Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	belong_v	hereditament_n	tenement_n	1,510	5	10.3033	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43528	Ecclesia restaurata, or, The history of the reformation of the Church of England containing the beginning, progress, and successes of it, the counsels by which it was conducted, the rules of piety and prudence upon which it was founded, the several steps by which it was promoted or retarded in the change of times, from the first preparations to it by King Henry the Eight untill the legal settling and establishment of it under Queen Elizabeth : together with the intermixture of such civil actions and affairs of state, as either were co-incident with it or related to it / by Peter Heylyn.	Heylyn, Peter, 1600-1662.; Heylyn, Peter, 1599-1662. Affairs of church and state in England during the life and reign of Queen Mary.	1660-1661 (1661)	Wing H1701_ENTIRE; Wing H1683_PARTIAL_CANCELLED; ESTC R6263	514,716	473

City of Cambray in which all differences were concluded also between France and Spain all other Articles being accorded the restitution of Calais to the Queen of England seemed the onely obstacle by which the general peace of Christendom was at the point to have been hindred But the Queen either preferring the publick good before private interest or fearing to be left alone if she should stand too obstinately upon that particular came at the last to this agreement viz. That Calais should remain for the tearm of eight years then next following in the hands of the French that at the end of the said tearm it should be delive●ed unto the English or otherwise the French King should pay unto the Queen the sum of 500000 Crowns According unto which Agreement Peace was proclaimed in London on the 7th of April between the Queens Majesty on the one part and the French King on the other as also between her and the King Dolphin with his wife the Queen of Scots and all the Subjects and Dominions of the said four Princes The Proclamation published by Garter and Norrey Kings at Arms accompanied with three other Heralds and five Trumpeters the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in their Scarlet Gowns being present on horseback But long the French King lived not to enjoy the benefit of this general Peace unfortunately wounded in Paris at a Tilt or Tournament by Count Mon●gomery of which wound he shortly after died on the 10th of July leaving be hind him four sons Francis Charls Henry and another Francis of which the three first according to their seniority enjoyed that Kingdom And though she had just cause to be offended with the young King Francis for causing the Queen of Scots his wife to take upon her self the Title and Arms of England yet she resolved to bestow a royal Obsequy on the King deceased which was performed in St. Paul's Church on the 8th and 9th of September in most solemn manner with a rich Hearse made like an Imperial Crown sustained with eight pillars and covered with black Velvet with a Valence fringed with gold and richly hanged with Sc●tcheous Pennons and Banners of the French Kings Arms the principal mourner for the first day was the Lord Treasurer Paulet Marquis of Winchester assisted with ten other Lords Mourners with all the Heralds in black and their Coat-Armours uppermost The divine Offices performed by Doctor Matthew Parker Lord elect of Canterbury Doctor William Barlow Lord elect of Chichester and Doctor I●hn Scory Lord elect of Hereford all sitting in the Throne of the Bishop of London no otherwise at that time than in hoods and Surplices by whom the Derige was executed at that time in the English toung The Funeral Sermon preached the next morning by the Lord of Hereford and a Communion celebrated by the Bishops then attired in Copes upon their Surplices At which time six of the chief mourners received the Sacrament and so departed with the rest to the Bishops Palace where a very liberal Entertainment was provided for them By which magnificency and the like this prudent Queen not onely kept ●er own reputation at the highest amongst forein Princes but caused the greater estimation to be had by the Catholick party of the Religion here established Anno Reg. Eliz. 2. A. D. 1559 1560. WE must begin this year with the Consecration of such new Bishops as were elected to succeed in the place of those which had been deprived the first of which was that of the most reverend Doctor Matthew Parker elected to the See of Canterbury on the first of August but not consecrated till the 17th of December following That Dignity had first been offered as is said by some to Doctor Nicholas Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York who grown in years and still a well-willer to the Pope desired to be excused from undertaking of a charge so weighty And some say it was offered unto Whitehead also who had been Chaplain to Anne Bollen the Queen's mother but he returned the like refusal though on other grounds as more inclined by reason of his long abode in Calvin's Churches to the Presbyterians than the Episcopal form of Government and it was happy for the Church might have been betrayed by his dissaffection that he did refuse it The Chair being better filled by Parker another of Queen Bollen's Chaplains but better principled and of a far more solid judgment in affairs of moment The Conge●d ' sleiur which opened him the way to this eminent Dignity bears date on the 18th day of July within few days after the deprivation of the former Bishops to satisfie the world in the Queens intention of preserving the Episcopal Government And therefore why the consecration was deferred so long maybe made a question some think it was that she might satisfie her self by putting the Church into a posture by her Visitation before she passed it over to the care of the Bishops others conceive that she was so enamoured with the power and title of Supream Governess that she could not deny her self that contentment in the exercise of it which the present Interval afforded For what are Titles without Power and what pleasure can be took in Power if no use be made of it And it is possible enough that both or either of these considerations might have some influence upon her But the main cause for keeping the Episcopal Sees in so long a vacancy must be found else-where An Act had passed in the late Parliament which never had the confidence to appear in print in the Preamble whereof it was declared That by dissolution of Religious Houses in the time of the late King her Majesties father many Impropriations Tithes and portions of Tithes had been invested in the Crown which the Queen being a Lady of a tender conscience thought not fit to hold nor could conveniently dismember from it without compensation in regard of the present low condition in which she found the Crown at her comming to it And thereupon it was enacted that in the vacancy of any Archbishoprick or Bishoprick it should be lawful for the Queen to issue out a Commission under the Great Seal for taking a survey of all Castles Mannors Lands Tenements and all other Hereditaments to the said Episcopal Sees belonging or appertaining and on the return of such surveys to take into her hands any of the said Castles Mannors Lands Tenements c. as to her seemed good giving to the said Archbishops or Bishops as much annual Rents to be raised upon Impropriations Tithes and portions of Tithes as the said Castles Mannors Lands c. did amount unto The Church Lands certified according to the antient Rents without consideration of the Casualties and other Perq●isites of Court which belonged unto them the Retribution made in Pensions Tithes and portions of Tithes extended at the utmost value from which no other profit was to be expected than the Rent it self Which Act not being to take effect

symitry which showed it selfe in all her features and what she carried on that side by that advantage was over-ballanced on the other by a pleasing sprightfulnesse which gained as much upon the hearts of all beholders It was conceived by those Great Critticks in the schooles of Beauty that love which seemed to threaten in the eyes of Queen Jane did only seem to sport it selfe in the eyes of Queen Ann that there was more Majesty in the Ga●b of Queen Jane Seimour and more lovelinesse in that of Queen Ann Bollen yet so that the Majesty of the one did excell in Lovelyness and that the Lovelinesse of the other did exceed In majesty Sir John Russell afterwards Earle of Bedford who had beheld both Queens in their greatest Glories did use to say that the richer Queen Jane was in clothes the fairer she appeared but that the other the richer she was apparrelled the worse she looked which showes that Queen Ann only trusted to the Beauties of Nature and that Queen Jane did sometimes help her selfe by externall Ornaments In a word she had in her all the Graces of Queen Ann but Governed if my conjecture doth not faile me with an evener and more constant temper or if you will she may be said to be equally made up of the two last Queens as having in her all the Attractions of Queen Ann but Regulated by the reservednesse of Queen Katharine also It is not to be thought that so many rare per●ections should be long concealed from the eye of the King or that love should not worke in him it's accustomed effects of desire and hope In the prosecution whereof he lay so open to discovery that the Queen cou●d not chuse but take notice of it and intimated her suspitio●s to him as appeares by a letter of hers in the Scrinia Sacra I● which she signifies unto him that by hastning her intended death he would be left at liberty both before God and man to follow his affection already setled on the Party for whose sake she was reduced unto that condition and whose name she could some while since have pointed to his Grace not being ignorant of her suspicions And it appeared by the event that she was not much mistaken in the Mark she aimed at For scarce had her lementable death which happened on the nineteenth of May prepared the way for the Legitimating of this new affection but on the morrow after the King was secretly married to Mistress Seimour and openly showed her as his Queen in the Whitsontide following A Marriage which made some alteration in the face of the Court in the advancing of her kindred and discountenancing the Dependants of the former Queen but otherwise produced no change in Affaires of State The King proceeded as before in suppressing Monasteries extinguishing the Popes Authority and ●ltering divers things in the face of the C●u●ch which tended to that Reformation which after followed For on the eighth of June began the Parliament in which here past an Act for t●e finall extinguishing of the Power of the Popes of Rome Cap. 10. And the next day a Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy managed by Sir Thomas Cromwell advanced about that time unto the Title of Lord Cromwell of Wimbledon and made his Majesties Viccar Generall of all Ecclesiast ●all Mat●ers in the Realme of England By whose Authority a book was published after Mature debate and Deliberation under the name of Articles Devised by the Kings Highness in which mentioned ●ut three Sacraments that is to ●ay Baptisme Pen●ance and the Lords Supper Besides which book there were some Acts agreed upon in the Convocation for diminishing the superfl●ous number of Holy dayes especially of such as happened in the time of Harvest S●gnified afterwards to the people in certain Injunctions published in the Kings name by the new Viccar Generall as the first fruits of his Authority In which it was ordained amongst other things that the Curates in every Parish Church should teach the People to say the Lords Prayer the Creed the Ave-Mary and the Ten Commandments in the English Tongue But that which seemed to make most for the Advantage of the new Queen and her Posterity if it please God to give her any was the unexpected death of the Duke of Richmond the Kings naturall Son begotten on the body of the Lady Talboi● So dearly cherished by his Father having then no lawful Issu●-male that in the sixth yeare of his Age An. 1525. he created him Earl of Nottingham and not long after Duke of Richmond and Sommerset preferred him to the Honourable office of Earle Marshall elected him into the Order of the Garter made him Lord Admirall of the Royall Navy in an expedition against France and finally Affianced him to Mary the daughter of Thomas Howard Duke of Nor●olk the most ●owerfull Subject in the Kingdom Now were these all the favours intended to him The Crown it selfe being designed him by the King in default of Lawfull Issue to be procreated and begotten of his Royall Body For in the Act of the Succession which past in the Parliament of this year the Crown being first setled upon the Issue of this Queen with the remainder to the Kings issue lawfully begotten on any following wife whatsoever there past this clause in favour of the Duke of Richmond as it was then generally conceived that is to say That for lack of lawfull heires of the Kings body to be procreated or begotten as is afore limitted by this Act it should and might be lawfull for him to confer the same on any such Person or Persons in Possession and Remainder as should please his Highnesse and according to such Estate and after such manner ●orme fashion order and condition as should be expressed declared named and l●mitted in his said Letters Patents or by his last Will the Crown to be enjoyed by such person or persons so to be nominated and appointed in as large and ample manner as if such Person or Persons had been his Highnesse Lawfull Heires to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm And though it might please God as it after did to give the King some Lawfull Issue by this Queen yet took he so much care for this naturall son as to enable himselfe by another Clause in the said Act to advance any person or persons of his most Royall Blood by Letters Patents under the Great Seale to any Title Stile or Name of any Estate Dignity or Honour whatsoever it be and to give to them or any of them any Castles Honours Mannours Lands Tenements Liberties Franchiefes or other Hereditaments in ●ee simple or Fee ●tail or for terme of their lives or the life of any of them But all these expectations and Provisions were to no effect the Duke departing this life at the age of 17 yeares or thereabouts within few dayes after the ending of this Session that is to say on the 22th day of July Anno 1536. to the

some decent Trimming And might not these be handsomly converted unto private uses to serve as Carpets for their Tables Coverlids to their Beds or Cushions to ●heir Chairs or Windows Hereupon some rude People are encouraged under-hand to beat down some Altars which makes way for an Order of the Counci●-Table to take down the rest and set up Tables in their places Followed by a Commission to be executed in all parts of the Kingdom for seising on the Premises to the use of the King But as the Grandees of the Court intended to defraud the King of so great a Booty and the Commissioners to put a Cheat upon the Court-Lords who employed them in it So they were both prevented in some places by the ●o●ds and Gentry of the Countrey who thought the Altar-Cloths together with the Copes and ●late of their several Churches to be as necessary for themselves as for any others ●his Change drew on the Alteration of the former Liturg● reviewed by certain Godly Prelates reduced almost into the same Form in which now it stands and confirmed by Parliament in the 5th and 6th years of this King but almost as unpleasing to the Zuinglian Faction as the former was In which Conjuncture of Affairs dyed King Edward the Sixth From the beginning of whose Reign the Church accounts the ●poche of a Reformation All that was done in o●der to it under Henr● the Eight seemed to be accidental onely and by the by rather designed on private Ends then out of any setled purpose to ●eform the Church and therefore intermitted and resumed again as those Ends had variance But now the Work was carried on wi●h a constant Hand the Prelates of the Church co-operating with the King and his Council and each contriving with the other for the Honour of it Scarce had they brought it to this pass when King Edwa●d dyed whose Death I cannot reckon for an Infelicity to the Church of England For being ill-principled in himself and easily inclined to embrace such Counsels as were offered to Him it is not to be thought but that the rest of the Bishopricks before sufficiently empoverished mu●t have followed Durham and the poor Church be left as destitute of Lands and Ornaments as when she came into the World in Her Natural Nakedness Nor was it like to happen otherwise in the following Reign if it had lasted longer then a Nine Day 's Wonder For Dudley of Northumberland who then ruled the Roast and had before dissolved and in hope devoured the Wealthy Bish●prick of Durham might easily have possessed himself of the greatest part of the Revenues of York and Carlisle By means whereof He would have made himself more absolute on the North-side of the Trent then the poor Titular Queen a most virtuous Lady could have been suffered to continue on the South side of it To carry on whose Interess and maintain Her Title the poor remainder of the Church's Patrimony was in all probability to have been shared amongst those of that Party to make them sure unto the side But the Wisdom of this great Achitophel being turned to foolishness He fell into the Hands of the Publick Hang-man and thereby saved himself the labour of becoming his own Executioner Now MARY comes to Act Her Part and She drives on furiously Her Personal Interess had strongly byassed Her to the Church of Rome On which depended the Validity of Her Mother's Marriage and consequently Her own Legitimation and Succession to the Crown of this Realm And it was no hard matter for Her in a time unsettled to Repeal all the Acts of Her Brother's Reign and after to restore the Pope unto that Supremacy of which Her Father had deprived Him A Reign Calamitous and unfortunate to Her Self and Her Subjects Unfortunate to Her Self in the loss of Calais Calamitous to Her Subjects by many Insurrections and Executions but more by the effusion of the Bloud of so many Marty●s For though she gave a Check to the Rapacity of the former Times yet the Professours of the Reformation paid dearly for it whose Bloud she caused to be poured forth like Water in most parts of the Kingdom but no where more abundantly then in Bonner's Slaughter-House Which being within the view of the Court and under Her own Nose as the Saying is must needs entitle Her to a great part of those Horrid Cruelties which almost every day were acted by that bloudy Butcher The Schism at Frank●o●t took beginning in the same time also occasioned by some Zealots of the Zuinglian Faction who needs must lay aside the use of the Publick Liturgie retained by all the rest of the English Exiles the better to make way for such Forms of Worship as seemed more consonant to Calvin's Platform and the Rules of Geneva Which woful Schism so wretchedly begun in a Foreign Nation they laboured to promote by all sinister Practises in the Church of England when they returned from Exile in the following Reign The miserable Effects whereof we feel too sensibly and smartly to this very day But the great Business of this Reign related to the restitution of the Abbey-Lands end eavoured earnestly by the Queen and no less strenuously opposed by the then present Owners who had all the reason in the World to maintain that Right which by the known Laws of the Land had been vested in them For when the Monasteries and Religious Houses had been dissolved by several Acts of Parliament in the time of King Henry the Lands belonging to those Houses were by those Acts conferr'd upon the King and His Successours Kings and Queens of England Most of which Lands were either exchanged for others with the Lords and Gentry or sold for valuable Consideration to the rest of the Subjects All which Exchanges Grants and Sales were passed and Confirmed by the King's Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England in due Form of Law Which gave unto the Patentees as good a Title as the Law could make them This was well known unto the Pope and He knew well upon what ticklish Terms He stood with the Lords and ●ommons then Assembled in Parliament whom i● He did not gratifie with some Signal Favour He could not hope to be restored by them to His former Power for being deprived of His Sup●emacy by Act of Parliament in the Time of King HENRY He could not be restored unto it but by Act of Parliam●nt in the time of Queen MARY and no such Ast could be obtained or compassed for Him without a Confirmation of Church-●ands to the present Owners To which Necessity Pope Julius being forced to submit Himself He issueth a Decree accompanied with some Reasons which might seem to induce Him to it for confirming all such Lands on the present Occupants of which they stood possessed justo Titulo by a Lawful Title And this was onely reckoned by him for a Lawful Title First that they were possessed of the said Lands juxta Leges hujus Regni pro

Spoil though not to the Loss of their Bishopricks Of which last Sort were Kitching Bishop of Landaff Salcot otherwise called Capon Bishop of Salisbury and Sampson of Coventry and Lichfield Of which the last to keep his ground was willing to fling up a great part of his Lands and out of those which either belonged unto his See or the Dean and Chapter to raise a Baron's Estate and the Title of the Baronie too for Sir William Paget not born to any such fair Fortunes as he thus acquired Salcot of Salisbury knowing himself obnoxious to some Court-Displeasures redeems his Peace and keeps himself out of such Danger by making long Leases of the best of his Farms and Manours known afterwards most commonly by the Name of Capons-Feathers But none of them more miserably Dilapidated the Patr●mony of his See then Bishop Kitching of Landaff A Church so liberally endowed by the Munificence and Piety of some Great Persons in those Times that if it were possessed but of a tenth Part of what once it had it might be reckoned as is affirmed by Bishop Godwine one of Kitching's Successours amongst the Richest Churches in these Parts of Christendom But whatsoever Kitching found it it was made poor enough before he left it so poor that it is hardly able to keep the Pot boiling for a Parson's Dinner Of the first Rank I reckon Voysie of Exeter Heath of Worcester and Day of Chichester for the Province of Canterbury together with Bishop Tonstal 〈◊〉 Durham in the Province of York The first once Governour to the Princess Mary Preferred afterwards by King Henry to the Lord-President-ship of Wales and the See of Exeter Which See he found possessed at his coming to it of twenty two goodly Manours and fourteen Mansion-Houses Richly furnished But the Man neither could approve the Proceedings of the King in the Reformation nor cared in that respect to Preserve the Patrimony of the Church for those who might differ in Opinion from him And being set upon the Pin he made such Havock of his Lands before he was brought under a Deprivation that he left but seven or eight of the worst Manours and those let out into long Leases and charged with Pensions and not above two Houses both bare and naked Having lost so much Footing within his Diocess it is no marvail if he could no longer keep his Standing For being found an open Hinderer of the Work in hand and secretly to have fomented the Rebellion of the Devonshire-Men in the year 1549 he either was deprived of or as some say resigned his Bishoprick within few Moneths after the Sentence passed on Gardiner but lived to be restored again as Gardiner also was in the Time of Queen Mary Of Day and Heath I have nothing to remember more particularly but that they were both Deprived on the tenth of October and lived both to a Restitution in Queen Marie's Reign Heath in the mean time being Liberally and Lovingly entertained by the Bishop of London and afterwards Preferred to the Arch-Bishoprick of York and made Lord Chancellour of England Nor shall I now say more of Tonstal but that being cast into the Tower on the twentieth day of December he was there kept untill the Dissolution of his Bishoprick by Act of Parliament of which we shall speak more at large in its proper place We must not leave these Churches vacant considering that it was not long before they were supplyed with new Incumbents To Gardiner in the See of Winton succeeded Doctour John Poynet Bishop of Rochester a better Scholar then a Bishop and purposely Preferred to that Wealthy Bishoprick to serve other Mens Turns For before he was well warm in his See he dismembred from it the Goodly Palace of Marwel with the Manours and Parks of Marwel and Twiford which had before been seised upon by the Lord Protectour to make a Knight's Estate for Sir Henry Seimour as before was signified The Palace of Waltham with the Park and Manour belonging to it and some good Farms depending on it were seised into the hands of the Lord Treasurer Pawlet Earl of Wiltshire who having got into possession so much Lands of the Bishoprick conceived himself in a fit Capacity to affect as shortly after he obtained the Title of Lord Marquess of Winchester But this with many of the rest of Poynet's Grants Leases and Alienations were again recovered to the Church by the Power of Gardiner when being restored unto his See he was by Queen Mary made Lord Chancellour To Voysie in the See of Exeter succeeded Doctour Miles Coverdale one who had formerly assisted Tyndal in Translating the Bible into English and for the most part lived at Tubing an Vniversity belonging to the Duke of Saxonie where he received the Degree of Doctour Returning into England in the first year of King Edward and growing into great Esteem for Piety and Diligent Preaching he was Consecrated Bishop of this Church the thirtieth of August the Bones whereof were so clean picked that he could not easily leave them with less Flesh then he found upon them Nor have we more to say of Scory who succeeded Day but that being Consecrated Bishop of Rochester in the place of Poynet on the thirtieth of August also he succeeded Day at Chichester in the year next following Of which Bishoprick he was deprived of in the Time of Queen Mary and afterwards preferred by Queen Elizabeth to the See of H●reford in which place he dyed To Heath at Worcester no Successour was at all appointed that Bishoprick being given in Commendam to Bishop Hooper who having been Consecrated Bishop o● Glocester on the eighth of March was made the Commendatory of this See to which he could not legally be Translat●d as the Case then stood both Latimer and Heath being st●ll alive and both reputed Bishops of it by their several Parties And here we have a strange Conversion of Affairs for whereas heretofore the County of Glocester was a part of the Diocess of Worcester out of which it was taken by King Henry when first made a Bishoprick the Diocess of Worcester was now lay'd to the See of Glocester Not that I think that Hooper was suffered to enjoy the Temporal Patrimony of that Wealthy Bishoprick but that he was to exercise the Jurisdiction and Episcopality with some short Allowance for his Pains The Pyrates of the Court were too intent on all Advantages to let such a Vessel pass untouched in which they might both finde enough to enrich themselves and yet leave that which was sufficient to content the Merchant An● this perhaps may be one Reason why Latimer was not restored unto his Bishoprick upon this Avoydance not in regard of any sensible Dislike which was taken at him by the Court for his down-right Preaching or that the Bishops feared from him the like Disturbances which they had met withall in Hooper But I conceive the Principal Reason of it might proceed from his own Unwillingness to cumber his

then Ordinary Diligence so was he encour●ged thereunto by a very Liberal Exhibition which he received annually from the late King Henry But the King being dead his Exhibition and encouragments dyed also with him So that the Lamp of his life being destitute of the Oyl which fed it after it had been in a lang●ishing condition all the rest of h●s King's Reign was this year unfortunately Extingu●shed unfortunately in regard that he dyed distr●cted to the great Greif of all that knew him and the no small sorrow of ma●y who never saw him but onely in his painful and labo●ious Writings W●ich Writ●ngs being by him Presented to the hands of King Henry came a●terwards into ●he power of Sr. John Che●k Schole-master and Secretary for the L●tine tongue to the King now Reigning And though coll●cted Principally for the u●e of the Crown yet on the death of the young King his Tu●our kept th●m to himself as long as he lived and left them at his death to Henry his Eldest Son Secretary to the Councel Established at Yo●k for the N●r●hern parts From Che●k but not without some intermediate conveyances four of them came into the possession of William 〈◊〉 of Leic●s●e shi●e who having served his turn of them as well as he could in his d●scription of that County bestowed them as a most choise Rarity upon Oxford Library where the O●●ginals ●t●ll ●emain Out of this Treasury whilest it remained entire in the hands of Cheek the learned Campden was supplyed with much Excellent matter toward the making up of his description of the ●sles of Britain but not without all due acknowledgment to his Benefactour whom he both frequent cite●h and very highly commendeth for his pains and industry In the last place comes in Cardanus an eminent Philosopher born in Italy and one not easily over matched by the then supposed Matchless Sc●liger having composed a Book Entituled ● De varietate Rerum with an Epistl● Dedicatory to King Edward the Sixth he came over this year into England to present it to him which gave him the Occasion of much conference with ●●m In which he found ●uch dexterity in Him for Encountring many of his Paradoxes in natural Philosophy that he seemed to be astonished between Admiration and Delight and divulged his Abilities to be miracul●u● Some Passages of which discourse Cardanus hath left upon Record in these words ensu●ng Decim●●m quintum adhuc ag●bat Annum cum interrogobat Latine c. Being yet saith he but of the age of fifteen years he asked me in Latine in which tongue he utterred his mind no less eloquently and readily then I could do my self what my Book● which I had dedicated unto him De varietate Rerum did contain I answered that in the first Chapter was shewed the cause of Com●ts or blazing-stars which hath been long sought for and hitherto scarce fully found What cause sayd he is that The concour●e or meeting of the light of the wandring Planets or stars To this th● King thus replyed again For as much said he as the motion of the stars keepeth not one course but is diverse and variable by continual Alteration how is it then that the cause of these Comets doth not quickly v●de or vanish or that the Comet doth not keep one certain and uniform course and motion with the said stars and Planets Whereunto I an●wered that it ●oved indeed but with a far swifter motion then the Planets by rea●on of the diversity of Aspects as we see in Christal and the Sun when a Rainbow rebounds on a Wall for a little change makes a great difference of the place The King rejoyned How can that be done without a subject as the Wall is the Subject to the Rainbow To which I answered That as in the Galaxia or Via lactea and in the Reflection of Lights when many are set near one another they do produce a certain Lucid and bright Mean Which Conference is thus shut up by that Learned Men That he began to favour Learning before he could know it and knew it before he could tell what use he had of it And then bemoans his short life in these words of the Poet Immodic●s brevis est Aetas rara Senectus Anno Reg. Edw. Sexti 7º Anno Dom. 1552 1553. SUch being the excellent Abilities of this hopeful Prince in Matters of Abstruser Learning there is no question to be made but that he was the Master of so much Perspicacity in his own Affairs as indeed he was which might produce both Love and Admiration in the Neighbouring Princes Yet such was the Rapacity of the Times and the Unfortunateness of his Condition that his Minority was abused to many Acts of Spoil and Rapine even to an high degree of Sacrilege to the raising of some and the enriching of others without any manner of improvement to his own Estate For notwithstanding the great and most inestimable Treasures which must needs come in by the spoil of so many Shrines and Images the sale of all the Lands belonging to Chanteries Colleges Free Chapels c. And the Dilapidating of the Patrimony of so many Bishopricks and Cathedral Churches he was not onely plunged in Debt but the crown-Crown-Lands were much diminished and impaired since his coming to it Besides which spoils there were many other helps and some great ones too of keeping him both before●hand and full of Money had they been used to his Advantage The Lands of divers of the Halls and Companies in London were charged with Annual Pensions for the finding of such Lights Obits and Chantry-Priests as were founded by the Donours of them For the redeeming whereof they were constrained to pay the sum of Twenty Thousand Pounds to the use of the King by an Order from the Council-Table not long before the payment of the first Money for the sale of Boloign Anno 1550. And somewhat was also paid by the City to the King for the Purchase of the Borough of Southwark which they bought of him the next year But the main glut of Treasure was that of the four hundred thousand Crowns amounting in our Money to 133333 l. 13 s. 4 d. paid by the French King on the s●rrendry of the Town and Territory of 〈◊〉 before remembred Of which vast sum but small in reference to the loss of so great a strength no less then fourscore thousand pounds was laid up in the Tower the rest assigned to publick uses for the peace and safety of the Kingdom Not to say any thing of that great Yearly Profit which came in from the Mint after the entercourse settled betwixt Him and the King of Sweden and the decrying so much Base Money had begun to set the same on work Which great Advantages notwithstanding He is now found to be in Debt to the Bankers of An●we●p elsewhere no less then 251000 l of English money Towards which the sending of his own Ambassadours into France and the entertainment of the

one another by the known Laws of the Land which neither Acts of Parliament nor the last Will and Testament of the King Deceased were of power to alter That the young Queen of Scots was an Alien born by Consequence uncapable of any Inheritance in the Realm of England and had besides preferred the Alliance of the French before that of His Majesty which rendered Her as unworthy as she was uncapable That for the better carrying on of that Blessed Work of Reformation the Peace and Happiness of His People the preventing of all Emergent Mischiefs and His own everlasting Fame it was not possible to make a more happy Provision then by transferring the Crown to the Lady Jane a Lady of such Excellent Virtues as were sufficient to adorn the Richest Diadem That there was no Question to be made but that His Majesty knew as well as any the admirable qualities of that Matchless Lady Her Zeal to the Religion here by Him established the agreeableness of Her Conversation with His own Affections and could not but conceive that Nation to be infinitely happier then all others which might fall under the Command of so mild a Government And finally That he was bound by His Duty to God the Light of His own Conscience and the Love He had to all His Subjects to lay aside all Natural Affections to His Father's House in respect of that great Obligation which He had to God's Glory and the true Religion following therein the Example of our Lord and Saviour who looked both for his Brothers and Sisters amongst his Disciples without relating to his nearest Kindred by Joseph or Mary By these Suggestions and Inducements he much enclined the King to hearken to his Propositions For furtherance whereof he caused such as were about Him to entertain Him with continual Discourses of the Divine Perfections and most Heavenly Graces of the Lady Jane the high Esteem in which She was with all the Subjects for Her Zeal and Piety the everlasting Fame which would wait upon Him by providing such a Successour to enjoy the Crown in whom Virtues would survive to succeeding Ages Then which no Musick could sound sweeter in the Ears of the King whom he knew to have an affectionate Sympathy with that Excellent Lady as being much of the same Age brought up in the same Studies as near to Him in the sweetness of Her Disposition as She was in Blood and of a Conversation so agreeable to Him as if They had been but the same Person in divers Habits And they all plied their Game so cunningly that the weak King not being able to withstand so many Assaults did at last condescend to that which he found not onely most conformable to their Importunities but to His own Affections also Order was taken thereupon that an Instrument should be drawn in due Form of Law for the transposing of the Crown to the Children of the Lady Frances Duchess of Suffolk and Daughter to Mary the French Queen one of the Sisters of King Henry His Maje●tie's ●●ther In which Instrument nothing was to be defective which either could be drawn from the Grounds of Law or the Rules of Polity to justifie and endear the Action In drawing up whereof there was none thought fitter to be used then Sir William Cecil one of the Chief Secretaries of Estate who having before served Dudlie's Turn against his old Master the Duke of Sommerset was looked on as the Readiest Man for the present Service The Pretensions taken from the Law for excluding the King's two Sisters from the Right of Succession were grounded First Upon the Invalidity of their Mother's Marriage both being made void by Legal Sentences of Divorce and those Divorces ratified by Acts of Parliament In which the said two Sisters were declared to be illegitimate and consequently uncapable of any of those Favours which were intended to them by the Act of Succession made in the thirty fifth year of the late King Henry or by the last Will and Testament of that King which was built upon it In the next Place it was pretended that the said two Sisters Mary and Elizabeth being but of half Blood to the King now Reigning admitting them to have been born in lawfull Wedlock were not in any Capacity by the Common-Law the old good Law of England to be Heirs unto Him or to Succeed in any Part of that Inheritance which came unto Him by His Father It was considered also that by the known Rules and Principles of the Common-Law no manner of Person was Inheritable to any Estate of Lands or Tenements in the Realm of England who was not born under the King's Allegiance as King of England but in the case of Naturalization by Act of Parliament Which seemed to be a sufficient Bar against all Titles and Demands for the Line of Scotland although derived from Margaret the Eldest Daughter of King Henry the Seventh And whereas the Lady Frances Duchess of Suffolk might seem both by the Law of Nature and the Right of Succession to have precedency in Title before her Daughter yet was no Injury offered to her in regard that she was willing to pass by all her Personal Claims for the Preferment of her Children Which Pretermissions of the Mother were neither new nor strange in the Succession to the Crown of this Kingdom Not new because the like was done by Maud the Emperess for the Advancement of her Son King Henry the Second nor strange because it h●d been lately practised in the Person of the Lady Margaret Countess of Richmond in giving Way to the Preferment of King Henry the Seventh the first King of the House now Regnant The Reasons or Pretexts which seemed to be built on Polity and Point of State were first the unavoydable Danger of Reducing this Free and Noble Realm under the Vassalage and Servitude of the Bishop of Rome if either of the King 's two Sisters in their several Turns should marry with a Foreign Prince of that Religion or otherwise by the Transport of their own Affections submit their Scepters to the Pope It was considered also That by such Marriages not onely many Foreign Customs and Laws would be introduced but that there might follow an Abolishment of those Antient Laws upon which the Native Rights of all the Subjects seemed to have dependance Besides that possibly the Realm might hereby be annexed to some greater Kingdom of which in time it would be reckoned for a Member and consequently be reduced unto the Form of a Province to the utter Subversion of the Antient Dignity and Estate thereof Which whensoever it should happen it was neither impossible nor improbable that the People upon a just Sence of the Indignities Pressures might elect some popular and seditious man to be their King who to countenance his own unworthiness obscurity would little regard what Contumelie he cast upon the falling Family of the Kings before him To which perchance some further Countenance might be