and that which he prints is not exactly according to the Record For as he prints it the Bishop of London is not named in the precedency which is not according to the Parliament-Roll in which the Bishop of London has the precedence next the Arch-Bishop of York and though this is corrected in a Posthumous edition yet in that set out by himself it is wanting Nor is that Omission among the Errours of the Press for though there are many of these gathered to be amended this is none of them This I do not take notice of out of any vanity or humour of Censuring a man so great in all sorts of Learning but my design is only to let ingenious persons see that they ought not to take things on trust easily no not from the greatest Authors These are all the publick Acts that relate to Religion which were passed in this Parliament With these there passed an Act of Attaindor of the Marquess of Exeter and the Lord Montacute with many others that were either found to have had a great hand in the late Rebellion or were discovered to hold correspondence with Cardinal Pool who was then trafficking with forreign Princes and projecting a League among them against the King But of this I shall give a more full account at the end of this Book being there to open the grounds of all the Attaindors that were passed in these last years of the Kings Reign There is one remarkable thing that belongs to this Act. Some were to be attainted in absence others they had no mind to bring to make their answer but yet designed to attain them Such were the Marchioness of Exeter and the Countess of Sarum Mother to Cardinal Pool whom by a gross mistake Speed fancies to have been condemned without Arraignment or Tryal as Cromwel had been by Parliament For she was now condemned a year before him About the Justice of doing this there was some debate and to clear it Cromwel sent for the Judges and asked their opinions Whether a man might be attainted in Parliament without being brought to make his answer They said it was a dangerous Question That the Parliament ought to be an example to all inferiour Courts and that when any person was charged with a Crime he by the common Rule of Justice and Equity should be heard to plead for himself But the Parliament being the Supream Court of the Nation what way soever they proceeded it must be good in Law and it could never be questioned whether the party was brought to answer or not And thus a very ill president was made by which the most innocent person in the world might be ruined And this as has often been observed in the like cases fell very soon heavily on the Author of the Counsel as shall appear When the Parliament was Prorogued on the 28th of Iune the King apprehending that the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury might be much cast down with the Act for the six Articles sent for him and told him That he had heard how much and with what Learning he had argued against it and therefore he desired he would put all his arguments in writing and bring them to him Next day he sent the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk and the Lord Cromwel to dine with him Ordering them to assure him of the Kings constant and unshaken kindness to him and to encourage him all they could When they were at Table with him at Lambeth they run out much on his commendation and acknowledged he had opposed the Act with so much Learning Gravity and Eloquence that even those that differed from him were much taken with what he said and that he needed fear nothing from the King Cromwel saying that this difference the King put between him and all his other Councellors that when complaints were brought of others the King received them and tried the truth of them but he would not so much as hearken to any complaint of the Arch-Bishop From that he went on to make a Parallel between him and Cardinal Wolsey That the one lost his Friends by his haughtiness and pride but the other gained on his Enemies by his gentleness and mildness Upon which the Duke of Norfolk said he might best speak of the Cardinal for he knew him well having been his man This nettled Cromwel who answered that though he had served him yet he never liked his manners and that though the Cardinal had designed if his attempt for the Popedome had been successful to have made him his Admiral yet he had resolved not to accept of it nor to leave his Countrey To which the Duke of Norfolk replied with a deep Oath That he Lied with other reproachful language This troubled Cranmer extremely who did all he could to quiet and reconcile them But now the Enmity between those two great Ministers broke out to that height that they were never afterwards hearty friends But Cranmer went about that which the King had commanded and made a Book of the reasons that led him to oppose the six Articles in which the places out of the Scriptures the Authorities of the ancient Doctors with the arguments drawn from these were all digested in a good method This he commanded his Secretary to write out in a fair hand that it might be given the King The Secretary returning with it from Croydon where the Arch-Bishop was then to Lambeth found the Key of his Chamber was carried away by the Arch-Bishops Almoner So that he being obliged to go over to London and not daring to trust the Book to any others keeping carried it with himself where both he and the Book met with an un-lookt-for encounter Some others that were with him in the Wherry would needs go to the South-wark side to look on a Bear-baiting that was near the River where the King was in person The Bear broke loose into the River and the Dogs after her They that were in the Boat leaped out and left the poor Secretary alone there But the Bear got into the Boat with the Dogs about her and sunk it The Secretary apprehending his life was in danger did not mind his Book which he lost in the water But being quickly rescued and brought to land he begun to look for his Book and saw it floating in the River So he desired the Bear-ward to bring it to him who took it up but before he would restore it put it into the hands of a Priest that stood there to see what it might contain The Priest reading a little in it found it a Confutation of the six Articles and told the Bearward that whosoever claimed it would be hanged for his pains But the Arch-Bishops Secretary thinking to mend the matter said it was his Lords Book This made the Bear-ward more intractable for he was a spiteful Papist and hated the Arch-Bishop so that no offers nor entreaties could prevail with him to give it back Whereupon Morice that was the
the discovery of the Indies having brought great wealth into Europe Princes began to deal more in that trade than before so that both France and England had their Instruments in Scotland and gave considerable yearly Pensions to the chief heads of Parties and Families In the search I have made I have found several Warrants for Sums of Money to be sent into Scotland and divided there among the Favourers of the English Interest and 't is not to be doubted but France traded in the same manner which continued till a happier way was found out for extinguishing these Quarrels both the Crowns being set on one head Having thus shewed the State of this Kings Government as to forreign Matters I shall next give an account of the Administration of Affairs at home both as to Civil and Spiritual Matters The King upon his first coming to the Crown did choose a wise Council partly out of those whom his Father had trusted partly out of those that were recommended to him by his Grand-Mother the Countess of Richmond and Derby in whom was the Right of the House of Lancaster though she willingly devolved her pretensions on her Son claiming nothing to her self but the Satisfaction of being Mother to a King She was a wise and Religious Woman and died soon after her Grand-Son came to the Crown There was a Faction in the Council between Fox Bishop of Winchester and the Lord Treasurer which could never be well made up though they were oft reconciled Fox always complaining of the Lord Treasurer for squandring away so soon that vast Mass of Treasure left by the Kings Father in which the other justified himself that what he did was by the Kings Warrants which he could not disobey but Fox objected that he was too easie to answer if not to procure these Warrants and that he ought to have given the King better advice In the Kings first Parliament things went as he desired upon his delivering up Empson and Dudley in which his preventing the severity of the Houses and proceeding against them at the Common Law as it secured his Ministers from an unwelcome President so the whole honour of it fell on the Kings justice His next Parliament was in the Third year of his Reign and there was considered the Brief from Pope Iulius the Second to the King complaining of the Indignities and Injuries done to the Apostolick See and the Pope by the French King and entreating the Kings assistance with such cajoling words as are always to be expected from Popes on the like occasions It was first read by the Master of the Rolls in the House of Lords and then the Lord Chancellour Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the Lord Treasurer with other Lords went down to the House of Commons and read it there Upon this and other reasons they gave the King subsidies towards the War with France At this time Fox to strengthen his Party against the Lord Treasurer finding Thomas Wolsey to be a likely man to get into the Kings favour used all his endeavours to raise him who was at that time neither unknown nor inconsiderable being Lord Almoner he was at first made a Privy Counsellour and frequently admitted to the Kings presence and waited on him over to France The King liked him well which he so managed that he quickly engrossed the Kings favour to himself and for 15 years together was the most absolute Favourite that had ever been seen in England all forreign Treaties and Places of Trust at home were at his Ordering he did what he pleased and his Ascendant over the King was such that there never appeared any Party against him all that while The great Artifice by which he insinuated himself so much on the King is set down very plainly by one that knew him well in these words In him the King conceived such a loving fancy especially for that he was most earnest and readiest in all the Counsel to advance the Kings only will and pleasure having no respect to the case and whereas the Ancient Counsellors would according to the Office of good Counsellors divers times perswade the King to have some time a recourse unto the Council there to hear what was done in weighty Matters the King was nothing at all pleased therewith for he loved nothing worse than to be constrained to do any thing contrary to his pleasure and that knew the Almoner very well having secret Insinuations of the Kings Intentions and so fast as the others Counselled the King to leave his pleasures and to attend to his Affairs so busily did the Almoner perswade him to the contrary which delighted him much and caused him to have the greater affection and love to the Almoner Having got into such Power he observed the Kings Inclinations exactly and followed his Interests closely for though he made other Princes retain him with great Presents and Pensions yet he never engaged the King into any Alliance but what was for his Advantage For affairs at home after he was established in his Greatness he affected to Govern without Parliaments there being from the Seventh year of his Reign after which he got the great Seal but one Parliament in the 14th and 15th year and no more till the One and Twentieth when matters were turning about But he raised great Sums of Money by Loans and Benevolences And indeed if we look on him as a Minister of State he was a very extraordinary Person but as he was a Church-man he was the disgrace of his Profession He not only served the King in all his secret pleasures but was lewd and vicious himself so that his having the French Pox which in those days was a matter of no small infamy was so publick that it was brought against him in Parliament when he fell in disgrace he was a man of most extravagant vanity as appears by the great State he lived in and to feed that his Ambition and Covetousness were proportionable He was first made Bishop of Tourney when that Town was taken from the French then he was made Bishop of Lincoln which was the first Bishoprick that fell void in this Kingdom after that upon Cardinal Bembridge his death he parted with Lincoln and was made Arch-Bishop of York then Hadrian that was a Cardinal and Bishop of Bath and Wells being deprived that See was given to him then the Abbey of St Albans was given to him in Comendam he next parted with Bath and Wells and got the Bishoprick of Duresm which he afterwards exchanged for the Bishoprick of Winchester But besides all that he had in his own hands the King granted him a full Power of disposing of all the Ecclesiastical benefices in England which brought him in as much money as all the Places he held for having so vast a Power committed to him both from the King and the Pope as to Church-preferments it may be easily gathered what
laid the Murder on the Officers that had the charge of that Prison and by other proofs they found the Bishops Sumner and the Bell-ringer guilty of it and by the deposition of the Sumner himself it did appear that the Chancellour and he and the Bell-ringer did Murder him and then hang him up But as the Inquest proceeded in this Trial the Bishop began a new Process against the dead body of Richard Hunne for other points of Heresie and several Articles were gathered out of Wickliff's Preface to the Bible with which he was charged And his having the Book in his Possession being taken for good evidence he was judged an Heretick and his body delivered to the Secular Power When judgment was given the Bishops of Duresme and Lincoln with many Doctors both of Divinity and the Canon-Law sate with the Bishop of London so that it was lookt on as an Act of the whole Clergy and done by common consent On the 20th of December his body was burnt at Smithfield But this produced an effect very different from what was expected for it was hoped that he being found an Heretick no body should appear for him any more whereas on the contrary it occasioned a great out-cry the man having lived in very good reputation among his Neighbours so that after that day the City of London was never well affected to the Popish Clergy but inclined to follow any body who spoke against them and every one lookt on it as a Cause of common concern All exclaimed against the Cruelty of their Clergy that for a mans suing a Clerke according to law he should be long and hardly used in a severe imprisonment and at last cruelly murdered and all this laid on himself to defame him and ruin his family And then to burn that body which they had so handled was thought such a complication of Cruelties as few Barbarians had ever been guilty of The Bishop finding that the Inquest went on and the whole matter was discovered used all possible endeavours to stop their proceedings and they were often brought before the Kings Council where it was pretended that all proceeded from Malice and Heresie The Cardinal laboured to procure an order to forbid their going any further but the thing was both so foul and so evident that it could not be done and that opposition made it more generally believed In the Parliament there was a Bill sent up to the Lords by the Commons for restoring Hunne's Children which was passed and had the Royal assent to it but another Bill being brought in about this Murther it occasioned great heats among them The Bishop of London said that Hunne had hanged himself that the Inquest were false perjured Caitiffs and if they proceeded further he could not keep his house for Hereticks so that the Bill which was sent up by the Commons was but once read in the House of Lords for the power of the Clergy was great there But the Trial went on and both the Bishops Chancellour and the Summer were endicted as Principals in the Murder The Convocation that was then sitting finding so great a stir made and that all their liberties were now struck at resolved to call Doctor Standish to an Account for what he had said and argued in that matter so he being summoned before them some Articles were objected to him by word of mouth concerning the judging of Clerks in Civil Courts and the day following they being put in writing the Bill was delivered to him and a day assigned for him to make answer The Doctor perceiving their intention and judging it would go hard with him if he were tryed before them went and claimed the Kings Protection from this trouble that he was now brought in for discharging his duty as the Kings Spiritual Counsel But the Clergy made their excuse to the King that they were not to question him for any thing he had said as the Kings Counsel but for some Lectures he read at St Pauls and elswhere contrary to the Law of God and Liberties of the holy Church which they were bound to maintain and desired the Kings Assistance according to his Coronation Oath and as he would not incur the Censures of the holy Church On the other hand the Temporal Lords and Judges with the concurrence of the House of Commons addressed to the King to maintain the Temporal Jurisdiction according to his Coronation Oath and to protect Standish from the Malice of his enemies This put the King in great perplexity for he had no mind to lose any part of his Temporal Jurisdiction and on the other hand was no less apprehensive of the dangerous effects that might follow on a breach with the Clergy So he called for Doctor Veysey then Dean of his Chappel and afterwards Bishop of Exeter and charged him upon his Allegiance to declare the truth to him in that matter which after some study he did and said upon his Faith Conscience and Allegiance he did think that the convening of Clerks before the secular Judg which had been always practised in England might well consist with the Law of God and the true Liberties of the holy Church This gave the King great satisfaction so he commanded all the Judges and his Council both Spiritual and Temporal and some of both Houses to meet at Black-Friers and to hear the matter argued The Bill against Doctor Standish was read which consisted of Six Articles that were objected to him First That he had said that the lower Orders were not sacred Secondly That the Exemption of Clerks was not founded on a divine Right Thirdly That the Laity might coerce Clerks when the Prelates did not their duty Fourthly That no positive Ecclesiastical Law binds any but those who receive it Fifthly That the Study of the Canon-Law was needless Sixthly That of the whole Volume of the Decretum so much as a man could hold in his fist and no more did oblige Christians To these Doctor Standish answered that for those things exprest in the Third the Fifth and the Sixth Articles he had never taught them as for his asserting them at any time in discourse as he did not remember it so he did not much care whether he had done it or not To the First he said Lesser Orders in one sense are sacred and in another they are not sacred For the Second and Fourth he confessed he had taught them and was ready to justifie them It was objected by the Clergy that as by the Law of God no man could judge his Father it being contrary to that Commandment Honour thy Father So Church-men being Spiritual Fathers they could not be judged by the Laity who were their Children To which he answered that as that only concluded in favour of Priests those in Inferiour Orders not being Fathers so it was a mistake to say a Judge might not sit upon his Natural Father for the Judge was by another Relation above his Natural Father and though
Sea But this Writ was not necessary by the Law and therefore it seems these Writs were not Enrolled For in the whole Reign of King Henry the 8 th I have not been able to find any of these Writs in the Rolls But by Warham's Register I see the Common course of the Law was to certifie into the Chancery the Conviction of an Heretick upon which the Writ was issued out if the King did not send a Pardon Thus it went on all the Reign of Henry the 4 th But in the beginning of his Sons Reign there was a Conspiracy as was pretended by Sir Iohn Oldcastle and some others against the King and the Clergy upon which many were put in Prison and 29 were both attainted of Treason and condemned of Heresie so they were both Hanged and Burnt But as a Writer that lived in the following Age says Certain affirmed that these were but feigned causes surmised of the Spiritualty more of displeasure than truth That Conspiracy whether real or pretended produced a severe Act against those Hereticks who were then best known by the name of Lollards By which Act all Officers of State Judges Justices of the Peace Majors Sheriffs and Bayliffs were to be Sworn when they took their Imployments to use their whole Power and Diligence to destroy all Heresies and Errors called Lollardies and to assist the Ordinaries and their Commissaries in their proceedings against them and that the Lollards should forfeit all the Lands they held in Fee-Simple and their Goods and Chattels to the King The Clergy according to the Genius of that Religion having their Authority fortified with such severe Laws were now more cruel and insolent than ever And if any man denied them any part of that respect or of those advantages to which they pretended he was presently brought under the suspition of Heresie and vexed with Imprisonments and Articles were brought against him Upon which great complaints followed And the Judges to correct this granted Habeas Corpus upon their Imprisonments and examined the Warrants and either Bailed or Discharged the Prisoners as they saw cause For though the Decrees of the Church had made many things Heresie so that the Clergy had much matter to work upon yet when Offenders against them in other things could not be charged with any formal Heresie then by consequences they studied to fasten it on them but were sometimes over-ruled by the Judges Thus when one Keyser who was Excommunicated by Thomas Bourchier Arch-Bishop of Canterbury at the Suit of another said openly that That Sentence was not to be feared for though the Arch-Bishop or his Commissary had Excommunicated him yet he was not Excommunicated before God he was upon this Committed by the Arch-Bishop's Warrant as one justly suspected of Heresie but the Judges upon his moving for an Habeas Corpus granted it and the Prisoner being brought to the Bar with the Warrant for his Imprisonment they found the matter contained in it was not within the Statute and first Bailed him and after that they Discharged him One Warner of London having said That he was not bound to pay Tithes to his Curate was also imprisoned by Edward Vaughan at the command of the Bishop of London but he escaped out of Prison and brought his Action of false Imprisonment against Vaughan Whereupon Vaughan pleading the Statute of Henry the 4 th and that his Opinion was an Heresie against the Determination of the Catholick Faith the Court of the Common-Pleas judged That the words were not within the Statute and that his Opinion was an Error but no Heresie So that the Judges looking on themselves as the Interpreters of the Law thought That even in the case of Heresie they had Authority to declare what was Heresie by the Law and what not But what opposition the Clergy made to this I do not know I hope the Reader will easily excuse this Digression it being so material to the History that is to follow I shall next set down what I find in the Records about the proceedings against Hereticks in the beginning of this Reign On the 2 d. of May in the year 1611. Six Men and Four Women most of them being of Tenterden appeared before Arch-Bishop Warham in his Mannor of Knall and abjured the following Errors 1 st That in the Sacrament of the Altar is not the Body of Christ but Material Bread 2 dly That the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation are not necessary nor profitable for mens Souls 3 dly That Confession of Sins ought not to be made to a Priest 4 thly That there is no more Power given by God to a Priest than to a Layman 5 thly That the Solemnization of Matrimony is not profitable nor necessary for the well of mans Soul 6 thly That the Sacrament of Extreme Unction is not profitable nor necessary for mans Soul 7 thly That Pilgrimages to holy and devout Places be not profitable neither Meritorious for mans Soul 8 thly That Images of Saints be not to be worshipped 9 thly That a man should pray to no Saint but only to God 10 thly That holy water and holy bread be not the better after the Benediction made by the Priest than before And as they abjured these Opinions so they were made to Swear That they should discover all whom they knew to hold these Errors or who were suspected of them or that did keep any private Conventicles or were Fautors or Comforters of them that published such Doctrins Two other men of Tenterden did that day in the Afternoon abjure most of these Opinions The Court sate again the 5 th of May and the Arch-Bishop enjoyned them Penance to wear the Badg of a Fagot in Flames on their Cloaths during their lives or till they were dispensed with for it and that in the Procession both at the Cathedral of Canterbury and at their own Parish Churches they should carry a Fagot on their shoulders which was looked on as a publick Confession that they deserved Burning That same day another of Tenterdon abjured the same Doctrines On the 15 th of May the Court sate at Lambeth where 4 Men and one Woman abjured On the 19 th Four Men more abjured On the 3 d. of Iune a Man and a Woman abjured Another Woman the 26 th of Iuly Another Man the 29 th of Iuly Two Women on the 2 d. of August A Man on the 3 d. and a Woman on the 8 th of August Three Men on the 16 th of August And three Men and a Woman on the 3 d. of Sept. In these Abjurations some were put to abjure more some fewer of the former Doctrines and in some of their Abjurations Two Articles more were added 1 st That the Images of the Crucifix of our Lady and other Saints ought not to be worshipped because they were made with mens hands and were but Stocks and Stones 2 dly That Money and Labour spent in Pilgrimages was all in vain All these Persons
Campana to England with a Letter of Credence to the Cardinal the effects of which message will appear afterwards And thus ended this year in which it was believed that if the King had employed that Money which was spent in a fruitless Negotiation at Rome on a War in Flanders it had so distracted the Emperors Forces and encouraged the Pope that he had sooner granted that which in a more fruitless way was sought of him In the beginning of the next year Cassali wrote to the Cardinal that the Pope was much inclined to unite himself with the Emperor and proposed to go in Person to Spain to solicite a general Peace but intended to go privately and desired the Cardinal would go with him thither as his Friend and Counsellor and that they two should go as Legates But Cassali by Salviati's means who was in great favour with the Pope understood that the Pope was never in greater fear of the Emperor than at that time for his Ambassador had threatned the Pope severely if he would not recal the Commission that he had sent to England so that the Pope spoke oft to Salviati of the great Repentance that he had inwardly in his heart for granting the Decretal and said He was undone for ever if it came to the Emperors knowledge He also resolved that though the Legates gave Sentence in England it should never take effect for he would not confirm it Of which Gregory Cassali gave Advertisement by an express Messenger who as he passed through Paris met Secretary Knight and Doctor Bennet whom the King had dispatched to Rome to assist his other Ambassadors there and gave them an account of his message and that it was the Advice of the Kings Friends at Rome That he and his Confederates should follow the War more vigorously and press the Emperor harder without which all their applications to the Pope would signifie nothing Of this they gave the Cardinal an account and went on but faintly in their Journey judging that upon these Advertisements they would be recalled and other Counsels taken At the same time the Pope was with his usual Arts cajoling the Kings Agents in Italy For when Sir Francis Brian and Peter Vannes came to Bononia the Proto-Notary Cassali was surprized to hear that the business was not already ended in England since he said he knew there were sufficient Powers sent about it and that the Pope assured him he would confirm their Sentence but that he made a great difference between the confirming their judgment by which he had the Legates between him and the Envy or Odium of it and the granting a Bull by which the Judgment should arise immediately from himself This his best Friends dissuaded and he seemed apprehensive that in case he should do it a Council would be called and he should be deposed for it And any such distraction in the Papacy considering the footing which Heresie had alread gotten would ruin the Ecclesiastical State and the Church So dextrously did the Pope govern himself between such contrary tides But all this Dissimulation was short of what he acted by Campana in England whose true errand thither was to order Campegio to destroy the Bull but he did so perswade the King and the Cardinal of the Popes sincerity that by a dispatch to Sir Francis Brian and Peter Vannes and Sir Gregory Cassali he chid the two former for not making more haste to Rome for he believed it might have been a great advantage to the Kings Affairs if they had got thither before the General of the Observants then Cardinal Angell He ordered them to setle the business of the Guard about the Pope presently and tells them that the Secretary was recalled and Dr. Stephens again sent to Rome And in a Letter to Secretary Knight who went no further than Lions he writ to him That Campana had assured the King and him in the Popes name that the Pope was ready to do not only all that of Law Equity or Justice could be desired of him but whatever of the fulness of his Power he could do or devise for giving the King content And that although there were three things which the Pope had great reason to take care of The calling a General Council The Emperors descent into Italy and the Restitution of his Towns which were offered to be put in his hands by the Emperors means yet neither these nor any other consideration should divert him from doing all that lay within his Authority or Power for the King And that he had so deep a sense of the Kings merits and the obligations that he had laid on him that if his resignation of the Popedom might do him any Service he would readily consent to it And therefore in the Popes name he encouraged the Legates to proceed and end the business Upon these assurances the Cardinal ordered the Secretary to haste forward to Rome and to thank the Pope for that kind message to setle the Guard about him and to tell him that for a Council none could be called but by himself with the consent of the Kings of England and France And for any pretended Council or meeting of Bishops which the Emperor by the Cardinals of his Party might call he needed not fear that For his Towns they should be most certainly restored Nor was the Emperors offering to put them in his hand to be much regarded for though he restored them if the Pope had not a better Guaranty for them it would be easie for him to take them from him when he pleased He was also to propose a firmer League between the Pope England and France in order to which he was to move the Pope most earnestly to go to Nice and if the Pope proposed the Kings taking a second Wife with a Legitimation of the Issue which she might have so the Queen might be induced to enter into a state of Religion to which the Pope inclined most he was not to accept of that both because the thing would take up much time and they found the Queen resolved to do nothing but as she was advised by her Nephews Yet if the Pope offered a Decretal about it he might take it to be made use of as the Occasion might require But by a Postscript he is recalled and it is signified to him that Gardiner was sent to Rome to negotiate these aâ—fairs who had returned to England with the Legate and his being so successful in his former Message made them think him the fittest Minister they could imploy in that Court and to send him with the greater Advantage he was made a Privy Councellour But an unlooked-for Accident put a stop to all Proceedings in the Court of Rome For on Epiphany-day the Pope was taken extreme ill at Mass and a great sickness followed of which it was generally believed he could not recover and though his distemper did soon abate so much that it
a Book for his opinion and confirm it with as much Authority as he could and was recommended to the care of the Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond to which honor the King had advanced Sr. Thomas Boleyn in the right of his Mother and in the beginning of the next year he published his Book about it Richard Crook who was Tutor to the Duke of Richmond was sent into Italy and others were sent to France and Germany to consult the Divines Canonists and other Learned men in the Universities about the Kings business How the rest managed the matter I have not yet been able to discover but from a great number of original Letters of Doctor Crooks I shall give a full account of his Negotiation It was thought best to begin at home and therefore the King wrote to the two Universities in England to send him their conclusions about it The matters went at Oxford thus The Bishop of Lincoln being sent thither with the Kings Letters for their Resolution it was by the Major vote of the Convocation of all the Doctors and Masters as well Regents as non-Regents committed to 33 Doctors and Batchelours of Divinity who were named by their own Facultie or to the greater number of them to determine the Questions that were sent with the Kings Letters and to set the common Seal of the University to their Conclusions and by vertue of that Warrant they did on the 8 of April put the common Seal of the University to an Instrument declaring the Marriage of the Brothers wife to be both contrary to the Laws of God and Nature The Collector of the Antiquities of Oxford informs us of the uneasiness that was in the University in this matter and of the several messages the King sent before that Instrument could be procured so that from the 12 of February to the 8 of April the matter was in agitation the Masters of Arts generally opposing it though the Doctors and Heads were for the greatest part for it But after he has set down the Instrument he gives some reasons upon what design I cannot easily imagine to shew that this was extorted by force and being done without the consent of the Masters of Arts was of it self void and of no force and as if it had been an ill thing he takes pains to purge the University of it and lays it upon the fears and corruptions of some aspiring men of the University and without any proof gives credit to a lying Story set down by Sanders of an Assembly called in the night in which the Seal of the University was set to the Determination But it appears that he had never seen or considered the other Instrument to which the University set their Seal that was agreed on in a Convocation of all the Doctors and Masters as well Regents as non-Regents giving Power to these Doctors and Batchelors ofDivinity to determine the Matter and to set the Seal of the University to their Conclusion The original whereof the Lord Herbert saw upon which the persons so deputed had full Authority to set the University Seal to that Conclusion without a new Convocation Perhaps that Instrument was not so carefully preserved among their Records or was in Queen Maries days taken away which might occasion these mistakes in their Historian There seems to be also another mistake in the Relation he gives for he says those of Paris had determined in this matter before it was agreed to at Oxford The Printed Decision of the Sorbone contradicts this for it bears date the 2d of Iuly 1530. whereas this was done the 8th of April 1530. But what passed at Cambridge I shall set down more fully from an original Letter written by Gardiner and Fox to the King in February but the day is not marked When they came to Cambridge they spake to the Vice-Chancellor whom they found very ready to serve the King so was also Bonner whom they call Doctor Edmonds and several others but there was a contrary party that met together and resolved to oppose them A meeting of the Doctors Batchelors of Divinity and Masters of Arts in all about 200 was held There the Kings Letters were read and the Vice-Chancellor calling upon several of them to deliver their opinions about it they answered as their affections led them and were in some disorder But it being proposed that the answering the Kings Letter and the Questions in it should be referred to some indifferent men great exceptions were made to Doctor Salcot Doctor Reps and Crome and all others who had approved Doctor Cranmers Book as having already declared themselves partial But to that it was answered that after a thing was so much discoursed of as the Kings matter had been it could not be imagined that any number of men could be found who had not declared their judgment about it one way or another Much time was spent in the debate but when it grew late the Vice-Chancellor commanded every man to take his place and to give his voice whether they would agree to the Motion of referring it to a Select body of men but that night they would not agree to it The Congregation being Adjourned till next day the Vice-Chancellor offered a Grace or Order to refer the matter to 29 persons himself 10 Doctors and 16 Batchelors and the 2 Proctors That the Questions being publickly disputed what two parts of three agreed to should be read in a Congregation and without any further debate the Common Seal of the University should be set to it Yet it was at first denyed then being put to the vote it was carryed equally on both sides But being a third time proposed it was carryed for the Divorce Of which an account was presently sent to the King with a Schedule of their names to whom it was committed and what was to be expected from them so that it was at length determined though not without opposition That the King's Marriage was against the Law of God It is thought strange that the King who was otherwise so absolute in England should have met with more difficulty in this matter at home than he did abroad But the most reasonable account I can give of it is That at this time there were many in the Universities particularly at Cambridge who were addicted to Luthers Doctrine And of those Cranmer was lookt on as the most Learned So that Crome Shaxton Latimer and others of that Society favoured the Kings Cause besides that Anne Boleyn had in the Dutchess of Alancon's Court who inclined to the Reformation received such impressions as made them fear that her Greatness and Cranmers Preferment would encourage Heresie to which the Universities were furiously averse and therefore they did resist all Conclusions that might promote the Divorce But as for Crooke in Italy he being very Learned in the Greek Tongue was first sent to Venice to search the Greek Manuscripts that lay in the Library of
some days publick Dispute on the 1st of Iuly determined to the same purpose about which Crooks Letter will be found among the Instruments at the end of this Book At Ferrara the Divines did also confirm the same conclusion and sâ—t their Seal to it but it was taken away violently by some of the other Faction yet the Duke made it be restored The profession of the Canon-Law was then in great credit there and in a Congregation of 72 of that proâ—ession it was determined for the King but they asked 150 Crowns foâ— setting the Seal to it and Crook would not give more than an hundred the next day he came and offered the Money but then it was told him they would not meddle in it and he could not afterwards obtain it In all Crook sent over by Stokesley an hundred several Books Papers and Subscriptions and there were many hands subscribed to many of those Papers But it seems Crook died before he could receive a reward of this great Service he did the King for I do not find him mentioned after this I hope the Reader will forgive my insisting so much on this Negotiation for it seemed necessary to give full and convincing Evidences of the sincerity of the Kings proceedings in it since it is so confidently given out that these were but mercenary Subscriptions What difficulties or opposition those who were employed in France found does not yet appear to me but the Seals of the chief Universities there were procured The University of Orleance determined it on the 7th of April The faculty of the Canon-Law at Paris did also conclude that the Pope had no Power to dispence in that Case on the 25th of May. But the great and celebrated faculty of the Sorbon whose Conclusions had been lookt on for some Ages as little inferiour to the Decrees of Councils made their Decision with all possible Solemnity and Decency They first met at the Church of St. Mathurin where there was a Mass of the H. Ghost and every one took an Oath to study the Question and resolve it according to his Conscience and from the 8th of Iune to the 2d of Iuly they continued searching the matter with all possible diligence both out of the Scriptures the Fathers and the Councils and had many Disputes about it After which the greater part of the Faculty did Determine That the King of Englands Marriage was unlawful and that the Pope had no Power to dispence in it and they set their common Seal to it at St. Mathurin's the 2d of Iuly 1530. To the same purpose did both the Faculties of Law Civil and Canon at Angiers Determine the 7th of May. On the 10th of Iune the Faculty of Divinity at Bourges made the same Determination And on the 1st of October the whole University of Tholose did all with one consent give their judgment agreeing with the former Conclusions More of the Decisions of Universities were not Printed though many more were obtained to the same effect In Germany Spain and Flanders the Emperors Authority was so great that much could not be expected except from the Lutherans with whom Cranmer conversed and chiefly with Osiander whose Neece he then Married Osiander upon that wrote a Book about Incestuous Marriages which was published but was called in by a Prohibition Printed at Ausburg because it Determined in the Kings cause and on his side But now I find the King did likewise deal among those in Switzerland that had set up the Reformation The Duke of Suffolk did most set him on to this so one who was imployed in that time writes for he often asked him how he could so humble himself as to submit his Cause to such a vile vitious stranger Priest as Campegio was To which the King answered He could give no other reason but that it seemed to him Spiritual men should judge Spiritual things yet he said he would search the matter further but he had no great mind to seem more curious than other Princes But the Duke desired him to discuss the matter secretly amongst Learned men to which he consented and wrote to some Forreign Writers that were then in great estimation Erasmus was much in his favour but he would not appear in it He had no mind to provoke the Emperor and live uneasily in his own Country But Simon Grineus was sent for whom the King esteemed much for his Learning The King informed him about his Process and sent him back to Basil to try what his Friends in Germany and Switzerland thought of it He wrote about it to Bucer Oecolampadius Zuinglius and Paulus Phrygion Oecolampadius as it appears by three Letters one dated the 10th of August 1531. another the last of the same Month another to Bucer the 10th of September was positively of Opinion That the Law in Leviticus did bind all mankind and says That Law of a Brothers Marrying his Sister-in-Law was a Dispensation given by God to his own Law which belonged only to the Jews and therefore he thought that the King might without any scruple put away the Queen But Bucer was of another mind and thought the Law in Leviticus did not bind and could not be Moral because God had dispensed with it in one Case of raising up seed to his Brother Therefore he thought these Laws belonged only to that Dispensation and did no more bind Christians than the other Ceremonial or Judiciary Precepts and that to Marry in some of these Degrees was no more a sin than it was a sin in the Disciples to pluck Ears of Corn on the Sabbath-day There are none of Bucers Letters remaining on this Head but by the answers that Grineus wrote to him one on the 29th of August another of the 10th of September I gather his Opinion and the reasons for it But they all agreed That the Popes Dispensation was of no force to alter the nature of the thing Paulus Phrygion was of Opinion That the Laws in Leviticus did bind all Nations because it is said in the Text That the Canaanites were punished for doing contrary to them which did not consist with the Iustice of God if those Prohibitions had not been parts of the Law of Nature Dated Basil the 10th of September In Grineus's Letter to Bucer he tells him that the King had said to him That now for seven years he had perpetual trouble upon him about this Marriage Zuinglius Letter is very full First he largely proves that neither the Pope nor any other Power could dispence with the Law of God Then that the Apostles had made no new Laws about Marriage but had left it as they found it That the Marrying within near degrees was hated by the Greeks and other Heathen Nations But whereas Grineus seemed to be of opinion that though the Marriage was ill made yet it ought not to be dissolved and inclined rather to advise that the King should take
places cited from the New Testament As for that of Herod both Iosephus and Eusebius witness that his Brother Philip was alive when he took his wife and so his sin was Adultery and not Incest We must also think that the Incestous Person in Corinth took his Fathers Wife when he was yet living otherwise if he had been dead St. Paul could not say it was a Fornication not named among the Gentiles for we not only find both among the Persians and other Nations the Marriage of Step-Mothers allowed but even among the Iews Adonijah desired Abisha in Marriage who had been his Fathers Concubine From all which they concluded that the Laws about the Degrees of Marriage were only Judiciary Precepts and so there was no other obligation on Christians to obey them than what flowed from the Laws of the Church with which the Pope might dispense They also said that the Law in Leviticus of not taking the Brothers wife must be understood of not taking her while he was alive for after he was dead by another Law a man might marry his Brothers wife They also pleaded that the Popes Power of Dispensing did reach further than the Laws of the Church even to the Law of God for he daily Dispensed with the Breaking of Oaths and Vows though that was expresly contrary to the Second Commandment and though the Fifth Command Thou shalt do no Murther be against Killing yet the Pope Dispensed with the putting Thieves to death and in some cases where the reason of the Commandment does not at all times hold he is the only judge according to Summa Angelica They Concluded the Popes Power of Dispensing was as necessary as his Power of Expounding the Scriptures and since there was a Question made concerning the obligation of these Levitical Prohibitions whether they were Moral and did oblige Christians or not the Pope must be the only Judge There were also some late Presidents found one of P. Martin who in the case of a mans having Marryed his own Sister who had lived long with her upon a Consultation with Divines and Lawyers Confirmed it to prevent the Scandal which the dissolving of it would have given Upon which St. Antonin of Florence says that since the thing was dispensed with it was to be refered to the judgment of God and not to be condemned The Pope had granted this Dispensation upon a very weighty Consideration to keep peace between two great Crowns it had now stood above Twenty years it would therefore raise an high scandal to bring it under debate besides that it would do much hurt and bring the Titles to most Crowns into Controversie But they Concluded that whatever Informalities or Nullities were pretended to be in the Bulls or Breves the Pope was the only competent judge of it and that it was too high a presumption for inferior Prelates to take upon them to examine or discuss it But to these Arguments it was Answered by the writers for the Kings cause that it was strange to see men who pretended to be such Enemies to all Heretical Novelties yet be guilty of that which Catholick Doctors hold to be the foundation of all Heresie which was the setting up of private senses of Scripture and Reasonings from them against the Doctrine and Tradition of the Church It was fully made out that the Fathers and Doctors of the Church did universally agree in this that the Levitical Prohibitions of the Degrees of Marriage are Moral and do oblige all Christians Against this Authority Cajetan was the first that presumed to write opposing his private conceits to the Tradition of the Church which is the same thing for which Luther and his followers are so severely Condemned May it not then be justly said of such men that they plead much for Tradition when it makes for them but reject it when it is against them Therefore all these exceptions are overthrown with this one Maxime of Catholick Doctrine That they are Novelties against the constant Tradition of the Christian Church in all Ages But if the force of them be also examined they will be found as weak as they are New That before the Law these degrees were not observed proves only that they are not evidently contrary to the Common sense of all men But as there are some Moral Precepts which have that natural evidence in them that all men must discern it so there are others that are drawn from publick inconvenience and dishonesty which are also parts of the Law of nature These Prohibitions are not of the first but of the second sort since the Immorality of them appears in this that the Familiarities and freedoms among near Relations are such that if an horror were not struck in men at conjunctures in these degrees Families would be much defiled This is the Foundation of the Prohibitions of Marriages in these degrees Therefore it is not strange if men did not apprehend it before God made a Law concerning it Therefore all examples before the Law show only the thing is not so evident as to be easily collected by the light of Nature And for the story of Iudah and Tamar there is so much wickedness in all the parts of it that it will be very hard to make a President out of any part of it As for the Provision about Marrying the Brothers wiâ—e that only proves the ground of the Law is not of its own Nature Immutable but may be Dispensed with by God in some cases And all these Moral Laws that are founded on publick conveniency and honesty are Dispensable by God in some cases but because Moses did it by Divine Revelation it does not follow that the Pope can do it by his Ordinary Authority For that about Herod it is not clear from Iosephus that Philip was alive when Herod Marryed his Wife For all that Iosephus says is that she separated from her Husband when he was yet alive and divorced her self from him But he does not say that he lived still after she Marryed his Brother And by the Law of Divorce Marriage was at an end and broken by it as much as if the Party had been dead So that in that case she might have Marryed any other Therefore Herods sin in taking her was from the Relation of having been his Brothers Wife And for the Incestuous person in Corinth it is as certain that though some few Instances of a King of Syria and some others may be brought of Sons Marrying their Step-Mothers yet these things were generally ill looked on even where they were practised by some Princes who made their Pleasure their Law Nor could the Laws of Leviticus be understood of not Marrying the Brothers wife when he was alive for it was not Lawful to take any mans Wife from him living Therefore that cannot be the meaning And all those Prohibitions of Marriage in other degrees excluding those Marriages simply whether during the life or after the death of
Therefore he requires them under pain of Damnation to repeal it and offers to secure them from any abuses which might have crept in formerly with these Provisions This is dated the Third of October Decimo Pontificat but I believe it is an error of the Transcriber and that its true date was the 13th of October The Parliament sate in Ianuary 1427 being the 6th year of King Henry the 6th during which on the 30th of Ianuary the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury accompanyed by the Arch-Bishop of York the Bishops of London St. Davids Ely and Norwich and the Abbots of Westminster and Reading went from the House of Lords to the place where the House of Commons ordinarily sate which was the Refectory of the Abbey of Westminster where the Arch-Bishop made a long Speech in the form of a Sermon upon that Text Render to Coesar the things that are Coesars and to God the things that are Gods He began with a Protestation that he and his Brethren intended not to say any thing that might derogate from the King the Crown or the people of England Then he alledged many things for the Popes Power in granting Provisions to prove it was of Divine Right and admonished and required them to give the Pope satisfaction in it otherwise he laid out to them with tears what mischiefs might follow if he proceeded to censures which will appear more fully from the Instrument that will be found in the Collection at the end But it seems the Parliament would do nothing for all this for no Act neither of Repeal nor Explanation was passed Yet it appears the Pope was satisfied with the Arch-Bishops carriage in this matter for he soon after restored him to the Exercise of his Legantine Power as Godwin has it only he by a mistake says he was made Legate Anno 1428. whereas it was only a Restitution after a Censure Thus stood the Law of England in that matter which was neither Repealed nor well Executed for the Popes Usurpations still encreasing those Statutes lay dead among the Records and several Cardinals had procured and executed a Legantine Power which was clearly contrary to them And as Cardinal Wolsey was already brought under the lash for it so it was now made use of partly to give the Court of Rome apprehensions of what they were to expect from the King if they went on to use him ill and partly to proceed severely against all those of the Clergy who adhared obstinately to the Interests of that Court and to make the rest compound the matter both by a full Submission and a considerable Subsidy It was in vain to pretend it was a publick and allowed Error and that the King had not only connived at the Cardinals Proceedings but had made him all that while his chief Minister That therefore they were excusable in submitting to an Authority to which the King gave so great encouragement and that if they had done otherwise they had been unavoidably ruined For to all this it was answered that the Laws were still in force and that their Ignorance could not excuse them since they ought to have known the Law yet since the violation of it was so publick though the Court proceeded to a Sentence That they were all out of the Kings protection and were liable to the pains in the Statutes the King was willing upon a reasonable Composition and a full Submission to Pardon them So in the Convocation of Canterbury a Petition was brought in to be offered to the King In the Kings Title he was called the Protector and Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England To this some opposition was made and it was put off to another day but by the Interposition of Cromwell and others of the Kings Council who came to the Convocation and used arguments to perswade them to it they were prevailed with to pass it with that Title at least none speaking against it For when Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury said That silence was to be taken for consent They cried out they were then all silent Yet it was moved by some to add these words to the Title in so far as is lawful by the Law of Christ. But Parker says The King disliked that Clause since it left his Power still disputable therefore it was cast out and the Petition passed simply as it was first brought in Yet in that he was certainly misinformed for when the Convocation of the Province of York demurred about the same Petition and sent their reasons to the King why they could not acknowledge him Supreme Head which as appears by the Kings answer to them were chiefly founded on this that the term Head was improper and did not agree to any under Christ the King wrote a long and sharp answer to them and showed them that words were not always to be understood in their strict sense but according to the common acceptation And among other things he showed what an Explanation was made in the Convocation of Canterbury That it was in so far as was agreeable to the Law of Christ by which it appears that at that time the King was satisfied to have it pass any way and so it was agreed to by nine Bishops the Bishop of Rochester being one and 52 Abbots and Priors and the major part of the lower House of Convocation in the Province of Canterbury Of which number it is very probable Reginald Pool was for in his Book to the King he says he was then in England and adds that the King would not accept of the sum the Clergy offered unless they acknowledged him Supreme Head he being then Dean of Exceter was of the lower House of Convocation and it is not likely the King would have continued the Pensions and other Church-Preferments he had if he had refused to Signe that Petition and Submission By it they prayed the King to accept 100000 l. in lieu of all punishments which they had incurred by going against the Statutes of Provisors and did promise for the future neither to make nor execute any Constitution without the Kings Licence upon which he granted them a general Pardon and the Convocation of the Province of York offering 18840 l. with another Submission of the same nature afterwards though that met with more opposition they were also Pardoned When the King 's Pardon for the Clergy was brought in to the House of Commons they were much troubled to find themselves not included within it for by the Statutes of Provisors many of them were also liable and they apprehended that either they might be brought in trouble or at least it might be made use of to draw a Subsidy from them so they sent their Speaker with some of their Members to represent to the King the great grief of his Commons to find themselves out of his favour which they concluded from the Pardon of the pains of Premunire to his Spiritual Subjects in which
read with many other Instruments and the whole Merits of the Cause were opened Upon which after many Sessions on the 23th of May Sentence was given with the Advice of all that were there present declaring it onely to have been a Marriage de facto but not de jure pronouncing it Null from the beginning One thing is to be observed That the Archbishop in the Sentence is called The Legate of the Apostolick See Whether this went of course as one of his Titles or was put in to make the Sentence firmer the Reader may judge Sentence being given the Archbishop with all the rest returned to London and five days after on the 28th of May at Lambeth by another Judgment he in general words no Reasons being given in the Sentence confirmed the Kings Marriage with the new Queen Anne and the first of Iune she was crowned Queen When this great Business which had been so long in agitation was thus concluded it was variously censured as men stood affected Some approved the Kings Proceedings as Canonical and Just since so many Authorities which in the intervall of a General Council were all that could be had except the Pope be believed Infallible had concurred to strengthen the Cause and his own Clergy had upon a full and long examination judged it on his side Others who in the main agreed to the Divorce did very much dislike the Kings second Marriage before the first was dissolved for they thought it against the common course of Law to break a Marriage without any publick Sentence and since one of the chief politick Reasons that was made use of in this Suit was to settle the Succession of the Crown this did embroil it more since there was a fair colour given to except to the Validity of the second Marriage because it was contracted before the first was annulled But to this others answered That the first Marriage being judged by the Interpreters of the Doctrine of the Church to have been Null from the beginning there was no need of any Sentence but onely for Form And all concluded it had been better there had been no Sentence at all than one so late Some excepted to the Archbishop of Canterbury's being Judge who by his former Writings and Disputes had declared himself partial But to this it was answered That when a man changes his Character all that he did in another Figure is no just Exception so Judges decide Causes in which they formerly gave Counsel and Popes are not bound to the Opinions they held when they were Divines or Canonists It was also said That the Archbishop did onely declare in Legal Form that which was already judged by the whole Convocation of both Provinces Some wondered at the Popes stifness that would put so much to hazard when there wanted not as good Colours to justifie a Bull as they had made use of to excuse many other things But the Emperors Greatness and the fear of giving the Lutherans advantages in disputing the Popes Authority were on the other hand so prevalent Considerations that no wonder they wrought much on a Pope who pretended to no other knowledge but that of Policy for he had often said He understood not the matter and therefore left it in other mens hands All persons excused Queen Katharine for standing so stifly to her ground onely her denying so confidently that Prince Arthur consummated the Marriage seems not capable of an Excuse Every body admired Queen Annes Conduct who had managed such a Kings Spirit so long and had neither surfeited him with great freedom nor provoked him by the other Extreme for the King who was extremely nice in these matters conceived still an higher Opinion of her and her being so soon with child after the Marriage as it made people conclude she had been chaste till then so they hoped for a Blessing upon it since there were such early appearances of Issue Those that favoured the Reformation expected better days under her Protection for they know she favoured them But those who were in their hearts for the Established Religion did much dislike it and many of the Clergy especially the Orders of Monks and Friars condemned it both in their Sermons and Discourses But the King little regarding the Censures of the Vulgar sent Embassadors to all the Courts of Europe to give notice of his new Marriage and to justifie it by some of those Reasons which have been opened in the former parts of this History He also sent the Lord Mountjoy to the Divorced Queen to let her know what was done and that she was no more to be treated as Queen but as Princess Dowager He was to mix Promises with Threatnings particularly concerning her Daughters being put next the Queens Issue in the Succession But the afflicted Queen would not yield and said she would not damn her Soul nor submit to such an Infamy That she was his Wife and would never call her self by any other Name whatever might follow on it since the Process still depended at Rome That Lord having written a Relation of what had passed between him and her shewed it to her but she dashed with a Pen all those places in which she was called Princess Dowager and would receive no Service at any ones hands but of those who called her Queen and she continued to be still served as Queen by all about her Against which though the King used all the Endeavours he could not without both threatning and violence to some of the Servants yet he could never drive her from it and what he did in that was thought far below that Height of Mind which appeared in his other Actings for since he had stript her of the real Greatness of a Queen it seemed too much to vex her for keeping up the Pageantry of it But the news of this made great impressions elsewhere The Emperor received the Kings justification very coldly and said â—e would consider what he was to do upon it which was looked on as a Dâ—câ—aration of War The French King though he expressed still gâ—eat Friendship to the King yet was now resolved to link himself to the Pope for the crafty Pope apprehending that nothing made the King of England so confident as that he knew his Friendship was necessary to the French King and fearing they had resolved to proceed at once to the puâ—ting down the Papal Authority in their Kingdoms which it appears they had once agreed to do resolved by all means to make sure of the French King which as it would preserve that Kingdom in his obedience so would perhaps frighten the King of England from proceeding to such extremities since that Prince in whose conjunction he trusted so much had forsaken him Therefore the Pope did so vigorously pursue the Treaty with Francis that it was as good as ended at this time and an Interview was projected between them at Marseilles The Pope did also grant him so great Power
Preheminence of the See of Rome flowed only from the Laws of men so there was now good cause to repeal these for the Pope as was said in the Council of Basil was only Vicar of the Church and not of Christ so he was accountable to the Church The Council of Constance and the Divines of Paris had according to the Doctrine of the Ancient Church declared the Pope to be subject to a General Council which many Popes in former Ages had confessed And all that the Pope can claim even by the Canon-Law is only to call and preside in a General Council but not to overrule it or have a Negative vote in it The Power of Councils did not extend to Princes Dominions or Secular Matters but only to points of Faith which they were to declare and to Condemn Hereticks nor were their Decrees Laws till they were Enacted by Princes Upon this he enlarged much to show that though a Council did proceed against a King with which they then Threatned the King that their Sentence was of no force as being without their Sphere The determination of Councils ought to be well considered and examined by the Scriptures and in matters indifferent men ought to be left to their freedom he taxed the severity of Victors Proceedings against the Churches of the East about the day of Easter And concluded that as a Member of the Body is not cut off except a Gangrene comes in it so no part of the Church ought to be cut off but upon a great and inevitable cause And he very largely showed with what moderation and charity the Church should proceed even against those that held errors And the Standard of the Councils definitions should only be taken from the Scriptures and not from mens Traditions He said some General Councils had been rejected by others and it was a tender point how much ought to be deferred to a Council some Decrees of Councils were not at all obeyed The Divines of Paris held that a Council could not make a new Article of Faith that was not in the Scriptures And as all Gods Promises to the people of Israel had this condition implyed within them If they kept his Commandments so he thought the Promises to the Christian Church had this condition in them If they kept the Faith Therefore he had much doubting in himself as to General Councils and he thought that only the word of God was the Rule of Faith which ought to take place in all Controversies of Religion The Scriptures were called Canonical as being the only Rules of the Faith of Christians and these by appointment of the Ancient Councils were only to be read in the Churches The Fathers SS Ambrose Ierome and Austin did in many things differ from one another but always appealed to the Scriptures as the common and certain standard And he cited some remarkable passage out of St. Austin to show what difference he put between the Scriptures and all the other Writings even of the best and holiest Fathers But when all the Fathers agreed in the Exposition of any place of Scripture he acknowledged he looked on that as flowing from the Spirit of God and it was a most dangerous thing to be wise in our own Conceit Therefore he thought Councils ought to found their decisions on the word of God and those expositions of it that had been agreed on by the Doctors of the Church Then he discoursed very largely what a person a Judge ought to be he must not be Partial nor a Judge in his own Cause nor so much as sit on the Bench when it is tryed lest his presence should over-awe others Things also done upon a common error cannot bind when the error upon which they were done comes to be discovered and all human Laws ought to be changed when a publick visible inconvenience follows them From which he concluded that the Pope being a Party and having already passed his Sentence in things which ought to be examined by a General Council could not be a Judge nor sit in it Princes also who upon a common mistake thinking the Pope Head of the Church had sworn to him finding that this was done upon a false ground may pull their Neck out of his Yoke as every man may make his escape out of the hands of a Robber And the Court of Rome was so corrupt that a Pope though he mean't well as Hadrian did yet could never bring any good design to an issue the Cardinals and the rest of that Court being so engaged to maintain their Corruptions These were the Heads of that Discourse which it seems he gave them in writing after he had delivered it but he promised to entertain them with another Discourse of the Power the Bishops of the Christian Church have in their Sees and of the Power of a Christian Prince to make them do their duty but that I could never see and I am afraid it is lost All this I thought necessary to open to show the State of the Court and the Principles that the several Parties in it went upon when the Reformation was first brought under Consideration in the third Period of this Kings Reign to which I am now advanced The end of the Second Book EFFIGIES VERA REVERENDISSIMI D. THOMAE CRANMERI ARCHIEPISCOPI CANTUARIâ—NSIS HHolbein pinxit Natus 1489 Iuly 2. Consecratus 1533 Mar. 30. Martyrio Coronatus 1556 Mar. 21. 〈…〉 THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION OF THE Church of England BOOK III. Of the other Transactions about Religion and Reformation during the rest of the Reign of King Henry the 8th THe King having passed through the Traverses and tossings of his Sute of Divorce and having with the concurrence both of his Clergy and Parliament brought about what he had projected seem'd now at ease in his own Dominions But though matters were carryed in Publick Assemblies smoothly and successfully yet there were many secret discontents which being fomented both by the Pope and the Emperors Agents wrought him great trouble so that the rest of his life was full of vexation and disquiet All that were zealously addicted to that which they called the Old Religion did conclude that what-ever firmness the King expressed to it now was either pretended out of Policy for avoiding the Inconveniences which the fears of a Change might produce or though he really intended to perform what he professed yet the Interests in which he must embarque with the Princess of Germany against the Pope and the Emperor together with the Power that the Queen had over him and the credit Cranmer and Cromâ—ell had with him would prevail on him to change some things in Religion And they look'd on these things as so complicated together that the change of any one must needs make way for change in more since that struck at the Authority of the Church and left people at liberty to dispute the Articles of Faith This they thought was a Gate opened to Heresie
before there was any Act of Parliament made for their Suppression In several Houses the Visitors who were generally either Masters of Chancery or Auditors of the Court of Augmentations studied not only to bring them to resign their Houses but to Sign Confessions of their passed lewd and dissolute lives Of these there is only one now extant which it is like escaped the general rasure and destruction of all Papers of that kind in Queen Maries time But from the Letters that I have seen I perceive there were such Confessions made by many other Houses That Confession of the Prior and Benedictins of St. Andrews in Northampton is to be seen in the Records of the Court of Augmentations In which with the most aggravating expressions that could be devised they acknowledged their past ill life for which the Pitt of Hell was ready to swallow them up They confessed that they had neglected the Worship of God lived in Idleness Gluttony and Sensuality with many other woful expressions to that purpose Other Houses as the Monastery of Betlesden resigned with this Preamble That they did profoundly consider that the manner and trade of living which they and others of their pretended Religion had for a long time followed consisted in some dumb ceremonies and other Constitutions of the Bishops of Rome and other forreign Potentates as the Abbot of Cisteaux by which they were blindly led having no true knowledg of Gods Laws procuring exemptions from their Ordinary and Diocesan by the Power of the Bishop of Rome and submitting themselves wholly to a forreign Power who never came hither to reform their abuses which were now found among them But that now knowing the most perfect way of living is sufficiently declared by Christ and his Apostles and that it was most fit for them to be Governed by the King who was their Supream Head on earth they Submitted themselves to his Mercy and surrendered up their Monastery to him on the 25th of September in the 30th year of his Reign This writing was signed by the Abbot the Sub-prior and nine Monks There are five other Surrenders to the same purpose by the Gray and White Friars of Stamford the Gray-Friars of Coventry Bedford and Ailesbury yet to be seen Some are resigned upon this Preamble That they hoped the King would of new found their House which was otherwise like to be ruined both in Spirituals and Temporals So did the Abbot of Chertsey in Surrey with fourteen Monks on the 14th of Iuly in the 29th year of this Reign whose House was valued at 744 lib. I have some reason to think that this Abbot was for the Reformation and intended to have had his House new founded to be a House of true and well regulated devotion And so I find the Prior of great Malverine in Worcestershire offered such a Resignation He was recommended by Bishop Latimer to Cromwell with an earnest desire that his House might stand not in Monkery but so as to be converted to Preaching Study and Prayer And the good Prior was willing to compound for his House by a Present of 500 Marks to the King and of 200 to Cromwell He is commended for being an old worthy man a good Housekeeper and one that daily fed many poor people To this Latimer adds Alas my good Lord Shall we not see Two or Three in every shire changed to such remedy But the Resolution was taken once to extirpate all And therefore though the Visitors interceded earnestly for one Nunnery in Oxfordshire Godstow where there was great strictness of life and to which were most of the young Gentlewomen of the County were sent to be bred so that the Gentrey of the Country desired the King would spare the House yet all was uneffectual The General Form in which most of these Resignations begins is That the Abbot and Brethren upon full deliberation certain knowledg of their own proper motion for certain just and reasonable causes specially moving them in their Souls and Consciences did freely and of their own accord give and grant their Houses to the King Others it seems did not so well like this preamble and therefore did without any reason or preamble give away their Houses to the Visitors as Feofees in trust for the Kings use And thus they went on procuring daily more surrenders So that in the thirtieth year of the Kings Reign there were 159 Resignations enrolled of which the Originals of 155 do yet remain And for the Readers further satisfaction he shall find in the Collection at the end of this Book the names of all these Houses so surrendred with other particulars relating to them which would too much weary him if inserted in the thread of this Work But there was no Law to force any to make such Resignations So that many of the great Abbots would not comply with the King in this matter and stood it out till after the following Parliament that was in the 31th year of his Reign It was questioned by many whether these surrenders could be good in Law since the Abbots were but Trustees and Tenants for Life It was thought they could not absolutely alienate and give away their House for ever But the Parliament afterwards declared the Resignations were good in Law For by their Foundations all was trusted to the Abbot and the Senior Brethren of the House who putting the Covent-Seal to any Deed it was of force in Law It was also said that they thus surrendering had forfeited their Charters and Foundations and so the King might seize and possess them with a good Title if not upon the Resignation yet upon Forfeiture But others thought that whatsoever the Nicety of Law might give the King yet there was no sort of equity in it that a few Trustees who were either bribed or frighted should pass away that which was none of theirs but only given them in Trust and for Life Other Abbots were more roughly handled The Prior of Wooburn was suspected of favouring the Rebels of being against the Kings Supremacy and for the Popes and of being for the General Council then summoned to Mantua And he was dealt with to make a submission and acknowledgment In an account of a long Conference which he had with a Privy Counsellor under his own hand I find that the great thing which he took offence at was That Latimer and some other Bishops preached against the Veneration of the Blessed Virgin and the other Saints and that the English Bible then set out differed in many things from the Latin with several lesser matters So that they looked on their Religion as changed and wondered that the Judgments of God upon Queen Anne had not terrified others from going on to subvert the Faith yet he was prevailed with and did again submit to the King and acknowledg his Supremacy but he afterwards joyned himself to the Rebels and was taken with them together with the Abbot of Whaley and two
quarter And in the end a Proviso was added concerning vows of Chastity That they should not oblige any except such as had taken them at or above the Age of 21 years or had not been compelled to take them This Act was received by all that secretly favoured Popery with great joy for now they hoped to be revenged on all those who had hitherto set forward a Reformation It very much quieted the Bigots who were now perswaded that the King would not set up Heresie since he passed so severe an Act against it and it made the total Suppression of Monasteries go the more easily thorough The Popish Clergy liked all the Act very well except that severe branch of it against their unchast practices This was put in by Cromwel to make it cut with both edges Some of our inconsiderate Writers who never perused the Statutes tell us it was done by a different Act of Parliament but greater faults must be forgiven them who write upon hearsay There was but one comfort that the poor Reformers could pick out of the whole Act that they were not left to the Mercy of the Clergy and their Ecclesiastical Courts but were to be tryed by a Jury where they might expect more candid and gentle dealing Yet the denying them the benefit of Abjuration was a severity beyond what had ever been put in practise before So now they began to prepare for new storms and a heavy persecution The other chief business of this Parliament was the Suppression of Monasteries It is said in the Preamble of that Act That divers Abbots Priors and other Heads of Religious Houses had since the 4th of February in the 27th year of the Kings Reign without constraint of their own accord and according to the due course of the Common Law by sufficient writings of Record under their Covent-Seals given up their Houses and all that belonged to them to the King Therefore all Houses that were since that time suppressed dissolved relinquished forfeited or given up are Confirmed to the King and his Successors for ever And all Monasteries that should thereafter be suppressed forfeited or given up are also Confirmed to the King and his Successors And all these Houses with the Rents belonging to them were to be disposed of by the Court of Augmentations for the Kings profit excepting only such as were come into the Kings hands by Attaindors of Treason which belonged to the Exchequer Reserving to all persons except the Patrons Founders and Donors of such Houses the same right to any parts of them or jurisdiction in them which they could have claimed if that Act had never been made Then followed many clauses for Annulling all Deeds and Leases made within one year before the Suppression of any Religious House to the prejudice of it or different from what had been granted formerly And all Churches or Chappels which belonged to these Monasteries and were formerly exempted from the Visitation or Jurisdiction of their Ordinary are declared to be within the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of the Diocess or of any other that should be appointed by the King This Act passed in the House of Peers without any Protestation made by any of the Abbots though it appears by the Journal that at the first reading of it there were eighteen Abbots present at the second reading twenty and seventeen at the third reading and the Abbots of Glastenbury Colchester and Reading were among those who were present so little reason there is to think they were attainted for any open withstanding the Kings proceedings when they did not protest against this Act which was so plainly levelled at them It was soon dispatched by the Commons and offered to the Royal Assent By it no Religious Houses were suppressed as is generally taken for granted but only the Surrenders that either had been or were to be made were Confirmed The last Proviso for Annulling all Exemptions of Churches and Chappels had been a great happiness to the Church if it had not been for that Clause That the King might appoint others to visit them which in a great degree did enervate it For many of those who afterwards purchased these Lands with the Impropriated Tithes got this likewise in their Grants that they should be the Visitors of the Churches and Chappels formerly exempted from whence great disorders have since followed in these Churches which not falling within the Bishops Jurisdiction are thought not liable to his Censures so that the Incumbents in them being under no restraints have often been scandalous to the Church and given occasion to those who were disaffected to the Hierarchy to censure the Prelates for these offences which they could not punish since the offenders were thus excepted out of their Jurisdiction This abuse which first sprang from the Ancient Exemptions that were Confirmed or Granted by the See of Rome has not yet met with an effectual Remedy Upon the whole matter this Suppression of Abbies was universally censured and besides the common Exceptions which those that favoured the old Superstition made it was questioned whether the Lands that formerly belonged to Religious Houses ought to have returned to the Founders and Donors by way of Reverter or to have fallen to the Lords of whom the Lands were holden by way of Escheat or to have come to the Crown It is true by the Roman Law or at least by a Judgment of the Senate in Theodosius's time the Endowments of the Heathenish Temples were upon a full debate whether they should return to the right Heirs or be Confiscated in the end adjudged to the Fisc or the Emperors Exchequer upon this reason that by the will of the Donors they were totally alienated from them and their Heirs But in England it went otherwise And when the Order of the Knights-Templers was dissolved it was then judged in favour of the Lord by Escheat For though the Founders and Donors had totally alienated these Lands from themselves and their heirs yet there was no reason from thence to conclude any thing that might wrong the Superior Lord of his Right in the case of an Escheat And this must have held good if those alienations and Endowments had been absolute without any condition But the Endowments being generally rather of the Nature of Covenants and Contracts and made in Consideration of so many Masses to be said for their Souls then it was most just that upon a non-performance of the Condition and when that publick Error and Cheat which the Monks had put upon the World was discovered the Lands should have returned to the Founders and Patrons and their Heirs and Successors Nor was there any grounds for the Lords to pretend to them by Escheat especially where their Ancestors had consented to and confirmed those Endowments Therefore there was no need of Excluding them by any special Proviso But for the Founders and Donors certainly if there had not been a Particular Proviso made against them they might have
of Iuly a Bill was brought in for moderating the Statute of the six Articles in the Clauses that related to the marriage of the Priests or their Incontinency with other Women On the 17th it was agreed by the whole House without a contradictory vote and sent down to the Commons who on the 21th sent it up again By it the pains of Death were turned to forfeitures of their Goods and Chattels and the rents of their Ecclesiastical promotions to the King On the 20th of Iuly a Bill was brought in concerning a Declaration of the Christian Religion and was then read the first 2d and 3d time and passed without any opposition and sent down to the Commons who agreeing to it sent it up again the next day It contained that the King as Supream Head of the Church was taking much pains for an Union among all his Subjects in matters of Religion and for preventing the further progress of Heresie had appointed many of the Bishops and the most learned Divines to declare the principal Articles of the Christian Belief with the Ceremonies and way of Gods service to be observed That therefore a thing of that weight might not be rashly done or hasted through in this Session of Parliament but be done with that care which was requisite Therefore it was Enacted that whatsoever was determined by the Arch-Bishops Bishops and the other Divines now Commissionated for that effect or by any others appointed by the King or by the whole Clergy of England and published by the Kings Authority concerning the Christian Faith or the Ceremonies of the Church should be believed and obeyed by all the Kings Subjects as well as if the particulars so set forth had been ennumerated in this Act any Custom or Law to the Contrary notwithstanding To this a strange Proviso was added which destroyed the former Clause That nothing should be done or determined by the Authority of this Act which was contrary to the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom But whether this Proviso was added by the House of Commons or originally put into the Bill does not appear It was more likely it was put in at the first by the Kings Council for these contradictory Clauses raised the Prerogative higher and left it in the Judges power to determine which of the two should be followed by which all Ecclesiastical matters were to be brought under Tryals at Common Law for it was one of the great designs both of the Ministers and Lawyers at this time to bring all Ecclesiastical Matters to thâ— Cognizance of the Secular Judge But another Bill passed which seems a little odd concerning the circumstances of that time That whereas many Marriages had been annulled in the time of Popery upon the pretence of Precontracts or other degrees of kindred than those that were prohibited by the Law of God Therefore after a Marriage was consummated no pretence of any pre-contract or any degrees of kindred or alliance but those mentioned in the Law of God should be brought or made use of to annull it since these things had been oft pretended only to dissolve a Marriage when the parties grew weary of each other which was contrary to Gods Law Therefore it was Enacted that no pretence of precontract not consummated should be made use of to annull a Marriage duly solemnized and consummated and that no degrees of kindred not mentioned by the Law of God should be pleaded to annull a Marriage This Act gave great occasion of censuring the Kings former proceedings against Queen Anne Boleyn since that which was now condemned had been the pretence for dissolving his Marriage with her Others thought the King did it on design to remove that Impediment out of the way of the Lady Elizabeth's succeeding to the Crown since that judgment upon which she was Illegitimated was now indirectly censured And that other branch of the Act for taking away all prohibitions of Marriages within any degrees but those forbidden in Scripture was to make way for the Kings Marriage with Katherine Howard who was Cousin German to Queen Anne Boleyn for that was one of the prohibited degrees by the Canon Law The Province of Canterbury offered a Subsidy of four shillings in the pound of all Ecclesiastical preferments to be payed in two years and in that acknowledgment of the great liberty they enjoyed by being delivered from the Usurpations of the Bishops of Rome and in recompencâ— the great charges of the King had been at and was still to be at in building Havens Bullwarks and other Forts for the defence of his Coasts and the security of his Subjects This was confirmed in Parliament But that did not satisfie the King who had husbanded the money that came in by the sale of Abbey Lands so ill that now he wanted money and was forced to aske a subsidy for his Marriage of the Parliament this was obtained with great difficulty For it was said That if the King was already in want after so vast an income especially being engaged in no Warr there would be no end of his necessities nor could it be possible for them to supply them But it was answered that the King had laid out a great Treasure in fortifying the Coast and though he was then in no visible Warr yet the charge he was at in keeping up the Warr beyond Sea was equal to the expence of a Warr and much more to the advantage of his people who were kept in peace and plenty This obtained a Tenth and four 15ths After the passing of all these Bills and many others that concerned the publick with several other Bills of Attaindor of some that favoured the Popes Interests or Corresponded with Cardinal Pool which shall be mentioned in another place the King sent in a General Pardon with the Ordinary Exceptions and in particular excepted Cromwel the Countess of Sarum with many others then in person Some of them were put in for opposing the Kings Supremacy and others for transgressing the Statute of the six Articles On the 24th of Iuly the Parliament was dissolved And now Cromwel who had been six weeks a Prisoner was brought to his Execution He had used all the endeavours he could for his own preservation Once he wrote to the King in such melting terms that he made the Letter to be thrice read and seemed touched with it But the charms of Katharine Howard and the endeavours of the Duke of Norfolk and the Bishop of Winchester at length prevailed So a Warrant was sent to cut off his Head on the 28th of Iuly at Tower-hill When he was brought to the Scaffold his kindness to his Son made him very cautious in what he said he declined the purging of himself but said he was by Law condemned to die and thanked God for bringing him to that death for his offences He acknowledged his Sins against God and his offences against his Prince who had raised him from a base degree
issued out a Proclamation That all who had been aggrieved for want of Justice by any whom he had formerly employed should come to him and his Counsel for redress This was done to cast all past miscarrages on Cromwel and to put the people in hopes of better times But upon his return to London he met with a new affliction He was so much taken with his Queen that on All-Saints day when he received the Sacrament he openly gave God thanks for the good life he led and trusted still to lead with her and desired his Ghostly Father to joyn with him in the same Thanksgivging to God But this joy lasted not long for the next day the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury came to him and gave him a doleful account of the Queens ill Life as it had been brought him by one Iohn Lassels Who when the King was in his Progress had told him that his Sister who had been an old Servant of the Duke of Norfolks under whose care the Queen was brought up said to him that the Queen was lewd and that one Francis Deirham had enjoyed her often as also one Mannock with other foul circumstances not fit to be related The Arch-Bishop communicated it to the Lord Chancellor and the other Privy Councellors that were at London They agreed that the Arch-Bishop should open it to the King But he not knowing how to do it in Discourse set it down in writing and put it in the Kings hands When the King read it he seemed much perplexed but loved the Queen so tenderly that he looked on it as a Forgery And now the Arch-Bishop was in extream danger for if full evidence had not been brought it had been certainly turned on him to his ruine The King imparted it to some other Councellors and told them that he could not believe it yet he would try it out but with all possible secrecty So the Lord Privy-Seal was sent to London to examine Lassels who stood to what he had informed Then he sent that same Lord into Sussex where Lassels Sister lived to try if she would justifie what her Brother had reported in her name And she owning it he ordered Deirham and Mannock to be arrested upon some other pretences But they being examined not only confessed what was informed but revealed some other circumstances that shewed the Queen had laid aside all sense of Modesty as well as the fear of a Discovery three several women having been witnesses to these her lewd practices The report of that struck the King into a most profound Pensiveness and he burst out into tears and lamented his misfortune The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and some other Counsellors were sent to examine the Queen She at first denied every thing but when she perceived it was already known she confessed all and set it under her hand There were also evident presumptions that she had intended to continue that Course of Life for as she had got Deirham into her service so she had brought one of the Women who had been formerly privy to their familiarities to serve about her Bed-chamber One Culpeper was also charged upon vehement suspicion For when the King was at Lincoln by the Lady Rochfords means he was brought into the Queens Chamber at 11 a clock in the night and stayed there till four the next morning The Queen also gave him a Gold Chain and a rich Cap. He being examined confessed the Crime for which both Deirham and he suffered Others were also Endited of misprision of Treason and condemned to perpetual Imprisonment But this occasioned a new Parliament to be Summoned On the 16th of Ianuary the Parliament met to which the Bishops of Westminster Chester Peterborough and Glocester had their Writs The Lord Cromwel also had his Writ though I do not find by any Record that he was restored in Blood On the 28th of Ianuary the Lord Chancellor moved the House of Lords to consider the case the King was in by the Queens ill carriage and that there might be no ground of suspition or complaint he proposed that some of their number should be sent to examine the Queen Whereupon the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Duke of Suffolk the Earl of Southampton and the Bishop of Westminster were sent to her How much She Confessed to them is not very clear neither by the Journal nor the Act of Parliament which only says that she confessed without mentioning the particulars Upon this the processes of those that had been formerly attainted being also brought as an Evidence the Act passed in both Houses In it they Petitioned the King First Not to be troubled at the matter since that might be a mean to shorten his Life Secondly To pardon every thing that had been spoken against the Queen Thirdly That the Queen and her Complices might be attainted of High Treason for her taking Deirham into her service and another Woman into her Chamber who had known their former ill Life by which it appeared what she intended to do and then admitting Culpeper to be so long with Her in a vile place so many hours in the night Therefore it is desired that she and they with the Bawd the Lady Rochford may be Attainted of Treason and that the Queen and the Lady Rochford should suffer the pains of Death Fourthly That the King would not trouble himself to give his assent to this Act in his own person but grant it by his Letters Patents under his hand and Great Seal Fifthly That the Dutchess Dowager of Norfolk Countess of Bridgwater the Lord William Howard and his Lady and four other men and five women who were already Attainted by the Course of Common Law except the Dutchess of Norfolk and the Countess of Bridgwater that knew the Queens vicious Life and had concealed it should be all Attainted of Misprision of Treason It was also Enacted that whosoever knew any thing of the Incontinence of the Queen for the time being should reveal it with all possible speed under the pains of Treason And that if the King or his Successors should intend to marry any Woman whom they took to be a pure and clean Maid if she not being so did not declare the same to the King it should be High Treason and all who knew it and did not reveal it were guilty of Misprision of Treason And if the Queen or the Princes Wife should procure any by Messages or words to know her carnally or any other by Messages or words should sollicite them they their Councellors and Abettors are to be adjudged high Traitors This Act being assented to by the Kings Letters Patents the Queen and the Lady Rochford were beheaded on Tower-Hill the 12th of February The Queen confessed the miscarriages of her former life before the King married her But stood absolutely to her denial as to any thing after that and protested to Dr. White afterwards Bishop of Winchester That she took God and his Angels
Father were committed to the Tower That which was most insisted on was their giving the Arms of Edward the Confessor which were only to be given by the Kings of England This the Earl of Surrey justified and said they gave their Arms according to the opinion of the Kings Heraulds But all excuses availed nothing for his Father and he were designed to be destroyed upon reasons of State for which some colours were to be found out The Earl of Surrey being but a Commoner was brought to his Tryal at Guildhall and put upon an Inquest of Commoners consisting of nine Knights and three Esquires by whom he was found guilty of Treason and had Sentence of death passed upon him which was executed on the 19th of Ianuary at Tower-Hill It was generally condemned as an Act of high injustice and severity which loaded the Seimours with a popular Odium that they could never overcome He was much pitied being a man of great parts and high courage with many other Noble Qualities But the King who never hated nor ruined any body by halves resolved to compleat the misfortunes of that Family by the Attaindor of the Father And as all his Eminent Services were now forgotten so the Submissions he made could not allay a displeasure that was only to be satisfied with his Life and Fortune He wrote to the King Protesting his Innocency That he had never a thought to his prejudice and could not imagine what could be laid to his Charge He had spent his whole Life in his Service and did not know that ever he had offended any person or that any were displeased with him except for prosecuting the breakers of the Act about the Sacrament of the Altar But in that and in every thing else as he had been always obedient to the Kings Laws so he was resolved still to obey any Laws he should make He desired he might be examined with his Accusers face to face before the King or at least before his Council and if it did not appear that he was wrongfully accused let him be punished as he deserved In Conclusion he begged the King would have pity on him and restore him to his favour taking all his Lands or Goods from him or as much of them as he pleased Yet all this had no effect on the King So he was desired to make a more formal Submission which he did on the 12th of Ianuary under his hand ten Privy Councellors being Witnesses In it he confessed First his discovering the Secrets of the Kings Council Secondly his concealing his Sons Treason in using to give the Arms of St. Edward the Confessor which did only belong to the King and to which his Son had no Right Thirdly That he had ever since his Fathers death born in the first quarter of his Arms the Arms of England with a difference of the Labells of Silver that are the proper Arms of the Prince which was done in prejudice of the King and the Prince and gave occasion for disturbing or interrupting the Succession to the Crown of the Realm This he acknowledged was high Treason he confessed he deserved to be attainted of high Treason and humbly begged the Kings Mercy and Compassion He yielded to all this hoping by such a Submission and Compliance to have overcome the Kings displeasure but his Expectations failed him A Parliament was called the reason whereof was pretended to be the Coronation of the Prince of Wales But it was thought the true cause of calling it was to Attaint the Duke of Norfolk for which they had not colour enough to do it in a Tryal by his Peers Therefore an Attaindor by Act of Parliament was thought the better way So it was moved that the King intending to Crown his Son Prince of Wales desired they would go on with all possible haste in the Attaindor of the Duke of Norfolk that so these Places which he held by Patent might be disposed of by the King to such as he thought fit who should Assist at the Coronation And upon this slight pretence since a better could not be found The Bill of Attaindor was read the first time on the 18th of Ianuary And on the 19th and 20th it was read the second and third time And so passed in the House of Lords and was sent down to the Commons Who on the 24th sent it up also passed On the 27th the Lords were ordered to be in their Robes That the Royal assent might be given to it which the Lord Chancellor with some others joyned in Commission did give by vertue of the Kings Letters Patents And it had been executed the next Morning if the Kings death had not prevented it Upon what grounds this Attaindor was founded I can only give this Account from the 34th Act of the first Parliament of Queen Mary in which this Act is declared null and void by the Common Law of the Land for I cannot find the Act it self upon Record In the Act of Repeal it is said That there was no special matter in the Act of Attaindor but only general words of Treasons and Conspiracies and that out of their care of the preservation of the King and the Prince they passed it But the Act of Repeal says also That the only thing with which he was charged was For bearing of Arms which he and his Ancestors had born both within and without the Kingdom both in the Kings presence and in the sight of his Progenitors which they might Lawfully bear and give as by good and substantial matter of Record it did appear It is also added That the King dyed after the date of the Commission That the King only empowered them to give his Assent but did not give it himself And that it did not appear by any Record that they gave it That the King did not Sign the Commission with his own hand his Stamp being only set to it and that not to the upper but the nether part of it contrary to the Kings custom All these particulars though cleared afterwards I mention now because they give light to this matter As soon as the Act was passed a Warrant was sent to the Lieutenant of the Tower to cut off his head the next Morning but the King dying in the night the Lieutenant could do nothing on that Warrant And it seems it was not thought advisable to begin the new Kings Reign with such an Odious Execution And thus the Duke of Norfolk escaped very narrowly Both Parties descanted on this differently The Conscientious Papists said it was Gods just Judgment on him who had in all things followed the Kings pleasure oftentimes against his own Conscience That he should smart under that Power which himself had helped so considerably to make it be raised so high The Protestants could not but observe an hand of God in measuring out such a hard measure to him that was so heavy on all those poor people that were
the Supremacy which was matter of Conscience But the King was resolved to let all his Subjects see there was no Mercy to be expected by any that denyed his being Supream head of the Church and therefore made him and More two Examples for terrifying the rest This being much censured beyond Sea Gardiner that was never wanting in the most servile complyances wrote a vindication of the Kings proceedings The Lord Herbert had it in his hands and tells us it was written in elegant Latine but that he thought it too long and others judged it was too vehement to be inserted in his History VERA EFFIGIES THOMAE MORI QVONDAM TOTIUS ANGLIAE CANCELLARII DIGNISSIMI ET H. Holbein pinxit R. White sculpsit Natus 1482 Angliae Cancellarius 1529 Capite truncatus An 1535 Iuly 6. to Printed for Ric Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in St. Pauls Church yard Thus did Sir Thomas More end his days in the 53d year of his age He was a man of rare vertues and excellent parts In his youth he had freer thoughts of things as appears by his Vtopia and his Letters to Erasmus but afterwards he became superstitiously devoted to the interests and passions of the Popish Clergy and as he served them when he was in Authority even to assist them in in all their cruelties so he employed his pen in the same cause both in writing against all the new opinions in general and in particular against Tindal Frith and Barnes as also an unknown Writer who seemed of neither party but reprooved the corruptions of the Clergy and condemned their cruel proceedings More was no Divine at all and it is plain to any that reads his writings that he knew nothing of Antiquity beyond the quotations he found in the Canon-Law and in the Master of the sentences only he had read some of St. Austins treatises for upon all points of Controversie he quotes only what he found in these Collections nor was he at all conversant in the critical learning upon the Scriptures but his peculiar excellency in writing was that he had a natural easie expression and presented all the opinions of Popery with their fair side to the Reader disguising or concealing the black side of them with great Art and was no less dextrous in exposing all the ill consequences that could follow on the Doctrine of the Reformers and had upon all occasions great store of pleasant tales which he applyed wittily to his purpose And in this consists the great strength of his Writings which were designed rather for the Rabble than for Learned men But for justice contempt of money humility and a true generosity of mind he was an example to the Age in which he lived But there is one thing unjustly added to the praise of these two great men or rather feigned on design to lessen the Kings honour that Fisher and he penned the book which the King wrote against Luther This Sanders first published and Bellarmin and others since have taken it up upon his Authority Strangers may be pardoned such errors but they are inexcusable in an English man For in Mores printed works there is a Letter written by him out of the Tower to Cromwel in which he gives an account of his behaviour concerning the Kings Divorce and Supremacy among other particulars one is that when the King shewed him his Book against Luther in which he had asserted the Popes Primacy to be of Divine right More desired him to leave it out since as there had been many contests between Popes and other Princes so there might fall in some between the Pope and the King therefore he thought it was not fit for the King to publish any thing which might be afterwards made use of against himself and advised him either to leave out that point or to touch it very tenderly but the King would not follow his counsel being perhaps so fond of what he had writ that he would rather run himself upon a great inconvenience than leave out any thing that he fancied so well written This shews that More knew that Book was written by the Kings own pen and either Sanders never read this or maliciously concealed it lest it should discover his foul dealing These Executions so terrified all people that there were no further provocations given and all persons either took the Oaths or did so dextrously conceal their opinions that till the Rebellions of Lincolnshire and the North broke out none suffered after this upon a publick account But when these were quieted then the King resolved to make the chief Authors and Leaders of those Commotions publick examples to the rest The Duke of Norfolk proceeded against many of them by Martial Law there were also Tryals at common Law of a great many more that were taken Prisoners and sent up to London The Lords Darcy and Hâ—ssie were tryed by their Peers the Marquis of Exceter sitting Steward And a Commission of Oyer and Terminer being issued out for the Tryal of the rest Sir Robert Constable Sir Iohn Bulmer and his Lady Sir Francis Pigot Sir Stephen Hamilton and Sir Thomas Piercy and Ask that had been their Captain with the Abbots of Whalley Ierveux Bridlington Lenton Woburn and Kingstead and Mackrall the Monk that first raised the Lincolnshire Rebellion with sixteen more were Indicted of high Treason for the late Rebellions And after all the steps of the Rebellion were reckoned up it is added in the Indictment that they had met together on the 17th of Ianuary and consulted how to renew it and prosecute it further being encouraged by the new Risings that were then in the North by which they had forfeited all the favour to which they could have pretended by vertue of the Indemnity that was granted in the end of December and of the pardons which they had taken out They were all found Guilty and had judgment as in cases of Treason divers of them were carryed down into Lincolnshire and Yorkshire and executed in the places where their Treasons were committed but most of them suffered at London and among others the Lady Bulmer whom others call Sir Iohn Bulmers harlot was burnt for it in Smithfield The only censure that passed on this was that advantages were taken on too slight grounds to break the Kings Indemnity and pardon since it does not appear that after their pardon they did any thing more than meet and consult But the Kingdom was so shaken with that Rebellion that if it had not bâ—en for the great conduct of the Duke of Norfolk the King had by all appearance lost his Crown And it will not seem strange that a King especially so tempered as this was had a mind to strike terror into the rest of his Subjects by some signal Examples and to put out of the way the chief leaders of that design nor was it to be wondered at that the Abbots and other Clergy-men who had been so active in
take with the contrary for ye shall say sure they may be and so I for my discharge declare both to the Pope's Holiness and to them If this Noble and Vertuous Prince in this so great and so reasonable a Cause be thus extreamly denied of the grace and lawful favour of the Church the Pope's Holiness shall not fail for the same to lose Him and his Realm the French King and his Realm with many other their Confederates besides those that having particular Quarrels to the Pope and so aforesaid will not fail with diverse other as they daily seek occasions and provoke the King's Highness thereunto which will do the semblable being a thing of another sort to be regarded than the respect to the Emperor for two Cities which nevertheless shall be had well enough and the Emperor neither so evil contented nor so much to be doubted herein as is there supposed This with other words mentioned in your Instructions concerning like matter ye shall declare unto his Holiness and to the said Cardinals and other being your Friends if it come to that point whereby it is not to be doubted but they perceiving the dangers aforesaid shall be glad to exhort and induce his Holiness for the well of himself and the Church to condescend to the King's desire which is as much as can be here thought or devised to be by you done in all Events and Chances And therefore I pray you eft-soons and most instantly require you as afore to handle this Matter with all effect possible Coming to this new Commission when you shall have once attained such thing as shall be sufficient for the King's purpose as is aforesaid and that ye have it in your hands and custody and not afore lest thereby ye might hinder the expedition thereof ye shall by all ways and means possible labour and insist That the King's Highness as need shall be may use and enjoy the benefit of the Decretal being already in my Lord Cardinal Campegius's hands whereunto his Highness and I desire you to put all your effectual labour for the attaining of the Pope's consent thereunto accordingly Ye shall furthermore understand That it is thought here in case as God forbid the Pope should die before ye should have impetrate any thing that may serve to the absolution of the King's Matter That the Colledg of Cardinals have Authority Power and Jurisdiction sede vacante to inhibit avoke ex consequenti to pass and decide the King's Matter seeing that the same is of so high moment and importance concerning the surety of a Prince and his Realm as more amply ye shall perceive in the Chapters ubi Periculum de Electione ne Romani de Iurejurando capite primo de Scismaticis Wherefore the King's pleasure is That ye Mr. Stevins shall diligently weigh and ponder the effect of the said Chapters not only with your self but also with such the King 's Learned Counsel as ye and your Collegues have conducted there and what Jurisdiction sede vacante the Colledg of Cardinals have either by the Common Law usage or prescription which may far better be known there than here And if ye find that the Cardinals have in this the King's Cause and such other like Authority and Jurisdictions to inhibite avoke and decern then in casu mortis Pontificis quod Deus avertat ye shall specially foresee and regard that for none Intercession or pursute made by the Emperor and his Adherents they shall either inhibit or avoke And also if before such Death ye shall not have obtained such thing to the Kings desire and purpose as these present Letters before do purport his Grace's pleasure is That ye shall pursue the effectual expedition of the same at the hands of the said Colledg Sede vacante ne res quae nullam dilationem exposcit tantopere usque ad Electionem novi Pontificis quoquam modo differatur using for this purpose all such Reasons Allegations and Persuasions mentioned in those Letters and your former Instructions as ye shall see and perceive to serve to that effect and so to endeavour and acquit your self that such things may be attained there as may absolve this the King's Matter without any further tract or delay whereby ye shall as afore highly deserve the King's and my special thanks which shall be so acquitted as ye shall have cause to think your pains and diligences therein in the best wise imployed trusting in God that howsoever the World shall come ye shall by one means or other bring the King's Matter which so highly toucheth his Honour and quiet of Mind unto the desired end and perfection Finally Ye shall understand that the French King among other things doth commit at this time to the Bishop of Bayon and Mr. Iohn Ioachim to treat and conclude the Confederation heretofore spoken of between his Holiness and the King's Highness the French King the Venetians and other Potentates of Italy for a continual Army to be entertained to invade Spain in case it stand by the Emperor that the Peace shall not take effect Wherefore the King's pleasure is That ye having conference with them at good length in that Matter do also for your parts sollicite procure and set forth the same entring also on the King's behalf unto the Treaty and conclusion thereof after such manner as your former Instructions and Writings do purport So as like as the French King is determined that his Agents shall join and concur with you in the King's Pursuits and Causes So ye must also concur with them in advancement of their Affairs the successes whereof and of all other your doings there it shall be expedient ye more often notify hitherto than ye do for many times in one whole month no knowledg is had from you which is not meet in those so weighty Matters specially considering that sometime by such as pass to Lyons ye might find the means to send your Letters which should be greatly to the King 's and my consolation in hearing thereby from time to time how the things succeed there I pray you therefore to use more diligence therein as the Kings and my special trust is in you And heartily fare you well From my Palace besides Westminster the sixth day of April The French King hath sent hither an Ambassiate Monsieur de Langes Brother to the said Bishop of Bayon with certain clauses in his Instructions concerning the said Treaty of Confederation the Copy whereof ye shall receive herewith for your better carrying on that Matter Praying God to speed you well and to give you grace to make a good and short end in your Matters And eft-soons fare ye well Your Loving Friend T. Cardin. Eborac XXIII Another Dispatch to the Ambassadours to the same purpose A Duplicate RIght well beloved Friends I commend me unto you in my hearty manner letting you wit that by the hands of Thadeus bearer hereof the King's Highness hath received your several Letters to the
of Bread and Wine The Tenth The Church of Christ hath doth and may lawfully order some Priests to be Ministers of the Sacraments altho the same do not preach nor be not admitted thereunto The Eleventh Priests being once dedicated unto God by the Order of Priesthood and all such Men and Women as have advisedly made Vows unto God of Chastity or Widowhood may not lawfully marry after their said Orders received or Vows made The Twelfth Secret auricular Confession is expedient and necessary to be retained continued and frequented in the Church of Christ. The Thirteenth The Prescience and Predestination of Almighty God altho in it self it be infallible induceth no necessity to the Action of Man but that he may freely use the power of his own will or choice the said Prescience or Predestination notwithstanding I Nicholas Shaxton with my Heart do believe and with my Mouth do confess all these Articles above-written to be true in every part Ne despicias hominem avertentem se a peccato neque improperes ei memento quoniam omnes in corruptione sumus Eccles. 8. XXX A Letter written by Lethington the Secretary of Scotland to Sir William Cecil the Queen of England's Secretary touching the Title of the Queen of Scots to the Crown of England By which it appears that K. Henry's Will was not signed by him I Cannot be ignorant that some do object as to her Majesties Forreign Birth and hereby think to make her incapable of the Inheritance of England To that you know for answer what may be said by an English Patron of my Mistriss's Cause although I being a Scot will not affirm the same that there ariseth amongst you a Question Whether the Realm of Scotland be forth of the Homage and Leageance of England And therefore you have in sundry Proclamations preceding your Warsmaking and in sundry Books at sundry times laboured much to prove the Homage and Fealty of Scotland to England Your Stories also be not void of this intent What the judgment of the Fathers of your Law is and what commonly is thought in this Matter you know better than I and may have better intelligence than I the Argument being fitter for your Assertion than mine Another Question there is also upon this Objection of Forreign Birth that is to say Whether Princes inheritable to the Crown be in case of the Crown exempted or concluded as private Persons being Strangers born forth of the Allegiance of England You know in this case as divers others the State of the Crown the Persons inheritable to the Crown at the time of their Capacity have divers differences and prerogatives from other Persons many Laws made for other Persons take no hold in case of the Prince and they have such Priviledges as other Persons enjoy not As in cases of Attainders and other Penal Laws Examples Hen. 7. who being a Subject was attainted and Ed. 4. and his Father Richard Plantagenet were both attainted all which notwithstanding their Attainders had right to the Crown and two of them attained the same Amongst many Reasons to be shewed both for the differences and that Forreign Birth doth not take place in the case of the Crown as in common Persons the many experiences before the Conquest and since of your King 's do plainly testify 2. Of purpose I will name unto you Hen. 2d Maud the Empress Son and Richard of Bourdeaux the Black Princes Son the rather for that neither of the two was the King of England's Son and so not Enfant du Roy if the word be taken in this strict signification And for the better proof that it was always the common Law of your Realm that in the case of the Crown Forreign Birth was no Bar you do remember the words of the Stat. 25. Ed. 3. where it is said the Law was ever so Whereupon if you can remember it you and I fell out at a reasoning in my Lord of Leicester's Chamber by the occasion of the Abridgment of Rastal wherein I did shew you somewhat to this purpose also these words Infant and Ancestors be in Praedicamento ad aliquid and so Correlatives in such sort as the meaning of the Law was not to restrain the understanding of this word Infant so strict as only to the Children of the King's Body but to others inheritable in remainder and if some Sophisters will needs cavil about the precise understanding of Infant let them be answered with the scope of this word Ancestors in all Provisions for Filii Nepotes and Liberi you may see there was no difference betwixt the first degree and these that come after by the Civil Law Liberorum appellatione comprehenduntur non solum Filii verum etiam Nepotes Pronepotes Abnepotes c. If you examine the Reason why Forreign Birth is excluded you may see that it was not so needful in Princes Cases as in common Persons Moreover I know that England hath oftentimes married with Daughters and married with the greatest Forreign Princes of Europe And so I do also understand that they all did repute the Children of them and of the Daughters of England inheritable in succession to that Crown notwithstanding the Forreign Birth of their Issue And in this case I do appeal to all Chronicles to their Contracts of Marriages and to the opinion of all the Princes of Christendom For tho England be a noble and puissant Country the respect of the Alliance only and the Dowry hath not moved the great Princes to match so often in marriage but the possibility of the Crown in succession I cannot be ignorant altogether in this Matter considering that I serve my Sovereign in the room that you serve yours The Contract of Marriage is extant betwixt the King my Mistris's Grandfather and Queen Margaret Daughter to King Henry the 7 th by whose Person the Title is devolved on my Sovereign what her Fathers meaning was in bestowing of her the World knoweth by that which is contained in the Chronicles written by Polidorus Virgilius before as I think either you or I was born at least when it was little thought that this Matter should come in question There is another Exception also laid against my Soveraign which seems at the first to be of some weight grounded upon some Statutes made in King Hen. 8. time viz. of the 28 th 35 th of his Reign whereby full power and authority was given him the said King Henry to give dispose appoint assign declare and limit by his Letters Patents under his Great Seal or else by his last Will made in writing and signed with his hand at his pleasure from time to time thereafter the Imperial Crown of that Realm c. Which Imperial Crown is by some alledged and constantly affirmed to have been limited and disposed by the last Will and Testament of the said King Hen. 8. signed with his hand before his death unto the Children of the Lady Francis and Elenor Daughter to