the Commandment is conceived in general words yet there are some exceptions to be admitted as though it be said Thou shalt not kill yet in some cases we may lawfully kill so in the case of justice a Judge may lawfully sit on his Father But Doctor Veysey's Argument was that which took most with all that were present He said it was certain that the Laws of the Church did not bind any but those who received them To prove this he said that in old times all secular Priests were Married but in the days of St. Augustine the Apostle of England there was a Decree made to the contrary which was received in England and in many other places by vertue whereof the Secular Priests in England may not Marry but this Law not being universally received the Greek Church never judged themselves bound by it so that to this day the Priests in that Church have Wives as well as other secular men If then the Churches of the East not having received the Law of the Celibate of the Clergy have never been condemned by the Church for not obeying it then the conveening Clerks having been always practised in England was no sin notwithstanding the Decree to the contrary which was never received here Nor is this to be compared to those priviledges that concern only a Private mans Interest for the Common-Wealth of the whole Realm was chiefly to be lookt at and to be preferred to all other things When the Matter was thus argued on both sides all the Judges delivered their Opinions in these words That all those of the Convocation who did award the Citation against Standish were in the case of a Premunire facias and added somewhat about the Constitution of the Parliament which being forreign to my business and contrary to a received opinion I need not mention but refer the Reader to Keilway for his Information if he desires to know more of it and thus the Court broke up But soon after all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal with many of the House of Commons and all the Judges and the Kings Council were called before the King to Baynards Castle and in all their presence the Cardinal kneeled down before the King and in the name of the Clergy said That none of them intended to do any thing that might derogate from his Prerogative and least of all himself who owed his advancement only to the Kings favour But this matter of Conveening of Clerks did seem to them all to be contrary to the Laws of God and the Liberties of the Church which they were bound by their Oaths to maintain according to their Power Therefore in their name he humbly begged That the King to avoid the Censures of the Church would refer the Matter to the decision of the Pope and his Council at the Court of Rome To which the King answered It seems to us that Doctor Standish and others of our Spiritual Council have answered you fully in all points The Bishop of Winchester replyed Sir I warrant you Doctor Standish will not abide by his Opinion at his peril But the Doctor said what should one poor Frier doe alone against all the Bishops and Clergy of England After a short silence the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury said That in former times divers holy Fathers of the Church had opposed the execution of that Law and some of them suffered Martyrdome in the Quarrel To whom Fineux Lord Chief Justice said That many holy Kings had mantained that Law and many holy Fathers had given Obedience to it which it is not to be presumed they would have done had they known it to be contrary to the Law of God and he desired to know by what Law Bishops could judge Clerks for Felony it being a thing only determined by the Temporal Law so that either it was not at all to be tryed or it was only in the Temporal Court so that either Clerks must do as they please or be tryed in the Civil Courts To this no Answer being made the King said these words By the Permission and Ordinance of God we are King of England and the Kings of England in times past had never any Superiour but God only Therefore know you well that we will maintain the Right of our Crown and of our Temporal Iurisdiction as well in this as in all other points in as ample manner as any of our Progenitours have done before our time And as for your Decrees we are well assured that you of the Spirituality go expresly against the words of divers of them as hath been shewed you by some of our Council and you interpret your Decrees at your pleasure but we will not agree to them more than our Progenitors have done in former times But the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury made most humble Instance that the Matter might be so long respited till they could get a Resolution from the Court of Rome which they should procure at their own Charges and if it did consist with the Law of God they should conform themselves to the Law of the Land To this the King made no answer but the Warrants being out against Doctor Horsey the Bishop of London's Chancellour he did abscond in the Arch-Bishops house though it was pretended he was a Prisoner there till afterwards a temper was found that Horsey should render himself a Prisoner in the Kings Bench and be tryed But the Bishop of London made earnest Applications to the Cardinal that he would move the King to command the Attourney-General to confess the Inditement was not true that it might not be referred to a Jury since he said the Citizens of London did so favour Heresie that if he were as Innocent as Abel they would find any Clerk guilty The King not willing to irritate the Clergy too much and judging he had maintained his Prerogative by bringing Horsey to the Bar ordered the Attourney to do so And accordingly when Horsey was brought to the Bar and Endited of Murder he pleaded Not guilty which the Attourney acknowledging he was dismissed and went and lived at Exeter and never again came back to London either out of fear or shame And for Doctor Standish upon the Kings Command he was also dismissed out of the Court of Convocation It does not appear that the Pope thought fit to interpose in this Matter For though upon less Provocations Popes had proceeded to the highest Censures against Princes yet this King was otherwise so necessary to the Pope at this time that he was not to be offended The Clergy suffered much in this business besides the loss of their reputation with the people who involved them all in the guilt of Hunne's Murder for now their Exemption being well examined was found to have no foundation at all but in their own Decrees and few were much convinced by that authority since upon the matter it was but a judgment of their own in their own favours nor was the City of London at all satisfied with
Therefore he requires them under pain of Damnation to repeal it and offers to secure them from any abuses which might have crept in formerly with these Provisions This is dated the Third of October Decimo Pontificat but I believe it is an error of the Transcriber and that its true date was the 13th of October The Parliament sate in Ianuary 1427 being the 6th year of King Henry the 6th during which on the 30th of Ianuary the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury accompanyed by the Arch-Bishop of York the Bishops of London St. Davids Ely and Norwich and the Abbots of Westminster and Reading went from the House of Lords to the place where the House of Commons ordinarily sate which was the Refectory of the Abbey of Westminster where the Arch-Bishop made a long Speech in the form of a Sermon upon that Text Render to Coesar the things that are Coesars and to God the things that are Gods He began with a Protestation that he and his Brethren intended not to say any thing that might derogate from the King the Crown or the people of England Then he alledged many things for the Popes Power in granting Provisions to prove it was of Divine Right and admonished and required them to give the Pope satisfaction in it otherwise he laid out to them with tears what mischiefs might follow if he proceeded to censures which will appear more fully from the Instrument that will be found in the Collection at the end But it seems the Parliament would do nothing for all this for no Act neither of Repeal nor Explanation was passed Yet it appears the Pope was satisfied with the Arch-Bishops carriage in this matter for he soon after restored him to the Exercise of his Legantine Power as Godwin has it only he by a mistake says he was made Legate Anno 1428. whereas it was only a Restitution after a Censure Thus stood the Law of England in that matter which was neither Repealed nor well Executed for the Popes Usurpations still encreasing those Statutes lay dead among the Records and several Cardinals had procured and executed a Legantine Power which was clearly contrary to them And as Cardinal Wolsey was already brought under the lash for it so it was now made use of partly to give the Court of Rome apprehensions of what they were to expect from the King if they went on to use him ill and partly to proceed severely against all those of the Clergy who adhared obstinately to the Interests of that Court and to make the rest compound the matter both by a full Submission and a considerable Subsidy It was in vain to pretend it was a publick and allowed Error and that the King had not only connived at the Cardinals Proceedings but had made him all that while his chief Minister That therefore they were excusable in submitting to an Authority to which the King gave so great encouragement and that if they had done otherwise they had been unavoidably ruined For to all this it was answered that the Laws were still in force and that their Ignorance could not excuse them since they ought to have known the Law yet since the violation of it was so publick though the Court proceeded to a Sentence That they were all out of the Kings protection and were liable to the pains in the Statutes the King was willing upon a reasonable Composition and a full Submission to Pardon them So in the Convocation of Canterbury a Petition was brought in to be offered to the King In the Kings Title he was called the Protector and Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England To this some opposition was made and it was put off to another day but by the Interposition of Cromwell and others of the Kings Council who came to the Convocation and used arguments to perswade them to it they were prevailed with to pass it with that Title at least none speaking against it For when Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury said That silence was to be taken for consent They cried out they were then all silent Yet it was moved by some to add these words to the Title in so far as is lawful by the Law of Christ. But Parker says The King disliked that Clause since it left his Power still disputable therefore it was cast out and the Petition passed simply as it was first brought in Yet in that he was certainly misinformed for when the Convocation of the Province of York demurred about the same Petition and sent their reasons to the King why they could not acknowledge him Supreme Head which as appears by the Kings answer to them were chiefly founded on this that the term Head was improper and did not agree to any under Christ the King wrote a long and sharp answer to them and showed them that words were not always to be understood in their strict sense but according to the common acceptation And among other things he showed what an Explanation was made in the Convocation of Canterbury That it was in so far as was agreeable to the Law of Christ by which it appears that at that time the King was satisfied to have it pass any way and so it was agreed to by nine Bishops the Bishop of Rochester being one and 52 Abbots and Priors and the major part of the lower House of Convocation in the Province of Canterbury Of which number it is very probable Reginald Pool was for in his Book to the King he says he was then in England and adds that the King would not accept of the sum the Clergy offered unless they acknowledged him Supreme Head he being then Dean of Exceter was of the lower House of Convocation and it is not likely the King would have continued the Pensions and other Church-Preferments he had if he had refused to Signe that Petition and Submission By it they prayed the King to accept 100000 l. in lieu of all punishments which they had incurred by going against the Statutes of Provisors and did promise for the future neither to make nor execute any Constitution without the Kings Licence upon which he granted them a general Pardon and the Convocation of the Province of York offering 18840 l. with another Submission of the same nature afterwards though that met with more opposition they were also Pardoned When the King 's Pardon for the Clergy was brought in to the House of Commons they were much troubled to find themselves not included within it for by the Statutes of Provisors many of them were also liable and they apprehended that either they might be brought in trouble or at least it might be made use of to draw a Subsidy from them so they sent their Speaker with some of their Members to represent to the King the great grief of his Commons to find themselves out of his favour which they concluded from the Pardon of the pains of Premunire to his Spiritual Subjects in which
of some disaffected Persons For when he came to the Crown there were none that were born Noble of his Council but only the Earl of Surrey and the Earl of Shrewsbury whereas now the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk the Marquess of Exeter the Lord Steward the Earls of Oxford and Sussex and the Lord Sands were of the Privy-Council And for the Spirituality the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of Winchester Hereford and Chichester were also of it And he and his whole Council judging it necessary to have some at the board who understood the Law of England and the Treaties with Forreign Princes he had by their Unanimous advice brought in his Chancellor and the Lord Privy-Seal He thought it strange that they who were but brutes should think they could better judg who should be his Counsellors than himself and his whole Council Therefore he would bear no such thing at their hands it being inconsistent with the duty of good Subjects to meddle in such matters But if they or any of his other Subjects could bring any just complaint against any about him he was ready to hear it and if it were proved he would punish it according to Law As for the complaints against some of the Prelates for preaching against the Faith they could know none of these things but by the report of others since they lived at such a distance that they themselves had not heard any of them preach Therefore he required them not to give credit to Lies nor be misled by those who spread such Calumnies and ill reports And he concluded all with a severe Expostulation adding that such was his love to his Subjects that imputing this Insurrection rather to their folly and lightness than to any malice or rancour he was willing to pass it over more gently as they would perceive by his Proclamation Now the people were come to themselves again and glad to get off so easily and they all chearfully accepted the Kings offers and went home again to their several dwellings Yet the Clergy were no way satisfied but continued still to practise amongst them and kept the Rebellion still on foot so that it broke out soon after The Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Shrewsbury were ordered to lie still in the Country with their Forces till all things were more fully composed They made them all come to a full submission and first to revoke all Oaths and Promises made during the Rebellion for which they asked the Kings Pardon on their knees 2ly To swear to be true to the King and his Heirs and Successors 3ly To obey and maintain all the Acts of Parliament made during the Kings Reign 4ly Not to take Arms again but by the Kings Authority 5ly To apprehend all Seditious persons 6ly To remove all the Monks Nuns and Friars whom they had placed again in the dissolved Monasteries There were also Orders given to send Ask their Captain and the Lord Darcy to Court Ask was kindly received and well used by the King He had shewed great conduct in Commanding the Rebels and it seems the King had a mind either to gain him to his service or which I suspect was the true Cause to draw from him a discovery of all those who in the other parts of the Kingdom had favoured or relieved them For he suspected not without cause that some of the great Abbots had given secret supplies of Money to the Rebels For which many of them were afterwards tryed and attainted The Lord Darcy was under great apprehensions and studied to purge himself that he was forced to a Compliance with them but pleaded that the long and important services he had done the Crown for fifty years he being then fourscore together with his great Age and Infirmity might mitigate the Kings displeasure But he was made Prisoner Whether this gave those who had been in Arms new jealousies that the Kings Pardon would not be inviolably observed or whether the Clergy had of new prevailed on them to rise in Arms I cannot determine But it broke out again though not so dangerously as before Two Gentlemen of the North Musgrave and Tilby raised a body of 8000 men and thought to have surprised Carlisle but were repulsed by those within And in their return the Duke of Norfolk fell upon them and routed them He took many prisoners and by Martial Law hanged up all their Captains and Seventy other Prisoners on the Walls of Carlisle Others at that same time thought to have surprised Hull but it was prevented and the leaders of that Party were also taken and Executed Many other Risings were in several places of the Countrey which were all soon repressed the ground of them all was that the Parliament which was promised was not called But the King said they had not kept conditions with him nor would he call a Parliament till all things were quieted But the Duke of Norfolks vigilance every-where prevented their gathering together in any great Body And after several un-succesful attempts at length the Countrey was absolutely quieted in Ianuary following And then the Duke of Norfolk proceeded according to the Martial Law against many whom he had taken Ask had also left the Court without leave and had gone amongst them but was quickly taken So he and many others were sent to several places to be made publick Examples He suffered at York others at Hull and in other Towns in Yorkshire But the Lord Darcy and the Lord Hussy were arraigned at Westminster and attainted of Treason The former for the Northern and the other for the Lincolnshire Insurrection The Lord Darcy was beheaded at Towerhill and was much lamented Every body thought that considering his Merits his Age and former services he had hard measure The Lord Hussy was beheaded at Lincoln The Lord Darcy in his Tryal accused the Duke of Norfolk that in the Treaty at Doncaster he had encouraged the Rebels to continue in their demands This the Duke denyed and desired a Tryal by Combate and gave some presumptions to shew that the Lord Darcy bore him ill-will and said this out of Malice The King either did not believe this or would not seem to believe it And the Dukes great diligence in the Suppression of these Commotions set him beyond all jealousies But after those Executions the King wrote to the Duke in Iuly next to Proclaim an absolute Amnesty over all the North which was received with great joy every body being in fear of himself and so this threatning storm was dissipated without the effusion of much blood save what the sword of justice drew At the same time the King of Scotland returning from France with his Queen and touching on the Coast of England many of the people fell down at his feet praying him to assist them and he should have all But he was it seems bound up by the French King and so went home without giving them any encouragement And thus ended
filled when they had got Bonner to be his Successor yet they found afterwards what a fatal mistake they committed in raising him now to Hereford and translating him within a few months to London vacant by Stokesleys death But during the vacancy of the See of Hereford Cranmer held a Visitation in it where he left some Injunctions to be found in the Collection which chiefly related to the encouraging of reading the Scriptures and giving all due obedience to the Kings Injunctions For the other Bishops that adhered to Cranmer they were rather clogs than helps to him Latimers simplicity and weakness made him be despised Shaxtons proud and litigious humour drew hatred on him Barlow was not very discreet and many of the Preachers whom they cherished whether out of an unbridled forwardness of temper or a true zeal that would not be managed and governed by politick and prudent measures were flying at many things that were not yet abolished Many complaints were brought of these to the King Upon which letters were sent to all the Bishops in the Kings name to take care that as the People should be instructed in the truth so they should not be unwarily charged with too many novelties since the publishing these if it was not tempered with great discretion would raise much contention and other inconveniencies that might be of dangerous consequence But it seems this Caveat did not produce what was designed by it or at least the opposite party were still bringing in new Complaints for I have seen an original Letter of Cromwels to the Bishop of Landaffe bearing date the 6th of Ianuary In which he makes mention of the Kings Letters sent to that purpose and requires him to look to the Execution of them both against the violence of the new Preachers and against those that secretly carried on the pretended authority of the Bishop of Rome otherwise he threatens to proceed against him in an other manner All these things concurred to lessen Cranmers interest in the Court nor had he any firm friend there but Cromwel who was also careful to preserve himself There was not a Queen now in the Kings bosome to favour their motions Queen Iane had been their friend though she came in Anne Bolleyns room that had supported them most The King was observed to be much guided by his Wives as long as they kept their interest with him Therefore Cromwel thought the only way to retrieve a design that was almost lost was to engage the King in an Alliance with some of the Princes of Germany from whence he had heard much of the Beauty of the Lady Anne of Cleve the Duke of Cleve's Sister whose elder sister was married to the Duke of Saxony But while he was setting this on foot a Parliament was summoned to meet the 28th of April To which all the Parliamentary Abbots had their Writs The Abbots of Westminster St. Albans St. Edmundsbury St Mary York Glassenbury Glocester Ramsey Evesham Peterborrough Reading Malmesbury Croyland Selby Thorny Winchelcomb Waltham Cirencester Teukesbury Colchester and Tavestoke sate in it On the 5th of May the Lord Chancellour acquainted them that the King being most desirous to have all his Subjects of one mind in Religion and to quiet all Controversies about it had commanded him to move to them that a Committee might be appointed for examining these different opinions and drawing up Articles for an agreement which might be reported and considered by the House To this the Lords agreed and named for a Committee Cromwel the Vice-gerent the two Arch-Bishops the Bishops of Duresme Bath and Wells Ely Bangor Carlisle and Worcester Who were ordered to go about it with all haste and were dispenced with for their attendance in the House till they had ended their business But they could come to no agreement for the Arch-bishop of Canterbury having the Bishops of Ely and Worcester to second him and being favoured by Cromwel the other five could carry nothing against them Nor would either party yeeld to the other so that 11 dayes passed in these debates On the 16th of May the Duke of Norfolk told the Lords That the Committee that was named had made no progress for they were not of one mind which some of the Lords had objected when they were first named Therefore he offered some Articles to the Lords consideration that they might be examined by the whole House and that there might be a perpetual Law made for the observation of them after the Lords had freely delivered their minds about them The Articles were First Whether in the Eucharist Christs real Body was present without any Transubstantiation so it is in the Journal absque Transubstantiatione it seems so the Corporal Presence had been established they would have left the manner of it indefinite Secondly Whether that Sacrament was to be given to the Laity in both kinds Thirdly Whether the Vows of Chastity made either by Men or Women ought to be observed by the Law of God Fourthly Whether by the Law of God private Masses ought to be celebrated Fifthly Whether Priests by the Law of God might marry Sixthly Whether Auricular Confession were necessary by the Law of God Against these the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury argued long For the first he was then in his opinion a Lutheran so he was not like to say much against it But certainly he opposed the second much since there was not any thing for which those with whom he held correspondence were more earnest and seemed to have greater advantages both from Christs own words in the Institution and the constant practice of the Church for 12 ages For the Third It seemed very hard to suppress so many Monasteries and set the Religious persons at liberty and yet bind them up to Chastity That same Parliament by another Act absolved them from their vow of Poverty giving them Power to purchase Lands now it was not reasonable to bind them up to some parts of their Vow when they absolved them from the rest And it was no ways prudent to bind them up from Marriage since as long as they continued in that State they were still capable to re-enter into their Monasteries when a fair occasion should offer whereas they upon their Marrying did effectually lay down all possible pretentions to their former Houses For the Fourth The Asserting the Necessity of private Masses was a plain Condemnation of the Kings proceedings in the Suppression of so many Religious Houses which were Societies chiefly dedicated to that purpose For if these Masses did profit the Souls departed the destroying so many Foundations could not be justified And for the living these private Masses were clearly contrary to the first Institution by which that which was blessed and consecrated was to be distributed And it was to be a Communion and so held by the Primitive Church which admitted none so much as to see the Celebration of that Sacrament but those who
Beauty But he excused himself that he thought the thing was so far gone that it was decent to write as he had done The King lamented his condition in that Marriage and expressed great trouble both to the Lord Russel Sir Anthony Brown Sir Anthony Denny and others about him The last of those told him this was one Advantage that mean persons had over Princes That great Princes must take such Wives as are brought them whereas meaner persons go and chuse Wives for themselves But when the King saw Cromwel he gave his grief a freer vent to him He finding the King so much Troubled would have cast the chief blame on the Earl of Southampton for whom he had no great kindness And said when he found her so far short of what reports and Pictures had made her he should have stayed her at Callice till he had given the King notice of it But the Earls Commission being only to bring her over he said It had been too great a presumption in him to have interposed in such a manner And the King was convinced he was in the right So now all they had to insist on was the clearing of that Contract that had passed between her and the Marquess of Lorain which the Ambassadors who had been with the King had undertaken should be fully done and brought over with her in due form of Law So after the Lady was brought in great State to Greenwich the Council met and sent for the Ambassadors of the Duke of Cleves that conducted her over and desired to see what they had brought for clearing the breach of that Contract with the Marquess of Lorrain But they had brought nothing and made no account of it saying that the Contract was in their Minority when they could give no consent and that nothing had followed on it after they came to be of Age. But this did not satisfie the Kings Council who said these were but their words and they must see better proofs The Kings Marriage was Annulled with Anne Boleyn upon a pre-contract therefore he must not again run the like hazard So Olisleger and Hogâ—sden the Ambassadors from Cleve did by a formal Instrument Protest before Cromwel that in a peace made between their late Master Iohn Duke of Cleve and Anthony Duke of Lorrain one of the conditions was that this Lady being then under Age should be given in Marriage to Francis Son to the Duke of Lorrain who was likewise under Age which Treaty they affirmed they saw and read But that afterwards Henry de Groffe Ambassador of Charles Duke of Gueldres upon whose mediation that peace had been concluded declared in their hearing that the Espousals were Annulled and of no effect and that this was Registred in the Chancery of Clâ—ve of which they promised to bring an Authentical Extract within three Months to England Some of the Counsellors who knew the Kings secret dislike of her person would have insisted more on this But the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Duresm said if there was no more than that it could be no just hindrance to the Solemnization of the Marriage So the King seeing there was no remedy and being much pressed both by the Ministers of Cleve and by the Lord Cromwel Marryed her on the 6th of Ianuary But expressed so much aversion and dislike of her that every body about him took notice of it Next day the Lord Cromwel asked him how he liked her then He told him He was not every man therefore he would be free with him He liked her worse than he did He suspected she was no Maid and had such ill smells about her that he loathed her more than ever and did not believe he should ever consummate the Marriage This was sad news to Cromwel who knew well how delicate the King was in these matters and that so great a Misfortune must needs turn very heavy on him that was the chief Promoter of it He knew his Enemies would draw great advantages from this and understood the Kings temper too well to think his Greatness would last long if he could not induce the King to like the Queen better But that was not to be done for though the King lived five Months with her in that State and very oft lay in the Bed with her yet his Aversion rather encreased than abated She seemed not much concerned at it and as their Conversation was not great so she was of an heavy Composition and was not much displeased to be delivered from a Marriage in which she had so little satisfaction Yet one thing shews that she wanted not Capacity For she learned the English Language very soon and before her Marriage was Annulled she spoke English freely as appears by some of the Depositions There was an Instrument brought over from Cleve taken out of the Chancery there by which it appeared That Henry de Groffe Ambassador from the Duke of Gueldres had on the 15th of February in the year 1535. declared the Nullity of the former Contract in express words which are set down in high Dutch but thus put in Latine Sponsalia illa progressum suum non habitura I will not answer for the Latine ex quo dictus Dux Carolus admodum doleret propterea quaedam fecisset amplius facturus esset And Pallandus that was Ambassador from the Duke of Cleves in the Duke of Guelders Court wrote to his Master Illustrissimum Ducem Gueldriae certo scire prima illa Sponsalia inter Domicellam Annam fore inania progressum suum non habitura When this was shewed the King his Council found great exceptions to it upon the Ambiguity of the word Sponsalia it not being expressed whether they were Espousals by the words of the present or of the future tense and intended to make use of that when there should be a fit opportunity for it On the 12th of April a Session of Parliament was held The Journal shews that neither the Abbot of Westminster nor any other Abbot was present After the Lord Chancellor had opened the reasons for the Kings meeting them at that time as they related to the Civil Government Cromwel as Lord Vice-gerent spake next in the Kings name and said There was nothing which the King so much desired as a firm union among all his Subjects in which he placed his chief security He knew there were many Incendiaries and much Cockle grew up with the Wheat The rashness and licentiousness of some and the inveterate Superstition and stiffness of others in the Ancient Corruptions had raised great dissensions to the sad regret of all good Christians Some were called Papists others Hereticks which bitterness of Spirit seemed the more strange since now the Holy Scriptures by the Kings great care of his people were in all their hands in a Language which they understood But these were grosly perverted by both sides who studied rather to justifie their passions out
Duresm and Winchester and Thirleby and Richard Leighton Dean of York to examine the witnesses that day And the next day they received the Kings own Deposition with a long Declaration of the whole matter under Cromwels hand in a Letter to the King and the Depositions of most of the Privy Councellors of the Earl of Southampton the Lord Russel then Admiral of Sir Anthony Brown Sir Anthony Denny Doctor Chambers and Doctor Butts the Kings Physicians and of some Ladies that had talked with the Queen All which amounted to this that the King expected that the Precontract with the Marquess of Lorrain should have been more fully cleared That the King always disliked her and Marryed her full sore against his heart and since that time he had never consummated the Marriage So the substance of the whole evidence being considered it amounted to these three Particulars First That there had been a Contract between the Marquess of Lorrain and the Queen which was not sufficiently cleared for it did not yet appear whether these Espousals were made by the Parties themselves or in the words of the present tense Then it was said That the King having Marryed her against his will he had not given a pure inward and compleat consent And since a mans Act is only what is inward extorted or forced promises do not bind And Thirdly That he had never consummated the Marriage To which was added the great interest the whole Nation had in the Kings having more issue which they saw he could never have by the Queen This was furiously driven on by the Popish Party And Cranmer whether overcome with these arguments or rather with fear for he knew it was contrived to send him quickly after Cromwel consented with the rest So that the whole Convocation without one disagreeing Vote Judged the marriage null and of no force and that both the King and the Lady were free from the bond of it This was the greatest piece of Compliance that ever the King had from the Clergy For as they all knew there was nothing of weight in that praecontract so they laid down a most pernicious Precedent for invalidating all publick Treaties and Agreements since if one of the Parties being unwilling to it so that his consent were not inward he was not bound by it there was no safety among men more For no man can know whether another consents inwardly And when a man does any thing with great aversion to infer from thence that he does not inwardly consent may furnish every one with an excuse to break loose from all engagements For he may pretend he did it unwillingly and get his friends to declare that he privately signified that to them And for that argument which was taken from the want of Consummation they had forgotten what was pleaded on the Kings behalf 10 years before That consent without Consummation made a Marriage compleat by which they concluded that though Prince Arthur had not Consummated his Marriage with Queen Katherine yet his consent did so complete it that the King could not afterwards lawfully marry her But as the King was resolved on any terms to be rid of this Queen so the Clergy were also resolved not to incur his displeasure In which they rather sought for reasons to give some colour to their Sentence than past their judgment upon the strength of them This only can be said for their excuse that these were as just and weighty reasons as used to be admitted by the Court of Rome for a Divorce and most of them being Canonists and knowing how many Precedents there were to be found for such Divorces they thought they might do it as well as the Popes had formerly done On the 9th of Iuly Sentence was given Which was signed by both Houses of Convocation and had the two Arch-bishops Seals put to it of which whole Tryal the Record does yet remain having escaped the Fate of the other Books of Convocation The Original depositions are also yet extant Only I shall add here a reflection upon Cromwels misfortune which may justly abate the loftiness of haughty men The day after he was attainted being required to send to the King a full account under his hand of the business of his Marriage which Account he sent as will be found in the Collection he Concludes it with these abject words I a most woful Prisoner ready to take the death when it shall please God and your Majesty and yet the frail flesh inciteth me continually to call to your Grace for Mercy and Grace for mine offences And thus Christ save preserve and keep you Written at the Tower this Wednesday the last of Iune with the heavy heart and trembling hand of your Highness most heavy and most miserable Prisoner and poor slave Thomas Cromwel And a little below that Most Gracious Prince I cry for Mercy Mercy Mercy On the 10th of Iuly the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury reported to the House of Lords That the Convocation had judged the Marriage Null both by the Law of God and the Law of the Land The Bishop of Winchester delivered the Judgment in Writing which being read he enlarged on all the reasons of it This satisfied the Lords and they sent down Cranmer and him to the Commons to give them the same account Next day the King sent the Lord Chancellor the Duke of Norfolk the Earl of Southampton and the Bishop of Winchester to let the Queen know what was done who was not at all troubled at it and seemed not ill pleased They told her that the King would by Letters Patents Declare her his Adopted Sister and give her precedence before all the Ladies of England next his Queen and Daughters and assign her an Estate of 3000 lib. a year and that she had her choice either to live in England or to return home again She accepted the offer and under her hand declared her consent and approbation of the Sentence and chose to live still in England where she was in great honour rather than return under that disgrace to her own Countrey She was also desired to write to her Brother and let him know that she approved of what was done in her matter and that the King used her as a Father or a Brother and therefore to desire him and her other friends not to take this matter ill or lessen their friendship to the King She had no mind to do that but said it would be time enough when her Brother wrote to her to send him such an answer But it was answered That much depended on the first Impressions that are received of any matter She in conclusion said she would obey the King in every thing he desired her to do So she wrote the Letter as they desired it and the day following being the 12th of Iuly the Bill was brought into the House for annulling the Marriage which went easily through both Houses On the 16th
Sermon a Priest coming to have killed him was taken with the weapon in his hand but when the people were rushing furiously on him Wishart got him in his Arms and saved him from their rage for he said he had done no harm only they saw what they might look for He became a little after this more than ordinary serious and apprehensive of his end he was seen sometimes to rise in the night and spend the greatest part of it in Prayer and he often warned his hearers that his Sufferings were at hand but that few should suffer after him and that the Light of true Religion should be spread over the whole Land He went to a great many places where his Sermons were well received and came last to Lothian where he found a greater neglect of the Gospel than in other parts for which he threatned them That Strangers should chace them from their dwellings and possess them He was Lodged in a Gentleman of Qualities house Cockburn of Ormeston when in the night the house was beset by some horsemen who were sent by the Cardinals means to take him The Earl of Bothwel that had the chief Jurisdiction in the County was with them who promising that no hurt should be done him he caused the Gate to be opened saying The Blessed Will of God be done When he presented himself to the Earl of Bothwel he desired to be proceeded with according to Law for he said he feared less to die openly than to be Murdered in secret The Earl promised upon his honour that no harm should be done him and for some time seemed resolved to have made his words good but the Queen Mother and Cardinal in end prevailed with him to put Wishart in their hands and they sent him to St. Andrews where it was agreed to make a Sacrifice of him Upon this the Cardinal called a meeting of the Bishops to St. Andrews against the 27th of February to destroy him with the more Ceremony but the Arch-Bishop of Glasgow moved that there should be a Warrant procured from the Lord Governour for their proceedings To this the Cardinal consented thinking the Governour was then so linked to their Interests that he would deny them nothing but the Governor bearing in his heart a secret love to Religion and being plainly dealt with by a Noble Gentleman of his name 〈…〉 Preston who laid before him the just and terrible Judgments of God he might look for if he suffered poor Innocents to be so Murdered at the appetite of the Clergy sent the Cardinal word not to proceed till he himself came and that he would not consent to his death till the cause was well examined and that if the Cardinal proceeded against him his blood should be required at his hands But the Cardinal resolved to go on at his peril for he apprehended if he delayed it there might be either a Legal or a violent rescue made so he ordered a mock Citation of Wishart to appear who being brought the next day to the Abbey-Church the Process was opened with a Sermon in which the Preacher delivered a great deal of good Doctrine concerning the Scriptures being the only Touchstone by which Heresie was to be tryed After Sermon the Prisoner was brought to the Bar he first fell down on his knees and after a short Prayer he stood up and gave a long account of his Sermons That he had Preached nothing but what was contained in the ten Commandments the Apostles Creed and the Lords Prayer but was interrupted with reproachful words and required to answer plainly to the Articles obâ—ected to him Upon which he appealed to an indifferent Judge he desired to be tryed by the word of God and before my Lord Governor whose Prisoner he was but the Indictment being read he confessing and offering to justifie most of the Articles objected against him was Judged an obstinate Heretick and Condemned to be burnt All the next night he spent in Prayer In the Morning two â—riers came to Confess him but he said he would have nothing to do with them yet if he could he would gladly speak with the Learned man that Preached the day before So he being sent to him after much Conference he asked him if he would receive the Sacrament Wishart answered he would most gladly do it if he might have it as Christ had instituted it under both kinds but the Cardinal would not suâ—fer the Sacrament to be given him And so breakfast being broughâ— he discoursed to those that were present of the death of Christ and the ends of the Sacrament and then having blessed and consecrated the Elements he took the Sacrament himself and gave it to those that were with him That being done he would taste no other thing but retired to his Devotion Two hours after the Executioners came and put on him a Coat of black Linning full of bags of Powder and carryed him out to the place of Execution which was before the Cardinals Castle He spake a little to the people desiring them not to be offended at the good word of God for the sufferings that followed it it was the true Gospel of Christ that he had Preached and for which with a most glad heart and mind he now offered up his Life The Cardinal was set in state in a great Window of his Castle looking on this sad Spectacle When Wishart was tyed to the Stake he cryed aloud O Saviour of the World have Mercy upon me â—ather of Heaven I recommend my Spirit into thy Holy hands So the Executioners kindled the fire but one perceiving after some time that he was yet alive encouraged him to call still on God to whom he answered The flame hath scorched my body yet hath it not daunted my Spirit but he who from yonder high place looking up to the Cardinal beholdâ—th us with such pride shall within few days lie in the same as ignominiously as now he is seen proudly to rest himself The Executioner drawing the Cord that was about his neck straiter sâ—opt his breath so that he could speak no more and his body was soon consumed by the fire Thus died this eminent servant and witnâ—ss of Christ on whose Sufferings I have enlarged the more because they proved so fatal to the interests of the Popish Clergy for not any one thing hastned forward the Reformation more than this did and since he had both his Education and Ordination in England a full account of him seems no impertinent Digression The Clergy rejoyced much at his death and thought according to the constant Maxime of all Persecutors that they should live more at ease now when Wishart was out of the way They magnified the Cardinal for proceeding so vigorously without or rather against the Governorâ— Orders But the people did universally look on him as a Martyr and believed an extraordinary measure of Gods Spirit had rested on him since besides great innocency and purity of Life his predictions came so oft to
the discovery of the Indies having brought great wealth into Europe Princes began to deal more in that trade than before so that both France and England had their Instruments in Scotland and gave considerable yearly Pensions to the chief heads of Parties and Families In the search I have made I have found several Warrants for Sums of Money to be sent into Scotland and divided there among the Favourers of the English Interest and 't is not to be doubted but France traded in the same manner which continued till a happier way was found out for extinguishing these Quarrels both the Crowns being set on one head Having thus shewed the State of this Kings Government as to forreign Matters I shall next give an account of the Administration of Affairs at home both as to Civil and Spiritual Matters The King upon his first coming to the Crown did choose a wise Council partly out of those whom his Father had trusted partly out of those that were recommended to him by his Grand-Mother the Countess of Richmond and Derby in whom was the Right of the House of Lancaster though she willingly devolved her pretensions on her Son claiming nothing to her self but the Satisfaction of being Mother to a King She was a wise and Religious Woman and died soon after her Grand-Son came to the Crown There was a Faction in the Council between Fox Bishop of Winchester and the Lord Treasurer which could never be well made up though they were oft reconciled Fox always complaining of the Lord Treasurer for squandring away so soon that vast Mass of Treasure left by the Kings Father in which the other justified himself that what he did was by the Kings Warrants which he could not disobey but Fox objected that he was too easie to answer if not to procure these Warrants and that he ought to have given the King better advice In the Kings first Parliament things went as he desired upon his delivering up Empson and Dudley in which his preventing the severity of the Houses and proceeding against them at the Common Law as it secured his Ministers from an unwelcome President so the whole honour of it fell on the Kings justice His next Parliament was in the Third year of his Reign and there was considered the Brief from Pope Iulius the Second to the King complaining of the Indignities and Injuries done to the Apostolick See and the Pope by the French King and entreating the Kings assistance with such cajoling words as are always to be expected from Popes on the like occasions It was first read by the Master of the Rolls in the House of Lords and then the Lord Chancellour Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the Lord Treasurer with other Lords went down to the House of Commons and read it there Upon this and other reasons they gave the King subsidies towards the War with France At this time Fox to strengthen his Party against the Lord Treasurer finding Thomas Wolsey to be a likely man to get into the Kings favour used all his endeavours to raise him who was at that time neither unknown nor inconsiderable being Lord Almoner he was at first made a Privy Counsellour and frequently admitted to the Kings presence and waited on him over to France The King liked him well which he so managed that he quickly engrossed the Kings favour to himself and for 15 years together was the most absolute Favourite that had ever been seen in England all forreign Treaties and Places of Trust at home were at his Ordering he did what he pleased and his Ascendant over the King was such that there never appeared any Party against him all that while The great Artifice by which he insinuated himself so much on the King is set down very plainly by one that knew him well in these words In him the King conceived such a loving fancy especially for that he was most earnest and readiest in all the Counsel to advance the Kings only will and pleasure having no respect to the case and whereas the Ancient Counsellors would according to the Office of good Counsellors divers times perswade the King to have some time a recourse unto the Council there to hear what was done in weighty Matters the King was nothing at all pleased therewith for he loved nothing worse than to be constrained to do any thing contrary to his pleasure and that knew the Almoner very well having secret Insinuations of the Kings Intentions and so fast as the others Counselled the King to leave his pleasures and to attend to his Affairs so busily did the Almoner perswade him to the contrary which delighted him much and caused him to have the greater affection and love to the Almoner Having got into such Power he observed the Kings Inclinations exactly and followed his Interests closely for though he made other Princes retain him with great Presents and Pensions yet he never engaged the King into any Alliance but what was for his Advantage For affairs at home after he was established in his Greatness he affected to Govern without Parliaments there being from the Seventh year of his Reign after which he got the great Seal but one Parliament in the 14th and 15th year and no more till the One and Twentieth when matters were turning about But he raised great Sums of Money by Loans and Benevolences And indeed if we look on him as a Minister of State he was a very extraordinary Person but as he was a Church-man he was the disgrace of his Profession He not only served the King in all his secret pleasures but was lewd and vicious himself so that his having the French Pox which in those days was a matter of no small infamy was so publick that it was brought against him in Parliament when he fell in disgrace he was a man of most extravagant vanity as appears by the great State he lived in and to feed that his Ambition and Covetousness were proportionable He was first made Bishop of Tourney when that Town was taken from the French then he was made Bishop of Lincoln which was the first Bishoprick that fell void in this Kingdom after that upon Cardinal Bembridge his death he parted with Lincoln and was made Arch-Bishop of York then Hadrian that was a Cardinal and Bishop of Bath and Wells being deprived that See was given to him then the Abbey of St Albans was given to him in Comendam he next parted with Bath and Wells and got the Bishoprick of Duresm which he afterwards exchanged for the Bishoprick of Winchester But besides all that he had in his own hands the King granted him a full Power of disposing of all the Ecclesiastical benefices in England which brought him in as much money as all the Places he held for having so vast a Power committed to him both from the King and the Pope as to Church-preferments it may be easily gathered what
to three of them and selected the 19 20 and 21 what these related to I find not Upon which Providellus pleaded and answered the Objections that did seem to militate against them but neither would the Imperiallists appear that Session In Iune news were brought to Rome which gave the Pope great offence A Priest had preached for the Popes Authority in England and was for that cast into prison And another Priest being put in prison by the Archbishop of Canterbury upon suspition of Heresie had appealed to the King as the Supreme Lord upon which he was taken out of the Archbishops hands and being examined in the Kings Courts was set at liberty This the Pope resented much but the Embassadors said all such things might have been prevented if the King had got Justice at the Popes hands The King also at this time desired a Bull for a Commission to erect six new Bishopricks to be endowed by Monasteries that were to be suppressed This was expedited and sent away at this time And the old Cardinal of Ravenna was so jealous that the Embassadors were forced to promise him the Bishoprick of Chester one of the new Bishopricks with which he was well satisfied having seen by a particular state of the Endowment that was designed for it what advantage it would yield him But he had declared himself so openly before against the Reasons for the Excuse that he could not serve the King in that matter but in the main Cause he undertook to do great service and so did the Cardinals De Monte and Ancona Upon the 27th of Iune the Debate was brought to a Conclusion about the Plea Excusatory and when it was expected that the Pope should have given sentence against the Articles he admitted them all Si prout de jure Upon which the Imperiallists made great Complaints The Cardinals grew weary of the length of the Debate since it took up all their time but it was told them the matter was of great importance and it had been better for them not to have proceeded so precipitately at first which had now brought them into this trouble and that the King had been at much pains and trouble on their account therefore it was unreasonable for them to complain who were put to no other trouble but to sit in their Chairs two or three hours in a week to hear the Kings Defences The Imperiallists had also occasioned the Delays though they complained of them by their Cavils and Allegations ofLaws and Decisions that never were made by which much time was spent But it was objected That the Kings Excuse for not coming to Rome because it was too remote from his Kingdom and not safe was of no force since the place was safe to his Proxy And the Cardinal of Ravenna pressed the Embassadors much to move the King instead of the Excusatory Process to send a Proxy for examining and discussing the Merits of the Cause in which it would be much easier to advance the Kings matter and that he having appeared against the King in this Process would be the less suspected in the other The business being further considered in three Sessions of the Consistory it was resolved that since the Vacation was coming on they would neither allow of nor reject the Kings Excusatory Plea but the Pope and College of Cardinals would write to the King intreating him to send a Proxy for judging the Cause against the Winter And with this Bonner was sent over with Instructions from the Cardinals that were gained to the King to represent to him that his Excusatory Plea could not be admitted for since the Debate was to be whether the Pope could grant the Dispensation or not it could not be committed to Legats but must be judged by the Pope and the Consistory He was also ordered to assure the King that the Pope did now lean so much to the French Faction that he needed not fear to refer the matter to him But while these things were in debate at Rome there was another Session of Parliament in April and then the King sent for the Speaker of the House of Commons and gave him the Answer which the Clergy had drawn to the Addresses they made in the former Session about their Courts The King himself seemed not at all pleased with it but what the House did in it does not appear further than that they were no way satisfied with it But there happened another thing that offended the King much One Temse of the House of Commons moved that they should address to the King to bring the Queen back to the Court and ran out upon the Inconveniences that were like to follow if the Queen were put away particularly the ill consequence of the Illegitimation of the Princess Upon this the King took occasion when he gave them the Clergies Answer to tell them that he wondered at that motion made in their House for the matter was not to be determined there It touched his Soul he wished his Marriage were good but the Doctors and Learned men had determined it to be null and detestable and therefore he was obliged in Conscience to abstain from her which he assured them flowed from no Lust nor foolish Appetite He was then 41 years old and at that Age those Heats abate But except in Spain or Portugal it had not been heard of that a man married two Sisters and that he never heard that any Christian man before himself had married his Brothers Wife Therefore he assured them his Conscience was troubled which he desired them to report to the House In this Session the Lord Chancellour came down to the Commons with many of the Nobility about him and told them the King had considered the Marches between England and Scotland which were uninhabited on the English side but well peopled on the Scottish and that laid England open to the Incursion of the Scots therefore the King intended to build Houses there for planting the English side This the Lords liked very well and thought it convenient to give the King some Aids for the Charges of so necessary a Work and therefore desired the Commons to consult about it Upon which the House voted a Subsidy of a Fifteenth But before the Bill could be finished the Plague broke out in London and the Parliament was prorogued till February following On the 11th of May three days before the Prorogation the King sent for the Speaker of the House of Commons and told him That he found upon Inquiry that all the Prelats whom he had looked on as wholly his Subjects were but half-Subjects for at their Consecration they swore an Oath quite contrary to the Oath they swore to the Crown so that it seemed they were the Popes Subjects rather than his Which he referred to their care that such order might be taken in it that the King might not be deluded Upon which the two Oaths that the
the Bishop of Rome whom some called the Pope who had long darkned Gods word that it might serve his Pomp Glory Avarice Ambition and Tyranny both upon the Souls Bodies and Goods of all Christians excluding Christ out of the Rule of mans Soul and Princes out of their Dominions And had exacted in England great Sums by dreams and vanities and other Superstitious ways â—pon these reasons his Usurpations had been by Law put down in this Nation yet many of his Emissaries were still practising up and down the Kingdom and perswading people to acknowledg his pretended Authority Therefore every person so offending after the last of Iâ—ly next to come was to incur the pains of a Premunire and all Officers both Civil and Ecclesiastical were commanded to make enquiry about such offences under several penalties On the 12th of Iuly a Bill was brought in concerning Priviledges obtained from the See of Rome and was read the First time And on the 17th it was agreed to and sent down to the Commons who sent it up again the next day It bears that the Popes had during their Usurpation granted many Immunities to several Bodies and Societies in England which upon that Grant had been now long in use Therefore all these Bulls Breves and every thing depending on or flowing from them were declared void and of no force Yet all Marriages celebrated by vertue of them that were not otherwise contrary to the Law of God were declared good in Law and all Consecrations of Bishops by vertue of them were confirmed And for the future all who enjoyed any Priviledges by Bulls were to bring them in to the Chancery or to such persons as the King should appoint for that end And the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was Lawfully to grant anew the effects contained in them which â—rant was to pass under the great Seal and to be of full force in Law This struck at the Abbots Rights But they were glad to bear a Diminution of their Greatness so they might save the whole which now lay at stake By the Thirteenth Act they corrected an Abuse which had come in to evade the force of a Statute made in the Twenty First year of this King about the Residence of all Ecclesiastical persons in their Livings One qualification that did excuse from Residence was their staying at the University for the compleating of their Studies Now it was found that many dissolute Clergymen went and lived at the Universities not for their Studies but to be excused from serving their Cures So it was Enacted that none above the Age of Forty that were not either Heads of Houses or Publick Readers should have any Exemption from their Residence by vertue of that Clause in the former Act. And those under that Age should not have the Benefit of it except they were present at the Lectures and perform'd their Exercises in the Schools By another Act there was Provision made against the prejudice the Kings Heirs might receive before they were of Age by Parliaments held in their Non-Age That whatsoever Acts were made before they were Twenty Four years of Age they might at any time of their lives after that Repeal and Annul by their Letters Patents which should have equal force with a Repeal by Act of Parliament From these Acts it appears that the King was absolute Master both of the affections and fears of his Subjects when in a new Parliament called on a sudden and in a Session of six weeks from the 8th of Iune to the 18th of Iuly Acts of this Importance were passed without any Protest or publick Opposition But having now opened the business of the Parliament as it relates to the State I must next give an account of the Convocation which sate at this time and was very busie as appears by the Journal of the House of Lords in which this is given for a reason of many Adjournments because the Spiritual Lords were busie in the Convocation It sate down on the 9th of Iune according to Fullers Extract it being the Custom of all this Reign for that Court to meet two or three days after the Parliament Hither Cromwell came as the Kings Vicar-General But he was not yet Vice-Gerent For he sate next the Arch-Bishop but when he had that Dignity he sate above him Nor do I find him Stiled in any Writing Vice-gerent for some time after this though the Lord Herbert says he was made Vice-gerent the 18th of Iuly this year the same day in which the Parliament was Dissolved Latimer Bishop of Worcester preached the Latine Sermon on these words The Children of this World are wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light He was the most Celebrated Preacher of that time The simplicity and plainness of his matter with a serious and fervent Action that accompanied it being preferred to more learned and elaborate Composures On the 21st of Iune Cromwell moved that they would Confirm the Sentence of the Invalidity of the Kings Marriage with Queen Anne which was accordingly done by both Houses of Convocation But certainly Fuller was asleep when he wrote That Ten days before that the Arch-Bishop had passed the Sentence of Divorce on the day before the Queen was beheaded Whereas if he had considered this more fully he must have seen that the Queen was put to death a Month before this and was Divorced two days before she dyed Yet with this animadversion I must give him my thanks for his pains in copying out of the Journals of Convocation many remarkable things which had been otherwise irrecoverably lost On the 23d of Iune the lower House of Convocation sent to the upper House a Collection of many opinions that were then in the Realm which as they thought were abuses and errors worthy of special Reformation But they began this Representation with a Protestation That they intended not to do or speak any thing which might be unpleasant to the King whom they acknowledged their Supream Head and were resolved to obey his Commands renouncing the Popes usurp'd Authority with all his Laws and Inventions now extinguisht and abolisht and did addict themselves to Almighty God and his Laws and unto the King and the Laws made within this Kingdom There are Sixty Seven opinions set down and are either the Tenets of the Old Lollards or the New Reformers together with the Anabaptists opinions Besides all which they complained of many unsavory and indiscreet expressions which were either feigned on design to disgrace the New Preachers or were perhaps the extravagant Reflexions of some illiterate and injudicious persons who are apt upon all occasions by their heat and folly rather to prejudice than advance their party and affect some petulant jeers which they think witty and are perhaps well entertained by some others who though they are more judicious themselves yet imagining that such jests on the contrary opinions will take with the people do give them too much Encouragement Many of these
the County who were also named by the King They were to signifie to every House the Statute of Dissolution and shew them their Commission Thenthey were to put the Governor or any other officer of the House to declare upon Oath the true State of it And to require him speedily to appear before the Court of Augmentations and in the mean time not to meddle with any thing belonging to the House Then to examine how many Religious persons were in the House and what lives they led how many of them were Priests how many of them would go to other Religious Houses and how many of them would take Capacities and go into the World They were to estimate the State and Fabrick of the House and the number of the Servants they kept and to call for the Covent-Seal and Writings and put them in some sure place and take an Inventory of all their Plate and their Movable goods and to know the value of all that before the 1st of March last belonged to the House and what debts they owed They were to put the Covent-Seal with the Jewels and Plate in safe keeping and to leave the rest an Inventory being first taken in the Governors hands to be kept by them till further Order And the Governors were to meddle with none of the Rents of the House except for necessary Sustenance till they were another way disposed of They were to try what Leases and Deeds had been made for a whole year before the 4th of February last Such as would still live in Monasteries were to be recommended to some of the great Monasteries that lay next and such as would live in the world must come to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury or the Lord Chancellor to receive Capacities From which it appears that Cromwell was not at this time Lord Vice-gerent for he granted these Capacities when he was in that Power And the Commissioners were to give them a reasonable allowance for their Journey according to the distance they lived at The Governor was to be sent to the Court of Augmentations who were to assign him a yearly pension for his Life What Report those Commissioners made or how they obeyed their Instructions we know not for the Account of it is razed out of the Records The Writers that lived near that time represent the matter very odiously and say about ten Thousand persons were set to seek for their Livings only Forty Shillings in Money and a Gown being given to every Religious man The Rents of them all rose to about Thirty Two Thousand Pound And the Goods Plate Jewels and other movables were valued at an Hundred Thousand Pound And it is generally said and not improbably that the Commissioners were as careful to enrich themselves as to encrease the Kings Revenue The Churches and Cloysters were for the most part pulled down and the Lead Bells and other Materials were sold and this must needs have raised great discontents every-where The Religious persons that were undone went about complaining of the Sacriledge and Injustice of this Suppression That what the piety of their Ancestors had dedicated to God and his Saints was now invaded and converted to secular ends They said the Kings severity fell first upon some particular persons of their Orders who were found delinquents but now upon the pretended miscarriages of some Individual persons to proceed against their Houses and suppress them was an unheard-of practice The Nobility and Gentry whose Ancestors had founded or enriched these Houses and who provided for their younger Children or empoverished Friends by putting them into these Sanctuaries complained much of the prejudice they sustained by it The people that had been well entertained at the Abbots Tables were sensible of their loss for generally as they Travelled over the Countrey the Abbies were their Stages and were Houses of Reception to Travellers and Strangers The Devouter sort of people of their perswasion thought their friends must now lie in Purgatory without relief except they were at the charge to keep a Priest who should daily say Mass for their Souls The poor that fed on their daily Alms were deprived of that supply But to compose these discontents first many Books were published to shew what Crimes Cheats and Impostures those Religious persons were guilty of Yet that wrought not much on the people for they said why were not these Abuses severely punished and reformed But must whole Houses and the Succeeding Generations be punished for the faults of a few Most of these reports were also denyed and even those who before envyed the ease and plenty in which the Abbots and Monks lived began now to pity them and condemned the proceedings against them But to allay this General discontent Cromwell advised the King to sell their Lands at very easie rates to the Gentry in the several Counties obliging them since they had them upon such terms to keep up the wonted Hospitality This drew in the Gentry a-pace both to be satisfied with what was done and to Assist the Crown for ever in the defence of these Laws their own interest being so enterwoven with the Rights of the Crown The commoner sort who like those of old that followed Christ for the Loaves were most concerned for the loss of a good dinner on a Holy-day or when they went over the Countrey about their business were now also in a great measure satisfied when they heard that all to whom these Lands were given were obliged under heavy Forfeitures to keep up the Hospitality and when they saw that put in practice their discontent which lay chiefly in their Stomach was appeased And to quiet other people who could not be satisfied with such things the King made use of a Clause in the Act that gave him the lesser Monasteries which Empowered him to continue such as he should think fit Therefore on the 17th of August he by his Letters Patents did of new give back in perpetuam Eleemosynam for perpetual Alms Five Abbies The first of these was the Abbey of St. Mary of Betlesden of the Cistercian order in Bedfordshire ten more were afterwards confirmed Sixteen Nunneries were also confirmed In all Thirty one Houses The Patents in most of which some mannors are excepted that had been otherwise disposed of are all enrolled and yet none of our Writers have taken any notice of this It seems these Houses had been more regular than the rest So that in a General Calamity they were rather reprieved than excepted for two years after this in the Suppression of the rest of the Monasteries they fell under the common fate of other Houses By these new Endowments they were obliged to pay Tenthes and first-Fruits and to obey all the Statutes and Rules that should be sent to them from the King as Supream Head of the Church But it is not unlike that some presents to the Commissioners or to Cromwell made these Houses outlive this ruin for I find great trading in
the North. Therefore he resolved first to quiet Lincolnshire And as he had raised a great force about London with which he was marching in person against them so he sent a new Proclamation Requiring them to return to their obedience with secret assurances of mercy By these means they were melted away Those who had been carryed in the Stream submitted to the Kings mercy and promised all obedience for the future Others that were obstinate and knew themselves unpardonable fled Northward and joyned themselves to the Rebels there Some of their other Leaders were apprehended in particular the Cobler and were Executed But for the Northern Rebellion as the parties concerned being at a greater distance from the Court had larger opportunities to gather themselves into a huge Body so the whole Contrivance of it was better laid One Ask Commanded in chief He was a Gentleman of an ordinary condition but understood well how to draw on and Govern a Multitude Their march was called the Pilgrimage of Grace And to inveigle the people some Priests marched before them with Crosses in their hands In their Banners they had a Crucifix with the Five wounds and a Chalice and every one wore on his sleeve as the badge of the Party an Emblem of the Five wounds of Christ with the name Iesus wrought in the midst All that joyned to them took an Oath That they entered into this Pilgrimage of Grace for the love of God the preservation of the Kings person and issue the purifying the Nobility and driving away all base born and ill Counsellors and for no particular profit of their own nor to do displeasure to any nor to kill any for envy but to take before them the Cross of Christ his Faith the Restitution of the Church and the Suppression of Hereticks and their opinions These were specious pretences and very apt to work upon a giddy and discontented multitude So people flocked about their Crosses and Standards in great numbers and they grew to be 40000 strong They went over the Countrey without any great opposition The Arch-Bishop of York and the Lord Darcy were in Pomfret Castle which they yielded to them and were made to swear their Covenant They were both suspected of being secret Promoters of the Rebellion the latter suffered for it but how the former excused himself I cannot give any account They also took York and Hull but though they summoned the Castle of Skipton yet the Earl of Cumberland who would not degenerate from his Noble Ancestors held it out against all their force and though many of the Gentlemen whom he had entertained at his own cost deserted him yet he made a brave resistance Scarborough Castle was also long besieged but there Sir Ralph Evers that Commanded it gave an un-exampled instance of his fidelity and courage for though his provisions fell short so that for twenty days he and his men had nothing but bread and water yet they stood out till they were relieved This Rising in Yorkshire encouraged those of Lancashire the Bishoprick of Duresm and Westmoreland to Arm. Against these the Earl of Shrewsbury that he might not fall short of the Gallantry and Loyalty of his renownd Ancestors made head though he had no Commission from the King But he knew his zeal and fidelity would easily procure him a pardon which he modestly asked for the service he had done The King sent him not only that but a Commission to command in chief all his forces in the North. To his Assistance he ordered the Earl of Derby to march and sent Courtney Marquess of Exeter and the Earls of Huntington and Rutland to joyn him He also ordered the Duke of Suffolk with the force that he had led into Lincolnshire to lye still there lest they being but newly quieted should break out again and fall upon his Armies behind when the Yorkshire men met them before On the 20th of October he sent the Duke of Norfolk with more forces to joyn the Earl of Shrewsbury But the Rebels were very numerous and desperate When the Duke of Norfolk understood their strength he saw great reason to proceed with much caution for if they had got the least advantage of the Kings Troops all the discontents in England would upon the report of that have broken out He saw their numbers were now such that the gaining some time was their ruin for such a great Body could not subsist long together without much provisions and that must be very hard for them to bring in So he set forward a Treaty It was both honourable for the King to offer mercy to his distracted Subjects and of great advantage to his affairs for as their numbers did every day lessen so the Kings forces were still encreasing He wrote to the King that considering the season of the year he thought the offering some fair conditions might perswade them to lay down their Arms and disperse themselves Yet when the Earl of Shrewsbury sent a Herald with a Proclamation ordering them to lay down their Arms and submit to the Kings mercy Ask received him sitting in State with the Arch-Bishop on the one hand and the Lord Darcy on the other but would not suffer any Proclamation to be made till he knew the Contents of it And when the Herauld told what they were he sent him away without suffering him to publish it And then the Priests used all their endeavours to engage the people to a firm resolution of not dispersing themselves till all matters about Religion were fully setled As they went forward they every-where repossessed the ejected Monks of their Houses and this encouraged the rest who had a great mind to be in their old Nests again They published also many stories among them of the growing burdens of the 〈◊〉 Government and made them believe that Impositions would be laid on every thing that was either bought or sold. But the King hearing how strong they were sent out a general Summons to all the Nobility to meet him at Northampton the 7th of November And the forces sent against the Rebels advanced to Doncaster to hinder them from coming further southward and took the Bridge which they fortified and laid their forces along the River to maintain that Pass The Writers of that time say that the day of Battel was agreed on but that the night before excessive Rains falling the River swelled so that it was unpassable next day and they could not force the Bridge Yet it is not likely the Earl of Shrewsbury having in all but 5000 men about him would agree to a pitched Battel with those who were Six times his number being then 30000. Therefore it is more likely that the Rebels only intended to pass the River the next day which the Rain that fell hindred But the Duke of Norfolk continued to press a Treaty which was hearkned to by the other side who were reduced to great straits for their Captain would not suffer
received it Laying Censures upon such as were present at the rest of that office and did not stay and Communicate For the Fifth it touched Cranmer to the quick for he was then Marryed The Scripture did in no place enjoyn the Celibate of the Clergy On the contrary Scripture speaks of their Wives and gives the Rules of their living with them And St. Paul in express words condemns all mens leaving their Wives without exception saying That the man hath not Power over his own body but the Wife In the Primitive Church though those that were in orders did not Marry yet such as were Marryed before Orders kept their Wives of which there were many Instances and when some moved in the Council of Nice that all that had been Marryed when they entred into Orders should put away their Wives it was rejected and ever since the Greek Churches have allowed their Priests to keep their Wives Nor was it ever commanded in the Western Church till the Popes began their Usurpation Therefore the prohibition of it being only grounded on the Papal Constitutions it was not reasonable to keep it up since that Authority on which it was built was now overthrown What was said concerning Auricular Confession I cannot so easily recover For though Cranmer argued three days against these Articles I can only gather the substance of his Arguments from what himself wrote on some of these Heads afterwards For nothing remains of what passed there but what is conveyed to us in the Journal which is short and defective On the 24th of May the Parliament was Prorogued to the 30th upon what reason it does not appear It was not to set any of the Bills backward for it was agreed that the Bills should continue in the State in which they were then till their next meeting When they met again on the 30th of May being Friday the Lord Chancellor intimated to them that not only the Spiritual Lords but the King himself had taken much pains to bring things to an agreement which was effected Therefore he moved in the Kings name that a Bill might be brought in for punishing such as offended against these Articles So the Lords appointed the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of Ely and St. Davids and Doctor Petre a master of Chancery afterwards Secretary of State to draw one Bill and the Arch-Bishop of York the Bishop of Duresin and Winchester and Doctor Tregonnel another Master of Chancery to draw another Bill about it and to have them both ready and to offer them to the King by Sunday next But the Bill that was drawn by the Arch-Bishop of York and those with him was best liked yet it seems the Matter was long contested for it was not brought to the House before the 7th of Iune and then the Lord Chancellor offered it and it was read the first time On the 9th of Iune it had the second reading and on the 10th it was engrossed and read the third time But when it passed the King desired the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to go out of the House since he could not give his consent to it but he humbly excused himself for he thought he was bound in conscience to stay and vote against it It was sent down to the House of Commons where it met with no great opposition for on the 14th it was agreed to and sent up again And on the 28th it had the force of a Law by the Royal Assent The Title of it was an Act for abolishing Diversity of opinions in certain Articles concerning Christian Religion It is said in the Preamble that the King considering the blessed effects of union and the mischiefs of discord since there were many different opinions both among the Clergy and Laity about some points of Religion had called this Parliament and a Synod at the same time for removing these differences where six Articles were proposed and long debated by the Clergy And the King himself had come in person to the Parliament and Council and opened many things of high Learning and great knowledg about them And that he with the Assent of both Houses of Parliament had agreed on the following Articles First That in the Sacrament of the Altar after the Consecration there remained no Substance of Bread and Wine but under these forms the Natural Body and Blood of Christ were present Secondly That Communion in both kinds was not necessary to Salvation to all persons by the Law of God but that both the Flesh and Blood of Christ were together in each of the kinds Thirdly That Priests after the order of Priesthood might not Marry by the Law of God Fourthly That vows of Chastity ought to be observed by the Law of God Fifthly That the use of private Masses ought to be continued which as it was agreeable to Gods Law so men received great benefit by them Sixthly That Auricular Confession was expedient and necessary and ought to be retained in the Church The Parliament thanked the King for the pains he had taken in these Articles And Enacted that if any after the 12th of Iuly did speak preach or write against the first Article they were to be judged Hereticks and to be burnt without any abjuration and to forfeit their real and personal Estates to the King And those who preached or obstinately disputed against the other Articles were to be judged Felons and to suffer death as Felons without benefit of Clergy And those who either in word or writing spake against them were to be Prisoners during the Kings pleasure and forfeit their goods and Chattels to the King for the first time And if they offended so the second time they were to suffer as Felons All the Marriages of Priests are declared void and if any Priest did still keep any such woman whom he had so Marryed and lived familiarly with her as with his Wife he was to be judged a Felon And if a Priest lived carnally with any other woman he was upon the first Conviction to forfeit his Benefices Goods and Chattels and to be Imprisoned during the Kings pleasure and upon the second Conviction was to suffer as a Felon The women so offending were also to be punished in the same manner as the Priests and those who contemned or abstained from Confession or the Sacrament at the accustomed times for the first offence were to forfeit their Goods and Chattels and be Imprisoned and for the second were to be adjudged of Felony And for the Execution of this Act Commissions were to be issued out to all Arch-Bishops and Bishops and their Chancellors and Commissaries and such others in the several shires as the King should name to hold their Sessions quarterly or oftner and they were to proceed upon presentments and by a Jury Those Commissioners were to swear that they should execute their Commission indifferently without favour affection corruption or malice As Ecclesiastical Incumbents were to read this Act in their Churches once a
issued out a Proclamation That all who had been aggrieved for want of Justice by any whom he had formerly employed should come to him and his Counsel for redress This was done to cast all past miscarrages on Cromwel and to put the people in hopes of better times But upon his return to London he met with a new affliction He was so much taken with his Queen that on All-Saints day when he received the Sacrament he openly gave God thanks for the good life he led and trusted still to lead with her and desired his Ghostly Father to joyn with him in the same Thanksgivging to God But this joy lasted not long for the next day the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury came to him and gave him a doleful account of the Queens ill Life as it had been brought him by one Iohn Lassels Who when the King was in his Progress had told him that his Sister who had been an old Servant of the Duke of Norfolks under whose care the Queen was brought up said to him that the Queen was lewd and that one Francis Deirham had enjoyed her often as also one Mannock with other foul circumstances not fit to be related The Arch-Bishop communicated it to the Lord Chancellor and the other Privy Councellors that were at London They agreed that the Arch-Bishop should open it to the King But he not knowing how to do it in Discourse set it down in writing and put it in the Kings hands When the King read it he seemed much perplexed but loved the Queen so tenderly that he looked on it as a Forgery And now the Arch-Bishop was in extream danger for if full evidence had not been brought it had been certainly turned on him to his ruine The King imparted it to some other Councellors and told them that he could not believe it yet he would try it out but with all possible secrecty So the Lord Privy-Seal was sent to London to examine Lassels who stood to what he had informed Then he sent that same Lord into Sussex where Lassels Sister lived to try if she would justifie what her Brother had reported in her name And she owning it he ordered Deirham and Mannock to be arrested upon some other pretences But they being examined not only confessed what was informed but revealed some other circumstances that shewed the Queen had laid aside all sense of Modesty as well as the fear of a Discovery three several women having been witnesses to these her lewd practices The report of that struck the King into a most profound Pensiveness and he burst out into tears and lamented his misfortune The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and some other Counsellors were sent to examine the Queen She at first denied every thing but when she perceived it was already known she confessed all and set it under her hand There were also evident presumptions that she had intended to continue that Course of Life for as she had got Deirham into her service so she had brought one of the Women who had been formerly privy to their familiarities to serve about her Bed-chamber One Culpeper was also charged upon vehement suspicion For when the King was at Lincoln by the Lady Rochfords means he was brought into the Queens Chamber at 11 a clock in the night and stayed there till four the next morning The Queen also gave him a Gold Chain and a rich Cap. He being examined confessed the Crime for which both Deirham and he suffered Others were also Endited of misprision of Treason and condemned to perpetual Imprisonment But this occasioned a new Parliament to be Summoned On the 16th of Ianuary the Parliament met to which the Bishops of Westminster Chester Peterborough and Glocester had their Writs The Lord Cromwel also had his Writ though I do not find by any Record that he was restored in Blood On the 28th of Ianuary the Lord Chancellor moved the House of Lords to consider the case the King was in by the Queens ill carriage and that there might be no ground of suspition or complaint he proposed that some of their number should be sent to examine the Queen Whereupon the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Duke of Suffolk the Earl of Southampton and the Bishop of Westminster were sent to her How much She Confessed to them is not very clear neither by the Journal nor the Act of Parliament which only says that she confessed without mentioning the particulars Upon this the processes of those that had been formerly attainted being also brought as an Evidence the Act passed in both Houses In it they Petitioned the King First Not to be troubled at the matter since that might be a mean to shorten his Life Secondly To pardon every thing that had been spoken against the Queen Thirdly That the Queen and her Complices might be attainted of High Treason for her taking Deirham into her service and another Woman into her Chamber who had known their former ill Life by which it appeared what she intended to do and then admitting Culpeper to be so long with Her in a vile place so many hours in the night Therefore it is desired that she and they with the Bawd the Lady Rochford may be Attainted of Treason and that the Queen and the Lady Rochford should suffer the pains of Death Fourthly That the King would not trouble himself to give his assent to this Act in his own person but grant it by his Letters Patents under his hand and Great Seal Fifthly That the Dutchess Dowager of Norfolk Countess of Bridgwater the Lord William Howard and his Lady and four other men and five women who were already Attainted by the Course of Common Law except the Dutchess of Norfolk and the Countess of Bridgwater that knew the Queens vicious Life and had concealed it should be all Attainted of Misprision of Treason It was also Enacted that whosoever knew any thing of the Incontinence of the Queen for the time being should reveal it with all possible speed under the pains of Treason And that if the King or his Successors should intend to marry any Woman whom they took to be a pure and clean Maid if she not being so did not declare the same to the King it should be High Treason and all who knew it and did not reveal it were guilty of Misprision of Treason And if the Queen or the Princes Wife should procure any by Messages or words to know her carnally or any other by Messages or words should sollicite them they their Councellors and Abettors are to be adjudged high Traitors This Act being assented to by the Kings Letters Patents the Queen and the Lady Rochford were beheaded on Tower-Hill the 12th of February The Queen confessed the miscarriages of her former life before the King married her But stood absolutely to her denial as to any thing after that and protested to Dr. White afterwards Bishop of Winchester That she took God and his Angels
to the Commons with words to be put in or put out of it On the 6th the Commons sent it up with some alterations And on the 8th the Lords sent it down again to the Commons where it lay till the 17th and then it was sent up with their agreement And the Kings Assent was given by his Letters Patents on the 29th of March. The Preamble was That whereas untrue accusations and presentments might be maliciously contrived against the Kings Subjects and kept secret till a time were espied to have them by malice convicted Therefore it was Enacted That none should be Endited but upon a presentment by the Oaths of twelve men to at least three of the Commissioners appointed by the King and that none should be Imprisoned but upon an Enditement except by a special Warrant from the King and that all Presentments should be made within one year after the Offences were committed and if words were uttered in a Sermon contrary to the Statute they must be complained of within forty dayes unless a just cause were given why it could not be so soon Admittiâ—g also the parties Endited to all such Challenges as they might have in any other case of Felony This Act has clearly a Relation to the Conspiracies mentioned the former year both against the Arch-Bishop and some of the Kings Servants Another Act passed continuing some former Acts for revising the Canon-Law and for drawing up such a body of Ecclesiastical Laws as should have Authority in England This Cranmer pressed often with great vehemence and to shew the necessity of it drew out a short Extract of some passages in the Canon-Law which the Reader will find in the Collection to shew how undecent a thing it was to let a Volume in which such Laws were be studyed or considered any longer in England Therefore he was earnest to have such a Collection of Ecclesiastical Laws made as might regulate the Spiritual Courts But it was found more for the greatness of the Prerogative and the Authority of the Civil Courts to keep that undetermined so he could never obtain his desire during this Kings Reign Another Act passed in this Parliament for the remission of a Loan of Money which the King had raised This is almost copied out of an Act to the same effect that passed in the twenty first year of the Kings Reign with this addition That by this Act those who had got payment either in whole or in part of the Sums so lent the King were to repay it back to the Exchequer All business being finished and a general pardon passed with the ordinary exceptions of some Crimes among which Heresie is one the Parliament was Prorogued on the 29th of March to the 4th of November The King had now a War both with France and Scotland upon him And therefore to prepare for it he both enhanced the value of Money and embased it for which he that writes his vindication gives this for the reason That the Coin being generally embased all over Europe he was forced to do it lest otherwise all the Money should have gone out of the Kingdom He resolved to begin the War with Scotland and sent an Army by Sea thither under the command of the Earl of Hartford afterwards Duke of Somerset who landing at Grantham a little above Leith burnt and spoiled Leith and Edenburgh in which they found more riches than they thought could possibly have been there and they went through the Countrey burning and spoiling it every-where till they came to Berwick But they did too much if they intended to gain the hearts of that people and too little if they intended to subdue them For as they besieged not the Castle of Edinburgh which would have cost them more time and trouble so they did not fortifie Leith nor leave a Garrison in it which was such an inexcusable Omission that it seems their Counsels were very weak and ill laid For Leith being fortified and a Fleet kept going between it and Berwick or Tinmouth the Trade of the Kingdom must have been quite stopt Edinburgh ruined the Intercourse between France and them cut off and the whole Kingdom forced to submit to the King But the spoils this Army made had no other effect but to enrage the Kingdom and unite them so entirely to the French Interests that when the Eaâ—l of Lâ—nnâ—x was sent down by the King to the Western parts of Scotland where his Power lay he could get none to follow him And the Governor of Dunbritton Castle though his own Lieutenant would not deliver that Castle to him when he understood he was to put it in the King of Englands hands but drove him out others say he â—â—ed away of himself else he had been taken Prisoner The King was now to cross the Seas but before he went he studied to settle the matters of Religion so that both Parties might have some content Audley the Chancellor dying he made the Lord Wriothesley that had been Secretary and was of the Popish Party Lord Chancellor but made Sir William Petre that was Cranmers great friend Secretary of State He also committed the Government of the Kingdom in his absence to the Queen to whom he joyned the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Lord Chancellor the Earl of Hartford and Secretary Petre. And if there was need of any Force to be raised he appointed the Earl of Hartford his Lieutenant under whose Government the Reformers needed not fear any thing But he did another Act that did wonderfully please that whole Party which was the Translating of the Prayers for the Processions and Litaâ—ies into the English tongue This was sent to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury on the 11th of Iune with an Order that it should be used over all his Province as the Reader will find in the Collection This was not only very acceptable to that Party because of the thing it self but it gave them hope that the King was again opening his ears to motions for Reformation to which they had been shut now about six years And therefore they looked that more things of that nature would quickly follow And as these Prayers werâ— now set out in English so they doubted not but there being the same reason to put all the other Offices in the vulgar tongue they would prevail for that too Things being thus setled at home the King having sent his Forces over before him crossed the Seas with much pomp the Sails of his Ship being of Cloth of Gold He Landed at Calais the 14th of Iuly The Emperor pressed his marching straight to Paris But he thought it of more importance to take Bulloign and after two months Siege it was surrendred to him into which he made his Entry with great Triumph on the 18th of September But the Emperor having thus engaged those two Crowns in a War and designing while they should fight it out to make himself Master of Gâ—rmanâ— concluded a Treaty
the Supremacy which was matter of Conscience But the King was resolved to let all his Subjects see there was no Mercy to be expected by any that denyed his being Supream head of the Church and therefore made him and More two Examples for terrifying the rest This being much censured beyond Sea Gardiner that was never wanting in the most servile complyances wrote a vindication of the Kings proceedings The Lord Herbert had it in his hands and tells us it was written in elegant Latine but that he thought it too long and others judged it was too vehement to be inserted in his History VERA EFFIGIES THOMAE MORI QVONDAM TOTIUS ANGLIAE CANCELLARII DIGNISSIMI ET H. Holbein pinxit R. White sculpsit Natus 1482 Angliae Cancellarius 1529 Capite truncatus An 1535 Iuly 6. to Printed for Ric Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in St. Pauls Church yard Thus did Sir Thomas More end his days in the 53d year of his age He was a man of rare vertues and excellent parts In his youth he had freer thoughts of things as appears by his Vtopia and his Letters to Erasmus but afterwards he became superstitiously devoted to the interests and passions of the Popish Clergy and as he served them when he was in Authority even to assist them in in all their cruelties so he employed his pen in the same cause both in writing against all the new opinions in general and in particular against Tindal Frith and Barnes as also an unknown Writer who seemed of neither party but reprooved the corruptions of the Clergy and condemned their cruel proceedings More was no Divine at all and it is plain to any that reads his writings that he knew nothing of Antiquity beyond the quotations he found in the Canon-Law and in the Master of the sentences only he had read some of St. Austins treatises for upon all points of Controversie he quotes only what he found in these Collections nor was he at all conversant in the critical learning upon the Scriptures but his peculiar excellency in writing was that he had a natural easie expression and presented all the opinions of Popery with their fair side to the Reader disguising or concealing the black side of them with great Art and was no less dextrous in exposing all the ill consequences that could follow on the Doctrine of the Reformers and had upon all occasions great store of pleasant tales which he applyed wittily to his purpose And in this consists the great strength of his Writings which were designed rather for the Rabble than for Learned men But for justice contempt of money humility and a true generosity of mind he was an example to the Age in which he lived But there is one thing unjustly added to the praise of these two great men or rather feigned on design to lessen the Kings honour that Fisher and he penned the book which the King wrote against Luther This Sanders first published and Bellarmin and others since have taken it up upon his Authority Strangers may be pardoned such errors but they are inexcusable in an English man For in Mores printed works there is a Letter written by him out of the Tower to Cromwel in which he gives an account of his behaviour concerning the Kings Divorce and Supremacy among other particulars one is that when the King shewed him his Book against Luther in which he had asserted the Popes Primacy to be of Divine right More desired him to leave it out since as there had been many contests between Popes and other Princes so there might fall in some between the Pope and the King therefore he thought it was not fit for the King to publish any thing which might be afterwards made use of against himself and advised him either to leave out that point or to touch it very tenderly but the King would not follow his counsel being perhaps so fond of what he had writ that he would rather run himself upon a great inconvenience than leave out any thing that he fancied so well written This shews that More knew that Book was written by the Kings own pen and either Sanders never read this or maliciously concealed it lest it should discover his foul dealing These Executions so terrified all people that there were no further provocations given and all persons either took the Oaths or did so dextrously conceal their opinions that till the Rebellions of Lincolnshire and the North broke out none suffered after this upon a publick account But when these were quieted then the King resolved to make the chief Authors and Leaders of those Commotions publick examples to the rest The Duke of Norfolk proceeded against many of them by Martial Law there were also Tryals at common Law of a great many more that were taken Prisoners and sent up to London The Lords Darcy and Hâ—ssie were tryed by their Peers the Marquis of Exceter sitting Steward And a Commission of Oyer and Terminer being issued out for the Tryal of the rest Sir Robert Constable Sir Iohn Bulmer and his Lady Sir Francis Pigot Sir Stephen Hamilton and Sir Thomas Piercy and Ask that had been their Captain with the Abbots of Whalley Ierveux Bridlington Lenton Woburn and Kingstead and Mackrall the Monk that first raised the Lincolnshire Rebellion with sixteen more were Indicted of high Treason for the late Rebellions And after all the steps of the Rebellion were reckoned up it is added in the Indictment that they had met together on the 17th of Ianuary and consulted how to renew it and prosecute it further being encouraged by the new Risings that were then in the North by which they had forfeited all the favour to which they could have pretended by vertue of the Indemnity that was granted in the end of December and of the pardons which they had taken out They were all found Guilty and had judgment as in cases of Treason divers of them were carryed down into Lincolnshire and Yorkshire and executed in the places where their Treasons were committed but most of them suffered at London and among others the Lady Bulmer whom others call Sir Iohn Bulmers harlot was burnt for it in Smithfield The only censure that passed on this was that advantages were taken on too slight grounds to break the Kings Indemnity and pardon since it does not appear that after their pardon they did any thing more than meet and consult But the Kingdom was so shaken with that Rebellion that if it had not bâ—en for the great conduct of the Duke of Norfolk the King had by all appearance lost his Crown And it will not seem strange that a King especially so tempered as this was had a mind to strike terror into the rest of his Subjects by some signal Examples and to put out of the way the chief leaders of that design nor was it to be wondered at that the Abbots and other Clergy-men who had been so active in
that Commotion were severely handled It was by their means that the discontents were chiefly fomented they had taken all the Oaths that were enjoyned them and yet continued to be still practising against the State which as it was highly contrary to the peaceable Doctrines of the Christian Religion so it was in a special manner contrary to the Rules which they professed that obliged them to forsake the World and to follow a Religious and Spiritual course of Life The next Example of justice was a year after this of one Forrâ—st an Observant Frier he had been as Sanders says Confessor to Queen Katharine but it seems departed from her interests for he insinuated himself so into the King that he recovered his good Opinion Being an ignorant and lewd man he was accounted by the better sort of that House to which he belonged in Greenwich a Reproach to their Order concerning this I have seen a large account in an Original Letter written by a Brother of the same House Having regained the Kings good Opinion he put all those who had favoured the Divorce under great fears for he proceeded cruelly against them And one Rainscroft being suspected to have given secret Intelligence of what was done among them was shut up and so hardly used that he dyed in their hands which was as that Letter relates done by Frier Forrests means This Frier was found to have denyed the Kings Supremacy for though he himself had sworn it yet he had infused it into many in Confession that the King was not the Supream Head of the Church Being questioned for these practices which were so contrary to the Oath that he had taken he answered that he took that Oath with his outward man but his inward man had never consented to it Being brought to his Tryal and accused of several Heretical opinions that he held he submitted himself to the Church Upon this he had more freedom allowed him in the Prison but some coming to him diverted him from the Submission he had offered so that when the Paper of Abjuration was brought him he refused to set his hand to it upon which he was judged an Obstinate Heretick The Records of these Proceedings are lost but the Books of that time say that he denyed the Gospel it is like it was upon that pretence that without the determination of the Church it had no Authority upon which several writers of the Roman Communion have said undecent and scandalous things of the holy Scriptures He was brought to Smithfield where were present the Lords of the Council to offer him his pardon if he would abjure Latimer made a Sermon against his errors and studyed to perswade him to recant but he continued in his former opinions so he was put to death in a most severe manner He was hanged in a chain about his middle and the great Image that was brought out of Walâ—s was broken to pieces and served for fewel to burn him He shewed great unquietness of mind and ended his Life in an ungodly manner as Hall says who adds this Character of him that he had little knowledg of God and his sincere truth and less trust in him at his ending In Winter that year a correspondence was discovered with Cardinal Pole who was barefaced in his Treasonable designs against the King His Brother Sir Geofrey Pole discovered the whole Plot. For which the Marquess of Exceter that was the Kings Cousin-german by his Mother who was Edward the 4ths Daughter the Lord Montacute the Cardinals Brother Sir Geofrey Pole and Sir Edward Nevill were sent to the Tower in the beginning of November They were accused for having maintained a correspondence with the Cardinal and for expressing an hatred of the King with a dislike of his proceedings and a readiness to rise upon any good opportunity that might offer it self The special matter brought against the Lord Montacute and the Marquis of Excetâ—r who were tryed by their Peers on the 2d and 3d of December in the 30th year of this Reign is that whereas Cardinal Pole and others had cast off their Alleageance to the King and gone and submitted themselves to the Pope the Kings mortal enemy the Lord Montacute did on the 24th of Iuly in the 28th year of the Kings Reign a few months before the Rebellion broke out say that he liked well the proceedings of his Brother the Cardinal but did not like the proceedings of the Realm and said I trust to see a change of this World I trust to have a fair day upon those Knaves that rule about the King and I trust to see a merry World one day Words to the same purpose were also charged on the Marquess the Lord Montacute further said I would I were over the Sea with my Brother for this World will one day come to stripes it must needs so come to pass and I fear we shall lack nothing so much as honest men he also said he had dreamed that the King was dead and though he was not yet dead he would die suddenly one day his Leg will kill him and then we shall have jolly stirring saying also that he had never loved him from his childhood and that Cardinal Wolsey would have been an honest man if he had had an honest Master And the King having said to the Lords he woulâ—â—eave them one day having some apprehensions he might shortly die that Lord said if he will serve us so we shall be happily rid a time will come I fear we shall not tarry the time we shall do well enough He had also said he was sorry the Lord Abâ—rgâ—â—â—â—y was dead for he could have made ten thousand men and for his part he would go and live in the West where the Marquess of Excâ—ter was strong and had also said upon the breaking of the Northern Rebellion that the Lord Darcy played the fool for he went to pluck away the Council but he should have begun with the head first but I beshrew him for leaving off so soon These were the Words charged on those Lords as clear discoveries of their Treasonable designs and that they knew of the Rebellion that brake out and only intended to have kept it off to a fitter opportunity they were also accused of Correspondence with Cardinal Polâ— that was the Kings declared Enemy Upon these points the Lords pleaded not Guilty but were found Guilty by their Peers and so Judgment was given On the 4th of December were Indicted Sir Geofrey Polâ— for holding Correspondence with his Brother the Cardinal and saying that he approved of his proceedings but not of the Kings Sir Edâ—ard Nevill Brother to the Lord Abergaveny for saying the King was a Beast and worse than a Beast George Crofts Chancellor of the Cathedral of Chichester for saying the King was not bâ—t the Pope was Supream head of the Church and Iohn Collins for saying the King would hang in Hâ—ll one day for the plucking down of
censured p. 259 An Act about the Suppression of all Monasteries p. 260 Another for erecting New Bishopricks p. 262 The Kings design about these ibid. An Act for Obedience to the Kings Proclamations p. 263 An Act concerning Precedence p. 264 Some Acts of Attaindor ibid. The Kings care of Cranmer p. 265 Who wrote against the six Articles ibid. Proceedings upon that Act p. 266 Bonners Commission for holding his Bishoprick of the King p. 267 The total Dissolution of Abbeys ibid. Which were sold or given away p. 268 A Project of a seminary for Ministers of State p. 269 A Proclamation for the use of the Bible p. 270 The King designs to Marry Anne of Cleve ibid. Who comes over but is disliked by the King p. 271 Anno 1540. BVt he Marries her yet could never love her p. 273 A Parliament is called p. 274 Where Cromwel speaks as Lord Vice-gerent ibid. The Suppression of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem p. 275 Cromwells fall p. 276 The King is in love with Katherine Howard ibid. Cranmers friendship to Cromwell p. 277 Cromwels Attaindor p. 278 Censures past upon it p. 279 The Kings Divorce is proposed p. 280 And referred to the Convocation ibid. Reasons pretended for it ibid. The Convocation agree to it p. 281 Which was much censured ibid. It is Confirmed in Parliament p. 282 The Queen consents to it ibid. An Act about the Incontinence of Priests ibid. Another Act about Religion ibid. Another concerning Precontracts p. 283 Subsidies granted by Clergy and Laity ibid. Cromwell's Death p. 284 His Character Ibid. Designs against Cranmer p. 285 Some Bishops and Divines consult about Religion p. 286 An Explanation of Faith ibid. Cranmers Opinion about it p. 288 They Explain the Apostles Creed ibid. And the Seven Sacraments with great care p. 289 As also the Ten Commandments p. 290 The Lords Prayer the Ave Maria and free-will p. 291 And Iustification and Good works p. 292 Published by the King but much censured p. 293 A Correction of the Missalls p. 294 The Sufferings of Barnes and others p. 295 They are Condemned unheard p. 297 Their Speeches at their Death ibid. Bonners Cruelty p. 299 New Bishopricks Founded p. 300 Cranmers design is defeated p. 301 These Foundations are censured ibid. The State of the Court p. 302 The Bible is set up in Churches ibid. An Order for Churchmens house-keeping p. 303 The King goes to York p. 304 The State of Scotland ibid. The beginning of the Reformation p. 305 Patrick Hamiltons Sufferings ibid. A further Prosecution p. 308 The Kings was wholly quieted by the Clergy p. 309 Some put to death others escaped p. 310 The Queens ill life is discovered p. 312 Anno 1542. A Parliament called ibid. An Act about the Queen much censured p. 313 A design to suppress the English Bible p. 314 The Bible ordered to be revised by the Vniversities p. 315. B. Bonners Injunctions ibid. The way of Preaching at that time p. 316 Plaies and Enterludes then Acted p. 318 War between England and Scotland ibid. The Scots are defeated and their King dies p. 320 Anno 1543. CRanmer Promotes a Reformation p. 321 An Act of Parliament for it ibid. Another about the Kings Proclamations p. 322 A League between the King and the Emperor p. 323 A Match designed with Scotland ibid. But the French party prevailed there p. 324 A War with France p. 325 A Persecution of the Reformers Ibid. Marbecks great Ingeniousness p. 326 Three burnt at Windsor p. 327 Their Persecutors are Perjured ibid. A design against Cranmer ibid. It came to nothing p. 328 His Christian behaviour ibid. Anno 1544. A New Parliament ibid. An Act about the Succession ibid. An Act against Conspiracies p. 330 An Act for revising the Canon-Law ibid. A discharge of the Kings debts ibid. The War against Scotland p. 331 Audley the Chancellor dies ibid. The Prayers are put in English ibid. Bulloign is taken p. 332 Anno. 1545. THe Germans Mediate a peace between England and France ibid. Some great Church-Preferments p. 333 Wisharts Sufferings in Scotland ibid. Cardinal Beaton is killed p. 336 Anno 1546. A New Parliament p. 338. Chappels and Chanteries given to the King ibid. The Kings Speech to the Parliament ibid. The King confirms the Rights of Vniversities p. 334 A Peace with France p. 340 Designs of a further Reformation ibid. Shaxtons Apostacy ibid. The troubles of Anne Askew p. 341 She endures the Rack p. 342 And is burnt with some others ibid. A design against Cranmer ibid. The King takes care of him p. 343 A design against the Queen p. 344 The cause of the Duke of Norfolks Disgrace p. 345 Anno 1547. THe Earl of Surrey is Executed p. 346 The Duke of Norfolks Submission ibid. A Parliament meets p. 347 The Duke of Norfolk is Attainted ibid. His Death prevented by the Kings p. 348 The Emperors designs against the Protestants ibid. The Kings sickness ibid. His Latter will a Forgery p. 349 The Kings severities against the Popish Party p. 351 Some Carthusians Executed for denying the Kings Supremacy p. 352 And a Priest for Treason ibid. Three Monks Executed ibid. Fishers Tryal and Death p. 353 His Character p. 354 Mores Tryal and Death ibid. His Character p. 355 Attaindâ—rs after the Rebellion was quieted p. 356 Censures past upon it p. 357 F. Forrests Equivocation and Heresie ibid. The Proceedings against Cardinal Pole's friends p. 358 Attaindors without hearing the Parties p. 359 The Conclusion p. 362 Addenda p. 363 A COLLECTION OF RECORDS AND Original Papers With other INSTRUMENTS Referred to in the Former History I. The Record of Card. Adrian's Oath of Fidelity to Henry the 7th for the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells HEnricus Rex c. Reverend in Christo Patri Domino Sylvestro Episcop Wigorn. venerabili viro Domino Roberto Sherbourn Ecclesiae Sancti Pauli London decano nostris in Romana curia oratoribus ac Magistro Hugoni Yowng Sacrae Theologiae Professori salutem Cum omnes singuli Archiepiscopi Episcopi hujus nostri Inclyti Regni quorum omnium nominationes promotiones ad ipsas supremas dignitates nobis attinent ex regali peculiari quadam Praerogativa jureque municipali ac inveterata consuetudine hactenus in hoc nostro Regno inconcusse inviolabiliter observata teneantur astringantur statim immediate post impetratas Bullas Apostolicas super eorundem promotione ad ipsam nostram nominationem coram nobis in praesentia nostra si in hoc Regno nostro fuerunt vel coram Commissarijs nostris ad hoc sufficienter legittime deputatis si alibi moram traxerunt non solum palam publice expresse totaliter cedere in manus nostras renunciare omnibus quibusâ—unque verbis clausulis sententiis in ipsis Bullis Apostolicis contentis descriptis quae sunt vel quovis modo in futurumesse poterunt praejudicialia sive damnosa nobis haeredibusque de
every of them other than the said Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex and his Heirs and all and every other Person and Persons claiming by the same Thomas Cromwell and to his use all such Right Title Entrie Possession Interest Reversions Remainders Lease Leases Conditions Fees Offices Rents Annuities Commons and all other Commodities Profits and Hereditaments whatsoever they or any of them might should or ought to have had if this Act had never been had nor made Provided always and be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid that this Act of Attainder ne any Offence ne other thing therein contained extend not unto the Deanery of Wells in the County of Sommerset nor to any Mannors Lands Tenements or Hereditaments thereunto belonging nor be in any wise prejudicial or hurtful unto the Bishop of Bath and Wells nor to the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral Church of St. Andrew of Wells nor to any of them nor to any of their Successors but that the said Bishop Dean and Chapters and their Successors and every of them shall and may have hold use occupy and enjoy all and singular their Titles Rights Mannors Lands Tenements Rents Reversions and Services and all and singular other their Hereditaments Commodities and Profits of what nature kind or quality or condition soever they be in as ample and large manner and form as tho this Act of Attainder or any Offence therein mentioned had never been had committed nor made and that from hence-forth the Dean and his Successors Deans of the said Cathedral Church that hereafter shall be prefected elected and admitted to the same Shall by the Authority aforesaid be Dean of the said Cathedral Church fully and wholly incorporated with the Chapter of the same in as ample large and like manner and form to all intents and purposes as the Deans before this time hath been and used to be with the said Chapter of the said Cathedral Church of Wells And that the same Dean and Chapter and their Successors shall have occupy and enjoy all and singular their such Possessions Mannors Lands Tenements Rents Reversions and Services and all and singular their Hereditaments of what nature kind name or names they be called or known And shall be adjudged and deemed in actual and real possession and season of and in the same Premisses to all intents and purposes according to their old Corporation as tho this Act of Attainder or any thing clause or matter therein contained had never been had committed nor made This said Act of Attainder or any other Act Provision or any thing heretofore had or made to the contrary notwithstanding Cui quidem petitioni cum provisione praedict perlect intellect per dictum Dominum Regem ex Authoritate consensu Parliamenti praedicti sic Responsum est Soit faict come il est desiro Cromwell's Letter to the King concerning his Marriage with Ann of Cleve An Original To the King my most Gracious Sovereign Lord his Royal Majesty MOst Merciful King and most Gracious Sovereign Lord may it please the same to be advertised That the last time it pleased your benign Goodness to send unto me the Right Honourable Lord Chancellor the Right Honourable Duke of Norff. and the Lord Admiral to examine and also to declare unto me divers things from your Majesty among the which one special thing they moved and thereupon they charged me as I would answer before God at the dreadful day of Judgment and also upon the extreme danger and damnation of my Soul and Conscience to say what I knew in the Marriage and concerning the Marriage between your Highness and the Queen To the which I answered as I knew declaring unto them the Particulars as nigh as I then could call to remembrance Which when they had heard they in your Majesty's Name and upon like charge as they had given me before commanded me to write to your Highness the truth as much as I knew in that Matter which now I do and the very truth as God shall save me to the uttermost of my knowledg First After your Majesty heard of the Lady Ann of Cleves arrival at Dover and that her Journies were appointed toward Greenwich and that she should be at Rochester on New-years Even at night your Highness declared to me that you would privily visit her at Rochester upon New-years-day adding these words To nourish love which accordingly your Grace did upon New-years-day as is above-said And the next day being Friday your Grace returned to Greenwich where I spake with your Grace and demanded of your Majesty How ye liked the Lady Ann your Highness answered as me thought heavily and not pleasantly Nothing so well as she was spoken of saying further That if your Highness had known as much before as ye then knew she should not have come within this Realm saying as by the way of lamentation What Remedy Unto the which I answered and said I know none but was very sorry therefore and so God knoweth I was for I thought it a hard beginning The next day after the receipt of the said Lady and her entry made unto Greenwich and after your Highness had brought her to her Chamber I then waited upon your Highness into your Privy-Chamber and being there your Grace called me unto you saying to me these words or the like My Lord is it not as I told you say what they will she is nothing so fair as she hath been reported howbeit she is well and seemly Whereunto I answered and said By my Faith Sir ye say truth adding thereunto that I thought she had a Queenly manner and nevertheless was sorry that your Grace was no better content And thereupon your Grace commanded me to call together your Council which were these by name The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk my Lord Admiral and my Lord of Duresme and my self to commune of these Matters and to know what Commissions the Agents of Cleves had brought as well touching the performance of the Covenants sent before from hence to Dr. Wotton to have been concluded in Cleves as also in the declaration how the Matters stood for the Covenants of Marriage between the Duke of Lorrain's Son and the said Lady Ann. Whereupon Olisleger and Hogeston were called and the Matters purposed whereby it plainly appeared that they were much astonished and abashed and desired that they might make answer in the next morning which was Sunday And upon the Sunday in the morning your said Counsellors and they met together early and there eft-soons was proposed unto them as well touching the Commission for the performance of the Treaty and Articles sent to Mr. Wotton as also touching the Contracts and Covenants of Marriage between the Duke of Lorrain's Son and the Lady Ann and what terms they stood in To which things so proposed they answered as Men much perplexed That as touching Commission they had none to treat concerning the Articles sent to
Mary the French Queen younger Daughter of Hen. 7. and of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk so as it is thought the Queen my Soveraign and all others by course of Inheritance be by these Circumstances excluded and fore-closed So as it does well become all Subjects such as I am so my liking is to speak of Princes of their Reigns and Proceedings modestly and with respect yet I cannot abstain to say that the Chronicles and Histories of that Age and your own printed Statutes being extant do contaminate and disgrace greatly the Reign of that King in that time But to come to our purpose what equity and justice was that to disinherit a Race of Forreign Princes of their possibility and maternal right by a municipal Law or Statute made in that which some would term abrupt time and say that that would rule the Roast yea and to exclude the right Heirs from their Title without calling them to answer or any for them well it may be said that â—he injury of the time and the indirect dealing is not to be allowed â—ut since it is done it cannot be avoided unless some Circumstances material do annihilate the said limitation and disposition of the Crown Now let us examine the manner and circumstances how King Hen. 8. was by Statute inabled to dispose the Crown There is a form in two sorts prescribed him which he may not transgress that is to say either by his Letters Patents sealed with his Great Seal or by his last Will signed with his hand for in this extraordinary case he was held to an ordinary and precise form which being not observed the Letters Patents or Will cannot work the intent or effect supposed And to disprove that the Will was signed with his own hand You know that long before his death he never used his own signing with his own hand and in the time of his Sickness being divers times pressed to put his hand to the Will written he refused to do it And it seemed God would not suffer him to proceed in an Act so injurious and prejudicial to the right Heir of the Crown being his Niece Then his death approaching some as well known to you as to me caused William Clarke sometimes Servant to Thomas Henneage to sign the supposed Will with a stamp for otherwise signed it was never and yet notwithstanding some respecting more the satisfaction of their ambition and others their private commodity than just and upright dealing procured divers honest Gentlemen attending in divers several Rooms about the King's Person to testifie with their hand-writings the Contents of the said pretended Will surmised to be signed with the King 's own hand To prove this dissembled and forged signed Testament I do refer you to such Trials as be yet left First The Attestation of the late Lord Paget published in the Parliament in Queen Mary's time for the restitution of the Duke of Norfolk Next I pray you on my Sovereigns behalf that the Depositions may be taken in this Matter of the Marquess of Winchester Lord Treasurer of England the Marquess of Northampton the Earl of Pembroke Sir William Petre then one of King Henry's Secretaries Sir Henry Nevill Sir Maurice Barkley Doctor Buts Edmond Harman Baker Iohn Osborn Groom of the Chamber Sir Anthony Dennis if he be living Terris the Chirurgion and such as have heard David Vincent and others speak in this case and that their Attestations may be enrolled in the Chancery and in the Arches In perpetuam rei memoriam Thirdly I do refer you to the Original Will surmised to be signed with the King 's own hand that thereby it may most clearly and evidently appear by some differences how the same was not signed with the King's hand but stamped as aforesaid And albeit it is used both as an Argument and Calumniation against my Sovereign to some that the said Original hath been embezelled in Queen Mary's time I trust God will and hath reserved the same to be an Instrument to relieve the Truth and to confound false Surmises that thereby the Right may take place notwithstanding the many Exemplifications and Transcripts which being sealed with the great Seal do run abroad in England and do carry away many Mens minds as great presumptions of great variety and validity But Sir you know in cases of less importance that the whole Realm of England Transcripts and Exemplifications be not of so great force in Law to serve for the recovery of any thing either real or personal And in as much as my Soveraign's Title in this case shall be little advanced by taking exceptions to others pretended and crased Titles considering her precedency I will leave it to such as are to claim after the issue of Hen. the 7 th to lay in Bar the Poligamy of Charles Brandon the Duke of Suffolk and also the vitiated and clandestine Contract if it may be so called having no witness nor solemnization of Christian Matrimony nor any lawful matching of the Earl of Hertford and the Lady Katharine Lastly The semblably compelling of Mr. Key and the Lady Mary Sister to the Lady Katherine And now Sir I have to answer your desire said somewhat briefly to the Matter which indeed is very little where so much may be said for to speak truly the Cause speaketh for it self I have so long forborn to deal in this matter that I have almost forgotten many things which may be said for Roboration of her Right which I can shortly reduce to my Remembrance being at Edinburgh where my Notes are So that if you be not by this satisfied upon knowledg from you of any other Objection I hope to satisfy you unto all things may be said against her In the mean time I pray you so counsel the Queen your Soveraign as some effectual reparation may follow without delay of the many and sundry traverses and dis-favorings committed against the Queen my Sovereign as the publishing of so many exemplifications of King Henry's supposed Will the secret embracing of Iohn Halles Books the Books printed and not avowed the last Summer one of the which my Mistris hath sent by Henry Killigrew to the Queen your Soveraign The Disputes and Proceedings of Lincolns-Inn where the Case was ruled against the Queen my Soveraign The Speeches of sundry in this last Session of Parliament tending all to my Soveraigns derision and nothing said to the contrary by any Man but the Matter shut up with silence most to her prejudice and by so much the more as every Man is gone home setled and confirmed in his Error And Lastly The Queen your Soveraign's resolution to defend now by Proclamations all Books and Writings containing any discussion of Titles when the whole Realm hath engendred by these fond proceedings and other favoured practisâ—s a setled opinion against my Soveraigns to the advancement of my Lady Katherines Title I might also speak of an other Book lately printed and set abroad in this last Session containing
contrivance of theirs who had instructed her to play such tricks as was proved by their own Confessions and other Evidences 68. He says They all died very constantly and on the Margent calls them seven Martyrs The Nun her self acknowledged the Imposture at her death and laid the heaviest weight of it on the Priests that suffered with her who had taught her the Cheat so that they died both for Treason and Imposture And this being Sander's Faith as appeared by his Works they were indeed Martyrs for it 69. He says More and Fisher having examined her could see no ground to think she was acted by a Fanatical Spirit as it was given out It was not given out that she was acted by a Fanatical Spirit for that had been more honest but her Spirit was cheating and knavery More cleared himself and looked on her as a weak Woman and commonly called her the Silly Maid But Fisher did disown her when the Cheat was discovered though he had given her too much encouragement before 70. He says The thing she prophesied came to pass which was that Mary should be Queen of England The thing for which She and her Complices were attainted of Treason was that she said If the King married Ann Boleyn he should not be a King a month longer and not an hour longer in the sight of God and should die a Villains death But it did not serve Sander's ends to tell this 71. He says The day she suffered many of the Nobility came and swore to the Succession of the Issue of the King's marriage with Queen Ann before the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Lord Chancellor and Cromwel Both Houses of Parliament did in the House of Lords take that Oath on the day of their Prorogation which was the 30 th of March as appears by the second Act of the next Session and the Nun with her Complices did not suffer till the 21 of April after 72. He says The Franciscans of the Observance chiefly two Fathers in London Elston and Payton did both in their Sermons and publick Disputes justifie the King's marriage with Q. Katharine Elston and Payton were not of London but of Greenwich They compared the King to Achab and said in the Pulpit to his face The Dogs should lick his Blood with many other such virulent Expressions But to rail at a Prince with the most spiteful reproaches that could be was a part of Sanders's Faith and so no wonder those pass for Confessors when Elizabeth Barton and her Complices are reckoned Martyrs 73. He says Tonstal Bishop of Duresme was ordered by the King's Messengers not to come to the Session of Parliament 26 Regni in which the King's Supremacy was established In this he is safer than in some other Stories for the Journals of that Session are lost so the falshood of this cannot be demonstrated yet it is not at all likely that he who justified all that was done in the former Session in which the Pope's Power was put down the nomination of Bishops annexed to the Crown a Reformation of Ecclesiastical Laws appointed to be made in defence of all which he wrote afterwards was now so scrupulous as to be ordered to stay at home But Tonstal suffering imprisonment in Edward the Sixth's time it was fit to use some art to shew that he was unwillingly brought to comply with the King 74. He to shew God's Judgments on the chief Instruments that served the King says That the Duke of Norfolk was by the King condemned to perpetual imprisonment This bewrays palpable ignorance since he was attainted of High Treason the very day before the King's death and should have suffered the next day if the King's death had not prevented it But since he will descant on the Providence of God he should rather have concluded that his escaping so narrowly was a sign of God's great care of him 75. In the Session of Parliament that met the third of November as he describes it which was the 26 th year of the King's Reign he says Mary the King's Daughter was illegitimated and all her honours were transferred on Elizabeth and the Pope's Power put down This shews he never looked on our publick Statutes otherwise he had seen that these Acts passed in the former Session 76. He says When the King sent his Ambassadours to the French Court Francis would not so much as hear them give a justification of the King's proceedings How true this can be the World may judg since these two Kings continued in a firm Alliance eight years after this And Francis did often treat both with him and the Princes of Germany about these things and was inclined to do almost all that he did 77. He says The Lutherans did so abominate the grounds of his separation from Rome that they could never be induced to approve it for which he cites Cochleus an Author of his own kidney They did condemn the King's first marriage as unlawful and thought the Pope's Dispensation had no force and so far they approved it But they had this singular Opinion that he should have continued unmarried as long as Q. Katharine lived Yet in that they were so modest that they only desired to be excused as to the second Marriage which considering that Queen Ann favoured their Doctrine and that by an absolute compliance with what the King had done they might have secured his Protection to themselves whom otherwise they provoked highly is an evidence of a strict adhering to what their Consciences dictated that cannot be sufficiently commended 78. He says The King made many write Apologies for what he did which some did willingly being tainted with Heresie others unwillingly and for fear as Gardiner and Tonstall In this he shews how little judgment he had of the nature of things when he thinks to excuse their writing for the King as extorted by force To have done it thorough Error and Mistake was much the softer excuse but to make them Men of such prostituted Consciences as not only to subscribe and swear but to write with Learning and Zeal and yet against their Consciences represents them guilty of unexpressible baseness Indeed Gardiner was a Man like enough to write any thing that might please the King but Tonstall was a Man of greater probity than to have done so unworthy a thing upon any account whatsoever But since he mentioned Writers he should have named Longland Bishop of Lincoln Stokeley Bishop of London and above all Bonner who did officiously thrust himself into the debate by writing a Preface to Gardiner's Book with the greatest vehemence that could be But the Blood he shed afterwards did so endear him to this Author that all past Faults were forgiven and to be clean forgotten 79. He says Five Martyrs suffered because they would not swear the King's Supremacy according to the Law that was then passed There was no such Law made at that time nor
over to England But is much disliked by the King 1539. 1540. But yet Marries her And could never love her A Parliament called Where Cromwel speaks as Lord vice-gerent 1540. He is made Earl of Essex The Suppression of the Knights of St. Iohn at Ierusalem Cromwel◠〈◊〉 The King in love with Mistress Katharine Howard 1539. Cranmers friendship to Cromwel Journal Procâ—â— Parag. 58. Item Billa attincâ—â—rae Tâ—â—me Cromwel Comitis Essex de crimine Herisis Laesae Majestatis per Communes de novo concepta Allâ—nsa 〈◊〉 cum praâ—isione eidem annexa Quae quidem Billa 1º 2 do 3 â—io lecta est provisio ejusdem concernens Dâ—canatum Wellensem â—er lecta est communi omnium Procâ—rum consensu nemine discrepante expedita simul cum ea referebatur Billa Attiâ—cturae quae prius missa erat in Doâ—â—â— Communium Cromwels attaindor Collect. Numb 16. Censures past upon it The King designs a divorce from his Queen It 's referred to the convocation Collect. Numb 17. Collect. Numb 18. Reasons pretended for it 1540. Convocation agreed to it Collect. Numb 19. It is censured Collect. Numb 17. 1529. Report made to the Parl. The Queen consents to it Collect. Numb 20. An Act about the Incontinence of Priests Another about Religion 1540. Subsidies granted by thâ— Clergy And Laiety Cromweâ—s Death His Character Designs against Cranmer A Commission sits about Religion An Explanation of Faith 1539. Cranmers Opinion about it They explain the Apostles Creed 1540. The seven Sacraments With greaâ— maturity Collect. Numb 21. 1539. The ten Commandments 1540. The Lords Prayer The Ave Maria Free-will Justification Good Works All this set forth in a Book And published by the Kings Authority It is variously censured Corrections of the Mass-Book and other Offices Ex M S S. D.D. Stillingflâ—â—t A Persecution of Protestants Of Barnes and others Collect. Numb 22. Who were condemned in Parliament Their Speeches at the Stake Bonners cruelty New Bishopricks â—ounded Collect. Nâ—mb 23. Cranmer's design miscarries These Foundations censured 1541. The State of the Court at this time The Bible in English set up in all Churches Collect. Numb 24. Collect. Nuâ—b 25. 1541. Aâ—tiq Brit. in Râ—g Pâ—lo A Rule about Churchmens housekeeping * Bellaria The King goes to â—ork An account of the State of Scotland The beginings of Learning there And of the Reformation Arch-Bishop Spotswood Lesley Spotswood The Clergy were both ignorant and cruel Hamilton's sufferings The Kings Conâ—essor favâ—urs the Reâ—ormation Forrest's sufferings A further persecution in Sâ—otland The progress of the Reâ—ormation Lesley Buchanan * Regni Angliâ—i Vicarius The King wholly guided by the Clergy Two other Martyrs The Queens ill life is discovered And confessed by her self and others 1542. A new Parliament called 1542. The Act about the Queen Censures pasâ— uponit Act about Hospitals c. The Papists design to suppress the English Bible 〈◊〉 Injuâ—ctions Coll. Numâ— 26. The manner of Preaching at that time Plays and Erâ—erludes then actâ—d War between England and Scotland Duke of 〈◊〉 inroad into Scotlanâ— The Scotish Army defeated Many Prisoners taken 1543. 1543. A new Parliament Cranmer promotes a Reformation An Act â—bout it A League between the King and Emperor A Treaty for a match with the Queen of Scotland The different Interests there The French party prevails A War with France A new persecution of Protestants 〈◊〉 great ingeniousness Three burnt at Windsor Their Persecuters are perjured A Conspiracy against Cranmer 〈…〉 His Christian â—emper of wind 1544. 1544. A new Parliament Act about the Successioâ— 1542. Act against Conspiracies Collect. Numb 27. 1544. The Wars against Sâ—otlanâ— succesfulâ— Colâ—ect Numb 2â— 1545. 〈…〉 1545. The German 〈…〉 peace Church resentments given to Informers 〈◊〉 suffâ—rings in Sâ—â—â—land Spotswood A Parliament sits Chapters and Chanteries given to the King The Kings speech to the Houses The King confirms the Rights of the Universities 1546. Peace with France A new design for Reformation Shaxtons Apostacy Collect. Numb 23. The troubles of Anne Askew She endures the Râ—ck And is burnt with some others A new design against Crâ—nmâ—â— The Kâ—ngs great â—aâ—e of him Antiqu. Brit. in vita Cranmer Another design against the Queen The causes of the Duke of Norfolks disgrace 1547. The Earl of Surrey Executed The Dukes submission to the King 1547. The Parliament meets The Duke of Norfolk Attainted His death prevented by the Kings Fox The Emperors designs against the Protestants The Kings sickness Collect. Numb 30. His latter will a Forgery 1542. 1547. An account of the Kings severities against the Popish Party Some 〈◊〉 executed for denying the Kings Supremacy And Hall a Priest for conspiring against the King Three other Monks Exeâ—â—â—d 1535. Fishers Tryal and death His Character His Character A â—aindors afâ—â—â— the Rebâ—llâ—on was quâ—â—â—d 1537. Hall Censures past upon it 1538. Forrests equivocation and Heresie Hall 1538. The proceedings against Cardinal Pools friends 1539. Some Attaindors without hearing the parties 1539. 4 Instit. 37.38 1540. 1535. The Conclusion Câ—llect Aâ—denda 〈◊〉 1. Colâ—ect Addenda Nâ—mb 2. Collect. Addenda Nâ—mb 3. Collect. Addenda Numb 4. Collect. Addenda Numb 5. Collect. Addenda Numb 6. Collect. Addenda Numb 7. Collect. Addenda Numb 8. Collect. Addenda Numb 9. Collect. Addenda Numb 10. Collect. Addenda Numb 11. Collect. Addenda Numb 12. Treat Rolls Registrum Warhami Fol. 26. Tonst Regist. Fol. 33. Regist. Fitz-Williams Anno Dom. 1523. Regist. Cuthberti Tonstall Folio 40 Regist. Tonst Fol. 138. Cott. libr. Vitel. B. 12. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 12. Cotton libr. Vitellius B. 9. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 10 Cotton Libr. Vâ—â—el B. 10. Cotton libr. Vitel. â— 10. Cotton libr. Vitel. B. 10. Câ—tt libr. Vitel. B. 10. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 10. Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 12. Cott. libr. Vitel. B. 10. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 10. Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 10. Cotton libr. Vitel. B. 10. Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 12. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 10. Cotton libr. Vitel. B. 10. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 10 Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 10. Cotton libr. Vitel. B. 11. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 11. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 11. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 11. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 11. Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 11 Cotton libr. Vitel. B. 11. Cotton libr. Vitel. B. 11. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 11. Cotton Libr. Vitell. B. 13. Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 13. Cotton Libr. Vesp. B. 5. Ex M S. D. Petyt Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 13. Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 13. This is all written with his own hand and was sent over by him to the King Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 13. Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 13. Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 13. In an Inspeximus Rot. Pat. 25. Reg. 2 d. Paâ—t Cotton Libr. Cleopat E. 4. Cott. Libr. Cleop. E. 4. Cott. Libr. Cleop. E. 4. Anno Regni 28. Regni 27. Regni 28. Regni 29. Regni 30. * In the Houses of this Order there were Cloisters for both Sexes St. Gilbert L. of Semperingham founded it