indeed Edilwalck their King was a little before Christened by the perswasion of Wolpher King of Mercia who was his God-father and at his Baptizing gave him for a gift the Isle of Wight Provinciam Meanvarorum in Gente occidentalium Saxonum but his Countrey still remained in Paganism And although Dicul a Scot with six others had a small Monastery at Bosenham in Sussex yet they were more careful of their own safety than of their Neighbours conversion Wilfrid builded an Abbey in Selsey in Sussex he taught the South Saxons the craft of fishing Cedda the Bishop of West Saxons died and his Deacon Wenfrede was his successor Soon after this time died Wina Bishop of London after whom was Bishop Erkenwald who founded the Monasteries of Chertsey in Surrey and Barking in Essex But that of Chertsey was thrown down by the Danes and re-edified by Edgar King of England Then Theodorus kept a Synod or Council of Bishops at Hatfield by authority of which Council he divided the Province of Mercia that Sexwolphus then ruled alone into five Bishopricks that is one to Chester the second to Worcester the third to Lichfield the fourth to Cedema in Lindsey and the fifth to Dorchester Cadwallader the last King of Wales wearied out with Wars Famine and Pestilence left his own Land and with some small treasure fled to Alan King of Little Britain He was the last King of the stock of Britains After he had reigned three years he went to Rome and there died and was buried in the Church of St. Peter with this Epitaph upon his Tomb. Culmen opus sobolem pollentia regna triumphos Eximias proceros moenia castra lares Quaeque patrum virtus quae congesserat ipse Cadwald armipotens linquit amore Dei The which verses are thus Englished by Fabian Fabian's Chr. part 5. Abounding riches kinred triumph assured Plenteous wealth with clothes richly dyght Houses Castles and Towns strongly mured And other honours which by his Parents Might And his own this Martial vertuous Knight Cadwald the strong descended of Knight's blood For Christ's love renounced all his good About the year 692. Ina King of the West Saxons set forth his Saxon Laws translated into English by Mr. Lambert he enacted many Laws viz. De regula vivendi Ministrorum Dei de Infantibus baptizandis de censu Ecclesiae c. Anno 694. a great Council was held at Becanceld by Withred King of Kent and Bertuald Archbishop of Britain wherein many things were concluded in favour of the Church Five Kentish Abbesses namely Mildred Ethelred Aete Wilnolde and Hereswide were not onely present but subscribed their names and crosses to the Constitutions concluded therein And we may observe that their subscriptions are placed not onely before and above all Presbyters but also above Botred a Bishop present in this Council There was likewise a Council held at Berghamsteed by Withred King of Kent Then Bishop Wilfrid was removed to York again where he continued not long and being thence expelled again he was for a time made Bishop of Leicester CENT VIII WIlfrid was troubled by the Archbishop of Canterbury he appealeth to Rome and is acquitted he is at last restored and died in peace in the LXXVI year of his age having been 45. years a Bishop and was buried in his Monastery at Rippon Camden's Brit. in Wiltshire The Bishoprick of Sherborn having been taken out of the Bishoprick of Winchester by King Ina Adelme his Kinsman was made first Bishop thereof This Adelme was the first of our English Nation who wrote in Latine and the first that taught our English Nation to make Latine verse according to his promise Primus ego in patriam mecum modo vita supersit Aonio rediens deducam vertice Musas If life me last that I do see That native soil of mine From Aon top I 'l first with me Bring down the Muses nine He wrote many Books one of Virginity another of the Celebration of Easter And about this time the Libraries of Monasteries began to be replenished with Books many being written in that Age. In this age there were many Saints such as they were of Royal or Noble extraction of these Noble Saints St. Guthlake a Benedictine Monk was the first Saxon that professed an Eremetical life in England he was a Monk in the Abbey of Repyndon and the third year after he went to Crowland that is the raw or crude Land a fenny place in Lincoln-shire and there led for a while an Anchoret's life and there finally was buried in which Isle and place of his burying was built a fair Abbey About the year 709. a Synod was assembled at Alncester in Worcester-shire to promote the building of Evesham Abbey which was done accordingly and the same was bountifully endowed by Offa and other Mercian Kings with large revenues And not long after another Synod was called at London to introduce into England the doctrine of Image-worship now first beginning to appear in the publick practice of it Now also flourished another Noble-born Saint viz. John of Beverley Archbishop of York a Learned Man and who gave the education to one more Learned than himself I mean Venerable Bede who acknowledgeth that he received the order of Priesthood from him About this time it was fashionable for Kings and Queens in England to renounce the World and turn Monks and Nuns commonly in Convents of their own Foundation but they had an high opinion to merit Heaven thereby Among the Saxon Princes who thus renounced the World in this and the next Century these nine following were the principal 1. Kinigilsus King of West Saxons 2. Ina King of West Saxons 3. Ceololfus King of Northumberland 3. Edbertus King of
in the exaltation of his greatness but the Danes beat the English in a Naval fight at Carmouth in Dorset-shire which proved fatal to our Nation Hence forward these Pagans setled themselves in some part of the Land Anno 837. Ethelwolph his Son succeeded his Father Egbert in the Throne a valiant and devout Prince though much molested by the Danes all his life-time About the year 855. Ethelwolph King of the West Saxons summoned a Parlament of his Princes Nobles and Bishops at Winchester in the midst of the Danish Wars and Invasions to consult with them how he might pacifie God's wrath against him and his Realm And by their advise and assent granted the Tithes or tenth part of all his Lands to God and his Ministers free from all secular services and exactions great and small that they might the more freely pour out their prayers to God for him and his Realm He subjected the whole Kingdom to the payment of Tithes he was the first-born Monarch of England Indeed before his time there were Monarchs of the Saxon Heptarchy but not successive and fixed in a Family but fluctuating from one Kingdom to another Egbert Father to this Ethelwolph atchieved and left this Monarchy to this his Son not Monarcha factus but natus and so in unquestionable Power to make this Act obligatory over all the Land saith Fuller King Ethelwolph the next year went in Pilgrimage to Rome and confirmed unto the Pope his Predecessors grant of Peter-pence and besides bestowed upon him the yearly Revenue of three hundred Marks thus to be expended 1. To maintain Candles for St. Peter one hundred Marks 2. To maintain Candles for St. Paul one hundred Marks 3. For a free Largess to the Pope one hundred Marks After the Death of King Ethelwolph and his two Sons Ethelbald and Ethelbert succeeding him this Land was in a sad condition though in a worse estate under the reign of his third Son being harassed by the Danes About sixty years since the West Saxons had subdued the other six Kings of this Nation yet so that they still continued Kings but Homagers to the West Saxon Monarchy They beholding Ethelred the West Saxon King embroiled with the invasion of the Danes they not onely lazily looked on but secretly smiled at this sight Thus the height of the Saxon pride and envy caused the breadth of the Danish power and cruelty Anno 870. the Danes made an inrode into Lincoln-shire where they met with stout resistance The Christians had the better the first day wherein the Danes lost three of their Kings buried in a place thence called Trekingham so had they the second day till at night breaking their Ranks to pursue the Danes in their dissembled flight they were utterly overthrown Theodore Abbot of Crowland hearing of the Danes approach Shipped away most of his Monks with the choycest Relicks and Treasures of his Convent and cast his most pretious Vessels into a Well in the Cloister The rest remaining were at their morning praiers when the Danes entring Slew Theodore the Abbot on the high Altar Asher the Prior in the Vestiary Lethwin the Sub-prior in the Refectory Pauline and Herbert in the Quire Wolride the Torch-bearer in the same place Grimketule Agamund each of them an 100 years old in the Cloisters Then the Danes marched to Medamstead since called Peterbrough where finding the Abby-gates locked against them they resolved to force their entrance in effecting whereof Tulba Brother to Count Hubba was wounded almost to death with a stone cast at him Hubba enraged hereat killed Abbot Hedda and all the Monks being fourscore and four with his own hand Then was the Abby set on fire which burned fifteen daies together wherein an excellent Library was consumed Having pillaged the Abby and broke the Tombs and Coffins of many Saints there enterred these Pagans marched forward into Camdridge-shire and passing the river Nine two of their waggons fell into the water wherein the cattle which drew them were drowned much of their rich plunder lost and more impared The Danes spared no Age Sex condition of people They wasted Cambridge burnt the then City of Thetford forced Edmond King of the East-Angles into his Castle of Framlingham They took him and because he would not deny Christ they tyed him unto a Tree and shot at him til he died Then they cut of his head and cast it among the bushes His own Subjects buried him both head and body at Hatsedon which from thence was called St. Edmonds-bury There after-ages shrined sainted and adored his Reliques King Ethelbert behaved himself bravely in nine Battles with various success against the Danes and the more he slew the more they grew which went neer his heart therefore he withered away in the flower of his age desiring rather to encounter death than the Danes Guliel Malmesbur de Gestis Regum Anglor lib. 2. according to the observation of the English Historian that the Saxon Kings in this age magis optabant honestum exitum quam acerbum Imperium In this sad condition God sent England a deliverer namely King Alfred or Alured fourth son of Ethelwolph by the Lady Ogburgh He was born in England bred in Rome where by a Prolepsis saith Fuller he was anointed King by Pope Leo though then but a private Prince and his three elder brothers alive in auspicium futuri regni in hope that hereafter he should come to the Crown The Danes at his coming to the Crown had London many of the in-land more of the maritime Towns and Alfred onely three effectual Shires Sommerset Wiltes and Dorset yet by God's blessing on his endeavours he got to be Monarch of all England Anno 872. In the beginning of his reign he was sorely distressed by the Danes and one of his greatest Courts for residence was an Island now known by the name of Athelney in the County of Sommerset in the Saxon tongue called Aethelingarg that is Nobilium Insula so termed by reason of the Kings abode and the concourse of his Nobles unto him in this place he lived poorly disguised in a Cow-herds house Being excellent In Musick and Songs he oftentimes in the habit and posture of a common Minstril did insinuate himself in the Danist Camp where his plausible cariage and skill gained a freedome of access and passage in the company of their Princes at banquets and other meetings and thereby he discovered their conditions and all their martial counsels and designes He returneth to his comfortless company and unmasking himself and the Danish designes cheereth them up and with a refreshed Power and strength suddenly issued forth and gave a fierce assault upon the secure Danes he slew multitudes of them and enforced the remainder to a shameful flight for the safe-guard of their lives In this Isle Alfred had built a kind of Castle or Fortress to receive him and his Nobles upon return from their Sallies and Encounters during his Wars in those parts
About a year after that memorable overthrow viz. Anno 879. in a Battel at Kinwich in Devon-shire Halden and some of the chief Leaders of the Danes received their death's wound and ended their lives hereupon the daunted and dispersed Danes humbly present their termes of Peace to King Alfred with Pledges and Hostages that they would either depart the Land or become Christians which was accepted by him Guthrun their new King upon the death of their other Leaders with thirty Noble-men and almost all his People received Baptism in the new Castle of Athelney where King Alfred was Godfather to him and gave him the name of Athelstane and upon a confederation between them Alfred did assign unto him the Provinces of the East-Angles and Northumberland Vt eas sub fidelitate Regis jure haereditario foveret quas pervaserat latrocinio that he might enjoy that by right which before he usurped by rapine and unto the new-baptized Nobles he gave many large and rich gifts This truce or league was about the ninth year of his Reign and thus beginneth Faedus quod Aluredus Lamb. Archai fol. 49. Gythrudus Reges ex sapientum Anglorum atque eorum omnium qui orientalem incolebant Angliam consulto ferierunt in quod praeterea singuli non solum de seipsis verumetiam de natis suis ac nondum in luâ—em editis quotquot saltem misericordiae divinae aut Regia velint esse participes jurarunt That is they did by a solemn Oath ratifie this League as well for themselves as for those that were then born and unborn that would be partakers of mercy from God or the King Then having set bounds to his Dominions certain Comitial Lawes and Ordinances were made between them enlarged and amplified by their Senators Before all things they proposed and preferred the strict and holy worshipping of Almighty God and abandoning all barbarous Idolatry next they took care for the Enacting Registring and Enrolling of Moral Laws for containing of Subjects in their several duties and due obedience and therefore they first decreed That the peace of the Church within her Walls as it was then delivered by the hand of King Alfred should be piously and inviolably observed They proceeded to the promotion and propagation of the Christian Faith and the abolition of all Paganism and Heathenish Rites for coertion of Clearks and Men in Holy Orders if they committed any Perjury Fornication or other Offences or were unconformable in the celebration of Festival-days times of Abstinence or other Orders and Injunctions of the Church prohibiting Merchandising and secular Negotiations upon the Lord's day In all which the Impositions of Penalties and Punishments upon an English Man and a Dane were differenced one from the other They also provided for the exilement of Witches Wizzards common Strumpets and other lewd Creatures with other good Laws for avoiding of Homicides and for preservation of Peace and Government and maintenance of each Man 's right of property in this their National commixture This adjured League quieted the Civil discords of the Danes and Saxons for the space of four years until the twelfth year of Alfred's Reign And afterwards the continual inrode of the stragling unbaptized Danes issuing out of France and other places who vexed that Eastern part of the Land molested this good King untill his Death This King divided his moveables into equal portions the one he appointed for uses Secular and divided it into three parts one for his Family another for building of new Works and a third he reserved for strangers The other half he dedicated unto uses Ecclesiastical and divided it into four portions one for relief of the Poor another to Monasteries the third to the Schools in Oxford where he had erected a School for Grammar another for Philosophy and a third for Divinity whereas before they had neither Grammar nor Sciences because Pope Gregory I. gave in command that Britain should have no Schools for fear of Heresies but onely Monasteries The Regents in the University and Readers in the Divinity-School were Neoth a worthy Divine and Grimbald well-skilled in Divinity In Grammar and Rhetorick the Learned Asserius who wrote the life of this King In Logick Musick and Arithmetick the Reader was John a Monk of St. Davids In Geometry and Astronomy read John a companion of Grimbald a Man Witty and Learned at which Lectures this famous King Alfred was present He gave many pensions to Scholars Learned Men in all Arts to instruct his Subjects in Religion and all kinds of Learning He contributed much to the relief of distressed Churches without his Realm He protected his Realm from oppression and injustice by his Sheriffs Justices and other Officers whose proceedings he frequently examined punishing them severely when they had judged or injured others contrary to Law out of Malice Corruption or Partiality He divided the Day and Night into three parts one eight hours he allowed himself for Eating Drinking Sleeping and Recreation another eight hours he spent in hearing Causes and in doing Justice and the rest of his time spent in Prayer Reading the Scriptures Meditation and other pious Exercises And for the instructing his Subjects in the Holy Scriptures he began to Translate the Psalmes of David himself into the English Tongue but being prevented by Death did not finish it He gathered Psalmes and Prayers together into a little Book which he called a Manual or Hand-book Bish Godwin Catal. which he always caried about him He was the first lettered Prince in this Kingdom since it had it's denomination of England and was disciplined under the care of Plegmundus a Man of eminent Parts and Learning who was born in Mercia and from the solitary life of an Heremite in the Isle of Chester was called to be Tutor to this Noble Prince A little after his Inauguration to the Kingdom he had the comfortable service and attendance of Werefridus who was consecrated Bishop of Worcester on Whitsunday Anno 872. for at his command he Translated the Dialogues of Gregory out of the Latin into the Saxon or English Dialect he had all the helps advice and instructions of Plegmundus his Tutor who was afterward Consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury Asserius as himself affirmeth abode with the King in his Court by the space of eight Moneths before his return into Wales in which time he constantly read divers Books unto him for it was his custom both day and night amidst all other impediments both of Mind and Body to be ever versed in reading Books himself or hearing them read by others This unparallelled King died Anno 900. after he had reigned 29 years and six moneths having fought 56 Battels with the Pagan Danes His Epitaph is the Epitome of his life which the happiness of thankful times have dedicated to him as a Monument of his eternal fame and here followeth out of the Works of a Modern Chronographer Nobilitas inimica tibi probitatis honorem Armipotens
Alfred dedit probitasque laborem Perpetuumque labor nomen immixta dolori Gaudia semper erant spes semper mixta timori c. Englished by Mr. Flemming Nobility by birth to thee O Alfred strong in Armes Of goodness hath thy honour given And honour toilsome harmes And toilsome harmes an endless name Whose joyes ere alwayes mixt With sorrow and whose hope with fear Was evermore perplext If this day thou wast Conqueror The next day's War thou dread'st If this day thou wast Conquered To next day's War thou spread'st Whose cloathing wet with a daily swet Whose blade with bloody stain Do prove how great a burden 't is In Royalty to reign There hath not been in any part Of all the World so wide One that was able breath to take And troubles such abide And yet with Weapons weary would Not Weapons lay aside Or with the Sword the toilsomness Of Life by Death divide Now after labours past of Realm And Life which he did spend Christ is to him true quietness And Scepter voyd of end In this King's reign flourished Johannes Scotus Erigena with addition sometimes of Sophista born in Ireland for distinction from a former born at Melrose and another in the XIII Century born in Duns otherwise called Subtilis he was a man of pregnant Judgement wondrous Eloquence and in those days rare knowledge of the Greek Chaldean and Arabian Languages He wrote a Book De corpore sanguine Domini against the Opinion of Carnal presence which was condemned at the Synod of Vercelles Bellarmine Bellarm. de Euch. lib. 1. c. 1. saith This man was the first who wrote doubtingly of this matter He was the Counsellor to King Alfred and Teacher of his Children afterwards he retired to the Abbey at Malmesbury Zâ—pper de Calum haerâ—s Berengar where his disciples Murthered him with their Pen-knives being enticed thereunto by the Monks because he spake against the carnal presence and was accounted a Martyr as was recorded by William of Malmesbury de gest Reg. Ang. lib. 2. cap. 4. CENT X. AT this time there was no Bishop in all the West parts of England Pope Formosus being offended hereat interdicted King and Kingdom But Pleigmund Archbishop of Canterbury posted to Rome informing the Pope that Edward called the Elder the Son of King Alfred had in a late summoned Synod founded some new and supplied all old vacant Bishoprickes and carying with him honorifica munera the Pope turned his curse into a blessing and ratified their election The names of the seven Bishops which Pleigmund consecrated in one day were Fridstan Bishop of Winchester Werstan of Shireburn Kenulph of Dorchester Beornege of Selsey Athelme of Wells Eadulfe of Crediton in Devon and Athelstan in Cornwall of St. Petrocks These three last Western Bishops were in this Council newly erected A Synod was called at Intingford where Edward the elder and Guthurn King of the Danes in that part of England which formerly belonged to the East Angles onely confirmed the same Ecclesiastical constitutions which King Alured had made before King Edward remembring the Pious example of his Father Alfred in founding of Oxford began to repair and restore the University of Cambridge Joh. Rossius in lib. de Regib for the Danes who kept the Kingdom of the East Angles for their home had banished all Learning from that place This King Edward the elder expelled the Danes out of Essex Mercia and Northumberland At that time the authority of investing Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Benefices as also of prescribing Lawes unto Church-men as well as unto the Laity was in the power of the King not of the Pope but the Pope would be medling in such matters by way of Confirmation Athelstan his Son succeeded King Edward being much devoted to St. John of Beverley on whose Church he bestowed large priviledges Many Councils were kept in this King's Reign at Excester Feversham Thunderfield and London But one held at Greatlea is of greatest account for the Lawes therein enacted especially that concerning the payment of Tithes which is thus Written I Athelstan King Spelman in Concil p. 405. by advice of Viselm my Archbishop and of other Bishops command all the Prelates of my Kingdom in the name of our Lord and of all the Saints that first of all they out of my own things pay the Tithes unto God as well of the living Beasts as of the Corn of the ground and the Bishops to do the like in their property and the Presbyters This I will that Bishops and other Head-men declare the same unto such as be under their subjection c. He ordained that in every Burrough all measures and weights should be confirmed by the Bishop's advice and testimony About that time Hoel King of Wales made a Law That no Church-man should be a Judge in Civil affairs Now St. Dunstan appeareth in Court born at Glastonbury of Noble Parentage yea Kinsman remote to Athelstane himself His eminencies were Painting and Graving an excellent Musician and an admirable worker in Brass and Iron After a while he is accused for a Magician and banished the Court But after the Death of King Athelstane he was re-called to Court in the Reign of King Edmond Athelstan's brother and flourished for a time in great favour but his old crime of being a Magician and a wanton with Women being laid to his charge he is re-banished the Court. But King Edmond being slain by one Leoff a Thief Edred his Brother succeeding to the Crown Dunstan is made the King's Treasurer Chancellor Councellor Confessor Secular Priests were thrust out of their Convents and Monks substituted in their rooms But after Edred's death Dunstan falls into disgrace with King Edwin his Successor and being expelled the Kingdom flieth into Flanders Mean-time all the Monks in England of Dunstan's plantation are rooted up and Secular Priests set in their places Soon after many commotions happened in England especially in Mercia and Northumberland King Edwin died in the flower of his age Edgar succeedeth him and recalls Dunstan home Fuller Church History who hath two Bishopricks given him Worcester and London King Edgar gave over his Soul Body and Estate to be ordered by Dunstan and two more then the Triumvirate who ruled England viz. Ethelwald Bishop of Winchester and Oswald afterward Bishop of Worcester This Oswald was the man who procured by the Kings Authority the ejection of all secular Priests out of Worcester which Act was called Oswald's Law In that Age Dunstan being made Archbishop of Canterbury Antonin hist lit 19. part 3. ca. 3. Secular Priests were thrown out and Monks every where fixed in their rooms Many did dispute and preach against Dunstan And Alfred Prince of Mercia took part with the Priests Fuller makes mention of a fair and authentick guilded Manuscript wherein he stileth himself God's Vicar in England for the ordering Ecclesiastical matters a Title which at this day the Pope will hardly vouchsafe to
Oxford wherein was agreed that English men and Danes should hold the Laws made by King Edgar as most just and reasonable He established Laws Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Canutus went on pilgrimage to Rome and there founded an Hospital for English Pilgrims He shrined the body of Bernius and gave great Lands to the Cathedral Church of Winchester He builded St. Bennet's in Norfolk which was before an Hermitage Also St. Edmond's-bury which King Athelstane ordained before for a Colledge of Priests he turned to an Abbey of Monks of Saint Bennet's Order Two of his Sons succeeded him first his base Son called from his swiftness Harold Harefoot a man of a cowardly disposition He reigned but four years and the Kingdom fell to Hardiknout King of Denmark his Brother who when he had reigned two years being drunk at Lambeth suddenly was stricken dumb and fell down to the ground and within eight dayes after died without issue of his Body Thus ended the Danish Kings which Danes had vexed and wasted the Land two hundred fifty five years When England was freed from the Danes they sent into Normandy inviting over Edward the Confessor and brother to King Edmond He was crowned Anno 1045. In his time was the Law made which concerned the King's Oath at Coronation Mathew Paris describes the Manners of the Countrey at his coming thus The Nobles were given to gluttony and leachery they went not to Church in the morning but only had a Priest which made haste with the Mass and Mattens in their chambers and they heard a little with their ears The Clergy were so ignorant that if any knew the Grammar he was admired by them most men spent nights and dayes in carousing In his dayes England injoyed Halcion dayes free from Danish invasions The Ecclesiastical Laws made by this King in his reign were I. That every Clerk and Scholar should quietly enjoy their goods and possessions II. What solemn Festivals people may come and go of without any Law-suits to disturb them III. That in all Courts where the Bishop's Proctor doth appear his case is first to be heard and determined IV. That guilty folk flying to the Church should there have protection not to be reproved by any but the Bishop and his Ministers V. That Tithes be paid to the Church of Sheep Pigs Bees and the like VI. How the Ordal was to be ordered for the trial of guilty persons by fire and water VII That Peter-pence or Rome-scot be faithfully paid to the Pope This King is reported to have entailed by Heaven's Consort an hereditary vertue on his Successors the Kings of England only with this condition that they continue constant in Christianity to cure the King 's Evil. In this King's reign lived Marianus Scotus that wrote much of the deeds of the Kings of England King Edward died childless Harold the Son of Earl Godwin succeeded him Indeed the undoubted right lay in Edgar Atheling Son to Edward the Outlaw Grandchild to Edmond Iron-side King of England But he being young and tender and of a soft temper and Harold being rich and strong in Knights the Nobles chose Harold to be their King As soon as he was crowned he established many good Laws especially such as were for the good of the Church and for the punishment of evil-doers Harold was slain in a battel near Hastings in Sussex and William Duke of Normandy obtained the Crown of England by conquest within a few years he made a great alteration in England the most part of his Knights and Bishops were Normans and many English with Edgar fled into Scotland where King Malcolm had married Edgar's Sister Margaret They incited Malcolm to invade England and he entred into the North part At last a peace was concluded and a Mark-stone was set up in Stanmoor as the mark of both Kingdoms with the Pourtraict of both Kings on the sides of the Stone Although then corruptions crept into the Church by degrees and divine worship began then to be clogged with superstitious Ceremonies yet that the Doctrine remained still entire in most material points will appear by an Induction of the dominative Controversies wherein we differ from the Church of Rome as Fuller in his Church-History of Britain hath observed I. Scripture generally read Bed Eccl. hist lib. 3. ca. 5. For such as were with the holy Bishop Aidan either Clergy or Laity were tyed to exercise themselves in reading the holy Word and in singing of Psalms II. The Original preferred Caradoc in Chron. of Cambridge For Ricemath a Britain a right learned and godly Clerk Son to Sulgen Bishop of St. David's flourishing in this Age made this Epigram on those who translated the Psalter out of the Greek so taking it at the second hand and not drawing it immediately from the first vessel Ebreis nablam custodit litera signis Pro captu quam quisque suo sermone latino Edidit innumeros lingua variante libellos Ebreumque jubar suffuscat nube latina c. This Harp the holy Hebrew Text doth tender Which to their power whil'st every one doth render In Latine tongue with many variations He clouds the Hebrew rays with his translation Thus liquors when twice shifted out and pour'd In a third vessel are both cool'd and sowr'd But holy Jerome Truth to light doth bring Briefer and fuller fetcht from the Hebrew Spring III. No Prayers for the dead in the modern notion of Papists For though we find prayers for the dead yet they were not in the nature of propitiation for their sins or to procure relaxation from their torments but were only an honourable commemoration of their memories and a Sacrifice of thanksgiving for their salvation IV. Purgatory then not perfected though newly invented For although there are frequent Visions and Revelations in this Age pretended thereon to build Purgatory which had no ground in Scripture yet it stood not then as now it stands in the Romish belief V. Communion under both kinds For Bede relateth that one Hildmer an Officer of Egfride King of Northumberland entreated our Cuthbert to send a Priest that might minister the Sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood unto his Wife that then lay a dying And Cuthbert himself immediately before his own departure out of this life received the communion of the Lord's Body and Blood So that the Eucharist was then administred entire and not maimed as it is by the Papists at this day And though the word Mass was frequent in that Age yet was it not known to be offered as a propitiatory Sacrifice for the quick and dead King William to testifie his thankfulness to God for his Victory founded in that place Battel-Abbey endowing it with Revenues and large immunities The Abbot whereof being a Baron of Parliament carried a pardon in his presence who casually coming to the place of execution had power to save any Malefactor The Abby-Church was a place of safety for any Fellon or Murtherer Here the Monks
otherwise be better employed At this time there was contention at Rome between two Popes Vrban and Clement the Third Rufus took part with Clement but Anselm stuck to Vrban and required of the King leave to fetch his Pall of Vrban All the rest of the Bishops were against him Mean-while the King had sent two Messengers to the Pope for the Pall who returned and brought with them Gualter Bishop of Alban the Pope's Legate with the Pall to be given to Anselm Which Legate so perswaded the King that Vrban was received Pope through the whole Land But afterwards grew great displeasure betwixt them so that Anselm went to appear to Rome where he remained in exile and the King seized all his Goods and Lands into his own Coffers Vrban gave unto Anselm the Archbishops Pall thereby voiding the Investiture which he received from King William and obliging him there-after to depend on him as also he did whereat the King incensed interdicted to Anselm his entry into England confiscated the Lands of the Archbishoprick and declared that his Bishops held their Places and Estates merely from him and were not subject unto the Pope for the same To which all the Bishops of England subscribed neither did any of them contradict it but the onely Bishop of Rochester as a Suffragan to the Archbishop of Canterbury By the intervention of Friends Anselm made his peace But being returned into England he soon after began to disswade the Clergy from receiving Investitures from the King wherefore he was forced again to fly out of the Kingdom and his estate was again seized upon and confiscated of which he had obteined restitution at his return King William the Conqueror had made the new-forrest in Hant-shire with a great devastation of Towns and Churches the place as Fuller saith being turned into a Wilderness for Men and a Paradise for Deer King Ruffus hunting in this Forrest was here slain by the glancing of an arrow shot by Sir Walter Tirrell and was buried at Winchester He gave to the Monks called De Charitate the great new Church of S. Saviours in Bermondsey with the Manor thereof as also of Charleton in Kent Henry Beaucleark his Brother succeeded him in the throne being one of the profoundest Scholars and most politick Princes in his generation To ingratiate himself to the English he instantly and actually repealed the cruel Norman Lawes the good and gentle Laws of King Edward the Confessor he reduced with correction of them Anselm from exile was speedily recalled and to his Church Lands and Goods was fully restored The late King 's extorting Publicanes whereof Ranulph Flambard Bishop of Durham the principal were imprisoned the Court-corruption reformed Adultery then grown common severely punished CENT XII KIng Henry was Married to Mawd Daughter to Malcolm King of Scots who lived sometime as a Nun under the tuition of Christian her Aunt Abbess of Wilton She was Sister to Edgar Atheling and Grand-child of Edmond Iron-side whereby his Issue might merely be both of the English Blood and of the Ancient Saxon Kings Anselm summoneth a Council at Westminster where first he Excommunicated all Married Priests half the Clergy at that time being Married or the Sons of Married Priests he also inhibited all Lay-men to hear their Masses He also deprived many great Prelates of their promotions because they had accepted their Investitures from the King which was done by receiving of a Pastoral Staffe and a Ring an Ancient rite testifying that their Donation was from their Sovereign in which number were the Abbots of Ely of Romsey of Pershore of St. Edmonds of Tavestock Peterborough Burch Bodiac Stoke and Middleton for which his boldness and for refusing to Consecrate certain Bishops advanced by the King great contention fell betwixt them and Anselm appealed to Pope Paschal and soon after fled to Rome Hereupon the King enjoyned Gerard Archbishop of York to Consecrate William of Winchester Roger of Hereford c. But William Bishop of Winchester refused Consecration from the Archbishop of York and resigned his Staff and Ring back again to the King as illegally from him This discomposed all the rest But not long after by the mediation of Friends the King and Anselm are reconciled the King disclaiming his right of Investiture And now Anselm who formerly refused consecrated all the Bishops of vacant Sees Then did Anselm forbid the Priests Marriage But Anselm died before he could finish his project of Priests divorces His two next Successors Rodulphus and William Corbel went on vigorously with the design but met with many and great obstructions Other Bishops found the like opposition but chiefly the Bishop of Norwich whose obstinate Clergy would keep their Wives in defiance of his endeavours against them But they were forced to forgo their Wives Among those Married Priests there was one Ealphegus flourishing for Learning and Piety he resided at Plymouth in Devon-shire To order the refractory Married Clergy the Bishops were fain to call in the aid of the Pope John Bishop of Cremona an Italian Cardinal did urge the single Life of the Clergy and said It is a vile crime that a Man rising from the side of his Concubine should consecrate the Body of Christ. The same Night he was taken in bed with a Whore after he had spoken those words in a Synod at London The thing was so notorious that it could not be denied saith Matthew Paris This much advantaged the reputation of Married Priests The King taking a fine of Married Priests permitted them to enjoy their Wives About this time the old Abbey of Ely was advanced into a new Bishoprick and Cambridge-shire assigned for it's Diocess taken from the Bishoprick of Lincoln Spaldwick Manor in Huntington-shire was given to Lincoln in reparation of the jurisdiction taken from it and bestowed on Ely One Hervey who had been banished by the Welch from the poor Bishoprick of Bangor was made the first Bishop of Ely Hervey the first Bishop of Ely King Henry bestowed great Priviledges upon that Bishoprick Then Bernard Chaplain to the King and Chancellor to the Queen was the first Norman made Bishop of St. Davids who soon denied subjection to Canterbury and would be an absolute Archbishop of himself But William Archbishop of Canterbury aided by the Pope at last forced the Bishop of St. Davids to a submission King Henry died at the Town of St. Denys in Normandy of a surfeit by eating of Lampreys He was buried at Reading in Bark-shire in the Abbey that himself had there founded and endowed with large possessions Stephen Earl of Bologn hearing of King Henrie's Death hasteth over into England and seizeth on the Crown He was Son to Adela Daughter to King William the Conqueror but Mawd first Married to Henry the Emperor of Germany was the undoubted heir of the Crown She was constantly called the Empress after the Death of the Emperor though Married to Geoffery Plantagenet her second Husband Unto her all the Clergy and
were given to any man by the Archbishop Stephen or by the Priors of Canterbury from the time of the election of the Archbishop England remained under the Interdict six years three months and an half whereby not only the King and his Court but also all the people of England who had nothing to do with that Quarrel were Excommunicated In that long time how many thousands of men died in England who by the Rules of the Roman Church and by the Pope's Judgment are eternally damned and that but for a Quarrel between the King and the Pope about some Investitures of Churches and Collations of Benefices and Money-matters Then saith Mathew Paris Matth. Paris who was an eye-witness of all that disorder All the Sacraments of the Church ceased in England saving only the Confession and the Communion of the Host in the last necessity and the Baptism of Infants The dead bodies were carried out of the Towns as if they had been the bodies of Dogs and buried by the High-wayes and in Ditches without Prayers and without service of Priests By the same Interdict all Masses Vespers all publick Service and ringing of Bells was forbidden and the Kingdom was exposed to rapine and prey and given to any that would conquer it Only the King was not excommunicated by name but that was done the next year after Next Pope Innocent deposed King John from the Kingdom of England and absolved the English from the Oath of their Allegiance and commanded Philip August King of France that for the remission of his sins he should invade the Kingdom of England with force of Arms giving to those that should follow the King in that Conquest the pardon of all their sins and the same Graces and Pardons as to them that visit the holy Sepulchre Whereupon the said King Philip partly to obtain the remission of his sins partly to make himself Master of England raised a mighty Army whilst Innocent was stirring up the English to rise against their King This moved King John to humble himself under the Pope and to receive such Conditions as liked him best The Conditions were That the King should yield unto the Pope the whole right of Patronage of all the Benefices of his Kingdom That to obtain Absolution of his sins he should pay to the Clergy of Canterbury and to other Prelates the sum of eight thousand pounds Sterling That he should satisfie for the damages done to the Church according to the Judgment of the Pope's Legat. That the said King should resign his Crown into the Pope's hand with his Kingdoms of England and Ireland for which Letters were formed and given to Pandulphus the Pope's Legat. King John being informed that his Archbishops Bishops and Clergy intended to hold a Council at St. Albans by the command of Pope Innocent the Third about the payment of Rome-scot against custom and sundry other unusual Exactions to the great destruction of the whole Realm upon complaint thereof by his Nobles and People issued out a Prohibition to them expresly forbidding them upon their Allegiance not to hold any Council there by the Popes or any other Authority nor to consult or treat of those things nor to act or ordain any thing against the custom of the Realm as they tendered his Honour or the tranquillity of the Kingdom until he conferred with the general Council of his Realms about it Thomas Sprot Speed 's History p. 571. During this Interdict Alexander Cementarius Abbot of the Benedictines at Canterbury Vir corpore Elegantissimus facie Venerabilis literarum plenitudine imbutus ita ut Parisiis celebris haberetur Magister et Rector et Lector in Theologia was sent by King John unto Rome where he openly pleaded and fomented the King's Cause against the Pope He maintained there That there is no Power under God higher than a King and That the Clergy should not have Temporal government He proved these two Articles by Scripture and Reason and by testimony of Gregory the First in an Epistle to Augustine Bishop of Canterbury Anno 1209. in the tenth year of King John Henry Fitz-Alan was sworn first Mayor of London and Peter Duke with Thomus Neal sworn for Sheriffs And London-bridge began to be built with Stone and St. Saviours in Southwark the same year He wrote three Books against the Popes Usurpations and Power viz. De Cessione Papali De Ecclesiae potestate De potestate Vicaria in defence of his Sovereign King John for which his Loyalty he was afterwards by the Pope's Power deprived of all his Benefices by Pandulphus the Pope's Legat after King John's surrender of his Crown and enforced to beg his Bread King John having seized and detained in his hands the Temporalties of the Archbishoprick of Armach in Ireland for that the Bishop was elected without his License against his Will and Appeal two Monks coming to him proffering him three hundred Marks in Silver and three Marks a year in Gold for to have the Lands Liberties and Rights thereof he by his Writ returned them to his Chief Justice there to do what was fitting in it John Reumond coming from Rome to lay claim to a Prebendary in Hastings sued to the King for his License and safe conduct to come into and return from England which he granted upon this condition that upon his arrival he should give security that he came hither for no ill to the King nor for any other business but that Prebendary The like License he granted to Simon Langton the Archbishop's Brother upon the same and stricter conditions King John sent a memorable Letter to the Pope by special Messengers to claim and justifie this ancient and undoubted Right which He and his Royal Ancestors enjoyed to provide and prefer Archbishops and Bishops to the See of Canterbury and all other Cathedrals attested by the Letters of the Bishops of England and other credible persons desiring him to preserve the rights of the Church and Realm of England entire and inviolable by his Fatherly provision Then the King entred into a League with Otho the Emperour Mat. Westminst and forced John King of Scots who received his fugitive Subjects and harboured them in his Kingdom to send to him for peace to pay him eleven thousand Marks to purchase his peace with him and to put in Hostages for his fidelity without any Fight between them Yea the the Welch-men themselves formerly rebellious soon after his return from Scotland voluntarily repaired to him at Woodstock and there did homage to him After which Anno 1211. he entring into Wales with a great Army as far as Snowdown Reges omnes Nobiles sine contradictione subjugavit de subjectione in posterum obsides viginti octo suscepit inde cum prosperitate ad Albani Monasterium remeavit Lewellin Prince of North-Wales being enforced to render himself to mercy without any Battel at all When the Pope's Absolution of the Nobles and all other Subjects from the
King's Allegiance would not shake his magnanimous resolution nor his Peoples loyalty Pâ—ynne's History Book 3. ch 3. the Pope's Legats Pandulphus and Durance forged new devises to effect their designs by fraud and terror to which purpose they procured sundry Letters from divers Quarters to be brought unto him whilst he sate at dinner at Nottingham intending to set upon the Welch-men with a potent Army whom they had stirred up to rebel against him and invade England to divert him from his design all to this effect That there was a secret Plot laid to destroy him He marched to Chester where he met with new Letters to the like effect which caused him to dismiss his Army and design against the Welch-men Besides the Popish Priests set up one Peter an Hermite a counterfeit Prophet to terrifie the King and alienate the peoples hearts from him by his false Prophesies This counterfeit Sooth-sayer prophesied That King John should reign no longer than the Ascension-day within the year of our Lord 1213. which was the fourteenth from his Coronation and this he said he had by Revelation When the Ascension-day was come the King commanded his Regal Tent to be spread abroad in the open field passing that day with his noble Council and Men of Honour in the greatest solemnity that ever he did before solacing himself with musical Songs and Instruments most in sight of his trusty Friends This day being past in all prosperity and mirth the King commanded that Peter the Hermite that false Prophet should be drawn and hanged like a Traitor Now behold the misery of King John perplexed with the French King 's daily preparation to invade England assisted by many English male-contents and all the exil'd Bishops Hereupon he sunk on a sudden beneath himself to an act of unworthy submission and subjection to the Pope For on Ascension-Eve May 15. being in the Town of Dover standing as it were on tiptoes on the utmost edge brink and label of that Land which now he was about to surrender King John by an Instrument or Charter sealed and solemnly delivered in the presence of many Prelats and Nobles to Pandulphus the Pope's Legat granted to God and the Church of Rome the Apostles Peter and Paul and to Pope Innocent the Third and his Successors the whole Kingdom of England and Ireland Fuller's Church History Book 3. And took an Estate thereof back again yielding and paying yearly to the Church of Rome over and above the Peter-pence a thousand Marks Sterling viz. seven hundred for England and three hundred for Ireland In the passing hereof the King's Instrument to the Pope was sealed with a Seal of Gold and the Pope's to the King was sealed with a Seal of Lead This being done the King took the Crown off his Head and set it upon Pandulphus his Knees at whose feet he also laid his Scepter Robe Sword and Ring his Royal Ensigns as John de Serres relates and these words said he in hearing of all the great Lords of England Here I resign up the Crown and the Realm of England into the hands of Pope Innocentius the Third and put me wholly in his mercy and in his ordinance Then Pandulph received the Crown of King John and kept it five dayes in his hands and confirmed all things by his Charter Now the Pope's next design was how to take off and pacifie the French King from his intended Invasions and so sent the Archbishop and his Confederates into England there to insult over King John as they had done abroad Next year the Interdict was taken off the Kingdom and a general joy was over the Land The seventeenth of August following the exiled Bishops landed at Dover and were conducted in State to the King at Winchester the King 's extraordinary humbling to and begging pardon of them prostrating himself to the ground at their feet and their insolent carriage toward him is related by Matthew Paris The next day after their coming to Winchester the King issued out Writs to all the Sheriffs of England to enquire of their damages There were other Writs sent to the Kings Judges to proceed in the said Inquisition After this general compliance with them the King conceiving he had given them full content and setled all things in peace resolved to pass with an Army into Picardy whither the Nobles refused to follow him In the mean time the Archbishop Bishop Nobles meeting at St. Albans about the damages to be restored by the King to the Prelates during their exile fell to demand the confirmation of their Liberties granted by his Grandfather King Henry the first which the King condescended unto Soon after the Archbishop caused all the Bishops Abbots Priors Deans and Nobles of the Realm to meet together at London upon pretext of satisfying his and the exiled Bishops damages but in verity to engage in a new Rebellion against the Crown and confer it on Lewis the French King's Son as they did in the conclusion under pretence of demanding the confirming the Charter and Liberties granted by King Henry the first there produced by the Archbishop which the King had but newly ratified at St. Albans Pandulphus besides his former insolencies endeavoured to wrest out of the King's hand the power of imprisoning Clerks for Fellonies that so they might be at his own disposal and act any villanies with impunity King John being thus distressed sent a base and unchristian-like Ambassage to Admiralius Murmelius a Mahometan King of Morocco then very potent and possessing a great part of Spain offering him if he would send him succour to hold the Kingdom of England as a Vassal from him and to receive the Law of Mahomet saith Matthew Paris The Moor offended at his offer told the Ambassadours That he lately had read Paul's Epistles Modò inspexi lâ—brum in Graeco scriptum cujuâ—dam Graeci sapientis Christiani nomine Pauli cujus actus veroa mihi maximè complacent accepto Vnum tamen de ipso mihi displicet quod in lege sub quâ natus est non stetit sed ad alia taÌ„quam transfuga inconstans avolvit which for the matter liked him well save only that Paul had renounced that Faith wherein he was born and the Jewish profession Wherefore he slighted King John as one devoid both of piety and policy who would love his liberty and disclaim his Religion A strange tender if true But Mr. Prynne proveth it to be a most scandalous malitious forgery of this Monk of St. Albans against the King for sequestring that Abbey Philip King of France together with his Son Lewis and his Proctor and all the Nobles of France Anno 1216. with his own mouth protested against this Charter and resignation to Walo the Pope's own Legat when purposely sent to them by Pope Innocent to disswade them from invading England as being then St. Peter's Patrimony not only as null void in it self for several Reasons but of
most pernitious example King John out of his piety to prevent profanations of the Lord's-day removed the Market of the City of Exeter from the Lord's-day whereon it was formerly kept to the Monday This King to ingratiate himself with the Romish Cardinals and Court granted them annual Pensions out of his Exchequer the Arrears whereof he ordered to be satisfied in the first place and likewise gave Benefices or Prebends to their Nephews and Creatures Moreover to gratifie Stephen Langton his great Enemy he granted the Patronage of the Bishoprick of Rochester to him and his Successors and to the Bishop of Ely he granted the Patronage of the Abbey of Torney Mr. Prynne who kept the Records of the Tower tells us that upon strictest search he could find no payment of the foresaid Annuity or Oblation to Pope Innocent by King John himself who granted it but only for one year before hand when he sealed his Charter who dying about three years after during which time his Kingdom was infested with Civil Wars between him and his Barons invaded by Lewis of France who was made King by the Barons in his stead his Lands Rents seized his Treasure exhausted and the People every where miserably plundered it is probable that â—here neither was nor could be expected any other punctual payment of it The Pope and his Legat Nicholas having in a manner bereaved King John of his Regal Dignity and Authority began forthwith to play Rex they usurped the Sovereign Authority both in Church and State presenting to all Bishopricks Matth. Paris Hist Anglic. p. 237 238. Abbies Spiritual promotions and Benefices then void without the Patrons consent by way of Provision and Collation to the prejudice of the Crown and enthralling of the Church of England not vouchsafing to consult either with the King himself the Archbishop or Bishops concerning their disposal This was the very original of Pope's Provisions and disposals of Bishopricks Abbies with all sorts of Spiritual promotions and Benefices in England no Pope presuming to confer any Bishoprick Benefice or Prebendary in France or England Vsque ad tempora Domini Innocentii tertii qui primus assumpsit sibi jus istud in tempore suo as the French Agent remonstrated to Pope Innocent the Fourth These Provisions soon overflowed the Church of England and France too for many succeeding Ages notwithstanding all oppositions and complaints against them Which the Archbishop and Bishops foreseeing perceiving withall the Legat more ready to gratifie the King and his Clerks in the disposal of Bishopricks and Ecclesiastical preferments than themselves meeting together at Dunstaple drew up an Appeal against his proceedings which he slighting and sending to Rome by Pandulphus together with King John's Charter so highly magnified the King and made such complaints to the Pope against the Archbishop and Bishops as frustrated their Appeal King John having satisfied and secured the damages of the Exiled Bishops and Monks before the Interdict released according to his agreement other Abbots Priors Clergy-men and Lay-men repaired to the Legat craving full satisfaction also for their damages sustained by the King's proceedings during the Interdict though never insisted on before The King issued out two Writs on behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Lincoln to restore them to the possession of their Temporalties in the Cinque-ports and other places Yet on the contrary all the Bishops and Clergy-men who faithfully adhered to the King and communicated with him or any other excommunicated person or received any Benefices from them during the Interdict were by these Prelates now made their Judges and Pope's censures ordered to be suspended from all their Ecclesiastical Offices Benefices Preferments and ordered to appear personally at Rome before the Pope to be examined ere their Suspensions released except only such as had given satisfaction to the Church for this offence The turbulent Archbishop stirred up the Barons to a new Insurrection against the King about their Liberties who coming all to the King after Christmas Anno 1215. demanded the confirmation of their Charter who craved time to advise thereon till after Easter the Archbishop and two more becoming his Sureties that then he should give satisfaction to all of them The Barons against the time rather preparing themselves for a Battel than Conference with the King assembled together at Stamford with a mighty Army having Archbishop Stephen their principal Abettor who yet seemed to side with the King and was most assiduous about him The Barons marching as far as Brackley the King sent the Archbishp to treat with them who brought back a Schedule of their claimed Liberties with this Message That if he presently confirmed them not to them by his Charter they would force him to it by seizing all his Castles and Provisions Whereupon the King replied Why do they not also demand the Kingdom swearing never to enslave himself to such a concession The Archbishop returning with this peremptory Answer the Barons forthwith seized Bedford-Castle and were admitted into London the Citizens siding with them Whereupon the King appointed to treat with them at Running-mead whither the Barons came with armed multitudes from all parts of the Realm whereafter some parley the King granted them their desires not only for their Liberties specified in Magna Charta and Charta Forrestae which he then sealed and by his Writs commanded to be put in due execution but also that twenty five Peers elected by them to whom all were sworn to obey should force the King to observe these Charters if ever he receded from them by seizing all his Castles Juratum est a parte Regis Quod Anglicana Ecclesia libera sit c. It was sworn on the Kings part that the Church of England is free and all men of our Kingdom have and do hold all the foresaid Liberties Rights and Customs well and peaceably freely and quietly fully and wholly to themselves and their Heirs c. All the Barons and Commons of the Realm then and afterwards taking the same Oath The Archbishop and Barons thrust into this new Charter many Articles and Clauses for their own the Churches and Pope's advantage not extant in the Charter of King Henry the First as may be seen in Matthew Paris his History This Charter though it saved a great part of the King's Prerogative to petition him and his Heirs for Licenses to elect and for his Assent gave a great wound to his Ecclesiastical Supremacy and made all Chapters Covents Bishops Monks yea Popes and their Agents to slight his Regal Authority and Licenses too insomuch that he could prefer no person to any Bishoprick Monastery or elective Dignity but whom the Electors pleased to make choice of King John withdrawing and obscuring himself from his Bishops and Barons in the Isle of Wight sent Messengers secretly to Rome to complain and appeal to the Pope against their Treasons Rebellions and the Charters forcibly extorted from him whilst under
There was an Appeal about this Election pending before the Archbishop of York before whom the King constituted his Proctor by Patent But after two years expensive contests the Monks election of William Archdeacon of Worcester a Man Learned and honest saith Matthew Paris was cancelled at Rome Luke the King's Chaplain put by and Richard Bishop of Salisbury Elected Bishop by the Pope's favour the Pope onely gaining by such contests The Emperor Frederick the third being justly incensed with the publication of divers Libellous and Scandalous Excommunications of Pope Gregory IX against him in England and all other Kingdoms and Churches endeavoured to vindicate himself and his innocency against the Pope's calumnies by dispatching Letters into all parts and particularly into England These proceedings of the Pope against the Emperor so exasperated the Citizens of Rome that they expelled the Pope from the City and chased him to Perusium Anno 1228. died Stephen Langton Archbishop of Canterbury after whose death there grew a new contest between the King and Monks of Canterbury about the Election of a new Archbishop The Monks chose Walter de Hevesham a Monk whom the King refused to allow of resolving to make Richard his Chancellor Archbishop Walter posting to Rome to get Confirmation and Consecration from the Pope and the King's Proctors there excepting against him pressing the vacating of his Election and making Richard Archbishop with much importunity they could not prevail with the Pope or Cardinals to stop Walter 's Confirmation or promote Richard till they had promised in the behalf of the King unto the Pope the tenths of all things moveable from both his Kingdomes of England and Ireland Whereupon the Pope and Cardinals forthwith vacated Walter 's Election for his insufficiency and made Richard Archbishop So the Pope got two years payment of his annual pension granted by King John and a Tenth in promise Yet where the King gave his Royal assent to Bishops duly Elected by his License where there was no competition the Pope interposed not This Archbishop Richard going to Rome to complain against the King that all affairs of his Kingdom were disposed by the counsel of his chief Justice Hubert when he had there accomplished his designes against the King was presently taken away by sudden Death Then the King issued out a prohibition to the Monks of Canterbury not to do any thing prejudicial to the rights of his Crown nor to elect any Person Archbishop without his special License nor to send any Monks to Rome by the Pope's command to Elect an Archbishop there The Monks in pursuance of this Prohibition by the King's License elected John their Prior Archbishop whom the King by his Letters Patents approved desiring the Pope to confirm him and likewise made new Proctors in the Court of Rome concerning this Election And the King to promote his Affairs the better in the Court of Rome granted Annuities to some Cardinals to obtain that justice from them by such Pensions which he could not procure without them But yet the Pope vacated this second election as well as the first Hereupon the Monks proceed to a third election but this third Person was also cashiered by the Pope This See continued three years after Richard's death and Edmond _____ being nominated Archbishop by the Pope who sent him a Pall was consecrated by Roger Bishop of London in April Anno 1234. the King being present with thirteen Bishops in Christ-Church Canterbury Fuller Church-Histor lib. 3. In the year 1232. the Cavrsines first came into England proving the bane of the Land These were Italians by birth terming themselves the Pope's Merchants driving no other Trade than letting out of Money great Banks whereof they brought into England differing little from the Jews save that they were more merciless to their Debtors Now because the Pope's Legat was altogether for ready Money when any Tax by Levy Commutation of Vows Tenths Dispensations c. were due to the Pope from Prelates Convents Priests or Lay-persons these Cavrsines instantly furnished them with present Coin upon their solemn Bonds and Obligations These Cavrsines were generally hated for their Extortions Roger Black that learned and pious Bishop of London once excommunicated these Cavrssnes for their oppression but they appealing to the Pope their good friend forced him after much molestation to desist These Cavrsines were commonly known by the name of Lombards from Lombardy the place of their nativity in Italy And although they deserted England on the decaying of the Pope's power and profit therein yet a double memorial remaineth of them one of their Habitation in Lombard-street in London the other of their Employment a Lombard unto this day signifies a Bank for Usury or Pawns still continued in the Low-countries and elsewhere See here the Pope's hypocrisie forbidding Usury as a sin so detestable under such heavy penalties in his Canon Law whilst his own Instruments were the most unconscionable practisers thereof without any controul Elius Rubeas in Semidali Lib. 2. c. 3. 4. Elias Rubeus an English-man wrote a Book wherein he said That the Monks had converted Religion into superstition making salvation to consist in things of themselves vain and indifferent that there was no kind of men more blind in concupiscence or infamous for uncleanness than the Popish Clergy c. Certain years after one Laurence an English-man in a Sermon of his admonished the Church That a great danger hung over her head by the Monks that they were seducers and the Ministers of Anti-christ Matthew Paris informs us That Hubert de Burgo Anno 1232. being chief Justice of England the King 's principal faithful Counsellor the greatest opposer of the Pope's Usurpations and Extortions was by the power of the Pope and of Peter Bishop of Winchester suddenly removed from all his Offices and impeached of several Crimes some of them amounting to high Treason Hubert to prevent the rage of his Enemies fled to the Church of Merton and there took Sanctuary Whence the King commanded the Mayor of London by his Letters the Londoners being his mortal Enemies to pull him out forcibly and bring him to him alive or dead Which the Mayor and Citizens readily undertaking and marching thither with great Forces the King by the advice of the Earl of Chester suddenly countermanded them thence to their great discontent After which Godfry of Cranecumb whom the King sent to apprehend him in Essex with three hundred men armed finding the Chappel doors shut violently brake them open apprehended Hubert and carried him thence bound with cords a prisoner to the Tower of London This breach of Sanctuary being made known to Roger Bishop of London whose Diocess it was he tells the King that if the Earl were not restored to the Chappel he would excommunicate all the Authors of that outrage The Earl is accordingly restored but the Sheriffs of Essex and Hertford at the King's command with the Powers of their Countreys besiege the Chappel
forty small Monasteries turning their Inhabitants out of House and home and converting their means principally to a Colledge in Oxford This alienation was confirmed by Pope Clement the Seventh so that in some sort the Pope may thank himself for the demolishing of Religious houses in England His Colledge in Oxford did thrice change it's name in seven years first called Cardinals Colledge then King's Colledge and at last Christ-church which it retaineth at this day King Henry took just offence that the Cardinal set his own Arms above the King 's on thy Gate-house at the entrance into the Colledge There have been maintained in this Colledge one Dean eight Canons three publick Professors of Divinity Hebrew and Greek sixty Students eight Chaplains eight Singing-men an Organist eight Choristers twenty four Almes-men at this present Students of all sorts with Officers and Servants of the Foundation to the number of two hundred twenty three John Higdon first Dean of this Colledge was a great Persecutor of Protestants viz. John Clark John Frith Henry Sumner Baley †John Fryer Goodman †Nicholas Harmar †Michael Drumme William Betts Such whose names are noted with a Cross did afterwards turn zealous Papists Lawney Richard Cox Richard Taverner All these were for their Religion imprisoned in a deep Cave under ground where the Salt-fish of the Colledge was kept Some of them died soon after with the stench thereof and others escaped with great difficulty Taverner was well-skilled in Musick on which account he escaped though vehemently accused the Cardinal pleading for him that he was but a Musitian though afterward he repented to have set Tunes to so many Popish ditties The example of Wolsey's haughtiness Martin's Chr. in Henry 8. made the English Clergy so proud and insolent that their labours formerly applyed to the studies of moral vertues and of Divinity were now employed to devise curious fashions in their behaviour in their apparrel and in their diet In the fifteenth sixteenth and seventeenth year of King Henries Reign this proud Cardinal under colour of the King 's partaking with the Emperor in his Wars against the French King of his own authority and wiâ—hout the King's commandement granted forth Commissions under the Great Seal of England into every Shire and Province of the Kingdome and directed them unto the chiefest men And therein every man was required to depose the true value of their Estates and then of every fifty pounds there was demanded four shillings in the pound And in London he made himself the chief Commissioner The like Commissions he granted forth against all the Clergy of the Land of whom he demanded four shillings in the pound of all their livings These things grieved the Clergy and Common People at the heart The Cardinal perceiving this recalled those Commissions and sent forth others which also being not endured the King by his Letters directed into every County commanded a present cessation of all executions of the said Commissions and protested they were granted forth without his knowledge or consent But if they would by way of a Benevolence of their own accord enlarge themselves towards him he would take it as an infallible proof of their love toward him The Cardinal now resolved to revenge himself on the Emperor Charles the Fifth for not doing him right and improving his power in preferring him to the Papacy according to his promises and intends to smite Charles through the sides of his Aunt Katharine Queen of England endeavouring to alienate the King's affections from her Wolsey now put this scruple into the head of Bishop Longlands the King's Confessor and he insinuated the same into the King's Conscience King Henry greedily resented the motion and principles of pure Conscience puts him upon endeavours of a divorce The business is brought into the Court of Rome there to be decided by Pope Clement the Seventh But the Pope at this time was a prisoner to the Emperor who constantly kept a guard about him Yet after some delay the Pope dispatched a Commission to two Cardinals Wolsey and Campegius an Italian to hear and determine the matter at London The Pope draws back the cause unto himself and the King being impatient having the consent of both Universities as also of that of Paris he forsaketh Katharine and Marrieth Anna Bolen Anno 1533. And in the year 1534. he denieth obedience to the Pope and chargeth all his Subjects that they send no Money unto Rome nor pay Peter-pence unto any of the Collectors which vexeth the Roman Court. Then he published an Edict whereby he declares himself under Christ The supreme Head of the Church of England and chargeth upon pain of Death that no man ascribe any Power to the Pope within England and commandeth all the Collectors of Peter-pence to be gone These things were confirmed by the Parliament who also enacted That the Archbishop of Canterbury should invest all the Bishops of England and that the Church-men shall pay to the King yearly one hundred and fifty thousand pounds for defence of the Kingdom Wolsey was accused in Parliament for exercising his power Legantine without leave to the prejudice of the King's Crown and dignity Mr. Cromwel Servant to the Cardinal being a Burgess defendeth his Master yet were all his goods of inestimable value confiscated to the King and he outed of most of his Ecclesiastical promotions His enemies get the King to command him away to York leaving him the whole revenues of York-Archbishoprick then worth little less than four thousand pounds yearly besides a large pension paid him out of the Bishoprick of Winchester As he was preparing there in a Princely Equipage for his Installation he is Arrested by the Earl of Northumberland by Commission from the King in his own Chamber at Cawood By slow and short Journeys he setteth forward toward London and coming to Leicester he died where he was obscurely buried Then John Fisher Bishop of Rochester was imprisoned for refusing the Oath of Supremacy The Clergy in the Province of York did a long time deny the King's Supremacy Edward Lee Archbishop of York fomented this difference He was a virulent Papist one that wrote against Erasmus and a persecutor of Protestants witness John Bale Convented before him for suspition of Heresie who in vain pleaded Scripture in his own defence till at last he casually made use of a distinction out of Scotus which the Archbishop more valued than all which he had before more pertinently alledged out the Old and New Testament The King wrote a fair and large Letter to the Convocation of York claiming nothing more than what Christian Princes in the Primitive times assumed to themselves in their own Dominions so that it seems he wrought so far on their affections that at last they consented thereunto Soon after the Clergy in the Convocation so submitted themselves to the King that each one severally promised in verbo Sacerdotis never henceforth to presume to Alledge Claim or put
hoping to be continued the latter labouring to be restored Seeing by the fidelity of the Norfolk and Suffolk Protestant Gentry the Queen was much advantaged for the speedy recovering of her Right they conceived that as she by them had regained the Crown so they under her should enjoy their Consciences The Papists put their Ceremonies in execution presuming on the Queens private practice and publick countenance The Queen on August 18. puts forth a Proclamation declaring her self for the Popish Religion which she resolves to observe for her self wishing her Subjects to follow her example yet that she mindeth not to compel any thereunto until such time as further order by common Assent may be taken therein forbidding all her Subjects to move Seditions at their perils and the Printing of any Book Rhyme Enterlude or Treatise without her special License for the same and likewise to Preach or by way of reading in Churches or other publick or private places except in Schools of the Universities to Interpret or Teach any Scripture or any points of Doctrine concerning Religion Hereupon many of the people in divers places received their old Religion erected again their Altars and used the Mass and Latin Service as was wont to be in King Henrie's time In Cambridge the Vice-chancellor chalenged one Peirson on Octob. 3. for officiating the Communion in his own Parish Church in the English Tongue and on the 26. displaced Doctor Madew Master of Clare-hall for being Married In like manner some of the Popish party in King's Colledge on the 28th of the same moneth officiated the Divine Service in the Latin Tongue At Oxford John Jewel was chosen to pen the first gratulatory Letter to the Queen in the name of the University an Office imposed on him by his Enemies Doctor Tresham a Van-currier before authority repaired the great Bell in Christ-church and named it Mary Harley Bishop of Hereford and Taylor of Lincoln two of the last of King Edward's Bishops were present at the opening of the Parliament Octob. 10. But no sooner was the Mass begun though not then restored 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 excluded from the Parliament-house and not long after from his Bishoprick also Hereupon Bishop Barlow of Wells and Scory of Chichester passed beyond the Seas followed not long after by Bishop Poinet of Winchester On November 3. Archbishop Cranmer was arraigned at the Guild-hall in London with the Lord Guilford Dudley the late Queen Jane his Wife and others all of them being attainted and condemned of Treason After Peter Martyr had quit the Realm his Wive's Body having been buried in the Church of St. Frideswid was afterward by publick order taken out of the Grave and buried in a common dunghill John a Lasco was forced to dissolve his Congregation and He with his Strangers to quit the Countrey The like hast made the French Protestants also At which time many of the English as well Students as others departed also The principal of those were Katherine the last Wife of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk Robert Berty Esq Husband to the Dutchess the Bishops of Winchester and Wells as before was said Sir Richard Morison Sir Anthany Cook and Sir John Cheek Doctor Cox Doctor Sands and Doctor Grindal The News of Queen Maries succeeding her Brother to the Crown of England posted to Rome and was very welcome to Pope Julius the Third because it gave him some assurance of his re-admission into the Power and Jurisdiction of his Predecessors in the Realm of England in pursuance of which hopes it was resolved that Cardinal Pool should be sent Legate into England who being of the Blood-royl and a man of eminent Learning and of exemplary life was looked on as the fittest Instrument to reduce that Kingdom The Parliaments first Act was to take away all Statutes passed by the two last Kings wherein certain Offences had been made High Treason and others brought within the compass of a Pramunire This was done especially for Pool's security that neither He by exercising his authority nor the Clergy by submitting to it might be entangled in the like snares as Cardinal Wolsey and the whole Clergy of his time had before been caught Then an Act was passed for repealing certain Statutes of King Edward thereby they took away all former Statutes for administring the Sacraments in both kinds for establishing the first and second Liturgy c. In a word by this one blow the Queen cut down all that had been done in the Reformation in seven years before And then for want of Canonical Ordination on the one side and under colour of Uncanonical Marriages on the other there was presently such a remove among the Bishops and Clergy as it is not any where to be paralelled in so short a time An Act was passed likewise Entitled An Act against offenders of Preachers c which two Acts were seconded by the Queen with two Proclamations December 5. By one of which it was declared that all Statutes made in the time of the late King Edward which concerned Religion were repealed by Parliament and therefore that the Mass should be said as formerly to begin on the twentieth of that moneth And by the other it was commanded that no person should dare from thenceforth to disturb any Priests in saying Mass or executing any other Divine Office Accordingly the Mass was publickly officiated in all parts of the Kingdom and so continued during the Reign of the Queen without interruption Another Act was passed wherein it was Enacted That the Marriage between King Henry the Eighth and Queen Katherine his first Wife was lawful and to stand with God's Laws and his Holy Word c. That the Decree of Divorce heretofore passed between the said King Henry and the said Queen by Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury should be reputed to be void and null with a Repeal of all such Statutes wherein the Queen had been declared to be Illegitimate There also past another Act in which there was a clause for the invalidating of all such Commissions as had been granted in the time of the late Queen Jane and one in confirming the Attainders of the late Duke of Northumberland Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury c. Together with this Parliament the Queen summoned a Convocation that all matters of Religion might first be debated and concluded in a Synodical way before they were offered to the Parliament In the Writs of which Summons Heylin Hist of Q. Mary she retained the Title of Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England c. the want whereof in those of the present Parliament occasioned dispute among some of the Members Whether they might lawfully proceed or not in such publick business as were to be propounded to them in
Cap the Episcopal Habit the Churche's Patrimony the manner of proceeding to be held against Papists the Perambulation used in the Rogation week c. in which his judgement was desired But these helps being too far off another project was set on foot Gryndal the new Bishop of London was known to have a great respect to Calvin the business therefore is so ordered that by Calvin's Letters to Gryndal and the friends they had about the Queen way should be given to such of the French Nation as had repaired hither to enjoy the freedom of their own Religion to have a Church unto themselves and in that Church not onely to erect the Genevian Discipline but to set up a Form of Prayer saith Dr. Heylin which should hold no conformity with the English Liturgy This was effected And now there is another Church in London as different from the Church of England in Government and Forms of worship as that of John Alasco was in the Augustine Friars Upon the news of which success divers both French and Dutch came into England planted themselves in the Sea-Towns and openly professed the Reformed Religion But some of them proved to be Anabaptists and others infected with corrupt Opinions of as ill a nature which being made known to the Queen she commands them all by Proclamation to depart the Kingdom whether they were Aliens or natural-born English within twenty days upon pain of imprisonment and loss of all their goods yet notwithstanding many of them lurked in England without fear of discovery especially after the erecting of so many French and Dutch Churches in the Maritime parts The French and Dutch Churches in London were infected with their frenzies and such disputes were among them on that account that Peter Martyr interposed his Authority with them to the composing of those differences which had grown among them for which see his Letter bearing date at Zurich on February 15. next following after the date of the said Proclamation which seemeth to have been about September 16. and superscribed Vnto the Church of Strangers in the City of London By another Proclamation she labours to restrain a sacrilegious kind of people which under pretence of abolishing Superstition demolished antient Tombâ—s razed the Epitaphs and Coat-armors of most Noble Familes and other Monuments of venerable Antiquity took the Bells out of Churches and pluckt off the Lead from the Church-roofs The Abbey of Westminster most renouned for the Inauguration of the Kings of England their Sepulture and the keeping of the Regal Ensignes she converted to a Collegiat Church and there she instituted a Dean twelve Prebendaries a School-master an Usher forty Scholars called the Queen's Scholars whereof six or more are preferred every year to the Vniversities Petit Canons and others of the Quire to the number of thirty ten Officers belonging to the Church and as many Servants belonging to the Colledge-diet and twelve Almes-men besides many Officers Stewards and Collectors for keeping Courts and bringing in of their Revenue The principal of which called the High Steward of Westminster hath ever since been one of the prime Nobility The Dean intrusted with keeping the Regalia honoured with a place of necessary service at all Coronations and a Commissioner for the peace within the City of Westminster and the liberties of it by Act of Parliament The S holars annually preferred by election either to Christ-church in Oxford or Trinity Colledge in Cambridge Since this new Foundation of it it hath given breeding and preferment to four Archbishops two Lord Keepers of the Great Seal of England twenty two Bishops and thirteen Deans of Cathedral-churches besides Archdeacons Prebendaries and other Dignitaries in the Church to a proportionable number The death of Francis the second the young King of France who had married Mary Queen of Scots encouraged the Scots to proceed boldly with their Reformation The Duke of Guise laboured with the Pope to fulminate his Excommunications against Queen Elizabeth as one that had renounced his authority apostatized from the Catholick Religion and utterly exterminated the profession of it out of her Dominions But the Duke sped no better in his negotiation than the Count of Feria did before About this time one Geoffrys was committed Prisoner to the Marshalsey in Southwark and More to the house of Mad-men commonly called Bethlem without Bishop's-gâ—â— in London More professed himself to be Christ Geoffrys believed him to be such and reported him so Having remained a whole year in prison without shewing any sign of their repentance Geoffrys was whipt on April 10. 1561. from the said Marshalsey to Bethlem with a paper bound about his head which signified That this was William Geoffrys a most blasphemous Heretick who denied Christ to be in Heaven At Bethlem he was whipt again in the presence of More till the lash had extorted from him a confession of his damnable error After which More was stript and whipt in the open Streets till he had made the like acknowledgment confessing Christ to be in Heaven and Himself to be a vile sinful man Which being done they were again remitted to their several prisons for their further cure On June the fourth a lamentable fire about four a Clock in the afternoon first shewed it self near the top of the Steeple of St. Paul's Church in London and from thence burnt down the Spire to the Stone-work and Bells and raged so terribly that within the space of four hours the Timber and Lead of the whole Church and whatsoever else was combustible in it was miserably consumed to the great terror of all Beholders Which Church said to be the largest in all the Christian World for all dimensions contains in length seven hundred and twenty foot in breadth one hundred and thirty foot and in height from the pavement to the top of the roof one hundred and fifty foot The Steeple from the ground to the Cross or Weather-cock contained in height five hundred and twenty foot of which the square Tower onely amounted to two hundred and sixty the Pyramide or Spire to as many more which Spire being raised of massy Timber and covered over with sheets of Lead as it was the more apt to be enflamed so was the mischief more incapable of a present remedy The Queen hereupon directed her Letters to the Lord Mayor and City of London to take care therein In obedience to whose Royal Pleasure the Citizens granted a Benevolence and three Fifteens to be speedily paid besides the great bounty of particular persons c. The Queen also sent in a thousand Marks in ready money and Warrants for one thousand load of Timber to be served out of Her Majesties Woods The Clergy of the Province of Canterbury contributing to this work the fortieth part of their Benefices which stood charged with first-fruits and the thirtieth part of those which had paid the same The Clergy of the Diocess of London bestowed the thirtieth part of such of their livings as were
of Bavaria was invested in the upper Palatinate Anno 1624. The match with France was concluded and in November the Articles were sworn unto by King James Prince Charles and the French King The Articles for Religion were not much short of those for Spanish match Count Mansfield was at this time in England and the Forces raised in the several parts of the Kingdom for the recovery of the Palatinate were put under his command Dover was the place assigned for their Rendezvous where the Colonels and Captains were to receive their several Regiments and Companies from the Conductors employed by those several Counties where the men were raised These being long pent up in their Ships suffered the want of all necessaries by which means a Pestilence devoured many of them so that scarce a Third part of the men were landed the which also afterwards mouldred away and the design came to nothing At this time upon the death of William Titular Bishop of Calcedon most of the English Secular Priests did petition the Pope that another Bishop might be sent over into England there to ordain Priests give Confirmation and exercise Episcopal jurisdiction Among others Matthew Kellison and Richard Smith were presented Not long after Pope Vrban the Eighth created Richard Smith Bishop of Calcedon and sent him into England with Episcopal Authority over the Priests within the English Dominions King James after he had been troubled with a Tertian Fever four weeks at Theobalds called unto him his onely Son Prince Charles to whom he recommended the protection of the Church of England c. and died on the seven and twentieth day of March He Reigned twenty two years and three days The sad news of King James his death was brought to White-hall when Dr. Laud Bishop of St. David's was Preaching therein This caused him to break off his Sermon in the midst thereof out of civil compliance with the sadness of the Congregation And the same day was King Charles Proclaimed at Whitehall Shortly after King James his death Bishop Land delivered to the hands of the Duke of Buckingham brief memorables of the Life and Death of King James On May fourteenth following King James his Funerals were performed very solemnly in the Collegiate-church at Westminster King Charles in his own person mournfully attended the Funerals of his Father Dr. Williams Lord Keeper and Bishop of Lincoln Preached the Sermon taking for his Text 2 Chron. 9.29 30 and part of vers 31. containing the happy Reign quiet Death and stately Burial of King Solomon In this Sermon he made a parallel between two peaceable Princes King Solomon and King James adding that Solomon's vices could be no blemish to King James who resembled him onely in his choycest vertues Doctor Preston still continued and increased in the favour of the King and the Duke of Buckingham Then a Book came forth called Apello Caesarem made by Mr. Mountague then Fellow of Eaton upon this occasion He had lately written Satyrically enough against the Papists in confutation of The Gagger of the Protestants Now two Divines of Norwich Diocese Mr. Yates and Mr. Ward inform against him for deserting our Cause instead of defending it Mr. Mountague in his own Vindication writes a second Book licensed by Francis White Dean of Carlile finished and partly Printed in the Reign of King James Many bitter passages in this his Book gave great exception At that time a Schedule was delivered to the Duke wherein the names of Ecclesiastical persons were written under the letters of O and P Rushw Collect An. 1625. O standing for Orthodox and P. for Puritans for the Duke commanded that the names of eminent persons to be presented unto the King should be thus digested under that partition On Sunday June 12. Queen Mary landed at Dover Next day the King coming from Canterbury met her at Dover Thence his Majesty conducted the Queen to Canterbury and the same Evening the Marriage was there consummated On June 16. the King and Queen came both to London A Chappel at Sommerset-house was built for the Queen and her Family with conveniences thereto adjoyning for Capuchin Friers who were therein placed and had permission to walk abroad in their Religious habits Then began a Parliament at London wherein the first Statute agreed upon was for the more strict observation of the Lord's day Sir Edward Coke went to the House of Peers with a message from the Commons desiring their concurrence in a petition concerning Religion and against Recusants which being agreed to and presented to the King his Majesty answered That he was glad that the Parliament was so forward in matters of Religion and assured them they should find him as forward Mr. Richard Mountague was brought to the Bar of the Commons House for his Book fore-mentioned which was Printed and dedicated to King Charles But the King rescued him from the House of Commons by taking Mr. Mountague's business into his own hand The Plague increasing in London the Parliament removed to Oxford where Doctor Chalenor died of that infection The Parliament to prevent the growth of Popery presented a petition to his Majesty containing sixteen particulars to which they received a satisfactory answer from the King Mr. Mountagues cause was recommended to the Duke of Buckingham by the Bishops of Rochester Oxford and St. Davids as the cause of the Church of England They affirm boldly that they cannot conceive what use there can be of Civil Government in the Common-wealth or of external Ministry in the Church if such fatal Opinions as some are which are opposite to those of Mr. Mountague be publickly taught and maintained But other Learned men were of a different judgement At Oxford in a late Divinity disputation held upon this Question Whether a Regenerate man may fall away totally and finally from Grace The Opponent u ging the Appeal to Caesar the Doctor of the Chair handled the Appellator very roughly saying That he was a man that studied phrases more than matter That he understood neither Articles nor Homilies or at least perverted both That he attributed he knew not what vertue to the sign of the Cross and concluded with an Admonition to the Juniors That they should be wary of reading that and the like Books The King according to his late answer to the Parliament at Oxford issued out a Commission to the Judges to see the Law against Recusants put in Execution This was read in all the Courts of Judicature at Reading where Michaelmas Term was kept and a letter directed to the Archbishop of Canterbury to take special care for the discovery of Jesuites Seminary Priests c. within his Province In this and the next year many Books from persons of several abilities and professions were written against Mr. Mountague by Dr. Sutcliff Dean of Exeter Mr. Henry Burton Mr. Yates a Minister of Norfolk his Book he entitled Ad Caesarem ibis Dr. Carleton Bishop of Chichester Anthony Wotton Divinity-professor
abolition of Episcopacy and the ruine of all that adhered to it their actings in it being confirmed in his name by the High-Commission The news whereof caused the King to send for the Lord Wentworth out of Ireland who was presently made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and not long after with great solemnity created Earl of Strafford in the County of York As Lord Lieutenant he had power to appoint a Deputy that he might the better attend the service here without any prejudice to that Kingdom which Office he committed to Wansford a York-shire Gentleman whom he had took along with him into Ireland at his first going thither His Majesty was pleased to commit the conduct of the Scottish Affairs to a Juncto of three namely the Archbishop of Canterbury the Earl of Strafford and the Marquiss of Hammilton These three move his Majesty to call a Parliament and it was concluded that a Parliament should be called on April 13. 1640. In the mean time the Lord Lieutenant held a Parliament in Ireland and so governed the affair that an Army of eight thousand Horse and Foot was speedily raised and money granted by the Parliament to keep them in pay to furnish them with Ammunition Arms and all other necessaries And the Lords of the Council here subscribed largely for the carrying on of the War until such time as the Parliament should convene The Scots being informed of the King's preparation for a War sent the Earl of Dumferling the Lord London Sir William Douglas and Mr. Barkham to represent the Affairs of their transactions which were received by the King in a friendly manner Some dayes being unprofitably spent in these debates the Archbishop and the rest of the Committee delegated for this business made a report of the whole business to the rest of the Council who came to this result That since the Scots could not be reclaimed to their obedience by other means they were to be reduced by force Therefore the Scots as much bestirred themselves on the other side Part of the walls of Edenborough-castle with all the Ordnance upon it had fallen down on the nineteenth of November last being the Anniversary day of his Majesties birth for the repair whereof they would neither suffer Timber nor other Materials to be carried to it but on the contrary they began to raise Fortifications against it with an intent to block it up and render it unuseful to his Majesties service Neither would they suffer the Souldiers to come into the Market to recruit their victuals They made provisions of great quantity of Artillery Munition and Arms from forreign parts laid Taxes of ten Marks in the hundred upon all the Subjects scattered abroad many seditious Pamphlets for justifying themselves and seducing others some of which were burnt in England by the hand of the Hangman fortified Inchgarvy and other places imprisoned the Earl of Southesk and other Persons of Quality for their fidelity to the King took to themselves the government of Edenborough and employed their Emissaries in England to sollicit them to aid them in maintaining the War against their Sovereign But their chief corespondence was with France and Ireland In France they had made sure of Cardinal Richlieu who governed all Affairs in that Kingdom In Ireland they had a strong party of natural Scots planted in Vlster by King James upon the forfeited Estates of Tir-Owen Tir-Connel Odighirty c. But Wentworth crushed them in the beginning of the combination seizing upon such Ships and Men as came thither from Scotland imprisoning some fining others and putting an Oath upon the rest By which Oath they were bound to abjure the Covenant not to aid the Covenanters against the King nor to protest against any of his royal Edicts as their Brethren in Scotland use to do for the refusing of which Oath he fined one Sir Henry Steward and his Wife at no less than five thousand pound apiece two of their Daughters and one James Gray of the fame confederacy at the sum of three thousand pound apiece committing them to prison for not paying the fines imposed on them Some Scots having endeavoured to betray the Town and Castle of Carick fergus to a Noble-man of that Countrey the principal Conspirator was executed Finally The Lord Lieutenant gave a power to the Bishop of Down and Connor and other Bishops of that Kingdom and their several Chancellors to attach the bodies of all such of the meaner sort who either should refuse to appear before them upon citation or to perform all lawful Decrees and Orders made by the said Bishops c. and to commit them to the next Gaol till they should conform or answer the contempt at the Council-Table By means whereof the poorer sort became very obedient to their several Bishops In the mean time the Archbishop of Canterbury is intent on the preservation of the Hierarchy and the Church of England against the practices of the Scots and Scotizing English and no less busied in digesting an Apology for vindicating the Liturgy commended to the Kirk of Scotland He took order for translating the Scottish Liturgy into the Latin Tongue that being published with the Apology which he had designed it might give satisfaction to the world of his Majesties Piety and his own great care the orthodoxy and simplicity of the Book it self and the perverseness of the Scots in refusing all of it Which Work was finished and left with him the present distemper of the times and the troubles which fell heavily on him putting an end to it in the first beginning He recommended to Doctor Hall then Bishop of Exon the writing of a Book in defence of the Divine right of Episcopacy in opposition to the Scots and their Adherents Exeter having undertaken it sent the first delineations of the Pourtracture to Lambeth in the end of October which were generally well approved of by the Metropolitan who having made some alterations sent them back with many kind expressions of a fair acceptance And such was the freedom he used in declaring his judgment in the case and such the Authority which his Reasons carried along with them that the Bishop of Exon found good cause to correct his Opinon according to the Rules of these Animadversions agreeable unto which the Book was writ and published not long after under the name of Episcopacy by Divine right c. Whilst the Archbishop laboured to support Episcopacy on the one side some of the adverse party laboured as much to suppress it by lopping off the branches first and afterwards by laying the Axe to the root of the Tree Bagshaw a Lawyer of some standing of the Middle-Temple began to question the Bishop's place and vote in Parliament their Temporal power and the authority of the Commission For being chosen Reader by that House for the Lent-vacation he first selected for the Argument of his discoursings the Statute of 25 Edw. 3. cap. 7. His main design was intended chiefly for the defence
13. 1644. An Ordinance for the Ordination of Ministers pro tempore within the County of Lancaster according to the Ordinance of the second of October for the Ordination of Ministers April 12. 1645. An Ordinance for the Regulating the Vniversity of Cambridge and for the removing of scandalous Ministers in the seven Associated Counties April 23. 1645. An Ordinance appointing Ministers for certain Churches and Lectures Hughe's Abridgement of ordinances of Parlament Part 2. viz. Philip Goodwin to be Vicar of the Church of Watford in Hartfordshire and to receive to himself all Tythes Oblations c. thereunto belonging during his life And Dr. Cornelius Burgess to have yearly allowance of four-hundred pounds paid unto him by the Lord Mayor of the City of London and the Court of Aldermen to be paid quarterly out of the Houses Rents Revenues of the Dean Dean and Chapter of the Church of S. Paul's for and during the term of his life he performing the Lectures in the said Church as by the Lords and Commons he was Ordered to do April 26. 1645. An Ordinance that no person be permitted to Preach who is not Ordained a Minister either in this or some other Reformed Church except such as intending the Ministry shall be allowed for the trial of their gifts by those who shall be appointed thereunto August 19. 1645. Directions of the Lords and Commons after advice had with the Assembly of Divines for the electing and chusing of Ruling Elders in all the Congregations And in the Classical Assemblies for the Cities of London and Westminster and the several Counties of the Kingdom for the speedy setling of the Presbyterial government August 21. 1645. Ordained that the Knights and Burgesses of Parliament of the several Counties of England and Wales shall send Printed books of the Directory of God's Worship fairly bound up in Leather to the Committees of Parliament residing in the several Counties who shall send or cause the same to be delivered to the several Ministers of every Parish c. October 20. 1645 An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons together with Rules and Directions concerning suspension from the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in cases of Ignorance and Scandal Also the names of such Ministers and others that are appointed Tryers and Judges of the Ability of Elders in the twelve Classes within the Province of London January 7. 1645. An Ordinance for making Covent-garden Parochical and that the new erected Church within the Precinct of the said new intended Parish shall be a Parish-Church for the said Precinct and that William Earl of Bedford his Heirs and Assigns for ever shall have the Patronage of the said Church c. March 14. 1645. An Ordinance for keeping of scandalous Persons from the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper the enabling of the Congregation for the choyce of Elders and supplying of defects in former Ordinances and Directions of Parliament concerning Church-government June 5. 1646. An Ordinance for the present setling without further delay of the Presbyterial government in the Church of England August 28. 1646. An Ordinance for the Ordination of Ministers by the Classical Presbyters within their respective bounds for the several Congregations in the Kingdom of England January 29. 1647. An Ordinance for the speedy dividing and setling of the several Counties of this Kingdom into distinct Classical Presbyteries and Congregational Elderships February 9. 1647. An Ordinance for Reparation of Churches and paying of Church-duties April 3. 1648. An Ordinance for union of Churches in the City of Glocester and maintenance for Preaching Ministers there May 2. 1648. An Ordinance for punishing Blasphemies and Heresies The King on April 17. 1646. In disguise went out of Oxford attended by Mr. John Ashburnham and one more On May 6. His Majesty came to the Scots Army which occasioned the Scotch Commissioners to write to the Parliament about it May 19. the Scots came with the King to New-castle A great dispute was between the King and Mr. Alexander Henderson about Church-matters Sâ—â—underson's Hist of King Charles p. 904. where after several Discourses and meetings many writings passed between them till July 16. concerning these matters by Authority of the Fathers and Practice of the Primitive Church His Majesty concludeth that to him it is incredible that any custome of the Catholick Church be erroneous which was not Contradicted by Orthodox Learned men in the times of their first practice as is easily perceived that these defections were which Henderson mentions And finally that albeit He never esteemed any Authority equal to the Scriptures yet he thinks the unanimous consent of the Fathers and the Universal practice of the Primitive Church to be the best and Authentical Interpreters of God's word and consequently the fittest Judges between him and Henderson until better may be found These disputes were afterwards published in Print to the everlasting Honour of His Majesty and his Cause On February 6. 1646. the Scots according to agreement quitted New-castle and the English possessed it The Parliament voted the King's remove to Holdenby-house with respect to the safety of His Person And the Commissioners appointed for receiving the King's Person came to Newcastle on June 22. The King desireth two of his Chaplains to be with him which was denied him at which he is much troubled His Majesty resolves to keep every Friday a day of Solemn Fasting and Humiliation After His Majesty had been neer five moneths at Holdenby near a Thousand Souldiers commanded by Cornet Joyce came to Holdenby to the King and told him that they were come by command from the Army to remove him from that place His Majesty demanded whether they would offer any violence to his Person They all cried None He also desired that his Trunks and Papers might not be Riffled and tumbled They promised to set a guard on them Thirdly he required such servants to attend him against whom there was no just exceptions They answered he should Lastly he desired that nothing be imposed on him contrary to his Conscience They answered it was not their judgement to force any thing against Conscience upon any one much less on His Majesty So at one of the Clock His Majesty went along with them On June 28. 1647. His Majesty was brought to Hatfield the Duke of Richmond attending him and others and from thence came to Casam At this time the Parliament was jealous of the King and the Army lest they should treat without the consent of the Parliament And the Army likewise devised as many jealousies and fears of a private engagement and Subscribing in the City of London and against the Army Then the Parliament Order their Votes of the Militia in the hands of the City to be Null c. The Apprentices clamour at the Houses and gather together in Westminster-hall in such multitudes that the Commons were forced to unvote and null their last Orders Then the Army marcheth nearer London Both Speakers and some Members fly the Army
over England and at the same time another Declaration was also made to satisfie the Kingdom in general with his proceedings General Monk invite's Ludlow in Ireland to a Conjunction with him Colonel Lilburn at York with what forces he could draw together makes all possible opposition against General Monk and intercepts the General 's Letters to Major General Morgan Talbot and Clarges come to Edinburgh Novem. 2. and are well-received by the General General Monk take's hold for his advantage of Lambert's overture for a Treaty Colonel Clobery Colonel Wilks and Major Knight are chosen to be the General 's Commissioners in this Treaty They meet Lambert at York who opposeth the proposal touching the restitution of the Parliament The Army of Horse and Foot with Lambert amounted to neer twelve thousand and Monk had not above half the number but General Monk paid all his men which the other did not Major General Morgan take's his journey into Scotland to General Monk and his joyning with the General was a matter of great importance He privately delivers a Letter to the General from Mr. Bowles a Minister of York a very eminent man of those parts and of great credit with the Lord Fairfax Mr. Clarges is sent to the Lord Fairfax Colonel Rossiter and others to engage them to General Monk Colonel Talbot is prevailed upon by Lambert to take part with him Colonel Whaley Colonel Goffe Captain Dean and Mr. Caryl the Minister are sent by Fleetwood to General Monk Fleetwood by Letters Court's Monk to side with him The ruling Faction in Ireland declare their resolution not to joyn with General Monk But Sir Charles Coot Sir Theophilus Jones and a considerable part of the Army resolve to assist him Mr. Clarges returns from Scotland and secretly confers with Mr. Bowels at York to whom he brought a letter of Credit Bowels negotiates with the Lord Fairfax Colonel Bethel and others in General Monk's behalf who promise to assist him In the mean-time the Commissioners for the Independent Churches which were sent into Scotland were sollicitous to divert Monk from the prosecution of the War there was a conference appointed with them at Holy-rood-house where were present to treat with them General Monk Colonel Fairfax Colonel Syler Dr. Barrow the Judge Advocate of the Army and Mr. Gumble one of the General 's Chaplains and Mr. Collins who had been one of the Preachers to the late Council in Scotland was admitted to be present there as a Newter Mr. Caryl was the first that spake and said That they all came not to declare their own sence of the General 's proceedings but the sence of the Churches for so upon every occasion he called the Independent Congregations The effect of Mr. Caryl's speech in the name of the Independent Churches That the Churches had not given them Commission to enter into the merits of the cause nor to debate whether Lambert's Action of turning out the Parliament were justifiable or not but onely to present it to his Lordship as their opinion That though that Action could not be justified yet his Lordship had not a call to appear against it in that manner that he then did That his Lordship had onely in charge to keep Scotland in quiet and was not bound to take notice of any differences in England He proceeded to show reasons why the General should proceed no further telling him that it would put a strife among those that hitherto had been Brethren engaged all along in the same cause partakers in the same dangers and the same successes among those that still in their Papers and all their Addresses called and owned one another for Brethren and that at a very unseasonable time whilst the Canaanites and Perizzites were in the Land He insisted on all the advantages the King and his Party would reap by this quarrel and all the dangers the people of God for so he called his own party might run into At last he told the General that what Inconveniences soever should happen would be laid at his door in regard he would appear to have been the beginner of the War At this the General interrupted him shewing that the war was already begun by Lambert and his party who had offered violence to those from whom they had all received their Commissions not sparing largely to lay open their restless Instability which would not suffer the three nations to enjoy any setled Government at all but kept them in a perpetual circumvolution till they were in danger to be brought to utter ruine and Declaring That if they continued in that course he was resolved to oppose them to the uttermost and would to repeat his own words lay them on their backs The Treaty ended between the Commissioners of the two Armies who came to an agreement which consisted of nine Articles on Novem. 15. 1659. But General Monk consults how he might with the most handsome pretence refuse his Assent to these Articles And it was proposed by Dr. Barrow and agreed to by the General and the rest That they should not declare a positive dissent to what their Commissioners had done but urge that there was something untreated of further to be agreed upon c. and that therefore it should be desired that two more might be allowed to be added to their Commissioners to meet a like number of theirs to be thereunto authorized to put a more absolute period to their differences Mr. Atkins and Colonel Markham are sent by the General with a Letter to the City of London which so much incensed the Committee of Safety that the Gentlemen who delivered it are Imprisoned On November 19. Nine of the Old Counsellors of State privately meet in London and sent one Captain Elmes with Horton a servant of Sir Arthur Hazlerig's with a letter into Scotland to General Monk This was a great encouragement to the Officers in Scotland Colonel Whetham at Portsmouth generously declared for General Monk with that Garrison after the Council of State had framed a Commission wherein they Constituted General Monk Commander in Chief of all the Armies in England and Scotland which was dated November 24. sealed with their seal and left in the hands of Mr. Clarges till a safe messenger might be sent with it unto him Hurst-castle and the Isle of Wight are kept for the Parliament Commissioners from the several Shires and Burroughs of Scotland wait upon the General at Berwick and the General and they part with a mutual respect The General prepares to make defence against Lambert if occasion were There were many great differences between the City of London and Lambert's party there The Souldiers are affronted by the Apprentices not without some bloodshed Oppositions from all parts encrease against Lambert's faction Lambert was daily alarum'd with the success of the Commissioners at Portsmouth and his party dayly decrease Fleetwood submits and desires the Members of Parliament to sit again They take their Seats again in the
conform Another Act was also passed for restoring of all such Advousons Rectories Impropriate Glebe-lands and Tithes to his Majesties loyal Subjects as were taken from them and making void certain charges imposed on them upon their compositions for delinquency by the late usurped Power Another Act was passed for preventing Abuses in printing Seditious Treasonable and Unlicensed Books and Pamphlets and for regulating of Printing and Printing-presses Pamphlets and Books prohibited to be Printed Published or Sold were Heretical Seditious or Shismatical Books or Pamphlets wherein any Christian Doctrine or Opinion shall be asserted or maintained which is contrary to Christian Faith or to the Doctrine or Discipline of the Church of England or which shall or may tend or be to the scandal of Religion or the Government or Governours of the Church State or Common-wealth or of any Corporation or particular person or persons whatsoever none shall import publish sell or dispose any such Book or Books or Pamphlets nor shall cause or procure any such to be published or put to sale or to be bound stitched or sewed together In the fifteenth year of his Majestie 's Reign an Act was passed for relief of such persons as by Sickness or other Impediment were disabled from subscribing the Declaration in the Act of Uniformity and explanation of part of the said Act. In the sixteenth year of his Majestie 's Reign an Act was passed for suppression of Seditious Conventicles under pretence of exercise of Religion Wherein it was Enacted That if any person being of the age of sixteen years and upwards being a Subject of this Realm at any time after the first day of July 1664. shall be present at any Assembly Conventicle or Meeting under colour or pretence of any exercise of Religion in any other manner than is allowed by the Liturgy or practice of the Church of England in any place within the Kingdom of England Dominion of Wales c. at which Conventicle Meeting or Assembly there shall be five persons or more assembled together over and above those of the same Houshold then it shall and may be lawful to and for any two Justices of the Peace of the County limit division or liberty wherein the said offence aforesaid shall be committed c. and they are hereby required and enjoyned upon proof to him or them respectively made of such offence either by confession of the party or Oath of witness or notorious evidence of the fact to make a Record of every such offence under their hands and seals respectively And that thereupon the said Justices c. shall commit every such offender so convicted as aforesaid to the Gaol or house of Correction there to remain for three moneths without Bayl or Mainprize unless the said offender shall pay down to the said Justices or chief Magistrate such sum of money not exceeding five pounds as the said Justices or Chief-magistrate who are hereby thereunto authorized and required shall fine the said offender at for his or her said offence which money shall be paid to the Church-wardens for the relief of the poor of the Parish where such offender did last inhabit Upon every second offence the offender to be imprisoned six moneths and to be fined ten pounds And upon the third offence the offender to be transplanted beyond the Seas to any of his Majesties Forreign Plantations Virginia and New England onely excepted there to remain seven years It was further Enacted That the Lieutennants or Deputy-lieutennants or any Commissioned Officers of the Militia or any other of his Majestie 's Forces with such Troops or Companies of Horse and Foot and also the Sheriffs Justices of Peace and other Magistrates and Ministers of Justice or any of them joyntly or severally within any of the Counties or places within this Kingdom of England Dominion of Wales c. shall repair unto the place where such Conventicles are held and by the best means they can shall dissolve and dissipate or prevent all such unlawful meetings and take into their custody such of those persons so unlawfully assembled as they shall judge to be the leaders and seducers of the rest and such others as they shall think fit to be proceeded against according to Law for such offences Every person who shall willingly suffer any such Conventicle to be held in his or her house out-house barn yard c. shall incur the same penalties and forfeitures as any other offender against this Act ought to be proceeded against In the seventeenth year of His Majestie 's Reign an Act was passed for restraining Non-conformists from inhabiting in Corporations Herein it was Enacted That all Parsons Vicars Curates Lecturers and other persons in holy Orders or pretended holy Orders c. who have not declared their unfeigned assent and consent as aforesaid and subscribed the Declaration aforesaid and shall not take and subscribe the Oath following I A. B. do swear that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Armes against the King and that I do abhor that traiterous position of taking Armes by his Authority against his person or against those that are Commissioned by him in pursuance of such Commissions And that I will not endeavour at any time any alteration of Government either in Church or State And all such persons as shall take upon them to Preach in any unlawfull Assembly Conventicle or Meeting under colour or pretence of any exercise of Religion contrary to the the Lawes and Statutes of this Kingdom shall not at any time from and after the 24th of March 1665. unless onely in passing upon the Road come or be within five miles of any City or Town Corporate or Borough that sends Burgesses to the Parliament within His Majesties Kingdom of England Principality of Wales c. or within five miles of any Parish Town or Place wherein He or They have been since the Act of Oblivion Parson Vicar Curate Lecturer c. or taken upon them to Preach in any unlawful Assembly c. under colour or pretence of any exercise of Religion c. before He or They have subscribed or taken the Oath aforesaid before the Justices of the Peace at their quarter Sessions to be holden for the County or division next unto the said Corporation City or Borough place or Town in open Court which said Oath the said Justices are thereby impowred there to administer upon forfeiture for every such offence the sum of forty pounds of lawful English money the one third part to his Majesty and his Successors the other third part to the use of the poor of the Parish where the offence shall be committed and the other third part thereof to such person or persons as shall or will sue for the same by Action of Debt Plaint Bill or Information in any Court of Record at Westminster or before any Justices of Assize Oyer and Terminer or Gaol-delivery c. Provided also That it shall not be lawful for any person
and Bishop of Winchester was created Cardinal of S. Eusebius by Pope Martin the Eighth June 23. 1426. He died April 11. 1447. and was buried in his own Church 37. Henry Chichely was created Cardinal Anno 1428. saith the Author of Antiquit. Britan. 38. John Kemp Archbishop of York was ordained Cardinal of S. Eusebius August 9. 1439. long after being Archbishop of Canterbury he was removed to the Title of S. Ruffinus 39. Thomas Bourchier Archbishop of Canterbury was created by Pope Paul the Second Cardinal S. Syriaci in Thermis Anno 1464. He died March 30. 1486. 40. John Morton Archbishop of Canterbury was by Pope Alexander the Fifth created Cardinal S. Anastasii Anno 1493. He died Anno 1500. 41. Christopher Bainbrigg Archbishop of York was made a Cardinal S. Praxedis Anno 1511. 42. Thomas Wolsey Archbishop of York was created Cardinal S. Coeciliae September 7. He died November 29. 1530. 43. John Fisher Dâ—ctor of Divinity and Bishop of Rochester was made Cardinal S. Vitalis for refusing the King's supremacy and dissallowing his marriage wiâ—h the Lady Anne Bolen he was beheaded on the Tower-hill 1535. 44. Reginald Pool afterward Archbishop of Canterbury was created Cardinal by Pope Paul the Third May 22. 1536. and had three several Titles the first S. Nerei Achillei then S. Mariae in Cosmedin and lastly S. Prisâ—ae He died November 7. 1558. 45. Peter Petow a Friar was made Cardinal by Pope Paul the Fourth June 13. 1557. and also nominated by him unto the Bishoprick of Sarum and all to cross and disgrace Cardinal Pool He died in France within the compass of the same year and might never set Foot in England to make shew of his red Hat as doubtless he greatly desired to have done 46. William Allen born in England He raised a great combustion in our Church This fugitive was born in Lancashire and brought up in Orial Colledge he ran away beyond the Seas for his treasonable practices against his Countrey he was by the Pope and other Enemies of the same promoted to divers Ecclesiastical preferments and lastly had a Cardinal's hat bestowed upon him in August 1587. He died a Priest-cardinal S. Martini in Montibus 1594. and was buried in the Church of the English Colledge at Rome Of the several Orders and Monks that have been in England Ex Fuleri Eccles Hist 1. MAthew Paris tells us that in his time Tot jam apparuerunt ordines in Anglia ut ordinum confusio videretur inordinata there then appeared so many Orders in England that there seemed to be an inordinate confusion of Orders 1. The Benedictines or black Monks the primitive Monks in England so called from St. Benedict or Bennet an Italian first Father and founder of that Order Augustine the Monk first brought them ovâ—r into England and these black Monks first nested in Canterbury whence they have flown out into all the parts of the Kingdom For as Clement Reyner observeth rightly all the Abbies of England before King William the Conqueror and some while after were filled with this Order and though the Augustinians were their Seniors in Europe yet they were their Juniors in England The same Order was afterwards set forth in a new edition corrected and amended under the names of First Cluniacks These were Benedictines refined with some additionals invented and imposed upon them by Odo the Fourth of Clugny in Normandy who lived Anno 913. But these Cluniacks came not into England till after the Norman Conquest and had their richest Covents at Barnstable in Devon-shire Pontefract and Meaux in York-shire c. Secondly Sistercians so called from one Robert living in Cistercium in Burgundy He the second time refined the drossie Benedictines and Walter Espick first established their Order in England at Rival in York-shire besides which they have had many other pleasant and plentiful habitations at Warden and Woburn in Bedford-shire Buckland and Ford in Devon-shire Bindon in Dorset-shire c. The Bernardine Monks were of a younger house or under-branch of the Cistercians King John built an Abbey of the Cistercian Order at Beaulieu in Hant-shire Thirdly Of Grandmont which observed St. Bennet's rule These were brought into England Anno 1233. and were principally fixed at Abberbury in Shrop-shire These Benedictines with their several branches were so numerous and so richly endowed that in their revenues they did match all the Orders in England especially if the foundations of Benedictine Nuns be joyned in the same reckoning 2. The Augustinian Monks succeed it is conceived that Eudo the Dapifer or Sewer to King Henry the First first brought them into England Anno 1105. and that St. Johns at Colchester was the prime place of their residence Doctor Fuller saith that Waltham Abbey for Benedictines at the first had it's Copy altered and bestowed on Augustinians These Augustinians were also called Canons Regular This Order in England brought forth seventy eminent Writers and one in Germany worth them all in effect I mean Martin Luther who gave a mortal wound to all these Orders yea to the root of the Romish Religion 3. Gilbertine Monks a mongrel Order observing some select rules Camden in Lincoln-shire partly of St. Bennet partly of St. Augustine so named from Gilbert son to Joceline a Knight Lord of Sempringham in Lincoln-shire Being backed with the Authority of Pope Eugenius the Third he ordained a Sect consisting of men and women which so grew and encreased that himself laid the foundations of thirteen Religious houses of this Order 4. Carthusian Monks much famed for their mortified lives and abstinence from all flesh Bruno first founded them in the Dolphinate in France Anno 1080. and some sixty years after they were first brought over into England William de long a Spata Earl of Salisbury founded the first house of Carthusian Monks at Heltrop whose wife Ela after his death founded the house of Nuns at Lacock in Wilt-shire and there continued her self Abbess of the place The Books of the English Carthusians were many there being no less than eleven hundred Authors of them their writings tend much to mortification and out of them Parsons the Jesuite hath collected a good part of his resolutions Of the Benedictine Monks there is reported to have been of that Order twenty four Popes of Rome one hundred eighty two Cardinals one thousand four hundred sixty four Archbishops and Bishops fifteen thousand and seventy Abbots of renown Pope John the Twenty second saith there have been of this Order five thousand six hundred fifty six Monks Canonized and made Saints The cloathing and rule of the Cluniacks was according to the appointment of St. Benedicts rule The Cestercians wear red shooes and white rochets on a black coat they are all shoâ—â— saâ—e a little circle The Order of those of Grandmont is to lead a strait life as Monks use to do to give themselves to Watching Fasting and Prayer to wear a coat of Males upon their bodies and a black
French for the Isles of Iersey and Guernsey 309 The Liturgy translated into Welch 175 Luther when he arose 142 M. GEneral Monk his story from page 363. ad 371 Marquess of Montrosse defeated condemned and executed 350 Queen Mary her Reign from 180. ad 206 Maximus a Christian Prince Governor of Britain 9 Marianus Scotus 35 Walter Mapez his verses setting forth the Church of Rome in her colours 67 Thomas Merks Bishop of Carlile faithful to King Richard the Second 108 Medvinus sent to Rome 2 Kingdom of Mercia why so called and what Counties it contained 9 Mercia divided into five Bishopricks 19 The Goods of three Orders of Monks seized into the hands of King Edward the Third 110 The number of Monasteries suppressed in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth 153 The number of those that suffered Martyrdom for the Gospel in Queen Maries days 194 Peter Martyr sent for into England made Canon of Christ-church in Oxford 169. Quits the Realm in Queen Maries days 184 His Letters to Queen Elizabeth 220 His Wives body taken out of her grave and burnt after his departure 184 Bishop Morton contrives the Union of the two Houses of York and Lancaster 135 Nine hundred Monks slain in S. Augustines Abbey in Canterbury 33 Murrey Regent of Scotland 233 His Death 236 The French Massacre 238 The Millenary Petition 269 Richard Middleton entitled Doctor Fundatissimus 107 Sir Thomas Moor a Great enemy to the Protestants he was beheaded the next moneth after Bishop Fisher 149 Moratus an old British writer 3 N THe Names of those that were Archbishops of Loâ—don 3 Numbers of the Bishops Abbots Priors c. that were deprived in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign 213 George Nevil Archbishop of York his Prodigious Feast his Estate seized and his person Imprisoned 133 The Numbers of Colledges and Chaunteries Demolished in the Reign of King Henry the eighth 154 Kingdom of Northumberland subdivided into two Kingdoms viz. of Bernicia and Deira 10 Nuns of the Abbey of Ambresbury Convicted for Incontinency 51 Non-conformists in Queen Elizabeth's time of two sorts 229 231 James Nailor the Ring-leader of the Quakers publickly whipped pillored and Stigmatized 359 O OFfa King of Mercia founder of the Monastery of S. Albans bestoweth great lands upon it he was buried at Bedford 23 Osmond Bishop of Sarum deviser of that Service which after was observed in the whole Realm all Service Ordered to be secundum usum Sarum 39 Oswald second son of King Ethelfred converted by Aidan he disdained not to Preach to his Subjects and Nobles in the English Tongue 15 Oswald Bishop of Worcester Oswalds Law 31 William Occham the Author of the Sect called Nominales 112 The first use of Oaths in Ecclesiastical Courts in England 78 Oath of the King's Supremacy established 145 Writers for and against the Oath of Allegiance 272 The form of the Oath framed in the Convocation Anno 1640 319 The form of the Oath taken by every Student admitted into the Popish Seminaries 235 Oak of Reformation 167 Oliver Cromwel his Sory from 350 ad 361 The form of the Oath taken unto the Pope by every Popish Bishop at the taking of his Pall 139 Ordal for the trial of guilty persons 35 P PAtern Preacher at Lanpatern in Cardigan-shire 11 Pelagius born in Britain broacheth his Heresies publickly 7 Pelagianism condemned in Brittain in two Synods 8 S. Petrock Captain of the Cornish Saints 11 Paulinus baptizeth King Edwyn with all his Nobles and much people at York 15 Penda King of Mercia embraceth Christianity 16 Pleigmund Consecrateth seven Bishops in one day Mathew Parker Consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury Divers Bishops Consecrated him 212 Kellison's and Parson's slandering him to be Consecrated at the Nag's Head-tavern in Cheap-side 214 His Story 223 S. Paul's Church and Steeple in London burnt 222 Pope Pius Excommunicates Q. Elizabeth 235 The first setled Presbytery in England at Wandsworth in Surrey 237 Popish Priests and Jesuites executed 242 The Little Parliament 353 The Humble Petition and Advice Framed 358 Statute of Praemunire when enacted 117 Players forbidden by Proclamation in King Edward the sixth his time 161 Piers Gaveston surprized by Guy Earl of Warwick who caused him to be beheaded 106 The first Patent of a Commendu Retinere granted by the King to any Bishop Elect 84 Geoffry Plantaginet Archbishop of York his Story 52 53 Peruwigs and long hair forbidden in the Clergy 77 Priests forced to forgo their wives 42 When the Pope made his first encroachment on the Liberties of the English Crown 38 Cardinal Poole s reception into England 191 He absolveth the Parliament and whole Kingdom for withdrawing their obedience to the Church of Rome 192 Consecrated to the See of Canterbury next Sunday after Cranmer's death 202 English Ambassadours sent to Rome arrived there on the first day of the Papacy of Pope Paul the fourth Pembrock-colledge in Oxford founded 296 Pinckney the Provincial of the Augustine-friars and Dr. Shaa onely of all the Clergy engage for King Richard the third 134 135 Parsonages not exceeding ten Marks and Vicaridges ten pounds freed from First-fruits 152 King Philip Married to Queen Mary 190 A Great Plague in London 381 Hugh Pudsey Bishop of Durham made Earl of Northumberland by King Richard the first 48 Penry Barrow and â—â—enwood condemned and executed 256 John Piers Archbishop of York derided by Martin Mar-prelate 256 Q QVeen's-colledge in Oxford when and by whom founded 111 Queen of Scots assumeth to her self the Style and Title of Queen of England 213 She flies into England and endeth her doleful life at Fatheringhay Castle She is buried in the Quire at Peterborough and twenty years after removed to Westminster 249 Queen Eleanor a solemn Anniversary instituted to be kept for her by King Edward the first her Husband 97 R ROmans forsake the Isle of of Britain 7 Rumold called Mechlinensis Apostolus 16 King Richard the first his Story 48 49 50 George Ripley a great Mathematitian 140 John Rouse a great Antiquary 140 King Richard the second his Story from 114 ad 118 Philip Rippinton of a Professour became a cruel persecutor of the Gospel He is made Bishop of Lincoln 121 Master John Rogers burnt in Smithfield the first Martyr in Queen Marie's 194 Cardinal Richlieu an Incendiary between King Charles the first and the Scots 313 When the word Recusant first came up 236 Reformed Religion advanced in Ireland 217 The Rites of the Church of England for a time remained the onely form of Worship for the Kirk of Scotland 216 Thomas Rudbourn a Monk of Winchester an old Writer 3 The Remish Translation cometh forth 247 Rogers his exposition on the thirty nine Articles of the Church of England 247 Roger a Monk of Chester and an Historiographer 113 Doctor Fulk and M. Cartwright their answer to the Rhemish Translation 247 Richard Cromwel his Story 361 362 S THat cruel Statute pro Haeretico comburendo first hanselled on William Sautre Priest
under the burden of that payment and the twentieth part of those which were not To which the Bishop added at several times the sum of nine hundred pound one shilling eleven pence the Dean and Chapter one hundred thirty six pound thirteen shillings four pence By all which and some other little helps the work was carried on so fast that before the end of April 1566. the Timber-work of the Roof was not onely fitted but compleatly covered And now the Pope's Nuncio being advanced already in his way to England as far as Flanders expecteth the Queen's pleasure touching his admittance for the Pope could not be taken off from sending his Nuncio to the Queen with whom he conceived himself to stand upon termes of Amity But the Queen persevered in her first intent affirming she could not treat with the Bishop of Rome whose authority was excluded out of England by consent of Parliament The greatest obstacle to the Nuncio's coming was partly laid by the indiscretion of some Papists in England and partly by the precipitancy of the Pope's Ministers in Ireland for sundry ill-disposed persons upon the noise of the Nuncio's coming not onely brake the Laws made against the Pope and his Authority but spread abroad slaunderous reports that the Queen was at the point to change her Religion and alter the government of the Realm Some also had practised with the Devil by Conjurations Charms and casting of Figures to be informed in the length of her Majesties Reign And on the other side the Pope's Legate being at the same time in Ireland joyned himself to some desperate Traitors who stirred up rebellion there and as much as in him was had deprived the Queen of all Right and Title to that Kingdom Upon which grounds it was carried clearly at the Council-boord against the Nuncio notwithstanding the Intercession of the French the Spaniard or the Duke of Alva Yet notwithstanding the Emperor Ferdinand sends to perswade the Queen to return to the old Religion at least that she would set apart some Churches to the use of the Catholicks To whom she answered That she had setled her Religion on so sure a Bottom that she could not easily be changed And for granting Churches to the Papists it did not consist with the Polity and good Laws of the Land Then divers abuses arising in the Church Archbishop Parker found it necessary to have recourse unto the power which was given to him by the Queen's Commission and by a clause of the Act of Parliament For the Vniformity of Common-Prayer and service in the Church c. As one of the Commissioners for causes Ecclesiastical he was authorized with the rest of his Associates To reform redress order correct and amend all such Errors Heresies Schismes Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities whatsoever as might from time to time arise in the Church of England And in the passage of the Act forementioned it was provided That all such Ornaments of the Church and the Ministers thereof should be retained as were in the Church of England by Authority of Parliament in the second year of King Edward the Sixth untill further order should be taken therein from the Queen's Majesty c. And also if there shall happen any contempt or irreverence to be used in the Rites of the Church by the misusing of the Orders of the said Book of Common-Prayer the Queen might by the advise of the Commissioners or Metropolitan ordain or publish such further Ceremonies or Rites as should be most for the advance of God's glory the edifying the Church c. Hereupon the Archbishop by the Queen's consent and the advice of some of the Bishops sets forth a certain Book of Orders to be diligently observed and executed by all persons whom it might concern Heylin Hist of Q. Elizab. An. Reg. 3. In which it was provided That no Parson Vicar or Curate of any exempt Church should from thenceforth attempt to conjoyn by solemnization of Matrimony any not being of his or their Parish-church without good Testimony of the Bains being ask'd in the several Churches where they dwell or otherwise were sufficiently Licensed That no other days should be observed as Holy-days and Fasting-days but onely such as be expressed in the Calendar lately set forth by the Queen's Authority That neither the Curates or Parents of Children which are brought to Baptism should answer for them at the Font but that the antient use of Godfathers and Godmothers should still be retained and that in all such Churches in which the steps to the Altar were not taken down the said steps should remain as before they did That the Communion-Table should be set in the said place where the steps then were or had formerly stood and that the Table of the Decalogue should be fixed upon the wall over the said Communion-Table This year the Merchants Tailors School in London was founded first by the Master Wardens and Assistants of the Company of Merchants Tailors whence it had the name and by them founded for a Seminary to St. John's in Oxford built and endowed at the sole costs of one of their Livery But of a far more private nature was the Foundation of another Grammar School in the Town of Sandwich built at the charge of Sir Roger Manwood and endowed with forty pound per annum The Council of Trent being now opened it was said in that Council that iâ— was good to let the Protestants alone and not name them alledging the danger of moving ill humors in a Body which was then quiet To give a safe conduct to the English-men which neither They nor any of them did require were a great indignity They were content it should be given to the Scots because their Queen would demand it but so as that the demand should first be made But the English Protestant Bishops would not venture themselves into that Council on such weak assurance considering how ill the safe conduct had been formerly kept to John Hus and Jerom of Prague at the Council of Constance And the Queen kept the Papal party safe from gadding thither Then Scipio a Venetian Gentleman formerly acquainted with Master Jewel whil'st he was a Student at Padua wrote now an expostulating Letter unto him being lately made Bishop of Sarisbury in which he much admireth that England should send no Ambassador nor Letter nor Message to excuse their Nation 's absence from the General Appearance of Christianity in that Council c. Bishop Jewel returned him such an Answer that neither Scipio himself nor any other of that party durst reply upon him The Answer is to be found at large at the end of the History of this Council Translated by Sir Nathanael Brent At this time it was advised by Lewis Prince of Conde the Cardinal Chastilion and other principal leaders of the Protestant party in France that they should put themselves under the protection of the Queen of England who had not long before so seasonably relieved
the Scots in the like distress The Queen had been secretly advertised of all passages there by Sir Nicholas Throgmorton her Majestie 's Resident in that Kingdom It being agreed on between them that the Queen should supply the Prince of Conde and his Associates with a sufficient quantity of Money Corn and Ammunition for the service of the French King against the practices of the House of Guise and that the Town of New-haven should be put into her Majestie 's hands to be garrisoned by English Souldiers Immediately a manifest was published in the name of the Queen wherein was declared that she had observed how the Guisian Faction in the names of the Queen-Mother of France and the young King had endeavoured to root out the Professors of the Reformed Religion and what massacres had been made at Vassey Paris Sene Tholouse Bloys Touers Angier and other places that there were thought to be Butchered no less than an hundred thousand of the natural Franch between the first of March and the twentieth of August then last past that with the like violence they had caused to be spoiled and imprisoned such of her Majestie 's Subjects as Traded in the Ports of Bretaign and such as sought to preserve themselves to be killed their goods and Merchandize to be seized without charging any other crime upon them but that they were Hugonots and that in consideration of the premises she could do no less than endeavour the preserving the Reformed Religion from an universal destruction and the maintaining her own Subjects and Dominions in peace and safety The ayd amounting to six thousand men was divided into two equal parts of which the one was destined to the defence of Roven and Deep then being in the hands of the Confederates the other to take possession of the Town of New-haven which by the Inhabitants was joyfully surrendâ—ed to the English The Lord Ambrose Dudley the eldest Son then living of the late Duke of Northumberland she sent to command that place whom on Decemb. 26. She had created Lord Lisle and Earl of Warwick where he was solemnly received with a peal of Ordnance A petit Rebellion hapned in Merton-colledge in Oxford The Wardenship of that house being voyd by the death of Gervase one Man is chosen to the place one Hall and his Popish faction opposed his admission and raised such a persecution that it was poenal for any to be a Protestant Archbishop Parker hearing of it summoneth Hall to appear before him but the seal of the citation was torn off by some of that party Hereupon the Archbishop made a solemn visitation of that Colledge wherein all were generally examined Man confirmed Warden Hall justly expelled his party publickly admonished the young Scholars relieved Papists curbed and suppressed Protestants countenanced and encouraged in the whole University Now many strange whispers were abroad and no small hopes conceived by those of the Popish faction for suppressing the Protestants in all parts of the Kingdom and setting up their own Religion as in former times of the plot were Arthur Pool younger brother to Reginald Pool the late Cardinal Legate and Geoffry Fortescue who had married his sister and others The substance of their charge was a design of levying War against the Queen c. with a particular intention of advancing the Queen of Scots to the Crown of England and Pool himself unto the Title of Duke of Clarence All which they Confessed upon the Indictment and did all receive the sentence of death but were all afterwards pardoned by the Queen out of that great respect which she bare to their Royal Extraction Then was that elegant discourse published by Bishop Jewel Entitled The Apology of the Church of England first writ in Latine translated presently into English French Italian Dutch and at last in Greek to the publishing whereof he was much encouraged by Peter Martyr with whom he had spent the greatest part of his time when he lived in exile But Martyr lived onely to see the Book which he so much longed for dying at Zurich on the twelfth of November following and laid into his grave by the Magistrates and people of that City with a solemn funeral The five Bishopricks erected by King Henry the eighth were so impoverished in this Queen's Reign that the new Bishops were necessitated to require the benevolence of their Clergy at their first coming to them to furnish their Episcopal houses and to enable them to maintain some tolerable degree of Hospitality in their several Diocesses The Parliament called January 12. 1562. passed an Act for Assurance of the Queen 's Royal power over all Estates and Subjects in her Dominions In which it was provided That no man Residing in the Queen's Dominions should from thence-forth either by-word or writing c. endeavour willingly to maintain the power and jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome heretofore usurped within this Realm It was also 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 or to Practise as an Attourney c 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 Minister the said Oath to all and every Spiritual Person in their proper Diocesses as well in places exempt as els-where 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 administer the Sacraments in a Tongue not understood by the People therefore it was Enacted That the Bishops of Hereford S. David's Bangor Landaff and S. Asaph should take care for Translating the whole Bible with the Common-prayer book into the Welch Tongue The like care was also taken for Translating the Books of Homilies Then were the Nine and thirty Articles composed in the Convocation at London published soon after both in English and Latine with this following Title The 39. Articles compiled in Convocation viz. Articles agreed upon by the Archishops and Bishops of both Provinces and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London Anno 1562. for the avoyding of Diversities of opinions and establishing consent touching true Religion These Articles came forth much about the time that the Decrees of the Council of Trent were published Many of which Decrees begin with lying and all end with Cursing threatening Anathema's to all dissenters Anno 1571. the Parliament confirmed these Articles so far that every Clerk should before Decemb. 25. next following subscribe the same And hereafter every person promoted to an Ecclesiastical living should within a time prefixed in the time of Divine Service publickly read and profess his consent to the same on pain of deprivation