in the Truth so the Devil is ready to seduce us And I have been seduced But bear me witness That I die in the Catholick Faith of the holy Church And I desire you to pray for me that so long as life remains in this Flesh I waver nothing in my Faith Having said this he was presently beheaded Thus Howes This following Relation although it concerns not the shedding of Blood yet is very remarkable as manifesting how the King's Marriage with the Lady Anne of Cleve was in Parliament declared not lawful Which is thus related by Howes upon Stow Page 578. AFter the Death of the Lady Jane Seymour the King 's Third Wife He Married the Lady Anne of Cleve in the Two and thirtieth year of his Reign From which time the King not only continued his first Misliking of her but his hatred encreased more and more against her not only for want of beauty whereof at first he took exceptions but also for sundry other qualities whereof he secretly accused her As also he said that her body was unpleasant making great doubt that she was no Virgin when she came into England with divers other defects which he said he knew by her outward appearance to be in her And being thus so sore perplexed and desperate of redress he grew wondrous apt and willing to call in question any thing that might tend to the dissolving of this Marriage Within Eight dayes the King told his Physicians his further cause of grief That she was loathsome to him in Bed and that her Body was foul and out of order The King being thus tormented in Body and Mind knew not how to ease himself until he had procured a speedy Divorce Which was thus effected Certain Lords came down into the Lower-House of Parliament expresly declaring the causes why this Marriage was not Lawful And in conclusion the matter was by the Convocation clearly determined that the King might lawfully marry where he would and so might she It appears clearly in the Record what moved the King to this Marriage For these are his words I declare that when the first Communication was had with me about this Marriage I was glad to hearken to it trusting to have some assured Friend by it I much doubting at that time both the Emperor France and the Bishop of Rome Thus Stow. The King 's Fifth Wife Catherine Howard put to death for Adultery As appears by this Relation Baker page 514. THe King was informed of the Queens dissolute life first before her Marriage with one Francis Dereham and since her Marriage with one Thomas Culpepper of the King's Bed-Chamber Whereupon Sir Tho. Wriothsâ—…ey was sent to the Queen at Hampton-Court to charge her with these Crimes and discharging her Houshold to cause her to be conveighed to Syon The Delinquents being examined Dereham confessed that before the King's Marriage with the Lady Catherine there had been a pre-contract between him and her But when once he understood of the King 's good liking to her he then waved it and concealed it for her preferment These Gentlemen were arraigned and had Judgment to die as in cases of Treason They were drawn from the Tower to Tyburn Where Culpepper was beheaded and Dereham hanged and dismember'd The Lord William Howard and the Lady Margaret his Wife Catherine Tilney and Alice Bestwold Gentlewomen Joan Bulmer Anne Howard Wife to Henry Noward the Queens Brother with divers others were all condemned for Misprision of Treason in concealing the Queens misdemeanour and adjudged to forfeit all their Lands and Goods during life and to remain in perpetual Prison The Lords and Commons in Parliament Petitioned the King That he would not vex himself with the Queens Offences and that both she and the Lady Rochford might be Attainted by Parliament And that to avoid protracting of time he would give his Royal Assent to it under the Great Seal without staying for the end of the Parliament Also that Dereham and Culpepper having been Attainted before by the Common-Law might be Attainted likewise by Parliament All which was Assented unto by the King After this the Queen and the Lady Rochford were beheaded on the Green within the Tower It is certainly said that after her Condemnation She protested to Dr. White Bishop of Winchester her last Confessor That as for the Act for which She was condemn'd She took God and his holy Angels to witness upon her Souls Salvation that She died guiltless Thus of the putting to death of his Wives Here follows an unheard of Cruelty of Bloodshed for Religion in these times of Confusion and Change of Religion ONe Lambert was accused for denying the real presence in the Sacrament who Appeal'd to the King and the King was content to hear him Whereupon a Throne was set up in the Hall of the King's Palace at Westminster for the King to sit And when the Bishops had urged their Arguments and could not prevail then the King took him in hand hoping perhaps to have the Honor of converting an Heretick when the Bishops could not do it and withal promised him pardon if he would recant But all would not do for he remained obstinate the King miss'd his Honor and the Delinquent his Pardon Being shortly after drawn to Smithfield and burnt Baker page 412. Two more were for the same cause burnt Baker in the same page Dr. John Fisher Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas Moor expresly denyed at Lambeth before the Archbishop of Canterbury to take the Oath of Supremacy and thereupon were both beheaded Bishop Fisher was much lamented as being reputed a man both learned and wise and of good life Sir Thomas Moor was both learned and very wise His Devotion was such that he used to wear a Shirt of Hair-cloth next his skin for a perpetual Penance And oftentimes in the Church he would put on a Surplice and help the Priest at Mass Which he did not forbear to do when he was Lord Chancellor of England as one time the Duke of Norfolk coming to the Church found him doing it Baker page 406. Sir William Peterson Priest late Commissary of Calais and Sir William Richardson Priest of St. Maries in Calais were both there drawn hang'd and quarter'd in the Market-place for the Supremacy Stow page 579. Dr. Wilson and Dr. Samson Bishop of Chichester were sent to the Tower for relieving certain Prisoners who had denyed to Subscribe to the King's Supremacy And for the same offence Richard Farmer Grocer of London a rich and wealthy Citizen was committed to the Marshalsea and after arraigned and attainted in a Praemunire and lost all his Goods his Wife and Children thrust out of doors Stow page 580. Robert Barns Dr. of Divinity Thomas Gerrard Parson of Honey-lane and William Jerom Vicar of Stepney-Heath Bachelors in Divinity Also Edward Powel Thomas Able and Richard Fetherston all Three Doctors were drawn from the Tower of London to West Smithfield The Three First were drawn to a Stake and there
Auricular Confession is expedient and necessary to be retained and continued used and frequented in the Church of God For the which most Godly study pain and travel of His Majesty and determination and resolution of the Premises His humble and obedient Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled not only render and give unto His Highness their most high and hearty Thanks and think themselves most bound to Pray for the long continuance of his Graces most Royal Estate and Dignity And being also desirous that his most Godly enterprize may be well accomplished and brought to a full end and perfection and so Established that the same might be to the Honor of God and after to the common Quiet Unity and Concord to be had in the whole Body of this Realm for ever Do most humbly beseech His Royal Majesty that the Resolution and Determination above written of the said Articles may be established and perpetually perfected by the Authority of this present Parliament It is therefore Ordained and Enacted by the King our Sovereign Lord and by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and by the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That if any Person or Persons within this Realm of England or in any other of the Kings Dominions do by Word Writing Printing Ciphering or any otherwise Publish Preach Teach Say Affirm Declare Dispute Argue or Hold any Opinion 1. That in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar under the Form of Bread and Wine after the Consecration thereof there is not present really the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ conceived of the Virgin Mary or that after the said Consecration there remains any Substance of Bread or Wine or any other Substance but the Substance of Christ God and Man or likewise to Publish Preach Teach Say Affirm Declare Dispute Argue or Hold Opinion that in the Flesh under the Form of Bread there is not the very Blood of Christ or that with the Blood under the Form of Wine there is not the very Flesh of Christ as well apart as though they were both together or by any the means abovesaid or otherwise do Preach Teach Declare or Affirm the said Sacrament to be of other Substance than is abovesaid or do by any means Contemn Deprave or Despise the said Blessed Sacrament that then such Person or Persons so offending shall be deemed and adjudged Hereticks and that every such offence shall be judged manifest Heresie and that every such Offender and Offenders shall therefore have and suffer Judgment Execution Pain and Pains of Death by way of Burning without any Abjuration Clergy or Sanctuary and their Estates to be Confiscated to the King as in Cases of High Treason 2. And moreover if any do obstinately Affirm Uphold Maintain or Defend that the Communion of the Blessed Sacrament in both kinds that is to say in Form of Bread and also of Wine is necessary for the health of Man's Soul or that it ought or should be Given and Administred to any Persons in both kinds or that it is necessary so to be taken or received by any Person other than Priests being at Mass and Consecrating the same 3. Or that any Man after having received the Order of Priesthood may marry 4. Or that any Man or Woman who hath advisedly vowed or professed Chastity or Widowhood may marry 5. Or that Private Masses be not lawful or not laudable or should not be celebrated had nor used in the Realm nor be not agreeable to the Laws of God 6. Or that Auricular Confession is not expedient and necessary to be retained and continued used and frequented in the Church of God Such Persons are to suffer pains of death as in cases of Felony without any benefit of Clergie or Priviledge of Church or Sanctuary and shall forfeit all their Lands and Goods as in cases of Felony Thus far out of the same Book CHAP. IV. Of another Effect of this Change which was a horrid Effusion of Blood QUeen Anne Boleign who had been the first occasion of this Change of Religion was beheaded Whereof there is this Relation Baker pag. 407. It was now the Twenty eighth year of King Henries Reign When there were solemn Justs at Greenwich from whence the King suddenly departed and came to Westminster Whose sudden departure struck amazement into many but to the Queen especially And not without cause For the next day the Lord Rochford her Brother and Henry Norris were brought to the Tower Prisoners Whither also the same day was brought Queen Anne her self Who at the Tower-gate fell on her knees beseeching God to help her as she was innocent of that whereof she was accused Soon after this she was arraigned in the Tower and found guilty and had Judgment pronounced Immediately the Lord Rochford her Brother was likewise Arraigned Who together with Henry Norris Mark Smeton William Brierton and Francis Weston all of the King's Privy-Chamber about matters touching the Queen were beheaded on Tower-hill Within Two days Queen Anne her self on a Scaffold upon the Green within the Tower was also beheaded At her death she spake these words God save my Master and Sovereign the King the most Goodliest Noblest and Gentlest Prince that is and grant him that he may long Reign over you which words she spake with a smiling countenance which done she kneeled down and the Hangman of Calais smote off her head at one stroke For her Religion she was an earnest Professor and one of the first Counternancers of the Gospel The Crimes for which she died were Adultery and Incest She had many Enemies as being a Protestant and perhaps in that respect the King himself not greatly her Friend For though he had excluded the Pope yet he continued a Papist still Her Death cast upon King Henry a dishonorable Imputation Insomuch that whereas the Protestant Princes of Germany had resolved to chuse him for Head of their League after they heard of this Queens Death they utterly refused him Thus far Sir Rich. Baker The next day after her Death the King Married the Lady Jane Seymour Stow Page 573. In the next place Thomas Cromwel who had been the grand Promoter of this business was likewise beheaded Whereof thus writes Howes upon Stow page 508. THomas Cromwel Earl of Essex being in the Council-Chamber was suddenly apprehended and committed to the Tower of London and soon after attainted of Heresie and High Treason When he was brought to the Scaffold on Tower-hill to be executed he spake these words I pray you that be here to bear me witness that I die in the Catholick Faith not doubting in any Article of my Faith or in any Sacrament of the Church Many have slandered me and reported that I have been an A better of such as have maintained evil Opinions which is untrue But I confess that like as God by his holy Spirit does instruct us
of Lands and Ornaments as when she came into the World in her Natural Nakedness Nor was it like to happen otherwise in the following Reign of Queen Jane if it had lasted longer than a Nine-days wonder For Dudley of Northumberland who then ruled the rost and had before dissolved and in hope devoured the wealthy Bishoprick of Durham might easily have possessed himself of the greatest part of the Revenues of York and Carlisle By means whereof he would have made himself more absolute on the North-side of Trent than the poor Titular Queen had been on the South-side of it To carry on whose Interest and maintain her Title the poor remainder of the Churches Patrimony was in all probability to have been shared amongst those of the Party to make them sure unto that side Thus far out of Dr. Heylyn ' s Preface Summarily concerning this Rapine and Sacriliege which followed this Second Change of Religion Now in the History it self Page 33. Dr. Heylyn begins orderly to treat of the Reign of this King as to matters of Religion as will appear by what shall be here said CHAP. I. Of the many Policies used in the Introducing this Second Change of Religion Anno Regni Edwardi Sexti 1. THE Solemnities of the Coronation being passed the Grandees of the Court began to entertain some thoughts of a Reformation In which they found Archbishop Cranmer and some other Bishops to be as forward as themselves but on different ends endeavoured by the Bishops out of Zeal but by the Courtiers upon a hope of enriching themselves by the spoil of Bishopricks To the Advancement of which Work the Conjuncture seemed to be as proper as they could desire Fot first the King being of such tender Age and wholly governed by the Wâ—…ll of the Lord Protector who had declared himself a Friend to the Lutheran party in the time of King Henry was easie to be moulded into any form And as the Champions of the Papacy were removed out of all Office so it was thought expedient for the better carrying on of the Design not only to release all such as had been committed unto Prison but also to recal all such as had been forced to abandon the Kingdom for not submitting to King Henries Six Articles But the business was of greater moment than to expect the coming back of these Men. Wherefore neither to lose time nor to press too much at once upon the People it was thought fit to smooth the way to the intended Reformation by setting out some Preparatory Injunctions and this to be done by sending out Commissioners into all parts of the Kingdom armed with Instructions to enquire into all Ecclesiastical Concernments Which Commissioners were accompanied with Preachers appointed to instruct the People And that they might not cool or fall off again from what they had been taught they were to leave some Homilies with the Parish-Priest which the Archbishop had composed Now besides the Points contained in the said Injunctions the Preachers were to perswade them from Invocation of Saints Praying for the Dead Images Use of Beads Ashes Processions Mass Dirges c. All which was done to this intent That the People being prepared by little and little might with more ease and less opposition admit the total Alteration in the face of the Church which was intended in due time to be introduced Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Policy Another Policy But there was something more than the Authority of a Minor King which drew on such a general Conformity to these Injunctions and thereby smoothed the way to those Alterations both in Doctrine and Worship which the Grandees of the Court and Church had began to fashion The Lord Protector and his Party were more experienced in Affairs of State than to be told That all great Counsels tending to Innovation in the Publick Government especially where Religion is concerned are either to be back'd by Arms or otherwise prove destructive to the undertakers For this cause he resolves to put himself at the Head of an Army as well for the security of his Person and the preservation of his Party as for the carrying on of the Design against all Opponents And for the raising of an Army there could not be found a fairer colour nor a more popular pretence than a Wat with Scotland not to be made on any new Emergent Quarrel which might be apt to bread suspition in the heads of the People but in pursuit of the great Project of the King Deceased for uniting that Realm by a Marriage to the Crown of England On this Pretence Levies are made in all parts of the Kingdom He entertained also certain Regiments of Walloons and Germans because they were conceived more likely to enforce Obedience if his Design should meet with any opposition than the natural English Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this War with Scotland A Third Policy But in the first place care was taken that none of the Neighboring Princes should either hinder his Proceedings or assist the Enemy That which seemed to give most satisfaction to the Court of France was the performance of a Solemn Obsequy for King Francis the First Whose Funerals were no sooner Solemnized in France but Order was given for a Dirge to be sung in all the Churches of London as also in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in the Quire whereof hung with Black a sumptuous Hearse was set up for the present Ceremony And the next day Archbishop Cranmer assisted with Eight other of the Bishops all in their rich Miters and other their Pontificals did sing a Mass of Requiem the Funeral Sermon being Preached by Dr. Ridley This great Solemnity being thus honorably performed the Commissioners for the Visitation were dispatched to their several Circuits and the Army drawn to their Rendezvous Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning what was done before the calling of a Parliament CHAP. II. Of what was done in Parliament in order to the Establishing this Change of Religion Dr. Heylyn Page 47. A Parliament began upon the Fourth of November in which the Cards were so well pack'd by Sir Ralph Sadler that there was no need of any further Shuffling till the end of the Game This very Parliament without any sensible Alteration of the Members of it being continued until the Death of the King And though this Parliament consisted of such Members as disagreed amongst themselves in respect of Religion yet they agreed well enough together in one common Principle which was to serve the present time and preserve themselves which appears plainly by the strange mixture of the Acts and Results thereof some tending to the present Benefit and Enriching of particular Persons And some again being devised on purpose to prepare a way for exposing the Revenues of the Church unto spoil and rapine There was an Act made in King Henry the Eighths time Inhibiting the reading of the Old and New Testament in the English Tongue But this was here abrogated together with all
to make Deans and Chapters useless and thereby to prepare them for a Dissolution Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Act of Parliament I will take leave here although it be not its proper place to insert an Act of Parliament of the third year of this King's Reign concerning the Form to be used in making of Bishops The words of the Act are these to wit THat such form and Manner of Making and Consecrating of Archbishops Bishops Priests and Deacons as by Six Prelates and Six other Learned Men or by the most number of them they being appointed and assigned by the King shall be devised for that purpose and set forth under the Great Seal shall be accounted as lawfully exercised and Used and no other Thus Dr. Heylyn page 82. concerning the Election of Bishops From this Alteration which was made in Parliament in reference to the making of Bishops and the way of Exercising their Authority we shall find in the Progress of this story That there was great Havock and Spoyl made of the Bishopricks themselves Two Examples and Testimonies whereof here immediately follow Related thus by Dr. Heylyn pag. 129. THe See of Lincoln being vacant it was kept void from August till the next June During which interval the Patrimony of that great and wealthy Bishoprick one of the richest in the Kingdom was so dismembred in it self so parcelled out for a prey to others That when the new Bishop was to be restored to his Temporals there was none of all his Mannors reserved for him but his Mannor of Bugden together with some Farms and Impropriations The rest was to be raised out of the Profits of his Jurisdiction Yet so that nothing was to be abated in his Tenths and First Fruits which were kept up according to their former value The second Example is this Doctor Barlow being made Bishop of Bath and Wells gratified the Lord Protector with a Present of Eighteen or Nineteen Mannors which anciently belonged unto it And lying all or most part of them in the County of Sommerset seemed very conveniently disposed of for the better maintenance of the Title of Duke of Sommerset which the Protector had taken to himself Many such strange Donations we shall find in others The more to be excused because there was no other Means as the times then were to preserve the whole but by advancing some part thereof to preserve the rest Thus Dr. Heylyn page 130. concerning these Bishopricks And thus far concerning the proceedings of this Parliament CHAP. III. Of several other Alterations in Religion made in the beginning of this Year Of which Dr. Heylyn gives this Account Page 54. Anno Regni Edwardi Sexti 2. NO sooner was this year begun but it was Ordered by the King and his Privy Council that no Candles should be born upon Candlemas-day nor Ashes or Palms used any longer The Lords drove this business on so fast That before this Order could be published in the remote parts of the Kingdom they followed it with another as little pleasing to the main Body of the People concerning the taking down of all Images which in some places of the Realm were either not taken down at all as was required the year before by the King's Injunctions or had been Re-edified again as soon as the first heats of the Visitation had began to cool Bishop Gardiner in a Letter of his signified his great dislike of some proceedings had at Portsmouth in taking down the Images of Christ and his Saints certifying withal That he had not only seen these Images standing in all the Churches of the Lutherans but that Luther himself had purposly written a Book against some men that had defaced them And therefore it may be well thought that Covetousness spurred on this business more than Zeal There being none of these Images so poor and mean the spoyl whereof would not afford some Gold and Silver if not Jewels also besides Censers Candlesticks and many other rich Utensils appertaining to them In which respect the Commissioners hereto Authorized were entertained in many places with scorn and railing and the further they went from London the worse they were handled Insomuch as that one of them as he was pulling down an Image in Cornwal was stabbed And though the Principal Offender was hanged which quieted all matters for a time yet the next year the storm broke out more violently than before not only to the endangering of the peace of those Western Counties but in a manner of all the Kingdom Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the Zeal of the People about the taking down of Images Which great Commotions the Council could not but foresee as the most probable Consequents of such Alterations Especially when they are sudden and press'd too fast There being nothing of which People commonly are so tender as they are of Religion on which their happiness depends not only for this world but the world to come And therefore it concerned them in point of Prudence to let the People see that there was no intention to abolish all their ancient Ceremonies And in particular it was held expedient to give the generality of the Subjects some contentment in a Proclamation for the strict keeping of Lent and the Example of the Court in Pursuance of it For Dr. Glasier Preaching at Paul's Cross affirmed That Lent was not Ordained of God to be Fasted neither the eating of Flesh to be forborn But that the same was a Politick Ordinance of men and therefore might be broken by men at their pleasures Upon this there was no scarcity of those that cried down all the Observations of Days and Times even to the Libelling against that ancient and Religious Fast in most scandalous Rhymes Complaint whereof being made by Bishop Gardiner to the Lord Protector a Proclamation was set out by which all People were commanded to abstain from Flesh in the time of Lent and the King's Lenten-dyet was set out and served as in former times Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Policy To Establish this more firmly there was this following Act of Parliament made concerning it Thus set down in the Statute Book FOrasmuch as divers of the King's Subjects have of late more than in times past broken and contemned such Abstinencies as have been used in this Realm upon Fridays and Saturdays Ember-days Vigils Lent and other accustomed times this Parliament considering that due and godly Abstinence is a means to Virtue and to subdue mens Bodies to their Soul and Spirit And considering withal that Fishers may thereby be more set a work and that by eating of Fish much Flesh shall be saved and encreased and also for divers other Considerations and Commodities of the Realm doth Enact and Ordain That all manner of Statutes Laws Constitutions and Usages concerning any manner of Fasting and Abstinence from any kind of meats heretofore in this Realm made or used shall lose their force and strength and be void and of no effect And also that no Person
new Palace called Sommerset-House Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Example given of pulling down of Churches According to this beginning all the year proceeds in which there was nothing to be found but Troubles Commotions and Disquiets both in Church and State For about this time there started up a Sect of Men that were nam'd Gospellers who asserted the Blasphemous Doctrine of Calvin of Gods being the Author of Sin And at the same time the Anabaptists who had kept themselves unto themselves in the late King's time began to look abroad and disperse their Dotages For the prevention of which mischief before it grew to a Head some of the chief of them were Convented in the Church of St. Paul before Archbishop Cranmer who in Examining them took up his Seat upon an Altar of our Lady These Men being convicted of their Errors some of them were dismissed only with an Admonition others condemn'd to bear their Faggots at St. Pauls-Cross Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these Sects Now the time draws on for the putting forth the new Liturgy which differed little in the main no not so much as in the Canon of the Mass from the Latin Service But notwithstanding the Publishing and Commanding the use of this Book yet many did Celebrate their Private Masses in such secret places that it was not easie to discover them More confidently carried in the Church of St. Paul in many Chappels whereof by the Bishops Sufferance the former Masses were kept up that is to say Our Ladies Mass the Apostles Mass c. performed in Latin but disguis'd with English names of the Apostles Communion and our Ladies Communion But these were afterwards suppressed Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the new Liturgy An Opposition against the new Form of Religion Page 75. UPon the Imposition of this Book and a new Form of Religion obtruded many Counties took up Arms to oppose it But yet so that they were presently ready to lay down if the King would grant them some few Demands whereof one was this to wit That for as much as we constantly believe that after the Priest hath spoken the words of Consecration being at Mass there is very really the Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ God and Man And that no Substance of Bread and Wine remains after but the very self same Body that was born of the Virgin Mary and was given upon the Cross for our Redemption therefore we desire to have Mass celebrated as it was in times past Because we find that many presume unworthily to receive the same putting no difference between our Lords Body and other kind of Meat Some saying That it is Bread both before and after Consecration And some again say that it is profitable to no man unless he receives it with many other abused terms Secondly we desire that Curates may Administer Baptism at all times of necessity as well upon Week-days as Holy-days Thirdly That Children may be Confirm'd by the Bishop Fourthly That there may be Holy-Bread and Holy-Water in remembrance of Christ's precious Body and Blood Fifthly That our Lord's Body be reserv'd in Churches Sixthly That Priests may live unmarried Seventhly That the Six Articles set forth by King Henry the Eighth may be continued at least till the King comes to full Age. They further made this Remonstrance viz. That the Free-born Commonalty was oppress'd by a small number of Gentry who glutted themselves with Pleasures whilst poor Commons wasted with daily Labor did like Pack-horses live in extreme slavery Secondly That Holy Rites establish'd by Antiquity were abolished and new ones Authoriz'd with a new Form of Religion obtruded to the subjecting of their Souls to those horrid pains which no death could terminate And therefore Thirdly they declar'd That they thought it necessary and convenient to have new Counsellors plac'd about the King during his Minority with the removing of those who Ruling as they list confounded things Sacred and Profane regarding nothing but the enriching themselves with the Publick Treasure that they might riot it amongst those Publick Calamities Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Commotion But these Men were soon suppressed and the Changes went on As appears by this following Relation of Dr Heylyn pag. 79. But then there started up another Faction as dangerous to the Church as opposite to the Publick Liturgy and as destructive of the Rules of Reformation then by Law establish'd as were those of Rome The Archbishop and the rest of the Prelates having so far proceeded in abolishing the Religion and Doctrine of the Church of Rome resolv'd in the next place to go forwards with a further Reformation in a particular point of Doctrine concerning the Sacrament In order whereunto Melancthon's coming was expected in the year before But he came not then and therefore Letters were directed by the Archbishop to Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr who were more addicted to the Zuinglian than the Lutheran Doctrines in the Point of the Sacrament Martyr coming over was made the King's Professor of Divinity at Oxford and about two years after made Canon of Christ's-Church In his first Lectures he is said by Saunders if he may be credited to have declared himself so much a Zuinglian in the Point as to give great offence to Cranmer and the rest of the Bishops But afterwards upon notice of it to have been more moderate and to conform his judgment to the sense of the Prelates But however it were it is certain that his Readings were so much disliked by some of the University that a publick Disputation was shortly had betwixt him and some of those who disliked his doings in which he publickly maintained these Two Propositions 1. That the Substance of the Bread and Wine was not changed 2. That the Body and Blood of Christ was not carnally and bodily in the Bread and Wine but united unto them Sacramentally When the Disputation was ended it was declared in the open Schools That Martyr had the upper hand and had sufficiently answered all Arguments But Chadsey the chief of the Opponents and the rest of those that Disputed with him acknowledged no such Satisfaction to be given unto them their Party noising it abroad that they had the Victory But Bucer not coming over at the same time was earnestly invited by the Archbishop's Secretary upon which he came and presently writ to Peter Martyr Being now settled here he receives Letters from Calvin by which he was advised to take heed of his old fault and to run a moderate course in his Reformations The first thing that he did at his coming hither was to make himself acquainted with the English Liturgy Of this he gives account to Calvin and desires some Letters from him to the Lord Protector with whom Calvin had already began to tamper that he migh find the greater Favor from him He was sent to take a Chair at Cambridge where his first Readings gave no such distast as to put him to the necessity of Challenging
were put by also seeing their Rights depended one upon another But if he pleased to Appoint the Lady Jane the Duke of Suffolk's eldest Daughter and his own next Kinswoman to his Sisters to be his Successor he might then be sure that the True Religion should be maintained to God's great Glory and be a worthy Act of his Religious Prudence This was to strike upon the right string of the young King's Affections with whom nothing was so dear as Preservation of Religion And thereupon his Last Will was appointed to be drawn contrived chiefly by the Lord Chief Justice Mountague and Secretary Cecil By which Will as far as in him lay he excluded his Two Sisters from the Succession and all others but the Duke of Suffolk's Daughters And then causing it to be read before his Council he required them all to Assent unto it and to Subscribe their Hands which they All both Nobility Bishops and Judges did only the Archbishop Cranmer refused at first Sir James Hales a Judge of the Common-Pleas to the last and with them also Sir John Baker Chancellor of the Exchequer His Will being thus made he shortly after dies conceived to have been Poysoned It is noted by some saith Sir Richard Baker That he died the same Month and the day of the Month that his Father King Henry the Eighth had put Sir Thomas Moor to death Thus of this Duke and the Kings Death We will now give an Account of the Years when these changes were made IN the First year a Reformation was resolved on and to prepare the way for it Injunctions were set out and Commissioners sent into all parts of the Kingdom to enquire into all Ecclesiastical Concernments With them also were sent Preachers to disswade the People from their former practices in Religion And this to prepare the way for the total Alteration in Religion which was intended There was likewise a Parliament called to promote and confirm the same Designs In the Second year Images were taken down and many Ancient Customs abolished and a Book of Common-Prayer composed All Colleges Hospitals c. were given to the King In the Third year a part of Pauls and many Churches were pulled down to build Sommerset House in the Strand There were great Troubles and Commotions both in Church and State The Book of Common-Prayer composed in the former year was now set out Peter Martyr and Bucer came over In the Fourth year one John a Lasco a Polonian with his Sectaries settled themselves here The great business of this year was the taking down of Altars Until this following Fifth year nothing had been Positively and Dogmatically concluded in Points of Doctrine Wherefore to set a stop to the great Confusions that were at this time there was a Book of Articles composed And to satisfie the Calvinists ther was a New Book of Common-Prayer set forth In the Sixth year Hopkins Psalms began to be sung in Churches And the use of the New Common-Prayer-Book made strange Alterations but all in order to Calvin's designs who had a chief hand in composing it In the Seventh year the King is found to be extremely engaged in Debt and under Colour of satisfying such Debts great spoyl is made of the Treasures of the Church Thus you have had a short Relation of the strange Confusions and Alterations of Religion which happened in the few years Reign of this King A CONTINUATION Of these HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS Concerning the Restauration of Catholick Religion And the Occurrences concerning it In the Reign of Queen MARY A Preamble WE shall here follow Dr. Heylyns order in relating First some Passages concerning her before She came to the Crown With a brief Narration of her Mother's Death whereof Dr. Heylyn gives this following account in his History of Reformation page 9. The Execution of Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas Moor with many others who wished well unto her added so much affliction to the desolate Queen that not being able longer to bear the burthen of so many miseries she fell into a languishing Sickness which more and more encreasing on Her And finding the near approach of Death the only Remedy now left for all Her miseries She dictated this ensuing Letter which She caused to be delivered to the King by one of Her Women Wherein She laid before him these Her Last Requests Viz. My most Dear Lord King and Husband for so She called Him THe Hour of my Death now approaching I cannot chuse out of the Love I bear you but advise you of your Soul's health which you ought to prefer before all Considerations of the World or Flesh whatsoever For which yet you have cast me into many Calamities and your Self into many Troubles But I forgive you all and pray God to do so likewise For the rest I commend unto you Mary our Daughter beseeching you to be a good Father unto her as I have heretofore desired I must entreat you also to consider my Maids and give them in Marriage which is not much they being but Three And to grant unto all my other Servants a years pay besides their due lest otherwise they should be unprovided for Lastly I make this Vow That my Eyes have desired you above All Things Farewel Within few days after the writing of which Letter She yielded her pious Soul unto God at the Kings Manner-House of Kimbolton and was Solemnly buried in the Abbey of Peterborough The rending of her Letter drew some tears from the King which could not but be much encreased by the news of her Death Moved by them both to such a measure of Commiseration of Her sad condition That he caused the greatest part of Her Goods amounting to Five Thousand Marks to be expended or her Funeral and in the recompensing of such of Her Servants as had best deserved it Never so kind to Her in the time of her Life as when he had rendred Her incapable of receiving any kindness Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning her Mothers death Now concerning her Self he writes thus Pag. 11. THe Princess Mary is now left wholly to her Self declared Illegitimate by her Father deprived of the comfort of her Mother and in a Manner forsaken by all her Friends whom the severe proceedings against Moor and Fisher had so deterred that few durst pay her any offices of Love or Duty In which condition the poor Princes had no greater comfort than what She could gather from Her Books In which She had been carefully instructed by Dr. John Harman appointed her Tutor by the King and for his good Performance in that place of Trust advanced by him to the See of Exon and afterwards made Lord President of Wales By satisfying the King her Father in a Message sent unto her She gained so far upon him that from that time forwards he held her in the same rank with the rest of his Children gave Her her Turn in the Succession of the Kingdom assigned Her a Portion of Ten thousand pounds to
be paid at her Marriage and in the interim Three Thousand pound per annum for Her personal maintenance Little or nothing more occurs of Her in the time of King Henry because there was little Alteration made in the face of Religion which might give Her any cause of Publick or personal dislike But when the great Alterations happened in the time of King Edward She then declared her Self more openly as She might more safely in opposition to the same Concerning which She thus declared Her self in a Letter to the Lord Protector and the rest of the Council Dated at Kenninghall June 22. Anno 1549. My Lord I Perceive by the Letters which I lately received from you and others of the Council That you be all sorry to find so little Conformity in me touching the observation of his Majesties Laws who am well assured that I have offended no Law unless it be a late Law of your own making which in my Conscience is not worthy the name of a Law both for the King's Honors sake and the wealth of the Realm and giving the occasion of an evil bruit throughout all Christendom besides the partiallity used in the same and as my Conscience is very well perswaded the offending God which passes all the rest But I am very well assured That the King his Father's Laws were allowed and consented to without Compulsion by the whole Realm both Spiritual and Temporal and all the Executors Sworn upon a Book to fulfil the same so that it was an Authorized Law And that I have obeyed and will do with the Grace of God till the King's Majesty my Brother shall have sufficient years to judge in this matter himself In this my Lord I was plain with you at my last being in the Court declaring to you at that time whereunto I would stand And now do assure you all the only occasion of my stay from altering my Opinion is for Two causes One principally for my Conscience The Other that the King my Brother shall not hereafter charge me to be one of those that were agreeable to such Alterations in his tender years And what fruits daily grow by such Changes since the death of the King my Father it well appears to every indifferent Person both to the Displeasure of God and Unquietness of the Realm Notwithstanding I assure you all I would be as loth to see his Highness take hurt or that any evil should come to this his Realm as the best of you all And none of you have the like cause considering how I am compelled by nature being his Majesties poor and humble Sister most tenderly to Love and pray for Him and to wish unto this Realm being born within the same all wealth and prosperity to God's Honor. And if any judge of me the contrary for my Opinions sake as I trust none does I doubt not in the end with God's help to prove my self as True a Natural and Humble Sister as they of the contrary Opinion with all their devices and altering the Laws shall prove themselves good Subjects I pray you my Lords and the rest of the Council no more to disquiet and trouble me with matters touching my Conscience wherein I am at a full point with God's help whatsoever shall happen to me intending with his Grace to trouble you little with any worldly suits But to bestow that short time I think to live in quietness praying for the King's Majesty and all you Heartily wishing that your Proceedings may be to God's Honor the Safeguard of the King's Person and quietness of the Realm And thus my Lords I wish unto you and all the rest as well to do as my self But notwithstanding this Letter no favor was to be hoped for from these Lords They signifying unto her how sensible they were of those Inconveniences which the Example of her Inconformity to the Laws Established was likely to produce amongst the rest of the Subjects And hereupon the Lord Chancellor and Secretary Peters were sent to her who after some Conferences brought her to the King at Westminster Here the Council declared unto her how long the King had permitted her the use of Mass and considering her Obstinacy was resolved now no longer to permit it unless She would put Him in hope of some Conformity in time To which She answered That her Soul was God's and touching her Faith as she could not change so she would not dissemble it Reply was made That the King intended not to constrain her Faith but to restrain the outward profession of it in regard of the danger the Example might draw After some like enterchanges of speeches the Lady was appointed to remain with the King When there arrived an Embassador from the Emperor with a threatning Message of War in case his Cosin the Lady Mary should be denied the Free Exercise of Mass. Hereupon the King presently advised with the Archbishop of Canterbury and with the Bishops of London and Rochester Who gave their Opinion that to give licence to sin was sin But to connive at sin might be allowed so it were not too long nor without hope of Reformation Then Answer was given to the Embassador That the King would send to the Emperor within a Month or Two and give him such Satisfaction as should be fit Upon this Earnest Soliciation of the Emperor it was declared unto her by the King with the consent of his Council That for his sake and her own also it should be suffered and winked at if she had the private Mass used in her own Closet for a season until she might be better informed But so that none but some few of her own Chamber should be present with her And that to all the rest of her House-hold the Service of the Church should be only used Whereupon Mallet and Barkeley Two of her Chaplains saying Mass promiscuously in her absence to her houshold-Servants were seized on and committed Prisoners Which first occasioned an exchange of Letters betwixt her and the King and afterwards more frequently between her and the Council One of which Letters to the Council touching this matter I will here insert taken out of Fox's Acts and Monuments Page 704. The Lady Mary to the Lords of the Council My Lords WHereas you writ that two of my Chaplains Dr. Mallet and Barkeley are Indicted for certain things committed by them contrary to the King's Majesties Laws and that a Process for them is also awarded or given forth and delivered to the Sheriff of Essex I cannot but marvel they should be so used considering it is done as I understand for sâ—…ying Mass within my House and although I have been of my self minded alwaies and yet am to have Mass within my House yet I have been advertised that the Emperor's Majesty also hath been promised that I should never be unquieted nor troubled for my so doing as some of you my Lords can witness Moreover the declaration of the said Promise was made to
and two Pole-axes of Silver born before him Received by the Lord Chancellor with a Solemn Procession They tarried till the King came from Westminster Immediately upon whose coming the Lord Chancellor went into the Pulpit and Preached upon those words of St. Paul Rom. 13. Brethren ye are to know That it is now time to rise from sleep c. In which Sermon he declared what had been done on the Friday before in the Submission which was made to the Pope by the Lords and Commons in the Name of themselves and the whole Kingdom and the Absolution granted to them by the Cardinal in the Name of the Pope Which done and Prayers being made for the whole Estate of the Catholick Church the Company was for that time dismissed And on the Thursday after the Bishops and Clergy then Assembled in their Convocation presented themselves before the Cardinal at Lambeth and kneeling reverently on their Knees they obtained Pardon for all their Perjuries Schisms and Heresies Upon which a formal Absolution was pronounced That so all sorts of People might partake of the Popes Benediction and thereby testifie their Obedience and Submission to him The news whereof coming to the Pope he caused not only many Solemn Processions to be made in Rome and most part of Italy but proclaimed a Jubilee to be held on the 24 th of December then next coming For the Anticipating of which Solemnity he alledged this reason That it became him to imitate the Father of the Prodigal Child and having received his lost Son not only to express a Domestical Joy but likewise to invite all others to partake thereof During this Parliament was held a Convocation also as before was intimated By whom a Petition was prepared to be presented in the Name of the Convocation to both their Majesties humbly beseeching them That they would be pleased to interceed with the Cardinal not to insist on the restoring of Church-Lands Which Petition being not easie to be met withal and never Printed before is here subjoyned according to the Tenor and Effect thereof in the Latin Tongue WE the Bishops and Clergy of the Province of Canterbury assembled in Convocation during the sitting of this Parliament according to the ancient Custom with all due reverence and humility do make known to your Majesties That though we are appointed to take upon us the Care and Charge of all those Churches in which we are placed as Bishops Deans Arch-Deacons Priests or Vicars as also of the Souls therein committed to us together with all Goods Rights and Privileges thereunto belonging according to the true intent and meaning of the Canons made in that behalf And that in this respect we are bound to use all lawful means for the recovery of those Goods Rights Privileges and Jurisdictions which have been lost in the late desperate and pernicious Schism and to regain the same unto the Church as in her fâ—…rst and right estate Yet notwithstanding having took mature deliberation of the whole matter amongst our selves we cannot but 〈◊〉 confess That we know well how â—…ifficult a thâ—…ng if not impossible it is to recoveâ—… tâ—…e said Goods unto their Churches in regard of the manifold unavoidable Contracts Sales and Alienations which have been made about the same And that if any such thing should be attempted it would not only redound to the disturbance of the Publick Peace but be a means that the Unity in the Catholick Church which by the Goodness of your Majesties hath been so happily begun could not obtain its desired effect without very great difficulty Wheresore preferring the Publick Good and Quiet of the Kingdom before our own private Interest and the Salvation of so many Souls redeemed with the precious Blood of Christ before any earthly things whatsoever and not seeking our own but the things of Jesus Christ We do most earnestly and most humbly beseech your Majesties that you would graciously Vouchsafe to interceed in our behalf with the most Reverend Father in God the Lord Cardinal Pool Legat à Latere from his Holiness That he would please to settle and confirm the said Goods of the Church either in whole or in part as he thinks most fit on the present Occupants thereof according to the Power and Faculties committed to him Thereby preferring the publick Good before the Private the Peace and Tranquillity of the Realm before Suits and Troubles and the Salvation of Souls before earthly Treasure And for our parts we do both now and for all times coming consent to all and every thing which by the said Lord Legat shall in this case be finally ordained and concluded on humbly beseeching your Majesties to perswade the Lord Cardinal not to be too strict and difficult in the business And we do further beseech your Majesties to take such course that our Ecclesiastical Rights Liberties and Jurisdictions which have been taken from us by the iniquity of the former times and without which we are not able to discharge our common Duties either in the exercise of the Pastoral Office or the Cure of Souls committed to our â—…rust and care may be again restored unto us and be perpetually preserved inviolably both to us and our Churches And that all Laws which have been made to the prejudice of this our Jurisdiction and other Ecclesiastical Liberties or otherwise have proved a hindrance to it may be repealed to the Honor of God and the Temporal and Spiritual Profit both of your Majesties and this Realm Giving our selves assured hope that your most Excellent Majesties according to your singular Piety to Almighty God for so many and so great benefits received from him Will not be wanting to the necessities of the Kingdom and the occasions of the Churches having Cure of Souls But that you will consider and provide as need shall be for the Peace thereof Which Petition being thus drawn up was humbly offered to the Legat and being assented unto there was a General and Solemn Procession throughout London to give Thanks for their Conversion to the Catholick Church In this Procession there were Ninety Crosses an Hundred and Six Priests in Copes Eight Bishops in Pontificalibus followed by Bonner Bishop of London carrying the Blessed Sacrament under a Canopy attended by the Lord Mayor and Companies in their several Liveries Which Solemn Procession being ended they all returned into the Church of St. Paul where the King and Cardinal together with all the rest heard Mass And the next day the Parliament and Convocation were Dissolved Thus largely Dr. Heylyn concerning this great Solemnity For a more full Satisfaction in this Relation I will here insert some Acts made in this Parliament in order to this business To be found in the Statute Book An Act for Repealing of all Statutes Articles and Provisions made against the See Apostolick since the Twentieth year of Henry the Eighth WHereas since the Twentieth year of King Henry the Eighth much False and Erroneous Doctrine hath been Taught
Father Who looked upon it as an Argument of God's displeasure as being much offended at this Second Marriage He then began to think of His ill Fortune with both His Wives both Marriages subject to cispute and the Legitimation of both His Daughters likely to be called in question in the time succeeding He must therefore cast about for another Wife of whose Marriage and his Issue by Her there could rise no controversie His eye had carried him to a Gentlewoman in the Queens Attendance on the enjoying of whom he so fixed his Thoughts that he had quite obliterated all remembrance of his former Loves Whereupon He began to be as weary of Queen Annes Gayeties and Secular humor as formerly of the Gravity and Reservedness of Queen Katharine And causing many eyes to observe her Actions they brought him a Return of some particulars which he conceived might give him a sufficient ground to proceed upon The Lord Rochfort her own Brother having some Suit to obtain by her means of the King was found whispering to her on her Bed when she was in it which was interpreted for an act of some dishonor done or intended to be done to the King in the aggravating whereof with all odious circumstances none was more forward than the Lady Rochfort her self It was observed also That Sir Henry Norris Groom of the Stool to the King had entertained a very dear affection for her not without giving himself hopes of succeeding in the King's Bed if she chanced to survive Him And it appeared that she had given him opportunity to make his Affection known and to acquaint her with his hopes which she expressed by twitting him in a frolick humor with looking after dead mens shoes Weston and Breerton both Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber were observed also to be very diligent in their Services and Addresses to her which were construed more to proceed from Love than Duty Out of all these Premises the King resolved to come to a conclusion of His aims and wishes A Solemn Tilting was maintained at Greenwich at which both the King and Queen were present the Lord Rochfort and Sir Henry Norris being principal Challengers Here the Queen by chance let fall her Handkerchief which was taken up by one of her supposed Favourites who stood under the Window whom the King perceived to wipe his face with it This taken by the King to have been done of purpose he thereupon leaves the Queen and all the rest and goes immediatly to Westminster Rochfort and Norris are the next day committed to the Tower and the Queen likewise After which Breerton and Weston with Mark Smeton one of the King's Musicians were commited on the same occasion These persons being thus committed and the cause made known the next care was to find sufficient evidence for their condemnation It was objected That the Queen growing out of hope of having any issue Male by the King had used the company of the Lord Rochfort Norris Breerton Weston and Smeton involving her at once in no smaller crimes than Adultery and Incest It appears by a Letter of Sir William Kingston Lieutenant of the Tower that he had much communication with her when she was his Prisoner in which her language seemed to be broken and distressed betwixt tears and laughter She exclaimed against Norris as if he had accused her It was further signified in that Letter that she named some others who had obsequiously applyed themselves to her Love and Service acknowledging such passages as shewed she had made use of very great liberties The conclusion of this Business was That both the Queen and the rest of the Prisoners were all put to death So died this great Lady one of the most remarkable Mockeries and Disports of Fortune which these last ages have produced raised from the quality of a private Lady to the Bed of a King Crowned on the Throne and Executed on the Scaffold the Fabrick of her Power and Glory being Six years in Building but cast down in an instant The splendor and magnificence of her Coronation seeming to have no other end but to make her the more glorious Sacrifice at the next Alteration But her death was not the chief mark the King aim'd at If she had only lost her Head though with the loss of her Honor it would have been no Bar to her Daughter Elizabeth from Succeeding her Father in the Throne Now he must have his Bed free from all such pretensions the better to draw on the following Marriage It was therefore thought necessary that she should be separated from his Bed by some other means than the Ax or Sword and that He should be legally separated from her in a Court of Judicature when the Sentence of Death had deprived Her of all means as well as of all manner of desire to dispute the point It doth not appear in Record upon what ground this Marriage was dissolved All which occurs in reference to it is a Solemn Instrument under the Seal of the Archbishop Cranmer by which that Marriage is declared on good and valid Reasons to be null and void Which Sentence was pronounced at Lambeth in the Presence of most of the great Men of that time and approved by the Prelates and Clergy assembled in their Convocation and lastly confirmed by Act of Parliament In which Act there also passed a Clause which declared the Lady Elizabeth to be Illegitimate Thus far Dr. Heylyn concerning her Mother Now because the Relation here made concerning this Queen belongs to the Reign of King Henry the Eighth I think it will not be altogether improper to insert a Speech made in that Kings Reign which did not come to my hands time enough to be put into its proper place A Speech made in the Upper House of Parliment by Dr. John Fisher Bishop of Rochester in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth in opposition to the Suppressing of the lesser Monasteries My Honored Lords THis is the place where your glorious and noble Progenitors have paternized the Kingdom from oppression Here is the Sanctuary where in all Ages but this of ours our Mother Church found still a sound Protection I should be infinitely sorrowful that from you that are so lovely Branches of antiquity and Catholick Honor the Catholick Faith should be so deeply wounded For God's and your own Goodness sake leave not to Posterity so great a blemish that you were the First and only those that give it up to ruine Where there is Cause you nobly punish and with Justice but beware of infringing so long continued Priviledges or denying the Members of the Church the parts of their Advantage that is enjoyed by every private Subject The Commons shoot their Arrows at our Livings which are the Motives that conceit us or make us to be conceived guilty Is all the Kingdom innocent and we only faulty that there is no room left for other Considerations far more weighty The Diligence Devotion and Liberality of
your Great Forefathers endowed their Mother Church with fair and large Revenues making it still their greatest care to keep her upright able still in freedom And will you give consent that like a servile Bondmaid she now sinks lower to a naked thraldom and by degrees be forced from her Mansion If not to what end serves the flux of these Petitions that taint your Ears with Language far unfit the Ears of Christian Princes These strike not at the withered Branches but at the Tree on which Religion groweth Certainly All are not guilty Admit that some as they enforce or urge be vicious must it conclude there is none good amongst us or able to reform their proper vices Will you assume a Power till now unheard of to give away their Rites by new made Statutes If you will seek and sist our Constitutions you shall there find as strict Injunctions as you can make for Reformation But I suppose it is not that is aimed at pretence of Restauration or Reformation tends to ruine else such beginnings could not find such Favor My Lords consider well your actions be advised This Cause seems only Ours it will be Yours if that the Mother Church do feel Injustice Your turns are next to feel the like Oppression When Faith begins to fail then all must perish Heretick or Heretical Fancies taint the common People whom Novelties betray even to Perdition Let Neighbour Nations tell you your own story Husse Luther and such frantick Teachers cry out against the Church in all their Sermons they do pretend nothing else but Reformation when they themselves are deepest dyed in mischief What follows them to wit Perdition we may expect in Justice The Churches Wealth occasioned this first moving If that were poor our Vices would be Vertues and none would be so forward to Accuse us What can we look for then but Desolation where private ends are made a publick grievance Our Lesser Houses are desired from us not that their value doth deserve the Motion but that the Greater may succeed their fortune which soon will follow if the gap be opened The King himself I hope is too too gracious to set abroach an Action so disordered Nor can I think the Lower House of Commons will be so blind to Second this loose Motion Some giddy-brain whose fading Fortunes lead him to hope to raise himself out of our Ruins betrays their Judgments with a shew of Justice which seeks in truth but meerly Innovation which must succeed unless you do oppose it Wherefore My Lords call back that Ancient Vertue that so long time hath sat in these your places Now is the time to shew your worth the Church Implores it the Church which you acknowledge for your Mother If Liberty take place of Faith farewel Religion The Turk may then direct us how to guid in Rapine Blood and Murder Foul Dissention proceeds from want of good Devotion The lack of Faith begets these strange Conceptions which time will make stark dead if we continue Thus of this Speech Now we will proceed to relate what occurs in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth as touching matters of Religion CHAP. I. Of Her Praying for the Dead and being Crowned by a Catholick Bishop Anno Reg. Eliz. I. Howe 's upon Stow pag. 635. THe Princess Elizabeth being Proclaimed Queen caused these Solemn Rites to be performed for Her Sister and Charles the Emperor In the Abbey-Church of Westminster the Corps of Queen Mary was very royally Enterred with all Solemn Funeral Rites and a Mass of Requiem In the same place and in like Princely manner were performed Solemn Obsequies for the late famous Emperor Charles the Fifth Thus Howes Her Coronation She was Crowned according to the Order of the Roman Pontifical by Dr. Owen Oglethorpe Bishop of Carlisle the only Man amongst all the Bishops who could be wrought on by her to perform that Office Whether it were that they saw some Alteration coming to which they were resolved not to yield conformity or for some other reasons is not certainly known The Bishop of Ely had a particular reason for his refusing this because he had been one of those that were sent to Rome to render the Submission of the Kingdom to the Pope still Living and therefore could not now appear with Honor in any such Action as seemed to carry with it a Repugnancy if not a manifest Inconsistency with the same Engagement It cannot be denyed but that there were Three Bishops yet alive of King Edward's making all of them Zealously affected to the Reformation And possibly it may seem stange that the Queen received not the Crown rather from one of their hands than to put her self to the hazard of so many denials as had been given Her by the others But unto this it may be Answered That the said Bishops at that time were deprived of their Sees and therefore not in a capacity to perform that service Besides there being at that time no other Form estalished for a Coronation than that which had much in it of the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome she was not sure that any of the said Three Bishops would have acted in it without such Alterations and Omissions in the whole course of the Order as might have rendred the action questionable amongst captious Men. And therefore finally she thought it more conducible to her Reputation amongst Foreign Princes to be Crowned by the hands of a Catholick Bishop or one at least that was accounted such than if it had been done by any of the other Religion Thus Dr. Heylyn But notwithstanding these Solemnities and the profession of the Catholick Religion in all things not only by Permission but also by Command which sufficiently manifest that there was nothing but Humane Policy in the conduct of this Affair yet a change of Religion was designed as will appear by what shall be here said CHAP. II. Of the Policy used and strange manner of introducing this following Change of Religion and of the Consequence of it to wit a general Confusion in all matters of Religion Dr. Heylyn pag. 103. QUEEN Elizabeth knew full well that Her Legitimation and the Pope's Supremacy could not stand together and that She could not possibly maintain the one without a discarding of the other But in this case it concerned her to walk very warily and not to unmask her self too much at once before she had put her self into a posture of Ability to make good her Actions Notwithstanding upon a serious debate of all particulars she was resolved to proceed to a Reformation as the time should serve In order whereunto She Constitutes her Privy Council which she compounds of such Ingredients as might neither give encouragement to any of those who wished well to the Church of Rome or alienate their Affections from Her whose Hearts were more inclined to the Reformation Now as the Papists in the first beginning of the Reign of Queen Mary hoping thereby to obtain her Favor
First-Fruits For the better drawing on of which Concession it was pretended that the Patrimony of the Crown had been much dilapidated and that it could not be Supported with such Honor as it ought to be if Restitution were not made of such Rents as were of late dismembred from it Upon which ground they also passed an Act for the Dissolution of all such Monasteries Convents and Religious Orders as had been Founded and Established by the Queen deceased When the Act of Parliament concerning the Supremacy came to be Debated it seemed to be a thing abhorrent even in Nature and Policy that a Woman should be declared Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England But those of the Reformed Party meant nothing else than to contend about words so they might gain the Point they aimed at Which was the stripping of the Pope of all Authority within these Dominions and fixing the Supream Ecclesiastical Power in the Crown Imperial And this they did not by the Name of Supreme Head which they perceived might be lyable to some just Exceptions but which comes all to one of Supreme Governess Thus Dr. Heylyn I will here insert a Speech made in this Parliament against this Supreme Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Authority granted to the Queen The Person that spake it was Nicholas Heath who was First Bishop of Worcester and Lord President of Wales Afterwards Archbishop of York and Embassador into Germany And made Lord Chancellor of England by Queen Mary in the year of our Lord 1555 and continued until he did surrender it up in Queen Elizabeth's time to Sir Nicholas Bacon The Person from whom I had this Speech is yet living who told me That he found it in Manuscript amongst Papers and Notes of his great Grandfather George Parry who had been High Sheriff of Hereford-shire in the Second year of the said Queen A Speech Made in the Upper House of Parliament against the Supremacy to be in her Majesty by Nicholas Heath Lord Chancellor of England in the first year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth above 100 years since In the Original Copy it is stiled A Tale told in Parliament For Oaths the Land shall be cloathed in Mourning My Lords WIth all humble Submission of my whole Discourse to your Wisdoms I purpose to speak to the Body of this Act touching the Supremacy that so what this Honourable Assembly is now a doing concerning the passing of this Act may thereby be better weighed and considered by your Wisdoms First When by the Virtue of this Act of the Supremacy we must forsake and fly from the See of Rome it would be considered what matter lieth therein and what matter of danger or inconvenience or else whether there be none at all Secondly If the intent of this Act be to grant or settle upon the Queens Majesty a Supremacy it would be considered of your Wisdoms what this Supremacy is and whether it doth consist in Spiritual Government or Temporal If in Temporal what further Authority can this House give Her more than what She already hath by right of Inheritance And not by our Gift but by the Appointment of God Being our Sovereign Lord and Lady our King and Queen our Empress and Emperor And if further than this we acknowledge Her to be Head of the Church of England we ough also to grant that the Emperor or any other Prince being Catholick and their Subjects Protestants are to be Heads of their Church Whereby we shall do an Act as disagreeable to Protestants as this seems to Catholicks If you say The Supremacy consists in Spiritual concernments Then it would be considered what the Spiritual Government is and in what points it doth chiefly consist Which being first agreed upon it would be further considered of your Wisdoms whether this House may grant it to her Highness or not And whether her Highness be an apt Person to receive the same So by through Examination of these parts your Honors shall proceed in this matter groundedly upon such sure knowledge as not to be deceived by ignorance Now to the First Point wherein I promised to examine what matter of weight danger or inconvenience might be incurred by this our forsaking and flying from the Church of Rome if there were no further matter therein than the with-drawing our Obedience from the Popes Person supposing that he had declared himself to be a very Austere and Severe Father to us then the business were not of so great importance as indeed it is as will immediately here appear For by relinquishing and forsaking the Church or See of Rome we must forsake and fly from all General Councils Secondly From all Canonical and Ecclesiastical Laws of the Church of Christ. Thirdly From the Judgment of all other Christian Princes Fourthly and Lastly We must forsake and fly from the Holy Unity of Christ's Church and so by leaping out of Peter's Ship we hazard our selves to be over-whelmed in the waves of Schism of Sects and Divisions First Touching the General Councils I shall name unto you these Four The Nicene Council the Constantinopolitan Council the Ephesine and the Chalcedon All which are approved by all Men. Of these same Councils Saint Gregory writeth in this wise Sicut enim Sancti Evangelii quatuor Libros sic haec quatuor Concilia Nicenum Constantinopolitanum Ephesinum Chalcedonense suscipere ac venerari me fareor That is to say in English I confess I do receive and reverence those Four General Councils of Nice Constantinople c. even as I do the Four Holy Evangelists At the Nicene Council the first of the Four the Bishops which were there Assembled did write there Epistles to Sylvester then Bishop of Rome That their decrees then made might be confirmed by his Authority At the Council kept at Constantinople all the Bishops there were obedient to Damasus then Bishop of Rome He as chief in the Council gave Sentence against the Hereticks Macedonius Sabellius and Eunomius Which Eunomius was both an Arrian and the first Author of that Heresie That only Faith doth justifie And here by the way it is much to be lamented that we the Inhabitants of this Realm are much more inclined to raise up the Errors and Sects of Ancient condemned Hereticks than to follow the True Approved Doctrine of the most Catholick and Learned Fathers of Christ his Church At the Ephesine Council Nestorius the Heretick was condemned by Celestine the Bishop of Rome he being chief Judge there At the Chalcedon Council all the Bishops there Assembled did write their humble Submission unto Leo then Bishop of Rome wherein they did acknowledge him there to be their Chief Head Six Hundred and Thirty Bishops of them Therefore to deny the See Apostolick and its Authority were to contemn and set at nought the Authority and Decrees of those noble Councils Secondly We must forsake and fly from all Canonical and Ecclesiastical Laws of Christ his Church whereunto we have already professed our
stretching forth her body her head aâ—… two blows was taken off This end had Mary Queen of Scots in the Forty Sixth year of her Age and of her Imprisonment in England the Eighteenth A Lady so compleat in all excellent parts of Body and mind that it must needs have made her a happy Woman if she had not been a Queen and perhaps a happy Queen too if she had not been Heir to the Crown of England Thus Baker I will insert here one Passage more concerning this Queen which hath been omited in order of this story Dr. Heylyn pag. 160. Certain of the Queens Servants being assembled for their Devotions in the Chappel Royal of the Palace of Holy-rood House in Edenburgh the doors were broken open some of the company haled to the next Prison and the rest dispersed The Priest escaping with much difficulty by a private passage The Queen was then absent in the North but questioned Knox at her return as the cause of the uproar By which Expostulation she got nothing from that fiery Spirit but neglect and scorn Thus Dr. Heylyn ' concerning this ' barbarous action CHAP. VIII A short Relation concerning the Affairs of Ireland as to Religion And how the Hugonots in France betrayed the English Dr. Heylyn pag. 128. WE shall find the Queen there as active in advancing the Reformation as she had been in either of the other Kingdoms King Henry had first broke the Ice by taking to himself the Title of Supream Head on Earth of the Church of Ireland exterminating the Popes Authority and suppressing all the Monasteries and Religious Houses In matters of Doctrine and Forms of Worship as there was nothing done by him so neither much endeavoured in the time of King Edward the Sixth It being thought perhaps unsafe to provoke that people in the King's Minority considering with how many troubles he was else here exercised If any thing were done thereâ—…n it was rather done by toleration than command But Queen Elizabeth having setled her Affairs in England and undertaken the protection of the Scots conceived her self obliged in point of Piety to promote the Reformation in that Kingdom likewise A Parliament is therefore held where pass'd an Act restoring to the Crown the Jurisdiction over all Ecclesiastical persons By which Statute were established both the Oath of Supremacy and the High Commission as before in England There also pass'd an Act for the Uniforâ—…ity of Common-Prayer with permission of saying the same in Latin where the Minister had not the knowledge of the English Tongue But for translating it into Irish as it was afterwards done into Welch there was no care taken The people are required by that Statute under several penalties to frequent their Churches and to be frequent at the reading of the English Liturgy which they understand no more than they do the Mass. By which means the Irish were not only kept in continual ignorance as to the Doctrines and Devotions of the Church of England but we have likewise furnished the Papist with an excellent Argument against our selves for having the Divine Service celebrated in such a language as the people do not understand There also pass'd another Statute for restoring to the Crown the first Fruits and Twenty parts of all Ecclesiastical promotions as also of all Impropriated Parsonages of which there are more in number than those Rectories which have Cure of Souls The like Act passed for the Restitution of all Lands belonging to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem with the Annulling of all Leases and other Grants made by the late Lord Prior of the same The Bishops of Ireland finding how things went in England and knowing that the like Alteration would ensue amongst themselves resolved to make such use of the present times as to enrich their Friends and Kindred by the the spoyl of their Churches To which end they so dissipated the Revenues of their several Bishopricks by long Leases Fee-farms and plain Alienations that to some of their Sees they left no more than a Rent of Five Marks Per Annum To others a bare yearly Rent of Forty shillings to the high displeasure of God the reproach of Religion and the perpetual ignominy of themselves for that horrible Sacriledge Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning Ireland How the English were betrayed by the Hugonots Dr. Heylyn pag. 161. A Peace being concluded betwixt the King and the Hugonots they betrayed the English whom they had brought into the Country and joyned their Forces with the rest to drive them out of Newhaven a Town besieged where the Pestilence had gotten amongst them and raged so terribly that the Living were scarce able to bury the Dead And to compleat the misery of the Besieged the Prince of Conde and Duke of Monpensier who had been the Heads of the Hugonot party shewed themselves openly amongst the rest in the Camp of the Enemies whereupon they were necessitated to yield This might be looked upon as an Argument of God's displeasure on this Nation for giving Aid unto the Rebels of a Christian Prince masked with the vizard of Religion And for a further punishment of this Action the Plague brought out of France by the Garrison Soldiers of Newhaven had so dispersed it â—…elf and made such a desolation in many parts of the Realm that it swept away above Twenty Thousand in the City of London Thus Dr. Heylyn And thus far as to these particul Relations of other Countries We will now prosecute our story of England CHAP. IX A Word concerning the then Pope's Letter to the Queen with a long Relation concerning the Presbyterians Dr. Heylyn pag. 131. WE find the new Bishops in England very high and resolute in opposing the Church of Rome Whereof the then Pope being informed directs unto the Queen an affectionate Letter calling Her his Dearest Daughter and declaring unto Her how sollicitous he was for her Salvation and the prosperity of her People which he told Her was not to be found by wandring out of the Communion of the Catholick Church Unto which he again invites Her with much Christian meekness But the Queen had set up her Resolution to go forward with the Change Wherefore all was lost labour But all this while there was no care taken to suppress the practices of the Calvinists who secretly endeavored to subvert the English Liturgy For whilst the Prelates of the Church of England bent all their forces towards the confuting of the Papists another Enemy appeared which seemed not openly to aim at the Churches Doctrine but quarrelled rather at some Rites and Extrinsecals of it Their purpose was to take in the Outworks of Religion first before they levelled their Artillery at the Fort it self The Schismaticks of Frankfort had no sooner heard of Queen Maries Death but they make what hast they could for England in hope of fishing better for themselves in a troubled water than a quiet Followed not long after by the Brethren of the Separation which
Or that the Communion Table if any then were was removable up and down hither and thither and brought at any time to the lower part of the Church there to Celebrate the Lord's Supper Or That any Communion was kept upon Good-Friday Or That the Sacrament was administred then sometimes in Loaf-Bread sometimes in Wafers And that without the Name of Jesus or the sign of the Cross Or That at the communion-Communion-time the Minister should wear a Coap and at all other Service a Surplice only Or as it is used in some places nothing at all beside his Common Apparel Or That they used a Common and Prophane Cup at the Communion pag. 162 Or That a solemn Curse should be used on Ashwednesday Or That a Procession about the Fields was used in Rogation week rather thereby to know the Bounds and Borders of every Parish than to move God to Mercy and mens hearts to Devotion Or That the Man should put the Wedding-Ring upon the Fourth Finger of the left hand of the Woman and not on the right as hath been many Hundred years practised pag. 163 Or That the residue of the Sacrament unreceived was taken of the Priest or of the Parish Clerk to spread their young Childrens Butter with or to serve their own Tooth with it at their homely Table Or That it was lawful then to have but one Communion in one Church in one day pag. 164 Or That the Lent or Friday was to be Fasted for Civil Policy not for any Devotion pag. 165 Or That the Lay-People Communicating did take the Cup at one anothers hands and not at the Priests pag. 166. Or That any Bishop then threw down the Images of Christ and his Saints and set up their own their Wives and their Childrens Pictures in their Chambers and Parlours pag. 164. Or That being a Virgin at the taking of the Holy Order of Priesthood did afterwards lawfully Marry pag. 165. Or That was Married on Ashwednesday Or That preached it to be all one to Pray on a Dunghil and in a Church Or That any Friar of 60 years obtaining afterwards the Dignity of a Bishop Married a young Woman of Nineteen years c. pag. 166. Here ends Dr. Heylyn's History of Reformation Now to compleat the story of the Presbyterians I will here add what is related by Dr. Heylyn concerning their actings in this Queens Reign in his History of Presbytery AN ADDITION Of some other Historical Collections Taken out of Dr. Heylyn's History of Presbytery CHAP. XV. A Discovery of the Insolent and Rebellious Spirit of the Presbyterians and particularly of Knox. Dr. Heylyn pag. 244. AT Queen Elizabeths first coming to the Crown such English as had lived in exile amongst the Zwitzers or at Geneva became exceedingly enamored with Calvin's Platform by which they found so much Authority ascribed unto Ministers in their several Churches as might make them absolute and independent without being called to an account by King or Bishop This Discipline they purposed to promote at their coming home But the Queen had heard so much from others of their carriage at Frankfort and their untractableness in point of Decency and comly Order in the Reign of her Brother as might sufficiently forewarn her Besides She was not to be told with what reproaches Calvin had reviled her Sister nor how she had been persecuted by his followers in the time of her Reign Some of them railing at her Person in their scandalous Pamphlets Some practising by false and dangerous Allusions to subvert her Government and others openly praying to God That he would either turn Her heart or put an end to her days And of these Men she was to give her self no hope but they would proceed with her in the self same manner whensoever any thing should be done how necessary and just soever which might cross their humours The Consideration whereof was of such prevalency with those of her Council who were then deliberating about the altering of Religion that they were resolved to have an eye upon those Men Who were so hot in the persuit of their flattering hopes that out of a desire of Innovation as my Author tells me they were busied at that very time in setting up a new form of Ecclestastical Policy and therefore were to be supprest with all care and diligence before they grew to a head But notwithstanding this discovery of their Rebellious practices yet they had so many Friends in England that they might easily have obtained Favour in order to the Promoting their designs had not Knox's furious Spirit moved him to write these following malicious Letters In one of which to Sir William Cecill he first upbraids him with consenting to the suppressing of Christ's true Evangile to the erecting of Idolatry and the Shedding the Blood of God's most dear Children during the Reign of mischievous Mary the professed enemy of God as he plainly calls her Then he proceeds to justifie his Treasonable and Seditious Book against the Regiment of Women of the truth whereof he positively affirms That he no more doubted than of the truth of that Voice of God pronounced against that Sex to wit That in dolour they should bear their Children Next he declared in reference to the person of Queen Elizabeth That he would willingly acknowledge her to be raised by God for the manifestation of his Glory although not nature only but Gods own Ordinance did oppugn such Regiments And thereupon did inferr That if Queen Elizabeth would confess that the Extraordinary Dispensations of God did make that Lawful in her which both Nature and Gods Laws did deny in all Women beside none in England should bemore ready to maintain her Lawful Authority than himself But on the other side he pronounces this Sentence on her That if she built her Title upon Custom Laws and Ordinances of Men such foolish Presumption would grievously offend God and that her ingratitude in that kind should not long lack punishment To the same purpose he writes also to the Queen her self reproaching her withal That for fear of her life she had declined from God Bowed to Idolatry and gone to Mass during the persecution of Gods Saints in the time of her Sister In both his Letters he complains of his being denied the liberty of Preaching in England and endeavours to excuse his Flock of late assembled in the most Godly Reformed Church and City of Geneva Thus Dr. Heylyn CHAP. XVI A further Discovery of their Practices in order to the Promoting of their Discipline which was much Advanced by their being admitted into the Publick Ministry Dr. Heylyn pag. 246. SUch was the necessity which the Church of England was under that it was hardly possible to supply all the vacant places in it but by admitting some of the Genevian Zealots to the Publick Ministry the Realm had been extreamly visited in the foregoing year with a dangerous and contagious Sickness which took away almost half of the Bishops and occasioned such a
interrupt them in the course of their Building And herein Beza is consulted as the Master-workman To him they send their several Scruples and he returns such Answer to them as did not only confirm them in their present obstinacy but fitted and prepared them for the following Schism To those mentioned before they add the calling of Ministers and their Ordaining by the Bishops the Presbytery being not consulted Which he condemns as contrary to the Word of God but so that he conceives it better to have such a Ministry than none at all praying withal that God would give this Church a more lawful Ministry In some Churches and particularly in Westminster Abbey they still retained the use of Wafers made of Bread unleavened This he acknowledges for a thing indifferent Unto several other Questions he gives Answer in this Letter which is Superscribed To certain of the Brethren of the Churches of England touching some Points of Ecclesiastical Order and Government Upon the receiving this Letter they fall into an open Schism in the year next following At which time some taking upon them to be of a more ardent Zeal than others in professing the true Reformed Religion resolved to allow of nothing in God's Publick Service but what was found expresly in the Holy Scriptures Their Number much encreased on a double account First by the negligence of some and the connivance of other Bishops and partly by the secret favour of some Great Men in the Court who greedily gaped after the remainder of the Churches patrimony It cannot be denied but this Faction received much encouragement underhand from some Great Persons neer the Queen from no Man more than from the Earl of Leicester the Lord North Knolls and Walsingham who knew how mightily some Numbers of the Scots both Lords and Gentlemen had in short time improved their Fortune by humouring the Knoxian Brethren in their Reformation and could not but expect â—…he like in their own particulars by a compliance with these Men who aimed apparently at the ruin of Bishops and Cathedral Churches Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the further advancement of Presbytery CHAP. XVIII Of their Meetings and the Powerful Friends they had at Court with a short Relation concerning Cartwright Dr. Heylyn pag. 259. THe Genevian Brethren rather chose to Meet in Barns and Woods yea and in Common Fields than to associate with their Brethren For that they did so is affirmed by very good Authors who much bemoaned the sad condition of the Church of England in having her bowels torn in pieces by those very Children which she had cherished in her bosom By one of which we are first told what great Contentions had been raised in the first Ten years of Her Majesties Reign through the peevish frowardness and the outcries of such as came from Geneva against the Vestments of the Church and such-like matters And then he adds That being crossed in their desires touching these particulars they separated from the rest of their Congregations and Meeting together in Houses Woods and Common Fields kept there their most unlawful and disorderly Conventicles Thus of their Meetings Their Friends at Court Dr. Heylyn pag. 262. The Presbyterians had many powerful Friends at Court in which the Papists had scarce any but mortal Enemies Spies and Intelligencers were employed to attend the Papists and observe all their words and actions so that they could not stir without a discovery But all Mens eyes were shut up as to the other party so that they might do what they listed without observation of which one reason may be given to wit That the Queen suffered that Faction to grow up to confront the other A Word concerning Cartwright Dr. Heylyn pag. 263. Now comes Cartwright on the Stage on which he Acted more than any of the Puritan Faction He coming from Geneva became more practical or pragmatical rather condemning the vocation of Archbishops and Bishops Archdeacons and other Ecclesiastical Officers the Administration of the Sacraments and observation of our Rites and Ceremonies And buzzing these conceits into the heads of many young Preachers and Scholars of the University he drew after him a great number of Disciples and Followers Amongst whom he prevailed so far by his secret practices but much more by a Sermon which he Preached on a Sunday Morning in the College-Chappel that in the Afternoon all the Fellows and Scholars threw aside their Surplices which by the Statute of the House they were bound to wear and went to the Divine Service only in their Gowns and Caps But he not content with that which he had done in the College puts up his Disciples into all the Pulpits in the University where he and they enveigh most bitterly against the Government of the Church and the Governors of it the Ordination of Priests and Deacons the Liturgy and the Rites thereof Thus Dr. Heylyn CHAP. XIX Of their labouring to destroy Episcopal Government and of their Erecting a Presbytery Dr. Heylyn pag. 271. THE English Puritans had hitherto maintained their Quarrel by the Authority of Calvin the Sawciness of Knox the Bold Activities of Beza and the Interposing of some Forreign Divines whose Names were great in all the Churches of the Reformation But now they are resolved to try it out by their proper valour and to make no other use of them than as Auxiliaries and Reserves Hitherto they had appeared only against Caps and Surplices and such-like things But now they are resolved to venture on the Episcopal Government and to endeavour the Erecting of the Presbyterian as time and opportunity should make way unto it Amongst which Undertakers none more eminent because none more violent than Cartwright He and his Complices frequently handled such Points as concerned the Discipline many Motions being made and some Conclusions setled in pursuance of it But more particularly it was resolved upon the question That for as much as divers Books had been written and sundry Petiâ—…ions exhibited to her Majesty the Parliament and their Lordships to little purpose every man should therefore labour by all means possible â—…o bring the Reformation into the Church It was also then and there resolved That for the better bringing on of the said Holy Discipline they should not only as well Publickly as privately teach it but by little and little as well as possibly they might draw the same into practice According to which resolution a Presbytery was Erected on the Twentieth of November in the year 1572. at a small village in Surrey called Wandsworth a place conveniently situated for the London Brethren as standing near the Bank of the Thames but Four miles from the City and more retired and out of sight than any of their own Churches about the Town The first Establishment they endorsed by the name of The Orders of Wandsworth In which the Elders names are agreed on the manner of Election declared the Approvers of them mentioned their Offices agreed on also and described Sir Christopher Hatton was
determined to discharge her Self from the Trouble of all Church-Concernments and leave them wholly to his care That She was sensible enough into what Disorder and Confusion the Affairs of the Church were brought by the connivance of some Bishops the obstinacy of some Ministers and the Power of some great Lords both in Court and Country But that notwithstanding he must resolve not only to assert the Episcopal Power but also to restore the Uniformity in God's Publick Worship which by the weakness of his Predecessor was so much endangered It is not easie to imagine what clamors were raised amongst the Brethren upon this occasion how they moved Heaven and Earth the Court and Country and all the Friends they had of the Clergy or Laity to come to their assistance in this time of their tryal By means whereof they raised so strong an opposition against his proceedings that it put him to great difficulties Some great Men about the Court who had engaged themselves in the Puritan Quarrels thought best to stand a while behind the Curtain and set Beal upon him of whose impetuosity and edge against him they were well assured This Beal was in himself a most eager Puritan trained up by Walsingham to draw dry-foot after Priests and Jesuits his extream hatred to those men being looked on as the only good quality which he could pretend to But being over-blinded with zeal he conceived that whatsoever was not Puritan must needs be Popish And that the Bishops were to be esteemed no otherwise than the Sons of Antichrist because they were not looked upon as Fathers by the Brotherhood And so far was he hurried on by these disaffections that though he were raised to be one of the Clerks of the Council yet he preferred the Interest of that Faction before that of the Queens Insomuch that he was noted to Jeer and Gibe at all such Sermons as did most commend her Majesties Government and move the Auditory to Obedience not sparing to accuse the Preachers to have broached false Doctrine From this man the Archbishop received great affronts The Lord Burleigh upon some complaint made against the Liturgy by some of the Brethren required them to compose another such as they thought might generally be accepted by them The first Classis thereupon devised a new one agreeable in most things to the Form of Geneva But this draught being offered to the Consideration of the second Classis for so the wise States-men had of purpose contrived the plot there were no fewer than Six-hundred Exceptions made against it and consequently so many Alterations to be made therein before it was to be admitted The Third Classis quarrelled at those Alterations and resolved therefore on a new Model which should have nothing of the other And against this the Fourth Classis was able to pretend as many Objections as had been made against the first So that no likelihood appearing of any other Form of Worship either better or worse to be agreed upon between them he dismiss'd their Agents for the present with this assurance that whensoever they could agree upon any Liturgy which might be universally received amongst them they should find him very ready to serve them in the setling of it Walsingham tries his Fortune next in hope to bring them to allow of the English Liturgy on the removal of such things as seemed most offensive And thereupon he offered in the Queens Name that the Three Ceremonies at which they seemed most to boggle that is to say Kneeling at the Communion the Surplice and the Cross in Baptism should be expunged out of the Book of Common-Prayer if that would content them But thereunto it was replied That they would have a total Abolition of the Book without retaining any part or office in it in their next New-nothing Which peremptory Answer did much alienate his Affections from them as afterwards he affirmed to some from whose Pen I have it The Brethren on the other-side finding how little they had gotten by their Application to the Lords of the Council began to steer another course by practising upon the temper of the following Parliaments into which they had procured many of their chief Friends to be received for Knights or Burgesses as they could prevail By whose means notwithstanding that the Queen had commanded them not to deal in any thing which was of concernment to the Church they procured a Bill to pass in the House of Commons 1585 for making tryal of the Sufficiency of such as were to be ordained or admitted Ministers by Twelve Lay-men whose Approbation and Allowance they were first to pass before they were to receive Institution into any Benefice Another Bill was also passed for making Marriage lawful at all times of the year which had been formerly attempted by the Convocation They were in hand also with a Third concerning Ecclesiastical Courts and the Episcopal Visitations pretending only a redress of some Exorbitancies in excessive Fees but aiming plainly at the overthrow of the Jurisdiction The like attempts were made in some following Sessions in which some Members shewed themselves troublesome to sober men alienated from the present Government and disrespective towards the Queen Thus Dr. Heylyn CHAP. XXII Their Design is promoted from Scotland and from many Great Men about the Court. Dr. Heylyn pag. 261. THe chief Zealots of the Faction of Scotland finding that they could not have their Wills on the young King James whose Mother was Prisoner in England and his Council came into England where they were much countenanced by Mr. Secretary Walsingham who had set them at work and therefore was obliged to gratifie them The Lords and great Men of that Nation were ordered to retire to Norwich and many of the Ministers permitted to prepare for London Oxford Cambridge and some other places At London they are suffered by some Zealous Brethren to possess the Pulpits in which they rail without controul against their King the Council and their Natural Queen labouring withal to beget amongst the People an ill opinion against the present Government and to engage them for advancing that of the Presbytery It would be too tedious to relate all that they acted in this kind The Lords of this Faction obtained such Assistance from Queen Elizabeth that they got the King into their hands put a new Guard upon him and conducted him whither they pleased Upon this the English Puritans shewed themselves to have more of the Scot in them than in former times For presently upon the News of the good Success which their Scottish Brethren had a scandalous Libel in the nature of a Dialogue is published and dispersed in most parts of England in which the state of this Church is pretended to be laid open They likewise had prepared their way to the Parliament then sitting Anno 1586 by telling them That if the Reformation they desired were not granted they should betray God his Truth and the whole Kingdom That they should declare
themselves to be an Assembly wherein the Lord's cause could not be heard wherein the infelicity of the miserable could not be respected wherein Truth Religion and Piety could bear no sway an Assembly that willingly called for the Judgment of God upon the whole Realm And finally That not a Man of their Seed should prosper be a Parliament Man or bear rule in England any more This necessary preparation being thus premised they tender to the Parliament a Book of the Form of Common-Prayer by them desired containing also in effect the whole pretended Discipline so revised by Travers And their Petition in behalf of it was in these words following to wit May it therefore please your Majesty That the Book hereunto annexed and every thing therein contained may be from henceforth used through all your Majesties Dominions But in this they were able to effect nothing It may seem strange that Queen Elizabeth should be so severe to her English Puritans and yet protect and countenance the Presbyterians in all other places But that great Monster in Nature called Reason of State is brought to plead in her defence Leicester Walsingham and others gave such encouragment under-hand to the Presbyterians that they resolved to proceed towards the putting of their Discipline in execution These great Persons did likewise entertain their Clamours and promote their Petitions at the Council-Table crossing and thwarting the Archbishop whensoever any cause which concerned the Brethren was brought before them It may be gathered from hence what a hard game this Prelate had to play when such great Masters in the Art held the Cards against him For at that time the Earls of Huntingdon and Leicester Walsingham and Knolls Comptroller of the Houshold a professed Genevian were his open Adversaries Burleigh a Neutral at the best Thus Dr. Heylyn The Order of their Government both at London and in the Country Dr. Heylyn pag. 213. THe Book of Discipline being published was no where better welcome than in London the Wealth and Pride of which City was never wanting to cherish and support such as most apparently opposed themselves to the present Authority or practised the introducing of Innovations both in Church and State The several Churches or Conventicles rather which they had in the City they reduced into one great and general Classis of which Cartwright Egerton or Travers were for the most part Moderators and whatsoever was there ordered was esteemed for current from thence the Brethren of other places did fetch their light and as doubts did arise thither they were sent to be resolved the Classical and Synodical decrees of other places not being Authentical till they were ratified in this which they held the Supream Consistory and chief Tribunal of the Nation But in the Country none appeared more forward than those of Northampton Daventry and Nottingham and the device is taken up in most parts of England but especially in Warwick-shire Suffolk Norfolk Essex c. In these Classes they determined Points of Doctrine Interpreted hard places of Scripture delivered their resolution in such cases of Conscience as were brought before them decided doubts and difficulties touching Contracts of Marriage c. and whatsoever was concluded by such as were present yet still with reference to the better judgment of the London Brethren became forthwith binding to the rest none being admitted into any of the aforesaid Classes before he had promised under his hand that he would submit himself and be obedient unto all such Orders and Decrees as were set down by the Classis to be observed At these Classes they enquired into the Life and Doctrine of all that had subscribed unto them censuring some and deposing others as they saw occasion Unto every Classis there belonged a Register who took the Heads of all that passed and saw them carefully entred into a Book for that purpose that they might remain upon Record Thus Dr. Heylyn gives a full Relation of the Progress of Presbytery in this Nation Now I will make a short Relation of the Queens Proceedings against Catholicks CHAP. XXIII Of the great endeavors used totally to extirpate Catholick Religion by Penal Laws and a horrid Effusion of Blood Stow pag. 678. THere was an Act of Parliament passed 5 Eliz In the Body whereof it was provided That no Man living or residing in the Queens Dominions should from thenceforth maintain the Power and Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome And for the better discovery of all such persons as might be Popishly affected it was Enacted that none should be admitted to receive Orders in the Church or to take any Degree in either of the Universities or to be Barrester or Bencher in any of the Inns of Court c. Or to practice as an Attorney or otherwise to bear any Office in any of the Courts at Westminster-Hall or any other Court whatsoever till they had taken the Oath of Surpemacy It was likewise made Treason for any one to be reconciled to the Church of Rome or to be made Priest beyond the Seas upon which Two accounts very many were afterwards Executed A Proclamation also was set forth That whosoever had any Children beyond the Sea should by a certain day call them home Commissioners were sent into all Parts and Divisions of the Realm to enquire out Priests and such as were reconciled by them further charging all manner of Persons to retain none in their Houses without due examination of their conditions manner of life and conformity in Religion and to keep thereof a Register to be shewed to the said Commissioners if they should demand it In pursuance of which Commission a Priest was taken saying Mass in the Lord Morley's House and the Lady Morley with her Children and divers others were also taken hearing the same Mass. There was also taken at the same time another Priest at the Lady Gilfords in Trinity-lane for saying Mass and for hearing the said Mass the Lady Gilford with divers other Gentlewomen were taken And likewise at the same instant were taken Two Priests in the Lady Browns House in Cow-lane for saying Mass with the Lady her self and divers others for hearing it All which persons were Endicted Convicted and had the Law Executed according to the Statute There was found in their several Chappels Beads Images Palms Chalices Crosses Vestments Pixes Paxes and such-like Thus Stow. He that desires to be fully satisfied concerning all the severe Laws made against Catholicks in this Queens Reign may have recourse to the Penal Statutes Now we will proceed to a further Execution of these Laws by a horrid effusion of Blood TWo Laymen and one Priest wher hanged bowelled and quartered for denying the Queens Supremacy Stow pag. 684 and 685. Six Priests were drawn from the Tower to Tyburn and there hanged bowelled and quartered Stow pag. 695. Four Priests more were found guilty of High-Treason in being made Priests beyond Seas and by the Pope's Authority and had Judgment to be hanged bowelled
never be crowned Thus St. Cyprian Now concerning the Supereminent Power of Bishops in the Church as to the Excommunication of Hereticks and of the effect thereof St. Jerom Epist. ad Heliodorum cap. 7. has these remarkable words God forbid saith he I should speak sinistrously of them who succeeding the Apostles in degree make Christ's Body with their holy mouths by whom we are made Christians who having the Keys of Heaven do after a sort judge before the day of Judgment who in sobriety and chastity have the keeping of the Spouse of Christ to wit his Church And a little after They may deliver me up to Satan to the destruction of my Flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus And in the old Law whosoever was disobedient to the Priests was either cast out of the Camp and so stoned of the People or laying down his neck to the Sword expiated his offence by his Blood But now the Disobedient is cut off with the spiritual Sword or being cast out of the Church is torn by the furious mouth of Devils Thus St. Jerom. The Church's Practice in this is taken from the Example of St. Paul 1 Tim. 1. 19. where having exhorted Timothy to preserve his Faith and a good Conscience he presently adds Which certain repelling have made shipwrack about the Faith that is of their Faith of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander whom I have delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme Now to prevent our being Seduced by Hereticks St. Paul says 2 Tim. 3. 1. And this know you that in the last days shall approach perillous times and Men shall be lovers of themselves covetous haughty proud blasphemous not obedient to their Parents unkind wicked without affection without peace accusers incontinent unmerciful without benignity traytors stubborn puffed up and lovers of voluptuousness more than of God having an appearance indeed of Piety but denying the vertue thereof and these avoid For these be they that craftily enter into houses and lead captive silly Women laden with sins which are led with divers desires always learning and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth But as Jannus and Jambres resisted Moses so these also resist the Truth men corrupted in mind reprobate concerning the Faith But they shall prosper no further For their folly shall be manifest to all as theirs also was All these words St. Cyprian Epist. 55. Num. 3. Expounds of such as by pride and disobedience resist God's Priests Let no faithful man saith he that keepeth in mind our Lords and the Apostles Admonition marvel if he see in the latter times some proud and stubborn fellows and the Enemies of God's Priests go out of the Church or impugn the same when both our Lord and the Apostle foretold us that such should be Now one Reason why the going out of the Church by Heresie is so great a crime is because the Church is always preserved from Error by the priviledge of Christ's Presence of the Holy Ghosts Assistance of our Lords Promise and Prayer of which see St. Augustin upon those words of the 118 Psalm Conc. 13. Ne auferas de ore meo verbum veritatis usque quâque Where he writes admirably of this matter To the same purpose also these words of Lactantius are very remarkable It is the Catholick Church only that keeps the true Worship of God This is the Fountain of Truth This is the House of Faith This is the Temple of God into which if a Man enter not or from which if any Man goes out he is an Alien and Stranger from the hope of everlasting life and salvation No Man must by obstinate contention flatter himself for it stands upon Life and Salvation St. Cyprian Epist. 55. ad Cornel. Num. 3. says The Church never departs from that which she once hath known And St. Irenaeus lib. 1. cap. 3. That the Apostles have laid up in the Church as in a rich Treasury all Truth It were an infinite labour to recite all that the Fathers say of this matter All counting it a most pernicious absurdity to affirm That the Church of Christ may err in Doctrins of Faith St. John the Apostle 1 John 2. 18. says Little Children it is the last hour and as ye have heard that Antichrist comes now there are become many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last hour They went out from us but they were not of us St. Cyprian upon this place writes thus Epist. 76. Num. 1. ad Magnum The holy Apostle St. John did not put a difference betwixt one Heresie or Schism and another nor meant any sort that especially separated themselves but generally called All without exception Antichrists that were adversaries to the Church or were gone out from the same And a little after It is evident that All be here called Antichrists that have severed themselves from the Charity and Unity of the Catholick Church Concerning St. Peter's Supremacy or Charge of the whole Church from which Hereticks separate themselves St. Cyprian writes thus Lib. de Unitat. Ecclesiae To Peter saith he our Lord after his Resurrection said Feed my Sheep and built his Church upon him alone and to him he gives the charge of Feeding his Sheep For although after his Resurrection he gave his Power alike to all saying As my Father sent me so I send you Receive the Holy Ghost If you remit to any their sins they shall be remitted c. Yet to manifest Unity he constituted one Chair and so disposed by his Authority that Unity should have origin of one The rest of the Apostles were that which Peter was in equal Fellowship of Honor and Power but the beginning comes of Unity the Primacy is given to Peter that the Church of Christ may be shewed to be one and one Chair St. Chrysostom also says thus Lib. 2. de Sacerdot Why did our Lord shed his Blood Truly to redeem those Sheep the Cure of which he committed both to Peter and also to his Successors And a little after Christ would have Peter endowed with such Authority and to be far above all his other Apostles For he saith Peter Dost thou love me more than all These do Whereupon our Master might have inferred If you love me Peter use much Fasting Sleep on the hard Floor Watch much be a Patron to the Oppressed a Father to Orphans and Husband to Widows But omitting all These things he says Feed my Sheep For all the other Vertues certainly may be done easily by many Subjects not only Men but also Women but when it cometh to the Government of the Church and committing the charge of many Souls all Women-kind must needs give place to the burden and greatness thereof and a great number of Men also St. Gregory likewise Lib. 4. Epist. 76 writes thus It is plain to all men saith he that ever read the Gospel that by our Lord's mouth the charge of the whole Church
find that St. Francis a person famous for his strict and holy life was the Man from whom this Order sprung whose birth-place being of a noble extraction is said to have been at Assise in Umbria a Province of Italy And that in the very time of his youth betaking himself to divine studies no whit regarding the transitory pleasures of this present world he afterwards neglected his patrimony which was not small wore a Coul or hair-shirt went barefoot and macerated himself with frequent watches and fastings As also to the intent that he might make choice of voluntary poverty he resolved to enjoy nothing as his own no not so much as food for his body otherwise than what he received in Alms from good people And moreover if he had any thing left after a slender refreshment he ever bestow'd it on the poor reserving nothing for the morrow That in the night time he always slept in his cloaths lying down upon a Matt having no pillow for his head but a stone And thus going barefoot with an Evangelick preparation did embrace an Apostolick life preaching upon Sundays and Festivals in Parish-churches which did so much the more work upon the hearts of his Auditory by how much he was a stranger to all carnal desires The Statutes of which Order to this day observed together with some other strict Rules he presented to Pope Innocent the Third Which together with the circumstances of his reception and their confirmation I shall for brevity pass by To this resolution I shall briefly add what a later Author hath of him viz. that when he first betook himself to this regular life he wore Shoos and a Leather Girdle but revolving in his mind that our blessed Saviour gave command to his Apostles that they should not have two coats nor any purse he put on a single coat of plain wool girt himself with a cord and went barefoot And at the length that he might live an Anchorite betook himself to the Apenine-mountains and in Avâ—…rne at the foot of them continued in great solitude where devoting himself wholly to divine contemplations he branded his Body with the marks of our Lords Passion and called those Minors which he chose from the first to be his companions in that Rule as a manifest token of his humility to the end that they being mindful of that slender appellation should be free from all pride which is oft times the companion of Sanctity His Rule being confirmed by Honorius the Third and two years after viz. anno 1229 Gregory the IX Canonizing him for a Saint no humane institution increased so much as this in a short time did for they were soon spread over the whole Christian world Terram repleverunt saith Matt. Westm. In Towns and Cities they dwelt by tens and sevens in a Covent and possessing nothing but mâ—…erly living by the Gospel in food and raiment they manifested their voluntary poverty and going barefoot girt with a knotty cord gave the greatest example of humility imaginable Touching their first coming into England I find it was in Anno 1224. 8 H. 3. viz. two years before the death of St. Francis The Augustin Friers pag. 781. col 1. Touching the Original of this Order there is no absolute certainty as Ploydore affirmeth Some alleadge that St. Augustin Bishop of Hippo retiring into the Wilderness during the rage of the Manichean Hereticks then instituted it gathering together into one Covent those that were disperst in the Desert Others that divers devout persons desiring to imitate the piety and singular learning of St. Augustin even whilst he lived left all that they had and betook themselves to the Wilderness whereupon they were called Heremites By which of these means it was I shall not farther stand to enquire but Mendicants they were for certain and for their Habit did wear in their Cloister a white garment close girt to them and when they went out a black over it with a broad Leather Girdle buckled being shorn on the Head as the Dominicans are These first began to propagate in England about the year 1250. Of the Carthusian or Charter-house Monks pag. 131. col 2. The Author of them was one Bruno born at Colein in Germany a very learned Man and Philosophy-professor in the University of Paris Where being present at the Funeral of his friend that had been a man of good conversiation and observing that whilst they were celebrating the office for the dead the Corps raised it self up on the Bier and uttered at several distances these words Justo Dei judicio accusatus sum Justo Dei judicio judicatus sum Justo Dei judicio condemnatus sum By the just judgment of God I am accursed By the just judgment of God I have received sentence By the just judgment of God I am damn'd he became so astonisht as that considering if such were the condition of one whose life had been free from any eminent vice what should become of himself and many others that were in no better state he thereupon with six more of his company who were moved at the same apprehension resolved to seek some desert place where they might end their days in an austere and mortified course of living without any disturbance of worldly matters which at length they found in the Diocess of Grenoble at a place called Carthuse in the mountainous parts of a vast Wilderness and obtaining an assignation thereof from the Bishop erected a Monastery instituting most severe and strict Rules for himself and his Covent viz. wearing hair shirts never to 〈◊〉 on flesh on the Fridays to eat nothing but bread and water to live apart in particular cells and thither to have their diet singly brought them except on certain Festival days when they dined together Not to converse with each other but at certain times None to go out of the Monastery but the Superior and Procurator and they only about the affairs of the Covent Their Habit a white loose coat with a coul of the same but when they go out a case of black stuff all over it being shaved and shorn just as the Benedictins are Into their particular Cells which are low built and do contain 3 or 4 several rooms on the ground-floor only having behind each of them a little Garden environ'd with an high Wall is their diet brought to them by Lay-brothers and put in at a little door in the wall near the entrance thereof unto which there is a lock whereof the key is kept by him that serves them At the hours of publick prayers they meet in the Quire But women are not permitted to come within the precincts of their Monastery nor a man to speak with any of them without special license given by the Superior The Lay-brothers are not shaven but their hair on the head is cut short and round their habit being the same with the Monks saving the scapular which reacheth but a little below the middle and is girt close to theâ—… Which Institution by Bruno was in the year 1080. as Polydore affirmeth but others say in â—…nno 1084. Howbeit they observe the Rule of St. Benedict as to their diurnal and nocturnal offices yet have not anciently in any one Covent exceeded the number of 13 persons Into England they were first brought by King H. 2. i. 〈◊〉 â—…nno 1181. 27. H. 2. who founded a Monastery foâ—… them at Witham in Somersetsâ—…ier whereof Hugh Bishop of Lincoln was the first Fryer FINIS Thus related by Howes upon Stow pag. 543. Stow p. 543. Stow p. 543. Stow p. 544. Nothing but Passion and Interest carried on this business Stow. p. 562. The bringing in of Presbytery into this Nation This Speech you have formerly had at large Humph. Jesuitism rat 5. p. 5. Car. Chron. l. 4. p. 567. Bal. in Act. Rom. Pont p 44. Osiand Cent. 6. p. 288. Magdeb. Cent. 6. p. 748 369. Fulk Confut Purg. pag. 333.