Secretaries name went and opened the matter to Cromwel the next day Cromwel was then going to Court and he expected to find the Bearward there looking to deliver the Book to some of Cranmers Enemies he therefore ordered Morice to go along with him Where as they had expected they found the fellow with the Book about him upon whom Cromwel called and took the Book out of his hands threatning him severely for his presumption in medling with a Privy Councellors Book But though Cranmer escaped this hazard yet in London the storm of the late act was falling heavily on them that were obnoxious Shaxton and Latimer the Bishops of Salisbury and Worcester within a week after the Session of Parliament as it appears resigned their Bishopricks For on the 7th of Iuly the Chapters of these Churches Petitioned the King for his leave to fill those Sees they being then vacant by the free Resignation of the former Bishops Upon which the Conge d'Elire for both was granted Nor was this all but they being presented as having spoken against the six Articles were put in Prison where the one lay till the King died and the other till a little before his death as shall be shewn in its proper place There were also Commissions issued out for proceeding upon that Statute and those who were Commissioned for London were all secret favourers of Popery so they proceeded most severely and examined many Witnesses against all who were presented whom they Interrogated not only upon the express words of the Statute but upon all such collateral or presumptive circumstances as might entangle them or conclude them guilty So that in a very little while 500 persons were put in prison and involved in the breach of the Statute Upon this not only Cranmer and Cromwel but the Duke of Suffolk and Audley the Chancellour represented to the King how hard it would be and of what ill consequence to execute the Law upon so many persons So the King was prevailed with to pardon them all and I find no further proceeding upon this Statute till Cromwel fell But the opposite Party used all the Arts possible to insinnuate themselves into the King And therefore to shew how far their compliance would go Bonner took a strange commission from the King on the 12th of November this year It has been certainly Enrolled but it is not there now so that I judge it was razed in that suppression of Records which was in Queen Maries time But as men are commonly more careless at home Bonner has left it on Record in his own Register Whether the other Bishops took such Commissions from this King I know not But I am certain there is none such in Cranmers Register and it is not likely if any such had been taken out by him that ever it would have been razed The Commission it self will be found in the Collection of Papers at the end The substance of it is That since all Jurisdictions both Ecclesiastical and Civil flowed from the King as Supream Head and he was the foundation of all power it became those who exercised it only Precario at the Kings courtesie gratefully to acknowledge that they had it only of his bounty and to declare that they would deliver it up again when it should please him to call for it And since the King had constituted the Lord Cromwel his Vice-gerent in Ecclesiastical affairs yet because he could not look into all those Matters therefore the King upon Bonners petition did Empower him in his own stead to ordain such as he found worthy to present and give institution with all the other parts of Episcopal Authority for which he is duely Commissionated and this to last during the Kings pleasure only And all the parts of the Episcopal Function being reckoned up it concluded with a strict Charge to the Bishop to Ordain none but such of whose Integrity good life and learning he had very good assurance For as the Corruptions of the Christian Doctrine and of mens manners had chiefly proceeded from ill Pastours so it was not to be doubted but good Pastours well-chosen would again reform the Christian Doctrine and the Lives of Christians After he had taken this Commission Bonner might have been well called one of the Kings Bishops The true reason of this profound Compliance was That the Popish party apprehended that Cranmers great interest with the King was chiefly grounded on some opinions he had of the Ecclesiastical Officers being as much subject to the Kings power as all other Civil Officers were And this having endeared him so much to the King therefore they resolved to out-do him in that point But there was this difference that Cranmer was once of that opinion and if he followed it at all it was out of Conscience but Bonner against his Conscience if he had any complied with it Now followed the final dissolution of the Abbeys there are 57 Surrenders upon Record this year The originals of about 30 of these are yet to be seen Thirty seven of them were Abbies or Priories and 20 Nunneries The good House of Godstow now fell with the rest though among the last of them Now the great Parliament Abbots surrendred apace as those of Westminster St. Albans St. Edmundsbury Canterbury St. Mary in York Selby St. Peters in Glocester Cirencester Waltham Winchcombe Malmsbury and Battel Three others were attainted Glassenbury Reading and Colchester The Deeds of the rest are lost Here it will not be unacceptable to the Reader to know who were the Parliamentary Abbots There were in all 28 as they were commonly given Fuller has given a Catalogue of them in three places of his History of Abbies but as every one of these differs from the others so none of them are according to the Journals of Parliliament The Lord Herbert is also mistaken in his account I shall not rise higher in my enquiry than this Reign for anciently many more Abbots and Priors sate in Parliament beside other Clergy that had likewise their Writs and of whose right to sit in the House of Commons there was a question moved in Edward the sixths Reign as shall be opened in its proper place Much less will I presume to determine so great a point in Law whether they sate in the House of Lords as being a part of the Ecclesiastical State or as holding their Lands of the King by Baronage I am only to observe the matter of fact which is That in the Journals of Parliament in this Reign these 28 Abbots had their writs Abington St. Albans St. Austins Canterbury Battel St. Bennets in the Holm Berdeny Cirencester Colchester Coventry Croyland St. Edmundsbury Evesham Glassenbury Glocester Hide Malmsbury St. Maries in York Peterborough Ramsey Reading Selby Shrewsbury Tavenstock Teâ—kesbury Thorney Waltham Westminster and Winchelcomh to whom also the Prior of St. Iohns may be added But besides all these I find that in the 28 year of this King the Abbot
me not neither yet I am wont to vaunt my self of well-doing I know who worketh all that is well wrought by me and whereas he is the whole Doer I intend not to offer him this wrong to labour and I to take the thanks yet as I do not cease to give thanks that that it hath pleased his Goodness to use me as an Instrument and to work somewhat by me so I trust I am as ready to serve him in my Calling to my little power as ye are prest to write worse of me than ye ought to think My Prayer is That God give me no longer life than I shall be glad to use mine Office in aedificationem and not in destructionem as ye bear me in hand I do God ye say will judg such using of Authority meaning flatly that I do abuse such Power as hath pleased God and the King's Highness to set me in God I say will judg such Judges as yeare and charge also such thoughts as ye misuse ye do not so well as I would ye should do if ye so think of me as your Letters make me think ye do The Crime that ye charge me withal is greater than I may or ought to bear untruer I trust than they that would fainest shall be able to prove It is a â—trange thing you say that I neither would write nor send you word by mouth what ye should do with the Popish Monks of Abington and that the Abbot of Redding could get streight-way my Letters to inhibit your just doings That was not my mind which I wrote I did not intend to lett your just doings but rather to require you to do justly neither I was swift in granting my Letters to him albeit I am much readier to help him that complains of wrong than prest to further on him that desireth punishment of a Person whom I am not sure hath offended I made you no answer a strange thing my Lord I thought ye had better known my Business than for such a Matter to esteem me not your Friend you might have better judged that I was too much cumbred with other Affairs that those which sued for the Abbot could better espy their time than you could Some Man will think it rather utter displeasure conceived before than that ye have any urgent occasion here to misjudg my mind towards you As concerning your Manor you must use your Priviledges as things lent unto you so long as ye shall occupy them well that is according to the mind and pleasure of them that gave you them I took neither the Monk's Cause nor any other into my hands to be a bearer of any such whom their upright dealings is not able to bear No you know I think that I love such readers of Scripture as little as ye do would God Men of your sort were as diligent to see that in all their Diocesses good were made as I am glad to remove things when I know them if ye had taken even then but half the pains to send up such things against him as ye now send neither you should have had cause no nor occasion thus easily to divine of my good or evil-will towards you nor I have been cumbred with this answer My Lord I pray you while I am your Friend take me to be so for if I were not or if I knew any cause why I ought not I would not be afraid to show you what had alienated my mind from you so you should well perceive that my displeasure should last no longer than there were cause I pass over your Nemo laeditur nisi a seipso I pray with you this first part Our Lord have pity upon me the other part is not in my Prayers That God should turn my heart for he is my Judg I may err in my doings for want of knowledg but I willingly bear no misdoers I willingly hurt none whom honesty and the King's Laws do not refuse Undo not you your self I intend nothing less than to work you any displeasure If hitherto I have shewed you any pleasure I am glad of it I showed it to your Qualities and not to you if they tarry with you my good-will cannot depart from you except your Prayer be heard that is My Heart be turned I assure you I am right-glad ye are in the place ye are in and will do what shall lie in me to aid you in your Office to maintain your Reputation to give you credit among your Flock and elsewhere as long as I shall see you faithful to your Duty according to your Calling I will not become your good Lord as your desire is I am and have been your Friend and take you to be mine cast out vain suspition let rash Judgment rule Men of less wit and discretion wilfulness becometh all Men better than a Bishop which should always teach us to lack gladly our own Will because you may not have your own Will Here is Christus paup facit ditat cum Dominus dedit Dominus abstulit to what purpose Sit nomen Domini benedictum can never lack his place it becometh alwise in season or else as great a Divine as ye are I would say it were not the best Placed here except you wist better you had rather lose all than any part of your will I pray you teach Patience better in your Deeds or else speak as little of it as ye can My Lord you might have provoked an other in my place that would have used less patience with you finding so little in you but I can take your Writings and this Heat off your Stomach even as well as I can I trust beware of Flatterers As for the Abbot of Redding and his Monk if I find them as ye say they are I will order them as I shall think good ye shall do well to do your Duty if you so do ye have no cause to mistrust my Friendship if ye do not I must tell it you and that somewhat after the plainest sort To take a Cause out of your hands into mine I do but mine Office you meddle further than your Office will bear you thus roughly to handle me for using of mine If ye do so no more I let pass all that is past and offer you such kindness as ye shall lawfully desire at my hands Thus fare you well IX The Sentence given out by Pope Paul the third against King Henry Damnatio Excommunicatio Henrici 8. Regis Angliae ejusque Fautorum Complicum cum aliarum poenarum adjectione Paulus Episcopus Servus Servorum Dei ad perpetuam rei memoriam EJus qui immobilis permanens sua providentia ordine mirabili dat cuncta moveri disponente clementia vices licet immeriti gerentes in terris in sede justitiae constituti juxta prophetae quoque Hieremiae vaticinium dicentis Ecce te constitui super gentes Regna ut evellas destruas aedifices plantes praecipuum super omnes
the Commandment is conceived in general words yet there are some exceptions to be admitted as though it be said Thou shalt not kill yet in some cases we may lawfully kill so in the case of justice a Judge may lawfully sit on his Father But Doctor Veysey's Argument was that which took most with all that were present He said it was certain that the Laws of the Church did not bind any but those who received them To prove this he said that in old times all secular Priests were Married but in the days of St. Augustine the Apostle of England there was a Decree made to the contrary which was received in England and in many other places by vertue whereof the Secular Priests in England may not Marry but this Law not being universally received the Greek Church never judged themselves bound by it so that to this day the Priests in that Church have Wives as well as other secular men If then the Churches of the East not having received the Law of the Celibate of the Clergy have never been condemned by the Church for not obeying it then the conveening Clerks having been always practised in England was no sin notwithstanding the Decree to the contrary which was never received here Nor is this to be compared to those priviledges that concern only a Private mans Interest for the Common-Wealth of the whole Realm was chiefly to be lookt at and to be preferred to all other things When the Matter was thus argued on both sides all the Judges delivered their Opinions in these words That all those of the Convocation who did award the Citation against Standish were in the case of a Premunire facias and added somewhat about the Constitution of the Parliament which being forreign to my business and contrary to a received opinion I need not mention but refer the Reader to Keilway for his Information if he desires to know more of it and thus the Court broke up But soon after all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal with many of the House of Commons and all the Judges and the Kings Council were called before the King to Baynards Castle and in all their presence the Cardinal kneeled down before the King and in the name of the Clergy said That none of them intended to do any thing that might derogate from his Prerogative and least of all himself who owed his advancement only to the Kings favour But this matter of Conveening of Clerks did seem to them all to be contrary to the Laws of God and the Liberties of the Church which they were bound by their Oaths to maintain according to their Power Therefore in their name he humbly begged That the King to avoid the Censures of the Church would refer the Matter to the decision of the Pope and his Council at the Court of Rome To which the King answered It seems to us that Doctor Standish and others of our Spiritual Council have answered you fully in all points The Bishop of Winchester replyed Sir I warrant you Doctor Standish will not abide by his Opinion at his peril But the Doctor said what should one poor Frier doe alone against all the Bishops and Clergy of England After a short silence the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury said That in former times divers holy Fathers of the Church had opposed the execution of that Law and some of them suffered Martyrdome in the Quarrel To whom Fineux Lord Chief Justice said That many holy Kings had mantained that Law and many holy Fathers had given Obedience to it which it is not to be presumed they would have done had they known it to be contrary to the Law of God and he desired to know by what Law Bishops could judge Clerks for Felony it being a thing only determined by the Temporal Law so that either it was not at all to be tryed or it was only in the Temporal Court so that either Clerks must do as they please or be tryed in the Civil Courts To this no Answer being made the King said these words By the Permission and Ordinance of God we are King of England and the Kings of England in times past had never any Superiour but God only Therefore know you well that we will maintain the Right of our Crown and of our Temporal Iurisdiction as well in this as in all other points in as ample manner as any of our Progenitours have done before our time And as for your Decrees we are well assured that you of the Spirituality go expresly against the words of divers of them as hath been shewed you by some of our Council and you interpret your Decrees at your pleasure but we will not agree to them more than our Progenitors have done in former times But the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury made most humble Instance that the Matter might be so long respited till they could get a Resolution from the Court of Rome which they should procure at their own Charges and if it did consist with the Law of God they should conform themselves to the Law of the Land To this the King made no answer but the Warrants being out against Doctor Horsey the Bishop of London's Chancellour he did abscond in the Arch-Bishops house though it was pretended he was a Prisoner there till afterwards a temper was found that Horsey should render himself a Prisoner in the Kings Bench and be tryed But the Bishop of London made earnest Applications to the Cardinal that he would move the King to command the Attourney-General to confess the Inditement was not true that it might not be referred to a Jury since he said the Citizens of London did so favour Heresie that if he were as Innocent as Abel they would find any Clerk guilty The King not willing to irritate the Clergy too much and judging he had maintained his Prerogative by bringing Horsey to the Bar ordered the Attourney to do so And accordingly when Horsey was brought to the Bar and Endited of Murder he pleaded Not guilty which the Attourney acknowledging he was dismissed and went and lived at Exeter and never again came back to London either out of fear or shame And for Doctor Standish upon the Kings Command he was also dismissed out of the Court of Convocation It does not appear that the Pope thought fit to interpose in this Matter For though upon less Provocations Popes had proceeded to the highest Censures against Princes yet this King was otherwise so necessary to the Pope at this time that he was not to be offended The Clergy suffered much in this business besides the loss of their reputation with the people who involved them all in the guilt of Hunne's Murder for now their Exemption being well examined was found to have no foundation at all but in their own Decrees and few were much convinced by that authority since upon the matter it was but a judgment of their own in their own favours nor was the City of London at all satisfied with
and lawful as it had been many Ages before to change Secular Prebends into Canons Regular the endowed Goods being still applied to a Religious use And it was thought hard to say That if the Pope had the absolute Power of dispensing the Spiritual Treasure of the Church and to translate the Merits of one man and apply them to another that he had not a much more absolute Power over the Temporal Treasure of the Church to translate Church-Lands from one use and apply them to another And indeed the Cardinal was then so much considered at Rome as a Pope of another world that whatever he desired he easily obtained Therefore on the 3 d. of April 1524. Pope Clement by a Bull gave him Authority to suppress the Monastery of St. Frediswood in Oxford and in the Diocess of Lincoln and to carry the Monks elsewhere with a very full non obstante To this the King gave his assent the 19 th of April following After this there followed many other Bulls for other Religious Houses and Rectories that were Impropriated These Houses being thus suppressed by the Law they belonged to the King who thereupon made them over to the Cardinal by new and special Grants which are all Enrolled And so he went on with these great Foundations and brought them to Perfection That at Oxford in the 18 th year and that at Ipswich in the 20 th year of the Kings Reign as appears by the Dates of the Kings Patents for Founding them In the last Place I come to shew the new opinions in Religion or those that were accounted new then in England and the State and Progress of them till the 19th year of the Kings Reign From the days of Wickliffe there were many that disliked most of the received Doctrines in several parts of the Nation The Clergy were at that time very hateful to the people for as the Pope did exact heavily on them so they being oppressed took all means possible to make the people repay what the Popes wrested from them Wickliffe being much encouraged and supported by the Duke of Lancaster and the Lord Piercy the Bishops could not proceed against him till the Duke of Lancaster was put from the King and then he was condemned at Oxford Many opinions are charged upon him but whether he held them or not we know not but by the Testimonies of his Enemies who write of him with so much passion that it discredits all they say yet he dyed in peace though his body was afterwards burnt He translated the Bible out of Latine into English with a long Preface before it in which he reflected severely on the corruptions of the Clergy and condemned the Worshipping of Saints and Images and denyed the corporal Presence of Christs Body in the Sacrament and exhorted all people to the Study of the Scriptures His Bible with this Preface was well received by a great many who were led into these Opinions rather by the Impressions which common sense and plain Reason made on them than by any deep Speculation or Study For the followers of this Doctrine were illiterate and ignorant men some few Clerks joyned to them but they formed not themselves into any body or association and were scattered over the Kingdom holding these Opinions in private without making any publick Profession of them Generally they were known by their disparaging the superstitious Clergy whose Corruptions were then so notorious and their Cruelty so enraged that no wonder the people were deeply prejudiced against them Nor were the methods they used likely to prevail much upon them being severe and cruel In the Primitive Church though in their Councils they were not backward to pass Anathematisms on every thing that they judged Heresie yet all Capital proceedings against Hereticks were condemned and when two Bishops did prosecute Priscillian and his followers before the Emperor Maximus upon which they were put to death they were generally so blamed for it that many refused to hold Communion with them The Roman Emperors made many Laws against Hereticks for the fining and banishing of them and secluded them from the Priviledges of other Subjects such as making Wills or receiving Legacies only the Manichees who were a strange mixture between Heathenism and Christianity were to suffer death for their errors Yet the Bishops in those days particularly in Africk doubted much whether upon the Insolencies of Hereticks or Schismaticks they might desire the Emperor to execute those Laws for Fining Banishing and other restraints And St. Austin was not easily prevailed on to consent to it But at length the Donatists were so intolerable that after several Consultations about it they were forced to consent to those inferiour penalties but still condemned the taking away of their lives And even in the Execution of the Imperial Laws in those inferiour punishments they were always interposing to moderate the severity of the Prefects and Governours The first Instance of severity on mens bodies that was not censured by the Church was in the Fifth Century under Iustine the first who Ordered the tongue of Severus who had been Patriarch of Antioch but did daily Anathematise the Council of Chalcedon to be cut out In the Eighth Century Iustinian the 2d called Rhinotmetus from his cropt nose burnt all the Manichees in Armenia And in the end of the Eleventh Century the Bogomili were condemned to be burnt by the Patriarch and Council of Constantinople But in the end of the 12 and in the beginning of the 13th Century a Company of Simple and Innocent persons in the Southern parts of France being disgusted with the Corruptions both of the Popish Clergy and of the publick Worship separated from their Assemblies and then Dominick and his brethren-Preachers who came among them to convince them finding their Preaching did not prevail betook themselves to that way that was sure to silence them They perswaded the Civil Magistrates to burn all such as were judged Obstinate Hereticks That they might do this by a Law the Fourth Council of Lateran did Decree that all Hereticks should be delivered to the Secular Power to be extirpated they thought not fit to speak out but by the Practise it was known that Burning was that which they meant and if they did it not they were to be Excommunicated and after that if they still refused to do their duty which was upon the matter to be the Inquisitors Hangmen they were to deny it at their utmost Perils For not only the Ecclesiastical Censures but Anathema's were thought too feeble a punishment for this Omission Therefore a Censure was found out as severe upon the Prince as Burning was to the poor Heretick He was to be deposed by the Pope his Subjects to be absolved from their Oaths of Allegiance and his Dominions to be given away to any other faithful Son of the Church such as pleased the Pope best and all this by the Authority of a Synod that passed for a Holy General Council
which they were also to deliver They had likewise a secret Instruction by all means to endeavour that Cardinal Campegio should be the Legate he had the reputation of a Learned Canonist and they knew he was a tractable man and besides that he was Bishop of Salisbury the King had obliged him by the grant of a Palace which the King was building in Burgo at Rome for his Ambassadors which before it was finished he had by a Patent given to him and his heirs so they had better hopes of him than of any other By these Ambassadors the Cardinal wrote a long and most earnest Letter to Iohn Cassali the Proto-Notarie that was the Ambassadors Brother In which all the Arguments that a most anxious mind could invent or dictate are laid together to perswade the Pope to grant the Kings desires Among other things he tells him How he had engaged to the King that the Pope would not deny it That the King both out of scruple of Conscience and because of some Diseases in the Queen that were incurable had resolved never to come near her more and that if the Pope continued out of his partial respects to the Emperor to be inexorable the King would proceed another way He offers to take all the blame of it upon his own Soul if it were amiss with many other particulars in which he is so pressing that I cannot imagine what moved the Lord Herbert who saw those Letters to think that the Cardinal did not really intend the Divorce He it seems saw another Paper of their Instructions by which they were ordered to say to the Pope that the Cardinal was not the Author of the Counsel But all that was intended by that was only to excuse him so far that he might not be thought too partial and an incompetent Judge For as he was far from disowning the justice of the Kings Sute so he would not have trusted a Secret of that Importance to paper which when it should be known to the King would have lost him his favour But undoubtedly it was concerted between the King and him to remove an Exception which otherwise the Cardinals of the Imperial Faction would have made to his being the Judg in that matter With those Letters and Instructions were Gardiner and Fox sent to Rome where both the Cassalies and Staphileus were promoting the Kings business all they could And being strengthned with the Accession of those other two they made a greater progress so that in April the Pope did in Consistory Declare Cardinal Campegio Legate to go to England that he with the Cardinal of York might try the validity of the Kings Marriage But that Cardinal made great excuses he was then Legate at Rome in which he had such advantages that he had no mind to enter in a business which must for ever engage either the Emperor or the King against him He also pretended an Inability to travel so great a journey being much subject to the Gout But when this was known in England the Cardinal wrote him a most earnest Letter to hasten over and bring with him all such things as were necessary for making their Sentence firm and irreversible so that it might never again be Questioned But here I shall add a Remark which though it is of no great importance yet will be diverting to the Reader The draught of the Letter is in Wolsey's Secretaries hand amended in some places by his own and concluded thus I hope all things shall be done according to the Will of God the desire of the King the Quiet of the Kingdom and to our honour with a good Conscience But the Cardinal dasht out this last word with a good Conscience Perhaps judging that was a thing fit for meaner persons but that it was below the Dignity of two Cardinals to consider it much He wrote also to Cassali high complements for his diligence in the Step that was made but desired him with all possible means to get the Bull granted and trusted to his keeping with the deepest Protestations that no use should be made of it but that the King only should see it by which his mind would be at ease and he being put in good hopes would employ his Power in the service of the Pope and Apostolick See but the Pope was not a man to be cozen'd so easily When the Cardinal heard by the next Dispatch what excuses and delays Campegio made he wrote to him again and pressed his coming over in haste For his being Legate of Rome he desired him to name a Vice-Legate For his want of Money and Horses Gardiner would furnish him as he desired and he should find an equipage ready for him in France and he might certainly expect great rewards from the King But if he did not make more haste the King would incline to believe an advertisement that was sent him of his turning over to the Emperors Party Therefore if he either valued the Kings kindness or were grateful for the favours he had received from him if he valued the Cardinals Friendship or safety or if he would hinder the diminution of the Authority of the Roman Church all excuses set aside he must make what haste in his Journey was possible Yet the Legate made no great haste for till October following he came not into England The Bull that was desired could not be obtained but another was granted which perhaps was of more force because it had not those extraordinary Clauses in it There is the Copy of a Bull to this purpose in the Cottonian Library which has been printed more than once by some that have taken it for a Copy of the same Bull that was sent by Campegio but I take it to be rather a Copy of that Bull which the Pope Signed at Rome while he was there a Prisoner and probably afterward at Orvieto he might give it the date that it bears 1527. Decemb. 17. But that there was a Decretal Bull sent by Campegio will appear evidently in the sequel of this Relation About this time I meet with the first evidence of the progress of the Kings love to Anne Boleyn in two Original Letters of hers to the Cardinal from which it appears not only that the King had then resolved to Marry her but that the Cardinal was privy to it They bear no date but the matter of them shews they were written after the end of May when the Sweating-sickness began and about the time that the Legate was expected They give such a light to the History that I shall not cast them over to the Collection at the end but set them down here MY Lord in my most humblest wise that my heart can think I desire you to pardon me that I am so bold to trouble you with my simple and rude writing esteeming it to proceed from her that is much desirous to know that your Grace does well as I perceive by this
Bearer that you do The which I pray God long to continue as I am most bound to pray for I do know the great pains and troubles that you have taken for me both day and night is never like to be recompenced on my part but alonly in loving you next unto the Kings Grace above all creatures living And I do not doubt but the daily proofs of my deeds shall manifestly declare and affirm my writing to be true and I do trust you do think the same My Lord I do assure you I do long to hear from you news of the Legate for I do hope and they come from you they shall be very good and I am sure you desire it as much as I and more and it were possible as I know it is not and thus remaining in a stedfast hope I make an end of my Letter written with the hand of her that is most bound to be THe writer of this Letter would not cease till she had caused me likewise to set to my hand desiring you though it be short to take it in good part I ensure you there is neither of us but that greatly desireth to see you and much more joyous to hear that you have scaped this Plague so well trusting the fury thereof to be passed specially with them that keepeth good diet as I trust you do The not hearing of the Legates Arrival in France causeth us somewhat to muse notwithstanding we trust by your diligence and vigilancy with the assistance of Almighty God shortly to be eased out of that trouble No more to you at this time but that I pray God send you as good health and prosperity as the Writer would By Your Loving Soveraign and Friend Henry K. Your Humble Servant Anne Boleyn MY Lord In my most humblest wise that my poor heart can think I do thank your Grace for your kind Letter and for your rich and goodly Present the which I shall never be able to deserve without your help of the which I have hitherto had so great plenty that all the days of my life I am most bound of all Creatures next the King's Grace to love and serve your Grace of the which I beseech you never to doubt that ever I shall vary from this thought as long as any breath is in my body And as touching your Graces trouble with the sweat I thank our Lord that them that I desired and prayed for are scaped and that is the King and you not doubting but that God has preserved you both for great causes known alonly of his high wisdom And as for the coming of the Legate I desire that much and if it be God's pleasure I pray him to send this matter shortly to a good end and then I trust My Lord to recompence part of your great pains In the which I must require you in the mean time to accept my good-will in the stead of the power the which must proceed partly from you as our Lord knoweth to whom I beseech to send you long life with continuance in honour Written with the hand of her that is most bound to be Your Humble and Obedient Servant Anne Boleyn The Cardinal hearing that Campegius had the Decretal Bull committed to his Trust to be shewed only to the King and himself wrote to the Ambassador that it was necessary it should be also shewed to some of the Kings Council not to make any use of it but that thereby they might understand how to manage the Process better by it This he begged might be trusted to his care and fidelity and he undertook to manage it so that no kind of danger could arise out of it At this time the Cardinal having Finished his Foundations at Oxford and Ipswich and finding they were very acceptable both to the King and to the Clergy resolved to go on and suppress more Monasteries and erect new Bishopricks turning some Abbies to Cathedrals This was proposed in the Consistory and granted as appears by a dispatch of Cassali's He also spoke to the Pope about a general Visitation of all Monasteries And on the 4th of November the Bull for suppressing some was expected a Copy whereof is yet extant but written in such a hand that I could not read three words together in any place of it and though I tried others that were good at reading all hands yet they could not do it But I find by the dispatch that the Pope did it with some aversion and when Gardiner told him plainly it was necessary and it must be done he paused a little and seemed unwilling to give any further offence to Religious Orders But since he found it so uneasie to gratifie the King in so great a Point as the matter of his Divorce he judged it the more necessary to mollifie him by a compliance in all other things So there was a power given to the Two Legates to examine the state of the Monasteries and to suppress such as they thought fit and convert them into Bishopricks and Cathedrals While matters went thus between Rome and England the Queen was as active as she could be to engage her Two Nephews the Emperor and his Brother to appear for her She complained to them much of the King but more of the Cardinal She also gave them notice of all the Exceptions that were made to the Bull and desired both their advice and assistance They having a mind to perplex the Kings Affairs advised her by no means to yield nor to be induced to enter into a Religious life and gave her assurance that by their Interest at Rome they would support her and maintain her Daughters Title if it went to extremities And as they employed all their agents at Rome to serve her concerns so they consulted with the Canonists about the force of the Exceptions to the Bull. The issue of which was that a Breve was found out or forged that supplied some of the most material defects in the Bull. For whereas in the Bull the Preamble bore that the King and Queen had desired the Popes Dispensation to Marry that the Peace might continue between the Two Crowns without any other cause given In the preamble of this Breve mention is made of their desire to Marry because otherwise it was not likely that the Peace would be continued between the Two Crowns And for that and divers other reasons they asked the Dispensation Which in the body of the Breve is granted bearing date the 26th of December 1503. Upon this they pretended that the Dispensation was granted upon good Reasons since by this Petition it appeared that there were fears of a Breach between the Crowns And that there were also other reasons made use of though they were not named But there was one Fatal thing in it In the Bull it is only said That the Queens Petition bore That perhaps she had Consummated her Marriage with Prince Arthur by the
his Ambassadors it is plain that both the King and Queen came in Person into the Court where they both sate with their Council standing about them The Bishops of Rochester and St. Asaph and Doctor Ridley being the Queens Council When the King and Queen were called on the King answered Here but the Queen left her seat and went and kneeled down before him and made a Speech that had all the Insinuations in it to raise pity and compassion in the Court She said She was a poor woman and a stranger in his Dominions where she could neither expect good Council nor indifferent Judges she had been long his Wife and desired to know wherein she had offended him she had been his Wife twenty years and more and had born him several Children and had ever studied to please him and protested he had found her a true Maid about which she appealed to his own Conscience If she had done any thing amiss she was willing to be put away with shame Their Parents were esteemed very wise Princes and no doubt had good Counsellors and Learned men about them when the Match was agreed Therefore she would not submit to the Court nor durst her Lawyers who were his Subjects and assigned by him speak freely for her So she desired to be excused till she heard from Spain That said she rose up and made the King a low Reverence and went out of the Court. And though they called after her she made no answer but went away and would never again appear in Court She being gone the King did publickly Declare what a true and obedient Wife she had always been and commended her much for her excellent Qualities Then the Cardinal of York desired the King would witness whether he had been the first or chief mover of that matter to him since he was suspected to have done it In which the King did vindicate him and said That he had always rather opposed it and protested it arose meerly out of a scruple in his Conscience which was occasioned by the Discourse of the French Ambassador who during the Treaty of a Match between his Daughter and the Duke of Orleance did except to her being Legitimate as begotten in an unlawful Marriage upon which he resolved to try the lawfulness of it both for the quiet of his Conscience and for clearing the Succession of the Crown And if it were found lawful he was very well satisfied to live still with the Queen But upon that he had first moved it in Confession to the Bishop of Lincoln then he had desired the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to gather the Opinions of the Bishops who did all under their Hands and Seals Declare against the Marriage This the Arch-Bishop confirmed but the Bishop of Rochester denied his Hand was at it And the Arch-Bishop pretended he had his consent to make another write his name to the Judgment of the rest which he positively denied The Court Adjourned to the 25th ordering Letters Monitory to be Issued out for Citing the Queen to appear under pain of Contumacy But on the 25th was brought in her Appeal to the Pope the Original of which is extant every page being both Subscribed and Superscribed by her She excepted both to the Place to the Judges and to her Council in whom she could not confide and therefore appealed and desired her Cause might be heard by the Pope with many things out of the Canon-Law on which she grounded it This being read and she not appearing was Declared Contumax Then the Legates being to proceed ex officio drew up Twelve Articles upon which they were to examine witnesses The substance of them was That Prince Arthur and the King were Brothers that Prince Arthur did Marry the Queen and Consummated the Marriage that upon his death the King by vertue of a Dispensation had Married her that this Marrying his Brothers Wife was forbidden both by Humane and Divine Law and that upon the complaints which the Pope had received he had sent them now to try and judge in it The Kings Council insisted most on Prince Arthur's having Consummated the Marriage and that led them to say many things that seemed indecent of which the Bishop of Rochester complained and said they were things detestable to be heard but Cardinal Wolsey 〈◊〉 him and there passed some sharp words between them The Legates proceeded to the Examination of Witnesses of which I shall say little the substance of their Depositions being fully set down with all their names by the Lord Herbert The sum of what was most material in them was that many violent presumptions appeared by their Testimonies that Prince Arthur did carnally know the Queen And it cannot be imagined how greater proofs could be made 27 years after their Marriage Thus the Court went on several days Examining Witnesses but as the matter was going on to a conclusion there came an Avocation from Rome Of which I shall now give an Account The Queen wrote most earnestly to her Nephews to procure an Avocation protesting she would suffer any thing and even death it self rather than depart from her Marriage that she expected no justice from the Legates and therefore lookt for their assistance that her appeal being admitted by the Pope the Cause might be taken out of the Legates hands Campegio did also give the Pope an account of their Progress and by all means advised an Avocation for by this he thought to excuse himself to the King to oblige the Emperor much and to have the reputation of a man of Conscience The Emperor and his Brother Ferdinand sent their Ambassadors at Rome orders to give the Pope no rest till it were procured and the Emperor said He would look on a Sentence against his Aunt as a dishonour to his Family and would lose all his Kingdoms sooner than endure it And they plied the Pope so warmly that between them and the English Ambassadors he had for some days very little rest To the one he was kind and to the other he resolved to be civil The English Ambassadors met oft with Salviati and studied to perswade him that the Process went not on in England but he told them their Intelligence was so good that whatever they said on that head would not be believed They next suggested that it was visible Campegio's advising an Avocation was only done to preserve himself from the envy of the Sentence and to throw it wholly on the Pope for were the matter once called to Rome the Pope must give Sentence one way or another and so bear the whole burden of it There were also secret surmises of Deposing the Pope if he went so far for seeing that the Emperor prevailed so much by the terrors of that the Cardinal resolved to try what operation such threatnings in the Kings name might have But they had no Armies near the Pope so that big words did only provoke and alienate him
proper judge in that And it was odds but he would judge favourably for himself The Court Adjourned to the 12th and from that to the 14th On these days the Depositions of the rest of the Witnesses were taken and some that were ancient Persons were examined by a Commission from the Legates and all the Depositions were published on the 17th other instruments relating to the Process were also read and verified in Court On the 21th the Court saâ—e to conclude the matter as was expected and the Instrument that the King had Signed when he came of Age protesting that he would not stand to the Contract made when he was under Age was then read and verified Upon which the Kings Council of whom Gardiner was the chief closed their Evidence and summed up all that had been brought and in the Kings name desired Sentence might be given But Campegio pretending that it was fit some interval should be between that and the Sentence put it off till the 23th being Friday and in the whole Process he presided both being the ancienter Cardinal and chiefly to show great equity since exceptions might have been taken if the other had appeared much in it so that he only sate by him for form But all the Orders of the Court were still directed by Campegio On Friday there was a great appearance and a general expectation but by a strange surprize Campegio Adjourned the Court to the 1st of October for which he pretended that they sate there as a part of the Consistory of Rome and therefore must follow the Rules of that Court which from that time till October was in a Vacation and heard no Causes And this he averred to be true on the word of a true Prelate The King was in a Chamber very near where he heard what passed and was inexpressibly surprized at it The Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk were in Court and complained much of this delay and pressed the Legates to give Sentence Campegio answered that what they might then pronounce would be of no force as being in Vacation-time but gave great hopes of a favourable Sentence in the beginning of October Upon which the Lords spake very high And the Duke of Suffolk with great Commotion Swore by the Mass that he saw it was true which had been commonly said That never Cardinal yet did good in England and so all the Temporal Lords went away in a fury leaving the Legates Wolsey especially in no small perplexity Wolsey knew it would be suspected that he understood this before-hand and that it would be to no purpose for him either to say he did not know or could not help it all Apologies being ill heard by an enraged Prince Campegio had not much to lose in England but his Bishoprick of Salisbury and the reward he expected from the King which he knew the Emperor and the Pope would plentifully make up to him But his Collegue was in a worse condition he had much to fear because he had much to lose For as the King had severely chid him for the delays of the business so he was now to expect a heavy storm from him and after so long an Administration of Affairs by so insolent a Favourite it was not to be doubted but as many of his Enemies were joyning against him so matter must needs be found to work his ruin with a Prince that was Alienated from him Therefore he was under all the disorders which a fear that was heightned by Ambition and Covetousness could produce But the King govern'd himself upon this occasion with more temper than could have been expected from a man of his humour Therefore as he made no great show of disturbance so to divert his uneasie thoughts he went his Progress Soon after he received his Agents Letter from Rome and made Gardiner who was then Secretary of State write to the Cardinal to put Campegio to his Oath whether he had revealed the Kings Secrets to the Pope or not And if he Swore he had not done it to make him Swear he should never do it A little after that the Messenger came from Rome with a Breve to the Legates requiring them to proceed no further and with an Avocation of the Cause to Rome together with Letters Citatory to the King and Queen to appear there in Person or by their Proxies Of which when the King was advertised Gardiner wrote to the Cardinal by his order That the King would not have the Letters Citatory executed or the Commission discharged by vertue of them but that upon the Popes Breve to them they should declare their Commission void For he would not suffer a thing so much to the prejudice of his Crown as a Citation be made to appear in another Court nor would he let his Subjects imagine that he was to be Cited out of his Kingdom This was the first step that he made for the lessening of the Popes Power Upon which the two Cardinals for they were Legates no longer went to the King at Grafton It was generally expected that Wolsey should have been disgraced then for not only the King was offended with him but he received new Informations of his having juggled in the business and that he secretly advised the Pope to do what was done This was set about by some of the Queens Agents as if there was certain knowledge had of it at Rome and it was said that some Letters of his to the Pope were by a trick found and brought over to England The Emperor lookt on the Cardinal as his inveterate Enemy and designed to ruin him if it was possible nor was it hard to perswade the Queen to concur with him to pull him down But all this seems an artifice of theirs only to destroy him For the earnestness the Cardinal expressed in this matter was such that either he was sincere in it or he was the best at dessembling that ever was But these suggestions were easily infused in the Kings angry mind so strangely are men turned by their affections that sometimes they will believe nothing and at other times they believe every thing Yet when the Cardinal with his Colleague came to Court they were received by the King with very hearty expressions of kindness and Wolsey was often in private with him sometimes in presence of the Council and sometimes alone once he was many hours with the King alone and when they took leave he sent them away very obligingly But that which gave Cardinal Wolsey the most assurance was that all those who were admitted to the Kings privacies did carry themselves towards him as they were wont to do both the Duke of Suffolk Sir Thomas Boleyn then made Vis-count of Rochford Sir Brian Tuke and Gardiner concluding that from the motions of such Weather-cocks the air of the Princes affections was best gathered Anne Boleyn was now brought to the Court again out of which she had been dismissed for some
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
it there was no reason to apprehend any opposition from the Temporal Lords The Session was now near an end so they made haste and read it twice that day and the third time the next day and passed it The Contents of it were The Clergy acknowledged that all Convocations had been and ought to be assembled by the Kings Writ and promised in verbo Sacerdotii that they would never make nor execute any new Canons or Constitutions without the Royal assent to them and since many Canons had been received that were found prejudicial to the Kings Prerogative contrary to the Laws of the Land and heavy to the Subjects That therefore there should be a Committee of thirty two Persons sixteen of the two Houses of Parliament and as many of the Clergy to be named by the King who should have full power to abrogate or confirm Canons as they found it expedient the Kings assent being obtained This was confirmed by Act of Parliament and by the same Act all appeals to Rome were again condemned If any party found themselves agrieved in the Arch-Bishops Courts an appeal might be made to the King in the Court of Chancery and the Lord-Chancellor was to grant a Commission under the Great-Seal for some Delegates in whose determination all must acquiesce All exempted Abbots were also to appeal to the King and it concluded with a Proviso that till such Correction of the Canons was made all those which were then received should still remain in force except such as were contrary to the Laws and Customs of the Realms or were to the damage or hurt of the Kings Prerogative This Proviso seemed to have a fair colour that there might still be some Canons in force to govern the Church by but since there was no day prefixed to the Determination of the Commission this Proviso made that the Act never took effect for now it lay in the Prerogative and in the Judges breast to declare what Canons were contrary to the Laws or the Rights of the Crown and it was judged more for the Kings Greatness to keep the matter undetermined than to make such a Collection of Ecclesiastical Laws as should be fixed and unmoveable The last of the publick Acts of this Session that related to the Church was about the Election and Consecration of Bishops On the 4th of February the Commons sent up a Bill to the Lords about the Consecration of Bishops it lay on the Table till the 27th of February and was then cast out and a new one drawn On what reason it was cast out is not mentioned and the Journal does not so much as say that it was once read The new Bill had its second reading the 3d of March and on the 5th it was ordered to be Engross'd and on the 9th it was read the third time and agreed to and sent down to the Commons who returned it to the Lords on the 16th of March. The first part of it is a confirmation of their former Act against Annates to which they added that Bishops should not be any more presented to the Bishop of Rome or sue out any Bulls there but that all Bishops should be presented to the Arch-Bishop and Arch-Bishops to any Arch-Bishop in the Kings Dominions or to any four Bishops whom the King should name and that when any See was vacant the King was to grant a Licence for a new Election with a Letter missive bearing the name of the Person that was to be chosen and twelve days after these were delivered an Election was to be returned by the Dean and Chapter or Prior and Convent under their Seals Then the Person Elected was to swear Fealty to the King upon which a Commission was to be issued out for Consecrating and Investing him with the usual Ceremonies after which he was to do Homage to the King and be restored both to the Spiritualities and Temporalities of his See for which the King granted Commissions during the vacancy and whosoever refused to obey the Contents of the Act or acted contrary to it were declared within the Statute of Premunire There passed a private Act for depriving the Bishops of Salisbury and Worcester who were Cardinal Campegio and Ierome de Ghinuccii the former deserved greatter severities at the Kings hand but the latter seems to have served him faithfully and was recommended both by the King and the French King about a year before to a Cardinals Hat The Preamble of the Act bears that persons promoted to Ecclesiastical Benefices ought to reside within the Kingdom for preaching the Laws of Almighty God and for keeping Hospitality and since these Prelates did not that but lived at the Court of Rome and neglected their Diocesses and made the Revenues of them be carried out of the Kingdoms contrary to the intentions of the Founders and to the prejudice of the Realm 3000 l. being at least carried yearly out of the Kingdom therefore their Diocesses were declared vacant But now I come to the Act of the Attainder of Elizabeth Barton and her Complices which I shall open fully since it was the first step that was made to Rebellion and the first occasion of putting any to death upon this quarrel and from it one will clearly see the Genius of that part of the Clergy that adhered to the Interests of the Court of Rome On the 21th of February the Bill was sent up to the Lords and read the first time on the 26th it was read the second time and committed then the Witnesses and other Evidences were brought before them but chiefly she with all her Complices who confessed the Crimes charged on her It was reported and read the 6th of March the third time and then the Lords addressed to the King to know his pleasure whether Sir Thomas More and others mentioned in the Act as Complices or at least Concealers might not be heard to speak for themselves in the Star-Chamber As for the Bishop of Rochester he was sick but he had written to the House all that he had to say for his own excuse What presumptions lay against Sir Thomas More I have not been able to find out only that he wrote a Letter to the Nun at which the King took great exceptions yet it appears he had a mean opinion of her for in discourse with his beloved Daughter Mistress Roper he called her commonly the silly Nun. But for justifying himself he wrote a full account of all the entercourse he had with the Nun and her Complices to Cromwell but tho by his other printed Letters both to Cromwell and the King it seems some ill impressions remained in the Kings mind about it he still continued to justifie not only his intentions but his actions in that particular One thing is not unworthy of observation that Rastall who published his Works in Queen Maries time printed the second Letter he wrote to Cromwell yet did not publish that account which
new Doctrines It is true he had never enquired into all the other Tenets of the Church of Rome and so did not differ from them about the presence of Christ in the Sacrament and some other things But when men durst speak freely there were several persons that witnessed the Constancy and sincerity of Bilney in these his last Conflicts and among the rest Matthew Parker afterwards Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was an eye-witness of his sufferings which from his relation were published afterwards he took his death patiently and constantly and in the little time that was allowed him to live after his Sentence he was observed to be chearful and the poor Victuals that were brought him Bread and Ale he eat up heartily of which when one took notice he said he must keep up that ruinous Cottage till it fell and often repeated that passage in Isaiah When thou walk'st through the fire thou shall not be burnt and putting his finger in the flame of the Candle he told those about him that he well knew what a pain burning was but that it should only consume the Stubble of his Body and that his Soul should be purged by it When the day of Execution came being the 10th of November as he was led out he said to one that exhorted him to be patient and constant that as the Mariners endured the tossing of the Waves hoping to arrive at their desired Port so though he was now entring into a storm yet he hop'd he should soon arrive at the Haven and desired their Prayers When he came to the Stake he repeated the Creed to show the People that he dyed in the Faith of the Apostles then he put up his Prayers to God with great show's of inward devotion which ended he repeated the 143 Psalm and paus'd on these words of it Enter not into Iudgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified with deep recollection and when Doctor Warner that accompanied him to the Stake took leave of him with many tears Bilney with a chearful countenance exhorted him to feed his flock that at his Lords coming he might find him so doing Many of the begging Friars desired him to declare to the people that they had not procured his death for that was got among them and they feared the people would give them no more Alms so he desired the Spectators not to be the worse to these men for his sake for they had not procur'd his death Then the fire was set to and his Body consum'd to ashes Thus it appears both what Opinion the people had of him and in what charity he dyed even towards his enemies doing them good for evil but this though it perhaps struck terror in weaker minds yet it no less encourag'd others to endure patiently all the severities that were us'd to draw them from this Doctrine Soon after one Richard Byfield suffered he was a Monk of St. Edmundsbury and had been instructed by Doctor Barnes who gave him some Books which being discovered he was put in Prison but through fear abjured yet afterward he left the Monastery and came to London He went oft over to Antwerp and brought in forbidden Books which being smell'd out he was seized on and examined about these Books he justified them and said he thought they were good and profitable and did openly exclaim against the dissolute lives of the Clergy so being judged Heretick he was burnt in Smithfield the 11th of November In December one Iohn Tewksbury a Shop-keeper in London who had formerly abjured was also taken and tryed in Sr. Thomas Mores house at Chelsey where Sentence was given against him by Stokesley Bishop of London for Tonstall was translated the former year to Duresm and was burnt in Smithfield There were also three Burnt at York this year two men and one woman These proceedings were complain'd of in the following Session of Parliament as was formerly told and the Ecclesiastical Courts being found both Arbitrary and Cruel the House of Commons desired a redress of that from the King but nothing was done about it till Three years after that the new Act against Hereticks was made as was already told The Clergy were not much moved at the address which the House of Commons made and therefore went on in their extreme Courses and to strike a Terror in the Gentry they resolved to make an Example of one Iames Bainham a Gentleman of the Temple he was carryed to the Lord Chancellors House where much pains was taken to perswade him to discover such as he knew in the Temple who favour'd the new Opinions but fair means not prevailing More made him be whipt in his own presence and after that sent him to the Tower where he look't on and saw him put to the Rack Yet it seems nothing could be drawn from him that might be made use of to any other persons hurt yet he himself afterwards overcome with fear abjured and did penance but had no quiet in his Conscience till he went publickly to Church with a New Testament in his hand and confess'd with many tears that he had denyed God and prayed the people not to do as he had done and said that he felt an Hell in his own Conscience for what he had done So he was soon after carryed to the Toâ—er for now the Bishops to avoid the Imputation of using men cruelly in their Prisons did put Hereticks in the Kings Prisons he was charged for having said That Thomas a Becket was a Murderer and damned in Hell if he did not repent and for speaking contemptously of praying to Saints and saying that the Sacrament of the Altar was only Christs Mystical Body and that his Body was not chew'd with the Teeth but received by Faith So he was judged an obstinate and relaps'd Heretick and was burnt in Smithfield about the end of April 1532. There were also some others burnt a little before this time of whom a particular account could not be recovered by Fox with all his Industry But with Bainham Mores persecution ended for soon after he laid down the great Seal which set the poor Preachers at ease Crome and Latimer were brought before the Convocation and accus'd of Heresie They both Subscribed the Articles offered to them That there was a Purgatory That the Souls in it were profited by Masses said for them That the Saints are now in Heaven and as Mediators pray for us That men ought to pray to them and honour them That Pilgrimages were Pious and Meritorious That men who vowed Chastity might not Marry without the Popes Dispensation That the Keys of binding and loosing were given to St. Peter and to his Successors though their lives were bad and not at all to the Laity That men merited by Prayers Fasting and other good Works That Priests prohibited by the Bishop should not preach till they were purged and restored That the Seven Sacraments
the Original that is yet extant which might have been written any time between the year 1534. in which Thomas Goodrick was made Bishop of Ely and the year 1540. in which Iohn Clark Bishop of Bath and Wells died but I incline to think from other circumstances that it was written about the end of the year 1534. For the General Council Though that in the Old time when the Empire of Rome had his ample dominion over the most part of the World the First Four General Councils the which at all times have been of most estimation in the Church of Christ were called and gathered by the Emperors Commandment and for a Godly intent That Heresies might be extinct Schisms put away good Order and Manners in the Ministers of the Church and the people of the same established Like as many Councils more were called till now of late by the negligence as well of the Emperor as other Princes the Bishop of Rome hath been suffered to usurp this Power yet now for so much that the Empire of Rome and the Monarchie of the same hath no such general Dominion but many Princes have absolute Power in their own Realms and a whole and entire Monarchie no one Prince may by his Authority call any General Council but if that any one or moe of these Princes for the establishing of the Faith for the extirpation of Schisms c. Lovingly Charitably with a good sincere Intent to a sure place require any other Prince or the rest of the great Princes to be content to agree that for the Wealth Quietness and Tranquillity of all Christen people by his or their free consent a General Council might be assembled that Prince or those Princes so required are bound by the Order of Charity for the good Fruit that may come of it to condescend and agree thereunto having no lawful Impediment nor just Cause moving to the contrary The chief Causes of the General Councils are before expressed In all the Ancient Councils of the Church in matters of the Faith and interpretation of the Scripture no man made definitive Subscription but Bishops and Priests forsomuch as the Declaration of the Word of God pertaineth unto them T. Cantuarien Cuthbertus Dunelmen Io. Bath wellen Tho. Elien But besides this Resolution I have seen a long speech of Cranmers written by one of his Secretaries It was spoken soon after the Parliament had passed the Acts formerly mentioned for it relates to them as lately done it was delivered either in the House of Lords the upper House of Convocation or at the Council Board but I rather think it was in the House of Lords for it begins My Lords The matter of it does so much concern the business of Reformation that I know the Reader will expect I should set down the heads of it It appears he had been Ordered to Inform the House about these things The Preamble of his Speech runs upon this conceit That as Rich men flying from their Enemies carry away all they can with them and what they cannot take away they either hide or destroy it so the Court of Rome had destroyed so many Ancient writings and hid the rest having carefully preserved every thing that was of advantage to them that it was not easie to discover what they had so artificially concealed Therefore in the Canon-Law some honest truths were yet to be found but so mislay'd that they are not placed where one might expect them but are to be met with in some other Chapters where one would least look for them And many more things said by the Ancients of the See of Rome and against their Authority were lost as appears by the Fragments yet remaining He show'd that many of the Ancients called every thing which they thought well done of Divine Institution by a large extent of the Phrase in which sense the passages of many Fathers that magnified the See of Rome were to be understood Then he show'd for what end General Councils were called to declare the Faith and reform Errors not that ever any Council was truly General for even at Nice there were no Bishops almost but out of Egypt Asia and Greece but they were called General because the Emperor Summon'd them and all Christendome did agree to their Definitions which he prov'd by several Authorities therefore though there were many more Bishops in the Council of Arimini than at Nice or Constantinople yet the one was not received as a General Council and the others were so that it was not the number nor Authority of the Bishops but the matter of their Decisions which made them be received with so general a Submission As for the Head of the Council St. Peter and St. Iames had the chief direction of the Council of the Apostles but there were no Contests then about Head-ship Christ named no Head which could be no more called a defect in him than it was one in God that had named no Head to Govern the World Yet the Church found it convenient to have one over them so Arch-Bishops were set over Provinces And though St. Peter had been Head of the Apostles yet as it is not certain that he was ever in Rome so it does not appear that he had his Headship for Romes sake or that he left it there but he was made Head for his Faith and not for the Dignity of any See Therefore the Bishops of Rome could pretend to nothing from him but as they followed his Faith and Liberius and some other Bishops there had been condemned for Heresie and if according to St. Iames Faith be to be tryed by Works the Lives of the Popes for several Ages gave shrewd presumptions that their Faith was not good And though it were granted that such a Power was given to the See of Rome yet by many instances he show'd that positive precepts in a matter of that nature were not for ever Obligatory And therefore Gerson wrote a Book De Auferibilitate Papae So that if a Pope with the Cardinals be corrupted they ought to be tryed by a General Council and submit to it St. Peter gave an account of his Baptizing Cornelius when he was questioned about it So Damasus Sixtus and Leo purged themselves of some scandals Then he showed how Corrupt the present Pope was both in his person and Government for which he was abhorred even by some of his Cardinals as himself had heard and seen at Rome It is true there was no Law to proceed against a vitious Pope for it was a thing not foreseen and thought scarcely possible but new diseases required new remedies and if a Pope that is an Heretick may be judged in a Council the same reason would hold against a Symoniacal Covetous and Impious Pope who was Salt that had lost its favour And by several Authorities he proved that every man who lives so is thereby out of the Communion of the Church and that as the
the North. Therefore he resolved first to quiet Lincolnshire And as he had raised a great force about London with which he was marching in person against them so he sent a new Proclamation Requiring them to return to their obedience with secret assurances of mercy By these means they were melted away Those who had been carryed in the Stream submitted to the Kings mercy and promised all obedience for the future Others that were obstinate and knew themselves unpardonable fled Northward and joyned themselves to the Rebels there Some of their other Leaders were apprehended in particular the Cobler and were Executed But for the Northern Rebellion as the parties concerned being at a greater distance from the Court had larger opportunities to gather themselves into a huge Body so the whole Contrivance of it was better laid One Ask Commanded in chief He was a Gentleman of an ordinary condition but understood well how to draw on and Govern a Multitude Their march was called the Pilgrimage of Grace And to inveigle the people some Priests marched before them with Crosses in their hands In their Banners they had a Crucifix with the Five wounds and a Chalice and every one wore on his sleeve as the badge of the Party an Emblem of the Five wounds of Christ with the name Iesus wrought in the midst All that joyned to them took an Oath That they entered into this Pilgrimage of Grace for the love of God the preservation of the Kings person and issue the purifying the Nobility and driving away all base born and ill Counsellors and for no particular profit of their own nor to do displeasure to any nor to kill any for envy but to take before them the Cross of Christ his Faith the Restitution of the Church and the Suppression of Hereticks and their opinions These were specious pretences and very apt to work upon a giddy and discontented multitude So people flocked about their Crosses and Standards in great numbers and they grew to be 40000 strong They went over the Countrey without any great opposition The Arch-Bishop of York and the Lord Darcy were in Pomfret Castle which they yielded to them and were made to swear their Covenant They were both suspected of being secret Promoters of the Rebellion the latter suffered for it but how the former excused himself I cannot give any account They also took York and Hull but though they summoned the Castle of Skipton yet the Earl of Cumberland who would not degenerate from his Noble Ancestors held it out against all their force and though many of the Gentlemen whom he had entertained at his own cost deserted him yet he made a brave resistance Scarborough Castle was also long besieged but there Sir Ralph Evers that Commanded it gave an un-exampled instance of his fidelity and courage for though his provisions fell short so that for twenty days he and his men had nothing but bread and water yet they stood out till they were relieved This Rising in Yorkshire encouraged those of Lancashire the Bishoprick of Duresm and Westmoreland to Arm. Against these the Earl of Shrewsbury that he might not fall short of the Gallantry and Loyalty of his renownd Ancestors made head though he had no Commission from the King But he knew his zeal and fidelity would easily procure him a pardon which he modestly asked for the service he had done The King sent him not only that but a Commission to command in chief all his forces in the North. To his Assistance he ordered the Earl of Derby to march and sent Courtney Marquess of Exeter and the Earls of Huntington and Rutland to joyn him He also ordered the Duke of Suffolk with the force that he had led into Lincolnshire to lye still there lest they being but newly quieted should break out again and fall upon his Armies behind when the Yorkshire men met them before On the 20th of October he sent the Duke of Norfolk with more forces to joyn the Earl of Shrewsbury But the Rebels were very numerous and desperate When the Duke of Norfolk understood their strength he saw great reason to proceed with much caution for if they had got the least advantage of the Kings Troops all the discontents in England would upon the report of that have broken out He saw their numbers were now such that the gaining some time was their ruin for such a great Body could not subsist long together without much provisions and that must be very hard for them to bring in So he set forward a Treaty It was both honourable for the King to offer mercy to his distracted Subjects and of great advantage to his affairs for as their numbers did every day lessen so the Kings forces were still encreasing He wrote to the King that considering the season of the year he thought the offering some fair conditions might perswade them to lay down their Arms and disperse themselves Yet when the Earl of Shrewsbury sent a Herald with a Proclamation ordering them to lay down their Arms and submit to the Kings mercy Ask received him sitting in State with the Arch-Bishop on the one hand and the Lord Darcy on the other but would not suffer any Proclamation to be made till he knew the Contents of it And when the Herauld told what they were he sent him away without suffering him to publish it And then the Priests used all their endeavours to engage the people to a firm resolution of not dispersing themselves till all matters about Religion were fully setled As they went forward they every-where repossessed the ejected Monks of their Houses and this encouraged the rest who had a great mind to be in their old Nests again They published also many stories among them of the growing burdens of the 〈◊〉 Government and made them believe that Impositions would be laid on every thing that was either bought or sold. But the King hearing how strong they were sent out a general Summons to all the Nobility to meet him at Northampton the 7th of November And the forces sent against the Rebels advanced to Doncaster to hinder them from coming further southward and took the Bridge which they fortified and laid their forces along the River to maintain that Pass The Writers of that time say that the day of Battel was agreed on but that the night before excessive Rains falling the River swelled so that it was unpassable next day and they could not force the Bridge Yet it is not likely the Earl of Shrewsbury having in all but 5000 men about him would agree to a pitched Battel with those who were Six times his number being then 30000. Therefore it is more likely that the Rebels only intended to pass the River the next day which the Rain that fell hindred But the Duke of Norfolk continued to press a Treaty which was hearkned to by the other side who were reduced to great straits for their Captain would not suffer
them to spoyl the Countrey and they were no longer able to subsist without doing that The Duke of Norfolk directed some that were secretly gained or had been sent over to them as Deserters to spread reports among them that their Leaders were making Terms for themselves and would leave the rest to be undone This joyned to their necessities made many fall off every day The Duke of Norfolk finding his Arts had so good an operation offered to go to Court with any whom they would send with their demands and to intercede for them This he knew would take up some time and most of them would be dispersed before he could return So they sent two Gentlemen whom they had forced to go with them to the King to Windsor Upon this the King discharged the Rendezvous at Northampton and delayed the sending an answer as much as could be But at last hearing that though most of them were dispersed yet they had engaged to return upon warning and that they took it ill that no answer came he sent the Duke of Norfolk to them with a general pardon six only excepted by name and four others that were not named But in this the Kings Counsels were generally censured for every one was now in fear and so the Rebels rejected the Proposition The King also sent them word by their own Messenger That he took it very ill at their hands that they had chosen rather to rise in Arms against him than to Petition him about these things which were uneasie to them And to appease them a little the King by new Injunctions commanded the Clergy to continue the use of all the Ceremonies of the Church This it is like was intended for keeping up the four Sacraments which had not been mentioned in the former Articles The Clergy that were with the Rebels met at Pomfret to draw up Articles to be offered at the Treaty that was to be at Doncaster where three hundred were ordered to come from the Rebels to treat with the Kings Commissioners So great a number was called in hopes that they would disagree about their Demands and so fall out among themselves On the 6th of December they met to treat and it seems had so laid their matter before that they agreed upon these following Demands A general Pardon to be granted a Parliament to be held at York and Courts of justice to be there that none on the North of Trent might be brought to London upon any Law-sute They desired a Repeal of some Acts of Parliament Those for the last Subsidy for uses for making words misprision of Treason and for the Clergies paying their Tenthes and first Fruits to the King They desired the Princess Mary might be restored to her right of Succession the Pope to his wonted Jurisdiction and the Monks to their Houses again that the Lutherans might be punished that Audley the Lord Chancellor and Cromwell the Lord Privy-Seal might be excluded from the next Parliament and Lee and Leighton that had visited the Monasteries might be imprisoned for Bribery and Extortion But the Lords who knew that the King would by no means agree to these Propositions rejected them Upon which the Rebels took heart again and were growing more enraged and desperate so that the Duke of Norfolk wrote to the King that if some content were not given them it might end very ill for they were much stronger than his Forces were And both he and the other Commanders of the Kings Forces in their hearts wished that most of their Demands were granted being persons who though they complied with the King and were against that Rebellion yet were great Enemies to Lutheranism and wished a Reconciliation with Rome of which the Duke of Norfolk was afterwards accused by the Lord Darcy as if he had secretly encouraged them to insist on these Demands The King seeing the humour was so obstinate resolved to use gentler Remedies and so sent to the Duke of Norfolk a general Pardon with a promise of a Parliament ordering him not to make use of these except in extremity This was no easie thing to that Duke since he might be afterwards made to answer for it whether the extremity was really such as to justifie his granting these things But the Rebels were become again as numerous as ever and had resolved to cross the River and to force the Kings Camp which was still much inferiour to theirs in number But Rains falling the second time made the Foords again unpassable This was spoken of by the Kings Party as little less than a a Miracle that Gods Providence had twice so opportunely interposed for the stopping of the progress of the Rebels And it is very probable that on the other side it made great impression on the Superstitious multitude and both discouraged them and disposed them to accept of the offer of Pardon and a Parliament to be soon called for considering their other Demands The King signed the Pardon at Richmond the 9th of December by which all their Treasons and Rebellion to that day were pardoned provided they made their submission to the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Shrewsbury and lived in all due obedience for the future The King sent likewise a long answer to their Demands as to what they complained about the subversion of the Faith He protested his zeal for the true Christian Faith and that he would live and die in the defence and preservation of it But the ignorant multitude were not to instruct him what the true Faith was nor to presume to correct what he and the whole Convocation had agreed on That as he had preserved the Church of England in her true Liberties so he would do still and that he had done nothing that was so oppressive as many of his Progenitours had done upon lesser grounds But that he took it very ill of them who had rather one Churl or two should enjoy the Profits of their Monasteries to support them in their dissolute and abominable course of living than that their King should have them for defraying the great Charge he was at for their defence against Forreign Enemies For the Laws it was high presumption in a rude multitude to take on them to judge what Laws were good and what not They had more reason to think that he after twenty eight years Reign should know it better than they could And for his Government he had so long preserved his Subjects in Peace and Justice had so defended them from their Enemies had so secured his Frontier had granted so many general Pardons had been so unwilling to punish his Subjects and so ready to receive them into mercy that they could shew no paralel to his Government among all their former Kings And whereas it was said That he had many of the Nobility of his Council in the beginning of his Reign and few now he shewed them in that one instance how they were abused by the lying slanders
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
Beauty But he excused himself that he thought the thing was so far gone that it was decent to write as he had done The King lamented his condition in that Marriage and expressed great trouble both to the Lord Russel Sir Anthony Brown Sir Anthony Denny and others about him The last of those told him this was one Advantage that mean persons had over Princes That great Princes must take such Wives as are brought them whereas meaner persons go and chuse Wives for themselves But when the King saw Cromwel he gave his grief a freer vent to him He finding the King so much Troubled would have cast the chief blame on the Earl of Southampton for whom he had no great kindness And said when he found her so far short of what reports and Pictures had made her he should have stayed her at Callice till he had given the King notice of it But the Earls Commission being only to bring her over he said It had been too great a presumption in him to have interposed in such a manner And the King was convinced he was in the right So now all they had to insist on was the clearing of that Contract that had passed between her and the Marquess of Lorain which the Ambassadors who had been with the King had undertaken should be fully done and brought over with her in due form of Law So after the Lady was brought in great State to Greenwich the Council met and sent for the Ambassadors of the Duke of Cleves that conducted her over and desired to see what they had brought for clearing the breach of that Contract with the Marquess of Lorrain But they had brought nothing and made no account of it saying that the Contract was in their Minority when they could give no consent and that nothing had followed on it after they came to be of Age. But this did not satisfie the Kings Council who said these were but their words and they must see better proofs The Kings Marriage was Annulled with Anne Boleyn upon a pre-contract therefore he must not again run the like hazard So Olisleger and Hogâ—sden the Ambassadors from Cleve did by a formal Instrument Protest before Cromwel that in a peace made between their late Master Iohn Duke of Cleve and Anthony Duke of Lorrain one of the conditions was that this Lady being then under Age should be given in Marriage to Francis Son to the Duke of Lorrain who was likewise under Age which Treaty they affirmed they saw and read But that afterwards Henry de Groffe Ambassador of Charles Duke of Gueldres upon whose mediation that peace had been concluded declared in their hearing that the Espousals were Annulled and of no effect and that this was Registred in the Chancery of Clâ—ve of which they promised to bring an Authentical Extract within three Months to England Some of the Counsellors who knew the Kings secret dislike of her person would have insisted more on this But the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Duresm said if there was no more than that it could be no just hindrance to the Solemnization of the Marriage So the King seeing there was no remedy and being much pressed both by the Ministers of Cleve and by the Lord Cromwel Marryed her on the 6th of Ianuary But expressed so much aversion and dislike of her that every body about him took notice of it Next day the Lord Cromwel asked him how he liked her then He told him He was not every man therefore he would be free with him He liked her worse than he did He suspected she was no Maid and had such ill smells about her that he loathed her more than ever and did not believe he should ever consummate the Marriage This was sad news to Cromwel who knew well how delicate the King was in these matters and that so great a Misfortune must needs turn very heavy on him that was the chief Promoter of it He knew his Enemies would draw great advantages from this and understood the Kings temper too well to think his Greatness would last long if he could not induce the King to like the Queen better But that was not to be done for though the King lived five Months with her in that State and very oft lay in the Bed with her yet his Aversion rather encreased than abated She seemed not much concerned at it and as their Conversation was not great so she was of an heavy Composition and was not much displeased to be delivered from a Marriage in which she had so little satisfaction Yet one thing shews that she wanted not Capacity For she learned the English Language very soon and before her Marriage was Annulled she spoke English freely as appears by some of the Depositions There was an Instrument brought over from Cleve taken out of the Chancery there by which it appeared That Henry de Groffe Ambassador from the Duke of Gueldres had on the 15th of February in the year 1535. declared the Nullity of the former Contract in express words which are set down in high Dutch but thus put in Latine Sponsalia illa progressum suum non habitura I will not answer for the Latine ex quo dictus Dux Carolus admodum doleret propterea quaedam fecisset amplius facturus esset And Pallandus that was Ambassador from the Duke of Cleves in the Duke of Guelders Court wrote to his Master Illustrissimum Ducem Gueldriae certo scire prima illa Sponsalia inter Domicellam Annam fore inania progressum suum non habitura When this was shewed the King his Council found great exceptions to it upon the Ambiguity of the word Sponsalia it not being expressed whether they were Espousals by the words of the present or of the future tense and intended to make use of that when there should be a fit opportunity for it On the 12th of April a Session of Parliament was held The Journal shews that neither the Abbot of Westminster nor any other Abbot was present After the Lord Chancellor had opened the reasons for the Kings meeting them at that time as they related to the Civil Government Cromwel as Lord Vice-gerent spake next in the Kings name and said There was nothing which the King so much desired as a firm union among all his Subjects in which he placed his chief security He knew there were many Incendiaries and much Cockle grew up with the Wheat The rashness and licentiousness of some and the inveterate Superstition and stiffness of others in the Ancient Corruptions had raised great dissensions to the sad regret of all good Christians Some were called Papists others Hereticks which bitterness of Spirit seemed the more strange since now the Holy Scriptures by the Kings great care of his people were in all their hands in a Language which they understood But these were grosly perverted by both sides who studied rather to justifie their passions out
than Complements And though he clearly discovered having sent over the Duke of Norfolk to Francis that he was not to depend much on his friendship yet at the same time he knew that the Emperor would not yield up the Dutchy of Milan to him upon which his heart was much set So he saw they could come to no agreement Therefore he made no great account of the loss of France since he knew the Emperor would willingly make an Alliance with him The hopes of which made him more indifferent whether the German Princes were pleased with what he did or not since he had now attained the end he had proposed to himself in all his Negotiations with them which was to secure himself from any trouble the Emperor might give him Therefore Cromwels Counsels were now disliked for he had always enclined the King to favour those Princes against the Emperor Another secret cause was that as the King had an unconquerable aversion to his Queen so he was taken with the Beauty and behaviour of Mistress Katharine Howard Daughter to the Lord Edmond Howard a Brother of the Duke of Norfolks And as this designed Match raised the credit of her Uncle so the ill consequences of the former drew him down who had been the chief Counsellor in it The King also found his Government was grown uneasie and therefore judged it was no ill Policy to cast over all that had been done amiss upon a Minister who had great Power with him and being now in disgrace all the blame of these things would be taken off from the King and laid on him and his Ruin would much appease discontents and make them more moderate in censuring the King or his Proceedings It is said that other Particulars were charged on him which lost him the Kings favour If this be true it is like they related to the encouragement he was said to have given to some Reformers in the opposition they made to the six Articles Upon the Execution of which the King was now much set His fall was so secretly carryed that though he had often before looked for it knowing the Kings uneasie and jealous temper yet at that time he had no apprehensions of it till the Storm broke upon him In his fall he had the common fate of all disgraced Ministers to be forsaken by his Friends and insulted over by his Enemies Only Cranmer retained still so much of his former simplicity that he could never learn these Court Arts. Therefore he wrote to the King about him next day He much magnified his diligence in the Kings service and preservation and discovering all Plots as soon as they were made That he had always loved the King above all things and served him with great fidelity and success That he thought no King of England had ever such a servant upon that account he had loved him as one that loved the King above all others But if he was a Traytor he was glad it was discovered But he prayed God earnestly to send the King such a Councellor in his stead who could and would serve him as he had done This shews both the firmness of Cranmers friendship to him and that he had a great Soul not turned by the changes of mens fortunes to like or dislike them as they stood or declined from their greatness And had not the Kings kindness for Cranmer been deeply rooted this Letter had ruined him For he was the most impatient of Contradiction in such cases that could be Cromwels ruin was now Decreed and he who had so servily complyed with the Kings pleasure in procuring some to be Attainted the year before without being brought to make their answer fell now under the same severity For whether it was that his Enemies knew That if he were brought to the Bar he would so justifie himself that they would find great difficulties in the Process or whether it was that they blindly resolved to follow that injustifiable Precedent of passing over so necessary a Rule to all Courts of giving the Party accused an hearing the Bill of Attaindor was brought in to the House of Lords Cranmer being absent that day as appears by the Journal on the 17th of Iune and read the first time and on the 19th was read the second and third time and sent down to the Commons By which it appears how few friends he had in that House when a Bill of that nature went on so hastily But it seems he found in the House of Commons somewhat of the same measure which ten years before he had dealt to the Cardinal though not with the same success For his matter stuck ten days there At length a new Bill of Attaindor was brought up conceived in the House of Commons with a Proviso annexed to it They also sent back the Bill which the Lords sent to them But it is not clear from the Journals what they meant by these two Bills It seems they rejected the Lords Bill and yet sent it up with their own either in respect to the Lords or that they left it to their choice which of the two Bills they would offer to the Royal Assent But though this be an unparliamentary way of proceeding I know no other sense which the words of the Journal can bear which I shall set down in the Margent that the Reader may Judge better concerning it * And that very day the King assented to it as appears by the Letter written the next day by Cromwel to the King The Act said that the King having raised Thomas Cromwel from a base degree to great Dignities and high Trusts yet he had now by a great number of Witnesses persons of honour found him to be the most Corrupt Traitor and deceiver of the King and the Crown that had ever been known in his whole Reign He had taken upon him to set at liberty divers persons put in Prison for misprision of Treason and others that were suspected of it He had also received several bribes and for them granted Licenses to carry Money Corn Horses and other things out of the Kingdom contrary to the Kings Proclamations He had also given out many Commissions without the Kings knowledg and being but of a base Birth had said That he was sure of the King He had granted many Passports both to the Kings Subjects and Forreigners for passing the Seas without search He being also an Heretick had dispersed many Erroneous Books among the Kings Subjects particularly some that were contrary to the Belief of the Sacrament And when some had informed him of this and had shewed him these Heresies in Books Printed in England he said they were good and that he found no fault in them and said It was as Lawful for every Christian man to be the Minister of that Sacrament as a Priest And whereas the King had constituted him Vice-gerent for the Spiritual affairs of the Church he had under the Seal of that
office licensed many that were suspected of Heresie to Preach over the Kingdom and he had both by word and in writing suggested to several Sheriffs That it was the Kings pleasure they should discharge many Prisoners of whom some were Indicted others apprehended for Heresie And when many particular complaints were brought to him of detestable Heresies with the names of the offenders he not only defended the Hereticks but severely checkt the Informers and vexed some of them by Imprisonment and other ways The particulars of all which were too tedious to be recited And he having entertained many of the Kings Subjects about himself whom he had infected with Heresie and imagining he was by force able to defend his Treasons and Heresies on the last of March in the 30th year of the Kings Reign in the Parish of St. Peters the poor in London when some of them complained to him of the new Preachers such as Barnes and others he said Their Preaching was good and said also among other things That if the King would turn from it yet he would not turn And if the King did turn and VERA EFFIGIES THOMAE CROMWELL ESSEXIAE COMITIS EQVES PERISCELIS H. Holbeâ—n pinxit R. White sculpsit Natus 1490 Regis vicarius Generalis 1536 Eques Periscelis 1537. Capite truncatus Iuly 18th 1540. Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in St Pauls Church yard all his people with him he would fight in the Fiâ—lâ— in his own person with his Sword in his hand against him and all others And then he pulled out his Dagger and held it up and said or else this Dagger thrust me to the heart if I would not die in that quarrel against them all and I trust if I live one year or two it shall not be in the Kings Power to resist or lett it if he would and swearing a great Oath said I would do so indeed He had also by Oppression and Bribery made a great Estate to himself and extorted much Money from the Kings Subjects and being greatly enriched had treated the Nobility with much contempt And on the last of Ianuary in the 31th year of the Kings Reign in the Parish of St. Martins in the Fields when some had put him in mind to what the King had raised him he said If the Lords would handle him so he would give them such a Break-fast as was never made in England and that the proudest of them should know it For all which Treasons and Heresies he was Attainted to suffer the pains of death for Heresie and Treason as should please the King and to forfeit all his Estate and goods to the Kings use that he had on the last of March in the 31st year of the Kings Reign or since that time There was added to this Bill a Proviso That this should not be hurtful to the Bishop of Bath and Wells and to the Dean and Chapteâ— of Wells with whom it seems he had made some exchanges of Lands From these particulars the Reader will clearly see why he was not brought to make his answer most of them relating to Orders and Directions he had given for which it is very probable he had the Kings Warrant And for the matter of Heresie it has appeared how far the King had proceeded towards a Reformation so that what he did that way was most likely done by the Kings Order But the King now falling from these things it was thought they intended to stifle him by such an Attaindor that he might not discover the secret Orders or directions given him for his own Justification For the particulars of Bribery and Extortion they being mentioned in general expressions seem only cast into the heap to defame him But for those Treasonable words it was generally thought that they were a Contrivance of his Enemies since it seemed a thing very extravagant for a Favourite in the height of his Greatness to talk so rudely And if he had been guilty of it Bedlam was thought a fitter place for his Restraint than the Tower Nor was it judged likely that he having such great and watchful Enemies at Court any such discourses could have layn so long secret Or if they had come to the Kings knowledg he was not a Prince of such a temper as to have forgiven much less imployed and advanced a man after such discourses And to think that during these fifteen months after the words were said to have been spoken none would have had the zeal for the King or the malice to Cromwel as to repeat them were things that could not be believed The formality of drawing his Dagger made it the more suspected for this was to affix an overt-Act to these words which in the opinion of many Lawyers was necessary to make words Treasonable But as if these words had not been ill enough some writers since have made them worse as if he had said He would thrust his Dagger in the Kings heart About which Fuller hath made another story to excuse these words as if they had not been meant of the King but of another But all that is founded on a mistake which if he had looked in the Record he had corrected Cromwels Fall was the first step towards the Kings Divorce For on the 24th of Iune he sent his Queen to Richmond pretending the Countrey air would agree better with her But on the 6th of Iuly a motion was made and assented to in the House of Lords that they should make an address to the King desiring him to suffer his Marriage with the Queen to be tryed Upon which the Lord Chancellor the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk the Earl of Southampton and the Bishop of Duresm were sent down to the Commons to represent the matter to them and to desire their concurrence in the Address To which they agreed and ordered twenty of their number to go along with the Peers So the whole House of Lords with these Commoners went to the King and told him they had a matter of great consequence to propose to him but it was of that Importance that they first begged his leave to move it That being obtained they desired the King would order a Tryal to be made of the validity of his Marriage To which the King consented and made a deep Protestation as in the presence of God that he should conceal nothing that related to it and all its circumstances And that there was nothing he held dearer than the Glory of God the good of the Common-wealth and the declaration of truth So a Commission was issued out to the Convocation to try it On the 7th of Iuly it was brought before the Convocation of which the Reader will see a fuller account in the Collection at the end than is needful to be brought in here The case was opened by the Bishop of Winchester and a Committee was appointed to consider it and they deputed the Bishop of
Duresm and Winchester and Thirleby and Richard Leighton Dean of York to examine the witnesses that day And the next day they received the Kings own Deposition with a long Declaration of the whole matter under Cromwels hand in a Letter to the King and the Depositions of most of the Privy Councellors of the Earl of Southampton the Lord Russel then Admiral of Sir Anthony Brown Sir Anthony Denny Doctor Chambers and Doctor Butts the Kings Physicians and of some Ladies that had talked with the Queen All which amounted to this that the King expected that the Precontract with the Marquess of Lorrain should have been more fully cleared That the King always disliked her and Marryed her full sore against his heart and since that time he had never consummated the Marriage So the substance of the whole evidence being considered it amounted to these three Particulars First That there had been a Contract between the Marquess of Lorrain and the Queen which was not sufficiently cleared for it did not yet appear whether these Espousals were made by the Parties themselves or in the words of the present tense Then it was said That the King having Marryed her against his will he had not given a pure inward and compleat consent And since a mans Act is only what is inward extorted or forced promises do not bind And Thirdly That he had never consummated the Marriage To which was added the great interest the whole Nation had in the Kings having more issue which they saw he could never have by the Queen This was furiously driven on by the Popish Party And Cranmer whether overcome with these arguments or rather with fear for he knew it was contrived to send him quickly after Cromwel consented with the rest So that the whole Convocation without one disagreeing Vote Judged the marriage null and of no force and that both the King and the Lady were free from the bond of it This was the greatest piece of Compliance that ever the King had from the Clergy For as they all knew there was nothing of weight in that praecontract so they laid down a most pernicious Precedent for invalidating all publick Treaties and Agreements since if one of the Parties being unwilling to it so that his consent were not inward he was not bound by it there was no safety among men more For no man can know whether another consents inwardly And when a man does any thing with great aversion to infer from thence that he does not inwardly consent may furnish every one with an excuse to break loose from all engagements For he may pretend he did it unwillingly and get his friends to declare that he privately signified that to them And for that argument which was taken from the want of Consummation they had forgotten what was pleaded on the Kings behalf 10 years before That consent without Consummation made a Marriage compleat by which they concluded that though Prince Arthur had not Consummated his Marriage with Queen Katherine yet his consent did so complete it that the King could not afterwards lawfully marry her But as the King was resolved on any terms to be rid of this Queen so the Clergy were also resolved not to incur his displeasure In which they rather sought for reasons to give some colour to their Sentence than past their judgment upon the strength of them This only can be said for their excuse that these were as just and weighty reasons as used to be admitted by the Court of Rome for a Divorce and most of them being Canonists and knowing how many Precedents there were to be found for such Divorces they thought they might do it as well as the Popes had formerly done On the 9th of Iuly Sentence was given Which was signed by both Houses of Convocation and had the two Arch-bishops Seals put to it of which whole Tryal the Record does yet remain having escaped the Fate of the other Books of Convocation The Original depositions are also yet extant Only I shall add here a reflection upon Cromwels misfortune which may justly abate the loftiness of haughty men The day after he was attainted being required to send to the King a full account under his hand of the business of his Marriage which Account he sent as will be found in the Collection he Concludes it with these abject words I a most woful Prisoner ready to take the death when it shall please God and your Majesty and yet the frail flesh inciteth me continually to call to your Grace for Mercy and Grace for mine offences And thus Christ save preserve and keep you Written at the Tower this Wednesday the last of Iune with the heavy heart and trembling hand of your Highness most heavy and most miserable Prisoner and poor slave Thomas Cromwel And a little below that Most Gracious Prince I cry for Mercy Mercy Mercy On the 10th of Iuly the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury reported to the House of Lords That the Convocation had judged the Marriage Null both by the Law of God and the Law of the Land The Bishop of Winchester delivered the Judgment in Writing which being read he enlarged on all the reasons of it This satisfied the Lords and they sent down Cranmer and him to the Commons to give them the same account Next day the King sent the Lord Chancellor the Duke of Norfolk the Earl of Southampton and the Bishop of Winchester to let the Queen know what was done who was not at all troubled at it and seemed not ill pleased They told her that the King would by Letters Patents Declare her his Adopted Sister and give her precedence before all the Ladies of England next his Queen and Daughters and assign her an Estate of 3000 lib. a year and that she had her choice either to live in England or to return home again She accepted the offer and under her hand declared her consent and approbation of the Sentence and chose to live still in England where she was in great honour rather than return under that disgrace to her own Countrey She was also desired to write to her Brother and let him know that she approved of what was done in her matter and that the King used her as a Father or a Brother and therefore to desire him and her other friends not to take this matter ill or lessen their friendship to the King She had no mind to do that but said it would be time enough when her Brother wrote to her to send him such an answer But it was answered That much depended on the first Impressions that are received of any matter She in conclusion said she would obey the King in every thing he desired her to do So she wrote the Letter as they desired it and the day following being the 12th of Iuly the Bill was brought into the House for annulling the Marriage which went easily through both Houses On the 16th
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
Hospital and he order'd the Church of the Franciscans a little within Newgate to be opened which he gave to the Hospital This was done the 3d of Ianuary Another was of Trinity Colledg in Cambridg one of the Noblest Foundations in Christendom He continued in a decay till the 27 of the moneth and then many signs of his approaching end appearing few would adventure on so unwelcom a thing as to put him in mind of his change then imminent but Sir Anthony Denny had the honesty and courage to do it and desired him to prepare for death and remember his former life and to call on God for mercy through Jesus Christ. Upon which the King expressed his grief for the Sins of his past Life yet he said he trusted in the mercies of Christ which were greater than they were Then Denny asked him if any Churchman should be sent for and he said if any it should be Arch-Bishop Cranmer and after he had rested a little finding his Spirits decay apace he ordered him to be sent for to Croydon where he was then But before he could come the King was Speechless So Cranmer desired him to give some sign of his dying in the Faith of Christ upon which he squeezed his hand and soon after died after he had Reigned 37 years and 9 months in the six and fiftieth year of his age His death was kept up three dayes for the Journals of the House of Lords shew that they continued reading Bills and going on in business till the 31st and no sooner did the Lord Chancellor signify to them that the King was dead and that the Parliament was thereby dissolved It is certain the Parliament had no being after the Kings breath was out so their sitting till the 31st shews that the Kings death was not generally known all those three dayes The reasons of concealing it so long might either be that they were considering what to do with the Duke of Norfolk or that the Seymours were laying their matters so as to be secure in the Government before they published the Kings Death I shall not adventure on adding any further Character of him to that which is done with so much Wit and Judgment by the Lord Hâ—rbert but shall refer the Reader wholly to him only adding an account of the blackest part of it the Attaindors that passed the last 13 years of his life which are comprehended within this Book of which I have cast over the Relation to the Conclusion of it In the latter part of his Reign there were many things that seem great severities especially as they are represented by the Writers of the Roman party whose relations are not a little strengthned by the faint excuses and the mistaken accounts that most of the Protestant Historians have made The King was naturally impetuous and could not bear provocation the times were very ticklish his Subjects were generally addicted to the old Superstition especially in the Northern parts the Monks and Friers were both numerous and wealthy the Pope was his implacable Enemy the Emperor was a formidable Prince and being then Master of all the Netherlands had many advantages for the War he designed against Enâ—land Cardinal Pole his kinsman was going over all the Courts of Christendom to perswade a League against England as being a thing of greater necessity and merit than a War against the Turk This being without the least aggravation the state of affairs at that time it must be confessed he was sore put to it A Superstition that was so blind and headstrong and Enemies that were both so powerful so spiteful and so industrious made rigour necessary nor is any General of an Army more concerned to deal severely with Spies and Intelligencers than he was to proceed against all the Popes adherents or such as kept correspondence with Pole He had observed in History that upon much less provocation than himself had given not only several Emperors and forreign Princes had been dispossessed of their Dominions but two of his own Ancestors Henry the 2d and King Iohn had been driven to great extremities and forced to unusual and most indecent submissions by the means of the Popes and their Clergy The Popes power over the Clergy was so absolute and their dependence and obedience to him was so implicite and the Popish Clergy had so great an interest in the superstitious multitude whose consciences they governed that nothing but a stronger passion could either tame the Clergy or quiet the People If there had been the least hope of impunity the last part of his Reign would have been one continued Rebellion therefore to prevent a more profuse effusion of blood it seemed necessary to execute Laws severely in some particular instances There is one calumny that runs in a thread through all the Historians of the Popish side which not a few of our own have ignorantly taken up That many were put to death for not swearing the Kings Supremacy It is an impudent falshood for not so much as one person suffered on that account nor was there any Law for any such Oath before the Parliament in the 28th year of the Kings Reign when the unsufferable Bull of Pope Paul the 3d engaged him to look a little more to his own safety Then indeed in the Oath for maintaining the successiono f the Crown the Subjects were required under the pains of Treason to swear that the King was supream head of the Church of England but that was not mentioned in the former Oath that was made in the 25th and enacted in the 26 year of his Reign It cannot but be confessed that to enact under pain of death that none should deny the Kings Titles and to proceed upon that against offenders is a very different thing from forcing them to swear the King to be the Supream Head of the Church The first instance of these Capital proceedings was in Easter-Term in the beginning of the 27th year of his reign Three Priors and a Monk of the Carthusian Order were then endited of Treason for saying that the King was not Supream head under Christ of the Church of England These were Iohn Houghton Prior of the Charter-house near London Augustin Webster Prior of Axholme Robert Laurence Prior of Bâ—vâ—ll and Richard Reynolds a Monk of Sion this last was esteemed a learned man for that time and that Order They were tried in Westminster-Hall by a Commission of Oyer and Terminer they pleaded not guilty but the Jury found them guilty and judgment was given that they should suffer as Traitors The Record mentions no other particulars but the writers of the Popish side make a splendid recital of the courage and constancy they expressed both in their Tryal and at their Death It was no difficult thing for men so used to the Legend and the making of fine stories for the Saints and Martyrs of their Orders to dress up such Narratives with much pomp But as their pleading Not
that Commotion were severely handled It was by their means that the discontents were chiefly fomented they had taken all the Oaths that were enjoyned them and yet continued to be still practising against the State which as it was highly contrary to the peaceable Doctrines of the Christian Religion so it was in a special manner contrary to the Rules which they professed that obliged them to forsake the World and to follow a Religious and Spiritual course of Life The next Example of justice was a year after this of one Forrâ—st an Observant Frier he had been as Sanders says Confessor to Queen Katharine but it seems departed from her interests for he insinuated himself so into the King that he recovered his good Opinion Being an ignorant and lewd man he was accounted by the better sort of that House to which he belonged in Greenwich a Reproach to their Order concerning this I have seen a large account in an Original Letter written by a Brother of the same House Having regained the Kings good Opinion he put all those who had favoured the Divorce under great fears for he proceeded cruelly against them And one Rainscroft being suspected to have given secret Intelligence of what was done among them was shut up and so hardly used that he dyed in their hands which was as that Letter relates done by Frier Forrests means This Frier was found to have denyed the Kings Supremacy for though he himself had sworn it yet he had infused it into many in Confession that the King was not the Supream Head of the Church Being questioned for these practices which were so contrary to the Oath that he had taken he answered that he took that Oath with his outward man but his inward man had never consented to it Being brought to his Tryal and accused of several Heretical opinions that he held he submitted himself to the Church Upon this he had more freedom allowed him in the Prison but some coming to him diverted him from the Submission he had offered so that when the Paper of Abjuration was brought him he refused to set his hand to it upon which he was judged an Obstinate Heretick The Records of these Proceedings are lost but the Books of that time say that he denyed the Gospel it is like it was upon that pretence that without the determination of the Church it had no Authority upon which several writers of the Roman Communion have said undecent and scandalous things of the holy Scriptures He was brought to Smithfield where were present the Lords of the Council to offer him his pardon if he would abjure Latimer made a Sermon against his errors and studyed to perswade him to recant but he continued in his former opinions so he was put to death in a most severe manner He was hanged in a chain about his middle and the great Image that was brought out of Walâ—s was broken to pieces and served for fewel to burn him He shewed great unquietness of mind and ended his Life in an ungodly manner as Hall says who adds this Character of him that he had little knowledg of God and his sincere truth and less trust in him at his ending In Winter that year a correspondence was discovered with Cardinal Pole who was barefaced in his Treasonable designs against the King His Brother Sir Geofrey Pole discovered the whole Plot. For which the Marquess of Exceter that was the Kings Cousin-german by his Mother who was Edward the 4ths Daughter the Lord Montacute the Cardinals Brother Sir Geofrey Pole and Sir Edward Nevill were sent to the Tower in the beginning of November They were accused for having maintained a correspondence with the Cardinal and for expressing an hatred of the King with a dislike of his proceedings and a readiness to rise upon any good opportunity that might offer it self The special matter brought against the Lord Montacute and the Marquis of Excetâ—r who were tryed by their Peers on the 2d and 3d of December in the 30th year of this Reign is that whereas Cardinal Pole and others had cast off their Alleageance to the King and gone and submitted themselves to the Pope the Kings mortal enemy the Lord Montacute did on the 24th of Iuly in the 28th year of the Kings Reign a few months before the Rebellion broke out say that he liked well the proceedings of his Brother the Cardinal but did not like the proceedings of the Realm and said I trust to see a change of this World I trust to have a fair day upon those Knaves that rule about the King and I trust to see a merry World one day Words to the same purpose were also charged on the Marquess the Lord Montacute further said I would I were over the Sea with my Brother for this World will one day come to stripes it must needs so come to pass and I fear we shall lack nothing so much as honest men he also said he had dreamed that the King was dead and though he was not yet dead he would die suddenly one day his Leg will kill him and then we shall have jolly stirring saying also that he had never loved him from his childhood and that Cardinal Wolsey would have been an honest man if he had had an honest Master And the King having said to the Lords he woulâ—â—eave them one day having some apprehensions he might shortly die that Lord said if he will serve us so we shall be happily rid a time will come I fear we shall not tarry the time we shall do well enough He had also said he was sorry the Lord Abâ—rgâ—â—â—â—y was dead for he could have made ten thousand men and for his part he would go and live in the West where the Marquess of Excâ—ter was strong and had also said upon the breaking of the Northern Rebellion that the Lord Darcy played the fool for he went to pluck away the Council but he should have begun with the head first but I beshrew him for leaving off so soon These were the Words charged on those Lords as clear discoveries of their Treasonable designs and that they knew of the Rebellion that brake out and only intended to have kept it off to a fitter opportunity they were also accused of Correspondence with Cardinal Polâ— that was the Kings declared Enemy Upon these points the Lords pleaded not Guilty but were found Guilty by their Peers and so Judgment was given On the 4th of December were Indicted Sir Geofrey Polâ— for holding Correspondence with his Brother the Cardinal and saying that he approved of his proceedings but not of the Kings Sir Edâ—ard Nevill Brother to the Lord Abergaveny for saying the King was a Beast and worse than a Beast George Crofts Chancellor of the Cathedral of Chichester for saying the King was not bâ—t the Pope was Supream head of the Church and Iohn Collins for saying the King would hang in Hâ—ll one day for the plucking down of
Abbeys All those Sir Edward Nevill only excepted pleaded Guilty and so they were condemned but Sir Geofrey Pole was the only person of the number that was not Executed for he had discovered the matter At the same time also Cardinal Pole Michael Throgmorton Gentleman Iohn Hilliard and Thomas Goldwell Clerks and William Pâ—â—to a Franciscan of the Observance were Attainted in Absence because they had cast off their duty to the King and had subjected themselves to the Bishop of Rome Pole being made Cardinal by him and for writing Treasonable Letters and sending them into England On the 4th of February following Sir Nicholas Carew that was both Master of the Horse and Knight of the Garter was Arraigned for being an adherent to the Marquess of Exeter and having spoke of his Attaindor as unjust and cruel he was also Attainted and Executed upon the 3d of March When he was brought to the Scaffold he openly acknowledged the errors and superstition in which he had formerly lived and blessed God for his Imprisonment for he then began to relish the Life and sweetness of Gods holy Word which was brought him by his Keeper one Phillips who followed the Reformation and had formerly suffered for it After these Executions followed the Parliament in the year 15â—9 in which not only these Attaindors that were already passed were confirmed but new ones of a strange and unheard-of nature were Enacted It is a blemish never to be washed off and which cannot be enough condemned and was a breach of the most sacred and unalterable Rules of Justice which is capable of no excuse it was the Attainting of some persons whom they held in custody without bringing them to a Tryal Concerning which I shall add what the great Lord Chief Justice Cook writes although I question not the Power of the Parliament for without question the Attaindor stands of force in Law yet this I say of the manner of proceeding Aâ—ferat Oblivio si potest si non utrumque silentium tegat For the more high and absolute the Jurisdiction of the Court is the more just and honourable it ought to be in the proceedings and to give Example of Justice to inferior Courts The chief of these were the Marchioness of Exeter and the Countess of Sarum The special matter charged on the former is her confederating her self to Sir Nicolas Carew in his Treasons to which is added that she had committed divers other abominable Treasons The latter is said to have confederated her self with her Son the Cardinal with other aggravating words It does not appear by the Journal that any Witnesses were examined only that day that the Bills were read the third time in the House of Lords Cromwell shewed them a Coat of white silk which the Lord Admiral had found among the Countess of Sarums Cloaths in which the Arms of England were wrought on the one side and the Standard that was carryed before the Rebels was on the other side This was brought as an evidence that she approved of the Rebellion Three Irish Priests were also Attainted for carrying Letters out of Ireland to the Pope and Cardinal Pole as also Sir Adrian Fortescue for endeavouring to raise Rebellion Thomas Dingley a Knight of St. Iohn of Ierusalem and Robert Granceter Merchant for going to several Forreign Princes and perswading them to make War upon the King and assist the Lords Darcy and Hussie in the Rebellion they had raised Two Gentlemen a Dominican Frier and a Yeoman were by the same Act Attainted for saying that that venemous Serpent the Bishop of Rome was Supream Head of the Church of England Another Gentleman two Priests and a Yeoman are Attainted for Treason in general no particular crime being specified Thus sixteen persons were in this manner Attainted and if there was any Examination of Witnesses for convicting them it was either in the Star-Chamber or before the Privy Council for there is no mention of any evidence that was brought in the Journals There was also much haste made in the passing this Bill it being brought in the 10th of May was read that day for the first and second time and the 11th of May for the third time The Commons kept it five days before they sent it back and added some more to those that were in the Bill at first but how many were named in the Bill Originally and how many were afterwards added cannot be known Fortescue and Dingley suffered the 10th of Iuly As for the Countess of Sarum the Lord Herbert saw in a Record that Bulls from the Pope were found in her House that she kept correspondence with her Son and that she forbade her Tenants to have the new Testament in English or any other of the Books that had been published by the Kings Authority She was then about seventy years of Age but shewed by the answers she made that she had a vigorous and masculine mind She was kept two years Prisoner in the Tower after the Act had passed the King by that reprieve designing to oblige her Son to a better behaviour but upon a fresh provocation by a new Rebellion in the North she was beheaded and in her the name and line of Plantagenet determined The Marchioness of Exceter died a natural death In November this year were the Abbots of Reading Glossenbury and Colechester Attainted of Treason of which mention was made formerly In the Parliament that sate in the year 1540 they went on to follow that strange precedent which they had made the former year By the 56th Act Giles Heron was Attainted of Treason no special matter being mentioned By the 57th Act Richard Fetherstoun Thomas Abell and Edward Pole Priests and William Horn a Yeoman were Attainted for denying the Kings Supremacy and adhering to the Bishop of Rome by the same Act the Wife of one Tirrell Esquire was Attainted for refusing her duty of Alleageance and denying Prince Edward to be Prince and heir of the Crown and one Laurence Cook of Doncaster was also Attainted for contriving the Kings death By the 58th Act Gregory Buttolph Adam Damplip and Edward Brindeholm Clerks and Clement Philpot Gentleman were Attainted for adhering to the Bishop of Rome for corresponding with Cardinal Pole and endeavouring to surprize the Town of Callais By the same Act Barnes Gerard and Ierome were Attainted of whose sufferings an account has been already given By the 59th Act William Bird a Priest and Chaplain to the Lord Hungerford was attainted for having said to one that was going to Assist the King against the Rebels in the North I am sorry thou goest seest thou not how the King plucketh down Images and Abbies every day and if the King go thither himself he will never come home again nor any of them all which go with him and in truth it were pity he should ever come home again and at another time upon ones saying O good Lord I ween all the World will be
Hereticks in a little time Bird said doest thou marvel at that I tell thee it is no marvel for the great Master of all is an Heretick and such a one as there is not his like in the World By the same Act the Lord Hungerford was likewise Attainted The Crimes specified are that he knowing Bird to be a Traitor did entertain him in his house as his Chaplain that he ordered another of his Chaplains Sir Hugh Wood and one Doctor Maudlin to use Conjuring that they might know how long the King should live and whether he should be victorious over his Enemies or not and that these three years last past he had frequently committed the detestable sin of Sodomy with several of his Servants All these were Attainted by that Parliament The Lord Hungerford was Executed the same day with Cromwell he dyed in such disorder that some thought he was frenetick for he called often to the Executioner to dispatch him and said he was weary of Life and longed to be dead which seemed strange in a man that had so little cause to hope in his death For Powel Fetherstoun and Abell they suffered the same day with Barnes and his friends as hath been already shewn This year Sampson Bishop of Chichester and one Doctor Wilson were put in the Toâ—er upon suspition of correspondence with the Pope But upon their submission they had their pardon and liberty In the year 1541 five Priests and ten secular persons some of them being Gentlemen of Quality were raising a new Rebellion in Yorkshire which was suppressed in time and the Promoters of it being apprehended were Attainted and Executed and this occasioned the death of the Countess of Sarum after the Execution of the Sentence had been delayed almost two years The last instance of the Kings severity was in the year 1543 in which one Gardiner that was the Bishop of Winchesters kinsman and Secretary and three other Priests were tryed for denying the Kings Supremacy and soon after Executed But what special matter was laid to their charge cannot be known for the Record of their Attaindor is lost These were the proceedings of this King against those that adhered to the interests of Rome in which though there is great ground for just censure for as the Laws were rigorous so the Execution of them was raised to the highest that the Law could admit yet there is nothing in them to justifie all the clamors which that party have raised against King Henry and by which they pursue his memory to this day and are far short both in number and degrees of the cruelties of Queen Maries Reign which yet they endeavour all that is possible to extenuate or deny To Conclude we have now gone through the Reign of King Henry the 8th who is rather to be reckoned among the Great than the Good Princes He exercised so much severity on men of both perswasions that the writers of both sides have laid open his faults and taxed his cruelty But as neither of them were much obliged to him so none have taken so much care to set forth his good qualities as his Enemies have done to enlarge on his Vices I do not deny that he is to be numbered among the ill Princes yet I cannot rank him with the worst The End of the third Book and of the first Part. ADDENDA After some of the sheets of this History were wrought off I met with Manuscripts of great Authority out of which I have Collected several particulars that give a clear light to the proceedings in those times which since they came too late to my knowledg to be put in their proper places I shall here add them with refâ—râ—nces to the places to which they belong Ad Page 202. line 13. THere it is said that the Earl of Wiltshire Father to Queen Anne Boleyn was one of the Peers that Judged her In this I too Implicitly followed Doctor Heylin he seeming to write with more than ordinary care for the Vindication of that Queen and with such assurance as if he had seen the Records concerning her so that I took this upon trust from him The reason of it was that in the search I made of Attaindors I did not find the Record of her Tryal so I concluded that either it was destroyed by Order during her Daughters Reign or was accidentally lost since that time And thus having no Record to direct me I too easily followed the Printed Books in that particular But after that part of this History was wrought off I by chance met with it in another place where it was mislaid and there I discovered the error I had committed The Earl of Wiltshire was not one of her Judges these by whom she was tryed were the Duke of Suffolk the Marquis of Exceter the Earls of Arundell Oxford Northumberland Westmoreland Derby Worcester Rutland Sussex and Huntington and the Lords Audley Delaware Mountague Morley Dacres Cobham Maltravers Powis Mounteagle Clinton Sands Windsor Wentworth Burgh and Mordant in all twenty six and not twenty Eight as I reckoned them upon a Vulgar Error The Record mentions one particular concerning the Earl of Northumberland that he was taken with a sudden fit of sickness and was forced to leave the Court before the Lord Rochford was Tryed This might have been only Casual but since he was once in Love with the Queen and had designed to Marry her see Page 44 it is no wonder if so sad a change in her Condition did raise an unusual disorder in him When I had discovered the mistake I had made as I resolved to publish this free Confession of it so I set my self not without some Indignation to examine upon what Authority Doctor Heylin had led me into it I could find no Author that went before him in it but Sanders the chief design of whose writing was to defame Queen Elizabeth and to blast her Title to the Crown To that end it was no ill piece of his skill to perswade the World of her Mother lewdness to say that her own Father was convinced of it and condemned her for it And Doctor Heylin took this as he has done many other things too easily upon Sanders Testimony Ad Page 217. line 37. The Articles of Religion of which an abstract is there set down are indeed published by Fullâ—r but he saw not the Original with all the Subscriptions to it which I have had in my hands and therefore I have put it in the Collection with three other Papers which were soon after offered to the King by Cranmer The one is in the form of fifteen queries concerning some abuses by which the people had been deceived as namely by these Doctrines that without Contrition sinners may be reconciled to God that it is in the Power of the Priest to pardon or not to pardon sin at his pleasure and that Gods pardon cannot be obtained without Priestly Absolution Also he complained that the people
to you the King 's said Ambassador shall have a good colour to induce the Pope's Holiness saying as of your self That you have well considered your own pursuits for producing the Brief at Rome and because the Emperor might per-case think that the Pope were about to arect unto him the falsity of the said Brief therefore you can be contented that that matter be put off and no mention to be made thereof by his Nuntio or otherwise whereunto it is not to be doubted but the Pope's Holiness will have special regard and facilly condescend to your desires in that behalf Finally It appeareth also by certain your Letters sent as well to the King's Highness as to me that the Pope's Holiness is much desirous to study and find a mean and way to satisfy the King's Highness in this behalf Amongst which one clause in his Letters to me is this Tametsi enim jurisperitorum consilium quaesiverimus sed nihil reperimus quod bonis orâ—toribus simul justitiae ac honori nostro satisfaceret sed tamen agimus omnia tentamus omnes modos Regiae suae Serenitati ac circumspectioni tuae satisfaciendi And it is added in the Margin with Wolsey's hand Mi Petre referas tuis literis pervelim quid tibi mihi Pontifex dixerit de modis excogitandis quomodo subridens dicebat In nomine Patris c. Wherefore since his Holiness so plainly declared that he seeketh the ways and means to satisfie the King's Highness it shall be in any wise expedient that you the said Orators perceiving any towardness of Advocation lay this to the Pope's Holiness saying That that is not the way to satisfy his Grace and yet besides that by your Wisdoms to find the means to understand and know of his Holiness what be the ways and means which his Holiness hath studied or can study to satisfie the King according to his writing in this behalf whereof they shall say his Grace is glad and is very desirous to know and understand the same and as you shall perceive any towardness or untowardness in the Pope in that behalf so to set forth your pursuits to the best purpose accordingly And thus heartily fare you well From Richmond the 21 day of May. Your loving Friend T. Cardinalis Eborac May 31. Romae 1529. XXVI A Letter of the Popes to the Cardinal An Original Dilecto Filio nostro Thomae tituli Sanctae Ceciliae Presbytero Cardinali Eboracensi nostro sedis Apostolicae Legato de latere Clemens manu propria DIlecte Fili noster salutem Apostolicam benedictionem Cum Angliae Rex ac Circumspectio vestra vetera vestra erga nos Sedem Apostolicam merita novis officiis augeretis optabamus occasionem in qua vos nostrum amorem cognoscere possetis sed molestissime tulimus eam primum esse oblatam in qua circumsepti angustis terminis Justitiae non possemus progredi quantum vellemus studio vobis gratificandi multis ac rationabilibus Causis desiderium vestrum impedientibus quod quidem Regiis Oratoribus istuc redeuntibus demonstrare conati sumus Sed super his publicis negotiis copiosius vobiscum loquetur Dilectus Filius noster Cardinalis Campegius Datum Romae die ultima Maii 1529. J. April 6. 1529. XXVII The King's Letter to his Ambassadours to hinder an Avocation of the Suit An Original By the King Henry Rex TRusty and right well-beloved we greet you well Since your departure from hence we have received sundry your Letters to us directed whereof the last beareth date at Rome the 4 th day of the last month and have also seen such other as from time to time ye have sent to the most Reverend Father in God our most entirely well-beloved Counsellor the Lord Legate Cardinal Archbishop of York Primate of England and our Chancellour By continue whereof we have been advertised of the Successes as well of your Journey thitherwards as of such things as ye to that time had done in our Causes to you committed for the which your diligent advertisement and good acquittal we give unto you condign thanks ascertaining you We do not a little marvel that in your said last Letters you shew so much desperation of any great favour to be had at the Pope's hand in our said Causes considering that neither ye then had spoken with his Holiness in the same nor by such Conferences as ye had had with Mr. Iacobo Salviati or other on his behalf we can perceive but all good favour and towardness tho per-case the superiority of the Imperials and the common fame led you to think the contrary Howbeit as you know no credence is to be given unto such common report nor we trust the same shall prove more true than hath done the Opinion that was of the Lord Legate Campegius now here Resident whom we find and certainly know to be of a far other sort in his love and inclination towards us than was spoken not having such affection towards the Emperor as in him was suspected And to be plain with you if ever he had been of other mind we have said somewhat to him after such manner as might soon change that intention So that little Faith is to be given to the outward Sayings and Opinions of such People as measure every thing at their pleasure which we doubt not but ye right wisely do consider and that ye have before this time by your diligent sollicitation made to speak with the Pope's Holiness for declaration of your Charge proved the contrary Whereof we shall be glad and joyous to hear willing and desiring you therefore according to the great and special confidence that we have in you to pretermit no time in the diligent handling and execution of your said Charge but by one good way or other to find the mean if you have not already done it to declare the same unto the Pope wherein the good advice and address of the Bishop of Verone shall We trust do you great furtherance and by whose means if ye for the Pope's extreme debility or sickness might in no wise be often admitted unto his presence ye may signify unto him at great length our whole Mind Desire and Intent after such form as your Instructions and Letters given and sent unto you in that behalf do purport For sure ye may be it shall highly confer unto the benefit of our Causes that ye have there present one so fast and assured Friend unto us as we trust the Bishop of Verone is who shall be able right largely to countervail and meet with the malicious practices of the Archbishop of Capua who is thought to be one of the chief Authors and Contrivers of the Falsities Crafts and Abuses set forth to the hindrance of our said Causes which no Man shall more politickly and facilly deprehend than the said Bishop of Verone may do And therefore he is by you with all good means and
communications with her or of as many sendings of your Chaplains unto her As for the late Lord of Canterbury's saying unto you That she had many great Visions it ought to move you never a deal to give credence unto her or her Revelations for the said Lord knew no more certainty of her or of her Revelations than he did by her own report And as touching the saying of Amos the Prophet I think verily the same moved you but a little to hearken unto her for sithence the Consummation and the end of the Old Testament and sithen the Passion of Christ God hath done many great and notable things in the World whereof he shewed nothing to his Prophets that hath come to the knowledg of Men. My Lord all these things moved you not to give credence unto her but only the very matter whereupon she made her false Prophesies to which matter ye were so affected as ye be noted to be in all matters which ye enter once into that nothing could come amiss that made for that purpose And here I appeal your Conscience and instantly desire you to answer Whether if she had shewed you as many Revelations for the confirmation of the King's Graces Marriage which he now enjoyeth as she did to the contrary ye would have given as much credence to her as the same done and would have let the trial of her and her Revelations to overpass those many years where ye dwelt not from her but twenty miles in the same Shire where her Traunces and Diffigurings and Prophesies in her Traunces were surmised and reported And if percase ye will say as it not unlike but ye will say minded as ye were wont to be that the matter be not like for the Law of God in your opinion standeth with the one and not with the other Surely my Lord I suppose there had been no great cause more to trust the one more than the other for ye know by Scriptures of the Bible that God may by his Revelation dispense with his own Law as with the Israelites spoiling the Egyptians and with Iacob to have four Wives and such other Think you my Lord that any indifferent Man considering the quality of the Matter and your Affections and also the negligent passing over of such lawful Trials as ye might have had of the said Maiden and her Revelations is so dull that cannot perceive and discern that your communing and often sending to the said Maid was rather to hear and bruit many of her Revelations than to try out the truth or falshood of the same And in this Business I suppose it will be hard for you to purge your self before God or the World but that ye have been in great default in hearing believing and concealing such things as tended to the destruction of the Prince and that her Revelations were bent and purposed to that end it hath been duly proved afore as great Assembly and Council of the Lords of this Realm as hath been seen many years meet out of a Parliament And what the said Lords deemed them worthy to suffer which said heard believed and concealed those false Revelations be more terrible than any threats spoken by me to your Brother And where ye go about to defend that ye be not to be blamed for concealing the Revelations concerning the King's Grace because ye thought it not necessary to rehearse them to his Highness for six Causes following in your Letters afore I shew you my mind concerning these Causes I suppose that albeit you percase thought it not necessary to be shewed to the Prince by you yet that your thinking shall not be your Trial but the Law must define whether ye oughted to utter it or not And as to the first of the said seven Causes Albeit she told you that she had shewed her Revelations concerning the King's Grace to the King her self yet her saying or others discharged not you but that ye were bound by your fidelity to shew to the King's Grace that thing which seemed to concern his Grace and his Reign so nighly for how knew you that she shewed these Revelations to the King's Grace but by her own saying to which ye should have given no such credence as to forbear the utterance of so great Matters concerning a King's Weal And why should you so sinisterly judg the Prince that if ye had shewed the same unto him he would have thought that ye had brought that tale unto him more for the strengthening and confirmation of your Opinion than for any other thing else Verily my Lord whatsoever your Judgment be I see daily such benignity and excellent humanity in his Grace that I doubt not but his Highness would have accepted it in good part if ye had shewed the same Revelations unto him as ye were bounden by your fidelity To the second Cause Albeit she shewed you not that any Prince or other Temporal Lord should put the King's Grace in danger of his Crown yet there were ways enough by which her said Revelations might have put the King's Grace in danger as the foresaid Council of Lords have substantially and duly considered And therefore albeit she shewed you not the means whereby the danger should ensue to the King yet ye were nevertheless bounden to shew him of the danger To the third Think you my Lord that if any Person would come unto you and shew you that the King's destruction were conspired against a certain time and would fully shew you that he were sent from his Master to shew the same to the King and will say further unto that he would go streight to the King were it not yet your duty to certify the King's Grace of this Revelation and also to enquire whether the said Person had done his foresaid Message or no Yes verily and so were ye bound tho the Maiden shewed you it was her Message from God to be declared by her to the King's Grace To the fourth Here ye translate the temporal Duty that ye owe to your Prince to the spiritual Duty of such as be bound to declare the Word of God to the People and to shew unto them the ill and punishment of it in another World the concealment whereof pertaineth to the Judgment of God but the concealment of this Matter pertaineth to other Judges of this Realm To the fifth There could no blame be imputed to you if ye had shewed the Maidens Revelation to the King's Grace albeit they were afterward found false for no Man ought to be blamed doing his Duty And if a Man would shew you secretly that there were a great Mischief intended against the Prince were ye to be blamed if ye shewed him of it albeit it was a feigned talk and the said mischief were never imagined To the sixth Concerning an Imagination of Mr. Pary it was known that he was beside himself and therefore they were not blamed that made no report thereof but it was not like in this case
dread and fear to detect or accuse such detestable known Hereticks the particularities and specialities of which said abominable Heresies Errors and Offences committed and done by the said Thomas Cromwell being over-tedious long and of too great number here to be expressed declared or written And to the intent to have those damnable Errors and Heresies to be inculcated impressed and infixed in the Hearts of your Subjects as well contrary to God's Laws as to your Laws and Ordinances Most Gracious Soveraign Lord the same Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex hath allured and drawn unto him by Retainours many of your Subjects sunderly inhabiting in every of your said Shires and territories as well erroneously perswading and declaring to them the Contents of the false erroneous Books above-written to be good true and best standing with the most Holy Word and Pleasure of God as other his false and heretical Opinions and Errors whereby and by his Confederacies therein he hath caused many of your faithful Subjects to be greatly infected with Heresies and other Errors contrary to the right Laws and Pleasure of Almighty God And the same Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex by the false and traiterous means above-written supposing himself to be fully able by force and strength to maintain and defend his said abominable Treasons Heresies and Errors not regarding his most bounden Duty to Almighty God and his Laws nor the natural Duty of Allegiance to your Majesty in the last day of March in the 30 year of our most gracious Reign in the Parish of St. Peter the Poor within your City of London upon demonstration and declaration then there made unto him that there were certain new Preachers as Robert Barnes Clerk and other whereof part been now committed to the Tower of London for preaching and teaching of leud Learning against your Highness's Proclamations the same Thomas affirming the same preaching to be good most detestably arrogantly erroneously wilfully maliciously and traiterously expresly against your Laws and Statutes then and there did not lett to declare and say these most traiterous and detestable words ensuing amongst other words of like matter and effect that is to say That if the King would turn from it yet I would not turn And if the King did turn and all his People I would fight in the Field in mine own Person with my Sword in my hand against him and all others and then and there most traiterously pulled out his Dagger and held it on high saying these words Or else this Dagger thrust me to the heart if I would not die in that Quarrel against them all And I trust if I live one year or two it shall not lie in the King's Power to resist or lett it if he would And further then and there swearing by a great Oath traiterously affirmed the same his traiterous saying and pronunciation of words saying I will do so indeed extending up his Arm as though he had had a Sword in his Hand to the most perrilous grievous and wicked Example of all other your loving faithful and obedient Subjects in this your Realm and to the peril of your most Royal Person And moreover our most Gracious Soveraign Lord the said Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex hath acquired and obtained into his possession by Oppression Bribery Extort Power and false Promises made by him to your Subjects of your Realm innumerable Sums of Mony and Treasure and being so enriched hath had your Nobles of your Realm in great disdain derision and detestation as by express words by him most opprobriously spoken hath appeared And being put in remembrance of others of his estate which your Highness hath called him unto offending in like Treasons the last day of Ianuary in the 31 year of your most noble Reign at the Parish of St. Martin in the Field in the County of Middlesex most arrogantly willingly maliciously and traiterously said published and declared That if the Lords would handle him so that he would give them such a Break-fast as never was made in England and that the proudest of them should know to the great peril and danger as well of your Majesty as of your Heirs and Successors For the which his most detestable and abominable Heresies and Treasons and many other his like Offences and Treasons over-long here to be rehearsed and declared Be it Enacted Ordained and Established by your Majesty with the Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That the said Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex for his abominable and detestable Heresies and Treasons by him most abominably heretically and traiterously practised committed and done as well against Almighty God as against your Majesty and this your said Realm shall be and stand by Authority of this present Parliament convicted and attainted of Heresie and High Treason and be adjudged an abominable and detestable Heretick and Traitor and shall have and suffer such pains of death losses and forfeitures of Goods Debts and Chattels as in 〈◊〉 of Heresie and High Treason or as in cases of either of them at the pleasure of your most Royal Majesty And that the same Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex shall by Authority abovesaid lose and forfeit to your Highness and to your Heirs and Successors all such his Castles Lordships Mannors Mesuages Lands Tenements Rents Reversions Remainders Services Possessions Offices Rights Conditions and all other his Hereditaments of what names natures or qualities soever they be which he the said Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex or any other to his use had or ought to have had of any Estate of Inheritance in Fee-Simple or Fee-Tail in Reversion or Possession at the said last day of March in the said thirtieth Year of your most Gracious Reign or at any time sith or after as in Cases of High Treason And that all the said Castles Lordships Mannors Lands Mesuages Tenements Rents Reversions Remainders Services Possessions Offices and all other the Premisses forfeited as is abovesaid shall be deemed invested and adjudged in the lawful real and actual possession of your Highness your Heirs and Successors for ever in the same and such estate manner and form as if the said Castles Lordships Mannors Mesuages Lands Tenements Rents Reversions Remainders Services Possessions Offices and other the Premisses with their Appurtenances and every of them were specially or particularly founden by Office or Offices Inquisition or Inquisitions to be taken by any Escheator or Escheators or any other Commissioner or Commissioners by virtue of any Commission or Commissions to them or any of them to be directed in any County or Counties Shire or Shires within this your Realm of England where the said Castles and other the Premisses or any of them been or do lay and returned into any of your Majesties Courts Saving to all and singular Person and Persons Bodies politick and corporate their Heirs and Successors and their Successors and Assignes of
every of them other than the said Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex and his Heirs and all and every other Person and Persons claiming by the same Thomas Cromwell and to his use all such Right Title Entrie Possession Interest Reversions Remainders Lease Leases Conditions Fees Offices Rents Annuities Commons and all other Commodities Profits and Hereditaments whatsoever they or any of them might should or ought to have had if this Act had never been had nor made Provided always and be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid that this Act of Attainder ne any Offence ne other thing therein contained extend not unto the Deanery of Wells in the County of Sommerset nor to any Mannors Lands Tenements or Hereditaments thereunto belonging nor be in any wise prejudicial or hurtful unto the Bishop of Bath and Wells nor to the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral Church of St. Andrew of Wells nor to any of them nor to any of their Successors but that the said Bishop Dean and Chapters and their Successors and every of them shall and may have hold use occupy and enjoy all and singular their Titles Rights Mannors Lands Tenements Rents Reversions and Services and all and singular other their Hereditaments Commodities and Profits of what nature kind or quality or condition soever they be in as ample and large manner and form as tho this Act of Attainder or any Offence therein mentioned had never been had committed nor made and that from hence-forth the Dean and his Successors Deans of the said Cathedral Church that hereafter shall be prefected elected and admitted to the same Shall by the Authority aforesaid be Dean of the said Cathedral Church fully and wholly incorporated with the Chapter of the same in as ample large and like manner and form to all intents and purposes as the Deans before this time hath been and used to be with the said Chapter of the said Cathedral Church of Wells And that the same Dean and Chapter and their Successors shall have occupy and enjoy all and singular their such Possessions Mannors Lands Tenements Rents Reversions and Services and all and singular their Hereditaments of what nature kind name or names they be called or known And shall be adjudged and deemed in actual and real possession and season of and in the same Premisses to all intents and purposes according to their old Corporation as tho this Act of Attainder or any thing clause or matter therein contained had never been had committed nor made This said Act of Attainder or any other Act Provision or any thing heretofore had or made to the contrary notwithstanding Cui quidem petitioni cum provisione praedict perlect intellect per dictum Dominum Regem ex Authoritate consensu Parliamenti praedicti sic Responsum est Soit faict come il est desiro Cromwell's Letter to the King concerning his Marriage with Ann of Cleve An Original To the King my most Gracious Sovereign Lord his Royal Majesty MOst Merciful King and most Gracious Sovereign Lord may it please the same to be advertised That the last time it pleased your benign Goodness to send unto me the Right Honourable Lord Chancellor the Right Honourable Duke of Norff. and the Lord Admiral to examine and also to declare unto me divers things from your Majesty among the which one special thing they moved and thereupon they charged me as I would answer before God at the dreadful day of Judgment and also upon the extreme danger and damnation of my Soul and Conscience to say what I knew in the Marriage and concerning the Marriage between your Highness and the Queen To the which I answered as I knew declaring unto them the Particulars as nigh as I then could call to remembrance Which when they had heard they in your Majesty's Name and upon like charge as they had given me before commanded me to write to your Highness the truth as much as I knew in that Matter which now I do and the very truth as God shall save me to the uttermost of my knowledg First After your Majesty heard of the Lady Ann of Cleves arrival at Dover and that her Journies were appointed toward Greenwich and that she should be at Rochester on New-years Even at night your Highness declared to me that you would privily visit her at Rochester upon New-years-day adding these words To nourish love which accordingly your Grace did upon New-years-day as is above-said And the next day being Friday your Grace returned to Greenwich where I spake with your Grace and demanded of your Majesty How ye liked the Lady Ann your Highness answered as me thought heavily and not pleasantly Nothing so well as she was spoken of saying further That if your Highness had known as much before as ye then knew she should not have come within this Realm saying as by the way of lamentation What Remedy Unto the which I answered and said I know none but was very sorry therefore and so God knoweth I was for I thought it a hard beginning The next day after the receipt of the said Lady and her entry made unto Greenwich and after your Highness had brought her to her Chamber I then waited upon your Highness into your Privy-Chamber and being there your Grace called me unto you saying to me these words or the like My Lord is it not as I told you say what they will she is nothing so fair as she hath been reported howbeit she is well and seemly Whereunto I answered and said By my Faith Sir ye say truth adding thereunto that I thought she had a Queenly manner and nevertheless was sorry that your Grace was no better content And thereupon your Grace commanded me to call together your Council which were these by name The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk my Lord Admiral and my Lord of Duresme and my self to commune of these Matters and to know what Commissions the Agents of Cleves had brought as well touching the performance of the Covenants sent before from hence to Dr. Wotton to have been concluded in Cleves as also in the declaration how the Matters stood for the Covenants of Marriage between the Duke of Lorrain's Son and the said Lady Ann. Whereupon Olisleger and Hogeston were called and the Matters purposed whereby it plainly appeared that they were much astonished and abashed and desired that they might make answer in the next morning which was Sunday And upon the Sunday in the morning your said Counsellors and they met together early and there eft-soons was proposed unto them as well touching the Commission for the performance of the Treaty and Articles sent to Mr. Wotton as also touching the Contracts and Covenants of Marriage between the Duke of Lorrain's Son and the Lady Ann and what terms they stood in To which things so proposed they answered as Men much perplexed That as touching Commission they had none to treat concerning the Articles sent to
Witness what I said unto him after your Grace came from Rochester yea and after your Grace's Marriage And also now of late sithence Whitsuntide and I doubt not but many and divers of my Lords of your Council both before your Marriage and sithence have right-well perceived that your Majesty hath not been well pleased with your Marriage And as I shall answer to God I never thought your Grace content after you had once seen her at Rochester And this is all that I know most gracious and most merciful Sovereign Lord beseeching Almighty God who ever hath in all your Causes counselled preserved opened maintained relieved and defended your Highness So he will now vouchsafe to counsel you preserve you maintain you remedy you relieve and defend you as may be most to your Honour with Prosperity Health and Comfort of your Hearts desire For the which and for the long Life and prosperous Reign of your most Royal Majesty I shall during my Life and whiles I am here pray to Almighty God that he of his most abundant Goodness will help aid and comfort you after your continuance of Nestor's Years that that most noble Imp the Princes Grace your most dear Son may succeed you to Reign long prosperously and feliciously to God's pleasure beseeching most humbly your Grace to pardon this my rude writing and to consider that I a most woful Prisoner ready to take the Death when it shall please God and your Majesty and yet the frail flesh inciteth me continually to call to your Grace for Mercy and Grace for mine Offences and thus Christ save preserve and keep you Written at the Tower this Wednesday the last of Iune with the heavy Heart and trembling hand of your Highness's most heavy and most miserable Prisoner and poor Slave Thomas Cromwell Most Gracious Prince I cry for Mercy Mercy Mercy XVIII The King 's own Declaration concerning it An Original FIrst I depose and declare That this hereafter written is meerly the verity intended upon none sinister affection nor yet upon none hatred nor displeasure and herein I take God to witness Now to the Matter I say and affirm That when the first communication was had with me for the Marriage of the Lady Ann of Cleves I was glad to hearken to it trusting to have some assured Friend by it I much doubting that time both the Emperor France and the Bishop of Rome and also because I heard so much both of her excellent Beauty and vertuous Conditions But when I saw her at Rochester the first time that ever I saw her it rejoiced my heart that I had kept me free from making any Pact or Bond before with her till I saw her my self for then I adsure you I liked her so ill and so far contrary to that she was praised that I was woe that ever she came into England and deliberated with my self that if it were possible to find means to break off I would never enter Yoke with her Of which misliking both the great Master the Admiral that now is and the Master of the Horses can and will here record Then after my repair to Greenwich the next day after I think and doubt not but that the Lord of Essex well examined can and will or hath declared what I then said to him in that case not doubting but since he is a Person which knoweth himself condemned to die by Act of Parliament will not damn his Soul but truly declare the Truth not only at that time spoken by me but also continually till the day of Marriage and also many times after whereby my lack of consent I doubt not doth or shall well appear And also lack enough of the Will and Power to consummate the same wherein both he my Physicians the Lord Privy Seal that now is Hennage and Denny can and I doubt not will testify according to truth which is That I never for love to the Woman consented to marry nor yet if she brought Maiden-head with her took any from her by true Carnal Copulation This is my brief true and perfect Declaration XIX The Iudgment of the Convocation for annulling of the Marriage with Ann of Cleve TEnor vero Literarum Testimonialum hujusmodi sequitur est talis Excellentissimo in Christo Principi c. Thomas Cantuarien Edwardus Eboracen Archiepiscopi caeterique Episcopi reliquus vestri Regni Angliae clerus Autoritate Literarum Commissionalium Vestrae Majestatis Congregati ac Synodum universalem repraesentantes cum obsequio reverentia honore debitis salutem foelicitatem Cum nos humillimi Majestatis Vestrae devotissimi subditi Convocati Congregati sumus virtute Commissionis Vestrae magno sigillo Vestro sigillat dat 6 Julii Anno foelicissimi Regni Vestri tricesimo secundo quam accepimus in haec quae sequitur verba Henricus Octavus Dei Gratia Angliae c. Archiepiscopis Cantuarien Eborac ac caeteris Regni nostri Angliae Episcopis Decanis Archidiaconis universo Clero salutem Egerunt apud nos Regni nostri proceres populus ut cum nuper quaedam emerserint quae ut illi putant ad nos Regnique nostri successionem pertineant inter quae praecipua est causa conditio Matrimonii quod cum Illustri Nobili Foemina Domina Anna Clevensi propter externam quidem conjugii speciem perplexum alioqui etiam multis ac variis modis ambiguum videtur Nos ad ejusdem Matrimonii disquisitionem ita procedere dignaremur ut opinionem Vestram qui in Ecclesia nostra Anglicana scientiam Verbi Dei Doctrinam profitemini exquiramus vobisque discutiendum Autoritatem ita demandemus ut si animis Vestris fuerit persuasum Matrimonium cum praefata Domina Anna minime consistere aut cohaerere debere nos ad Matrimonium contrahend cum alia liberos esse Vestro Patrum ac reliquae deinde Ecclesiae suffragio pronuncietur confirmetur Nos autem qui Vestrum in reliquis Ecclesiae hujus Anglicanae negotiis gravioribus quae Ecclesiasticam Oeconomiam Religionem spectant judicium amplecti solemus ad veritatis explicandae testimonium omnino necessarium rati sumus Causae hujusmodi Matrimonialis seriem circumstantias vobis exponi communicari curare ut quod vos per Dei Leges licere decreveritis id demum totius Ecclesiae nostrae Autoritate innixi licite facere exequi audeamus Vos itaque Convocari in Synodum Universalem nostra Autoritate convenire volentes vobis conjunctim divisim committimus atque mandamus ut inspecta hujus negotii veritate ac solum Deum prae oculis habentes quod verum quod justum quod honestum quod sanctum est id nobis de communi Concilio scripto annuncio renuncietis de communi consensu licere definiatis Nempe hoc unum a vobis nostro jure postulamus ut tanquam fida proba Ecclesiae membra causae huic
Tit. 1. Act. 14. Autoritas ordinandi Presbyteros data est Episcopis per verbum multisque aliis quos lego To the first part I answer Yea for so it appeareth Tit. 1. and 1 Tim. 5. with other places of Scripture But whether any other but only a Bishop may make a Priest I have not read but by singular priviledg of God as when Moses whom divers Authors say was not a Priest made Aaron a Priest Truth it is that the Office of a Godly Prince is to over-see the Church and the Ministers thereof and to cause them do their duty and also to appoint them special Charges and Offices in the Church as may be most for the Glory of God and edifying of the People and thus we read of the good Kings in the Old Testament David Ioas Ezekias Iosias But as for Making that is to say Ordaining and Consecrating of Priests I think it specially belongeth to the Office of a Bishop as far as can be shewed by Scripture or any Example as I suppose from the beginning A Bishop hath authority by Scripture to make a Priest and that any other ever made a Priest since Christ's time I read not Albeit Moses who was not anointed Priest made Aaron Priest and Bishop by a special Commission or Revelation from God without which he would never so have done A Bishop placed by the Higher Powers and admitted to minister may make a Priest and I have not read of any other that ever made Priests I say a Bishop hath authority by Scripture to make a Priest and other than a Bishop hath not power therein but only in case of necessity To the eleventh I suppose that a Bishop hath authority of God as his Minister by Scripture to make a Priest but he ought not to admit any Man to be Priest and consecrate him or to appoint him unto any ministry in the Church without the Princes license and consent in a Christian Region And that any other Man hath authority to make a Priest by Scripture I have not read nor any example thereof A Bishop being licensed by his Prince and Supream Governour hath authority to make a Priest by the Law of God I do not read that any Priest hath been ordered by any other than a Bishop Ad primam partem Quaestionis respondent omnes convenit omnibus praeter Menevens Episcopum habere autoritatem instituendi Presbyteros Roffens Leighton Curren Robersonus addunt Modo Magistratus id permittat Ad secundam partem Respondent Coxus Tresham in necessitate concedi potestatem Ordinandi aliis Eboracen videtur omnino denegare aliis hanc autoritatem Redmayn Symmons Robertson Leighton Thirleby Curren Roffen Edgworth Oglethorp Carliolen nusquam legerunt alios usos fuisse hac Potestate quanquam privilegio quodam data sit Moysi ut Redmanus arbitratur Edgeworth Nihil respondent ad secundam partem Quaestionis Londinensis Dayus In the eleventh To the former part of the Question the Bishop of St. Davids doth answer That Bishops have no authority to make Priests without they be authorized of the Christian Prince The others all of them do say That they be authorized of God Yet some of them as the Bishop of Rochester Dr. Curren Leighton Robertson add That they cannot use this authority without their Christian Prince doth permit them To the second part the answer of the Bishop of St. Davids is That Laymen have other-whiles made Priests So doth Dr. Edgworth and Redman say That Moses by a priviledg given him of God made Aaron his Brother Priest Dr. Tresham Crayford and Cox say That Laymen may make Priests in time of Necessity The Bishops of York Duresme Rochester Carlisle Elect of Westminster Dr. Curren Leighton Symmons seem to deny this thing for they say They find not nor read not any such example 12. Question Whether in the New Testament be required any Consecration of a Bishop and Priest or only appointing to the Office be sufficient Answers IN the New Testament he that is appointed to be a Bishop or a Priest needeth no Consecration by the Scripture for election or appointing thereto is sufficient To the twelfth Question The Apostles ordained Priests by Imposition of the Hand with Fasting and Prayer and so following their steps we must needs think that all the foresaid things be necessarily to be used by their Successors and therefore we do also think that Appointment only without visible Consecration and Invocation for the assistance and power of the Holy Ghost is neither convenient nor sufficient for without the said Invocation it besâ—emeth no Man to appoint to our Lord Ministers as of his own authority whereof we have example in the Acts of the Apostles where we find that when they were gathered to choose one in the place of Iudas they appointed two of the Disciples and commended the Election to our Lord that he would choose which of them it pleased him saying and praying Lord thou that knowest the hearts of all Men shew whether of these two thou dost choose to succeed in the place of Judas And to this purpose in the Acts we read Dixit Spiritus Sanctus segregate mihi Barnabam c. And again Quos posuit Spiritus Sanctus regere Ecclesiam Dei And it appeareth also that in the Old Testament in the ordering of Priests there was both Visible and Invisible Sanctification and therefore in the New Testament where the Priesthood is above comparison higher than in the Old we may not think that only appointment sufficeth without Sanctification either Visible or Invisible To the twelfth I think Consecration of a Bishop and Priest be required for that in the Old Law being yet but a shadow and figure of the New the Consecration was required as appears Levit. 8. yet the truth of this I leave to those of higher Judgments The Scripture speaketh de Impositione manus de Oratione and of other manner of Consecrations I find no mention in the New Testament expresly but the Old Authors make mention also of Inunctions Upon this Text of Paul to Timothy Noli negligere gratiam quae in te est quae data est tibi per prophetiam cum Impositione manuum Presbyterii St. Anselm saith This Grace to be the Gift of the Bishops Office to the which God of his meer goodness had called and preferred him The Prophesy he saith was the inspiration of the Holy Ghost by the which he knew what he had to do therein The Imposition of the hands is that by the which he was ordained and received that Office And therefore saith St. Paul God is my Witness that I have discharged my self showing you as I ought to have done Now look you well upon it whom that ye take to Orders lest ye lose your self thereby Let Bishops therefore who as saith St. Hierome hath power to make Priests consider well under
Scripturis quanquam nunc addantur alii ritus honestatis gratiâ ut in aliis Sacramentis de quibus in Scripturis nulla mentio Owinus Oglethorpus Unction with Oil adjoined with Prayer and having promise of Remission of Sins is spoken of in St. Iames and ancient Authors as for the use which now is if any thing be amiss it would be amended I. Redmayn It is spoken of in Mark 6. and Iames 5. Augustine and other ancient Authors speaketh of the same Edgeworth The Unction of the Sick with Oil to remit Sins is in Scripture and also in ancient Authors Symon Matthew Unction with Oil is grounded in the Scripture and expresly spoken of but with this Additament as it is now used it is not specified in Scripture for the Ceremonies now used in Unction I think meer Traditions of Man William Tresham To the seventeenth I say That Unction of the Sick with Oil and Prayer to remit Sins is manifestly spoken of in St. Iames Epistle and ancient Authors but not with all the Rites and Ceremonies as be now commonly used T. Cantuarien Per me Edwardum Leyghton Unction with Oil to remit Sins is spoken of in Scripture Richard Coren Menevens Coxus negant Unctionem Olei ut jam est recepta ad remittenda peccata contineri in Scripturis Eboracens Carliolens Edgworth Coren Redmayn Symmons Leightonus Oglethorp aiunt haberi in Scripturis Roffens Thirleby Robertsonus praeterquam illud Jacobi 5. Marci 6. nihil proferunt Herefordensis ambigit Tresham vult Unctionem Olei tradi nobis é Scripturis sed Unctionis Caeremonias traditiones esse humanas In the last The Bishop of St. Davids and Dr. Cox say That Vnction of the Sick with Oil consecrate as it is now used to remit Sin is not spoken of in Scripture My Lords of York Duresme Carlile Drs. Coren Edgworth Redman Symmons Leyghton and Oglethorp say That it is found in Scripture XXII Dr. Barnes's Renunciation of some Articles informed against him BE it known to all Men that I Robert Barnes Doctor of Divinity have as well in Writing as in Preaching over-shot my self and been deceived by trusting too much to mine own heady Sentence and giving judgment in and touching the Articles hereafter ensuing whereas being convented and called before the Person of my most gracious Soveraign Lord King Henry the Eighth of England and of France Defensor of the Faith Lord of Ireland and in Earth Supream Head immediately under God of the Church of England It pleased his Highness of his great clemency and goodness being assisted with sundry of his most discreet and learned Clergy to enter such Disputation and Argument with me upon the Points of my over-sight as by the same was fully and perfectly confuted by Scriptures and enforced only for Truths sake and for want of defence of Scriptures to serve for the maintenance of my part to yeeld confess and knowledg my ignorance and with my most humble submission do promise for ever from henceforth to abstain and beware of such rashness And for my further declaration therein not only to abide such order for my doings passed as his Grace shall appoint and assign unto me but also with my heart to advance and set forth the said Articles ensuing which I knowledg and confess to be most Catholick and Christian and necessary to be received observed and followed of all good Christian People Tho it so be that Christ by the Will of his Father is he only which hath suffered Passion and Death for redemption of all such as will and shall come unto him by perfect Faith and Baptism and that also he hath taken upon him gratis the burden of all their sins which as afore will hath or shall come to him paying sufficient Ransom for all their sins and so is becomed their only Redeemer and Justifier of the which number I trust and doubt not but that many of us now-adays be of yet I in heart do confess that after by the foresaid means we become right Christian Folks yet then by not following our Master's Commandments and Laws we do loose the benefits and fruition of the same which in this case is irrecuperable but by true Penance the only Remedy left unto us by our Saviour for the same wherefore I think it more than convenient and necessary that whensoever Justification shall be preached of that this deed be joined with all the fore-part to the intent that it may teach all true Christian People a right knowledg of their Justification By me Robert Barnes Also I confess with my heart That Almighty God is in no wise Author causer of Sin or any Evil and therefore whereas Scripture saith Induravit Dominus Cor Pharaonis c. and such other Texts of like sense they ought to understand them quod Dominus permisit eum indurari and not otherwise which doth accord with many of the ancient Interpreters also By me Robert Barnes Further I do confess with my heart That whensoever I have offended my Neighbours I must first reconcile my self unto him e're I shall get remission of my sins and in case he offend me I must forgive him e're that I can be forgiven for this doth the Pater Noster and other places of Scripture teach me By me Robert Barnes I do also confess with my heart That good Works limited by Scripture and done by a penitent and true reconciled Christian Man be profitable and allowable unto him as allowed of God for his benefit and helping to his Salvation By me Robert Barnes Also do confess with my heart That Laws and Ordinances made by Christian Rulers ought to be obeyed by the Inferiors and Subjects not only for fear but also for Conscience for whoso breaketh them breaketh God's Commandments By me Robert Barnes All and singular the which Articles before written I the foresaid Robert Barnes do approve and confess to be most true and Catholick and promise with my heart by God's Grace hereafter to maintain preach and set forth the same to the People to the uttermost of my power wit and cunning By me Robert Barnes By me William Ierome By me Thomas Gerarde XXIII The Foundation of the Bishoprick of Westminster REx omnibus ad quos c. salutem Cum nuper caenobium quoddam sive Monasterium quod dum extitit Monasterium Sancti Petri Westmon vulgariter vocabatur omnia singula ejus Maneria Dominia Mesuagia Terrae Tenementa Haereditamenta Dotationes Possessiones certis de causis specialibus urgentibus per Willielmum ipsius nuper Caenobii sive Monasterii Abbatem ejusdem loci Conventum nobis haeredibus nostris in perpetuum jamdudum data fuerunt concessa prout per ipsorum nuper Abbatis Conventus cartam sigillo suo communi sive conventuali sigillatam in Cancellar nostram irrotulat manifeste liquet quorum praetextu nos de ejusdem nuper Caenobii sive
lingring Disease The Plot goes on but scurvily when the next thing that is brought to confirm it is contradicted by Records Prince Arthur was born the 20 th of September in the year 1486 and so was 15 years old and two months passed at the 14 th of November 1501 in which he was married to the Princess and was then of a lively and good Complexion and did not begin to decay till the Shrovetide following which was imputed to his excesses in the Bed at the Witnesses deposed 3. He says Upon the motion for the marrying of his Brother Henry to the Princess it was agreed to by all that the thing was lawful It was perhaps agreed on at Rome where Mony and other political Arts sway their Counsels but it was not agreed to in England for which we have no meaner Author than Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who when examined upon Oath deposed that himself then thought the Marriage was not honourable nor well-pleasing to God and that he had thereupon opposed it much and that the People murmured at it 4. He says There was not one Man in any Nation under Heaven or in the whole Church that spake against it The common Stile of the Roman Church calling the See of Rome the Catholick Church must be applied to this to bring off our Author otherwise I know not how to save his Reputation Therefore by all the Nations under Heaven must be understood only the Divines at Rome tho when it came to be examined they could scarce find any who would justify it all the most famous Universities Divines and Canonists condemned it and Warham's Testimony contradicts this plainly besides the other great Authorities that were brought against it for which see lib. 2. from pag. 91. to pag. 103. 5. He says The King once said He would not marry the Queen Here is a pretty Essay of our Authors Art who would make us think it was only in a transient discourse that the King said he would not marry Queen Katherine but this was more maturely done by a solemn Protestation which he read himself before the Bishop of Winchester that he would never marry her and that he revoked his consent given under Age. This was done when he came to be of Age see pag. 36. it is also confessed by Sanders himself 6. He says The Queen bore him three Sons and two Daughters All the Books of that time speak only of two Sons and one Daughter but this is a flourish of his Pen to represent her a fruitful Mother 7. He says The King had sometimes two sometimes three Concubines at once It does not appear he had ever any but Elizabeth Blunt and if we judge of his Life by the Letters the Popes wrote to him and many printed Elogies that were published then he was a Prince of great Piety and Religion all that while 8. He says The Lady Mary was first desired in marriage by Iames the 5 th of Scotland then by Charles the 5 th the Emperor and then Francis asked her first for the Dolphin then for the Duke of Orleance and last of all for himself But all this is wrong placed for she was first contracted to the Dolphin then to the Emperor and then treated about to the King of Scotland after that it was left to Francis his choice whether she should be married to himself or his second Son the Duke of Orleance So little did our Poet know the publick Transactions of that time 9. He says She was in the end contracted to the Dolphin from whence he concludes that all Forreign Princes were satisfied with the lawfulness of the Marriage She was first of all contracted to the Dolphin Forreign Princes were so little satisfied of the lawfulness of the Marriage that tho she being Heir to the Crown of England was a Match of great advantage yet their Counsellors excepted to it on that very account that the Marriage was not good This was done in Spain and she was rejected as a Writer who lived in that time informs us and Sanders confesses it was done by the French Ambassadour 10. He says Wolsey was first Bishop of Lincoln then of Duresme after that of Winchester and last of all Arch-Bishop of York after that he was made Chancellor then Cardinal and Legate The order of these Preferments is quite reversed for Wolsey soon after he was made Bishop of Lincoln upon Cardinal Bembridge his death was not only promoted to the See of York but advanced to be a Cardinal in the 7 th year of the King's Reign And some months after that he was made Lord Chancellor and seven years after that he got the Bishoprick of Duresme which six years after he exchanged for Winchester He had heard perhaps that he enjoyed all these Preferments but knowing nothing of our Affairs beyond hear-say he resolved to make him rise as Poets order their Heroes by degrees and therefore ranks his Advancement not according to Truth but in the method he liked best himself 11. He says Wolsey first designed the Divorce and made Longland that was the King's Confessor second his motion for it The King not only denied this in publick saying That he himself had first moved it to Longland in Confession and that Wolsey had opposed it all he could but in private discourse with Grinaeus told him he had laboured under these scruples for seven years septem perpetuis annis trepidatio Which reckoning from the year 1531 in which Grinaeus wrote this to one of his Friends will fall back to the year 1524. long before Wolsey had any provocation to tempt him to it 12. He says In the year 1526 in which the King was first made to doubt of his Marriage he was resolved then whom to marry when he was once divorced But by his other Story Ann Boleyn was then but fifteen years old and went to France at that Age where she staied a considerable time before she came to the Court of England 13. He says The King spent a year in a private search to see what could be found either in the Scriptures or the Pope's Bull to be made use of against his Marriage but they could find nothing In that time all the Bishops of England except Fisher declared under their Hands and Seals that they thought the Marriage unlawful for which see pag. 38. and upon what Reasons this was grounded has been clearly opened pag. 97. 14. He says If there were any ambiguities in the Pope's first Letters meaning the Bull for dispensing with the marriage they were cleared by other Letters which Ferdinand of Spain had afterwards procured These other Letters by which he means the Breve bear date the same day with the Bull and so were not procured afterwards There were indeed violent presumptions of their being forged long after even after the Process had been almost an year in agitation But tho they helped the matter in
whosesoever Daughter she was she should be his Wife and upon that Sir Thomas instructed his Daughter how she should hold the King in her toils Sir Thomas must have thought the King had an ill memory if he had forgot such a Story but the one part of this makes him afraid that the King should marry his Daughter and the other part makes him afraid they should miss their hopes in it Not to mention how little likely it is that a King of such high vanity would have done that which the privatest Person has an aversion to I mean the marrying the Daughter of one whom they know to be a common Prostitute 23. He says Wolsey before his return from France sent Gambara to the Pope desiring him to name himself Vicar of the Papacy during his captivity This was not done till almost a year after this and the motion was sent by Staphileus Dean of the Rota for which see pag. 50. 24. He says None but ill Men and ignorant Persons wrote against the Marriage but all learned and good Men wrote for it The whole Doctors of the Church in all Ages were against it and no Doctor ancienter than Cajetan could ever be found to have writ for it 25. He says That tho great endeavours were used to perswade Sir Tho. More of the unlawfulness of the marriage all was in vain Is it probable that the King would have made him Lord Chancellor when he was so earnest in this business if he had not known that he would have gone along with him in it By one of his Letters to Cromwel out of the Tower it appears that he approved the Divorce and had great hopes of success in it as long as it was prosecuted at Rome and founded on the defects in the Bull. And in the 22 d year of the King's Reign when the Opinions of the Universities and the Books of Learned Men were brought to England against the Marriage he carried them down to the House of Commons and made read them there after which he desired they would report in their Country what they had heard and seen and then all Men would openly perceive that the King had not attempted this matter of his Will and Pleasure but only for the discharge of his Conscience More was a Man of greater integrity than to have said this if he had thought the Marriage good so that he has either afterwards changed his mind or did at this time dissemble too artificially with the King 26. After a long flourish about the King 's secret fears and apprehensions and the perplexities the Cardinal was in which must pass for a piece of his Wit that is to say Lying for he knew none of their thoughts He says That Gardiner and Sir Francis Brian were sent to the Pope together Gardiner being then Secretary of State In this there are only three gross mistakes First Gardiner was not sent with the first Message to the Pope Secretary Knight carried it 2. Sir Francis Brian went never to Rome with Gardiner It is true a year after the commencing the Sute Sir Francis Brian was sent to Rome and about a month after him Gardiner was also sent so tho they were both together at Rome yet they were not sent thither together 3. Gardiner was not Secretary of State but was Wolsey's Secretary when he went first to Rome and was made a Privy Counsellor when he was sent thither the second time and was not Secretary of State till some months after his return from his Journey the last time 27. He says They made the Pope believe that the Queen would willingly retire into a Monastery This was on the contrary a contrivance of the Popes who thought it the easiest way to bring the Matter to a good issue but in England they had no hopes of it and so always diverted the motion when it was proposed by the Pope 28. He says ' The Pope said he would consult with some Cardinals and Divines and do all that he could lawfully do to give the King satisfaction Upon the first motion of it the Pope frankly granted the King's desire and gave a Bull with a Commission upon it And only consulted some Cardinals about the methods of doing it And did assure the King that he would not only do every thing that could be granted in Law or Justice but whatsoever he could grant out of the fulness of his Power It is true afterwards when the Pope changed his measures and resolved to agree with the Emperor he pretended he understood not these things himself but would needs turn it over upon the Cardinals and Divines 29. He says All the Cardinals were of a mind that the Marriage was good Cardinal Sanctorum Quatuor by the force of that mighty Argument of 4000 Crowns changed his mind All the other Cardinals were forward in granting the King's desires for which he wrote them a Letter of Thanks 30. He says The Pope granted the Commission to the two Legats not doubting but it was true that had been told him of the Queens readiness to go into a Monastery The Pope knew she would not yield to any such thing but when he granted that Commission he sent with Campegio a Decretal Bull annulling the Marriage and sent afterwards a promise never to avocate the Process but to confirm what Sentence the Legats should give tho soon after he broke his promise most signally And since he had often dispensed with others for breaking their Faith he might think that it was hard to deny him the same priviledg for himself 31. He says The Pope understanding that the Queen did not consent to the Propositions that were made and that he had been abused sent after Campegio when he was on his Journey that he should not proceed to a Sentence without a new order The Pope sent Campana to England after Campegio to assure the King he would do every thing for him that he could do out of the fulness of his Power And ordered the same Person to charge Cardinal Campegio to burn the Decretal Bull which he had sent by him In all which the Pope as appears by the Original Letters was only governed by politick Maxims and considered nothing but the dangers himself was like to fall in tho Sanders would perswade us he was ready to run the hazard of all these 32. He says The King by his Letters to the Pope did at the same time that he was moving scruples about his own Marriage transact about a Dispensation for a marriage betwixt his own natural Son the Duke of Richmond and his Daughter the Lady Mary Tho the whole Dispatches at that time both to and from Rome be most happily preserved there is not the least mention of any such design and can any body think that if any such motion had been made the Pope would not have taken great advantages from it and that these Letters would not
brought with them then they afforded them the favour of turning the clear side outward who upon that went home very well-satisfied with their journey and the expence they had been at There was brought out of Wales a huge Image of wood called Darvel Gatheren of which one Ellis Price Visitor of the Diocess of St. Asaph gave this account On the 6th of April 1537. That the people of the Countrey had a great Superstition for it and many Pilgrimages were made to it so that the day before he wrote there were reckoned to be above five or six hundred Pilgrims there Some brought Oxen and Cattel and some brought Money and it was generally believed that if any offered to that Image he had Power to deliver his Soul from Hell So it was ordered to be brought to London where it served for fewel to burn Friar Forrest There was an huge Image of our Lady at Worcester that was had in great reverence which when it was stript of some veils that covered it was found to be the Statue of a Bishop Barlow Bishop of St. Davids did also give many advertisements of the Superstition of his Countrey and of the Clergy and Monks of that Diocess who were guilty of Heathenish Idolatry gross Impiety and Ignorance and of abusing the people with many evident forgeries about which he said he had good evidence when it should be called for But that which drew most Pilgrims and presents in those parts was an Image of our Lady with a Taper in her hand which was believed to have burnt nine years till one forswearing himself upon it it went out and was then much Reverenced and Worshipped He found all about the Cathedral so full of Superstitious conceits that there was no hope of working on them therefore he proposed the Translating the Episcopal Seat from St. Davids to Caermaerden which he pressed by many Arguments and in several Letters but with no success Then many rich Shrines of our Lady of Walsingham of Ipswich and Islington with a great many more were brought up to London and burnt by Cromwels Orders But the richest Shrine of England was that of Thomas Becket called St. Thomas of Canterbury the Martyr who being raised up by King Henry the ad to the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury did afterwards give that King much trouble by opposing his Authority and exalting the Popes And though he once consented to the Articles agreed on at Clarendon for bearing down the Papal and securing the Regal Power yet he soon after repented of that only piece of Loyalty of which he was guilty all the while he was Arch-Bishop He fled to the Pope who received him as a Confessor for the dearest Article of the Roman Belief The King and Kingdoms were Excommunicated and put under an Interdict upon his Account But afterwards upon the Intercession of the French King King Henry and he were reconciled and the Interdict was taken off Yet his unquiet Spirit could take no rest for he was no sooner at Canterbury than he began to Embroyl the Kingdom again and was proceeding by Censures against the Arch-Bishop of York and some other Bishops for Crowning the Kings Son in his Absence Upon the news of that the King being then in Normandy said If he had faithful Servants he would not be so troubled with such a Priest whereupon some zealous or officious Courtiers came over and killed him For which as the King was made to undergoe a severe pennance so the Monks were not wanting in their ordinary Arts to give out many miraculous stories concerning his Blood This soon drew a Canonization from Rome and he being a Martyr for the Papacy was more extolled than all the Apostles or Primitive Saints had ever been So that for 300 years he was accounted one of the greatest Saints in Heaven as may appear from the accounts in the leger-Books of the offerings made to the three greatest Altars in Christs Church in Canterbury The one was to Christ the other to the Virgin and the third to St. Thomas In one year there was offered at Christ's Altar 3 lib. 2 s. 6 d. To the Virgins Altar 63 lib. 5 s. 6 d. But to St. Thomas's Altar 832 lib. 12 s. 3 d. But the next year the odds grew greater for there was not a penny offered at Christs Altar and at the Virgins only 4 lib. 1 s. 8 d. But at St. Thomas's 954 lib. 6 s. 3 d. By such offerings it came that his Shrine was of inestimable value There was one Stone offered there by Lewis the 7th of France who came over to visit it in a Pilgrimage that was believed the Richest in Europe Nor did they think it enough to give him one day in the Calendar the 29th of December but unusual honours were devised for this Martyr of the liberties of the Church greater than any that had been given to the Martyrs for Christianity The day of raising his body or as they called it of his Translation being the 7th of Iuly was not only a holy-day but every 50th year there was a Jubilee for 15 days together and Indulgence was granted to all that came to visit his shrine as appears from the Record of the sixth Jubilee after his Translation Anno. 1420 which bears that there were then about an hundred thousand strangers come to visit his Tomb. The Jubilee began at twelve a clock on the Vigil of the feast and lasted 15 days by such Arts they drew an incredible deal of wealth to his shrine The Riches of that together with his disloyal practices made the King resolve both to un-shrine and un-Saint him at once And then his skull which had been much worshipped was found an Imposture For the true skull was lying with the rest of his bones in his grave The shrine was broken down and carryed away the Gold that was about it filling two Chests which were so heavy that they were a load to Eight strong men to carry them out of the Church And his bones were as some say burnt so it was understood at Rome but others say they were so mixed with other dead bones that it would have been a Miracle indeed to have distinguished them afterwards The King also ordered his name to be struck out of the Kalendar and the office for his Festivity to be dasht out of all Breviaries And thus was the Superstition of England to Images and Relicks extirpated Yet the King took care to qualifie the distaste which the Articles published the former year had given And though there was no Parliament in the year 1537. yet there was a Convocation upon the Conclusion of which there was Printed an Explanation of the chief points of Religion Signed by nineteen Bishops eight Arch-Deacons and seventeen Doctors of Divinity and Law In which there was an Exposition of the Creed the seven Sacraments the ten Commandments the Lords Prayer and the Salutation of the Virgin with an Account of Justification and Purgatory
But this work was put in a better Form afterwards where the Reader will find a more particular account of it When all these Proceedings of the Kings were known at Rome all the Satyrical Pens there were employed to paint him out as the most Infamous Sacrilegious Tyrant that ever was They represented him as one that made War with Heaven and the Saints that were there That committed outrages on the bodies of the Saints which the Heathenish Romans would have punished severely for any that committed the like on those that were dead how mean or bad soever they had been All his proceedings against the Priests or Monks that were Attainted and Executed for high Treason were represented as the effects of savage and barbarous Cruelty His suppressing the Monasteries and devouring what the Devotion of former Ages had Consecrated to God and his Saints was called Ravenous and Impious Sacrilege nor was there any thing omitted that could make him appear to posterity the blackest Tyrant that ever wore a Crown They compared him to Pharaoh Nabuchadonosor Belshazar Nero Domitian and Dioclesian but chiefly to Iulian the Apostate This last Paralel liked them best and his Learning his Apostacy and pretence of Reforming were all thought copied from Iulian only they said his manners were worse These things were every day Printed at Rome and the Informations that were brought out of England were generally addressed to Cardinal Pool whose style was also known in some of them All which possest the King with the deepest and most implacable hatred to him that ever he bore to any person and did provoke him to all these severities that followed on his Kindred and Family But the malice of the Court of Rome did not stop there For now the Pope published all these Thunders which he had threatned three years before The Bull of Deposition is Printed in Cherubins Bullarum Romanum which since many have the confidence to deny matters of fact the Most publickly acted shall be found in the Collection of Papers the substance of it is as follows The Pope being Gods Vicar on Earth and according to Ieremy's Prophecy set over Nations and Kingdoms to root out and destroy and having the supream power over all the Kings in the whole World was bound to proceed to due correction when milder courses were ineffectual therefore since King Henry who had been formerly a Defender of the Faith had fallen from it had contrary to an Inhibition made put away his Queen and marryed one Anne Bollein and had made impious and hurtful Laws denying the Pope to be the Supream Head of the Church but assuming that Title to himself and had required all his Subjects under pain of death to swear it and had put the Cardinal of Rochester to death because he would not consent to these Heresies and by all these things had rendred himself unworthy of his Regal Dignity and had hardened his heart as Pharoah did against all the Admonitions of Pope Clement the 7th therefore since these his crimes were so notorious he in imitation of what the Apostle did to Elimas the Magician proceeds to such Censures as he had deserved and with the advice of his Cardinals does first exhort him and all his Complices to return from their errours to annull the Acts lately made and to proceed no farther upon them which he requires him and them to do under the pains of Excommunication and Rebellion and of the Kings losing his Kingdom whom he required within 90 dayes to appear at Rome by himself or Proxy and his Complices within 60 dayes to give an account of their Actions otherwise he would then proceed to a further sentence against them And Declares that if the King and his Complices do not appear he has fallen from the right to his Crown and they from the right to their Estates and when they die they were to be denied Christian Burial He puts the whole Kingdom under an Interdict and declares all the Kings Children by the said Anne and the Children of all his Complices to be under the same pains though they be now under age and Incapacitates them for all honours or employments and declares all the Subjects or Vassals of the Kings or his Complices absolved from all Oaths or Obligations to them and requires them to acknowledg them no more And declares him and them Infamous so that they might neither be witnesses nor make Wills He requires all other persons to have no dealings with him or them neither by Trading nor any other way under the pain of Excommunication the annulling their Contracts and the exposing goods so Traded in to all that should catch them And that all Clergymen should within five dayes after the expiration of the time prefixed go out of the Kingdom leaving only so many Priests as would be necessary for Baptizing Infants and giving the Sacrament to such as died in Penitence under the pains of Excommunication and Deprivation And Charges all Noble-men and others in his Dominions under the same pains to rise up in Arms against him and to drive him out of his Kingdom and that none should take Arms for him or any way assist him and Declares all other Princes absolved from any Confederacies made or to be made with him and earnestly obtests the Emperour and all Kings and requires other Princes under the former pains to trade no more with him and in case of their disobedience he puts their Kingdomes under an Interdict And requires all Princes and Military persons in the vertue of Holy Obedience to make War upon him and to force him to return to the Obedience of the Apostolick See and to seize on all Goods or Merchandizes belonging to the King or his Complices where-ever they could find them and that such of his Subjects that were seized on should be made Slaves And requires all Bishops Three dayes after the time that was set down was elapsed to intimate this Sentence in all their Churches with putting out of Candles and other Ceremonies that ought to be used in the most solemn and publick manner that might be And all who hindered the Publication of this Sentence are put under the same Pains He ordained this Sentence to be affixed at Rome Tournay and Dunkirk which should stand for a sufficient publication and concludes that if any should endeavour to oppose or enervate any of the premises he should incur the indignatition of Almighty God and the Holy Apostles St. Peter and Paul Dated at Rome the 30th of August 1635. But the Pope found the Princes of Christendom liked the precedent of using a King in that manner so ill that he suspended the Execution of this Bull till this time that the suppression of Abbies and the burning of Thomas Beckets Bones for it was so represented at Rome though our writers say they were buried did so inflame the Pope that he could forbear no longer and therefore by a new sentence he did all he could
signified unto you as by inferring the high and extream dishonour and intolerable prejudice that the Pope's Holiness thereof should do to his said Legates and also the contrariety both of his Bull and Commission and also of his Promise and Pollicitation passed upon the same beside the notable and excellent displeasure thereby to be done by his Holiness to us and our Realm clear contrary to our merits and deserts extending also the other dangers mentioned in the said former Writings apparent to ensue thereby to his Holiness and the See Apostolick with the manifold and in manner inâ—inite inconveniences like to follow of the same to all Christendom and all other such reasons introductions and perswasions ye can make and devise for that purpose putting him also in remembrance of the great Commodity coming unto his Holiness herein by reason that this Cause being here decided the Pope not only is delivered from the pains that he should in this time of Disease and Sickness to the extream peril of his Life sustain with the same seeing that it is of such moment and importance as suffereth no tract or delay but also his Holiness shall by such decision here eschew and avoid all displeasure that he should not fail to have if it were or should be passed elsewhere which matter is no little wisdom well to foresee and consider and not only to forbear to do or pass any thing derogatory or prejudicial to his said Commission but also by all means possible to corroborate and fortify the same and all such Acts judicial as shall pass by his said Legates by virtue thereof Like-as we doubt not but that the Pope's Holiness of his Uprightness Vertue and perfect Wisdom will do and rather like a most loving Father and Friend tender and favour our good just and reasonable Causes and Desires putting thereunto all the furtherance he may do than to do or consent to be done any thing hurtful prejudicial dammageable or displeasant unto us or this our said Cause And finally If need shall be we will ye also infer as the case shall require how inconvenient it were this our Matter should be decided in the Court of Rome which now dependeth totally in the Emperor's Arbitre having such puissance near thereunto that as hath been written by the Pope's own Letters their State and Life there is all in the Emperor's hands whose Armies may famish or relieve them at their pleasure And semblably ye shall not forget the prerogative of our Crown and Jurisdiction Royal by the ancient Laws of our Realm which admitteth nothing to be done by the Pope to the prejudice thereof and also what danger they should incur that would presume to bring or present any such thing unto the same as in our last Letters sent by Alexander was touched at good length Wherein since ye be already so well and amply instructed knowing also how much the Matter imports and toucheth us and what profit and agreeable service ye may do unto us herein with the high thanks that ye may deserve for the same We shall not be more prolix but refer the substantial perfect and assured handling hereof to your circumspections fidelities and diligences not doubting but that ye will now above all other things look vigilantly hereunto and so acquit your selves in the same as it may well appear that your Acts shall be correspondent to our firm trust and expectation and no less tender this thing than ye know it to be imprinted in the bottom of our Heart nor then as ye know both the importance and high moment and also the very necessity of the Matter doth require In which doing beside the laud and praise that ye shall consecute thereby of all good Men we shall so have your acquittals in our remembrance as ye shall have cause to think your travels pains and studies herein in the best wise collocate and emploied Given under our Signet at our Palace of Bridewel the 23 d day of Iune Rome 9 Iuly 1529. XXIX Doctor Bennet's Letter to the Cardinal shewing how little they might expect from the Pope An Original PLease it your Grace to understand that the 6 th day of this month the Pope's Holiness send for us Albeit we had made great sute for audience before to his Holiness soon after that we had understanding that his Holiness was recovered of this his last Sickness into the which he fell the second day after I had my first audience of his Holiness which was the 21 day of the last month And after our long communication and reasoning in the King's Highness Cause which at length we have written to your Grace in our common Letter for a confirmation of many inconveniences and dangers which we perswaded to his Holiness to follow both to himself and to the See Apostolick in case his Holiness should avoke the cause I thought much convenient at that same time to deliver the King 's familiar and likewise your Grace's Letter and so to shew your Grace's Credence to his Holiness After the foresaid Letters delivered and by his Holiness read his Holiness shewed me that he perceived by your Grace's Letters that I had certain Credence to shew unto him of great moment and importance concerning him and the See Apostolick I shewed to his Holiness your Grace's Faith and observance his Holiness doth best know most humbly besought his Holiness to believe these undoubtedly to follow That if his Holiness should at the labours of the Caesareans avoke the Cause he should not alonely offend the King's Highness which hitherto hath been a stay a help and a defence of the See Apostolick but also by reason of this injury without remedy shall alienate his Majesty and Realms with others from the devotion and obedience of the See Apostolick This I shewed his Holiness that your Grace doth evidently perceive to follow in case his Holiness should incline to the Caesareans desire on this behalf Yea further I said that your Grace most clearly perceiveth also by that Act the Church of England utterly to be destroyed and likewise your Person and that these your Grace with weeping tears most lamentably committed unto me to shew to his Holiness Furthermore I shewed to his Holiness that your Grace howsoever you should proceed in this Cause did intend to proceed so sincerely indifferently and justly that you would rather suffer to be jointed Joint by Joint than either for affection or fear do any act either against your Conscience or Justice Furthermore I said that seeing his Holiness may be so well assured that your Grace will do nothing but according to Justice in this Cause he may the more boldly deny Avocations to the Caesareans seeing that the Queen and the Emperor can desire but Justice which they may have at your Grace's hand and my Lord Campegius as well there as here and by this means his Holiness should deliver himself from great pains and unquietness of mind which he should sustain
in case the Cause should be known here where he should have the King's Highness on one part and the Emperor on the other side daily calling upon his Holiness To this his Holiness most heavily and with tears answered and said That now he saw the destruction of Christendom and lamented that his fortune was such to live to this day and not to be able to remedy it saying these words For God is my Judg I would do as gladly for the King as I would for my self and to that I knowledg my self most bounden but in this case I cannot satisfy his desire but that I should do manifestly against Justice to the charge of my Conscience to my rebuke and to the dishonour of the See Apostolick affirming that his Counsel shews him that seeing the Caesareans have a Mandate or Proxie of the Queen to ask the Avocations in her Name he cannot of Justice deny it and the whole Signature be in that same opinion so that though he would most gladly do that thing that might be to the King's pleasure yet he cannot do it seeing that Signature would be against him whensoever the Supplication should be up there And so being late we took our leave of his Holiness and departed seeing that we could obtain nothing of the Pope for stopping the Avocation we consulted and devised for the deferring of it till such time as your Grace might make an end in the Cause there And so concluded upon a new Device which at length we have written in our common Letter wherein I promise your Grace Mr. Gregory has used great diligence and taken great labours at this time we can do no more for our lives And if your Grace saw the importune labour of the Ambassadors of the Emperor's and Ferdinandoes you would marvel I promise your Grace they never cease wherefore in staying hitherto as we have done it is marvel as God knoweth whom I pray to preserve your Grace in health and prosperity ad multos annos I beseech your Grace most humbly to commend me to the King's Highness and likewise I beseech your Grace to pardon my ill writing At Rome the 9 th day of Iuly Your daily Beadman and Servant W. Benet XXX A Letter of the Pope's to the Cardinal concerning the Avocation An Original 19 Iulii 1529. DIlecte Fili noster salutem Apostolicam Benedictionem Difficile est nobis explicare literis qua nostra molestia seu potius dolore fuerimus coacti ad Avocationem Causae istic commissae concedendam nam etsi res ita fuit justa ut tanto tempore differri non debuerit tamen nos qui isti Serenissimo Regi pro ejus singularibus erga nos Apostolicam sedem meritis placere in omnibus cupimus sicut consuevimus aegre nunc adducti sumus ut quamquam justitia cogente quicquid contra ejus voluntatem concederemus Nec vero minus Fili doluimus tua causa cui rem hanc tantae curae esse perspeximus quantum tua erga dictum Regem fides amor postulat sed tamen quod datur justitiae minus esse molestum debet cum praesertim id fuerit tam dilatum a nobis omniaque antea pertentata ne ad hoc descenderemus Itaque optamus in hoc adhiberi a te illam tuam singularem prudentiam aequitatem persuadereque te tibi id quod est nos qui semper vobis placere quantum nobis licuit studuimus id quod vestro maximo merito fecimus semper facturi sumus nunc non nisi invitos justitia coactos quod fecimus fecisse Teque omni studio amore hortamur ut dictum regem in solita erga nos benevolentia retinere velis eique persuadere nihil ex hoc apud nos de benevolentia erga se veteri imminutum unquam fore quod recipiemus a Circumspectione tua longe gratissimum Quemadmodum plenius dilectus Filius noster Cardinalis Campegius haec circumspectioni tuae explicabit Dat. Romae apud Sanctum Petrum sub annulo Piscatoris die 19 Julii 1529. Pont. nostri anno sexto Blosius Act 26. Anno Regni 21. Henr. 8. XXXI An Act for the releasing unto the King his Highness of suck Sums of Mony as was to be required of him by any his Subjects for any Manner of Loan by his Letters Missives or other ways or manner whatsoever ITem quaedam alia billa formam cujusdam actus in se continens exhibita est praefato Domino Regi in Parliamento praedicto cujus quidem billae tenor sequiturin haec verba The King 's humble faithful and loving Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament assembled considering and calling to their remembrances the inestimable Costs Charges and Expences which the King's Highness necessarily hath been compelled to support and sustain since his assumption to his Crown Estate and Dignity Royal as well first for the extinction of a right dangerous and damnable Schism sprung and risen in the Church which by the providence of the Almighty God and the high prudence and provision and assistance of the King's Highness was to the great honour laud and glory of his Majesty repressed the Enemies then being of the Church reformed returned and restored to the unity of the same and peace over all componed and concluded as also for the modifying of the insatiable and inordinate ambition of those which do aspire unto the Monarchy of Christendom did put universal trouble divisions in the same intending if they might not only to have subdued this Realm but also all the rest unto their Power and Subjection For the resistance whereof the King's Highness was compelled after the Universal Peace by the great study labour and travel of his Grace conduced and the same by some of the Contrahents newly violate and infringed in shewing the form of the Treaties thereupon made again and take Armour And over and besides the notable and excessive treasure and substance which his Highness in his first Wars had emploied for the defence of the Church the Faith Catholick and this his Realm and of the People and Subjects of the same was eft-soons brought of necessity to new excellent and marvellous Charges both for the supportation of sundry Armies by Sea and by Land and also for divers and manifold Contributions outward to serve keep and contain his own Subjects at home in rest and repose which hath been so politickly handled and conduced that when the most part of all religious Christians have been infested with cruel Wars Discords Divisions and Dissensions the great Heads and Princes of the World brought unto Captivity Cities Towns and Places by force and sedition taken spoiled burnt and sacked Men Women and Children found in the same slain and destroyed Virgins Wives Widows and Religious Women ravished and defloured Holy Churches and Temples polluted and turned unto prophane use the Reliques of the Holy Saints irreverently treated Hunger