Spoil though not to the Loss of their Bishopricks Of which last Sort were Kitching Bishop of Landaff Salcot otherwise called Capon Bishop of Salisbury and Sampson of Coventry and Lichfield Of which the last to keep his ground was willing to fling up a great part of his Lands and out of those which either belonged unto his See or the Dean and Chapter to raise a Baron's Estate and the Title of the Baronie too for Sir William Paget not born to any such fair Fortunes as he thus acquired Salcot of Salisbury knowing himself obnoxious to some Court-Displeasures redeems his Peace and keeps himself out of such Danger by making long Leases of the best of his Farms and Manours known afterwards most commonly by the Name of Capons-Feathers But none of them more miserably Dilapidated the Patrâ—mony of his See then Bishop Kitching of Landaff A Church so liberally endowed by the Munificence and Piety of some Great Persons in those Times that if it were possessed but of a tenth Part of what once it had it might be reckoned as is affirmed by Bishop Godwine one of Kitching's Successours amongst the Richest Churches in these Parts of Christendom But whatsoever Kitching found it it was made poor enough before he left it so poor that it is hardly able to keep the Pot boiling for a Parson's Dinner Of the first Rank I reckon Voysie of Exeter Heath of Worcester and Day of Chichester for the Province of Canterbury together with Bishop Tonstal 〈◊〉 Durham in the Province of York The first once Governour to the Princess Mary Preferred afterwards by King Henry to the Lord-President-ship of Wales and the See of Exeter Which See he found possessed at his coming to it of twenty two goodly Manours and fourteen Mansion-Houses Richly furnished But the Man neither could approve the Proceedings of the King in the Reformation nor cared in that respect to Preserve the Patrimony of the Church for those who might differ in Opinion from him And being set upon the Pin he made such Havock of his Lands before he was brought under a Deprivation that he left but seven or eight of the worst Manours and those let out into long Leases and charged with Pensions and not above two Houses both bare and naked Having lost so much Footing within his Diocess it is no marvail if he could no longer keep his Standing For being found an open Hinderer of the Work in hand and secretly to have fomented the Rebellion of the Devonshire-Men in the year 1549 he either was deprived of or as some say resigned his Bishoprick within few Moneths after the Sentence passed on Gardiner but lived to be restored again as Gardiner also was in the Time of Queen Mary Of Day and Heath I have nothing to remember more particularly but that they were both Deprived on the tenth of October and lived both to a Restitution in Queen Marie's Reign Heath in the mean time being Liberally and Lovingly entertained by the Bishop of London and afterwards Preferred to the Arch-Bishoprick of York and made Lord Chancellour of England Nor shall I now say more of Tonstal but that being cast into the Tower on the twentieth day of December he was there kept untill the Dissolution of his Bishoprick by Act of Parliament of which we shall speak more at large in its proper place We must not leave these Churches vacant considering that it was not long before they were supplyed with new Incumbents To Gardiner in the See of Winton succeeded Doctour John Poynet Bishop of Rochester a better Scholar then a Bishop and purposely Preferred to that Wealthy Bishoprick to serve other Mens Turns For before he was well warm in his See he dismembred from it the Goodly Palace of Marwel with the Manours and Parks of Marwel and Twiford which had before been seised upon by the Lord Protectour to make a Knight's Estate for Sir Henry Seimour as before was signified The Palace of Waltham with the Park and Manour belonging to it and some good Farms depending on it were seised into the hands of the Lord Treasurer Pawlet Earl of Wiltshire who having got into possession so much Lands of the Bishoprick conceived himself in a fit Capacity to affect as shortly after he obtained the Title of Lord Marquess of Winchester But this with many of the rest of Poynet's Grants Leases and Alienations were again recovered to the Church by the Power of Gardiner when being restored unto his See he was by Queen Mary made Lord Chancellour To Voysie in the See of Exeter succeeded Doctour Miles Coverdale one who had formerly assisted Tyndal in Translating the Bible into English and for the most part lived at Tubing an Vniversity belonging to the Duke of Saxonie where he received the Degree of Doctour Returning into England in the first year of King Edward and growing into great Esteem for Piety and Diligent Preaching he was Consecrated Bishop of this Church the thirtieth of August the Bones whereof were so clean picked that he could not easily leave them with less Flesh then he found upon them Nor have we more to say of Scory who succeeded Day but that being Consecrated Bishop of Rochester in the place of Poynet on the thirtieth of August also he succeeded Day at Chichester in the year next following Of which Bishoprick he was deprived of in the Time of Queen Mary and afterwards preferred by Queen Elizabeth to the See of Hâ—reford in which place he dyed To Heath at Worcester no Successour was at all appointed that Bishoprick being given in Commendam to Bishop Hooper who having been Consecrated Bishop oâ— Glocester on the eighth of March was made the Commendatory of this See to which he could not legally be Translatâ—d as the Case then stood both Latimer and Heath being stâ—ll alive and both reputed Bishops of it by their several Parties And here we have a strange Conversion of Affairs for whereas heretofore the County of Glocester was a part of the Diocess of Worcester out of which it was taken by King Henry when first made a Bishoprick the Diocess of Worcester was now lay'd to the See of Glocester Not that I think that Hooper was suffered to enjoy the Temporal Patrimony of that Wealthy Bishoprick but that he was to exercise the Jurisdiction and Episcopality with some short Allowance for his Pains The Pyrates of the Court were too intent on all Advantages to let such a Vessel pass untouched in which they might both finde enough to enrich themselves and yet leave that which was sufficient to content the Merchant Anâ— this perhaps may be one Reason why Latimer was not restored unto his Bishoprick upon this Avoydance not in regard of any sensible Dislike which was taken at him by the Court for his down-right Preaching or that the Bishops feared from him the like Disturbances which they had met withall in Hooper But I conceive the Principal Reason of it might proceed from his own Unwillingness to cumber his
City of Cambray in which all differences were concluded also between France and Spain all other Articles being accorded the restitution of Calais to the Queen of England seemed the onely obstacle by which the general peace of Christendom was at the point to have been hindred But the Queen either preferring the publick good before private interest or fearing to be left alone if she should stand too obstinately upon that particular came at the last to this agreement viz. That Calais should remain for the tearm of eight years then next following in the hands of the French that at the end of the said tearm it should be deliveâ—ed unto the English or otherwise the French King should pay unto the Queen the sum of 500000 Crowns According unto which Agreement Peace was proclaimed in London on the 7th of April between the Queens Majesty on the one part and the French King on the other as also between her and the King Dolphin with his wife the Queen of Scots and all the Subjects and Dominions of the said four Princes The Proclamation published by Garter and Norrey Kings at Arms accompanied with three other Heralds and five Trumpeters the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in their Scarlet Gowns being present on horseback But long the French King lived not to enjoy the benefit of this general Peace unfortunately wounded in Paris at a Tilt or Tournament by Count Monâ—gomery of which wound he shortly after died on the 10th of July leaving be hind him four sons Francis Charls Henry and another Francis of which the three first according to their seniority enjoyed that Kingdom And though she had just cause to be offended with the young King Francis for causing the Queen of Scots his wife to take upon her self the Title and Arms of England yet she resolved to bestow a royal Obsequy on the King deceased which was performed in St. Paul's Church on the 8th and 9th of September in most solemn manner with a rich Hearse made like an Imperial Crown sustained with eight pillars and covered with black Velvet with a Valence fringed with gold and richly hanged with Scâ—tcheous Pennons and Banners of the French Kings Arms the principal mourner for the first day was the Lord Treasurer Paulet Marquis of Winchester assisted with ten other Lords Mourners with all the Heralds in black and their Coat-Armours uppermost The divine Offices performed by Doctor Matthew Parker Lord elect of Canterbury Doctor William Barlow Lord elect of Chichester and Doctor Iâ—hn Scory Lord elect of Hereford all sitting in the Throne of the Bishop of London no otherwise at that time than in hoods and Surplices by whom the Derige was executed at that time in the English toung The Funeral Sermon preached the next morning by the Lord of Hereford and a Communion celebrated by the Bishops then attired in Copes upon their Surplices At which time six of the chief mourners received the Sacrament and so departed with the rest to the Bishops Palace where a very liberal Entertainment was provided for them By which magnificency and the like this prudent Queen not onely kept â—er own reputation at the highest amongst forein Princes but caused the greater estimation to be had by the Catholick party of the Religion here established Anno Reg. Eliz. 2. A. D. 1559 1560. WE must begin this year with the Consecration of such new Bishops as were elected to succeed in the place of those which had been deprived the first of which was that of the most reverend Doctor Matthew Parker elected to the See of Canterbury on the first of August but not consecrated till the 17th of December following That Dignity had first been offered as is said by some to Doctor Nicholas Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York who grown in years and still a well-willer to the Pope desired to be excused from undertaking of a charge so weighty And some say it was offered unto Whitehead also who had been Chaplain to Anne Bollen the Queen's mother but he returned the like refusal though on other grounds as more inclined by reason of his long abode in Calvin's Churches to the Presbyterians than the Episcopal form of Government and it was happy for the Church might have been betrayed by his dissaffection that he did refuse it The Chair being better filled by Parker another of Queen Bollen's Chaplains but better principled and of a far more solid judgment in affairs of moment The Congeâ—d ' sleiur which opened him the way to this eminent Dignity bears date on the 18th day of July within few days after the deprivation of the former Bishops to satisfie the world in the Queens intention of preserving the Episcopal Government And therefore why the consecration was deferred so long maybe made a question some think it was that she might satisfie her self by putting the Church into a posture by her Visitation before she passed it over to the care of the Bishops others conceive that she was so enamoured with the power and title of Supream Governess that she could not deny her self that contentment in the exercise of it which the present Interval afforded For what are Titles without Power and what pleasure can be took in Power if no use be made of it And it is possible enough that both or either of these considerations might have some influence upon her But the main cause for keeping the Episcopal Sees in so long a vacancy must be found else-where An Act had passed in the late Parliament which never had the confidence to appear in print in the Preamble whereof it was declared That by dissolution of Religious Houses in the time of the late King her Majesties father many Impropriations Tithes and portions of Tithes had been invested in the Crown which the Queen being a Lady of a tender conscience thought not fit to hold nor could conveniently dismember from it without compensation in regard of the present low condition in which she found the Crown at her comming to it And thereupon it was enacted that in the vacancy of any Archbishoprick or Bishoprick it should be lawful for the Queen to issue out a Commission under the Great Seal for taking a survey of all Castles Mannors Lands Tenements and all other Hereditaments to the said Episcopal Sees belonging or appertaining and on the return of such surveys to take into her hands any of the said Castles Mannors Lands Tenements c. as to her seemed good giving to the said Archbishops or Bishops as much annual Rents to be raised upon Impropriations Tithes and portions of Tithes as the said Castles Mannors Lands c. did amount unto The Church Lands certified according to the antient Rents without consideration of the Casualties and other Perqâ—isites of Court which belonged unto them the Retribution made in Pensions Tithes and portions of Tithes extended at the utmost value from which no other profit was to be expected than the Rent it self Which Act not being to take effect
person which was the Marquis of Winchester Lord Treasurer of England the other twelve being two Earls six Lords and four Knights the sacred part thereof performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury assisted by the Bishops of London and Rochester the funeral Sermon being pâ—eached by the Bishop of London which tended much unto the praise and commendation of that famous Emperor By which solemnity as she did no small honor to the dead so she gave great contentment to the living also the people being generally much delighted with such glorious pomps and the Church of England thereby held in estimation with all forein Princes Nothing else memorable in this year but the comming out of certain books and the death of Caâ—vin Dorman an English fugitive first publisheth a book for proof of certain of the Articles denyed in Bishop Jewel's challenge encountred first by Alexander Nowel Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul who first appeared in print against those of Lovain and is replyed upon by Dorman in a book entituled A Discovery of Mr. Nowel's untruths not published till the year next following But of more consequence to this Church was the death of Calvin by whose authority so much disorder and confusion was to be brought upon it in the times succeeding a name much reverenced not onely by those of his own party and perswasions but by many grave and moderate men who did not look at first into the dangers which ensued upon it His platform at Geneva made the onely pattern by which all reformed Churches were to frame their Government his Writings made the onely rule by which all Students in Divinity were to square their Judgments What Peter Lombart was esteemed to be in the Schools of Rome the same was Calvin reckoned in all those Churches which were reformed according to the Zuinglian doctrine in the point of the Sacrament But Hic Magister non tenetur as the saying was he was not so esteemed in England nor was there any reason why it should be so for though some zealous brethren of the Presbyteterian or Puritan faction appeared exceeding ambitious to wear his Livery and thought no name so honorable as that of Calvinist yet the sounder members of the Church the Royal and Prelatical Divines as the others called them conceived otherwise of him And the right learned Adrian Sararia though by birth a Dutch-man yet being once preferred in the Church of England he stomached nothing more than to be called Calvinian Anno Reg. Eliz. 7. A. D. 1564 1565. WE shall begin this year with the concernments of the Kirk of Scotland where Queen Eâ—izabeth kept a Stock still going the Returns whereof redounded more to her own security than to the profit and advantage of the Church of England The Queen of Scots was young poffessed of that Kingdom and next Heir to this first married to the Daulphin of France and sued to after his decease in behalf of Charls the younger son of the Emperor Maximilian as also of the Prince of Conde and the Duke of Bavaria But Queen Elizabeth had found so much trouble and danger from her first alliance with the French that she was against all Marriages which might breed the like or any way advance the power of that Competitor But on the contrary she commended to her the Earl of Leicester whom she pretended to have raised to those eminent honors to make him in some fort capable of a Queens affection Which proposition proved agreeable to neither party the Queen of Scots disdaining that unequal offer and Leicester dealing underhand with Randolph the English Resident to keep her still in that averseness He had foolishly given himself some hopes of marrying with Elizabeth his own dread Mistress interpreting all her favours to him to proceed from affection and was not willing that any Proposition for that purpose with the Queen of Scots should be entertained During these various thoughts on both sides the English began to be divided in opinion concerning the next heir to the Crown Imperial of this Realm One Hales had writ a discourse in favour of the House of Suffolk but more particularly in defence of the late marriage between the Earl of Hertford and the Lady Katherine for which he was apprehended and committed prisoner The Romish party were at the same time sub-divided some standing for the Queen of Scots as the next heir apparent though an alien born others for Henry Lord Darnlie eldest son to the Earl of Lenox born in the Realm and lineally descended from the eldest daughter of King Henry the 7th from whom the Queen of Scots also did derive her claim The Queen of Scots also at the same time grown jealous of the practices of the Lord James her bastard-brother whom she had not long before made Earl of Murrey and being over-powered by those of the Congregation was at some loss within her self for finding a fit person upon whose integrity she might depend in point of counsel and on whose power she might rely in point of safety After a long deliberation nothing seemed more conducible to her ends and purposes than the recalling of Matthew Earl of Lenox to his native Country from whence he had been forced by the Hamiltonians in the time of King Henry Being of great power in the West of Scotland from the Kings whereof he was extracted Henry conceived that some good use might be made of him for advancing the so much desired marriage between his onely son Prince Edward and the Infant-Queen The more to gain him to his side he bestowes upon him in marriage the Lady Margaret Dowglas daughter of Queen Margaret his eldest sister by Archibald Dowglas Earl of Angus her second husband of which marriage were born Henry Lord Darnly of whom more anone and Charls the second son whom King James created Earl of Lenox father of Arabella before remembred And that they might support themselves in the nobler equipage he bestowes upon him also the Mannor of Setrington with other good Lands adjoyning in the County of Yoâ—k passing since by the name of Lenox his Lands in the style of the people In England he remained above twenty years but keptâ— himself constant in all changes to the Church of Rome which made him the more estimable both with his own Queen and the English Papists Being returned into his Country he found that Queen so gracious to him and such a handsome correspondence with the chief Nobility that he sends for his two sons to come thither to him but leaves his wife behind in the Court of England lest otherwise Queen Elizabeth might take some umbrage or displeasure at it if they should all remove at once It was about the middle of February that the Lord Darnly came to the Court of Scotland Who being not full twenty years old of lovely person sweet behaviour and a most ingenuous disposition exceedingly prevailed in short time on the Queens affection She had now met with such a
slackned by degrees his accustomed diligence in labouring be perswasions to work on one who was resolved before hand not to be perswaded So that being weary of the Court and the court of her she was permitted for a time to remain at Hunâ—sdon in the County of Hartford To which place being in the Diocesse of London Bishop Ridley had recourse unto her and at first was kindly entertained But having staid dinner at her request he made an offer of his service to preach before her on the Sunday following to which she answered That the doors of the Parish Church adjoining should be open for him that hâ— might preach there if he liâ—ted but that neither she nâ—r any of her sâ—rvants would bâ—â—her◠〈◊〉 hear him Madam said he I hope you will not refuse to hear Gods word To which she answered That she could not tell what they called Gods word that which was now called thâ—â—â—rd of God 〈◊〉 having been accounted such in the â—â—yes of her father After which falling into many different expressions against the Religion then established she â—ismissed him thus My Lord said she For your gentlenesse to come and see me I thank you but for your offer to preach before me I thank 〈◊〉 nâ—t Which said he was conducted by Sir Thâ—mas Wâ—arton one of her principall Officerâ— to the place where they dined by whom he was presented with a cup of wine which having drank and looking very sadly on it Surely said he 〈…〉 Which words he spake with such a vehemency of spirit aâ— made the hair of some of those which were present to stand an end as themselves afterwardâ— confessed Of this behaviour of the Princesse aâ— the Bishop much complained in other pâ—aâ—es so most especially in a Sermon preached at St Paul's Crosse on the sixteenth of July in which he was appointed by the Lords of the Council to set forth the title of Queen Jane to whom the sâ—ccession of the Crown had been transferred by King Edward at the solicitation and procurement of the Duke of nâ—rthâ—mbeâ—Nâ—rthâ—mbeâ—land who served himself of nothing more than of her obstinate aversnesse from the reformed Religion then by law established The cunning contrivance of which plot and all that had been done in pursuance of it hath been laid down at large in the Appendix to the former book Suffice in this place to know that being secretly advertised of her brothers death she dispatched her letters of the ninth of July to the Lords of Council requiring them not only to acknowledge her just title to the Crown of this Realm but to cause proâ—lamation of it to be made in the usual form which though it was denied by them as the case then stood yet she was gratified therein by the Mayor of Norwich who firsâ— proclaimed her Queen on the fourth day after as afterwards was done in some other places by those who did prefer the interest of King Henry's children before that of the Dudâ—y's But hearing of the great preparations which were made against her and finding her condition in a manner desperate when she first put her self into Framâ—ngham Castle she faithfully assureu the Gentry and other inhabitants of the County of Suffolk that she would not alter the Religion which had been setled and confirmed in the Reign of her brother On which assurance there was such a confluence to her from those parts of the Kingdom that in short space she had an army of fourteen thousand fighting men to maintain her quarrel The newes whereof together with the risings of the people in other places on the same account wrought such an alteration in the Lords of the Council whom she had before solicited in vain to allow her title that on the nineteenth of July she was solemnly proclaimed Queen at Cheapside Crosse not only by their general and joint consent but by the joyful acclamations of all sorts of people But as Mariners seldome pay those vows which they make in a tempest when once they are delivered from the danger of it so Mary once established in the Royal Throne forgot the services which she received from those of Suffolk together with the promises which she made unto them in the case of Religion Insomuch that afterwards being petitioned by them in that behalf it was answered with more churlishnesse than could be rationally expected in a green Estate That members must obey their Head and not look to rule it And that she might no more be troubled with the like Petitions she caused one Dobb a Gentlemen on Windham side who had presumed to put her in remembrance of her former promise to be punished by standing in the Pillory three dayes together to be a gazing stock to all men But such is the condition of our humane nature that we are far more ready to require a favour when we stand in need of it than willing to acknowledge or requite it when our turn is served Of which we cannot easily meet with a cleerer evidence than the example of this Queen who was so far from gartifying those who had been most aiding to her in the time of her trouble that she persecuted them and all others of the same perswasions with fire and faggot as by the sequel of her story will at large appear The Life and Reign of QUEEN MARY An. Reg. Mar. 1. A. D. 1553. 1554. THe interposings in behalf of the Lady Jane being disrelished generally in most parts of the Kingdome Mâ—ry the eldest sister of King Edward the sixt is proclaimed Queen by the Lords of the Council assiâ—â—ed by the Lord Mayor of London and such of the Nobility as were then resident about that City on Wednesday the nineteenth day of July Annâ— 1553. The Proclamation published at the Crosse in Cheâ—p with all sâ—lemnities accustomed on the like occasions and entertained with joyfull acclamations by all sorts of people who feared nothing more than the pride and tyranny of the Duke of Northumberland To carry which news to the Queen at Framingham the Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget are dispatched immediately by the rest of the Council and Letters are speedily posted by some private friends to the Duke at Cambridgâ— Who understanding how things went without expecting any order from the Lords at London dismist the remnant of his Army and presently repairing into the Market place proclaimed the Queen crying God save Queen Mary as loud as any and flinging up his cap for joy as the others did Which service he had scarce performed when Rose a Pouâ—suivant of Arms comes to him with instructions from the Lords of the Council subscribed by the Archbishop of Canterbury the Lord Chancellor Goodrick the Lord Treasurer Paulet the Duke of Suffolk the Earl of Bedford Shrewsbury and Pembrook the Lord Darsie Sir Robert Cotton Sir William Peter and Sir William Cecil the two principall Secretaries Sir John Cheeck Tutor to the last King Sir John Baker Chancellor of the tenths and first fruits
brother on the 9th and 10th she removes her Court unto Whitehall and there continâ—es till it was within two or three dayes of her Coronation Which time now drawing neer at hand she passed by water to the Tower on the 27th of September accompanied by her Sister the Princesse Elizabeth and a great train of Noble Ladies made her return through the principal streets of the City on the last of the same month in most â—tately manner and the next day proceeded with the like magnificence to the Abby Church where she was met by three â—â—lver Crosses and eighty singing men all in riâ—h and gorgeoâ—s Coaps so sudden a recruit was made of these sacâ—ed Vestments amongst whom went the new Dean of Westminster Dr. Westoâ— and divers Chaplains of her own each of them â—earing in their hands some Ensign or other After them marched ten Bishops which were as many as remained of her perswasion with their Miâ—ers rich Coaps and Crosier staves The Sermon was preached by Dr â—ay whom she had restored to the See of Chichester and the solemnity of the Coronation celebrated by the new Lord Chancellor Craâ—ner Archbishop of Canterbury being then commited and otherwise conceived unworthy of so great an honour Till this time none more dear to her then her Sister Elizabeth whom she alwayes took with her by the hand wheresoever she went and seldome dined or supped without her But this solemnity being passed over as if she were now freed from all the feaâ—s of a competition she estranged her self from her in such a manner as shewed that she had formerly desited her company for some by-respects and not out of natural affection More gratefâ—l unto other persons who deserved well of her she preferred Henry Ratcliff Earle of Sâ—ssex Commander Generall of her Army to the Society of the Gatter which Honour she conferred on his son Thomas after his decease and to be covered in her Presence at all times and places tending to the custome of the Grandees in the Realm of Spain Which priviledge not being very frequent in the Politâ—ie of the Realm of England I find to be recorded in these following words viz. Mary by the Grace of God Queen of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and Ireland in earth the Supream Head o all to whom this present writing shall come sendeth Greeting in our Lord everlasting Know ye that We do give and pardon to Our wel-beloved and trusty Cosen and one of Our Privy Council Henry Earl of Sussex and Viscount Fittzwater Lord Egremond and Burnel Liberty Licence and Pardon to wear his Cap Coyfe or Night-cap or two of them at his pleasure as well in Our presence as in the presence of any other person or persons within this Our Realm or any other place of Our Dominions whatsoever during his life and these Our Letters shall be his sufficient Warrant in this behalf Given under Our Sign Manuall at Our Pallace of Westminster 2. Octob. 1 Regni With the like Royal gratitute she advance the Earl of Arundel who had deserved as well of her in the Council as the Earl of Sussex in the Camp to the Place or Office of Lord Steward investing him with all those powers and priviledges which had been formâ—rly exercised by the Lord Great Master whom he succeeded in Authority though not in Title Sir Edward Hastings who came over to her with 4000 men she first made Master of the Horse and Knight of the Garâ—er and afterwards Lord Chamberlain of the Houshold and Lord Hastings of Louthborough Sir John Williams who had done her very good service in Buckingham and Oxfordâ—hires â—hires she honoured with the Title of Lord Williams of Jaâ—e of which more hereafter Sir Hâ—nry Jerninâ—ham who first appeared in Norfoâ—k for her she preferred to be Captain of her Guard aâ—soon as she came unto the Crown and toward the latter end of her Reign Sir Thomas Threâ—â—â—m was created Lord Prior of the Order of St Johns of Jerusalem and consequently according to the old pretension the first Baron of England And as for her domestique servants who had suffered with her she thought it no unfit decorum that they should in part Reign with her also To which end she preferred Hopâ—on her old Chaplain to the See of Norwich Râ—chester to be Compâ—roller of her Houshold Ingâ—â—field toâ— be Master of the Wards and Wâ—lgrave to be Master of the Wardrobe which is sufficiâ—nt â—o deâ—lâ—re that she was willing to comply with all obligarionâ— and not to bâ— too long in debt to her greatest subjects but much lesse to her mâ—nial servants But in â—â—gard that all these were considered for their perâ—onal merits not in reference only to their zeal for the Catholick Cause she was to shew some act of favour unto those of thaâ— party which might create a confidence in them of her good affections To which end she made choice of Sir John Gage a man most zealously addicted to the Church of Rome to be Lord Chamberlain of â—â—r Houshold when she came first to the Tower to the great satisfaction of all those of that Religion And that she might in some meaâ—ure also obâ—â—ge the rest of her suâ—jects and make the entâ—ance of her Reign the more pleaâ—â—ng to them her Coronation was accompanied with a general pardon at the least in shew Out of which all prisoners in the Tower such as remained in the Fleet together with sixty other being excepted and the reâ—trictions and proviso's with which it was in all parts clogged being well observed there were not many especially of those whom it most concerned that could create unto themselves any benefit by it Thus was the Civil State established on a right foundation and the succession setled most agreeably to the Laws of Nature according to the last Will and Testament of King Heâ—ry the 8th and the Laws made in that behalfe But we shall see the pillars of the Church removed the very foundation of it shaken and the whole â—abrick of Religion so demolished that scarce one stone thereof did seem to stand upon the other without regâ—rd unto the Laws and contrary to the will and purpose of King Edwâ—â—d the 6th At the Queens first entrance into London on the thiâ—d of August she discâ—arged Gardinâ—r of the Tower as she did Bâ—â—ner of the Marshelsey and Bishop Tâ—â—stall from the Kings Bench within two dayes after To make way to whose restitution to their former Sees Bishop Ridley is removed from London Bishop Poiâ—ct from Winchester and an Act of Parliâ—ment pâ—ocâ—red for the restoring of the Church of Durham to all its Lands Preheminences and Juriâ—dictions of which it stood divested by the lâ—te Act of Dissolution made in the last year of the King deceased By the like power was Coverdale displaced from the See of Exon Sâ—ory from that of Chichester and Hooper dispossessed of that Jurisdiction whiâ—h he held as the Commendatory of the See
by the Divines of King Edward's time that neither any satisfaction had been given to their Arguments nor that any right judgement could be made in the points disputed where the adverse party late as Judges in their own concernments Many checks had been given by Weston to the â—ix Divines but especially to the Arch-Deacon of Winchester and there was much disorder otherwise in the disputation though certain great Lords were present at it which hindered it from producing any good effect So that being weary at the last of their own confusions it was thought fit to put an end to the dispute Which Weston did accordingly in these following words It is not saith he the Queens pleasure that we should spend any longer time in these debates and ye are well enough already For you saith he have the Word and we have the Sword So powerful is the truth that may times it will find some means to vent it self when we least intend it and sometimes also when we most labour to suppress it The Parliament and Convocation had thus concluded on the point and little question would be made but that such Bishops as disliked the alterations in the time of King Edward will be sufficiently active in advancing the results of both But Bonner will not stay so long he is resolved to go along with the Parliament if not before it For after the ending of the Even song on St. Katherine's day before the consultations of the Parliament had been confirmed by the Royal assent he caused the Quire of St. Paul's to go about the steeple singing with lights after the old custome And on St Andrew's day next following he began the Procession in Latine himself with many Parsons and Curates and the whole Quire together with the Lord Mayor and divers of the Aldermen the Prebends of the Church attired in their old gray Amises as they used to call them in which manner they continued it for three dayes after In setting up the Mass with all the Pomps and Rites thereof at the time appointed it is not to be thought that he could be backward who shewed himself so forward in the rest of his actings And therefore it can be no news to hear that on the 14th of January he restored the solemn Sundays Procession about the Church with the Mayor and Aldermen in their Clokes the Preacher taking his benediction in the midst of the Church according to the ancient custome or that he should send out his Mandates to all Parsons and Curates within his Diocess for taking the names of all such as would not come the Lent following to Auricular confession and receive at Easter or finally that he should issue out the like commands to all Priests and Curates which lived within the compass of his jurisdiction for the abolishing of such Paintings and Sentences of holy Scripture as had been pensiled on the Church walls in King Edward's dayes He knew full well that as the actions of the Mother Church would easily become exemplary to the rest of the City so the proceedings of that City and the parts about it would in time give the law to the rest of the Kingdom and that there was no speedier way to advance a general conformity over all the Kingdom than to take beginning at the head from whence both sence and motion is derived to the rest of the body Which makes it seem the greater wonder that he should be so backward in advancing Images if at the least his actings in that kind have not been misplaced as not to go about it till the year next following unless it were that he began to be so wise as to stay until the Queen's affairs were better setled But no sooner was her marriage past when we find him at it For having by that time prepared a fair and large Image of our Saviour which they called the Rood he caused it to be laid along upon the pavement of St Paul's Quire and all the doors of the Church to be kept close shut whilst he together with the Prebends sung and said divers prayers by it Which done they anointed it with oyl in divers places and after the anointing of it crept unto it and kissed it and after weighed it up and set it in its accustomed place the whole quire in the mean time singing Te Deum and the bels publishing their joy at the end of the Pageant After which a command is given to Dr Story who was then Chancellor of his Diocess and afterwards a most active instrument in all his butcheries to visit every Parish Church in London and Middlesex to see their Rood loâ—ts repaired and the Images of the Crucifix with Mary and John to be placed on them But it is time that we return to the former Parliament during the sitting whereof the Queen had been desired to mary and three husbands had been nominated of several qualities that she might please her self in the choice of one That is to say Edward Lord Courtney whom she had lately restored to the Title of Earl of Devon Reginald Pole a Cardinal of the Church of Rome descended from George Duke of Clarence and Philip the eldest son of Charles the Emperour It is affirmed that she had carried some good affections to the Earl of Devonshire ever since she first saw him in the Tower as being of a lovely personage and Royal extraction the Grandson of a Daughter of King Edward the 4th But he being sounded afar off had declined the matter Concerning which there goes a story that the young Earl peâ—itioning her for leave to travel she advised him to mary and stay at home assuring him that no Lady in the land how high soever would refuse to accept him for an husband By which words though she pointed out her self unto him as plainly as might either stand with the Modesty or Majesty of a Maiden Queen Yet the young Gentleman not daring to look so high as a Crown or being better affected to the person of the Princess Elizabeth desired the Queen to give him leave to mary her sister Which gave the Queen so much displeasure that she looked with an evil eye upon them both for ever after upon the Earl for not accepting that love which she seemed to offer and on her sister as her Rival in the Earls affections It was supposed also that she might have some inclinations to Cardinal Pole as having been brought up with him in the house of his Mother the late Countess of Salisbury But against him it was objected that he began to grow in years and was so given unto his book that he seemed fitter for a Coul than to wear a Crown that he had few dependances at home and fewer alliances abroad and that the Queen's affairs did require a man both stout and active well back'd with friends and able at all points to carry on the great concernments of the Kingdom And then what fitter husband â—ould be found out for
of the Prisoners amongst which were the Archbishops of York ten Knights and many other persons of name and quality But nothing did him greater honour amongst the English than the great pains he took for procuring the enlargment of the Earl of Devonshire and the Princesse Elizabeth committed formerly on a suspition of having had a hand in Wyaâ—'s Rebellion though Wyat hâ—â—ettly disavowed it at the time of his death It was about the Feast of Easter that the Earl was brought unto the Court where having obtained the leave to travell for which before he had petitioned in vain he pass'd the Seas cross'd France and came into Italy but he found the air of Italy as much too hot for him as that of England was too cold dying at Padua in the year 1556. the eleventh and last Earl of Devonshire of that noble Family About ten days after his enlargement followed that of the Princesse Elizabeth whose comming to the Court her entertainment with the Queen and what else followed thereup on we shall see hereafter But we have run our selves too far upon these occasions and therefore must look back again on that which followed more immediately on the Kings reception the celebrating of whose Marriage opened a fair way for the Cardinals comming so long expected by the Queen and delayed by the Emperour by whom retarded for a while when he was in Italy and openly detained at Dilling a Town in Germany as he was upon his way towards England From thence he writes his Letters of Expostulation representing to the Emperor the great scandal which must needs be given to the Churches enemies in detaining a Cardinal-Legat Commissioned by his Holinesse for the peace of Christendom and the regaining of a Kingdom Which notwithstanding there he stayeth till the Articles of the Marriage were agreed on by the Queen's Commissioners and is then suffered to advance as far as Brussells upon condition that he should not passe over into England till the consummation of the Marriage The Interim he spends in managing a Treaty of Peace betwixt the Emperour and the French which sorted to no other effect but onely to the setting forth of his dexterity in all publick businesses And now the Marriage being past the Emperour is desired to give him leave to come for England and Pole is called upon by Letters from the King and Queen to make haste unto them that they might have his presence and assistance in the following Parliament and in the mean time that they might advise upon such particulars as were to be agreed on for the honour and advantage of the See Apostolick Upon the Emperor's dismission he repairs to Calais but was detained by cross winds till the 24 th of November at which time we shall find the Parliament sitting and much of the businesse dispatched to his hand in which he was to have been advised with The businesse then to be dispatched was of no small moment no lesse than the restoring of the Popes to the Supremacy of which they had been dispossessed in the time of King Henry For smoothing the way to which great work it was thought necessary to fill up all Episcopall Sees which either Death or Deprivation had of late made vacant Holgate Archbishop of York had been committed to the Tower on the 4 th of October Anno 1553. from whence released upon Philips intercession on the 18 th of January Marriage and Heresie are his crimes for which deprived during the time of his imprisonment Doctor Nicolas Heath succeeded him in the See of York and leaves the Bishoprick of VVorcester to Doctor Richard Pates who had been nominated by King Henry the Eighth Anno 1534. and having spent the intervening twenty years in the Court of Rome returned a true servant to the Pope every way fitted and instructed to advance that See Goodrich of Elie left his life on the 10 th of April leaving that Bishoprick to Doctor Thomas Thurlby Bishop of Norwich one that knew how to stand his ground in the strongest tempest and Doctor John Hopton heretofore Chaplain and Controuler of Queen Mary's Houshold when but Princess onely is made Bishop of Norwich Barlow of VVells having abandoned that dignity which he could not hold had for his Successor Doctor Gilbert Bourn Arch-Deacon of London and Brother of Sir John Bourn principal Secretary of Estate Sufficiently recompenced by this preferment for the great danger which he had incurred the year before when the Dagger was thrown at him as he preached in St. Paul's Church-yard Harley of Hereford is succeeded by Purefew otherwise called Wharton of St. Asaph who had so miserably wasted the Patrimony of the Church in the time of King Edward that it was hardly worth the keeping For the same sins of Protestantism and Mariage old Bujh of Briâ—â—ow and Bira of Chester the two first Bishops of those Sees were deprived also the first succeeded to by Holiman once a Monck of Reading the last by Coles sometimes Fellow of Magdalen and afterwards Master of Baliol College in Oxon. Finally in the place of Doctor Richard Sampson Bishop of Coventry and Liâ—hfield who lest this life on the 25th of September Doctor Radolph Bayne who had been Hebâ—ew Reader in Paris in the time of King Francis was consecrated Bishop of that Church a man of better parts but of a more inflexible temper than his Predecessor And now the Parliament begins opened upon the 11 th of November and closed on the 16 th of January then next following It had been offered to consideration in the former Session That all Acts made against the Pope in the Reign of King Henry might be declared null and void for the better encouragement of the Cardinal to come amongst us But the Queen had neither eloquence enough to perswade nor power enough to awe the Parliament to that Concession Nothing more hindred the designe than general fear that if the Popes were one restored to their former power the Church might challenge restitution of her former possessions Do but secure them from that fear then Pope and Cardinals might come and welcome And to secure them from that fear they had not onely the promise of the King and Queen but some assurance underhand from the Cardinal-Legat who knew right well that the Church Lands had been so chopped and changed by the two last Kings as not to be restored without the manifest ruine of many of the Nobility and most of the Gentry who were invested in the same Secured on both sides they proceed according to the King's desires and passe a general Act for the repealing of all Statutes which had been made against the Power and Jurisdiction of the Popes of Rome But first they are to be intreated to it by the Legate himself for the opening a way to whose reception they prepared a Bill by which he was to be discharged of the Attainture which had passed upon him in the year 1539. restored in Blood and rendred capable of
plaid and that the Cardinal was to be entreated not to insist on the restoring of Church Lands rather to confirm the Lords and Gentry in their present possessions And to that end a Petition is prepared to be presented in the name of the Convocation to both their Majesties that they would please to intercede with the Cardinal in it Which Petition being not easie to be met withall and never printed heretofore is here subjoyned according to the tenour and effect thereof in the Latine Tougne WE the Bishops and Clergy of the Province of Canterbury assembled in Convocation during the sitting of this Parliament according to the antient custom with all due reverence and humility do make known to your Majesties That though we are appointed to take upon us the care and charge of all those Churches in which we are placed as Bishops Deans Archdeacons Parsons or Vicars as also of the Souls therein committed to us together with all Goods Rights and Privileges thereunto belonging according to the true intent and meaning of the Canons made in that behalf and that in this respect we are bound to use all lawfull means for the recovery of those Goods Rights Privileges and Jurisdictions which have been lost in the late desperate and pernicious Schism and to regain the same unto the Church as in her first and right estate Yet notwithstanding having took mature deliberation of the whole matter amongst our selves we cannot but ingenuously confesse that we know well how difficult a thing if not impossible it is to recover the said Goods unto their Churches in regard of the manifold unavoidable Contracts Sales and Alienations which have been made about the same and that if any such thing should be attempted it would not onely redound to the disturbance of the publick peace but be a means that the unity in the Catholick Church which by the goodnesse of your Majesties had been so happily begun could not obtain its desired effect without very great difficulty Wherefore preferring the publick good and quiet of the Kingdom before our own private commodities and the salvation of so many souls redeemed with the precious blood of Christ before any earthly things whatsoever and not seeking our own but the things of Jesus Christ we do most earnestly and most humbly beseech your Majesties that you would graciously vouchsafe to intercede in our behalf with the most reverend Father in God the Lord Cardinal Pole Legat à Latere from his Holinesse our most serene Lord Pope Julius the third as well to your most excellent Majesties as to the whole Realm of England that he would please to settle and confirm the said Goods of the Church either in whole or in part as he thinks most fit on the present occupants thereof according to the powers and faculties committed to him by the said most serene Lord the Pope thereby preferring the publick good before the private the peace and tranquillity of the Realm before sutes and troubles and the salvation of Souls before earthly treasures And for our parts we do both now and for all times comming give consent to all and every thing which by the said Lord Legate shall in this case be finally ordained and concluded on humbly beseeching your Majesties that you would gratioâ—sly vouchsafe to perswade the said Lord Cardinal in our behalf not to show himself in the Premises too strict and dâ—fficult And we do further humbly beseech your Majesties that you would please according to your wonted goodnesse to take such course that our Ecclesiastical Rights Lâ—berties and Jurisdictions which have been taken from us by the iniquity of the former times and without which we are not able to discharge our common duties either in the exercise of the pastoral Office or the cure of souls committed to our trust and care may be again restored unto uâ— and be perpetually preserved inviolabâ—e both to us and our Churches and that all lawes which have been made to the prejudice of this our jurisdiction and other Ecclesiastical liberties or otherwise have proved to the hindrance of it may be repeated to the â—â—nour of God as also to the temporal and spiritual profit not only of your said most excellent Majesty but of all the Realm giving our selves assured hope that your most excellent Majesties according to your singular pieâ—y to almighty God for so many and great benefits received from him will not be wanting to the necessities of the Kingdom and the occasions of the Churches having cure of souls but that you would consider and provide as need shall be for the peace thereof Which Petition being thus drawn up was humbly offered to the Legate in the name of the whole Convocation by the Lord Chancellor who was present at the making of it the Prolocutor and six others of the lower house And it may very well be thought to be welcome to him in regard it gave him some good colour for not touching on so harsh a stâ—ing as the restoring of Church lands Concerning which he was not ignorant that a message had been sent to the Pope in the name of the Parliament to desire a confirmation of the sale of the lands belonging to Abbies Chanteries c. or otherwise to let him know that nothing could be granted in his behalf And it is probable that they received some fair promises to that effect in regard that on the New years day then next following the Act for restoring the Pope's supremacy was passed in both houses of Parliament and could not but be entertain'd for one of the most welcome New years Gifts which ever had been given to a Pope of Rome What the Pope did in retribution we are told by Sleidan in whom we find that he confirmed all those Bishops in their several Sees which were of Catholick perswasions and had been consecrated in the time of the Schism as also that he established such new Bishopricks which were erected in the time of King Henry the 8th and made good all such mariages as otherwise might be subject unto dispute He adds a confirmation also which I somewhat doubt of the Abby lands and telleth that all this was ratified by the Bull of Pope Paul the 4th He dispensed also by the hand of the Cardinal with irregularity in several persons confirmed the Ordination and Institution of Clergy men in their Callings and Benefices legitimated the children of forbidden mariages and retified the processes and sentences in matters Ecclesiastical Which general favours notwithstanding every Bishop in particular except only the Bishop of Landaff most humbly sought and obtained pardon of the Pope for their former errour not thinking themselves to be sufficiently secured by any general dispensation how large soever And so the whole matter being transacted to the content of all parties the poor Protestants excepted only on Friday the 25th of January being the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul there was a general and solemn Procession throughout
other Ecclesiastical Orders declaring them moreover to be no members of the Church and therefore to be committed to the secular powers to receive due punishment according to the Tenor of the temporal Laws According to which Sentence they were both degraded on the 15 th of October and brought unto the Stake in the Town-ditch over against Baliol College on the morrow after where with great constancy and courage they endured that death to which they had been pre-condemned before they were heard Cranmer was prisoner at that time in the North-gate of the City called Bocardo from the top whereof he beheld that most dolefull spectacle and casting himself upon his knees he humbly beseeched the Lord to endue them with a sufficient strength of Faith and Hope which he also desired for himself whensoever he should act his part on that bloody Theater But he must stay the Popes leisure before he was to be brought on the Stage again The Queen had been acquainted with such discoutses as had passed betwixt the Pope and her Ambassadors when they were at Rome and she appeared desirous to have gratified him in his demands But the Kings absence who set sail for Calais on the fourth of September and the next morning took his journey to the Emperor's Court which was then at Bâ—uxels rendred the matter not so feasible as it might have been if he had continued in the Kingdom For having called a Parliament to begin on the 21 of October she caused many of the Lords to be dealt withall touching the passing of an Act for the restoring of all such Lands as had belonged unto the Church and were devolved upon the Crown and from the Crown into the hands of privat persons by the fall of Monasteries and other Religious Houses or by any other ways or means whatsoever But such a general aversâ—ess was found amongst them that she was advised to desist from that unprofitable undertaking Certain it is that many who were cordially affected to the Queens Religion were very much startled at the noise of this Restitution insomuch that some of them are said to have clapt their hands upon their swords affirming not without some Oaths that they would never part with their Abbey-Lands as long as they were able to were a sword by their sides Which being signified to the Queen it seemed good to her to let fall that sute for the present and to give them good example for the time to come by passing an Act for releasing the Clergy from the payment of first Fruits and Tenths which had been formerly vested in the Crown in the Reign of her Father Against which when it was objected by some of the Lords of the Council that the state of her Kingdoms and Crown Emperial could not be so honourably maintained as in former times if such a considerable part of the Revenue were dismembered from it she is said to have returned this answer That she prefetted the salvation of her Soul before ten such Kingdoms She procured another Act to be passed also which very much redounded to the benefit of the two Universities inhibiting all Purveyors from taking up any provisions for the use of the Court within five miles of Oxon or Cambridge by meanâ— whereof those Markets were more plentifully served with all sorts of Provisions than in former times and at more reasonable rates than otherwise they could have been without that restraint In her first Parliament the better to indear her self to the common subject she had released a Subsidie which was due unto her by an Act of Parliament made in the time of King Edward the sixth And now to make her some amends they gave her a Subsidie of four shillings in the Pound for Lands and two shillings eight-pence in the pound for Goods In the drawing up of which Act an Oath which had been formerly prescribed to all manner of persons for giving in a just account of their estates was omitted wholly which made the Subsidie sinck beneath expectation But the Queen came unto the Crown by the love of the people and was to do nothing to the hazard of their affections which she held it by At the same time was held a Convocation also for summoning whereof a Writ was issued in the name of the King and Queen to the Dean and Chapter of the Metropolitical Church of Canterbury the See being then vacant by the attaindure of Archbishop Craâ—â—er Bonnâ—r presides in it as before Boxhall then Warden of Winchester preacheth though not in the capacity at the opening of it and Doctor John Christoperson Dean of Norwich is chosen Prolotor for the House of the Clergy But the chief businesse done therein was the granting of a Subsidie of six shillings in the pound to be paid out of all their Ecclesiastical Promotions in three years then following Nor was it without reason that they were enduced to so large a grant The Queen â—ad actually restored unto them their First-fruits and Tenths though at that time the Crown was not in such a plentiful condition as to part with such an annual income And she had promised also as appears by the Records of the Convocarion to render back unto the Church all such Impropriations Tithes and portion of Tithes as were still remaining in the Crown For the disposing of which Grant to the best advantage the Cardinal-Legat at the Queens desire had conceived an Instrument which was then offered to the consideration of the Prolocutor and the rest of the Clergy it was proposed also by the Bishop of Elie that some certaâ—n learned men might be chosen out of the House to review all the antient Canons to fit them to the present state of the Church and were they sound any thing defective in them to sâ—pply that defect by making such new Câ—nons and Constitutions as being approved of by the Lords should be made obligatory to the Clergy and the rest of the Kingdom This was well mov'd and serv'd to entertain the time but I find nothing in pursuance of it But on the other side the Prolocutor bringing up the Bill of the Subsidies in the end of October propounds three points unto their Lordships which much conduced to the establishment and advantage of the prejudiced Clergy The first was That all such of the Clergy as building on the common report that the Tenths and First fruits were to be released in the following Parliament had made no composition for the same with her Majesties Officers might be discharged from the penalty inflicted by the Laws in that behalf The second That their Lordships would be pleased to intercede with the Lord Cardinal-Legat for setling and confirming them in their present Benefices by some special Bull. The third That by their Lordships means an Act may be obtained in the present Parliament for the repealing of the Statute by which the Citizens of London which refused to make payment of their Tithes were to be ordered at the discretion of the
for a principal Aphorism that in like manner as God hath appointed the end it is necessary also that God should appoint the causes leading to the same end but more particularly that by vertue of God's will all things are done yea even those things which are evil and execrable In another book Entituled Against a privy Papist it is maintained more agreeably to Calvin's Doctrine That all evil springeth of Gods Ordinance and that Goâ—s predestination was the cause of Adam's fall and of all wickednesses And in a fourth book published by Robert Crowley who afterwards was Rector of the Church of St Giles's nere Cripple-gate Entituled The confutation of 13 Articles c. it is said expresly That Adam being so perfect a creature that there was in him no lust to sin and yet so weak that of himself he was not able to withstand the assault of the subtil Serpent that therefore there can be no remedy but that the only cause of his fall must needs be the predestination of God In which book it is also said That the most wicked persons that have been were of God appointed to be even as wicked as they were and finally that if God do predestinate man to do things rashly and without any deliberation he shall not deliberate at all but run headlong upon it be it good or evil By which defenders of the absolute decree of reprobation as God is made to be the Author of sin either in plain terms or undeniable consequence so from the same men and the Genevian Pamphlets by them dispersed our English Calvinists had borrowed all their grounds and principles on which they build the absolute and irrespective decree of Predestination contrary to the Doctrine publickly maintained and taught in the time of King Edward Anno Reg. Mar. 4. A. D. 1556 1557. IT is now time that we set sail again for England which we left flaming with the fire of Persecutions and the whole body of the State not a little inflamed with a spirit of treason and sedition the last ill spirit well allayed by the execution of the chief Conspirators the other fire not quenched by the blood of the Martyrs which rather served as oyle to nourish than as water to extinguish the outragiousness of it But the Queen hoped to salve the matter on her part by some works of piety as the restoring of such Church Lands as were in the Crown for the endowment of some new Convents of Moncks and Friers But first she thought it necessary to communicate her purpose unto some of the Council and therefore calling to her the Lord Treasurer Paulet Inglefield Master of the Wards Rochester Comptrouler of her Houshold and Master Secretary Peter who seemed to be most concerned in it by their several places she is said to have spoken to them in these following words Yâ—u are here oâ— Our Counsel and We have willed you to be be caâ—led to Us to the intent you might hear of me my conscience and the resolâ—tion of my mind concerning the Lanas and Possessions as well of Monasteries as of other Churches whatsoever being now presently in my possession First I do consider that the said Lands were taken away from the Churches aforesaid in time of Schism and that by unlawful means such as are contrary both to the Law of God and of the Church For the which cause my conscience doth not suffer me to detain them And therefore I here expresly refuse either to claim or retain the said Lands for mine but with all my heart freely and willingly without all paction or condition here and before God I do surrender and relinquish the said lanâ—s and possessions or inheritances whatsoever and do renounce the same with this mind and purpose that order and disposition thereof may be taken as shall seem best liking to our most holy Lord the Pope or else his Legate the Lord Cardinal to the honour of God and wealth of this our Realm And albeit you may obâ—ect to me again that conâ—idering the State of my Kingdom the dignity thereof and my Crown Imperial cannot be honourably maintained and furnished without the possessions aforesaid yet notwithstanding and so she had affirmed before when she was bent upon the restitution of the Tenths and first Fruits I set more by the salvation of my soul than by ten such Kingdomes and therefore the said possâ—ssiâ—ns I utterly refuse here to hold after that sort and title and give most hearty thanks to Almâ—ghâ—y God which hath given me an husband likewise minded with no lesse good affection in this behalf than I am my self Wherefore I charge and command that my Chancellor with whom I have conferred my mind in this matter befâ—re and you four to morrow do resort together to the most Reverend Lord Legate and do signifie to him the premises in my Name and give your attendance upon him for the more full declaration of the State of my Kingdom and of the aforesaid possessions accordingly as you your selves do understand the matter and can inform him in the same Upon this opening of her mind the Lords perceived it would be to no purpose to perswade the contrary and therefore thought it requisite to direct some course wherein she might satisfie her desires to her own great honour and yet not alienate too much at once of the publick Patrimony The Abby of Westminster had been founded in a Convent of Benedictines or black Monks by King Edward the Confessor valued at the suppression by King Henry the 8th at the yearly sum of 3977. pounds in good old rents Anno 1539. At what time having taken to himself the best and greatest part of the Lands thereof he founded with the rest a Collegiat Church consisting of a Dean and secular Canons Benson the last Abbot being made the first Dean of this new erection To Bâ—nson succeeded Dr Cox and to him was substituted Dr Weston in the first of this Queen And being preferred unto the place by her special favour 't was conceived to be no hard matter to perswade him to make a surrendry of his Church into the hands of the Queen that so it might return to its former nature and be erected into a Convent of Benedictines without any charge unto the Crown And this they thought would be the easier brought to pass because by the preferment of Dr Owen Oglâ—thorp to the See of Carlisle the Deanâ—y of Windsor would be void which was considered as a sufficient compensation if bestowed on Weston for his surrendry of the other But they found a greater difficulty in it than was first imagin'd Weston appearing very backward in conforming to the Queens desires partly out of a dislike which he had of the project he being one that never liked the profession of Monkery and partly out of an affection which he had to the place seated so opportunely for the Court and all publick businesses But at the last he yielded to that opportunity which
he was not able to resist and thereby gained so much displeasure from the Cardinal Legate that before the end of the next year Anno 1557. he was outed of his Deanry of Windsor and all his other Ecclesiastical promotions upon an information of his being taken in the act of adultery which otherwise perhaps might have been pardoned or connived at in him as in many others But willing or unwilling he had first surrender'd the Church of Westminster which the Queen stocked with a new Convent of Benâ—dictines consisting of an Abbot and fourteen Monks which with their officers were as many as the Lands then left unto it could well maintain And for the first Abbot she made choice of Dr John Fecknam a learned grave and moderate man whom she had formerly made Dean of St Paul's in the place of Dr William May and now made choice of Dr Henry Cole Arch-Deacon of Ely and Prolocutor of the Convocation Anno 1555. to succeed him in it It was upon the 21 of November that the new Abbot and his Monks entred on the possession of their ancient Convent which they held not fully out three years when it was once again dissolved by Act of Parliament of which more hereafter Which fate befel the rest of her foundations also two of which cost her little more than this at Westminster A Convent of Observants being a reformed Order of Franciscan Friers had been founded by King Henry the 7th neer the Mannor of Greenwich and was the first which felt the fury of King Henry the 8th by reason of some open opposition made by some of the Friers in favour of Queen Katherine the mother of the Queen now reigning Which moved her in a pious gratitude to re-edifie that ruined house and to restore as many as could be found of that Order to their old habitations making up their Corporation with some new Observants to a competent number She gathered together also a new Convent of Dominicans or black Friers for whom she provided an house in Smithfield in the City of London â—itting the same with all conveniences both for divine Offices and other necessary uses And having done this she was at no more charges with either of them for both the Observants and Dominicans being begging Fryers might be resembled not unfitly to a swarm of Bees which being provided of an hive are left to make their combs and raise themselves a livelyhood by their natural industry But so she went not off in her other foundations which were to be provided of some proportionable endowment out of the revenues of the Crown towards their support Aâ— Sion nere Brentford in the Country of Middlesex there had been anciently a house of religious women Nuns of the Order of St Bridget dissolv'd as were all teh rest by King Henry the 8th Most of the old ones dead and the younger maried Yet out of such of the old Nuns as remained alive and the addition of some others who were willing to embrace that course of life a competent number was made up for a new Plantation but seated as before at Sion which the Queen repaired and laid unto it a sufficient estate in Lands for their future maintenance Which house being afterwards dissolved also by Queen Elizabeth came first to the possession of Sir Thomas Perrot who gave it to his wife the Lady Dorothy one of the daughters of Walter Divereux Earl of Essex by whom being after married to Henry Lord Percy Earl of Northumberland it was left for a retiring house to that Noble Family who do still enjoy it At Sheen on the other side of the water there had been anciently another religious house not far from a mansion of the Kings to which they much resorted till the building of Richmond This house she stock'd with a new Convent of Carthusians corruptly called the Charter-hoâ—se-Moncks which she endowed with a revenue great enough to maintain that Order which profest more abstemiousness in diet and sparingness of expence in all other things than any others which embraced a Monastical life And the next year having closed up the West end of the Quire or Chancel of the Church of St Johns neer Smithfield which was all the Protector Sommerset had left standing of it she restored the same to the Hospitalry of Knights of St John to whom it formerly belonged assigning a liberal endowment to it for their more honourable subsistence Over whom she placed Sir Thomas Treshaâ—â— for the first Lord Prior a Gentleman of an ancient Family and one that had deserv'd exceeding well of her in defence of her claim against Queen Jane who on the 30th of November 1557. received the Order of the Crosse at Westminster and took possession of his place which having scarce warmed he was taken from it by the stroke of death and left it by the Queen to be disposed of to Sir Râ—chard Shellie the last great Master of that Order in the Realm of England But this expiring with the rest within two years after there remained nothing of all Queen Mary's foundations but her new Hoâ—pital in the Savoy An Hospital had formerly been founded in thaâ— House by her Grandfather King Henry the seventh for the relief of such pilgrims as either went on their Devotions to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket of Canterbury or any other eminent Shrine or Saint in those parts of the Kingdom On a suggestion made to King Edward the sixth that it served onely for a recepracle of vagrant persons it was surrendred to him in the last year of his Reign by the Master and Brethren of the same out of the Lands whereof he assigned the yearly Rent of seven hundred Marks for the maintenance of his new working house of Bridewel which he had given for ever to the Lord Mayor and City of London as hath been signified before in the life of that King together with all the beds bedding and other furniture which were found in this Hospital And though this Grant bare date on the 26 of June in the last year of his Reign Anno 1553. yet the Lord Mayor and Aldermen entred not on the possession of it till the month of February now last past Anno 1555. But having took possession of it and so much of the Lands of this Hospital being setled on it the Hospital in the Savoy could not be restored to its first condition but by a new Endowment from such other Lands belonging to Religious Houses which were remaining in the Crown But the Queen was so resolved upon it that she might add some works of Charity unto those of Piety or else in honour of her Grandfather whose foundation she restored at Greenwich also the Hospital was again refounded on the third of November and a convenient yearly Rent allotted to the Master and Brethren for the entertainment of the Poor according to the tenour and effect of the first Institution Which Prince-like Act so wrought upon the Maids of Honor and other Ladies
of the Court that for the better attaining of the Queens good grace they furnished the same at their own costs with new beds bedding and other necessary furniture in a very ample manner In which condition it continueth to this very day the Mastership of the Hospital being looked on as a good preferment for any well deserving man about the Court but for the most part given to some of their Majesties Chaplains for the encouragement of learning and the reward of their service How far the Queens example seconded by the Ladies about the Court countenanced by the King and earnestly insisted on by the Pope then being might have prevailed on the Nobility and Gentry for doing the like either in restoring their Church Lands or assigning some part of them to the like Foundations it is hard to say most probable it is that if the Queen had lived some few years longer either for love to her or for fear of gaining the Kings displeasure who was now grown too great to be disputed with if the point were questioned or otherwise out of an unwillingnesse to incur the Popes curse and the Churches censures there might have been very much done that way though not all at once For so it was that Philip having past over to Calais in the month of September Anno 1555. And the next day departing to the Emperors Court which was then at Brussels where he found his father in a resolution of resigning to him all his Dominions and Estates except the Empire or the bare title rather of it which was to be surrendred to his brother Ferdinand not that he had not a design to settle the Imperial Dignity on his Successors in the Realm of Spain for the better attaining of the Universal Monarchy which he was said to have aspired to over all the West but that he had been crossed in it by Maxiâ—ilian the eldest son of his brother Ferdinand who succeeded to his father in it and left the same hereditary in a manner to the Princes of the House of Austria of the German Rate For Charls grown weary of the world broken with warrs and desirous to apply himself to â—ivine meditations resolved to discharge himself of all civil employments and spend the remainder of his life in the Monastery of St. Justus situate among the Mountains of Extremadura a Province of the Realm of Castile In pursuance whereof having called before him the principal of the Nobility and great men of his several Kingdoms and Estates he made a Resignation of all his hereditary Dominions to King Philip his son on the 25th of October Anno 1555. having then scarce attained to the 55 year of his life to the great admiration of all the world After which act he found himself so abandoned by all his followers that sitting up laâ—e at night in conference with Seldiuâ— his brothers Embassador he had not a servant within call to light the Gentleman down stairs Which being observed by the Emperor he took the candle into his hands and would needs in his own person perform that offiâ—e and having brought him to the top of the stairs he said unto him Remember Seldius that thou hast known the Emperour Charls whom thou hast seen in the heâ—d of so many Armies reduced to such a low estate as to perform the office of an ordinary servant to his Brothers Minister Such was the greatness to which Philip had attained at the present time when the Queen was most intent on these new foundations As for the Pope he had published a Bull in print at the same time also in which he threatned Excommunication to all manner of persons without exception as kept any Church Lands unto themselves as also to all Princes Noblemen and Magistrates as did not forthwith put the same in execution Which though it did not much edifie at the present in the Realm of England yet it found more obedience and conformity in that of Ireland in which a Parliament being called toward the end of this year that is to say in the month of June Anno 1557. there past a Statute for repealing all Acts Articles and Provisions made against the See Apostolick since the 20th year of King Henry the 8th and for abolishing of several Eccelesiastical possessions conveyed to the Laity as also for the extinguishment of First-fruits and Twentieth parts no more than the yearly payment of the twentieth part having been laid by Act of Parliament on the Irish Clergy in the first and last clause whereof as they followed the example of the Realm of England so possibly they might have given a dangerous example to it in the other point if by the Queens death following shortly after as well K. Philip as the Pope had not lost all their power influence on the English Nation by means whereof there was no farther progresse in the restitution of the Abbey-Lands no more re-edifying of the old Religious Houses and no intention for the founding of any new Such as most cordially were affected to the interest of the Pope of Rome and otherwise were very perfect at their Ave Maria might love their Pater nâ—ster well but their Penny better Thus have we seen how zealously the Queen proceeded in her way towards the re-establishing of the Papal greatness Let us next look on the proceedings of the Cardinal Legat not as a Legat a latere from the Pope of Rome but as Legatus natus a Metropolitan or Archbishop of the Church of England As Cardinal-Legat he had been never forward in the shedding of blood declaring many ways his aversnesse from that severity which he saw divers of the English Bishops but especially the Butcher of London were so bent upon And when he came to act as Metropolitan he was very sparing in that kind as far as his own person was concerned therein though not to be excused from suffering the under Officers of his Diocess to be too prodigal of the blood of their Christian brethren He had been formerly suspected for a favourer of the Lutheran Doctrins when he lived at Rome and acted for the Pope as one of his Legats in the Council of â—rent Gardiner and Bonner and the rest of the sons of Thunder who called for nothing less than fire though not from heaven were willing to give out that he brought the same affections into England also and therefore somewhat must be done to keep up his authority and reputation both at home and abroad To which end he inserteth some particulars amongst the printed Articles of his Visitation to witnesse for him to the world that he had as great a care for suppressing the growth of Heresie as any Prelate in the Kingdom who would be thought more zealous because more tyrannical of which sort are the 14 15 and 17th Articles which concerned the Clergy that is to say Whether any of them do teach or preach erronious doctrine contrary to the Catholick faith and the Unity of the
poor people there exceeding charitable It was supposed that Oxon stood as much in need of a Visitation as Cambrige did A Commission is therefore granted by the Cardinal-Legat to Doctor James Brooks Bishop of Glocester Ormanete the Popes Datary Cole and Wright Doctors of the Civil Law c. to rectifie such things as they foundamiss in that University or in any College of the same It was given them also in charge amongst other things that they should take the body of this good woman out of her grave into which she had been laid Anno 1552. and to consume the same with fire not doubting but she was of the same Religion which her husband had professed before But when the Commissioners came to execute that part of their business they could find no witnesse to depose any thing for certain touching her Religion such as were brought before them agreeing generally in this answer That they did not understand her Language and therefore could not tell of what Religion she was It was therefore signified to the Cardinal that for want of legal evidence against her they could not lawfully proceed in burning her body as they had done the bodies of Bucer and Fagius against whom there was evidence enough to be found in their writings beâ—ides that which was given in from the moutheâ— of Witnesses The Cardinal thereupon gives order to Doctor Marshal Dean of Christ-Church to take up her body which had been buried near to that of St. Frideswide and to lay it out of Christian burial who very readily obeyed took up the bones of that vertuous woman and most prophanely buried them in a common dunghil But long they lay not in that place for Queen Elizabeth comming to the Crown within two years after gave order that this body should be decently interred as became the quality of her person and the reverence due unto her husband as also that Bucer â—agius should in the other University be publickly restor'd to their former honors In obedience unto whose commands the body of the one is taken out of the dunghil and laid into the grave of St. Frideswide their bones so intermingled with one another that there could be no fear of offering the like inhumanity to them for the time to come And that the like honour might be done to Bucer and â—agius a solemn commemoration of them was held at Cambridge the Sermon preached by Mr. James Pilkington who not long after was preferred to the See of Durham the Panegyrick made by Ackworth Orator of that University who spared no part of a good Orator in setting forth their due praises and deserved commendations But we must now look back again on the Reign of Queen Mary in which we find little more to do than the magnificent reception of Osep Napea Embassador from the great Duke of Muscovy upon this occasion The English Merchants at the sollicitation of Sebastian Cabot had furnished out some ships for the discovery of a North-East passage towards the rich Countries of Cathai and China in which they made so good a progress that they attained as far as the Port of St. Nicholas one of the principal Port-towns of the Empire of Russia and laid the first foundation of a wealthy Trade with that mighty Empire For their encouragement therein the Privileges of the Easterlings commonly called the Merchants of the Stilyard who before had managed all the Trade of the North East parts were seized on by King Edward the 6th and the way thereby laid open to the Merchant-Adventurers to encrease their shipping with their wealth For the continuance of which Trade betwixt the Nations the Emperor John Basiliwits sends his Ambassador above named imbarked in one of the English ships under the conduct and government of Richard Chancellor the most expert Pilot of that age But so it hapned that the rest of the ships being scattered by a strong tempest on the coast of Norway the ship which carried the Ambassador was wreckt upon the coast of Scotland the lading for the most part lost amounting to twenty thousand pounds and upwards besides many rich presents sent from the Russian Emperor to the King and Queen The Ambassador with much ado was preserv'd from drowning but the Pilot lost who by labouring to preserve the life of the other neglected the best opportunity to save his own The news wherof being brought to the Merchants of London who by this time were grown into a Company of 140. they procured Letters from the King to the Regent of Scotland for the courteous entertainment of the said Ambassador and the restoring of such goods as had escaped the wreck and having furnished him with mony and all other necessaries caused him to be conducted towards the Court. Taking his leave of Scotland on the 14th of February he is brought by easie journeys within twelve miles of London honorably entertained in all places as he past along and there received by four-score of the Russian Merchants in their chains of gold Furnished with Gold Velvet Silk and all other things he is by the whole Company of the Russian Merchants magnificently brought into London on the last of that month met on the way by the Lord Viscount Montacute attended with a gallant train of three hundred Horse at the Queens command and received at Smithfield-bars by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in their scarlet Robes Conducted to his lodgings in Fâ—â—-Church street he was there presented in the Queens naâ—e with a piece of cloâ—th of Tissue two pieces of cloth of gold one whereof was raised with Crimson Velvet with many other pieces of the like rich making which very thankfully he received Abiding at his lodging till the Kings coming back from Flanderâ— which was not till the 21 of March he was brought upon out Lady day by water to the Court at Westminster received at his landing by six Lords he was by them brought into a chamber where he found the Lords Chancellor Treasurer Privy Seal Admiral Bishop of Ely and other Counsellors Who having exchanged salutations with him attended him to the King and Queen sitting under a rich Canopy or cloath of State in the great Hall there Having presented his Letters of Credence exprest himself unto their Majesties in a short Oration which was interpreted to them both in English and Spanish and presented them with two timber of Sables which with much diligence had been recovered out of the wreck he was by them remitted to his lodging with the like solemnity Attended shortly after by the Bishop of Ely and Mr Secretary Peter who after much Communication and several Treaties setled at last a friendly entercourse and commerce betwixt the Nations the Articles whereof engrossed in parchment were afterwards presented to him raâ—ified and confirmed by the Great Seal of England On the 23d of April he was brought again into the Court where having seen the Pomps and Orders of St George's Feast the Service of the Royal Chapel
been necessary in point of State that so great a Princess should not die without some of her Bishops going before and some comming after Her funeral solemnized at Westminster with a Mass of Reqâ—iem in the wonted form on the 13th of December then next following and her body interred on the North side of the Chapel of King Henry the seventh her beloved Grandfather I shall not trouble my self with giving any other character of this Queen than what may be gathered from her story much less in descanting on that which is made by others who have heaped upon her many gracious praise-worthy qualities of which whether she were Mistress or not I dispute not now She was indeed a great Benefactresse to the Clergy in releasing them of their Tenths and First-fruits but she lost nothing by the bargain the Clergy paid her back again in their Bills of Subsidies which growing into an annual payment for seven years together and every Subsidy amounting to a double Tenth conduced as visibly to the constant fillâ—ng of the Exchequer as the payment of the Tenths and First-fruits had done before That which went clearly out of her purse without retribution was the re-edifying and endowment of some few Religious Houses mentioned in their proper place she also built the publick Schools in the University of Oxon for which commemorated in the list of their Benefactors which being decayed in tract of time and of no beautiful structure when they were at the best were taken down about the year 1612. in place whereof but on a larger extent of ground was raised that goodly and magnificent Fabrick which we now behold And though she had no followers in her first foundations yet by the last she gave encouragement to two worthy Gentlement to add two new Colleges in Oxon to the former number Sir â—homas Pope one of the Visitors of Abeys and other Religious Houses in the time of King Henry had got into his hands a small College in Oxon long before founded by the Bishop and Prior of Durham to serve for a Nursery of Novices to that greater Monastery with some of the Lands thereunto belonging and some others of his own he erected it into a new Foundation consisting of a President twelve Fellows and as many Scholars and called it by the name of Trinity College A College sufficiently famous for the education of the learned and renowned Selden who needs no other Tâ—tles of honor than what may be gathered from his Books and the giving of eight thousand Volumes of all sorts to the Oxford Library Greater as to the number of Fellows and Scholars was the Foundation of Sir Thomas White Lord Mayor of London in the year 1553. being the first year of the Queen who in the place where formerly stood an old House or Hostel commonly called Barnards Inne erected a new College by the name of St. John Baptists College consisting of a President fifty Fellows and Scholars besides some Officers and Servants which belonged to the Chapel the vacant places to be filled for the most part out of the Merchant Taylors School in London of which Company he had been free before his Mayoralty A College founded as it seems in a lucky hour affording to the Church in less than the space of eighty years no fewer than two Archbishops and four Bishops that is to say Doctor William Laud the most renowned Archbishop of Canterbury of whom more else-where Doctor Tobiâ— Matthews the most reverend Archbishop of York Doctor William Juxon Bishop of London and Lord Treasurer Doctor John Bucheridge Bishop of Elie Doctor Rowâ—and Serchfield Bishop of Bristol Doctor Boyl Bishop of Cork in the Realm of Ireland Had it not been for these Foundations there had been nothing in this Reign to have made it memorable but onely the calamities and misfortunes of it ECCLESIA RESTAVRATA OR THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION of the CHURCH OF ENGLAND CONTAINING The Beginning Progress and Successes of it the Counsels by which it was conducted the Rules of Piety and Prudence upon which it was Founded the several Steps by which it was promoted or retarded in the Change of Times FROM The first Preparations to it by King HENRY the Eight untill the Legal Settling and Establishment of it under Queen ELIZABETH TOGETHER With the Intermixture of such Civil Actions and Affairs of State as either were Co-incident with it or related to it BY PETER HEYLYN LONDON Printed for H. Twyford T. Dring J. Place W. Palmer to be sold in Vine-Court Middle-Temple the George in Fleet-street Furnival 's Inne-Gate in Holborn and the Palm-Tree in Fleet-street MDCLXI To the Most Sacred MAJESTY OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND Most Gracious Sovereign IT was an usual Saying of King JAMES Your Majestie 's most Learned Grand-Father of Blessed Memory that Of all the Churches in the World He knew not any which came nearer to the Primitive Pattern for Doctrine Government and Worship then the Reformed Church of England A Saying which He built not upon Fancy and Affection onely but on such Just and Solid Reasons as might sufficiently endear it to all Knowing Men. The Truth and Certainty whereof will be made apparent by the following History which here in all Humility is offered to Your Majestie 's View It is Dread Sir an History of the Reformation of the Church of ENGLAND with all the Various Fortunes and Successes of it from the first Agitations in Religion under HENRY the Eight which served for a Preamble thereunto until the Legal Settling and Establishment of it by the great Queen ELIZABETH of Happy Memory A Piece not to be Dedicated to any other then Your Sacred Majesty who being rais'd by God to be a Nursing-Father to this part of His Church may possibly discharge that Duty with the Greater Tenderness when You shall finde upon what Rules of Piety and Christian Prudence the Work was carryed on by the first Reformers Which being once found it will be no hard matter to determine of such Means and Counsels whereby the Church may be restored to her Peace and Purity from which She is most miserably fallen by our late Distractions It cannot be denyed but that some Tares grew up almost immediatly with the Wheat it self and seem'd so specious to the Eye in the Blade or Stalk that they were taken by some Credulous and Confiding Men for the better Grain But still they were no more then Tares distinguished easily in the Fruits the Fruits of Errour and False Doctrine of Faction Schism Disorder and perhaps Sedition from the LORD' 's good Seed And being of an aâ—ter sowing a Supersemination as the Vulgar reads it and sown on purpose by a Cunning and Industrious Enemy to raise an Harvest to himself they neither can pretend to the same Antiquity and much less to the Purity of that Sacred Seed with which the Field was sown at first by the Heavenly Husband-man I leave the Application of this Parable to the following History and shall
some decent Trimming And might not these be handsomly converted unto private uses to serve as Carpets for their Tables Coverlids to their Beds or Cushions to â—heir Chairs or Windows Hereupon some rude People are encouraged under-hand to beat down some Altars which makes way for an Order of the Counciâ—-Table to take down the rest and set up Tables in their places Followed by a Commission to be executed in all parts of the Kingdom for seising on the Premises to the use of the King But as the Grandees of the Court intended to defraud the King of so great a Booty and the Commissioners to put a Cheat upon the Court-Lords who employed them in it So they were both prevented in some places by the â—oâ—ds and Gentry of the Countrey who thought the Altar-Cloths together with the Copes and â—late of their several Churches to be as necessary for themselves as for any others â—his Change drew on the Alteration of the former Liturgâ— reviewed by certain Godly Prelates reduced almost into the same Form in which now it stands and confirmed by Parliament in the 5th and 6th years of this King but almost as unpleasing to the Zuinglian Faction as the former was In which Conjuncture of Affairs dyed King Edward the Sixth From the beginning of whose Reign the Church accounts the â—poche of a Reformation All that was done in oâ—der to it under Henrâ— the Eight seemed to be accidental onely and by the by rather designed on private Ends then out of any setled purpose to â—eform the Church and therefore intermitted and resumed again as those Ends had variance But now the Work was carried on wiâ—h a constant Hand the Prelates of the Church co-operating with the King and his Council and each contriving with the other for the Honour of it Scarce had they brought it to this pass when King Edwaâ—d dyed whose Death I cannot reckon for an Infelicity to the Church of England For being ill-principled in himself and easily inclined to embrace such Counsels as were offered to Him it is not to be thought but that the rest of the Bishopricks before sufficiently empoverished muâ—t have followed Durham and the poor Church be left as destitute of Lands and Ornaments as when she came into the World in Her Natural Nakedness Nor was it like to happen otherwise in the following Reign if it had lasted longer then a Nine Day 's Wonder For Dudley of Northumberland who then ruled the Roast and had before dissolved and in hope devoured the Wealthy Bishâ—prick of Durham might easily have possessed himself of the greatest part of the Revenues of York and Carlisle By means whereof He would have made himself more absolute on the North-side of the Trent then the poor Titular Queen a most virtuous Lady could have been suffered to continue on the South side of it To carry on whose Interess and maintain Her Title the poor remainder of the Church's Patrimony was in all probability to have been shared amongst those of that Party to make them sure unto the side But the Wisdom of this great Achitophel being turned to foolishness He fell into the Hands of the Publick Hang-man and thereby saved himself the labour of becoming his own Executioner Now MARY comes to Act Her Part and She drives on furiously Her Personal Interess had strongly byassed Her to the Church of Rome On which depended the Validity of Her Mother's Marriage and consequently Her own Legitimation and Succession to the Crown of this Realm And it was no hard matter for Her in a time unsettled to Repeal all the Acts of Her Brother's Reign and after to restore the Pope unto that Supremacy of which Her Father had deprived Him A Reign Calamitous and unfortunate to Her Self and Her Subjects Unfortunate to Her Self in the loss of Calais Calamitous to Her Subjects by many Insurrections and Executions but more by the effusion of the Bloud of so many Martyâ—s For though she gave a Check to the Rapacity of the former Times yet the Professours of the Reformation paid dearly for it whose Bloud she caused to be poured forth like Water in most parts of the Kingdom but no where more abundantly then in Bonner's Slaughter-House Which being within the view of the Court and under Her own Nose as the Saying is must needs entitle Her to a great part of those Horrid Cruelties which almost every day were acted by that bloudy Butcher The Schism at Frankâ—oâ—t took beginning in the same time also occasioned by some Zealots of the Zuinglian Faction who needs must lay aside the use of the Publick Liturgie retained by all the rest of the English Exiles the better to make way for such Forms of Worship as seemed more consonant to Calvin's Platform and the Rules of Geneva Which woful Schism so wretchedly begun in a Foreign Nation they laboured to promote by all sinister Practises in the Church of England when they returned from Exile in the following Reign The miserable Effects whereof we feel too sensibly and smartly to this very day But the great Business of this Reign related to the restitution of the Abbey-Lands end eavoured earnestly by the Queen and no less strenuously opposed by the then present Owners who had all the reason in the World to maintain that Right which by the known Laws of the Land had been vested in them For when the Monasteries and Religious Houses had been dissolved by several Acts of Parliament in the time of King Henry the Lands belonging to those Houses were by those Acts conferr'd upon the King and His Successours Kings and Queens of England Most of which Lands were either exchanged for others with the Lords and Gentry or sold for valuable Consideration to the rest of the Subjects All which Exchanges Grants and Sales were passed and Confirmed by the King's Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England in due Form of Law Which gave unto the Patentees as good a Title as the Law could make them This was well known unto the Pope and He knew well upon what ticklish Terms He stood with the Lords and â—ommons then Assembled in Parliament whom iâ— He did not gratifie with some Signal Favour He could not hope to be restored by them to His former Power for being deprived of His Supâ—emacy by Act of Parliament in the Time of King HENRY He could not be restored unto it but by Act of Parliamâ—nt in the time of Queen MARY and no such Ast could be obtained or compassed for Him without a Confirmation of Church-â—ands to the present Owners To which Necessity Pope Julius being forced to submit Himself He issueth a Decree accompanied with some Reasons which might seem to induce Him to it for confirming all such Lands on the present Occupants of which they stood possessed justo Titulo by a Lawful Title And this was onely reckoned by him for a Lawful Title First that they were possessed of the said Lands juxta Leges hujus Regni pro
tempore existentes according to the Laws of the Land which were thâ—n in force whether by Purchase or by Gift or in the way of Exchange which are the words of the Decree And secondly If the said Lands were warranted and confirmed unto them by Letters Patents from the two last Kings qui per literas Patentes easdem Terras Warâ—antizâ—runt as is declared in the Second of the following Reasons For which Consult the Book Entituled No Sacrilege nor Sin to purchase Cathedrâ—l-Lands c. page 52. Where still observe that nothing made a Lawful Title in the Pope's Opinion but the King's Letters Patents grounded on the Laws of the Land as is expressed more clearly in the former Passages But this can no way serve the Turn of some present Purchasers though much insisted on by one of that number to justifie his defacing of an Episcopal Palace and his pretensions to the Wealthy Borough which depended on it For certainly there must needs be a vast disproportion between such Contracts as were founded upon Acts of Parliament Legally passed by the King's Authority with the Consent and Approbation of the Three Estates and those which have no other Ground but the bare Votes and Orders of both Houses onely and perhaps not that And by this Logick he may as well justifie the late horrid Murther committed on the most incomparable Majesty of King CHARLES the First as stand upon the making good of such Grants and Sates as were Contracted for with some of those very Men who Voted to the setting up of the High Court of Justice as most ridiculously they were pleased to call it When I shall see him do the one I must bethink my self of some further Arguments to refute the other And so Queen MARY makes Her Exit and leaves the Stage to Queen ELIZABETH Her younger Sister A Princess which had long been trained up in the Schole of Experience and knew the Temper of the People whom She was to Govern who having generally embraced the Reformed Religion in the Time of Her Brother most passionately desired the Enjoyment of it under Her Protection And She accordingly resolved to satisfie the Piety of their Desire as soon as She had Power and Opportunity to go thorough with it In Prosecution of which Work She raised Her whole Fabrick on the same Foundation which had been lay'd by the Reformers in the Reign of King EDWARD that is to say the Word of God the Practise of the Primitive Times the General Current of the Fathers and the Example of such Churches as seemed to retain most in them of the Antient Forms But then She added thereunto such an equal mixture both of Strengâ—h and Beauty as gave great Lustre to the Church and drew along with it many rare Felicities on the Civil State both Extraordinary in themselves and of long Continuance as the most Excellent King IAMES hath right-well observed So that We may affirm of the Reformation of the Church of England as the Historian doth of the Power and Greatness of the Realm of Macedon that is to say that The same Arts by which the first Foundations of it were laid by PHILIP were practised in the Consummation and Accomplishment of it by the Care of ALEXANDER For in the first Year of Her Reign the Liturgie being first Reviewed and qualified in some Particulars was confirmed by PARLIAMENT in Her first Year the Articles of Religion were agreed upon the Convocation and in the Eight the Government of the Church by Arch-Bishops and Bishops received as strong a Confirmation as the Laws could give it And for this last We are beholden unto BONNER the late Bishop of LONDON who being called upon to take the OATH of Supremacie by HORN of Winton refused to take the OATH upon this Account because HORNs Consecration was not good and valid by the Laws of the Land Which he insisted on because the Ordinal Established in the Reign of King EDWARD by which both HORN and all the rest of Queen ELIZABETH's Bishops received Consecrationâ— had been discharged by Queen MARY and not restored by any Act of Parliament in the present Reign Which being first declared by PARLIAMENT in the Eighth of this Queen to be Casus omissus or rather that the Ordinal was looked upon as a part of the Liturgie which had been solemnly confirmed in the first of this Queen's Reign they next Enacted and Ordained That all such Bishops as were Consecrated by that Ordinal in the Times precedent or should be Consecrated by it in the time to come should be reputed to be lawfully Ordained and Consecrated to all Intents and Purposes in the Law whatever Which added as much Strength to the Episcopal Government as the Authority of Man and an Act of Parliament could possibly Conferr upon it This made the Queen more constant to Her former Principles of keeping up the Church in its Power and Purity without subjecting it to any but Her Self alone She looked upon Her Self as the Sole Fountain of both Jurisdictions which She resolved to keep in their proper Chanels neither permitting them to mingle Waters upon any occasion nor suffering either of them to invade and destroy the other And to this Rule She was so constant that when one Morrice being then Attorney of the Dutchy of Lancaster had offered a Bill ready drawn to the House of Commons in the Thirty Fifth of Her Reign for the Retrenching of the Ecclesiastical Courts in much Narrower Bounds She first commanded Coke then Speaker and afterwards successively Chief Justice of either Bench not to admit of any such Seditious Bills for the time to come And that being done She caused the person of the said Attorney to be seized upon deprived him of his Place in the Dutchy-Court disabled him from Practising as a Common-Lawyer and finally shut him up in Tutbury-Castle where he continued till his Death By which Severity and keeping the like Constant Hand in the Course of Her Government She held so great a Curb on the Puritan Faction that neither Her Parliaments nor Her Courts of Justice were from thenceforth much troubled with them in the rest of Her Reign This is the Sum and Method of the following History in the Particulars whereof thou wilt finde more to satisfie thy Curiosity and inform thy Judgment then can be possibly drawn up in this General View As for my Self and my performance in this Work in the first place I am to tell thee that towards the raising of this Fabrick I have not borrowed my Materials onely out of Vulgar Authors but searched into the Registers of the Convocation consulted all such Acts of Parliament as concerned my Purpose advised with many Foreign Writers of great Name and Credit exemplified some Records and Charters of no common Quality many rare Pieces in the famous Cottonian Library and not a few Debates and Orders of the Council-â—able which I have lai'd together in as good a Form and beautified it with a
symitry which showed it selfe in all her features and what she carried on that side by that advantage was over-ballanced on the other by a pleasing sprightfulnesse which gained as much upon the hearts of all beholders It was conceived by those Great Critticks in the schooles of Beauty that love which seemed to threaten in the eyes of Queen Jane did only seem to sport it selfe in the eyes of Queen Ann that there was more Majesty in the Gaâ—b of Queen Jane Seimour and more lovelinesse in that of Queen Ann Bollen yet so that the Majesty of the one did excell in Lovelyness and that the Lovelinesse of the other did exceed In majesty Sir John Russell afterwards Earle of Bedford who had beheld both Queens in their greatest Glories did use to say that the richer Queen Jane was in clothes the fairer she appeared but that the other the richer she was apparrelled the worse she looked which showes that Queen Ann only trusted to the Beauties of Nature and that Queen Jane did sometimes help her selfe by externall Ornaments In a word she had in her all the Graces of Queen Ann but Governed if my conjecture doth not faile me with an evener and more constant temper or if you will she may be said to be equally made up of the two last Queens as having in her all the Attractions of Queen Ann but Regulated by the reservednesse of Queen Katharine also It is not to be thought that so many rare perâ—ections should be long concealed from the eye of the King or that love should not worke in him it's accustomed effects of desire and hope In the prosecution whereof he lay so open to discovery that the Queen couâ—d not chuse but take notice of it and intimated her suspitioâ—s to him as appeares by a letter of hers in the Scrinia Sacra Iâ— which she signifies unto him that by hastning her intended death he would be left at liberty both before God and man to follow his affection already setled on the Party for whose sake she was reduced unto that condition and whose name she could some while since have pointed to his Grace not being ignorant of her suspicions And it appeared by the event that she was not much mistaken in the Mark she aimed at For scarce had her lementable death which happened on the nineteenth of May prepared the way for the Legitimating of this new affection but on the morrow after the King was secretly married to Mistress Seimour and openly showed her as his Queen in the Whitsontide following A Marriage which made some alteration in the face of the Court in the advancing of her kindred and discountenancing the Dependants of the former Queen but otherwise produced no change in Affaires of State The King proceeded as before in suppressing Monasteries extinguishing the Popes Authority and â—ltering divers things in the face of the Câ—uâ—ch which tended to that Reformation which after followed For on the eighth of June began the Parliament in which here past an Act for tâ—e finall extinguishing of the Power of the Popes of Rome Cap. 10. And the next day a Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy managed by Sir Thomas Cromwell advanced about that time unto the Title of Lord Cromwell of Wimbledon and made his Majesties Viccar Generall of all Ecclesiast â—all Matâ—ers in the Realme of England By whose Authority a book was published after Mature debate and Deliberation under the name of Articles Devised by the Kings Highness in which mentioned â—ut three Sacraments that is to â—ay Baptisme Penâ—ance and the Lords Supper Besides which book there were some Acts agreed upon in the Convocation for diminishing the superflâ—ous number of Holy dayes especially of such as happened in the time of Harvest Sâ—gnified afterwards to the people in certain Injunctions published in the Kings name by the new Viccar Generall as the first fruits of his Authority In which it was ordained amongst other things that the Curates in every Parish Church should teach the People to say the Lords Prayer the Creed the Ave-Mary and the Ten Commandments in the English Tongue But that which seemed to make most for the Advantage of the new Queen and her Posterity if it please God to give her any was the unexpected death of the Duke of Richmond the Kings naturall Son begotten on the body of the Lady Talboiâ— So dearly cherished by his Father having then no lawful Issuâ—-male that in the sixth yeare of his Age An. 1525. he created him Earl of Nottingham and not long after Duke of Richmond and Sommerset preferred him to the Honourable office of Earle Marshall elected him into the Order of the Garter made him Lord Admirall of the Royall Navy in an expedition against France and finally Affianced him to Mary the daughter of Thomas Howard Duke of Norâ—olk the most â—owerfull Subject in the Kingdom Now were these all the favours intended to him The Crown it selfe being designed him by the King in default of Lawfull Issue to be procreated and begotten of his Royall Body For in the Act of the Succession which past in the Parliament of this year the Crown being first setled upon the Issue of this Queen with the remainder to the Kings issue lawfully begotten on any following wife whatsoever there past this clause in favour of the Duke of Richmond as it was then generally conceived that is to say That for lack of lawfull heires of the Kings body to be procreated or begotten as is afore limitted by this Act it should and might be lawfull for him to confer the same on any such Person or Persons in Possession and Remainder as should please his Highnesse and according to such Estate and after such manner â—orme fashion order and condition as should be expressed declared named and lâ—mitted in his said Letters Patents or by his last Will the Crown to be enjoyed by such person or persons so to be nominated and appointed in as large and ample manner as if such Person or Persons had been his Highnesse Lawfull Heires to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm And though it might please God as it after did to give the King some Lawfull Issue by this Queen yet took he so much care for this naturall son as to enable himselfe by another Clause in the said Act to advance any person or persons of his most Royall Blood by Letters Patents under the Great Seale to any Title Stile or Name of any Estate Dignity or Honour whatsoever it be and to give to them or any of them any Castles Honours Mannours Lands Tenements Liberties Franchiefes or other Hereditaments in â—ee simple or Fee â—tail or for terme of their lives or the life of any of them But all these expectations and Provisions were to no effect the Duke departing this life at the age of 17 yeares or thereabouts within few dayes after the ending of this Session that is to say on the 22th day of July Anno 1536. to the
and chusing rather the Lord Kenneth Earle of Cassiles excepted to leave their Hostages to King Henries mercy then to put themselves into his Power Provoked therewith the King denounceth Warr against them and knowing that they depended chiefly upon the strength of France he peeceth with the Emperour Charles the fifth and Proclaimeth Warr against the French Following the Warr against both Kingdomes he causeth many in-roades to be made into Scotland wasting and harrasing that poor Country and with a Royall Army passeth over into France where he made himselfe Master of the strong Town of Bolloigne with the Forts about it into which he made his Royall entry Sep. 25. 1544. The rest of the Kings life spent in continuall Action against both Nations in which the Enemies had the worst though not without some losse to the English also the poore Scots paying so dearely for their breach of Faith that no yeare passed in which their Countrey was not wasted and their ships destroyed Toward the charges of which VVarres the King obtained a Grant in Parliament of all Chanteries Colledges Hospitalls and free Chappell 's with the Lands thereunto belonging to be united to the Crown But dying before he had took the benefit of it he lefâ— that part of the spoyle to such of his Ministers who had the Managing of Affaires in his Sons Minority In the mean tâ—me the Prince having attaiâ—ed unto the Age of six yeares was taken out of the hands oâ— his women and committed to the tuition of Mr. John Cheeke whom he afterwards Knighted and advanced him to the Provoâ—â—ship of Kings Colledge in Cambridge and Doctor Richard Cox whom afterwards he preferred to the Deanry of Westminster and made châ—efe Almoner These two being equall in Authority employed themselves to his advantage in their severall kindes Doctor Cox for knowledge of Divinity Philosophy and Gravity of Manners Mr. Cheeke for eloquence in the Greek and Latine Tongues Besides which two he had some others to instruct him in the Modern Languages and thrived so well amongst them all that in short time he perfectly spake the French tongue and was able to express himselfe significantly enough in the Italian Greek and Spanish And as for Latine he was such an early proficient in it that before he was eight yeares old he is said to have written the ensuing Letter to the King his Father seconding the same with another to the Earle of Hartford as he did that also with a third to the Queen Katharine Parre whom his Father had taken to wife July the 12th 1543. And though these Letters may be used as good evidences of his great proficiency with reference to the times in which he lived yet in our dayes in which either the wits of men are sooner ripe or the method of teaching more exact and facile they would be found to contain nothing which is more then ordinary Now his Letter to the King referring the Reader for the other two unto Fox and Fuller it beares date on the 27th day of September when he wanted just a fortnight of eight yeares old and is this that followeth PRINCE Edwards Epistle to the King September 27. 1545. LIterae Meae semper habeâ—t unum Argumentum Rex Nobilissime atque pater â—â—â—â—strissime id est in omnibus Epistolis ago tibi Gratias pro beneficentia tua Erga me Maxima si enim sâ—pius multo ad te literas Exararem nullo tamen quidem modo potui pervenire officio Literarum ad magnitudinem benignitatis tuae erga me Quis enim potuit compensare beneficia tua erga me Nimirum nullus qui non est tam magnus Rex ac Nobilis Princeps ac tu es cujusmodi ego non sum Quamobrem Pietas tua in me multo gratior est mihi quod facis mihi quae nullo modo compensare Possum sed tamen Adnitar Faciam quod in me est ut placeam Majestati atque Precabor Deum ut diu te servet in columem Vale Rex Nobilissime Majestati tuâ— Observantissimus Filius Halfeldiae Vicesimo Septimo Septemb. EDVARDUS PRINCEPS For a companion at his book or rather for a Proxie to bear the punishment of such errours as either through negligence or inadvertency were committed by him he had one Barnaby Fits Patrick the son if I conjecture aright of that Patrick whom I finde amongst the witnesses to King Henries last Will and Testâ—ment as also amongst those Legatees which are therein mentioned the King bequeathing him the Legacy of one hundred markes But whether I hit right or not most probable it is that he had a very easie substitution of it the harmlessenesse of the Princes nature the ingenuity of his disposition and his assiduity at his book freeing him for the most part from such corrections to which other children at the schoole are most commonly subject Yet if it sometimes happened as it seldome did that the servant suffered punishment for his Masters errors It is not easie to affirm whether Fits Patrick smarted more for the fault of the Prince or the Prince conceived more griefe for the smart of Fits Patrick Once I am certain that the Prince entertained such a reall Estimation of him that when he came unto the Crown he acquainted him by letter with the sufferings of the Duke of Sommerset instructed and maintained him for his travels in France endowed him with faire lands in Ireland his native Country and finally made him Baron of upper Ossery which Honourable Title he enjoyed till the time of his death in the latter end of Queen Elizabeths Reign at what time he dyed a zealous and Religious Protestant One thing I must not pretermit to shew the extraordinary piety of this hopefull Prince in the dayes of his childhood when being about to take down something which seemed to be above his Reach one of his fellowes proffeâ—ed him a Bossed-Plated Bible to stand upon and heighten him for taking that which he desired Which when he perceived to be a Bible with Holy indignation he reâ—uâ—ed it and sharply reprehended hâ—m that made the offer A stâ—ong assurance of that deare esteem and veneration in which he held that Sacred Book in his riper yeares Having attained the age of nine there were great prepaâ—atiâ—ns made for his sollemne investiture in the Principality of Wales together with the Earledomes of Chester and Flint as dependants on it Toward which Pomp I find a provision to be made of these Ornaments and Habiliments following thaâ— is to say first an Honourable Habit viz. A Robe of Purple Velvet having in it about eighâ—een ells more or lesse Garâ—iâ—â—ed about with a â—ringe of Gold and lined with Ermins A Sâ—rcot or inner Gown having in it about fourteen ells of Velvet of like colour Fringe and Furr Laces Buttons and Tassells as they call them Oâ—naments made of Purple Silk and Gold A Gâ—rdle of siâ—k to gâ—rd his inne Gowne A sword with a scabbard
cast his eye on the Lands of Bishoppricks though there were some who thought the time long till they fell upon them Concerning which there goes a story that after the Court-Harpies had devoured the greatest part of the spoyle which came by the suppression of Abbyes they began to seek some other way to satiate that greedy Appetite which the division of the former booty had left unsatisfied and for the satisfying whereof they found not any thing so necessary as the Bishops Lands This to effect Sir Thomas Seimour is imployed as the fittest man as being in favour with the King as brother to Queen Jane his most and best beloved wife and having the opportunity of accesse unto him as being one of the Gentlemen of his Privy Chamber And he not having any good affection to Arch-Bishop Cranmer desired that the experiment should be tryed on him and therefore took his time to informe the King that my Lord of Canterbury did nothing but fell his woods letting long leases for great fines and making havock of the Royalties of his Arch-Bishopprick to raise thereby a fortune to his wife and children withall he did acquaint the King that the Arch-Bishop kept no hospitality in respect of such a large Revenue and that in the opinion of many wise men it was more meet for the Bishops to have a sufficient yearely Stipend out of the Exchequer then to be so encumbred with temporall Royalties being so great a hindrance to their Studies and Pastorall Charge and that the said Lands and Royalists being taken to his Majesties use would afford him besides the said Annuall Stipends a great yearly Revenue The King soon smelt out the Device and shortly after sent him on an Errand to Lambeth about dinner time where he found all the tables in the great Hall to be very bountifully furnished the Arch-Bishop himselfe accompanied at dinner with divers persons of Quality his Table exceeding plentifully served and all things answerable to the Port of so great a Prelate Wherewith the King being made acquainted at his coming back he gave him such a Ratle for his false information and the design which visibly depended on it that neither he nor any other of the Courtiers durst stir any further in the suite whilest King Henry lived But the King considering further of it could not think fit that such a plausible Proposition as taking to himselfe the Lands of the Bishops should be made in vaine Only he was resolved to prey further off and not to fall upon the spoyle two neere the Court for feare of having more partakers in the Booty then might stand with his profit And to this end the deales with Hâ—lgate preferred not long before from Landâ—ff to the See of Yorke from whom he takes at one time no fewer then seventy Mannors and Town-ships of good old Rents given him in exchange to the like yearly value certain Impropriations Pensions Tithes and Portions of Tithes but all of an extended Rent which had accrued unto the Crown by the fall of Abbyes Which Lands he â—aid by Act of Parliament to the Dutchy of Lancaster For which see 37 Hen. 8. Câ—p 16. He dismembred also by these Acts certain Mannors from the See of Loâ—don in favâ—ur of Sir William Petie and others in the like manner from the See of Canterbury but not without some reasonable compensation or allowance for them And though by reason of his death which folâ—owed within short time after there was no further alienation made in his time of the Churches Patrimoney yet having opened such a Gap and discovered this secret that the sacred Patrimony might be alienated with so little trouble the Courtieâ—s of King Edwards time would not be kept from breaking violently into it and making up their own fortune in the spoyle of the Biâ—hopricks Of which we may â—peak more hereafter in it's proper place So impossible a thing it is for the iâ—l example of Great Princes not to finde followers in all ages especially where profit or preferment may be furthered by it But then it cannot be deâ—ied but that King Henry left the Church in many Respects in a better condition then he found it not only in order to the Reformation of Religion which none but such a Masculine Prince durst have undertaken but also in the Polity and endowments of it The Mâ—nâ—steries and Religious Houses might possibly be looked upon no otherwise then as so many excrescences upon the body of the Church exempt for the most part from the Episcopall Jurisdiction wholly depending on the Pope and such as might be taken away without any derogation to the Church in Power or Patrimony But Bishopricks being more essentiall to the constitution of the same he did not only preserve as before he found them but increased their number Such of the old Cathedralls as were founded on a Prior and Covent he changed into a Corporation of secular Priests consisting of a Deane and Prebendarles according to the proportion of their yearely rents of which sort were the Churches of Canterbury Winton Durham Elie Rochester Norwich and Carlile Six of the wealthier Monasteries he turned into Episcopall Sees that is to say the Abbyes of Westminster Peter Borough Bristoll Glocester and Chester with that of Oâ—sney for the See of the Bishop of Oxon assigning to every new Episcopall See its Deane and Chapter and unto every such Cathedrall a competent number of Quiremen and other Officers all of them liberally endowed and provided for And that the Church might be continually furnished with sufficient Seminaries he sounded a Grammer Schoole in every one of his Cathedralls either old or new with Annuall pensions to the Master and some allowance to be made to the children yearely and ordained also that in each of the two Universities there should be publick Readers in the faculties of Divinity Law and Physick and in the Greek and Hebrew Tongues all which he pensioned and endowed with lâ—berall Saâ—aries as the times then were Besides which publique benefactions he confirmed Cardinall Wolsies Colledge in Oxon by the name of Kings Colledge first and of Christ church afterwards and erected that most beautifull piâ—e of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge those being the two faâ—rest and most magnificent foundations in the Christian World As for the Polity of the Church he setled it in such a manner that Arch-bishops and Bishops might be chosen confirmed and consecrated and all the Subjects be relieved in their suits and Grievances without having such Recourse to the Court of Rome as formerly had drained the Realm of so much Treasure For having by his Proclamation of the 19th of September Anno 1530. prohibited all addresses and Appeales to the Popes of Rome he prevailed so farr upon his Bishops and Clergy intangled by the Cardinalls fall in a Premunire that they acknowledged him in their Convocation to be the Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England and signified as much in a Publick Instrument bearing date the
22th day of March next following Upon this ground were buâ—lt the Statutes prohibiting all Appeales to Rome and for determining all Ecclesiasticall suites and controversies within the Kingdom 24. Hen. 8. cap. 1â— That for the manner of declaring and consecrating of Arch-Bishops and Bishops 25. Hen. 8. Cap. 20. and the prohibiting the payment of all impositions to the Court of Rome and for obtaining all such dispensations from the see of Canterbury which formerly were procured from the Popes of Rome 25. Hen. 8. Cap. 21. and finally that for declaring the King to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England and to have all Honours and Preheminences and amongst others the first-fruits and tenths of all Ecclesiasticall promotions within the Realm which were annexed unto that Title In the forme of consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops and the rule by which they excercised their Jurisdiction there was no change made but what the transposition of the Supreme Power from the Pope to the King must of necessity infer For whereas the Bishops and Clergy in the Convocation An. 1532. had bound themselves neither to make nor execute any Canons or Constitutions Ecclesiasticall but as they were thereto enabled by the Kings Authority it was by them desired assented to by him and confirmed in Parliament that all such Canons and Constitutions Synodall and Provinciall as were before in use and neither Repugnant to the Word of God the kings Prerogative Royall or the known Lawes of the Land should remaine in force till a review thereof were made by thirty two Persons of the Kings appointment Which review not having been made from that time to this all the said old Canons and Constitutions so restrained and qualified do still remaine in force as before they did For this Consult the Act of Parliament 25. Hen. 8. Cap. 1. And this and all the rest being setled then followed finally the Act for extinguishing the Power of the Pope of Rome 28. Hen. 8 Cap. 10. which before we mentioned In order to a Reformation in points of Doctrine he first directed his Bishops and Clergy in their Convocation Aâ—no 1537. to compile a Book containing The Exposition of the Creed the Lords Prayer the Avemary and the Ten Commandements together with an Explication of the use and nature of the seven Sacraments More cleerely in it self and more agreeable to the Truth of Holy Scripture then in former times which book being called The Institution of a Christian Maâ— was by them presented to the King who liked thereof so well that he sent it by Doctor Barlow Bishop of St. Davids to King James the fifth hoping thereby to induce him to make the like Reformation in the Realm of Scotland as was made in England though therein he was deceived of his expectation But this Book having lien dormant for a certain time that is to say as long as the six Articles were in force was afterwards corrected and explained by the Kings own hand and being by him so corrected was sent to be reviewed by Archâ—Bishop Cranmer by him referred with his own emendations on it to the Bishopâ— and Clergy then Assembled in their Convocation Anno 1543. and by them Approved VVhich care that Godly Prelate took as himselfe confesseth in a Letter to a friend of his bearing date January 25. because the book being to come out by the Kings Censure and Judgement he would have nothing in the same which Momus himselfe could Reprehend VVhich being done it was published shortly after by the name of a Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian man with an Epistle of the Kings Prefixt before it in which it was commended to the Perusall of all his subjects that were Religiously disposed Now as the first book was ushered in by an injunction published in Sâ—ptember An. 1536. by which all Curates were required to Teach the people to say the Lords Prayer the Creed the Aveâ—ary and the Ten Commandements in the English Tongue â—o was the second countenanced by a Proclamation which made way unto it bearing date May the sixth 1541 whereby it was commanded that the English Bible of the Larger Vollumne should publiquely be placed in every Parish-Church of the Kings Dominions And here we are to understand that the Bible having been Translated into the English Tongue by the great paines of William Tyndall who after suffered for Religion in the Reigne of this King was by the Kings Command supprest and the reading of it interdicted by Proclamation the Bishops and other Learned men advising the reâ—traint thereof as the times then stood But afterward the times being changed and the People better fitted for so great a benefit the Bishops and Clergy Assembled in their Convocation Anno 1536. humbly petitioned to the King that the Bible being faithfully Translated and purged of such Prologues and Marginall Notes as formerly had given offence might be permitted from thenceforth to the use of the people According to which Godly motion his Majesty did not only give Order for a new Translation but in the Interim he permitted Cromwell his Viccar Generall to set out an Injunction for providing the whole Bible both in Latine and English after the Translation then in use which was called commonly by the name of Matthews Bible but was no other then that of Tyndall somewhat altered to be kept in every â—arish Church throughout the Kingdome And so it stood but not with such a Generall observation as the case required till the finishing of the new Translation Printed by Grafton countenanced by a learned Preface of Arch-Bishop Cranmer and Authorised by the Kings Proclamation of the sixth of May as before was said Finally that the people might be better made acquainted with the Prayers of the Church it was appointed a little before the Kings going to Bolloigne Anno 1545. that the Lâ—tany being put into the same forme almost in which now it stands should from thenceforth be said in the English Tongue So farr this King had gone in order to a Reformation that it was no hard matter for his Son or for those rather who had the Managing of Affaires during his Minority to go thorough with it In Reference to the Regall State he added to the Royal Stile these three Glorious Attributes that is to say Defender of the Faith The Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England and King of Ireland In what manner he obtained the Title of Supreme Head conferred upon him by the Convocation in the year 1530. and confirmed by Act of Parliament in the 26 yeare of his Reign hath been showne before That of Defender of the Faith was first bestowed upon him by Pope Leo the tenth upon the publishing of a Book against Martin Luther which Book being presented unto the Pope by the hands of Doctor Clark afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells hath been preserved ever since amongst the choisest Rarities of the Vatican Library Certain it is that the Pope was so well pleased
According to the Return of whose Commissions it would be found no difficult matter to put a just estimate and value on so great a Gift or to know how to parcell out proportion and divide the Spoil betwixt all such who had before in hope devoured it In the first place as lying nearest came in the Free-Chapel of Saint Stephen Originally Founded in the Palace at Westminster and reckoned for the Chapel-Royal of the Court of England The whole Foundation consisted of no fewer then thirty eight Persons viz. one Dean twelve Canons thirteen Vicars four Clerks six Choristers besides a Verger and one that had the Charge of the Chapel In place of whom a certain Number were appointed for Officiating the daily Service in the Royal-Chapels Gentlemen of the Chapel they are commonly called whose Saâ—aries together with that of the Choristers and other Servants of the same amounts to a round yearly Sum and yet the King if the Lands belonging to that Chapel had been kept together and honestly â—aid unto the Crown had been a very rich Gainer by it the yearly Rents thereof being valued at 1085 l. 10 s. 5 d. As for the Chapel it self together with a Clolyster of curious Workmanship built by John Chambers one of the King's Physicians and the last Master of the same they are still standing as they were the Chapel having been since fitted and imployed for an House of Commons in all times of Parliament At the same time also fell the College of St. Martin's commonly called St. Martin's le Grand scituate in the City of London not far from Aldersgate first founded for a Dean and Secular Canons in the time of the Conquerour and afterwards privileged for a Sanctuary the Rights whereof it constantly enjoyed without interruption till all privilege of Sanctuary was suppressed in this Realm by King Henry the Eighth But the Foundation it self being now found to be Superstitious it was surrrendred into the hands of King Edward the Sixth who after gave the same together with the remaining Liberties and Precincts thereof to the Church of Westminster and they to make the best of the King's Donation appointed by a Chapter held the seventh of July that the Body of the Church with the Quire and Iles should be Leased out for fifty years at the Rent of five Marks per Annum to one H. Keeble of London excepting out of the said Grant the Bells Lead Stone Timber Glass and Iron to be sold and disposed of for the sole Use and Benefit of the said Dean and Chapter Which foul Transaction being made the Church was totally pulled down a Tavern built in the East part of it the rest of the site of the said Church and College together with the whole Precinct thereof being built upon with several Tenements and let out to Strangers who very industriously affected to dwell therein as the natural English since have done in regard of the Privileges of the place exempted from the Jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs of London and governed by such Officers amongst themselves as are appointed thereunto by the Chapter of Westminster But for this Sacrilege the Church of Westminster was called immediately in a manner to a â—ober Reckoning For the Lord Pâ—otectour thinking it altogether unnecessary that two Cathedrals should be Founded so near one another and thinking that the Church of Westminster as being of a late Foundation might best be spared had cast a longing eye upon the goodly Patrimony which remained unto it And being then unfurnished of an House or Palace proportionable unto his Greatness he doubted not to finde room enough upon the Dissolution and Destruction of so large a Fabrick to raise a Palace equal to his vast Designs Which coming to the ears of Benson the last Abbot and first Dean of the Church he could beâ—hink himself of no other means to preserve the whole but by parting for the present with more then half the Estate which belonged unto it And thereupon a Lease is made of seventeen Manours and good Farms lying almost together in the County of Glocester for the Term of ninety nine years which they presented to the Lord Thomas Seimour to serve as an Addition to his Manour of Sudeley humbly beseeching him to stand their Good Lord and Patron and to preserv them in a fair Esteem with the Lord Protectour Another Present of almost as many Manours and Farms lying in the Counties of Glocâ—â—ster Worcester and Hereford was made for the like Term to Sir John Mason a special Confident of the Duke's not for his own but for the use of his Great Master which after the Duke all came to Sir John Bourn principal Secretary of Estate in the time of Queen Mary And yet this would not serve the Turn till they had put into the Scale their Manour of Islip conferred upon that Church by King Edward the Confessour to which no fewer then two hundred Customary Tenants owed their Soil and Service and being one of the best wooded things in those parts of the Realm was to be granted also without Impeachment of Wast as it was accordingly By means whereof the Deantry was preserved for the later Times how it succeeded with the Bishoprick we shall see hereafter Thus Benson saved the Deanery but he lost himself â—or calling to remembrance that formerly he had been a means to surrender the Abby and was now forced on the 〈◊〉 Dilapidating the Estate of the Deanery he fell into a great disquiet oâ—â—â—nd which brought him to his death within few Moneths after To whom succeeded Doctour Cox being then Almoner to the King Chancellour of the University of Oxford and Dean of Christ-Church and afterwards preferred by Queen Elizabeth to the See of Ely I had not singled these two I mean St. Martin's and St. Stephen's out of all the rest but that they were the best and richest in their several kinds and that there was more depending on the Story of them then on any others But Bad Examples seldome end where they first began For the Nobility and inferiour Gentry possessed of Patronages considering how much the Lords and Great men of the Court had improved their Fortunes by the suppression of those Chanteries and other Foundations which had been granted to the King conceived themselves in a capacity of doing the like by taking into their hands the yearly Profits of those Benefices of which by Law they onely were entrusted with the Presentations Of which abuse Complaint is made by Bishop Latimer in his Printed Sermons In which we finde That the Gentry of that Time invaded the Profits of the Church leaving the Title onely to the Incumbent and That Chantery-Priests were put by them into several Cures to save their Pâ—nsions pâ—g 38. that many Benefices were let out in Fee-Farms pag. 71 or given unto Servants for keeping of Hounds Hawks and Horses and for making of Gardens pag. 91 114. And finally That the Poor Clergy being kept to some
thought fit to nominate to that imployment And afterwards appointed a Sub-Committee of eight Persons to prepare the Work make it ready for the rest that it might be dispatched with the more expedition which said eight persons were the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Doctour Thomas Goodrick Bishop of Elâ— Doctour Richard Cox the King's Almoner and Peter Martyr Doctour in Divinity William May and Rowland Taylour Doctours of the Laws John Lucas and Richard Goodrick Esquires By whom the Work was undertaken and digested fashioned according to the Method of the Romane Decretals and called by the Name of Reformatiâ— Legum Ecclesiasticarum c. But not being Commissionated hereunto till the eleventh of November in the year 1551 they either wanted time to communicate it to the chief Commissioners by whom it was to be presented to the Kâ—ng or found the King encumbred with more weighty matters then to attend the peâ—â—sal of it And so the King dying as he did before he had given life unto it by his Royal Signature the Design miscarried never thought fit to be resumed in the following Times by any of those who had the Government of the Chuâ—ch or were concerned in the Honour and Safety of it There also passed another Act in Order to the Peace of the Common-Wealth but especially procuâ—ed by the Agents of the Duke of Sommerset the better to secure him from all Attempts and Practices for the Times ensuing by which his Life might be illegally endangered The purport of which Act was to make it High Treason for any twelve Persons or above assembled together to kill or imprison any of the King's Council or alter any Laws or continue together the space of an hour being Commanded to return by any Justice of the Peace Mayour Sheriff c. Which Act intended by his Friends for his Preservation was afterwards made use of by his Enemies for the onely means of his Destruction deferred a while but still resolved upon when occasion served It wâ—s not long before Earl Dudly might perceive that he had served other mens Turâ—s against the Duke as well as his own and that having served their Turns therein he â—ound no such forwardness in them for raising him unto the Place They were all willing enough to unhorse the Duke but had no mind that such a rank Rider as the Earl should get into the Saddle Besides he was not â—o be told that there was nothing to be charged against the Duke which could touch his life that so many men of dâ—fferent Humours were not like to hold â—ong in a Plot together now their Turns were served that the Dukâ—'s Friends could not be so dull as not to see the emptiness of the Practice which was forged against him nor the King so forgetfull of his Uncle when the Truth was known as not to raise him up again to his former height it therefore would be fittest for his ends and purposes to close up the Breach to set the Duâ—e at Liberty from his Imprisonment but so to order the Affair that the Benefit should be acknowledged to proceed from himself alone But first the Duke must so acknowlege his Offences that his Adversaries might come off with Honour In Order whereunto he is first Articled against for many Crimes and Misdemeanours rather imputed to him then proved against him And unto all these he must be laboured to subscribe acknowledging the Offences contained in them to beg the Favour of the Lords and cast himself upon his Knees for his Majestie 's Mercy All which he very poorly did subscribing his Confession on the twenty third of December Which he subjoyned unto the Articles and so returned it to the Lords Anno Regni Edw. Sexti 4 o. An. Dom. 1549 1550. THe Lords thus furnished with sufficient matter for a Legal Proceeding condemned him by a Sentence passed in the House of Peers unto the Loss of all his Offices of Earl Marshal Lord Treasurer and Lord Protectour as also to â—he Forfeiture of all his Goods and near two thousand pounds of good yearly Rents Which being signified unto him he acknowledged himself in his Letter of the second of February to be highly â—avoured by their Lordships in that they brought his Cause to be Finable Which Fine though it was to him almost unsupportable yet he did never purpose to contend with them nor once to justifie himself in any Action He confess'd That being none of the wisest he might easily err that it was hardly possible for any man in Eminent place so to carry himself that all his Actings should be blameless in the eye of Justice He therefore submitted himself wholly to the King's Mercy and to their Discretions for some Moderation desiring them to conceive of what he did amiss as rather done through Rudeness and want of Judgment then through any malicious Meaning and that he was ready both to do and suffer what they should appoint And finally he did again most humbly upon his Knees intreat Pardon and Favour and they should ever finde him so lowly to their Honours and Obedient to their Orders as he would thereby make Amends for his former Follies By which Submission it may be called an Abjectedness rather as he gave much secret Pleasure to the most of his Adversaries so he gained so far upon the King that he was released of his Imprisonment on the fourth day after And by his Majestie 's Grace and Favour he was discharged of his Fine his Goods and Lands being again restored unto him except such as had been given away either the malice of his Enemies being somewhat appeased or wanting power and credit to make Resistance This great Oak being thus shrewdly shaken there is no doubt but there will be some gathering up of the Sticks which were broken from him and somewhat must be done as well to gratifie those men which had served the Turn as to inclinâ— others to the like Propensions And therefore upon Candlemasâ—-Day being the dâ—y on which he had made his humble Submission before-mentioned William Lord St. John Lord Great Master and President of the Council is made Lord Treasurer John Dudley Earl of Warwick Lord High Chamberlain is preferred to the Office of Lord Great Master the Marquess of North-hampton created Lord High Chamberlain Sir Anthony Wingfield Captain of the Guard is made Comptroller of the King's House in the place of Sir William Paget of whom more anon and Sir Thomas Darcie advanced to the Office of Vice-Chamberlain and Captain of his Majestie 's Guard And though the Earls of Arundel and Souâ—â—-hampton had been as forward as any of the rest in the Duke's destruction yet now upon some Court-displeasures they were commanded to their Houses and dismissed from their Attendance at the Council-Table the Office of Lord Chamberlain of his Majestie 's Houshold being taken from the Earl of Arundel and bestowed on Wentworth ennobled by the Title of Lord Wentworth in the first year of the King Some Honours
had been given before between the time of the Duke's Acknowledgment and the Sentence passed on him by the Lords and so disposed that none of the Factions might have any ground for a Complaint One of each side being taken out for these Advancements For on the nineteenth day of January William Lord St. John a most affectionate Servant to the Earl of Warwick was preferred unto the Title of Earl of Wiltshire the Lord Russell who had made himself the Head of those which were engaged on neither side was made Earl of Bedford and Sir William Paget Comptroller of his Majestie 's Houshold who had persisted faithfull to the Lord Protectour advanced to the Dignity of a Baron and not long after to the Chancellour-ship of the Dutchy of Lancaster Furnished with Offices and Honours it is to be presumed that they would finde some way to provide themselves of sufficient Means to maintain their Dignities The Lord Wentworth being a younger Branch of the Wentworths of Yorkshire had brought some Estate with him to the Court though not enough to keep him up in Equipage with so great a Title The want whereof was supplied in part by the Office of Lord Chamberlain now conferred upon him but more by the goodly Manours of Stebunâ—th commonly called Stepney and Hackney bestowed upon him by the King in consideration of the Good and Faithfull Services before performed For so it happened that the Dâ—an and Chapter of St. Paul's lying at the Mercy of the Times as before was said conveyed over to the King the said two Manours on the twelfth day after Christmâ—ss now last past with all the Members and Appertenances thereunto belonging Of which the last named was valued at the yearly rent of 41. pounds 9. â— 4 d. The other at 140. pounds 8 â— 11. â— ob And being thus vested in the King they were by Letters Patents bearing Date the sixteenth of April then next following transferred upon the said Lord VVâ—ntworth By means whereof he was possessed of a goodly Territory extending on the Thames from St. Katharine's near the Tower of London to the Borders of Essex near Black-wall from thence along the River Leâ— to Stratford le Bow and fetching a great compass on that side of the City contains in all no fewer then six and twenty Town-ships Streets and Hamlets besides such Rows of Building as have since been added in these later Times The like provision was made by the new Lord Pâ—get a Londoner by Birth but by good Fortune mixed with Merit preferred by degrees to be one of the Principal Secretaries to the late King Henry by whom he was employed in many Embassies and Negotiations Being thus raised and able to set up for himself he had his share in the division of the Lands of Chantery Free-Chapels c. and got into his hands the Episcopal House belonging to the Bishop of Exeter by him enlarged and beautified and called Paget-House sold afterwards to Robert Earl of Leicester from whom it came to the late Earls of Essex and from them took the name of Essex-House by which it is now best known But being a great House is noâ— able to keep it self he played his Game so well that he got into his possession the Manour of Beau-desart of which he was created Baron and many other fair Estates in the County of Stafford belonging partly to the Bishop and partly to the Dean and Chaâ—ter of Lichfield neither of which was able to contend with so great a Courtier who held the See and had the Ear of the Protectour and the King 's to boot What other Course he toâ—k to improve his Fortunes we shall see hereafter when we come to the last part of the Tragedy of the Duke of Sommerset For Sommerset having gained his Liberty and thereby being put into a Capacity of making use of his Friends found Means to be admitted to the King's Presence by whom he was not onely welcomed with all the kind Expressions of a Gracious Prince and made to sit down at his own Table but the same day the eighth of April he was again sworn one of the Lords of the Privy Council This was enough to make Earl Dudly look about him and to pretend a Reconciliation with him for the present whom he meant first to make secure and afterwards strike the last blow at him when he least look'd for it And that the knot of Amity might be tyed the faster and last the longer a True-Loves-Knot it must be thought or else nothing worth a Marriage was nâ—gotiated between John Lord Viscount L'isle the Earl's Eldest Son and the Lady Ann Seimour one of the Daughters of the Duke which Marriage was joyfully solemnized on the third of June at the King's Mannour-House of Shâ—â—e the King himself gracing the Nuptials with his Presence And now who could imagine but that upon the giving of such Hostages unto one another a most inviolable League of Friendship had been made between them and that all Animosities and Displeasures being quite forgotten they would more powerfully Co-operate to the publick Good But leaving them and their Adâ—erents to the dark Contrivances of the Court we must leave England for a time and see how our Affairs succeeded on the other side of the Sea Where in the middle of the former Dissensions the French had put us to the Worst in the way of Arms and after got the Better in a Treaty of Peace They had the last year taken in all the Out-works which seemed the strongest Ramparâ—s of the Town of Bulloign but had not strength enough to venture on the Town it self provided plentifully of all necessaries to endure a Siege and bravely Garisoned by men of too much Courage and Resolution to give it up upon a Summons Besides they came to understand that the English were then Practicing with Charles the Emperour to associate with them in the War according to some former Capitulations made between those Crowns And if they found such Dâ—ffiâ—ulties in maintaining the War against either of them when they fought singly by themselves there was no hope of any good Success against them should they unite and poure their Forces into France Most true it is that after such time as the French had bid Defiance to the King and that the King by reason of the Troubles and Embroilments at home was not in a Condition to attend the Affairs of France Sir William Paget was sent Ambassadour to Charles the Fifth to desire Succour of Him and to lay before Him the Infancy and several Necessities of the young King being then in the twelfth year of His Age. This desire when the Emperour had refused to hearken to they besought Him that he would at the least be pleased to take into His Hands the keeping of the Town of Bulloign and that for no longer time then untill King EDVVARD could make an End of the Troubles of His Subjects at home and compose the Discords of the Court which
Earl of Pembroke of that House was of himself a Man of a daring Nature Boisterously bold and upon that account much favoured by King â—enry the Eighth growing into â—ore Credit with the King in regard of the Lady Ann his Wife the Sister of Queen Katâ—â—in Par and having mightily raised hâ—msâ—lf in the fall of Abbies he was made chief Gentleman of the Privy-Chamber and by that Title raâ—ked amongst the Executours of the King 's last Will and then appointed to be one of the Council to the King now Reigning Being found by Dudly a fit man to advance his ends he is by his Procurement gratâ—fiâ—d for I know not what Service unless it were for furthering the Sale of Bulloign with some of the King's Lands amounting to five hundred pounds in yearly Rents and made Lord Prâ—sident of Wales promoted afterwards to the place of Master of the Horse that he might be as considerabâ—e in the Court as he was in the Country It was to be presumed that he would not be wanting unto him who had so preferred him By these three all Affairs of Court were carried plotâ—ed by Dudley smoothed by the Courtship of the Marquess and executed by the bold hand of the new Lord President Being thus fortified he revives his former Quarrel with the Duke of Sommerset not that he had any just ground for it but that he looked upon him as the onely Block which lay in the way of his Aspirings and â—herefore was to be removed by what means soever Plots are lai'd therefore to entrap him Snares to catch him Reports raised him as a Proud and Ambitious Person of whose Aspirings there would be no other end then the Crown it self and common Rumours spread abroad that some of his Followers had Proclaimed him King in several places onely to finde how well the People stood affected to it His Doors are watched and Notice took of all that went in and out his Words observed made much worse by telling and aggravated with all odious Circumstances to his Disadvantage No way untravailed in the Arts of Treachery and Fraud whâ—ch might bring him into Suspicion with the King and Obloquie with the common People The Duke's Friends were not ignorant of all these Practises and could not but perceive but that his Ruin and their own was projected by them The Law of Nature bound them to preserve themselves but their Adversaries were too cunning for them at the Weapon of Wit and had too much Strength in their own Hands to be easily overmastered in the way of Power Some dangerous Counsels were thereupon infused into him more likely by his Wife then by any other to invite these Lords unto a Banquet and either to kill them as they sate or violently to drag them from the Table and cut of their Heads the Banquet to be made at the Lord Pageâ—'s Hoâ—se near Saint Clement's Church and one hundred stout Men to be lodged in Sommerset-Place not far off for the Execution of that Mâ—rther This Plot confessed if any Credit may be given to such Confessions by one Crane and his Wife both great in the Favour of the Duchess and with her committed And after justâ—fied by Sir Thomas Palmer who was committed with the Duke in his Examination taken by the Lords of the Council There were said to be some Consultations also for raising the Forces in the North for setting upon the Gens'd arms which served in the Nature of a Life-Guard as before was said upon some day of General-Muster two thousand Foot and one hundred Horse of the Duke's being designed unto that Service and that being done to raise the City by Proclaiming Liberty To which it was added by Hammond one of the Duke 's false Servants That his Chamber at Greenwich had been strongly guarded by Night to prevent the Surprisal of his Person How much of this is true or whether any of it be true or not it is not easie to determâ—ne though possibly enough it is that all this Smoak could not be without some Fire which whosoever kindled first there is no doubt but that Earl Dudly blew the Coals and made it seem greater then it was Of all these Practises and Designs if such they were the Earl is conâ—tantly advertised by his Espials whom he had amongâ—â— them and gave them as much Linâ— and Leisure as they could desire till he had made all things ready for the Executing of his own Projectments But first there must be a great day of bestowing Honours as well for gaining the more Credit unto him and his Followers as by the jollity of the Time to take away all Fear of Danger from the Opposite Party In Pursuit whereof Henry Lord Gray Marquess of Dorset descended from Elizabeth Wife of King Edward the Fourth by Her former Husband is made Duke of Suffolk to which he might pretend some Claim in Right of the Lady Frances his Wife the eldest Daughter of Charls Brandon Duke of Suffolk and Sister of Henry anâ— Charls the two late Dukes thereof who dyed a few Moneths since at Cambridg of the Sweating Sickness The Earl himself for some Reasons very well known to himself and not unknown to many others is made Duke of Northumberland which Title had lain Dormant ever since the Death of Henry Lord Percy the sixth Earl of that Family who dyed in the year 1537. or thereabouts of whom more anon The Lord Treasurer Pawlet being then Earl of Wiltshire is made Marquess of Winchester Sir William Herbert created at the same time Lord Herbert of Cardiff and Eâ—rl of Pembroke Some make Sir Thomas Darcie Captain of the Guard to be advanced unto the Title of Lord Darcy of Chich on the same day also which others place perhaps more rightly on the fifth of April The Solemnity of which Creations being passed over the Order of Knighthood is conferred on William Cecil Esquire one of the Secretaries of Estate John Cheek Tutour or Schole-Master to the King Henry Dudley and Henry Nevil Gentlemen of the Privy-Chamber At or about which time Sir Robert Dudley the third Son of the new Duke of Nâ—rthumberland but one which had more of the Father in hâ—m then all the rest is sworn of the Bedâ—Chamber to the King which was a place of greatest Trust and Nearness to His Majestie 's Person The Triumphs of this Day being the eleventh day of October were but a Porlogue to the Tragedy which began on the fifth day after At what time the Duke of Sommerset the Lord Gray Sir Thomas Palmer Sir Ralph Vane Sir Thomas Arundel together with Hammond Newdigate and two of the Seimours were seised on and committed to Custody all of them except Palmer Vane and Arundel being sent to the Tower And these three kept in several Chambers to attend the pleasure of the Council for their Examinations The Duchess of Sommerset Crane and his Wife above-mentioned and one of the Gentlewomen of her Chamber were sent unto the Tower on the morrow
Miles Partridge on whom also passed the Sentence of Death but the certain Day and Time of their Triall I have no where found Most probable it is that they were not brought to their Triall till after the Ax had done its part on the Duke of Sommerset which was on the twenty third of January because I finde they were not brought to their Execution till the twenty sixth of February then next following the two first being then beheaded and the two last hanged at what time they severally Protested taking God to witness that they never practised Treason against the King or against the Lives of any of the Lords of his Council Vane adding after all the rest that his Blood would make Northumberland's Pillow uneasie to him None of them less lamented by the Common People then Sir Miles Partridge against whom they had an old Grudge for depriving them of the best Ring of Bells which they had at that time called Jesus-Bells which winning of King Henry at a Cast of Dice he caused to be taken down and sold or melted for his own Advantage If any Bell tolled for him when he went to his Death or that the sight of an Halter made him think of a Bell-Rope it could not but remember him of his Fault in that Particular and mind him of calling upon Christ Jesus for his Grace and Mercy But in the mean time Care is taken that the King should not be too apprehensive of these Misfortunes into which his Uncle had been cast or enter into any Enquiries whether he had been cast into them by his own Fault or the Practises of others It was therefore thought fit to Entertain him frequently with Masks and Dancings brave Challenges at Tilts and Barriers and whatsoever Sports and Exercises which they conceived most pleasing to him But nothing seemed more delightfull to him then the appearing of His Lords and others in a General Muster performed on the twenty third of December in Saint James his Fields At what time sitting on Horse-back with the Lords of His Council the Band of Pensioners in compleat Arms with four Trumpeters and the King's Standard going before them first appeared in sight each Pensioner having two Servants waiting on him with their several Spears Next followed in distinct Companies of one hundred apiece the Troops of the Lord Treasurer Paulet the Duke of Northumberland the Lord Privy Seal the Marquess of North-hampton the Earl of Pembroke and the Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports a Trumpet and a Standard carried before each Troop fourty of the Duke of Northumbeland's Men and as many of the Earl of Pembroke's having Velvet Goats upon their Harness with these were mingled in like Equipage as to the Trumpets and the Standards the distinct Troops of the Earls of Rutland and Hâ—ntington and the new Lord Darcy consisting each of fifty Horse and Rancked according to the Order and Precedency of their several Lords All which rode twice before the King by five in a Ranck all excellently well Armed and bravely Mounted to the great Contentment of the King the Delight of the People and as much to the Honour of the Nation in the Eye of all such Strangers as were present at it But then the Lords of England were Lords indeed and thought it not consistent with a Title of Honour to walk the Streets attended by a Lacquie onely and perhaps not that The Particulars of which Glorious Muster had not been specified but for supplying the Place of Musick as the Solemn Reception of the Queen Regent did before betwixt the two last Acts of this Tragedy to the last whereof we shall now come and so end this year Two Moneths had passed since the Pronouncing of the Fatal Sentence of Condemnation before the Prisoner was brought out to his Execution In all which time it may be thought that he might easily have obtained his Pardon of the King who had passed the first years of His Reign under his Protection and could not but behold him with the Eye of Respect as hisâ—nearest Kinsman by the Mother But first his Adversaries had so possessed the King with an Opinion of his Crimes and Misdemeanours that he believed him to be guilty of them as appears by his Letter to Fitz-Patrick for which Consult the Church Historian Lib. 7. fol. 409 410. wherein he Summarily repeateth the Substance of the Charge the Proofs against him the Proceedings of the Lords in the Arraignment and his Submiss Carriage both before and after the Sentence They also filled his Ears with the Continual Noise of the Unnatural Prosecuting of the late Lord Admiral inculcating how unsafe it was to trust to the Fidelity of such a Man who had so lately washed his Hands in the Blood of his Brother And that the King might rest himself upon these Perswasions all ways were stopped and all the Avenues blocked up by which it might be possible for any of the Duke's Friends to finde access either for rectifying the King's Opinion or obtaining his Pardon So that at last upon the twenty second of January before-remembred the King not being sufficiently possessed before of his Crimes and Cruelties he was brought to the Scaffold on Tower-Hill Where he avouched to the People That His Inâ—tentions had been not onely harmless in regard of particular Persons but driving to the Common Benefit both of the King and of the Realm Interrupted in the rest of his Speech upon the suddain â—ear of a Rescue by the coming in of the Hamlets on the one side aâ—d the Hopes of a Pardon which the People conceived to have been brought him by Sir Anthony Brown who came speedily galloping on the other he composed himself at last to make a Confession of his Faith heartily praying for the King exhorting the People to Obedience and humbly craving Pardon both of God and Man Which said he chearfully submitted his Head to the stroke of the Ax by which it was taken off at a Blow putting an end thereby to his Cares and Sorrows Such was the End of this Great Person whose Power and Greatness may be best discerned by this following Style used by him in the Height of his former Glories that is to say Edward by the Grace of God Duke of Sommerset Earl of Hertford Viscount Beauchamp Baron Seimour Uncle to the King's Highness of England Governour to the King's Highness Person Protectour of all his Realms Dominions and Subjects Lieutenant General of His Majestie 's Armies both by Sea and Land Lord High Treasurer and Earl Marshal of England Captain of Isles the of Garnsey and Jarsey and Knight of the most Honourable Order of the Garter As to his Parts Person and Abilitie there needs no other Character of him then what was given in the beginning and may be gathered from the Course of this present History More Moderate in carrying on the Work of Reformation then those who after had the Manageing and Conduct of it as one that in himself was
more inclinable to the Lutheran but where his profit was concerned in the spoil of Images then thâ—â— Zuinglian Doctrines so well beloved in general by the Common People that divers dipt their Handkerchiefs in his Blood to keep them in perpetual Remembrance of him One of which being a sprightly Dame about two years after when the Duke of Northumberland was led through the City for his opposing the Title of Queen Mary ran to him in the Streets and shaking out her bloody Handkerchief before him Behold said she the Blood of that worthy man that good Vncle of that Excellent King which shed by thy malicious Practice doth now begin apparently to revenge it self on thee The like Opinion also was conceived of the business by the most understanding men in the Court and Kingdom though the King seemed for the present to be satisfied in it In which opinion they were exceedingly confirmed by the Enlargment of the Earl of Arundel and restoring of Crane and his Wife to their former Liberty but most especially by the great Endearments which afterwards appeared between the Duke of Northumberland and Sir Thomas Palmer and the great confidence which the Duke placed in him for the Advancement of his Projects in behalf of the Duke of Suffolk of which more hereafter But the Malice of his Enemies stayed not here extending also to his Friends and Children after his Decease but chiefly to the eldest Son by the second Wife in favour of whom an Act of Parliament had been passed in the thirty second year of the late King Henry for the entailing on his Person all such Lands Estates and Honours as had been or should be purchasâ—d by his Father from the twenty fifth day of May then next foregoing Which Act they caused to be repealed at the end of the next Session of Parliament which began on the morrow after the Death of the Duke whereby they strip'd the young Gentleman being then about thirteen years of Age of his Lands and Titles to which he was in part restored by Queen Elizabeth who in pity of his Father's Suffâ—rings and his own Misfortunes created him â—arl of Hertford Viscount Beauchamp c. Nor did the Duke's Fall end it self in no other ruin then that of his own house and the Death of the four Knights which suffered on the same account but drew along with it the â—emoval of the Lord Rich from the Place and Office of Lord Chancellour For so it happened that the Lord Chancellour commiserating the Condition of the Duke of Sommerset though formerly he had shewed himself against him dispatched a Letter to him concerning some Proceedings of the Lords of the Council which he thought fit for him to know Which Letter being hastily superscribed To the Duke with no other Title he gave to one of his Servants to be carried to him By whom for want of a more particular direction it was delivered to the hands of the Duke of Norfolk But the Mistake being presently found the Lord Chancellour knowing into what hands he was like to fall makes his Address unto the King the next morning betimes and humbly prays that in regard of his great Age he might be discharged of the Great Seal and Office of Chancellour Which being granted by the King though with no small difficulty the Duke of Northumberland and the Earl of Pembroke forward enough to go upon such an Errand are sent on the twenty first of December to receive the Seal committed on the morrow after to Doctour Thomas Goodwin Bishop of Ely and one of the Lords of the Privy Council Who afterwards that is to say on the two and twentieth of January was sworn Lord Chancellour the Lord Treasurer Paulet giving him the Oath in the Court of Chancery Next followed the Losses and Disgraces suffered by the Lord Paget on the Duke's account To whom he had continued faithfull in all his Troubles when Sir William Cecil who had received greater Benefits from him and most of the Dependants on him had either deserted or betrayed him His House designed to be the place in which the Duke of Northumberland and the rest of the Lords were to be murthered at a Banquet if any credit may be given to the Informations for which Committed to the Tower as before is said But having no sufficient Proof to warrant any further Proceeding to his Condemnation an Enquiry is made not long after into all his Actions In the return whereof it was suggested That he had sold the King's Lands and Woods without Commission That he had taken great Fines for the King's Lands and applyed them to his proper use and That he had made Leases in Reversion for more then one and twenty years Which Spoyl is to be understood of the Lands and Woods of the Dutchy of Lancaster of the which he was Chancellour and for committing whereof he was not onely forced to resign that Office but condemned in a fine of six thousand pounds not otherwise to be excused but by paying of four thousand pounds within the year This Punishment was accompanied with a Disgrace no less grievous to him then the loss both of his Place and Money He had been chosen into the Society of the Garter An. 1548. when the Duke of Sommerset was in Power and so continued till the fifteenth of April in the year next following Anno 1552. At what time Garter King of Aâ—ms was sent to his Lodging in the Tower to take from him the Garter and the George belonging to him as a Knight of that most Noble Order Which he suffered willingly to be done because it was His Majestie 's Pleasure that it should so be More sensible of the Affront without all question then otherwise he would have been because the said George and Garter were presently afâ—er sent by the King to John Earl of Warwick the Duke of Northumberland's eldest Son Admitted thereupon into that Society So prevalent are the Passions of some Great Persons that they can neither put a measure upon their Hatred nor an end to their Malice Which two last Passages though more properly belonging to the following year I have thought fit to place in this because of that dependance which they have on the Fall of Sommerset The like Ill-Fortune happened at the same time also to Doctour Robert Farrar Bishop of St. David's who as he had his Preferments by him so he suffered also in his Fall not because Guilty of the Practice or Conspiracy with him as the Lord Paget and the rest were given out to be but because he wanted his Support and Countenance against his Adversaries A Man he was of an unsociable disposition rigidly self-willed and one who looked for more Observance then his place required which drew him into a great dislâ—ke with most of his Clergy with none more then the Canons of his own Cathedral The Faction headed amongst others by Doctour Thomas Young then being the Chantour of that Church and afterwards advanced by Queen
Sermon wrought so far upon Him that He caused the Bishop to be sent for gave him great Thanks for his good Exhortation and thereupon entred into Communication with him about the devising of some Coâ—rse by which so great and good a Work should be brought to pass His Advice was That Letters should be written to the Lord Mayour and Aldermen for taking the Business into Consideration in Reference to such Poor as swarmed in great numbers about the City To which the King so readily hearkened that the Letters were dispatched and Signed before He would permit the Bishop to go out of His Presence Furnished with these Letters and Instructions the Bishop calls before him Sir Richard Dobbs then Lord Mayour of London with so many Aldermen as were thought fit to be advised with in the present Business By whom it was agreed upon That a General Contribution should be made by all wealthy and well-affected Citizens towards the Advancement of a work so necessary for the publick good For the effecting whereof they were all called to their Parish-Churches where by the said Lord Mayour their several Aldermen and other grave Citizens they were by Eloquent Orations perswaded how great and how many Commodities would ensue unto them and their City if the Poor of divers sorts were taken from out their Streets Lanes and Allyes and were bestowed and provided for in several Hospitals It was therefore moved that every man would signifie what they would grant towards the preparing and furnishing of such Hospitals as also what they would contribute weekly towards their Maintenance untill they were furnished with a more Liberal Endowment Which Course prevailed so far upon them that 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 unto the Mayour were by Him humbly tendred to the King's Commissioners on the seventeenth of February This good Foundation being lai'd a Beginning was put to the Reparation of the decayed Buildings in the Gray-Friers on the twenty sixth of July for the Reception of such poor fatherless Children as were then to be provided for at the publick Charge The like Reparation also made of the Ruinous Buildings belonging to the late dissolved Priory of Saint Thomas in the Burough of Southwark which the Citizens had then newly bought of the King to serve for an Hospital of such Wounded Sick and Impotent Persons as were not fit to be intermingled with the Sound The Work so diligently followed in both places at once that on the twenty third of November the sick and maimed People were taken into the Hospital of Saint Thomas and into Christ-Hospital to the number of four hundred Children all of them to have Meat Drink Lodging and Cloths at the Charge of the City till other means could be provided for their future Maintainance And long it was not before such further Means was provided for them by the Bounty and Piety of the King then drawing as near unto his End as his Father was when he lai'd the first Foundation of that Pious Work For â—earing with what chearfulness the Lord Major and Aldermen had conformed themselves to the effect of His former Letters and what a great advance they had made in the Work commanded them to attend Him on the tenth of April gave them great thanks for their Zeal and forwardness and gave for ever to the City his Palace of Bridewel erected by King Henry the Eight to be employed as a relieving house for such Vagabounds and thriftless Poor as should be sent thither to receive Chastisement and be forced to labour For the better maintainance whereof and the more liberal Endowment of the other Hospitals before remembred it was suggested to him that the Hospital founded in the Savoy by King Henry the seventh for the Relief of Pilgrims and Travellers was lately made the Harbour or relieving Place for Loytereâ—s Vagabonds and Strumpets who sunned themselves in the Fields all Day and at Night found entertainment there The Master and Brethren of the House are thereupon sent for to the King who dealt so powerfully and effectually with them that they resigned 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 which he found therein towards the maintainance of the said Work-House and the Hospital of St. Thomas in Southwark The Grant whereof He confirmed by His Letters Patents bearing Date the 26th of June adding thereunto a Mort-Main for enabling the City to purchase Lands to the value of four thousand Marks per annum for the better maintainance of those and the other Hospitals So that by the Donation of Bridewel which He never built and the suppression of the Hospital in the Savoy which He never endowed He was entituled to the Foundation of Bridewel St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas without any charge unto himself But these last Passages concerning the Donation of Bridewel the suppression of the Hospital in the Savoy and the Endowment of the said three Houses with the Lands thereof hapned not till the year ensuing Anno 1553. though lai'd unto the rest in the present Narrative in regard of the Dependence which it hath on the former Story Nothing else memorable in the course of this present Year but the coming of Cardanus the death of Leland and the preferment of Doctor John Taylor to the See of Lincoln The See made void by the death of Doctor Henry Holbeach about the beginning of August in the former year and kept void by some powerful men about the King till the 26th of June in the year now present At what time the said Doctour Taylor who before had been Dean of that Church was Consecrated Bishop of it During which interval the Patrimony of that great and wealthy Bishoprick one of the richest in the Kingdom was so dismembred in it self so parcelled and marked out for a Prey to others that when the New Bishop was to be restored unto his Temporals under the Great Seal of England as the Custom is there was none of all his Maours reserved for him but his Manour of Bugden together with some Farms and Impropriations toward the support of his Estate The rest was to be raised out of the profits perquisits and emoluments of his Jurisdict â— on yet so that nothing was to be abated in his Tenths and first-fruits which were kept up according to the former value As for John Leland for whose death I finde this year assigned he had his Education in Christ's Colledg in Cambridg Being a man of great parts and indefatigable industry he was imployed by King Henry the Eight to search into the Libraries and Collect the Antiquities of Religious Houses at such time as they lay under the fear of suppression Which work as he performed with more
French when they were in England the onely two great Charges which we finde Him at in the whole course of His Reign must be inconsiderable It was to no purpose for Him to look too much backward or to trouble Himself with enquiring after the ways and means by which He came to be involved in so great a Debt It must be now his own care and the endeavours of those who plunged Him in it to finde the speediest way for His getting out And first they fall upon a course to lâ—ssen the Expenses of His Court aâ—d Family by suppressing the Tables formerly appointed for young Lords the Masters of the Requests Serjeant at Arms c. which thought it saved some money yet it brought in none In the next place it was resolved to call such Officers to a present and publick Reckoning who either had embezelled any of the Crown Lands or inverted any of the King's Money to their private use On which course they were the more intent because they did both serve the King and content the People but might be used by them as a Scourge for the whipping of those against whom they had any cause of quarrel Amongst which I finde the new Lord Paget to have been fined six thousand pound as before was said for divers Offences of that nature which were charged upon him Bâ—aumont then Master of the Rolls had purchased Lands with the King's Money made longer Leases of some other Crown Lands then he was authorized to do by his Commission and was otherwise guâ—lty of much corrupt and fraudulent dealing For expiating of which Crimes he surrendred all his Lands and Goods to the King and seems to have been well befriended that he sped no worse The like Offences proved against one Whaley one of the King's Receivers for the County of York for which he was punished with the loss of his Offices and adjudged to â—tand to any such Fine as by his Majesty and the Lords of hâ—s Council shouâ—d be set upon him Which manner of proceeding though it be for the most part pleasing to the Common People and profitable to the Common-Wealth yet were it more unto the honour of a Pâ—ince to make choice of such Officers whom He thinks not likely to offend then to sacrifice them to the People and His own Displeasures having thus offended But the main Engine at this time for advancing Money was the speeding of a Commission into all parts of the Realm under pretence of selling such of the Lands Goods of Chanterys c as remained unsold but in plain truth to seize upon all Hangings Altar-Cloths Fronts Parafronts Copes of all sorts with all manner of Plate which was to be found in any Cathedral or Parochial Church To which Rapacity the demolishing of the foâ—mer Altars and placing the Communion Table in the middle of the Quires or Chancels of every Church as was then most used gave a very good hâ—â—t by rendring all such Furnitures rich Plate and other costly Utensils in a manner useless And that the business might be carryed with as much advantage to the King as might be He gave out certain Instâ—uctâ—ons under his Hand by which the Commissioners were to regulate themselves in their Proceedings to the advancement of the service Amongst which pretermitting those which seem to be Preparatoriâ—s onely unto all the rest I shall put down as many as I think material And that being done it shall be left to the Reader 's Judgment whether the King being now in the sixteenth year of his Age were either better studied in his own Concernments or seemed to be worse principled in Maâ—ters which concerned the Church Now the most Material of the said Instructions were these that follow 1. The said Commissioners shall upon their view and survey taken cause due Inventories to be made by Bills or Bookâ— indented of all manner of Goods Plates Jewels Bells and Ornaments as yet remaining or any wise forthcoming and belonging to any Churches Chapels Fraternities or Gilds and one part of the said Inventories to send and return to 〈◊〉 Privy Council and the other to deliver to them in whose hands the said Goods Plate Jewels Bells and Ornaments shall remain to be kept and preserved And thâ—y shall also give good Charge and Order that the same Goods and every part thereof be at all times forthcoming to be answered leaving nevertheless in every Parish-Church or Chapel of common resort one two or more Chalices or Cups according to the multitude of People in every such Church or Chapel and also such other Ornameâ—ts as by their discretion shall seem requisite for the Divine Service in every such place for the time 2. That because Information hath been made that in many Places great quantities of the said Plate Bells Jewels Ornaments hath been embezelled by certain private men contrary to his Majestie 's express Commandment in that behalf the said Commissioners shall substantially and justly enquire and attain the knowledge thereof by whose default the same is or hath been or in whose hands any part of the same is come And in that point the said Commissioners shall have good regard that they attain to certain Names and dwelling Places of every person or persons that hath sold alienated embezelled taken or carryed away or of such also as have counselled advised and commanded any part of the said Goods Plate Jewels Bells Vestments and Ornaments to be taken or carryed away or otherwise embezelled And these things they shall as certainly and duly as they can cause to be searched and understood 3. That upâ—n full search and enquiry thereof the said Commissioners four or three of them shall cause to be called before them all such persons by whom any of the said Goods Plate Jewels Bells Ornaments or any other the Premises have been alienated embezelled and taken away or by whose means and procurement the same or any part thereof hath been attempted or to whose hands or use any of the same or any profit for the same hath grown And by such means as to their discretions shall seem best cause them to bring into these the said Commissioners hands to Our use the said Plate Jewels Bells and other the Premises so alienated for the true and full value thereof certifying unto Our Privy Council the Names of all such as refuse to stand to or obey their Order touching their delivery or restitution of the same or the just value thereof To the intent that as cause and reason shall require every man may answer to his doings in this behalf 4. To these another Clause was added touching the moderation which they were to use in their Proceedings to the end that the effect of their Commission might go forward with as much quiet and as little occasion of trouble or disquiet to the Multitude as might be using therein such wise perswasions as in respect of the place and disposition of the People may seem to their Wisdoms most
expedient yet so that they take care for giving good and substantial Order to stay the inordinate and greedy Covetousness of such disordered People as should go about to alienate any of the Premises or otherwise to let them know that according to Reason and Order such as have or should contemptuously offend in that behalf should receive such punishment as to the quality of their doing should be thought most requisite Such were the Faculties and Instructions wherewith the Kings Commissioners were impowered and furnished And doubt we not but that they were as punctual and exact in the execution which cannot better be discerned then by that which is reported of their doings generally in all parts of the Realm and more particularly in the Church of St. Peter in Westminster more richly furnished by reason of the Pomps of Coronations Funerals and such like Solemnities then any other in the Kingdome Concerning which I find in an old Chapter-Book belonging to it that on May the 9. 1553. Sir Roger Cholmley Knight Lord Chief Justice and Sir Robert Bowes Knight Master of the Rolls the King's Commissioners for gathering Ecclesiastical Goods held their Session at Westminster and called before them the Dean of that Cathedral and certain others of the same House and commanded them by virtue of their Commission to bring to them a true Inventory of all the Plate Cups Vestiments and other Ecclesiastical Goodâ— which belonged to their Church Which done the Twelfth Day of the same Moneth they sent John Hodges Robert Smalwood and Edmund Best of the City of Westminster whom the said Commissioners had made their Collectours with a Commandment to the Dean and Chapter for the delivery of the said Goods which were by Robert Crome Clerk Sexton of the said Church delivered to the said Collectors who left no more unto the Church then two Cups with the Covers all gilt One white Silver Pot Three Herse-Cloths Twelve Cushions One Carpet for the Table Eight Stall-Cloths for the Quite Three Pulpit-Cloths Nine little Carpets for the Dean's Stall Two Table-Cloths the rest of all the rich Furniture massie Plate and whatsoever else was of any value which questionless must needs amount to a very great Sum was seized on by the said Collectâ—urs and clearly carryed away by Order from the said Commissioners The lâ—ke done generally in all the other parts of the Realm into which the Commissioners began their Circuits in the Moneth of April as soon as the ways were open and fit for Travail Their business was to seize upon all the Goods remaining in any Cathedral or Parish-Churches all Jewels of Gold and Silver Crosses Candlesticks Censers Chalices and such like with their ready Money As also all Copes and Vestments of Cloth of Gold Tyssue and Silver together with all other Copes Vestments and Ornaments to the same belonging Which general seizure being made they were to leave one Chalice with certain Table-Cloths for the use of the Communion-Board as the said Commissioners should think fiâ— the Jewels Piate and ready Money to be delivered to the Master of the King's Jewels in the Tower of London the Cope of Cloth of Gold and Tyssue to be brought into the King's Wardrobe the rest to be turned into ready Money and thaâ— Money to be paid to Sir Edmond Peckam the King's Cofferer for the defraying of the Charges of Hâ—s Majestie 's Houshold But notwithstanding this great Care of the King on the one side and the double-diligence of his Commissioners on the other the Booty did not prove so great as the Expectation In all great Fairs and Markets there are some Forestallers who get the bâ—st Peny-worths to themselves and suffer not the Richest and most gainful Commodities to be openly sold. And so it fared also in the present Business there being some who were as much before-hand with the King's Commissioners in embezelling the said Plate Jewels and other Furnitures as the Commissioners did intend to be with the King in keeping always most part unto themselves For when the Commissioners came to execute their Powers in their several Circuits they neither could discover all or recover much of that which had been purâ—oined some things being utterly embezelled by Persons not responsible in which Case the King as well as the Commissâ—oners was to lose his Right but more concealed by Persons not detectable who had so cunningly carryed the stealth that there was no tracing of their â—oot-stepâ— And some there were who being known to have such Goods in theâ—r possession conceived themselves too Great to be called in question connived at willâ—ngly by these who were but their Equals and either were or meant to bâ— Offendâ—urs in the very same kind So that although some Profit was hereby raised to the King's Exchequer yet the far greatest part of the Prey came to other hands Insomuch that many private men's Parlours were hung with Altar-Cloths their Tables and Beds covered with Copes instead of Carpets and Coveâ—lids and many made Carousing Cups of the Sacred Chalices as once â—elshâ—zzar celebrated his Drunken Feast in the Sanctified Vessels of the Temple It was a sorry House and not worth the naming which had not somewhat of this Furniture in it though it were onely a fair large Cushion made of a Cope or Altar-Cloth to adorn their Windows or make their Chairs appear to have somewhat in them of a Chair of State Yet how contemptible were these Trappings in comparison of those vast suâ—s of Money which were made of Jewels Pâ—ate and Cloth of Tyssue either conveyed beyond the Seas or sold at home and good Lands purchased with the Money nothing the more blessed to the Posterâ—ty oâ— them that bâ—ught them for being purchased with the Consecrated Treasures of so many Temples But as the King was plunged in Debt without being put to any extraordinary Charges in it so was He decayed in his Revenue without selling any part of His Crown Lands towards the payment of His Debts By the suppressing of some and the surrendring of other Religious Houses the Royal Intrado was so much increased in the late King's time that for the better managing of it the King erected first the Court of Augmentation and afterwards the Court of Surveyours But in short time by His own Profuseness and the Avaritiousness of this King's Ministers it was so retrenched that it was scarce able to finde Work enough for the Court of Exchequer Hereupon followed the dissolving of the said two Courts in the last Parliament of this King beginning on the first and ending on the last day of March Which as it made a loud noise in the Ears of the People so did it put this Jealousie into their Minds That if the King's Lands should be thus daily wasted without any recruit He must at last prove burthensom to the common Subject Some course is therefore to be thought on which might pretend to an increase of the King's Revenue and none more easie to be compassed then to begin
with the suppression of such Bishopricks and Collegiate Churches as either lay â—urthest off or might best be spared In reference whereunto it was concluded in a Chapter held at Westminster by the Knights of the Garter That from thenceforth the said most noble Order of the Garter should be no longer entâ—tuled by the Name of St. George but that it should be called the Oâ—der of the Garter onely and that the Feast of the said Order should be celebrated upon Whitson-Eve Whitson-day and Whitson-Monday and not on St. George's day as before it was And to what end was this concluded and what else was to follow upon this Conclusion but the dissolving of the Free-Chapel of St. George in the Castle of Windsor and the transferring of the Order to the Chapel of King HENRY the Seventh in the Abbey of Westminster Which had undoubtedly been done and all the Lands thereof converted to some powerful Courtiers under pretence of laying them to the Crown if the King's Death which happened within four Moneths after had not prevented the Design and thereby respited that Ruin which was then intended The like preservation happened at the same time also in the Church of Durham as liberally endowed as the most and more amply priviledged then the best in the King's Dominions The Bishops hereof by Charter and long Prescription enjoyed and exercised all the Rights of a County Palatine in that large Tract of Ground which lyes between the Tees and the Tine best known in those Parts by the Name of the Bishoprick the Diocess containing also all Northumberland of which the Bishops and the Percies had the greatest shares No sooner was Bishop Tonstal committed to the Tower which was on the Twentieth of December 1551. but presently an Eye was cast upon his Possessions Which questionless had followed the same fortune with the rest of the Bishopricks if one more powerful then the rest had not preserved it from being parcelled out as the others were on a â—â—rong Confidence of getting it all unto himself The Family of the Percies was then reduced to such a point that it seemed to have been quite expired a Family which first came in with the Norman Conquerour by whom enriched with most of the forfeited Estates of Morchar Gospatrick and Waltheof the three last Earls of Northumberland of the Saxon Race But this Line ending in the latter times of King HENRY the First Josseline of Lorain descended from the Emperour CHARLES the Great and one of the younger Brothers of Adeliza the last Wife of the King enrich'd himself by Marriage with the Heir-General of this House upon condition that keeping to himself the Arms of his own Family he should assume the Name of Percy to remain always afterward unto his Posterity Advanced in that respect by the Power and Favour of John of Gaunt to the Rank and Title of the Earls of Northumberland at the Coronation of King Richard the Second They held the same with great Power and Honour the short interposing of the Marquess Mountacute excepted onely till toward the latter end of King Henry the Eighth At what time it happened that Henry Lord Peircy the sixth Earl of this House had incurred the heavy displeasure of that King First for an old affection to the Lady Ann Bollein when the King began first to be enamoured of her excellent Beauties and afterwards for denying to confess a Precontract to have been formerly made between them when the King now as weary of her as before he was fond was seeking some fair Pretences to divorce himself from her before she was to lose her Head He had no Children of his own and Thâ—mas his Brother and next Heir was to his greater grief attainted of Treason for being thought to have a chief hand iâ— the Northern Rebellion Anno 1536. In both respects he found himself at such a loss and the whole Family without hope of a Restitution to its antient splendour that to preserve himself from running into further danger he gave unto the King the greatest part of that fair Inheritance and dying not long after left his Titles also to the King 's disposing The Lands and Titles being thus fallen into the Crown continued undisposed of till the falling of the Duke of Somerset when Dudley Earl of Warwick having some projections in his Head beyond the greatness of a Subject advanced himself unto the Title of Duke of Northumberland not doubting but he should be able to possess himself in short time also of all the Landâ— of that Family which were then remaining in the Crown To which Estate the Bishoprick of Duâ—ham and all the Lands belonging to it could not but be beheld as a fair Addition if at the least it might be called an addition which was of more value then the Patrimony to which it was to have been added He had long Reigned without a Crown suffering the King for some years to enjoy that Title which was to be transferred if all Contrivances had held good upon one of his Sons whom He designed in Marriage to the eldest Daughter of the House of Suffolk And then how easie was it for him having a King of his own begetting a Queen of his own making the Lords of the Council at his beck and a Parliament to serve his turn for all occasions to incorporate both the Lands of the Peircies and the Patrimony of that Church into one Estate with all the Rights and Privileges of a County Palatine Count Palatine of Durham Prince Palatine of Northumberland or what else he pleased must be the least he could have aimed at in that happy Conjuncture happy to him had the Even been answerable unto his Projections but miserable enough to all the rest of the Kingdom who should not servilely submit to this Glorious Upstart Upon which Grounds as the Bishoprick of Durham was dissolved by Act of Parliament under pretence of patching up the King's Revenue so the greatest part of the Lands thereof had been kept together that they might serve for a Revenue to the future Palatine But all these Projects failing in the death of the King and his own Attaindure not long after the Peircies were restored by Queen Mary to their Lands and Honours as the Bishop was unto his Liberty and to most of his Lands it being almost impossible that such a fair Estate should fall into the hands of the Courtiers and no part of it be left sticking in those Glutinous Fingers For to begin the Year withall the King was taken with a very strong Cough in the Moneth of January which at last ended in a Consumption of the Lungs the Seeds of which Malignity were generally supposed to have been sown in the last Summer's Progress by some over-heatings of himself in his Sports and Exercises But they that looked more narrowly into the matter observed some kind of decayings in him from the time that Sir Robert Dudley the third Son of Northumberland was admitted into a place
of ordinary attendance about his Person which was on the same Day when his Father was created Duke For whereas most men gave themselves no improbable hopes that betwixt the Spring time of his life the Growing season of the year and such Medicinal applications as were made unto him the disease would wear it self away by little and little yet they found the contrary It rather grew so fast upon him that when the Parliament was to begin on the first of March the Lords Spiritual and Temporal were Commanded to attend him at White-Hall instead of waiting on him from thence to Westminster in the usual manner Where being come they found a Sermon ready for them the Preacher being the Bishop of London which otherwise was to have been Preached in the Abby-Church and the Great Chamber of the Court accomodated for an House of Peers to begin the Session For the opening whereof the King then sitting under the Cloth of State and all the Lords according to their Ranks and Orders he declared by the Lord Chancellor Goodrick the causes of his calling them to the present Parliament and so dismist them for that time A Parliament which began and ended in the Month of March that the Commissions might the sooner be dispatched to their several Circuits for the speedier gathering up of such of the Plate Copes Vestments and other Furnitures of which the Church was to be spoyled in the time of his sickness Yet in the midst of these disorders there was some care taken for advancing both the honour and the interest of the English-Nation by furnishing Sebastian Cabol for some new discoveries Which Sebastian the Son of John Cabol a Venetian born attended on his first imployment under Henry the seventh Anno 1497. At what time they discovered the Barralaos and the Coasts of Caenada now called New-France even to the 67½ degree of Northern Latitude Bending his Course more toward the South and discovering a great part of the shoars of Florida he returned for England bringing with him three of the Natives of that Country to which the name of New-Found-Land hath been since appropriated But finding the KING unhappily Embroyled in a War with Scotland and no present Encouragements to be given for a further Voiage he betook himself into the service of the KING of SPAIN and after fourty years and more upon some distast abandoned SPAIN and offered his service to this KING By whom being made Grand Pilot of England in the year 1549. he animated the English-Merchants to the finding out of a passage by the North-East Seas to Cathay and China first enterprised under the Conduct of Sr. Hugh Willoughby who unfortunately Perished in the Action himself and all his Company being Frozen to Death all the particulars of his Voiage being since committed to Writing as was certified by the Adventures in the year next following It was upon the twentith of May in this present year that this Voiage was first undertaken three great Ships being well manned and fitted for the Expedition which afterwards was followed by Chancelour Burrought Jackman Jenkinson and other noble Adventurers in the times Succeding Who though they failed of their Attempt in finding out a shorter way to Cathay and China yet did they open a fair Passage to the Bay of S. Nicholas and thereby layd the first foundation of a Wealthy Trade betwixt us and the Muscovites But the KING'S Sickness still encreasing who was to live no longer then might well stand with the designs of the DVKE of northumber-Northumber-land some Marriages are resolved on for the Daughters of the DVKE of Suffolk in which the KING appeared as forward as if he had been one of the Principalls in the Plot against him And so the matter was Contrived that the Lady IANE the eldest Daughter to that DVKE should be Married to the Lord Guilford Dudly the fourth Son then living of Northumberland all the three Elder Sons having Wives before that Katherine the second Daughter of Suffolk should be Married to the Lord Henry Herbert the Eldest Son of the Earl of Pembrock whom Dudly had made privy to all his Counsels and the third Daughter named Mary being Crook-Backed and otherwise not very taking affianced to Martin Keys the KING'S Gentleman-Porter Which Marriages together with that of the Lady Katherine one of the Daughters of Duke Dudly to Henry Lord Hastings Eldest Son of the Earl of Huntington were celebrated in the end of May or the beginning of June for I finde our Writers differing in the time thereof with as much Splendour and solemnity as the KING' 's weak Estate and the sad Condition of the Court could be thought to bear These Marriages all solemnized at Dâ—rham House in the Strand of which Northumberland had then took possession in the name of the Rest upon a Confidence of being Master very shortly of the whole Estate The noise of these Marriages bred such Amazement in the Hearts of the common People apt enough in themselves to speak the worst of Northumberland's Actions That there was nothing left unsaid which might serve to shew their hatred against him or express their Pity toward the KING But the DVKE was so little troubled at it that on the contrary he resolved to Dissemble no longer but openly to play his Game according to the Plot and Project which he had been Hammering ever â—ince the Fall of the DVKE of Somerset whose Death he had Contrived on no other Ground but for laying the way more plain and open to these vast ambitions The KING was now grown weak in Body and his Spirits much decaied by a languishing Sickness which Rendred him more apprehensive of such fears and Dangers as were to be presented to him then otherwise he could have been in a time of strength In which Estate Duke Dudly so prevailed upon him that he conâ—ented at the last to a transposition of the Crown from his natural sisters to the Children of the Dutchess of Suffolk Confirming it by Letters Patents to the Heirs Males of the Body of the said Dutchess And for want of such Heirs Males to be Born in the lifetime of the KING the Crown immediately to descend on the Lady IANE the eldest Daughter of that House and the Heirs of her Body and so with several Remainders to the rest of that Family The carriage of which Business and the Rubs it met with in the way shall be reserved to the particular story of the Lady IANE when she is brought unwilling upon the Stage there on to Act the part of a Queen of England It sufficeth in this place to note that the KING had no sooner caused these Leters Patents to passe the Seal but his Weakeness more visibly encreased then it did before And as the KING'S Weakeness did encrease so did the Northumberland's Diligence about him for he was little absent from him and had alwaies some well-assured to Epy how the State of his Health changed every Hour And the more joyful he
Shrewsbury and Pembroke served as principal Mourners the Funeral Sermoâ— Preached by Doctour Day then shortly to be re-established in the See of Chichester And if the Dead â—e capable of any Felicity in this present Woald He might be said to have had a special part thereof in this particular viz. That as He had caused all Divine Offices to be Celebrated in the English Tongue according to the Reformation which was made in the time of His Life so the whole Service of the Day together with the Form of Burial and the Communion following on it were Officiated in the English Tongue according to the same Model on the Day of his Obsequies But whilest these things were Acting on the Câ—urch of Westminster Queen Mary held a more beneficial Obsequie for Him as She then imagined in the Tower of London where She caused a Solemn Dirige in the Latine Tongue to be Chanted in the Afternoon and the next Day a Mass of Requiem to be sung for the good of His Sonl At which both She and many of Her Ladies made their accustomed Offerings according to the Form and Manner of the Church of Kome Such was the Life and such the Death of this Excellent Prince whose Character I shall not borrow from any of our own English Writers who may be thought to have been byassed by their own Affections in speaking more or less of Him then He had deserved But I shall speak Him in the words of that Great Philosopher Hierome Cardanus an Italian born and who professing the Religion of the Church of Rome cannot be rationally accused of Partiality in his Character of Him There was in Him saith he a towardly Disposition and pregnancie apt to all Humane Literature as who being yet a Childe had the knowledg of divers Tongues First of the English His own Natural Tongue of the Latine also and of the French Neither was He ignorant as I hear of the Greek Italian and Spanish Tongues and of other Languages peradventure more In His own in the French and in the Latine Tongue singularly perfect and with the like facility apt to receive all other Neither was He ignorant in Logick in the Principles of Natural Philosophie or in Musick There was in Him lacking neither Humanity a Princely Gravity and Majesty for any kind of towardliness beseeming a Noble King Briefly it might seem A Miracle of Nature to behold the Excellent Wit and Forwardness that appeared in Him being yet but a Childe And this saith he I speak not Rhetorically to amplifie things or to make them more then Truth is nay the Truth is more then I do utter So He in reference to His Perâ—onal Abâ—lities and Qualifications And for the rest that is to say His Piety to Almighty God His Zeal to the Reformation of Religion His Care for the well-ordering of the Common-Wealth and other Qualities belonging to a Christian King so far as they could be found in such tender years I leave them to be gathered from the Passages of His Life as before lai'd down Remembring well that I am to play the Part of an Historian and not of a Panegyrist or Rhetorician As for the manner of His Death the same Philosopher leaves it under a suspicion of being like to fall upon Him by some dangerous Practise For whether He divined it by his ART in Astrologie having Calculated the Scheme of His Nativity or apprehended it by the Course and Carriage of Business he made a dangerous Prediction when he fore-saw that the KING should shortly dye a violent Death and as he reporteth fled out of the Kingdom for fear of further danger which might follow on it Of any Publick Works of Piety in the Reign of this KING more then the Founding and Endowing of the Hospitals before-remembred I finde no mention in our Authours which cannot be affirmed of the Reign of any of His Predecessours since their first receiving of the Gospel But their Times were for building up and His unfortunate Reign was for pulling down Howsoever I finde His Name remembred amongst the Benefactours to the University of Oxford and by that Name required to be commemorated in all the Prayers before such Sermons as were Preached ordinarily by any of that Body in Saint Marie's Church or at Saint Paul's Cross or finally in the Spittle without Bishops-Gate on some solemn Festivals But possibly it is that his Beneficence did extend no further then either to the Confirmation of such Endowments as had been made unto that University by King Henry the Eight or to the excepting of all Colleges in that and the other University out of the Statute or Act of Parliament by which all Chantries Colleges and Free-Chapels were conferred upon Him The want of which Redemption in the Grant of the said Chantries Colleges Free-Chapels to King Henry the Eight strook such a Terrour unto the Students of both Universities that they could never think themselves secure till the Expiring of that Statute by the Death of the King notwithstanding a very Pious and Judicious Letter which had been written to the King in that behalf by Doctour Richard Cox then Dean of Christ-Church and Tâ—â—our to His Son Prince Edward But not to leave this Reign without the Testimony of some Work of Piety I cannot but remember the Foundation of the Hospital of Christ in Abindon as a Work not onely of this Time but the King 's own Act. A Guild or Brother-hood had been there founded in the Parish-Church of Saint Hellens during the Reign of King Henry the Sixth by the procurement of one Sir John Gollafrie a near Neighbouring Gentleman for Building and Repairing certain Bridges and High-waies about the Town as also for the Sustenance and Relief of thirteen poor People with two or more Priests for performing all Divine Offices unto those of the Brother-hood Which being brought within the Compass of the Act of Parliament by which all Chantries Colleges and Free-Chappels were conferred on the Crown the Lands hereof were seized on to the use of the King the Repairing of the Waies and Bridges turned upon the Town and the Poor left Destitute in a manner of all Relief In which Condition it remained till the last Year of the King when it was moved by Sir John Mason one of the Masters of Requests a Town-born Childe and one of the poorest mens Children in it to erect an Hospital in the same and to Endow it with such of the Lands belonging to the former Brother-hood as remained in the Crown and to charge it with the Services and Pious Uses which were before incumbent on the old Fraternity The Suitour was too powerfull to be denyed and the Work too Charitable in it self to be long demurr'd on so that he was easily made Master also of this Request Having obtained the King's Consent he caused a handsome Pile of Building to be Erected near the Church distributed into several Lodgings for the Use of the Poor and one convenient Common-Hall
one another by the known Laws of the Land which neither Acts of Parliament nor the last Will and Testament of the King Deceased were of power to alter That the young Queen of Scots was an Alien born by Consequence uncapable of any Inheritance in the Realm of England and had besides preferred the Alliance of the French before that of His Majesty which rendered Her as unworthy as she was uncapable That for the better carrying on of that Blessed Work of Reformation the Peace and Happiness of His People the preventing of all Emergent Mischiefs and His own everlasting Fame it was not possible to make a more happy Provision then by transferring the Crown to the Lady Jane a Lady of such Excellent Virtues as were sufficient to adorn the Richest Diadem That there was no Question to be made but that His Majesty knew as well as any the admirable qualities of that Matchless Lady Her Zeal to the Religion here by Him established the agreeableness of Her Conversation with His own Affections and could not but conceive that Nation to be infinitely happier then all others which might fall under the Command of so mild a Government And finally That he was bound by His Duty to God the Light of His own Conscience and the Love He had to all His Subjects to lay aside all Natural Affections to His Father's House in respect of that great Obligation which He had to God's Glory and the true Religion following therein the Example of our Lord and Saviour who looked both for his Brothers and Sisters amongst his Disciples without relating to his nearest Kindred by Joseph or Mary By these Suggestions and Inducements he much enclined the King to hearken to his Propositions For furtherance whereof he caused such as were about Him to entertain Him with continual Discourses of the Divine Perfections and most Heavenly Graces of the Lady Jane the high Esteem in which She was with all the Subjects for Her Zeal and Piety the everlasting Fame which would wait upon Him by providing such a Successour to enjoy the Crown in whom Virtues would survive to succeeding Ages Then which no Musick could sound sweeter in the Ears of the King whom he knew to have an affectionate Sympathy with that Excellent Lady as being much of the same Age brought up in the same Studies as near to Him in the sweetness of Her Disposition as She was in Blood and of a Conversation so agreeable to Him as if They had been but the same Person in divers Habits And they all plied their Game so cunningly that the weak King not being able to withstand so many Assaults did at last condescend to that which he found not onely most conformable to their Importunities but to His own Affections also Order was taken thereupon that an Instrument should be drawn in due Form of Law for the transposing of the Crown to the Children of the Lady Frances Duchess of Suffolk and Daughter to Mary the French Queen one of the Sisters of King Henry His Majeâ—tie's â—â—ther In which Instrument nothing was to be defective which either could be drawn from the Grounds of Law or the Rules of Polity to justifie and endear the Action In drawing up whereof there was none thought fitter to be used then Sir William Cecil one of the Chief Secretaries of Estate who having before served Dudlie's Turn against his old Master the Duke of Sommerset was looked on as the Readiest Man for the present Service The Pretensions taken from the Law for excluding the King's two Sisters from the Right of Succession were grounded First Upon the Invalidity of their Mother's Marriage both being made void by Legal Sentences of Divorce and those Divorces ratified by Acts of Parliament In which the said two Sisters were declared to be illegitimate and consequently uncapable of any of those Favours which were intended to them by the Act of Succession made in the thirty fifth year of the late King Henry or by the last Will and Testament of that King which was built upon it In the next Place it was pretended that the said two Sisters Mary and Elizabeth being but of half Blood to the King now Reigning admitting them to have been born in lawfull Wedlock were not in any Capacity by the Common-Law the old good Law of England to be Heirs unto Him or to Succeed in any Part of that Inheritance which came unto Him by His Father It was considered also that by the known Rules and Principles of the Common-Law no manner of Person was Inheritable to any Estate of Lands or Tenements in the Realm of England who was not born under the King's Allegiance as King of England but in the case of Naturalization by Act of Parliament Which seemed to be a sufficient Bar against all Titles and Demands for the Line of Scotland although derived from Margaret the Eldest Daughter of King Henry the Seventh And whereas the Lady Frances Duchess of Suffolk might seem both by the Law of Nature and the Right of Succession to have precedency in Title before her Daughter yet was no Injury offered to her in regard that she was willing to pass by all her Personal Claims for the Preferment of her Children Which Pretermissions of the Mother were neither new nor strange in the Succession to the Crown of this Kingdom Not new because the like was done by Maud the Emperess for the Advancement of her Son King Henry the Second nor strange because it hâ—d been lately practised in the Person of the Lady Margaret Countess of Richmond in giving Way to the Preferment of King Henry the Seventh the first King of the House now Regnant The Reasons or Pretexts which seemed to be built on Polity and Point of State were first the unavoydable Danger of Reducing this Free and Noble Realm under the Vassalage and Servitude of the Bishop of Rome if either of the King 's two Sisters in their several Turns should marry with a Foreign Prince of that Religion or otherwise by the Transport of their own Affections submit their Scepters to the Pope It was considered also That by such Marriages not onely many Foreign Customs and Laws would be introduced but that there might follow an Abolishment of those Antient Laws upon which the Native Rights of all the Subjects seemed to have dependance Besides that possibly the Realm might hereby be annexed to some greater Kingdom of which in time it would be reckoned for a Member and consequently be reduced unto the Form of a Province to the utter Subversion of the Antient Dignity and Estate thereof Which whensoever it should happen it was neither impossible nor improbable that the People upon a just Sence of the Indignities Pressures might elect some popular and seditious man to be their King who to countenance his own unworthiness obscurity would little regard what Contumelie he cast upon the falling Family of the Kings before him To which perchance some further Countenance might be
Noble Men Work the best Nevertheless We are not ignorant of Your Consultations to Vndo the Provisions made for Our Preferment nor of the Great Hands and Provisions forcible wherewith You be Assembled and Prepared by whom and to what end God and You know and Nature cannot but fear some Evil. But be it that some Consideration Politick or whatsoever thing else hath moved You thereto yet doubt ye not My Lords but We can take all these Your doings in Gratious Part being also Right-Ready to remit and fully Pardon the same and that to Eschew Bloodshed and Vengeance against all those that can or will intend the same trusting also assuredly that Ye will take and accept this Grace and Vertue in Good Part as appertaineth and that We shall not be Enforced to use the Service of other Our True Subjects and Friends which in this Our Just and Right Cause Goâ— in whom all Our affiance is shall send Vs. Wherefore My Lords We require You and charge you and every of You of Your Allegiance which You ow to God and Vs and to none other for Our Honour and the Surety of Our Person onely imploy Your Selves and forthwith upon receipt hereof cause Our Right and Title to the Crown and Governance of this Realm to be Proclaimed in Our City of London and other places as to your Wisdoms shall seem Good and as to this Case appertaineth not failing hereof as Our very Trust is in You. And this Our Letter Signed with Our Hand shall be your sufficient Warrant in that behalf Given under Our Signet at Our Mannour of Kenning-Hall the ninth of July 1553. This Letter seemed to give their Lordships no other trouble then the returning of an Answer For well they knew that She could do no less then put up Her Claim and they conceived that She was not in a condition for doing more Onely it was thought fit to let Her know what She was to trust to the better to prevent such Inconveniencies as might otherwise happen And to that end an Answer was presently dispatched under the Hands of the Archâ—Bishop of Canterbury the Lord Chancellour Goodrich Bishop of Ely the Dukes of Northhumberland and Suffâ—lk the Marquesses of Winchester and North-hampton the Earls of Arundel Shrewsbury Huntington Bedford and Pembroke the Lords Cobham and Darcie Sir Thomas Cheny Sir Robert Cotton Sir William Peter Sir William Cecil Sir John Cheek Sir John Mason Sir Edward North Sir Robert Bows The Tenour whereof was as followeth MADAM WE have received Your Letters the ninth of this Instant Declaring Your Supposed Title which You Judg Your Self to have to the Imperial Crown of this Realm and all the Dâ—minions thereunto belonging For Answer whereof this is to Advertise You that for as much as Our Sovereign Lady Queen Jane is after the Death of Our Sovereign Lord King Edward the Sixth a Prince of most Noble Memory Invested and Possessed with the just and Right Title in the Imperial Crown of this Realm not onely by Good Order of Old Antient Laws of this Realm but also by Our late Sovereign Lord's Letters Patents Signed with His Own Hand and Sealed with the Great Seal of England in presence of most part of the Nobles Counsellours Judges with divers others Grave and Sage Personages Assenting and Subscribing the same We must therefore as of most Bound Duty and Allegiance and Assent unto Her said Grace and to none other except we should which Faithfull Subjects cannot fall into grievous and unspeakable Enormities Wherefore We can no less do both for the quiet of the Realm and You also to advertise you that for as much as the Divorce made between the King of Famous Memory King Henry the Eighth and the Lady Katharine Your Mother was necessary to be had both by the Everlasting Laws of God and also by the Ecclesiastical Laws and the most part of the Noble and Learned Vniversities in Christenaâ—m and Confirmed also by the sundry Acts of Parliaments remaining yet in Force and thereby You justly made Illegitimate and Vn-heritable to the Crown Imperial of this Realm and the Rules and Dominions and Possessions of the same You will upon just consideration hereof and of divers other Causes Lawfull to be Alledged for the same and for the just Inheritance of the Right Line and Godly Order taken by the late King Our Sovereign Lord King Edward the Sixth and agreed upon by the Nobles and Greatest Personages aforesaid Surcease by any pretents to vex or molest any of Our Sovereign Lady Queen Jane Her Subjects from their True Faith and Allegiance due unto Her Grace assuring You that if you will for Respect shew Your Self Quiet and Obedient as You ought You shall find Vs all and several ready to do You any Service that We with Duty may and be glad with Your quietness to preserve the Common State of this Realm wherein You may be otherwise grievous Vs to Your Self and to them And thus We bid You most Heartily well to fare c. These Letters being thus dispatched and no further danger seeming to be feared on that side all things are put in Readiness against the coming of the Queen who the same day about three of the Clock in the Afternoon was brought by water to the Tower attended by a Noble Train of both Sexes from Durham House in the Strand where She had been entertained as a part of Dudley's Family ever since Her Marriage She could not be ignorant of that which had been done in Order unto Her Advancement to the Royal Throne and could not but conceive that Her being Conducted to the Tower in that Solemn manner did portend somewhat which looked toward a Coronation But still She hoped that either She should hear some Good News of the King's Recovery or of the Altering of His Purpose and that She might be suffered to enjoy those Divine Contentments which she had found in the Repose of a Studious Life But when She came into the presence of the two Dukes Her Father and Her Father-in-Law She observed their Behaviour towards Her to be very different from that which they had used before To put Her out of which Amazement it was signified to Her by the Duke of Northumberland That The King was Dead and that He had Declared Her for His next Successour in the Crown Imperial That This Declaration was Approved by all the Lords of the Council most of the Peers and all the Judges of the Land which they had Testified by the Subscription of their Names and all this Ratified and Confirmed by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England That The Lord Mayour the Aldermen and some of the Principal Citizens had been spoke withall by whom they were assured of the Fidelity of the rest of the City That There was nothing wanting but Her Gratefull Acceptance of the High Estate which God Almighty the Sovereign Disposer of all Crowns and Scepters never sufficiently to be thanked by Her for so great
and to deâ—se how they might extricate themselves out of those perplexities into which they had been brought by his Ambition Amongst which none more forward then the Earl of Pembroke in whom he had placed more Confidence then in all the others Who together with Sir Thomas Cheyny Lord Warden of the â—inque-Ports with divers others endeavoured to get out of the Tower that they might hold some secret Consultation with their Friends in London but were so narrowly watched that they could not do it On Sunday the sixteenth of the Moneth Doctour Nicholas Ridley Bishop of London is ordered by the Lords of the Council to Preach at St. Paul's-Cross and in his Sermon to Advance the Title of Queen Jane and shew the invalidity of the Claim of the Lady Mary Which he performed according to such Grounds of Law and Polity as had been lai'd together in the Letters Patents of King Edward by the Authority and Consent of all the Lords of the Council the greatest Judges in the Land and almost all the Peers of the Kingdom But then withall he press'd the Incommodities and Inconveniencies which might arise by receiving Mary for their Queen prophecying that which after came to pass Namely that She would bring in a Foreign Power to Reign over this Nation and that She would subvert the True Religion then Established by the Laws of this Reaâ—m He also shewed that at such time as She lived in his Diocess he had Travailed much with Her to reduce Her to the True Religion but that though otherwise She used him with great Civility She shewed Her self so stiff and obstinate that there was no hope to be conceived but that She would disturb and destroy all that which with such great Labour had been settled in the Reign of Her Brother For which Sermon he incurred so much displeasure that it could never be forgiven him when the rest were Pardoned by whose Encouragement and Command he had undertook it But this Sermon did not work so much on the People as the ill News which came continually to the Tower had prevailed on many of the Lords For presently upon that of the six Ships which were Revolted from the Queen Advertisement is given that the Princess Mary was Proclaimed Queen in Oxfordâ—Shirâ— â—Shirâ— by Sir John Williams and others in Buckingham-Shire by the Lord Windsore Sir Edward Hastings c. and in North-hampton-Shire by Sir Thomas Tresham And which was worse then all the other that the Noble-Mens Tenants refused to serve their Lords against Her Upon the first bruit of which Disasters the Lord Treasurer Pawlet gets out of the Tower and goes unto his House in Broâ—d-street which made sâ—ch a powerfull apprehension of sâ—me dangerous practises to be suddenly put in Execution that the Gates of the Tower were locked about seven of the Clock and the Keys carried to the Queen And though the Lord Treasurer was brought back about twelve at night yet now the knot of the Confederacy began apparently to break For finding by intelligence from so many Parts of the Realm but chiefly by the Lord Treasurer's return that generally the People were affected to the Title of the Princess Mary they thought it most expedient for them to Declare themselves in Her Favour also and not to run themselves their Friends and Families on a certain Ruin But all the Difficulty was in finding out a way to get out of the Tower the Gates whereof were so narrowly watched that no man could be suffered to go in and out but by the Knowledg and Permission of the Duke of Suffolk But that which their own Wisdom could not the Duke of Northumberland's Importunity effected for them who failing of the Supplies which the Lords had promised to send after him as before is said had pressed them earnestly by his Letters not to be wanting to their own Honour and the Publick Service This gave them a fair Colour to procure their Liberty from that Restraint by representing to the Queen and the Duke Her Father that the Supplies expected and all things necessary to the same could not be raised unless they were permitted personally to attend the Business both for the Pressing of the Men providing them of all things needfull and choosing fit Commanders to Conduct them in good Order to the Duke of Northhumberland Which seemed so reasonable to the Duke of Suffolk a Man of no great Depth himself and so not like to penetrate into the bottom of a deep Design that he gave way to their Departure for the present little conceiving that they never meant to come back again till the State was altered Being thus at their desired Liberty the Earls of Shrewsbury and Pembroke together with Sir Thomas Cheyny and Sir John Mason betake themselves immediately to Baynard's Castle an House belonging then as now to the Earls of Pembroke To which Place they were followed not long after by almost all the rest of the Lords of the Council bringing with them as many of the Nobility then about the Town as they conceived to â—tand fair for the Princess Mary And that the Meeting might be held with the less Suspicion it was given out to be upon a Conference with Laval the French Ambassadour about Affairs of great Importance for the Weal of both Kingdoms No sooner had they took their Places but the Earl of Arundel who had held Intelligence with the Princess ever since the first Extremities of Her Brother's Sickness inveighed most bitterly against the Duke of Northumberland And after he had ripped up the Acts of his former Life and burthened him with all that had been done unjustly cruelly or amiss in King Edward's Time he at last descends to the Treacherous Act of the Disherison of the Children of the late King Henry professing that he wondred how he had so enthralled such persons as the Lords there present as to make them Instruments of his Wickedness For was it not saith he by Our Consent and Suffrages that the Duke of Suffolk 's Daughter the same Northumberland 's Daughter-in-Law hath took upon Her the Name and Title of Queen of England though it be nothing but the Title the Sovereign Power remaining wholly in the Hands of Dudly who contrived the Plot that â—e might freely exercise his Tyranny on our Lives and Fortunes Religion is indeed the thing pretended But suppose we have no regard to these Apostolical Rules Evil must not be done that Good may come thereof and We must obey even evil Princes not for Fear but for Conscience-sake Yet how doth it appear that the Princess Mary intends any Alteration in Religion Certainly having been lately Petitioned to in this Point by the Suffolk men She gave them a very hopefull Answer And what a mad Blindness is it for the avoidance of an uncertain Danger to precipitate Our selves into a most certain Destruction I would we had not erred in this kind But Errours past cannot be recalled some may peradventure be amended wherein speedy
both Religions and finally amongst many other particulars that neither the Queen of Scots nor the French King should from thenceforth assume the Titles and Arms of England Which Articles being signed and confirmed for both Kingdoms the French about the middle of July take their leave of Scotland and the English Army at the same time set forward for Barwick being there disbanded and dismissed to their several dwellings Followed not long after by the Earls of Morton and Glencarn in the name of the rest of the Congregation sent purposely to render to the Queen their most humble thanks for her speedy prosperous assistance and to desire the continuance of her Majesties favours if the French should any more attempt to invade their Country Assured whereof and being liberally rewarded with gifts and presents they returned with joy and glad tydings to the Congregation whom as the Queen had put upon a present confidence of going vigorously on in their Reformation so it concerned them to proceed so carefully in pursuance of it as might comply with the dependence which they had upon her First therefore that she might more cordially espoâ—se their quarrel they bound themselves by their subscription to embrace the Liturgy with all the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England which for a time remained the onely form of Worship for the Kirk of Scotland when and by whose means they receded from it may be shown hereafter In the next place they cause a Parliament to be called in the month of August according to the Articles of the Pacification from which no person was excluded who either had the right of Suffrage in his own capacity or in relation to their Churches or as returned from their Shrevalties or particular Burroughs of which last there appeared the accustomed number but of the Lords Spiritual no more than six Bishops of thirteen with thirteen Abbots and Priors or thereabouts and of the Temporal Lords to the number of ten Earls and as many Barons By whose Authority and consent they passed three Acts conducing wholly to the advantage of the Reformation the first whereof was for abolishing the Popes Jurisdiction and Authority within the Realm the second for annulling all Statutes made in former times for maintenance of Idolatry and Superstition and the third for the punishment of the Sayers and Hearers of the Masse To this Parliament also some of the Ministers presented A Confession of the Faith and Doctrine to be believed and professed by the Protestants of the Kirk of Scotland modelled in many places by the Principles of Calvin's Doctrine which Knox had brought with him from Geneva but being put unto the Vote it was opposed by no more than three of the Temporal Lords that is to say the Earl of Atholl and the Lords Somervil and Borthwick who gave no other reason for it but that they would believe as their fathers did The Popish Prelates were silent in it neither assenting nor opposing Which being observed by the Earl-Marshal he is said to have broke out into these words following Seeing saith he that my Lords the Bishops who by their learning can and for the zeal they should have to the truth ought as I suppose to gainsay any thing repugnant to it say nothing against the Confession we have heard I cannot think but that it is the very truth of God and that the contrary of it false and deceivable Doctrine Let us now cross over into Ireland where we shall find the Queen as active in advancing the reformed Religion as she had been in either of the other Kingdoms King Henry had first broke the ice by taking to himself the Title of Supream Head on earth of the Church of Ireland exterminating the Popes authority and suppressing all the Monasteries and Religious Houses In matters doctrinal and forms of Worship as there was nothing done by him so neither was there much endeavoured in the time of King Edward it being thought perhaps unsafe to provoke that people in the Kings minority considering with how many troubles he was elsewhere exercised If any thing were done therein it was rather done by tolleration than command And whatsoever was so done was presently undone again in the Reign of Queen Mary But Queen Elizabeth having setled her affairs in England and undertaken the protection of the Scots conceived her self obliged in point of piety that Ireland also should be made partaker of so great a benefit A Parliament is therefore held on the 12th of January where past an Act restoring to the Crown the antient jurisdiction over all Ecclesiastical and Spiritual persons By which Statute were established both the Oath of Supremacy and the High Commission as before in England There also past an Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer c. with a permission for saying the same in Latine in such Church or place where the Minister had not the knowledge of the English Tongue But for translating it into Irish as afterwards into Welsh in the 5th year of this Queen there was no care taken either in this Parliament or in any following For want whereof as also by not having the Scriptures in their native language most of the natural Irish have retained hitherto there old barbarous customes or pertinaciously adhere to the corruptions of the Church of Rome The people by that Statute are required under several penalties to frequent their Churches and to be frequent at the reading of the English Liturgy which they understand no more than they do the Mass. By which means the Iâ—ish was not only kept in continual ignorance as to the Doctrines and Devotions of the Church of England but we have furnished the Papists with an excellent Argument against our selves for having the Divine Service celebrated in such a language as the people do not understand There also past another Statute for restoring to the Crown the first fruits and twenty parts of all Ecclesiastical promotions within that Kingdom as also of all impropriat Parsonages which there are more in number than those Rectories which have cure of souls King Henry had before united the first fruits c. to the Crown Imperial but Queen Mary out of her affection to the Church of Rome had given them back unto the Clergy as before was said The like Act passed for the restitution of all such lands belonging to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem as by that Queen had been regranted to the Order with the avoidance of all Leases and other grants which had been made by Sir Oswald Massingberd the lâ—te Lord Prior of the same Who fearing what was like to follow had voluntarily forsook the Kingdome in the August foregoing and thereby saved the Queen the charge of an yearly pension which otherwise he might have had as his Predecessors had before him in the time of King Henry During the Reign of which King a Statute had been made in Ireland as in England also for the electing and consecrating of
Cardinal Chastilion and other of the principal Leaders that they should put themselves under the protection of the Queen of England whâ— had not long before so seasonably relieved the Scots in the like distress No better counsel being offered nor any hope of succour to be had elsewhere the Vidame of Chartresse Governour at that time of the Port of Newhaven together with the Bayliâ—â— of Rowen the Seneshal of Diep and others made their address unto the Queen in the name of the Prince of Conde and of all the rest of the Confederates who professed the Gospel in that Kingdom they profered to her the said Towns whereof they had charge if it would please her Majesty to further their proceedings in defence of the Gospel as they called it And seemed to justifie their offer by a publick acknowledgement that her Majesty was not only true inheritour to those Towns but also to the whole Kingdom of France But neither their coming not their message was unknown unto her who had been secretly advertised of all passages there by Sir Nicholas Throgmorton a vigilant and dexterous man who being her Majesties Resident in that Kingdom had driven the bargain before hand and made all things in readiness against their coming Nor was the Queen hard to be intreated to appear in that cause which seemed so much to her advantage She was not ignorant of the pretensions of the Queen of Scots and the practices of her Uncles of the House of Guâ—se to advance her interess Who if they should possess themselves of all the strengths in the Dukedom of Normandy might from thence find an easie passage into England when she least looked for them On these and other considerations of the like importance it was agreed upon between them that the Queen should supply the Prince of Conde and his associates with a sufficient quantity of money corn and ammunition for the service of the French King against the plots and practices of the House of Guise that she should aid them with her forces both by land and sea for the taking in of such Castles Towns and Ports as were possessed by the faction of the said Duke that the said Prince of Conde and his associates should not come to any terms of peace with the opposite party without the privity and approbation of the Queen and that as well for securing the payment of all such monies as for the safe going in and out of all such forces as her Majesty should supply them with the Town and Port of Newhaven should be put unto her Majesties hands to be garrison'd by English souldiers and commanded by any person of quality whom her Majesty should authorise to keep and defend the same Immediately on which accord a Manifest was published in the name of the Queen in which it was declared how much she had preferred the peace of Christendom before her own particular intereâ—s that in persuance of that general affection to the publick peace she had relinquished her claim to the Town of Calais for the term of eight years when as all other Princes were restored by that Treaty to their lost estates that for the same reasons she had undertaken to preserve the Scots from being made vassals to the French without retaining any part of that Kingdom in her own possession after the service was performed that with the like bowels of commiseration she had observed how much the Queen-Mother of France was awed and the young King himself inthralled by the Guisian faction who in their names and under pretence of their authority endeavoured to root out the professors of the Reformed Religion that in persuance of that purpose they had caused such terrible massacres to be made at Vassey Paris Sene Tholouse â—loys Towers Angierâ— and other places that there were thought to be butchered no fewer than one hundred thousand of the naturall French between the first of March and the 20th of August then last past that with like violence and injustice they had treated such of her Majesties subjects as traded in the Ports of Bretagne whom they caused to be apprehended spoiled and miserably imprisoned such as endeavoured to preserve themselves to be cruelly killed their goods and merchandise to be seized without charging any other crime upon them but that they were Hâ—gonoâ—s and finally that in consideration of the Premises her Majesty could do no less than use her best endeavors for rescuing the French King and his Mother out of the power of that dangerous faction for aiding such of the French subjects as preferred the service of their King and the good of their Country before all other respects whatsoever for preserving the Reformed Religion from an universal destruction and the maintaining of her own subjects and Dominions in peace and safety Nor did she only publish the afoâ—esaid Manifest the better to satisfie all those whom it might concern in the reasons of her taking arms upon this occasion but she gives a more particulâ—â— account of it to the King of Spain whom she considered as the chief Patron of the Guisian League And knowing how unsafe it was for her to appear alone in a cause of that nature and importance she deals by Knollis and other of her Agents with the Princes of Germany to give their timely assistanâ—e to the Prince of Conde in maintenance of that Religion which themselves professed But howsoever not expecting the success of those counsels she proceeds to the supplying of the said Prince and his party with all things necessary for the war and sends over a sufficient strength of ships arms and men as well to scour the seas as secure the land The men amounting to 6000 were divided into two equal parts of which the one was destined to the defence of Rowen and Diepe then being in the hands of the Confederates the other to take possession of the Town of Newhaven which by the Townsmen and Inhabitants was joyfully surrender'd into the hands of the English The Town commodiously seated at the mouth of the Seine and having the command of a spacious Bay in former times not much observed or esteemed But being more carefully considered of by King Francis the first he caâ—sed the Bay to be inlarged the passages into iâ— cleared and the entrances of it to be strongly fortified which falling into the hands of any enemy might have destroyed the trade of Rowen and Paris being both built upon the River Called for this reason Franciscopolis by our Latine Writers Newhaven by the English Merchant and Haver d' Grace by reason of the beauty of it amongst the French it hath been looked on ever since as a place of consequence For her Commander in Chief she sends over the Lord Ambrose Dudley the eldest son then living of the late Duke of Northumberland whom on the 26th of December she had created Lord Lislâ— and Earl of Warwick And he accordingly preparing for his passage over took shipping at Portsmouth on the 17th
man as might please her fancy and more secure her title to the Crown of England than any of the great Kings in Europe What then should hinder her from making up a mariage so agreeable to her so acceptable to the Catholick party in both Kingdoms and which she thought withall of so safe a condition as could create no new jealousies in the brest of Elizabeth But those of the Leicestrian faction conceived otherwise of it and had drawn most of the Court and Council to conceive so to For what could more secure the interess of the Queen of Scots than to corroborate her own Title with that of Darnly from which two what children soever should proceed they would draw to them many hearts in the Realm of England who now stood fair and faithful to their natural Queen In this great fear but made much greater of set purpose to create some trouble it was advised that the Queen should earnestly be intreated to think of mariage to the end that the succession might be setled in her own posterity that all Popish Justices whereof there were many at that time might be put out of Commission and none admitted to that office but such as were sincerely affected to the Reformed Religion that the old deprived Bishops which for the most part lived at liberty might be brought to a more close restraint for fear of hardning some in their errours and corrupting others with whom they had the freedom of conversation that a greater power might be conferred upon the English Bishops in the free exercise of their jurisdiction for suppressing all such Popish Books as were sent into England depriving the English Fugitives of all those Benefices in this Kingdom which hitherto they had retained and all this to be done without incurring the danger of a Premunire with which they were so often threatned by the common Lawyers It was advised also that for a counterpoise unto the Title of the Queen of Scots some countenance should be given to the House of Suffolk by shewing favour to the Earl of Hartford and the Lady Katherine and that to keep the ballance even with the Romish Catholicks some moderation should be used to such Protestant Ministers you may be sure the Earl of Leicester had a hand in this as hitherto had been opposiâ—e in external matters to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church here by Law established Nor was this mariage very pleasing to the Scots themselves the chief Lords of the Romish party who faithfully had adher'd to their natural Queen in all her former troubles conceived that some of them might be as capable of the Queens affections as a young Gentleman born in England and one that never had done any service which might enoble and prefer him before all the rest The Ministers exclaimed against it in their common preachings as if it were designed of purpose to destroy Religion and bring them under their old vassalage to the Church of Rome The Noble men and others of the Congregation who had sold themselves to Queen Elizabeth were governed wholly by her Counsels and put themselves into a posture of Arms to disturb the Maâ—ch the Edenburgers do the like but are quickly scatter'd and forc'd to submit themselves to their Queens good pleasure who was so bent upon her mariage with this young Nobleman that neither threatnings nor perswasions could divert her from it And thaâ— he might appear in some capacity fit for the mariage of a Queen she first confers upon him the Order of Knighthood and afterwards creats him Baron of Ardamanack Earl of Rosse and Duke of Rothsay which are the ordinary Titles of the eldest and second sons of Scotland In May she had convented the Estates of Scotland to whom she communicated her intention with the reasons of it Which by the greatest part of the Assembly seemed to be allowed of none but the Lord Ochiltrie opposing what the rest approved About the middle of July the mariage Rites were celebrated in the Royal Chapel by the Dean of Restairig and the next day the new Duke was proclaimed King by sound of Trumpet and declared to be associated with the Queen in the publick government The newes whereof being brought unto Queen Elizabeth she seemed more offended than indeed she was For well she knew that both the new King and the Earl his Father were men of plain and open natures not apt to entertain any dangerous counsels to the disturbance of her quiet that as long as she retained the Countesse with her who was the Mother of the one and the Wife of the other they seemed to stand bound to their good behaviour and durst act nothing to the prejudice of so dear a pledge but by the precipitation of this mariage the Queen of Scots had neither fortified her self in the love of her people nor in alliances abroad and that it could not otherwise be but some new troubles must break out in Scotland upon this occasion by which it would be made uncomfortable and inglorious to her And so it proved in the event for never was mariage more calamitous to the parties themselves or more dishonourable to that Nation or finally more scandalous to both Religions in nothing fortunate but in the birth of James the 6th born in the Palace of Edenborough on the 19th of July Anno 1566. solemnly Crowned King of the Scots on the same day of the Month Anno 1567. and joyfully received to the Crown of England on the 14th of March Anno 1602. In greater glory and felicity reigned the Queen of England Whose praise resounding in all Kingdoms of the North and West invited Caecille sister to the King of Sweden and wife of Christopher Marquisse of Baden to undertake a tedious journey both by land and sea from the furthest places of the North to see the splendor of her Court and observe the prudence of her Government Landing at Dover in the beginning of September they were there received by the Lord Cobham with a goodly train of Knights and Gentlemen at Canterbury by the Lady Cobham with the like honourable train of Ladies and Gentlewomen at Gravesend by the Lord Hunsdon with the band of Pensioners at London on the 11th of September by the Earl of Sussex and his Countesse who waited on them to the Lodging appointed for them Scaâ—â—e had she rested there four dayes when she fell into a new travel of which she was happily delivered by the birth of a son whom the Queen Christned in her own person by the name of Edwardus Fortunatus the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of Norfolk being Sureties with her at the Font. She called him Edward with relation to the King her brother whose memory she dearly loved and Fortunatus in regard that he came so luckily into the world when his Mother after a most painful pilgrimage was safely come to pay her Devotions at that Shrine which she so much honoured Having remained here till the April