Nobility had sworn fealty in her Father's life-time William Archbishop of Canterbury notwithstanding his Oath to Mawd solemnly Crowned Stephen shewing himself thereby perjured to his God disloyal to his Princess and ingrateful to his Patroness by whose special favour he had been preserved The rest of the Bishops to their shame followed his example hoping to obtain from an Usurper what they could not get from a Lawful King traiterously avowing That it was baseness for so many and so great Peers to be subject to a Woman King Stephen sealed a Charter at Oxford Anno 1136. the Tenor whereof is That all Liberties Customs Speeds Chron. and Possessions granted to the Church should be firm and in force That all Persons and Causes Ecclesiastical should appertain onely to Ecclesiastical Judicature That none but Clergy-men should ever intermeddle with the Vacancies of Churches or any Church-mens goods That all bad usages in the Land touching Forrests Exactions c. should be utterly extirpate the antient Laws restored c. The Clergy perceiving that King Stephen performed little of his large promises to them were not formerly so forward in setting him up but now more ready to pluck him down and sided effectually with Mawd against him Stephen fell violently on the Bishops who then were most powerful in the Land He imprisoned Roger Bishop of Sarisbury till he had surrendered unto him the two Castles of Shirburn and the Devizes for the which Roger took such thought that he died shortly after and left in ready Coin forty thousand Marks which after his Death came to the King's Coffers he also uncastled Alexander of Lincoln and Nigellus of Ely taking a great Mass of Treasure from them The Dean and Canons of Pauls for crossing him in the choice of their Bishop tasted of his fury for he took their Focariaes and cast them into the Tower of London where they continued many dayes till at last their liberty was purchased by the Canons at a great price Roger Hoveden tells us plainly that these Focariae were those Canons Concubines See here the fruit of forbidding Marriage to the Clergy against the Law of God and Nature Albericus Bishop of Hostia was sent by Pope Innocent into England called a Synod at Westminster where 18 Bishops and thirty Abbots met together Here was concluded That no Priest Deacon Fuller Church History or-sub-deacon should hold a Wife or Woman within his House under pain of degrading from his Christendom and plain sending to Hell That no Priest's Son should claim any Spiritual Living by heritage That none should take a Benefice of any Lay-man That none should be admitted to Cure which had not the letters of his Orders That Priests should do no bodily labour And that their Transubstantiated God should dwell but eight dayes in the Box for fear of worm-eating moulding or stinking In this Synod Theobald Abbot of Becco was chosen Archbishop of Canterbury in the place of William lately Deceased The most considerable Clergy-man of England in this Age for Birth Wealth and Learning was Henry of Blois Bishop of Winchester and Brother to King Stephen He was made by the Pope his Legat for Britain In this Council where William of Malmesbury was present there were three parties assembled with their attendance 1. Roger of Sarisbury with the rest of the Bishops grievously complaining of their Castles taken from them 2. Henry Bishop of Winchester the Pope's Legat and President of the Council with Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury pretending to Umpire matters moderately 3. Hugh Archbishop of Roan and Aubery de Vere Ancestor to the Earl of Oxford as Advocate for King Stephen This Aubery de Vere was Learned in the Laws being charactered by my Author Homo causarum varietatibus exercitatus a man well versed in the windings of Causes This Synod brake up without any extraordinary matter effected For soon after Queen Mawd came with her Navy and Army out of Normandy which turned Debates into Deeds and Consultations into Actions There were many Religious Foundations built and endowed in the troublesom Reign of King Stephen not to speak of the Monastery of St. Mary de Pratis founded by Robert Earl of Leicester and many others of this time the goodly Hospital of St. Katherines nigh London was founded by Mawd Wife to King Stephen So stately was the Quire of this Hospital that it was not much inferior to that of St. Pauls in London when taken down in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth by Doctor Thomas Wilson the Master thereof and Secretary of State Yea King Stephen himself erected St. Stephen's Chappel in Westminster He built also the Cistertians Monastery in Feversham with an Hospital near the West-gate in York The King earnestly urged Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury to Crown his Son Eustace But Theobald stoutly refused though proscribed for the same and forced to fly the Land till after some time he was reconciled to the King Eustace the King's Son died of a Frenzy as going to plunder the Lands of Bury-Abbey Hereupon an agreement was made between King Stephen and Henry Duke of Normandy Son of Mawd the Empress the former holding the Crown during his Life and after his Death setling the same on Henry his adopted Son and Successor Platina in Adriano IV. At this time Nicholas Breakspear an English-man born near Vxbridge came to be Pope called Adrian the fourth he was not inferior to Hildebrand in Pride Shortly after he had Excomunicated the Emperor he walked with his Cardinals to refresh himself in the Fields of Anagnia and coming to a Spring of Water he would taste of it and with the Water a Fly entreth into his Throat and choaketh him In the latter end of his Dayes he was wont to say There is not a more wretched Life than to be Pope To come into the seat of St. Peter by Ambition Matth. Parâ—â— is not to succeed Peter in Feeding the Flock but unto Romulus in Paracide seeing that Seat is never obtained without some Brother's Blood King Stephen died and was buried with his Son and Wife at Feversham in Kent in a Monastery which himself had Erected At the Demolishing whereof some to gain the Lead wherein he was wrapped cast his Corpse into the Sea King Henry the second succeeded him a Prince Wise Valiant and generally Fortunate He presently chose a Privy-Counsel of Clergy and Temporalty and refined the Common Laws yea toward the latter end of his Reign began the use of our Itinerant Judges He parcelled England into six divisions and appointed three Judges to every Circuit He razed most of the Castles of England to the ground the Bishops being then the greatest Traders in those Fortifications He disclaimed all the Authority of the Pope refused to pay Peter-pence and interdicted all Appeals to Rome At that time Philâ—p de Brok a Canon of Bedford was questioned for Murther he used reproachful speeches to the King's Justices for which he was Censured and the Judges complained
as well as in the Modern doth signifie narrow strait or a nook And a Portugal alluding thereunto hath this verse Anglia terra ferax fertilis Angulus Orbis Insula praedives quae toto vix eget orbe A fruitful Angle England Thou Another world art said An Island rich and hast no need of other Countrie 's aid And although after this many errours in Doctrine and corruptions in Worship crept in more and more into our Church and the Pope encroaching by degrees the Churches of God in this Land did much degenerate as they did in other Nations so that in Process of time the whole world wondered after the Beast and they Worshipped the Beast saying who is like unto the Beast Revel 13.3 4. Yet even in the darkest times when our Church suffered the greatest Ecclipse when her Silver was become Dross and her Wine was mixed with Water it pleased God then to raise up some eminent Persons to stand up for the Defence of the Truth in this Nation and to discover the impostures of the Church of Rome Yea how many were there that suffered Martyrdom for the Gospel here in England who detested Image-worship and other abominations in the dayes of King Henry the fourth King Henry the fift and others afterward long before Luther was born These and the like in other Nations may be called the forlorn Hope who did obequitare Antichristi castra ad pugnam elicere advance up to and ride round about the camp of Antichrist and provoke him to the main-fight What wonderfull deliverances hath God wrought for this Church and Nation in several ways When King Henry the eighth did renounce the Pope's Supremacy what plots were framed by diverse Princes against this Land to ruine it and how gratiously did the Lord protect his people here from such a storm though then he had but a very little flock in this place When Queen Mary matched with Philip of Spain in what apparent danger was this Land to fall into miserable servitude and bondage under the Iron-yoak of the Spainard's which diverse nations that have been subject to them have found intolerable The blind and bloody zeal of Queen Mary was likely to have rooted out all the plants of God's right hand in this Land and so have banished hence the true Church and Gospel of Christ and so to have shut this Kingdom out of the bounds of the Church There was great expectation of Issue by that Marriage between the Spanish Prince and Queen Mary who Her self also was a Spaniard by the Mother's side and Solemn Forms of Thanksgiving and Prayer were made for Her Conception and safe delivery and besides an Act passed in Parliament that if Queen Mary died in Child-bed King Philip should have the Government of this Land during the Child's Nonage and if these things had succeeded into what misery might this Land have fallen And besides had an Issue of that Marriage lived to Reign over England together with other Dominions of the Spaniard what had England been but an Inferiour Tributary Province to be Governed as it pleased the Spanish Nation even as was attempted in the Low-Countreys with Devilish cruelties to say nothing of their horrible Massacres in the West-Indies But here see the wonderful goodness of God who dwelt in the midst of this Church as a Refuge All this was prevented Queen Marie's supposed Conception vanished She was soon taken away by death and King Philip of Spain had no longer any Interest in England Queen Elizabeth a Noursing-mother to this Church Succeeded She was born September the seventh 1533. One calleth Her Angliae Delitias Mason consecr Epis Angl. Europae Sydus Mundi Phoenicem c. the joy of England the Star of Europe the Phoenix of the World a Glass of God's Providence and the Mirrour of His Mercy And as if the Devil had presaged what a scourge She would prove to the Roman greatness and suggested it to Pope Clement the seventh he is said to have made a Peremptory Decree against Her whilst She was in Her Mother's belly This Pope himself being the Bastard of Julian de Medicis a Florentine he avowed to make Her illegitimate and uncapable of the Crown The like did Pope Paul the third attempt viz. To make that Royal Princess illegitimate when She was but two years Old But as the Lord blessed Her then so he did wonderfully preserve her all her Sister's Reign when many plots were laid to take away her life But as Seneca told Nero it was impossible for him to kill that man that must be his heir so it was impossible for the malice of hell to accomplish the death of the Lady Elizabeth whom the only-wise God had appointed to be her Sister's Heir Ecclesiae Anglicanae reformationem desperasset aetas praeterita admiratur praesens obstupescet futura Scultet Annal. So great a Reformation She wrought in England that one saith of it The Gospel had a swift passage here by diligent Preaching by Printing good Books by translating the holy Scriptures into the Vulgar Tongue by Catechizing youth by publick disputations by recording the Martyrs such a thing as even the former age had even despaired of the present age admireth and the future shall stand amazed at It is evident that the Almighty God who delighteth to shew his power in Weakness was pleased in this Renowed Queen and her brother King Edward to let the world see what great things he was able to effect by a Child and a Woman But what a multitude of plots were contrived for the destruction of Queen Elizabeth when the next heir to the Crown was a Papist and an enemy to the truth of Christianity and married to the Prince of France so that had these plots succeeded England in all probability had been subjected to France in point of Civil Government and to the Roman power in matters of Religion Admire again the singular goodness of God in protecting Queen Elizabeth and whilst the enemies of the Church were seeking ruine in the destruction of Her Royal Person the French King that had Married the next heir to the English Crown dieth and leaveth her a Widow without Issue and she not many years after became a prisoner So eminent was Queen Elizabeth that Thuanus a professed Roman Catholick but very ingenious said he heard the old Dutchess of Guise whose sons were of the greatest Enemies that Queen Elizabeth had to say that she was faelicissima gloriosissima faemina a most happy and a most glorious Woman We know who made her to differ and that she had not any thing which she had not received from above therefore let us give the praise of all to God who appointed her I am perswaded to build the old wast places to raise up the foundations of many generations she found the Kingdom weak she left it strong she found it poor she left it rich they that were enemies to her and the Gospel which they professed and
any Christian Princes Hoel-Dha then held a National Council for all Wales at Ty-quin or the White House The Canons therein were wholly in favour of the Clergy enacting this amongst the rest That the presence of a Priest and a Judge constitute a legal Court as the two persons only in the Quorum thereof There were then seven Episcopal Seats in Wales 1. S. Davids 2. Ismael 3. Degenian 4. Vsyl 5. Teylaw 6. Teuledauc 7. Kenew King Edgar died peaceably leaving his Crown to Edward his Son whom being under Age he committed to the tuition of Dunstan In this King's reign three Councils were successively called to determine the difference between Monks and Secular Priests The first was at Winchester where the Priests being outed of their Convents earnestly pressed for restitution Polydor Virgil writes that in the Synod it was concluded that the Priests should be restored But a voice was immediately heard from the wall as coming from a Crucifix behind Dunstan saying They think amiss that favour the Priests That was received as a Divine Oracle and the Priests were secluded from their Benefices and Monasteries A second Council was called at Kirtlington now Catlage in Cambridge-shire but to little effect The same year a third Council was called at Caln in Wilt-shire hither came Priests and Monks in great numbers Beornelm a Scottish Bishop defended the cause of the Priests with Scripture and Reason But on a sudden Dunstan by his Art caused the Beams or Joists of the Room where they were assembled to break and fall Catal. test verit many were wounded most of the Secular Priests were slain and buried under the ruines thereof only Dunstan was safe with his Chair that was fixed on a Pillar So the controversie was ended with devilish cruelty It appears not what provision was made for these Priests when ejected King Edward went to Corff-Castle where at that time his Mother-in-Law with her Son Egelred lay and by her contrivance he was barbarously murthered as he was drinking on Horse-back and was buried at Wareham and Ethelred Edward's half-brother succeeded him in the Throne Dunstan died and was buried on the South-side of the high Altar in the Church of Canterbury After his death the Monks were cast out of the Convent of Canterbury by reason of their misdemeanours Siricius the next Archbishop of Canterbury endeavoured the re-expulsion of the Priests which by Elfrick his Successor was effected By him a Sermon was appointed to be read publickly on Easter-day before the Communion The same Author hath two other Treatises one directed to Wolfsin Bishop of Shirburn and another to Wulfstan Bishop of York about the Sacrament Soon after the Danes by a firm Ejection outed the Monks before they were well warm in their Nests Their fury fell more on Convents than Castles England for these last sixty years had been freed from their cruelty which now returned more dreadful than ever before These Danes were also advantaged by the unactiveness of King Ethelred who with ten thousand pounds purchased a present Peace with the Danes The multitude of Monasteries invited the Invasion and facilitated the Conquest of the Danes over England Holy Island was forsaken by the fearful Monks affrighted with the approach of the Danes and Alhunus the Bishop thereof removed his Cathedral and Convent to Durham an Inland place of more safety The Danes having received and spent their Money invaded England afresh according to all Wise mens expectation CENT XI IN the beginning of this Century certain Danes fled into a Church at Oxford hoping the Sanctity thereof according to the devout Principles of that Age would secure them But by command from King Ethelred they were all burned in the place whose blood remained not long unrevenged The Danish fury fell fiercest on the City of Canterbury with fire and sword destroying eight thousand people therein Swanus the Dane tithed the Monks of S. Augustine's Abbey killing nine by cruel torment and keeping the tenth alive for slaves They slew there of Religious men to the number of nine hundred And when they had kept the Bishop Elphege in strait prison the space of eight months because he would not agree to give them three thousand pounds after many villanies done unto him at Greenwich they stoned him to death Next year a nameless Bishop of London was slain by them and a great part of the City of London was wasted with fire The Danes burnt Cambridge to ashes and harassed the Country round about King Ethelred sent his Wife Emma with his two Sons Alfred and Edward to Richard Duke of Normandy which was Brother to the said Emma with whom also he sent the Bishop of London whither also himself went after he had spent a great part of the Winter in the Isle of Wight whither he was chased of the Danes Swanus hearing that Egelred was departed out of the Land imposed great Exactions upon the people and among other he required a great sum of money of S. Edmond's Lands which the people there claiming to be free of all King's tribute denied to pay Hereupon Swanus entred the Territory of St. Edmond and wasted the Countrey threatening to spoil the place of his burial The men of the Countrey fell to fasting and prayer and soon after Swanus died suddenly crying and yelling among his Knights In fear whereof Canutus his Son and Successor ditched the Land of St. Edmond with a deep Ditch and granted to the Inhabitants thereof great Immunities quitting them from all Tribute and after builded a Church over the place of his Sepulture ordained there an House of Monks and endowed them with rich possessions After that time the Kings of England when they were crowned sent their Crowns for an offering to St. Edmond's Shrine and redeemed them afterward with a condign price After the death of Egelred great contention was in England for the Crown some were for Edmond Ironside the Son of Egelred and some for Canutus After many bloody Fights both parties agree to try the quarrel betwixt them two only in sight of both Armies they make the Essay with Swords and sharp strokes in the end upon the motion of Canutus they agree and kiss one another to the joy of both Armies and they covenant for parting the Land during their lives and they lived as Brethren Within a few years a Son of Edrik Duke of Mercia killed Edmond traiterously and brought his two Sons unto Canutus who sent them to his Brother Swanus King of Denmark willing him to dispatch them But he abhorring such a fact sent them to Solomon King of Hungary who married Edwyn to his Daughter and soon after died Edward married Agatha the Daughter of the Emperour Henry the Third Swanus King of Denmark died and that Land fell to Canutus who anon after sailed thither and took the possession and returned into England and married Emma late Wife of Egelred and by her had a Son called Hardiknout He assembled a Parliament at
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
flourished in all abundance till the dayes of Henry the Eighth Then Dooms-day Book was made containing an exact survay of the Houses and Lands in the Kingdom which took up some years before it was compleated King William called a Council of his Bishops at Winchester wherein he was personally present with two Cardinals sent from Rome Here Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury was deposed and Lanfrank a Lombard substituted in his room Sir John Davys in his Irish report A learned Lawyer hath observed that the first encroachment of the Pope upon the Liberties of the Crown of England was made in the time of King William the Conqueror For the Conqueror came in with the Pope's Banner and under it won the battel which got him the Garland and therefore the Pope presumed he might boldly pluck some flowers from it being partly gained by his countenance and blessing Although this politick Prince was complementally courteous to the See of Rome yet 1. He retained the ancient custom of the Saxon Kings investing Bishops and Abbots by delivering them a Ring and a Staff whereby without more ado they were put into plenary possession of the power and profit of their place He said He would keep all Pastoral Staves in his own hand 2. Being demanded to do Fealty for his Crown of England unto Pope Gregory the Seventh he wrote thus unto him That he would not do Fealty unto the Pope because neither had he promised it nor did he find his Predecessors had performed it 3. This King would in no wise suffer any one in his Dominion to acknowledge the Bishop of Rome for Apostolical without his command or to receive the Pope's Letters except first they had been shewed unto him And although the Archbishop of Canterbury by his own Authority might congregate Councils and sit as President therein yet the King permitted him to appoint or prohibit nothing but what was according to his own will and what the King had ordained before 4. The King suffered no Bishop to excommunicate any of his Barons or Officers for Adultery Incest or any such hainous crime except by the King's command first made acquainted with the same This King gave unto the Bishops an entire Jurisdiction by themselves to judge all causes relating to Religion for before that time the Sheriff and Bishop kept their Court together He granted the Clergy throughout England Tithes of Calves Colts Lambs Milk Butter Cheese Woods Meadows Mills c. Then Thomas a Norman was preferred to the Archbishoprick of York Betwixt Lanfrank Archbishop of Canterbury and this Thomas there grew great contention for the Oath of Obedience but in the end Thomas subscribed obedience to the other Then it was decreed that York for that time should be subject to Canterbury in matters appertaining to the Church so that wheresoever within England the Archbishop of Canterbury would hold his Council the Bishops of York should resort thither with their Bishops and be obedient to his Decrees Canonical Then were divers Bishops Seats altered from Villages to great Cities as of Sealsey to Chichester out of Cornwall to Exeter from Wells to Bath from Shirburn to Salisbury from Dorchester in Oxford-shire to Lincoln from Lichfield to Chester which Bishoprick of Chester Robert then Bishop reduced from Chester to Coventry At this time several Liturgies were used in England which caused confusion and much disturbed mens devotions A brawl happened betwixt the English Monks of Glastonbury and Thurstan their Norman Abbot in their very Church obtruding a Service upon them which they disliked eight Monks were wounded and two slain near the steps of the high Altar This ill accident occasioned a settlement and uniformity of Liturgy all over England An uniformity of Liturgy all over England for hereupon Osmund Bishop of Salisbury devised that form of Service which hereafter was observed in the whole Realm Henceforward the most ignorant Parish-Priest in England understood the meaning of Secundum usum Sarum that all Service must be ordered According to the course and custom of Salisbury Church King William brought many Jews into England for before his reign I find none in this Land from Roan in Normandy and setled them in London Norwich Cambridge Northampton In the dayes of Lanfrank Waltelm Bishop of Winchester had placed about forty Canons instead of Monks but it held not for Lanfrank cast out secular Priests and substituted Monks in their rooms He also contested with Odo Bishop of Bayeux though half-Brother to King William and Earl of Kent and in a legal Trial regained many Lordships which Odo had unjustly invaded Although in this King's time there was almost no English-man that bare Office of honour or rule yet he favoured the City of London and granted them the first Charter that ever they had written in the Saxon tongue and sealed with green Wax expressed in eight or nine lines King William died in Normandy and William Rufus his second Son Anno 1088. was crowned King of England He began very bountifully to some Churches he gave ten Marks to others six to every Countrey-Village five shillings besides an hundred pounds to every County to be distributed among the poor But afterward he proved very parcimonious though no man more prodigal of never performed Promises This year died Lanfrank Archbishop of Canterbury after whose death the King seized the profits of that See into his own hand and kept the Church vacant for some years He kept at the same time the Archbishoprick of Canterbury the Bishopricks of Winchester and Durham and thirteen Abbies in his hand and brought a mass of Money into his Exchequer All places which he parted with was upon present payment He quarrelled with Remigius Bishop of Lincoln about the founding of his Cathedral and forced him to buy his peace And without a sum of Money paid to the King John Bishop of Wells could not remove his Seat to Bath King Rufus coming to Glocester fell very sick hereupon he made Anselm the Abbot of Beck in Normandy one of eminent learning and strictness of life Archbishop of Canterbury The King soon after sent to him for a thousand pounds which Anselm refused to pay Then Herbert Bishop of Thetford removed his Episcopal Seat from Thetford to Norwich where he first founded the Cathedral Herbert Bishop of Thetford founded the Cathedral at Norwich Then died Wolstan Bishop of Worcester an English-man born a mortified man Near this time began the holy War Robert Duke of Normandy to fit himself for that Voyage sold his Dukedome to King William Rufus for ten thousand Marks To pay this money King Rufus laid a grievous Tax over all the Realm extorting it with such severity that the Monks were fain to sell the Church-plate and very Chalices for discharging thereof And when the Clergy desired to be eased of their burdens I beseech you said he have ye not Coffins of gold and Silver for dead mens bones intimating that the same Treasure might
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
who had entertained Thomas at Sens passed over into England to Worship him and made his Devotions to his Relicks Then Richard Prior of Dover who divided Kent into three Archdeaconries was made Archbishop of Canterbury Fabian saith Fabian in Henry 2. He was a man of evil living and wasted the goods of the Church inordinately A Synod was called at Westminster the Pope's Legat being present thereat where was a great Contention between the two Archbishops of Canterbury and York for Precedency words begat blowes and the Archbishop of Canterbury's party pulled York from his Seat to the ground and tore his Casule Chimer and Rochet from his Back and put the Legat in such fear that he ran away The next day after York Appealeth to Rome Here the Pope interposed and to end old divisions made a new distinction Entitling Canterbury Primate of all England and York Primate of England King Henry died at Chinon in Normandy and was buried with very great Solemnity in the Nunnery of Font-Everard in the same Countrey a Religious House of his own Foundation and Endowment At that time were many Married Priests in Britain His Son Richard the first sirnamed Coeur de Lyon succeeded him and on September 3. was crowned at Westminster of Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury Then this King ordained the City of London to be ruled by two Bailiffs The two first Bailiffs were Henry Chornhil and Richard Fitz-River In the time of the Coronation of the King multitudes of the Jews in this Land were destroyed The King in part of satisfaction for his trespass against his Father for Queen Elianor and his Sons had sided with the King of France against him agreed with Philip the French King to take upon them the recovery of the Holy Land Fabian Chron. King Richard gave over the Castles of Barwick and Roxburgh to the Scottish King for the sum of ten thousand pounds He passed away the Earldom of Northumberland unto Hugh Pudsey Bishop of Durham for a great sum of Money for term of life scoffing that he had made a young Earl of an old Bishop Besides by the commandment of Pope Clement the third a tenth was exacted of the whole Realm Fox Acts and Monuments The King set over the Realm as principal in his absence the Bishop of Ely his Chancellor and the Bishop of Durham whom he ordained to be Chief Justice of England Ely to have custody of the Tower with the oversight of all other parts of the Land on this side Humber and Durham to have charge over all other his Dominions beyond Humber The Pope also made William Bishop of Ely his Legate through all England and Scotland As for Men and Souldiers the Prelates Friars and other Preachers had stirred up innumerable by their manifold exhortations the Archbishop of Canterbury having travelled through Wales in Person for that purpose in Pulpits and private Conferences Then King Richard with some of our English Nobility who adventured their Persons in the Holy War crossed the Seas into France to Philip King thereof After some necessary stayes having passed the River Rhene at Lions they parted company Philip marching over the Alpes into Italy and King Richard to the Sea-side at Marsilia there to meet with his Navy King Richard's Fleet of Ships being not come he embarked himself in twenty hired Galleys and ten great Busses a kind of Shipping then peculiar to the Mediterranean Seas and set Sayl toward Messana in Sicily the Rendezvouz of both the Kings and their Armies In which passage King Richard lying at Anchor on occasion in the mouth of the River Tiber not far from Rome Octavianus the Bishop of Hostia repaired unto him desiring him in the Pope's name that he would visit his Holiness which the King denied to do alleadging that the Pope and his Officers had taken 700 Marks for Consecration of the Bishop of Mains 1500 Marks for the Legative power of William Bishop of Ely but of the Archbishop of Burdeaux an infinite sum of Money whereupon he refused to see Rome King Richard studying to fit himself for the great attempt he had in hand called before him his Archbishops and Bishops that accompanied him into a Chappel at the House where he was lodged where he made a penitent confession of his sins humbly Praying to God for Mercy and them as his subordinate Ministers for Absolution and God saith R. Hoveden respected him with the eyes of Mercy so that from thence-forth he feared God eschewing evil and doing good King Richard sent for Joachim Abbot of Calabria a Man of great Learning and Understanding in the Scriptures who at his coming he heard expounding the Apocalypse of St. John touching the afflictions of the Church and the state of Antichrist which saith he was then born and in the City of Rome of whom the Apostle said He should exalt himself above all that is called God Afterwards at the siege of Acres or Ptolemais in Palestine Radulphus de alta ripa Archdeacon of Colchester ended his Life there also died Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury and Hubert Walter Bishop of Sarisbury afterward Archbishop of Canterbury was a most active Commander there besides many more of the eminent Clergy engaged in that service William Bishop of Ely playd Rex in the King's absence abusing the Royal Authority committed to him Acres was delivered to the King 's of England and France who divided the spoil of that City betwixt them King Richard after this and many other notable Atchievements in Palestine at his return from thence was taken Prisoner by Leopald Duke of Austria and detained by him with hard and Unprince-like usage whil'st the English Clergy endeavoured the utmost for his enlargement His fine was an hundred and fifty thousand Marks to be paid part to the Duke of Austria part to Henry VI. Emperor of Germany Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury with much diligence perfected the work and on his ransom paid King Richard returned into England Hubert Walter Archbishop of Canterbury had almost finished a fair Covent for Monks at Lambeth began by Baldwin his Predecessor but upon the petitions of the Monks of Canterbury to the Pope contrary to the King 's and Archbishop's desire the Covent at Lambeth was utterly demolished As this Richard was the first of the English Kings who bare Armes on his Seals so was he the first who carried in his shield Three Lions Passant born ever after for the Regal Armes of England This King 's daily exercise after his return was to rise early and not to depart from the Church till Divine Service were finished Moreover he bountifully relieved every day much Poor both in his Court and Towns about and restored Gold and Silver to such Churches from which to pay his ransom they had been taken away The Bishop of Beavois being also an Earl of the Royal Blood and the eleventh Peer of France valiantly fighting against John the King's Brother was taken Armed at all points and bravely
within this King 's hereditary Dominions in France presuming to elect a Bishop without his consent sent a Prohibition to them to preserve this Antient right of the Crown descended to him from his Ancestors The same year this King by his Charter commanded all Clerks then Imprisoned for offences throughout England to be delivered to Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury upon his demand of them Likewise he granted a Charter to the Bish of Norwich to recover all Lands and Tenements belonging to that Bishoprick unjustly alienated by his Predecessors The same year Geoffery Plantaginet Archbishop of York King John's base Brother obstructed the Levying of Carvage demanded and granted to the King by common consent paid by all others on the Demesn Lands of his Church or Tenants beating the Sheriff of York's servants excommunicating the Sheriff himself by name with all his Aiders and interdicted his whole Province of York for attempting to levy it Whereupon the King much incensed summoned him to answer these high contempts his not going over with him into Normandy when summoned and also to pay him three thousand Marks due to his Brother King Richard and by his Writs commanded all the Archbishop's servants where-ever they were found to be imprisoned as they were for beating the Sheriff's Officers and denying to give the King of the Archbishops Wine passing through York summoned Geoffery into his Court to answer all these contempts and issued Writs to the Sheriff of York-shire to seize all his Goods Temporalties and to return them into the Exchequer which was executed accordingly The King and Queen repairing to York the next Mid-lent the Archbishop made his peace with the King submitting to pay such a Fine for his offences as four Bishops and four Barons elected by them should adjudge and absolved William de Stutvil the Sheriff and James de Poterna whom he had excommunicated and recalled his former Interdict The same year there fell out a great difference between this Archbishop the Dean and Chapter of York and the Archdeacon of Richmond R. Hoveden Annal. part poster p. 817. The Praecentor's place at York falling void the Dean and Chapter would not suffer him to present Ralph de Kyme his Official to it but themselves gave it to Hugh Murdac Archdeacon of Cleveland the day after he had given it to Kyme And when the Achbishop would have put him into the Praecentor's Stall the Dean told him It belonged not unto him to put any man into a Stall neither shall you therein place him because we have given it by Authority of the Council of Lateran Whereupon when the Archbishop could not have his will he excommunicated Murdac he likewise injured Honorius Archdeacon of Richmond by challenging to himself the Institutions of Churches and Synodals against the ancient Dignities and Customs of the Archdeaconry which the Archbishop pretended Honorius had resigned and confirmed to him by his Charter which he denied The Dean and Chapter and Honorius severally complained of these injuries to the King who thereupon issued two Writs for their relief This Honorius Archdeacon of Richmond complained to the Pope as well as the King of the injurious encroachments of this Archbishop who suspended some of his Clerks interdicted some Churches within his Archdeaconry and excommunicated the Archdeacon all which the Pope in a special Letter requires him to retract as null and void He also sent three Epistles more the first to the Dean and Chapter of York the second to the Bishop of Ely and Archdeacon of Northampton the third to King John himself to defend Honorius his rights against the Archbishop's injuries and encroachments The Pope wrote a menacing Letter to the Archbishop but he was no way daunted at it but proceeded still against Honorius till restrained by the King's Writs Appeals being but then in their infancy and that not as to a supreme judicature but only by way of complaint as a voluntary perswading Arbitrator and that by the King's licence first obtained An Historical Vindication of the Church of England in point of Schism as learned Sir Roger Twisden truly observes The same year Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury intending to celebrate a Council at Westminster without the King 's special Writ thereupon the King being then in Normandy Geoffery Fitz-Peter Earl of Sussex being then Chief Justice of England sent a Prohibition to inhibit it yet the Archbishop held the Council wherein he made and promulged several Decrees Statuens ea a suis subditis inviolabiliter observari But those Decrees made concerning Procurations Fees for Orders Institutions Inductions Licences of Ministers c. were not esteemed obligatory nor were they regarded Lyndwood Aton and most Histories take no notice of them because made against the King's Prohibition The third year of King John Gilardus Archdeacon of Brecknock pretending himself to be elected Bishop of St. Davids in Wales with the King's consent by provision from Pope Innocent the Third intruded himself into the possession of the Temporalties thereof and likewise endeavoured to make it an Archbishoprick About that time a certain number of Greeks came from Athens into England and asserted that the Latins had erred from the way of Truth in the Articles of Christian Faith and they would shew the right way by invincible Arguments which all should receive if they will be saved This was reported unto King John He answered Our Faith is grounded upon the Authority of Christ and the Saints and I will not suffer that it be tossed with disputes and janglings of men nor will we change the certainty for uncertainty let me hear no more of you So they departed Gilardus had procured Pope Innocent's Procuration and Provision to elect him Bishop of St. Davids at which King John though then in Normandy with his Queen was much incensed and sent out four successive Writs and Proclamations directed to all the Clergy and Laity both of England and Wales in general and the Chapter of St. Davids in special strictly enjoyning them all to oppose and resist Gilardus his rash attempts and innovations against Him to their power according to their Allegiance and no wayes to aid or countenance him therein by advice or otherwise it being unjust to do it Giraldus notwithstanding all his pretended submission to the Archbishop proceeding afresh in the Court of Rome to obtain his ends thereupon the King issued out a severe Proclamation against him as a publick Enemy and disturber of the Peace of his Kingdom In the same year Pope Innocent takes upon him upon pretext of necessity for relief of the holy Land only to advise and recommend to all the Prelates of the holy Church the levying of the fortieth part of their Estates and Benefices and in what manner to levy it not absolutely to impose it to their prejudice Whence Matthew Westminster thus expresseth it Ad instantiam Innocentii Papae data est quadragesima pars redditum omnium Ecclesiarum ad subsidium terrae promissionis Therefore a
Roma totum negat Qui plus dat pecunia melius allegat Romani capitulum habent in decretis Vt potentes audiant manibus repletis Dabis aut non dabitur potunt quando petis Qua mensura seminas eadem tu metis Munus petitio currunt passu pari Opereris munere si vis operari Tullium nec timeas si velit causari Munus Eloquentia gaudet singulari Nummis in hac Curia non est qui non vacet Crux placet Rotunditas placet totum placet Et cum ita placeat Romanis placet Vbi munus loquitur lex omnis tacet Cum ad Papam veneris habe pro constanti Non est bonus Pauperi soli favet danti Et si munus praestitum non sit aliquanti Respondet hic tibi sic non est mihi tanti Papa quaerit Chartula quaerit Bulla quaerit Pâ—rta quaerit Cardinal quaerit Cursor quaerit Sed si dares omnibus at uni deerit Totum mare salsum est tota causa perit About that time Nigellus Vireker a Learned Monk at Canterbury wrote a Book De abusu rerum Ecclesiae and sent it to William Bishop of Ely Chancellor of England In this Book he not onely rebuked him but all Teachers under the Pope's Tyranny because they committed the Cure of Souls unto Children Belly-gods and despisers of the Sacred Word Henry the third of that name succeeded his Father King John being about ten years old and was Crowned at Glocester by a part of the Nobility and Clergy upon the perswasion of William Earl Mareshall Earl of Pembrook a Nobleman of great Authority the rest siding with the French Lewis within little more than a twelve Moneth he recovered the entire possession of his Kingdom In Whitsun-week the Pope's Legate encouraged the King's Army to fight the French King's Forces at Lincoln and after a sharp conflict they routed the Barons and Lewis's Forces slew and took many of them Prisoners with the loss onely of three Men and took the City of Lincoln with all the Treasure and baggage of the Enemy The King's Ships watching the French Fleet at Sea transporting Souldiers and supplies unto Lewis took Eustachius a Monk their Admiral Prisoner whose Head the King's Brother Richard cut off with his Sword despising the great sum of Money which he proffered for his Ransom Soon after which defeats by Land and Sea both Parties had a conference at Stanes and came to an Agreement Septemb. 3. and Lewis shamefully departed this Realm But notwithstanding this Agreement with the Barons yet the Pope's Legate exempted all the Bishops Abbots and Clergy out of this Act of pacification for their contempt of the Pope's Authority that he might dispose of their Ecclesiastical promotions and Benefices to his Instruments and put them to excessive fines at the present to fill the Pope's and his own Coffers Claus Anno 1. H. 3. m. 21. Pat. 1. H. 3. m. 16. intus This Legate Gualo did bear chief sway in the King's Council and the King sealed some Letters Patents Sigillis venerabilium Patrum Domini Gualonis Sancti Martini Presbyteri Cardinalis Apostolicae sedis Legati Domini Petri Wintoniensis Episcopi and sent them abroad under their Seals in the first year of his Reign because as yet he had no Seal The Canons of Carlisle contemning both the Pope's and his Legates Authority and Censures contumaciously celebrating Divine Service and Sacraments notwithstanding their Interdicts adhering and Swearing Fealty to the King of Scots King Henrie's and the Pope's declared enemy yea electing an interdicted Clerk for their Bishop against the King's and Legate's Wills and dividing the Revenues of the Bishoprick among themselves The King's Council thereupon sent an Epistle to Pope Honorius the third who succeeded Innocent the third that year in the King's name totally to remove these Schismatical Canons and place Prebends in their rooms to augment the Bishop's Revenues which were small and displace the intruded Bishop Upon which Letter the Pope ordered Gualo his Legate by the King 's Royal assent to constitute Hugh Abbot of Beaulieu Bishop of Carlisle In the second year of King Henry III. the Archbishop of Dublin in Ireland and other Bishops there Usurping upon the King's Crown and Temporal Courts presumed to hold pleas in their Courts Christian of Lay fee whereupon there issuing Prohibitions from the King's Court to stay these Suits they proceeded contemptuously notwithstanding upon which â—here issued out a Writ of Attachment against them to appear before the chief Justice of Ireland to answer the contempt In the third year of King Henry the third the Bishoprick of Leismore united formerly to the Bishoprick of Waterford by the Pope's Legate in Ireland while the Bishop was in England at the Consecration of the Bishop of Carlisle Macrobius a Canon of Leismore procuring an election from the rest of the Canons pretending the See to be then void obtained the Legate's and King 's Royal assent to the Election and Restitution of the Temporalties whereof the Bishop of Waterford complaining to the King the King nulled that election and commanded the Bishop to be put in possession of his Temporalties The Bishop of Ely going into France after Lewis his return thither reported King Henry to be dead and laboured to stir up a new War against him whereupon the King wrote to the Pope to deprive him and bestow his Bishoprick by provision upon some other in which Letter the King acknowledgeth the Pope's great favours and assistance to him during his Infancy puts himself and his Realms under the protection of his wings and by way of Complement stiles them the Patrimony of the Church of Rome to gain the Pope's readier protection and assistance in his Suits and Wars In the fourth year of his Reign King Henry taking notice of diverse Usurpations upon the right of his Crown in Ireland by Covents Deanes and Chapters electing Abbots and Bishops as they became void and the chief Justices approving them without his Privity License or Royal assent he issued out a Writ to his chief Justice of Ireland to reform and prevent this dangerous Usurpation for the future This year the Earl of Albemarle refusing to deliver up to the King some of his Castles and Lands committed to his custody for which he was Excommunicated by the Bishop of Norwich and the Pope's Legate thereupon the King issued out a prohibition to all his Barons and Subjects in Lancashire and five Counties more not to Aid him or his complices but to avoid them as Excommunicated Persons till they had submitted to the King Ecclesiastical Censures were then commonly inflicted in that Age for Temporal Offences and Rebellions to reduce Men to obedience to the King as well as to the Church and Pope At last the Earl came to the King under the conduct of Walter Archbishop of York and by the mediation of Pandulphus the Legate was reconciled to him Anno Domini 1221.
the Seas commanding them all in general and one of them onely in special by Name to be first provided for in this kind Anno 1246. Boniface Archbishop of Canterbury upon a feigned pretext that his Church of Canterbury was involved in very great debts by his Predecessor but in truth by himself to carry on Forreign Wars and gratifie the Pope procured from Pope Innocent a grant of the first years Fruits of all Benefices that should fall void within his Diocess for seven years space till he should raise out of them the sum of ten thousand Marks besides two thousand Marks yearly out of the Bishoprick N. B. This Grant of first-fruits of Benefices to Boniface made way for Popes appropriating first-fruits and Annats to themselves soon after About this time was Edmond Archbishop of Canterbury Canonized for a Saint by the Pope to gratifie the King and facilitate the imposing and levying of his Papal exactions upon the Clergy and Realm The Bishops and Clergy of the Province of Canterbury to avoid the turbulent visitation and exactions of Archbishop Boniface made a Tax and Collection to defray the expenses of their Appeals and oppositions against him in the Court of Rome Some Abbots and Convents perceiving that Robert Grosthed and other Bishops intended to vex and oppress them by their new powers to visit them derived from the Pope combined together to make a common purse to oppose and withstand them by Appeals to the Pope whom they hoped would back them for Money as the Bishops combibined together to withstand the Archbishop's Visitation in his Province Notwithstanding this combination the Bishop of Lincoln proceeded to Visit both the Monasteries and Nunneries in his Diocess with great severity and Tyranny But although Robert Grosthed at first was a great stickler for the Pope and an oppressor of the Nobility and Laity of his Diocess with his Visitations appeals to Rome and Excommunications yet afterwards he opposed the Pope's Provisions directed to him for which the Pope suspended him from his Bishoprick Whereupon he sent a notable Letter to Pope Innocent rendring him the reasons why he was not bound to obey his unjust Letters and Provisions as most contrary to the Doctrine and Practice of Christ and his Apostles tending to the ruine of Peoples Souls and that no Bishop or other Person was bound to obey any of the Pope's Mandates as Apostolical but what were warranted by the Doctrine and Practice of Christ and his Apostles The Letter is to be seen at large in Mr. Prynne's late History of Pope's Usurpations c. Tom. 2. A little before his death this Robert Grosthed called some of his Clergy to him and by strong reasons and arguments informed them That the Pope was Antichrist because he was a destroyer of Souls c. Matthew Paris gives this character of him Migravit ab hujusmode mundi quem nunquam dilexit exilio sanctus Lincolniensis Episcopus Robertus secundus apud Bugedonam manerium suum in nocte sancti Dionysii Papae Regis Redargutor manifestus Praelatorum correptor Monarchorum corrector Presbyterorum director Clericorum instructor Scholarium sustentator Populi praedicator Incontinentium persecutor Scripturarum sedulus perscrutator diversarum Romanorum malleus contemptor in mensa refectionis corporalis dapsilis copiosus civilis hilaris affabilis in mensa vero spirituali devotus lacrymosus contritus in officio Pontificali sedulus venerabilis indefatigabilis He died Anno 1253. Vide Ranulph Cestrens Polychron lib. 7. ca. 36. Heur de Knighton de eventib Angliae Lib. 2. ca. 36. Of which year Matthew Paris gives this Character Transiit igitur annus ille Papae Papalibus augurialis The Pope being much incensed against Grosthed wrote a Letter to the King of England to cause his bones to be digged up and to be cast out of the Church whereupon the Bishop's ghost appeared unto him that night expostulated with him pricked him in the side and haunted him till his death The Canons of Lincoln chose Henry of Lexinton to succeed him who was then Dean of the Church of Lincoln the King approved of his Election being Consecrated soon after by Bishop Boniface beyond the Seas Then the King issued out a Writ to the Bishop of Chichester to publish throughout his Diocess the priviledges he had granted to all such who should cross themselves for the holy Land being the same in termes with those the year before sent to the Archbishop of York to publish the Writ running in the same forme In the 38th year of King Henry the third the Archbishops and Bishops having agreed to grant the King a Disme toward the relief of the holy Land by advice of the King's Council in Parliament appointed it to be collected by the Bishops of Norwich and Chichester and Abbot of Westminster for which they assigned them an annual stipend In August following the King issued forth Patents to the Archbishops Bishops Abbots c. in Ireland specially to promote this Croysado and Disme in Ireland and to assist those sent thither to promote it whereof one was the Pope's Subdeacon The King being in France issued his precept to the Barons of the Exchequer to issue Moneys for the repair of the Church of Westminster which he intended to have consecrated before his voyage to the holy Land Prynne's Hist Tom. 2. He issued Writs to enquire of the real values of the Manors Lands Rents and Revenues of Religious persons in nature of Dooms-day Book that he might the better improve them when they fell into his hand by vacancies or deaths of Abbots and Priors towards the debts he contracted by his forreign Wars Matth. Paris Hist Angl. p. 835. Matthew Paris tells us of strange forgeries and devices set on foot by the Pope and his Agents to oppress the Clergy of England and involue them in bonds and debts to the Pope and King who served each others turns and that by the treachery of the Bishop of Hereford and and others to ingratiate themselves with both And the Bishop of Hereford and Rustand the Pope's Legate oppressed the Clergy of England that year 1254. and great complaints were made against them The King being unable by his absence to be personally present at the Feast of St. Edward at Westminster which he annually consecrated constituted several persons to solemnize this Feast and make Offerings Processions and give almes in his stead and commanded the Parishoners of St. Margaret and the Londoners to go to Westminster in Procession with Wax Tapers and other formalities for the honour of this Saint and holy-day The King in the 39th year of his Reign sent a pious Writ to the Cistercians and other Abbots in their general Assembly to make a special devout Prayer unto God for him his Queen and Children The Bishop Elect of Winton having forcibly and unjustly by his power deprived the Prior of Winton and thrust another into his place without his
the Virgin Mary with Christ in her Armes on the other side curiously and decently guilt and the cause thereof engraven on it in the place where the offence was committed calling the Major of the Town and Cofferers of the Jews to his assistance and till they made and delivered to the Proctors of the University another portable Cross of Silver handsomly guilded with a Spear as large as that carried before the Archbishop to be carryed before the Masters and Scholars of the University in their future processions And because diverse Jewes to prevent it had secretly convayed away their goods to others to enquire diligently after such goods and sell them that the work might be speedily effected before St. Edwards Feast The Money hereupon being levyed of the Jews to make these Crosses and the King being informed that the Marble-cross could not be erected in the place prescribed without damage and prejudice to some Burgesses of Oxford whereupon they purposed to erect it just over against the Jews Synagogue there The King and his Council conceiving that place inconvenient ordered it to be set up within the place of Merton Colledge near the Church and the other portable Cross to be delivered to the Scholars thereof to be kept in their House and carried in Processions of the University as aforesaid Of the Dismes granted to the King by the Pope Parker Antiqu Eccles Britan. p. 194. the King had usually the least share the Pope the Cardinals and Legates swallowing up the greatest part of them as the Learned Archbishop Matthew Parker hath observed Boniface the Military Archbishop of Canterbury died beyond the Seas Anno Dom. 1271. when he had reaped the profits of that See and pillaged that Province twenty six years six moneths and sixteen dayes most of which he spent in Wars and negotiations beyond the Seas and never Preached one Sermon all that time for ought we find That year there was so great an inundation of Rain at Canterbury such Lightening and Tempest as had not been seen nor heard for a long time The Thunder was dreadful and continued a whole day and night and such an inundation of Water followed that it overthrew Stones Vines and Trees Cattel were drowned and much Corn spoiled and the City was so over-flown that Men nor Horses could pass After this Flood there followed a great Famine and the Plague swept away many in the City and Countrey round about Mr. Fox relates That a little before King Henry's death there fell out a controversie between the Monks and Citizens of Norwich about certain Tallages and Liberties that after much altercation and wrangling words the furious rage of the Citizens so much encreased that they set upon the Abbey and Priory and burned both the Church and Bishop's Palace At the last King Henry calling for certain of his Lords and Barons sent them to Norwich that they might punish and see Execution done on the chiefest Malefactors some of them were condemned and burnt and some were drawn by the heeles with Horses through the Streets of the City and so in much misery ended their lives King Henry having in his company the Bishop of Roâ—hester and the Earl of Glocester followed his Justice Thomas Trivet to Norwich The Bishop having Excommunicated all who consented to this wickedness and the Judge Executed the nocent the King condemned the Town in three thousand Marks of Silver to be paid by a day toward the repairing of the Church so burnt and also to pay one hundred pounds in Silver toward the repair of a Cup arising to twenty pounds in Gold He returning thence towards London fell grievously sick at the Abbey of St. Edmonds in Suffolk where after he had in a Religious manner acknowledged his sins he rendered up the same to his Redeemer when he had reigned fifty six years and twenty dayes A Prince writes Speed whose devotion was greater than his discretion as we see in permitting the depredation of himself and his whole Kingdom by Papal overswayings After the Death and Funeral of King Henry who was Buried at Westminster Church Founded and almost finished by him Prince Edward his Son being at that time in the holy Land where he obtained many notable Victories against the Saracens Who thereupon suborned an Assassinate to kill him under pretext of delivering a Message to him from the Soldan of Babylon who stabbed him into the Body with a poisoned Knife Thomas Walsingham Matth. Westm to the hazard of his Life his Nobles notwithstanding his remote absence were so Loyal as to Proclaim him King and Swear Fealty and Allegiance to him as their Sovereign Lord. They sent out Writs whereby they Proclaimed the King's peace They first of them were directed to all the Sheriffs of England to Proclaim in their respective Counâ—ies the other to the King 's chief Justice of Ireland to be there Proclaimed who with others was authorized likewise to receive the Fealty as well of all the Archbishops Bishops Abbots Clergy as Nobles and other Lay-subjects in Ireland due unto him as their King and Sovereign Lord. In the third year of this King's Reign Walter de Merton Bishop of Rochester and Chancellor of England finished the Colledge of his own Name in Oxford This Walter de Merton was one of the Guardians of the Realm in the King's absence A Writ was issued to Lewellin Prince of Wales requiring an Oath of Fealty from him to King Edward as his Sovereign Lord and two Abbots thereby made Commissioners to receive his Oath who refused to appear or give any answer to them The Abbots made a special return of their proceedings therein to the Lord Chancellor The first thing this King and his Council did was to make a publick Declaration and Protestation against Pope Clement the fifth his late Usurpation who a little before King Henry his death had by his Papal Provisions conferred the Bishoprick of Winton on John dâ— Pontissera and the Archbishoprick of Canterbury upon Robert Kilwardby without the King 's precedent License or Monks Election rejecting William de Chilenden duly Elected by the Monks of Canterbury by King Henry's License that so he might Usurp the disposal of all other Bishopricks by these and other former like Presidents After the death of Pope Clement the fourth the See of Rome continuing void for two years and ten moneths by reason of the Cardinals discord about a Successor at last they Elected Theobald Archdeacon of Leige Pope who was with King Edward the first in the holy Land of him these two Verses were made Papatum munus tenet Archidiaconus unus Quem Patrem Patrum fecit discordia fratrum Prince Edward in his return from the holy Land repaired to this new Pope's Court his late Chaplain and fellow-souldier who at his request Excommunicated the Murderers of his kinsman Henry Son and heir to the King of Germany at Viterbium and disinherited some of them by his Imperious Decree till they should come personally to
my Soul no more than Satan could do to the Soul of Job And as concerning these Articles I will stand to them to the very death by the grace of my eternal God And after a short instruction to the people he fell down upon his Knees holding up his Hands and Eyes to Heaven And prayed God to forgive his Prosecutors The Lord Cobham was condemned to dye being led back to the Tower he escaped out of the Tower and fled into Wales where he continued by the space of four years In January 1414. Sir Roger Acton Knight Mr. John Brown and John Beverley a Minister suffered Martyrdom in the Fields of St. Giles with thirty six more Some say that Sir Roger Acton was hanged naked at Tyburn saving that certain parts of him were covered and after certain dayes a Trumpetter of the King 's called Thomas Cliffe galeave of the King to take him down and bury him The next Month after the Execution of these Men died Thomas Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury famished to Death not for want of Food but of a Throat to swallow it such the swelling therein that he could neither speak nor eat for some days After him succeeded Henry Chichely Godwin's Catal of Bish whose mean birth interrupted the chain of Noble Archbishops his two Predecessors and Successors being Earls Sons by Extraction Although many Laws had been made against the Pope's usurped Authority in bestowing Ecclesiastical preferments by way of Provision yet durst not this man consent unto his election made by the Covent of Canterbury but committed the matter unto the Pope's determination who first pronounced the election of the Monks void and then bestowed the Archbishoprick upon him The same year the King began the Foundation of two Monasteries one of the Friars observants on the one side of Thames and the other on the other side of the same River called Shene and Sion dedicated unto the Charter-house Monks with certain Nuns of St. Briget to the number of sixty dwelling within the same precinct so that the whole number of these with Priests Monks Deacons and Nuns should equal the number of thirteen Apostles and seventy two Disciples These were to eat no Flesh to touch no Money to wear no Linnen The King held a Parliament at Leicester in which the Commons put up their Bill again which was put up Anno 11. Henry the fourth that the Temporalties wasted so disorderly by the Clergy might be converted to the use of the King and of his Earls and Knights c. In fear of which Bill the Clergy put him upon a long War with the French offering to him in behalf of the Clergy great and notable sums by reason whereof the Bill was put off again The Archbishop Henry Chichley condemned John Claydon's Books and condemned him and shortly after he was burnt in Smithfield with Richard Turning Baker Anno 1415. The next year the said Archbishop in his Convocation holden at London made sharper Constitutions than were before against the Lollards There two Priests noted for Hereticks were brought before the Bishops the one John Barton the other Robert Chappel Barton was committed to Philip Bishop of Lincoln to be kept in prison till otherwise it were determined Chappel submitted himself and with much ado received pardon and was in stead of penance enjoyned certain Articles to publish at Paul's Cross Then divers persons were forced to abjure as John Tailer of the Parish of St. Maries at Quern William James Physitian who had long lain in prison John Gourdley of Lincoln-shire a learned man John Duerser Katherine Dertford the Parson of Higley in Lincoln-shire named Mr. Robert William Henry of Tenterden John Gaul a Priest of London Richard Monk Vicar of Chesham in Lincoln-shire with divers others During the time of the Provincial Convocation Pope Martin had sent to the Clergy of England for a Subsidy to maintain the Pope's Wars against the Lollards of Bohemia Another Subsidy was demanded to persecute William Clerk Master of Arts in Oxford who sailing out of England was at the Council of Basil disputing on the Bohemians side A third Subsidy was also required to persecute William Russel Warden of the Grey-Friers in London who was fled having escaped out of prison Ralph Mungin Priest refusing to abjure was condemned to perpetual prison The recantation of Thomas Granter and Richard Monk Priests was read openly at Paul s Cross after which Granter was put to seven years imprisonment under the custody of the Bishop of London Edmond Frith recanted who was Butler to Sir John Oldcastle Besides these many other Wicklivites were sore vexed in Kent in the Towns of Romney Tenterden Woodchurch Cranbrook Staplehurst Bennenden and Rolvenden where Men and their Wives and whole Families were driven to forsake their Houses and Towns for fear of persecution Among whom were William White and Thomas Greensted Priests Bartholomew Chronemonger Joan Waddon Joan his Wife Thomas Evernden Stephen Robins William Chineling John Tame John Eacolin William Somer Marian his Wife John Abraham Robert Munden Laurence Cook which persons because they appeared not were excommunicated by the Archbishop The Lord Cobham having lived four years in Wales and being at last discovered was taken by the Lord Powis yet so that it cost some blows and blood to apprehend him till a Woman at last with a stool broke the Lord Cobham's legs whereby being lame he was brought up to London in an Horse-litter At last he was drawn upon an Hurdle to the Gallows and there was hanged and burnt In the ninth year of King Henry the Fifth he suppressed the French Houses of Religious Monks and Friars and such like in England Stow's Chron in Hen. 8. because they spake ill of the King's Conquest over France Their Lands were given by him and King Henry the Sixth to Monasteries and Colledges of learned men King Henry died in France and was brought over and buried at Westminster This King ordained the King of Heraulds over the English which is called Garter In this King's Reign Richard Fleming Bishop of Lincoln founded a Colledge named Lincoln-colledge in Oxford King Henry the sixth an Infant of eight months old succeeded his Father in the Kingdom of England Anno 1422. In the eighth year of his Age he was crowned at Westminster and in the tenth year crowned King at Paris Cardinal Henry Bishop of Winchester being present at them both The Clergy had then a strong party in the Privy Council viz. 1. Henry Chicheley Archbishop of Canterbury 2. John Kemp Bishop of London 3. Henry Beauford Bishop of Winchester lately made Cardinal 4. John Wackaring Bishop of Norwich Privy-seal 5. Philip Morgan Bishop of Worcester 6. Nicholas Bubwith Bishop of Bath and Wells Lord Treasurer In the first year of this King's Reign was burned a faithful Witness of God's Truth William Tailor a Priest under Henry Chichcley Archbishop of Canterbury March 1. Anno 1423. In the year 1424. John Florence a Turner appeared before Will.
their Crosses and the Prebends of St. Paul's leave off their Hoods To give a beginning hereunto Bishop Ridley then Bishop of London did the same day officiate the Divine service of the Morning in his Rochet only without Cope or Vestment he preached also at St. Paul's in the afternoon the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Companies in their best Liveries in their Companies being present at it the Sermon tending for the most part to the setting forth the said Book of Common-prayer and to acquaint them with the Reasons of such alterations as were made therein On the same day the new Liturgy was executed also in all the Churches of London Not long after the upper Quire in St. Paul's Church where the high Altar stood was broken down and all the Quire thereabout and the Communion-table was placed in the lower part of the Quire where the Minister sang the daily Service Then publick care was had for the founding and establishing of the new Hospital in the late dissolved House of Gray-Friers near Newgate in London and that of St. Thomas in the Borough of Southwark of which ye are to know that the Church belonging to the said House together with the Cloysters and almost all the publick building which stood within the liberties and precincts thereof had the good hap to escape that ruine which generally befell all other Houses of that nature And standing undemolished till the last times of King Henry it was given by him not many dayes before his death to the City of London together with the late dissolved Priory called Little St. Bartholomews In which Donation there was reference had to a double end The one for the relieving the poor out of the Rents of such Messuages and Tenements as in the Grants thereof are contained and specified The other for constituting a Parish-church in the Church of the said dissolved Grey-friers not only for the use of such as lived within the precincts of the said two Houses but for the Inhabitants of the Parish of St. Nicholas in the Shambles and of St. Edwin's situate in Warwick-lane near Newgate-market Which Churches with all the Rents and profits belonging to them were given to the City at the same time also and for advancing the same ends together with five hundred Marks per annum for ever The Church of the Gray-friers to be from thence-forth called Christ-church founded by King Henry the Eight All which was signified to the City in a Sermon Preached at Paul's Cross by the Bishop of Rochester on January 13. being but a fortnight before his death Mass was said in this Church by the Parishoners that resorted to it according to the King's donation After which in the first year of King Edward followed the taking down of the said two Churches and building several Tenements on the ground of the Churches and Church-yards the Rents thereof to be employed about the further maintenance and relief of the Poor Living and Loytering in and about the City But these things being not sufficient to carry on the work to the end desired it hapned that Bishop Rialey Preaching before King Edward insisted much upon some constant course for relief of the poor which Sermon wrought so far upon him that having sent for the Bishop he gave him great thanks for his good Exhortation whose advice was that Letters should be written to the Lord Mayor and Alderman By whom it was agreed that ageneral contribution should be made by all rich and well-affected Citizens toward the advancement of a work so necessary for the publick good Every man subscribed according to his ability and Books were drawn in every ward of the City containing the sum of that Relief which they had contributed Which being delivered to Sir Richard Dobbs Lord Mayor of London were by him tendred to the King's Commissioners February 17. The buildings in the Gray-friers were forthwith repaired The like reparation was also made of the ruinous buildings belonging to the late dissolved Priory of St. Thomas in Southwark which the Citizens had then newly bought of the King to serve for an Hospital for such Sick Wounded and Impotent persons as were not fit to be intermingled with the sound on November 23. the Sick and Maimed people were taken into the Hospital of St. Thomas and into Christ-church Hospital to the number of four hundred Children all of them to have Meat Drink Lodging and Clothes at the charge of the City till other means could be provided for their maintenance On April 10. this King gave for ever to the City his Palace of Bridewel erected by King Henry the Eighth to be employed for such Vagabonds and thriftless poor as should be sent thither to receive chastisement and be forced to labour He caused the Master and Brethren of the Hospital in the Savoy founded by King Henry the Seventh to resign the same into his hands with all the Lands and Goods thereunto belonging out of which he presently bestowed the yearly rent of seven hundred Marks with all the Beds Bedding and other Furniture found therein toward the maintenance of the said Work-house and the Hospital of St. Thomas in Southwark The Grant whereof he confirmed by his Letters Patents adding thereunto a Mortmain for enabling the City to purchase Lands to the value of four thousand Marks per annum for the better maintenance of those and the other Hospitals Thus he was entitled to the Foundation of Bridewel St. Bartholomews and St. Thomas without any charge to himself Nothing else memorable about this time but the coming of Cardan the death of Leland and the preferment of Doctor John Tailor to the See of Lincoln Then for raising Money a Commission was speeded into all parts of the Kingdom under pretence of selling such of the Lands and Goods of Chanteries as remained unsould but in plain truth saith Dr. Heylin to seize upon all Hangings Altar-clothes Fronts Parafronts Copes of all sorrs with all manner of Plate which was to be found in any Cathedral or Parochial Church Certain Instructions were likewise given to the Commissioners by which they were to regulate themselves in their proceedings This was done generally in all parts of the Realm into which the Commissioners began their Circuits in the moneth of April which general seizure being made they were to leave one Chalice with certain Table-clothes for the use of the Communion-table as the said Commissioners should think fit the Jewels Plate and ready Money to be delivered to the Master of the King's Jewels in the Tower of London the Copes of cloth of Gold and Tissue to be brought into the King's Wardrobe the rest to be turned into ready Money and that Money to be paid to Sir William Peckham the King's Cofferer for the defraying the charges of his Majesties houshold But some there were who were as much before hand with the Kings Commissioners in embezeling the Plate Jewels and other Furnitures as the Commissioners did intend to be with the King in keeping
Crown but without any Act for the validity of her Mother's Marriage on which her Title most depended There passed an Act also for restoring the Tenths and first Fruits to the Crown first setled thereon in the time of King Henry the Eighth and afterwards given back by Queen Mary to the Pope They passed an Act also for the dissolution of all such Monasteries Convents and Religious Orders as had been Founded and established by Queen Mary By vertue of which Act Queen Elizabeth was repossessed of all those Lands which had been granted by her Sister to the Monks of Westminster and Shen the Knights Hospitallers the Nuns of Sion together with the Mansion houses re-edified for the Observants of Greenwich and the Black-friers in Smithfield In passing the Act of the Supremacy there was some trouble it seemed to be a thing even abhorrent in Nature and Polity that a Woman should be declared to be the Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England But the Queen declined the Title of Head and assumed the name of Governor of the Church of England This Act having easily passed the House of Commons found none of the Temporal Lords in the House of Lords to oppose it save onely the Earl of Shrewsbury and Anthony Brown Viscount Montacute As for the Bishops there were but fourteen and the Abbot of Westminster then alive of whom four being absent the rest could not make any considerable opposition In the Convocation of the Clergy there passed certain Articles of Religion which they tendered to the Parliament which were these I. That in the Sacrament of the Altar by the vertue of Christ assisting after the word is duly pronounced by the Priest the natural Body of Christ conceived by the Virgin Mary is really present under the Species of Bread and Wine also his natural Blood II. That after the Consecration there remains not the substance of Bread and Wine nor any other substance save the substance of God and Man III. That the true Body of Christ and his true Blood is offered a propitiatory Sacrifice for the quick and dead IV. That the supreme power of feeding and governing the Militant Church of Christ and of confirming their Brethren is given to Peter the Apostle and to his lawful Successors in the See Apostolick as unto the Vicars of Christ. V. That the Authority to handle and define such things which belong to Faith the Sacraments and Discipline Ecclesiastical hath hitherto ever belonged and onely ought to belong unto the Pastors of the Church whom the Holy Spirit hath placed in the Church of God and not unto Lay-men This Remonstrance exhibited by the lower house of Convocation to the Bishops was according to their Requests presented by Edmond Bonner Bishop of London to the Lord Keeper of the Broad-seal of England in the Parliament Both Universities did concur to the truth of the foresaid Articles the last onely excepted This Declaration of the Popish Clergy hastened the disputation appointed on the last of March in the Church of Westminster wherein these Questions were debated I. Whether Service and Sacraments ought to be celebrated in the vulgar Tongue II. Whether the Church hath not power to alter Ceremonies III. Whether the Mass be a propitiatory Sacrifice for the living and the dead Popish Disputants White Bishop of Winchester Watson Bishop of Lincoln Baynes Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield Scot Bishop of CHESTER Protestant Disputants John Scory late Bishop of Chichester David Whitehead Robert Horn. Edmond Gwest Edwyn Sandys John Elmer Edmond Grindal John Juel Moderators Nicholas Heath Archbishop of York Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seal Besides the Disputants there were present many of the Lords of the Queens Council with other of the Nobility as also many of the lower House of Parliament For the manner of their conference it was agreed it should be performed in writing and that the Bishops should deliver their Reasons in writing first Many differences arose between them so that the conference broke off and nothing was determined The Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester thought meet that the Queen and the Authors of this defection from the Church of Rome should be Excommunicated who for this cause were imprisoned Then a Peace being made was Proclaimed over all England betwixt the Queen of England the King of France the Daulphin and the Queen of Scots The Parliament being dissolved by Authority of the same the Liturgy was forthwith brought into the Churches in the Vulgar Tongue the Oath of Supremacy offered to the Popish Bishops and others of the Ecclesiastical profession which most of them had sworn unto in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth All the Bishops refused except Anthony Bishop of Landaff As many as refused were turned out of their Livings Dignities Bishopricks In the Sees of the Prelates removed were placed Protestant Bishops Matthew Parker was made Archbishop of Canterbury who was Consecrated by three that formerly had been Bishops namely William Barlow of Bath and Wells John Scory of Chichester and Miles Coverdale of Exeter And being Consecrated himself he afterward Consecrated Edmond Grindal Bishop of London Richard Cox Bishop of Ely Edwyn Sandys Bishop of Worcester Rowland Merick Bishop of Bangor Thomas Young Bishop of St. David's Nicholas Bullingham Bishop of Lincoln John Juel Bishop of Salisbury Richard Davis Bishop of St. Asaph Edward Guest Bishop of Rochester Gilbert Barkley Bishop of Bath and Wells Thomas Bentham Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield William Alley Bishop of Exeter John Parkhurst Bishop of Norwich Robert Horn Bishop of Winchester Richard Cheiney Bishop of Glocester Edmond Scambler Bishop of Peterborough William Barlow Bishop of Chichester John Scory Bishop of Hereford Thomas Young Archbishop of York James Pilkinton Bishop of Durham John Best Bishop of Carlile and William Dounham Bishop of Chester Nicholas Health Archbishop of York lived privately many years in his Mannor of Chobham in Surrey never restrained to any one place and died in great favour with the Queen who bestowed many gratious visits upon him during his retirement Tonstal of Durham spent the remainder of his time with Archbishop Parker by whom he was kindly entertained and honourably buried The like civility was afforded to Thurlby Bishop of Ely in the same house and unto Bourn of Wells by the Dean of Exon in which two houses they both died about ten years after White though at first imprisoned for his faults after some cooling himself in the Tower of London was suffered to enjoy his liberty and to retire himself to what friend he pleased Which favour was vouchsafed unto Turbervil also who being a Gentleman by extraction wanted not friends to give him good entertainment Watson of Lincoln after a short restraint spent the remainder of his time with the Bishops of Rochester and Ely till having practised against the State he was shut up in the Castle of VVisbich where at last he died Oglethorp died soon after his deprivation of an Apoplexy
Monks of Rochester of all their moveable Goods all the Ornaments of their Church Writings Evidences yea and of great part of their Lands Possessions and Priviledges He built the Hospital at Stroud near Rochester and endowed it with fifty two pounds yearly revenue 38. Benedictus 39. Henry de Sandford This man preaching at Sittingburn before a great Audience declared openly That God had revealed unto him now three several times how that on such a day the Souls of King Richard the First Stephen Langton late Archbishop and another Priest were delivered out of Purgatory 40. Richard de Wendover 41. Laurence of St. Martin 42. Walter de Merton Lord Chancellor of England Before he was a Bishop he built Merton-colledge in Oxford 43. John de Bradfield 44. Thomas Inglethorp 45. Thomas de Woldham 46. Haymo Confessor to King Edward the Second 47. John de Sheppey 48. William Wittlesey 49. Thomas Trillick 50. Thomas Brenton 51. William Boltsham 52. John Boltsham 53. Richard Young 54. John Kemp 55 Iohn Langdon 56. Thomas Brown 57. Iohn Wells 58. Iohn White 59. Thomas Rotheram 60. Iohn Alcock 61. Iohn Russel 62. Edmond Awdley 63. Thomas Savage 64. Richard Fitz-Iames 65. Iohn Fisher 66. Iohn Hilsey 67. Nicholas Heath 68. Nicholas Ridley 69. Iohn Poynet 70. Iohn Scory 71 Maurice Griffin 72. Edmond Guest 73. Edmond Freak 74. Iohn Piers 75. Iohn Young 76. William Barlow 77. Richard Neile 78. Iohn Buckeridge 79. Walter Curle 80. Iohn Bowles 81. Iohn Warner 82. Iohn Dolben Bishops of Oxford About the year 730. Didan Duke of Oxford by the request of his Daughter built a Monastery there for Nuns and appointed her the Abbess Anno 847. in the time of King Ethelred certain Danes flying into this Monastery to save their lives from the cruelty of the English pursuing them the Monastery was burnt and they all burnt in the same but it was shortly after re-edified by the said King and further enriched with divers Possessions This Monastery was neglected but Anno 1110. Guimundus Chaplain to King Henry the First became Prior of this renewed Monastery repaired its ruines and by the favour of the King recovered unto it what Lands soever had been given heretofore unto the Nuns In this state it continued until Cardinal Wolsey got license to convert it into a Colledge Anno 1524. calling it Cardinals-colledge He leaving it unperfect King Henry the Eighth gave it a foundation the stile whereof he first appointed to be Collegium Regis Henrici Octavi but afterwards he entitled the Church Ecclesia B. Mariae de Osney He translated that See to the foresaid Colledge placing in it a Bishop a Dean eight Prebendaries a Quire and other Officers and finally stiled it Ecclesia Christi Cathedralis Oxon ex fundatione Regis Henrici Octavi The Bishops were 1. Robert King 2. Hugh Curwyn 3. Iohn Underhill 4. Iohn Bridges 5. Iohn Howson 6. Richard Corbet 7. Iohn Bancroft 8. Robert Skinner 9. William Paul 10. Walter Blandford 11. Nathanael Crew Son to the Lord Crew Bishops of Glocester Osrike King of Northumberland founded a Nunnery in the City of Glocester in the year 700. Kineburg Eadburg and Eva Queens of Mercia were Abbesses of this Monastery one after another it was destroyed by the Danes and lay waste until Aldred Archbishop of York re-edified the same Anno 1060. and replenished it with Monks and erected from the very foundation that goodly Church which is now the Cathedral See of that Diocess Being given into the hands of King Henry the Eighth by Parliament he allotted the Revenues of it unto the maintenance of a Bishop a Dean six Prebendaries and other Ministers The Bishops were 1. John Wakeman Abbot of Tewksbury he was consecrated the first Bishop of this new erection September 7. 1541. 2. John Hooper He was burnt at Glocester for the profession of the Gospel in Queen Maries dayes 3. James Brooks 4. Richard Cheiney 5. John Bullingham 6. Godfry Gouldsborough 7. Thomas Ravis 8. Henry Parry 9. Giles Thomson 10. Miles Smith 11. Godfry Goodman 12. William Nicholson 13. _____ Prichard Bishops of Peterborough Penda the Son of Penda the first King of Mercia that was a Christian began the foundation of a Monastery there Anno 656. but was taken away by Treachery before he could finish the work But this Monastery was afterward built up in stately manner by his Brother Wolpher This Monastery he dedicated to St. Peter and appointed one Saxulf to be the first Abbot thereof Two hundred years after it was destroyed by the Danes and having lain desolate one hundred and nine years Ethelwold Bishop of Winchester a great Patron of Monkery re-edefied it King Edgar assisted the Bishop much in this foundation and Adulf Chancellor to the said King who became Abbot there After him Kenulph another Abbot compassed this Monastery with a strong wall about the year of our Lord 1000. through the liberality of divers Benefactors it grew to that greatness of wealth as that all the Countrey round about belonged to it King Henry the Eighth converted it into a Cathedral Church and the Revenues upon the maintenance of a Bishop a Dean six Prebendaries and other Ministers The Bishops were 1. Iohn Chambers Doctor of Physick he was last Abbot of Peterborough and first Bishop thereof Anno 1541. 2. David Pool Doctor of Law 3. Edmond Scambler 4. Richard Howland 5. Thomas Dove 6. William Peirs 7. Augustine Lindsel 8. Iohn 9. Benjamin Laney 10. Ioseph Henshaw Bishops of Bristol Robert Sirnamed Fitz-Harding because his Father that was Son unto the King of Denmark was called Harding this Robert I say being a Citizen of Bristol founded the Monastery of St. Augustines and placed Canons in the same Anno 1148. This Foundation was afterwards confirmed and augmented by King Henry the Second who preferred the Author of the same to the marriage of the sole Heir of the Lord Berkley Of them are descended all the Lords Berkley In that place King Henry the Eighth erected an Episcopal See and converted the Revenues of the same unto the maintenance of a Bishop a Dean six Prebendaries and other Officers 1. Paul Bush was the first Bishop of Bristol 2. Iohn Holyman 3. Richard Cheiney 4. Iohn Bullingham 5. Richard Fletcher 6. Iohn Thornborough 7. Nicholas Felton 8. Rowland Searchfield 9. Robert Wright 10. George Cook 11. Robert Skinner 12. Iohn Westfield 13. Gilbert Ironside 14. _____ Carlton Bishops of Chester King Henry the Eighth converted the Monastery the Church whereof there first built by that famous Earl Leofricus and dedicated unto St. Wergburg into a Cathedral Church erected a new Bishoprick there The Bishops were 1. Iohn Bird He was deprived in Queen Maries dayes 2. Iohn Coates 3. Cuthbert Scot 4. VVilliam Downham 5. VVilliam Chadderton 6. Hugh Bellot 7. Richard Vaughan 8. George Lloyd 9. Thomas Morton 10. Iohn Bridgeman 11. Iohn VValton 12. Henry Fern 13. George Hall 14. Iohn VVilkins 15. Iohn Pearson Bishops of S. Davids 1. David Vnkle
to pay for his entertainment On a sudden all the Templars in France are clapt in prison damnable sins are laid to their charge and they most cruelly burned to death at a stake with James the Grand Master of their Order All Europe followed the Copy that France had set them Here in England King Edward the Second of that name suppressed the Order and put them to death So by vertue of a Writ sent from him to Sir John Wogan Lord Chief Justice in Ireland were they served there and such was the secrecy of the contrivance of the business that the storm fell upon them ere they were aware of it In England their possessions were by Authority of Parliament assigned to the Hospitaller-Knights of St. John of Jerusalem least that such Lands given to good and pious uses against the Donour's will should be given to other uses At the North-side of the City of London John Briset a rich and devout man built an House for the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem which in time grew so great that it resembled a Palace and had in it a very fair Church and a Tower-steeple raised to so great height with so fine workmanship that while it stood it was a singular beauty and ornament to the City These Knights Hospitallers at their first Institution about the year 1124. and long after were so lowly all the while they continued poor that their Governor was stiled servant to the poor servitors of the Hospital of Jerusalem like as the Master of the Templars who shortly after arose was termed The Humble Minister of the poor Knights of the Temple The Hospitallers ware a white Cross upon their upper black Garment and by solemn profession were bound to serve Pilgrims and poor people in the Hospital of St. John at Jerusalem and to secure the passages thither they charitably buried the dead they were assiduous in prayer mortified themselves with watchings and fastings they were courteous and kind to the poor Camd. descrip of London whom they called their Masters and fed with white bred while themselves lived with brown and carried themselves with great austerity whereby they purchased to themselves the love and liking of all sorts and through the bounty of good Princes and private persons admiring their piety and prowess they rose from this low degree to so high an Estate and great riches that they did after a sort wallow in wealth and riches For about the year of our Lord 1240. they had within Christendom nineteen thousand Lordships or Mannors like as the Templars nine thousand And this estate of theirs grown to so great an height made way for them to as great Honours so as their Prior in England was reputed the prime Baron of the Land called the Lord of St. Johns and able with fulness and abundance of all things to maintain an honourable Port untill that King Henry the Eighth gat their Lands and livings into his own hands like as he did of the Monasteries also They out lived all other Orders yet at last they fell into a Praemunire for they still continued their obedience to the Pope contrary to their Allegiance whose Usurped authority was banished out of the Land They were forced to resign all into the King's hands He allowed to Sir William Weston Weavers Monum p. 114. Lord Prior of the Order an annual pension of One thousand pounds But he never received a penny thereof but died instantly struck to the heart when he first heard of the dissolution of his Priory and lyeth buried in the Chauncel of Clarkenwell with the pourtraiture of a dead man lying on his shroud most artificially cut in Stone others had rent assigned them of two hundred pound one hundred pound sixty pound fifty pound twenty pound ten pound according to their several qualities and deserts Queen Mary sets up the Hospitallers again and Sir Thomas Tresham of Rushton in Northampton-shire was the first and last Lord Prior after their Restitution for their nests were plucked down before they were warm in them by the coming in of Queen Elizabeth Of the English Nuns I Come now to Nuns almost as numerous in England as Monks and Friers as having though not so many Orders yet more of the same Order The weaker sex hath ever equalled men in their Devotion often exceeded them in their Superstition At Liming in Kent the Daughter of King Ethelbert took the veile and became the first English Nun. There was an Hermophrodite Order as is aforesaid admitting both Men and Women under the same roof and during the life of Gilbert their first founder for seven hundred Brethren there were one thousand one hundred Sisters entred into that Order Doctor Fuller divides the Nuns into three sorts First The Antientest Secondly The Poorest Thirdly The latest Nuns in England 1. Of the first sort he accounteth the She Benedictines commonly called black Nuns Bennet the Monk after he had placed himself and his Monkish Brethren in a certain Noble and Famous Cloyster upon the Mount Cassinus raised up also an Order of Nuns and made his Sister Scholastica Abbess over them The apparrel of these black Nuns is a black coat cloak coule and veyl and least the Scripture should deceive her and hers it was commanded that none of that Order should read the Holy Scripture without consent or permission of their Superior 2. The poorest follow being the strict Order of St. Clare a Lady living at the same time and in the same Town with St. Francis she assembled and gathered together a Congregation of poor Women and gave them an Order of life like unto the rule that Frier Francis gave his Covent Their garment is gray their Order admitteth none but women-kind except it be to say Mass 3. The Nuns of St. Bridget were the latest in England first setled here in the second year of King Henry the Fifth Anno Domini 1415. dissolved with the rest Anno 1538. so that they continued here onely one hundred twenty three years Bridget Queen of Sweden gave them their name and Institution Men and Women living under the same roof the VVomen above the Men beneath They were seated at Sion in Middlesex which King Henry the Fifth having expelled from thence the Monks Aliens built for Religious Virgins to the Honour of our Saviour the Virgin Mary and St. Bridget of Sion In this Sion he appointed so many Nuns Priests and Lay-brethren divided apart within their several VValls as were in number forsooth equal to Christ's Apostles and Disciples viz. eighty five I. Sisters Sixty II. Priests Thirteen III. Deacons Four IV. Lay-brethren Eight Having bestowed sufficient maintenance upon them King Henry provided by a Law that contenting themselves therewith they should take no more of any man but what overplus soever remained of their yearly Revenue they should bestow it upon the poor Thomas Walsingham saith Walsingh in Henric. V. if afterwards the whole VVorld should proffer them Farmes and possessions
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
mounted on whose behalf the Pope upon the Bishop's humble suit pleading the Clergy's immunity wrote somewhat earnestly to King Richard to set his very dear Son for so he called the Bishop at liberty The King in a pleasant manner caused the Habergeon and Curasses of the Bishop to be presented to the Pope with this question alluding to that of Jacob's Children to their Father concerning Joseph's Garment Vide an haec sit filii tui tunica an non See whether this be thy Son's coat or not Whereupon the Pope replied That he was neither his Son nor the Son of the Church and therefore should be Ransomed at the King's will because he was rather judged to be a servitor of Mars than a Souldier of Christ Whom the King of England handled sharply Anno 1199. One Thurical an English-man was in a rapture carried in the night to Purgatory of which S. Nicholas is Governor where also he saw the mouth of Hell whence a stinking smoak issued out which as it was revealed to him came out of Tithes detained or ill paid because there those Men were horribly punished who had ill-paid the Tithes due to the Church This is related by Mat. Paris a Monk of St. Albans superstitious according to the Age that he lived in Then also came the Minorite Friars into England When the Minorite Friars came into England their Order being but lately instituted King Richard laying Siege to a Castle called Chaluz belonging to the Viscount of Limoges was shot into the Arm by a poisoned Arrow whereupon the Iron remaining and festering in the wound the King within nine dayes after died having first forgiven the Souldier before his Death King John was Crowned in Westminster-Abbey June 9. 1199. and was Sworn by Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury Quod sanctam Ecclesiam ejus ordinatos diligeret eam ob incursione malignantium indemnem conservaret dignitates illius bona fide sine malo ingenio servaret illasas as Roger Hoveden expresseth it This Archbishop with all the Bishops Abbots Nobles present at and consenting to this Oath and doing Homage and Fealty to him The 13th of June following he was solemnly Divorced in Normandy in the presence of three of his Norman Bishops from the Duke of Gloucester's Daughter Vnde magnam summi Pontificis Innocentii tertii Curiae Romanae indignationem prasumens temere contra leges canones dissolvere quod eorum fuerat authoritate colligatum as Radulphus de Diceta informs us But he soon after was Married to Isabel sole Daughter and Heir of the Earl of Angolesme who was Crowned Queen Octob. 8. by Archbishop Hubert this Pope and Cardinals not daring to question or null his Marriage CENT XIII KIng John being no sooner possessed of the Realm of England but in the very first year of his Reign evidenced to all the World his Ecclesiastical Sovereignty both by ratifying protecting enlarging the Ecclesiastical as well as Temporal Liberties Privledges Churches Chappels Tithes Lands Possessions granted by his Ancestors to several Archbishopricks Bishopricks Monasteries in England Ireland Normandy by sundry Charters using this expression in the Prologue of Confirmation to the Monastery of Cirencester Johannes Dei gratia c. Prynne's history of Popes Usurpations lib. 5. ch 1. Quoniam Honori nostro condecens saluti nostrae necessarium loca sancta religiosa quae ab Avo patris nostri Rege H. primo sunt fundata a Rege H. secundo patre nostro confirmata defendere custodire amplificare Inde est quod Deo Sancta Mariae de Cirencest Canonitis Regularibus ibidem Deo servientibus damus concedimus Dat. per manum H. Cant. Archiep. Cancel nostri apud sag 7. die Aug. An. Regni nostri 10. Which prologue he likewise used in other of his Charters K. John also authorized Hubert Archbishop of Canter to make a Will which he could not then Legally do without his Royal License In the year 1177. no less then 30 Nuns of the Abby of Ambresbury were accused and convicted at one time for their incontinency to the dissolution and infamy of their Order whereof they had been publikely defamed whereupon King Henry the 2d Expulsis sanctimonialibus be Abbatia de Ambresbury propter incontinentiam per alios domos Religiosos distributis expelling the Nuns from this Abbey for their incontinency distributed them throughout other Religious Houses in stricter custody by way of penance and gave it to the Abbess and Nuns of Font-Everoit for a perpetual possession who sending a Covent of Nuns thither from Font-Everoit Richard then Archbishop of Canterbury inducted them into the Abbey of Ambresbury on the first of June King Hen. 2. Bartholomew Bishop of Excester John Bishop of Norwich and many other of the Clergy and People being then present And by his Charter Anno 1179. confirmed the Lands of this Abbey to them with many liberties and that by the advice and consent of the Archbishop of Canterbury and many other Bishops Great Men and Barons of the Realm King John in the first year of his Reign by his Charter reciting all the premises in the Prologue confirmed this Charter of his Father ratified these Nuns deprivations and imprisonments in other Monasteries for their incontinency with consent of his Bishops Nobles and request of Pope Alexander transferring this Abbey and all Lands thereto belonging from one rank of Nuns to another takes both these Nuns Persons Lands into his Royal protection as if they were his own Demesnes grants them several Tithes Churches large Priviledges and prohibits that none of his Officers or Subjects should disturb them therein nor implead them but in the presence of himself and his heirs The same first year of King John's Reign the Abbot of Westminster dying the Monks by the King's License elected Ralph Arundel Prior of Harle for their Abbot unto which the King gave his Assent Whereupon he was consecrated Abbot no Bishops Abbots Priors or other Ecclesiastical Persons being elected to any Dignities but by the King 's previous License and subsequent Assent to the Person elected who might approve or reject him at his Royal Pleasure This King ratified the Charter of K. Richard touching the exchange between Archbishop Hubert and the Bishop and Monks of Rochester of the Manor of Lambeth for other Lands and the Clause therein authorizing the Pope Archbishop of Canterbury Bishops and Clergy of England to Excommunicate the infringers thereof Chart. 1. Johan Regis part 2. n. 147. n. 25. Besides he appropriated several Parochial Churches in perpetuity to the Bishoprick of Coventry and Litchfield converted other Parochial Churches into Prebendaries and ratified the Orders made by Bishop Hugh for the better regulation of that Church by two Charters The like Charter of confirmation of Churches Tithes and Liberties he made to the Bishop of Exeter and his Successors the same year In the second year of his Reign the Dean and Chapter of Lexoven
fitted to this new Edition of the Bible And as some perchance over-valued the Geneva Notes out of that special love they bear to the Authors and place whence it proceeded so on the other side some without cause did slight or rather uncharitably did slander the same for about this time Anno 1611. Fuller Church History Anno 1611. a Doctor in Oxford publickly in his Sermon at St. Maries accused them as guilty of misinterpretation touching the Divinity of Christ and his Messias-ship as if symbolizing with Arrians and Jews against them both for which he was afterwards suspended by Doctor Robert Abbot Propter conciones publicas minus orthodoxas offensionis plenas This year King James was careful for the seasonable suppression of the dangerous Doctrines of Conradus Vorstius This Doctor had lived about fifteen years a Minister at Steinford within the Territories of the Counts of TECLENBVRG BENTHAM c. the Counts whereof were the first in casting off the Romish yoke and ever since continuing Protestants This Vorstius had written to and received Letters from certain Samosatenian Hereticks in Poland and became infected therewith Hereupon he set forth two Books the one entitled IRACTATVS THEOLOGICVS DE DEO dedicated to the Land-grave of HESSEN the other EXEGESIS APOLOGETICA dedicated to the States both of them stuffed with many dangerous Positions concerning the Deity This Wretch debased the Purity of God assigning him a material body confining his Immensity as not being every where shaking his Immutability as if his Will were subject to change darkening his Omnisciency as uncertain in future contingents with many more monstrous Opinions Notwithstanding all this the said Vorstius was chosen by the Curators of the University of Leyden to be their publick Divinity-Professor in the place of Arminius lately deceased and to that end the States General by their Letters sent and sued to the Count of TECKLENBOVRGH and obtained of him that Vorstius should come from Steinford and become publick Professor in Leyden King James being this Autumn in his hunting Progress did light upon and perused the aforesaid Books of Vorstius he observed the dangerous Positions therein determining speedily to oppose them Hereupon he presently dispatched a Letter to Sir Ralph Winwood his Ambassador Resident with the States requiring him to let them understand how highly he should be displeased if such a Monster as Vorstius should be advanced in their Church This was seconded with a large Letter of his Majesties to the States dated October the sixth to the same effect But the States entertain not the motion of King James against Vorstius according to expectation They said That if Vorstius had formerly been faulty in offensive expressions he had since cleared himself in a new Declaration For lately he set forth a Book entitled A Christan and modest Answer but he gave no satisfaction in his new Declaration King James therefore gave Instructions to his Ambassador to make publick protestation against their proceedings which Sir Ralph Winwood most solemnly performed And after his Majesties Request Letter and Protestation had missed their desired effect he wrote in French a Declaration against Vorstius which since by his leave hath been translated into English among his other Works Vorstius his Books were also by the King's Command publickly burnt at St. Paul's-cross in London and in both Universities The same year in March Bartholomew Legate an Arrian was burnt in Smithfield for denying the Deity of the Son of God and holding that there are no Persons in the Godhead with many other damnable Tenets In the next month Edward Wightman of Burton upon Trent was burnt at Litchfield for holding ten several Heresies viz. those of Ebion Cerinthus Valentinian Arrius Macedonius Simon Magus Manes Manicheus Photinus and of the Anabaptists Only a Spanish Arrian who was condemned to die was notwithstanding suffered to linger out his Life in Newgate where he ended the same This year died Richard Sutton the Founder of Charter-house Hospital Esquire The Manors which in several Counties he setled for the maintenance of this Hospital were these 1. Balsham Mannor in Cambridge-shire 2. Blastingthorp Mannor in Lincoln-shire 3. Black-grove Mannor in Wilt-shire 4. Broad-Hinton Land in Wilt-shire 5. Castle-Camps Mannor in Cambridge-shire 6. Chilton Mannor in Wilt-shire 7. Dunby Mannor in Lincoln-shire 8. Elcomb Mannor and Park in Wilt-shire 9. Hackney Land in Middlesex 10. Hallingbury-Bouchers Mannor in Essex 11. Missunden Mannor in Wilt-shire 12. Much-Stanbridge Mannor in Essex 13. Norton Mannor in Essex 14. Salthrop Mannor in Wilt-shire 15. South-minster Mannor in Essex 16. Tottenham Land in Middlesex 17. Vfford Mannor in Wilt-shire 18. Watelscot Mannor in Wilt-shire 19. Westcot Mannor in Wilt-shire 20. Wroughton Mannor in Wilt-shire Anno 1612. On November the sixth died Prince Henry of a burning Fever He was generally lamented of the whole Land both Universities publishing their Verses in print Prince Henry's Funerals are followed with the Prince Palatine's Nuptials solemnized with great state Anno 1613. Nicholas Wadham Esquire of Merrifield in the County of Sommerset bequeathed by his Will four hundred pounds per annum and six thousand pounds in Money to the building of a Colledge in Oxford leaving the care of the Whole to Dorothy his Wife This year the same was finished built in a place where formerly stood a Monastery of the Augustine Friars This year Anthony Rudd Bishop of St. Davids ended his Life Some three years since on the death of King Henry the Fourth Isaac Causabon that learned Critick was fetcht out of France by King James and preferred Prebendary of Canterbury Presently he wrote First to Fronto Duraeus his learned Friend then to Cardinal Perron in the just vindication of our English Church After these he began his Exercitations on Baronius his Ecclesiastical Annals which more truly may be termed The Annals of the Church of Rome He died and was buried in the South-Isle of Westminster-Abby His Monument was erected at the cost of Thomas Morton Bishop of Durham Anno 1614. Mr. John Selden set forth his Book of Tithes wherein he Historically proveth that they were payable jure humano and not otherwise Many wrote in answer to his Book Anno 1616. Mr. Andrew Melvin was freed from his imprisonment in the Tower whither he had been committed for writing some Satyrical Verses against the Ornaments on the Altar in the King's Chappel He afterwards became a Professor at Sedan in the Duke of Bovillon's Country Here he traduced the Church of England against which he wrote a Scroll of Saphicks entitled TAMI-CHAMI-CATEGERPA When first brought into the Tower he first found Sir William Seymour afterwards Marquess of Hertford and Duke of Sommerset there imprisoned for marrying the Lady Arabella so nearly allyed to the Crown without the King's consent To whom Melvin sent this Distick Causa mihi tecum communis carceris Ara Regia Bella tibi Regia sacra mihi Anno 1615. died Thomas Bilson Bishop of Winchester a profound Scholar well read