only as a Paper of News and so ordered their Ambassadours to communicate them to the Emperour But the King's death broke off this Negotiation He had contracted great Colds by Violent Exercises which in January setled in a deep Cough and all Medicines proved ineffectual The Kings sickness There was a suspicion taken up and spred over all Europe that he was poisoned but no certain grounds appear for justifying that During his sickness Ridley preached before him and among other things run out much on works of Charity and the duty of Men of high condition to be Eminent in good works The King was much touched with this so after Sermon he sent for the Bishop and treated him with such respect that he made him sit down and be covered then he told him what Impression his Exhortation had made on him and therefore he desired to be directed by him how to do his duty in that matter Ridley took a little time to consider of it and after some consultation with the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London he brought the King a Scheme of several Foundations one for the sick and wounded another for such as were wilfully idle or were mad and a third for Orphans so he endowed St. Bartholomew's Hospital for the first Bridewell for the second and Christ's Church near Newgate for the third and he enlarged the Grant he made the former year for St. Thomas's Hospital in Southwark The Statutes and Warrants relating to these were not finished before the 26. of June though he gave order to make all the hast that was possible and when he set his hand to them he blest God that had prolonged his life till he finished his designs concerning them These Houses have by the good Government and great Charities of the City of London continued to be so useful and grown to be so well-endowed that now they may be well reckoned among the Noblest in Europe The King bore his sickness with great submission to the will of God The Patents for the succession to the Crown and seemed concerned in nothing so much as the state that Religion and the Church would be in after his death The Duke of Suffolk had only three Daughters the eldest of these was now married to Lord Guilford Dudley the second to the Earl of Pembroke's eldest Son and the third that was crooked to one Keys The Duke of Northumberland for strengthning his Family married also his own two Daughters the one to Sir Henry Sidney and the other to the Earl of Huntington's eldest Son He grew to be much hated by the People and the jealousie of the King 's being poisoned was fastened on him But he regarded these things little and resolved to improve the fears the King was in concerning Religion to the advantage of Lady Jane The King was easily perswaded to order the Judges and his Learned Council to put some Articles which he had signed for the succession of the Crown in the common form of Law They answered that the Succession being setled by Act of Parliament could not be taken away except by Parliament yet the King required them to do what he commanded them But next time they came to the Council they declared that it was made Treason to change the Succession by an Act past in this Reign so they could not meddle with it Mountague was chief Justice and spake in the name of the rest Northumberland fell out in a great passion against him calling him Traitor for refusing to obey the King's commands for that is always the language of an Arbitrary Minister when he acts against Law But the Judges were not shaken by his threatnings so they were again brought before the King who sharply rebuked them for their delays but they said all that they could do would be of no force without a Parliament yet they were required to do it in the best manner they could At last Mountague desired they might have a Pardon for what they were to do that being granted all the Judges except Gosnald and Hales agreed to the Patent deliver'd their Opinions that the Lord Chancellor might put the Seal to it and that then it would be good in Law yet the former of these two was at last wrought on so Hales was the only Man that stood out to the last who though he was a zealous Protestant yet would not give his Opinion against his Conscience upon any consideration whatsoever The Privy Councellours were next required to set their hand to it Cecyl in a Relation he writ of this transaction says that hearing some of the Judges declare so positively that it was against Law he refused to set his hand to it as a Privy Councellour but signed it only as a Witness to the King's subscription Cranmer stood out long he came not to Council when it was past there and refused to consent to it when he was prest to it for he said he would never have a hand in disinheriting his late Master's Daughters The young dying King was at last set on him and by his Importunity prevailed with him to do it and so the Seal was put to the Patents The King's distemper continued to encrease so that the Physicians despaired of his Recovery A confident Woman undertook his Cure and he was put in her hands but she left him worse than she found him and this heightned the jealousie of the Duke of Northumberland that had introduced her and put the Physicians away At last to Crown his designs he got the King to write to his Sisters to come and divert him in his sickness and the matter of the Exclusion had been carried so secretly that they apprehending no danger had begun their Journey In the 6th of July The Kings death and Character the King felt death approaching and prepared himself for it in a most devout manner He was often heard offering up Prayers and Ejaculations to God Particularly a few Moments before he died he prayed earnestly that God would take him out of this wretched life and committed his Spirit to him he interceded very fervently for his Subjects that God would preserve England from Popery and maintain his true Religion among them soon after that he breathed out his Innocent Soul being in Sir Henry Sidney's arms Endeavours were used to conceal his death for some days on design to draw his Sisters into the snare before they should be aware of it but that could not be done Thus died Edward the VI. in the sixteenth Year of his Age. He was counted the wonder of that time he was not only Learned in the Tongues and the Liberal Sciences but knew well the state of his Kingdom He kept a Table-Book in which he had writ the Characters of all the eminent Men of the Nation he studied Fortification and understood the Mint well he knew the Harbours in all his Dominions with the depth of Water and way of coming into them He understood foreign
instruct their Hearers in the Fundamentals of Religion of which they had known little formerly This made the Nation run after these Teachers with a wonderful Zeal but they mixed too much Sharpness against the Friars in their Sermons which was judged indecent in them to do tho their Hypocrisy and Cheats did in a great measure excuse those Heats and it was observed that our Saviour had exposed the Pharisees in so plain a manner that it did very much justify the treating them with some Roughness yet it is not to be denied but Resentments for the Cruelties they or their Friends had suffered by their means might have too much Influence on them This made it seem necessary to suffer none to preach at least out of their own Parishes without Licence and many were licensed to preach as Itinerants There was also a Book of Homilies on all the Epistles and Gospels in the Year put out which contained a plain Paraphrase of those Parcels of Scripture together with some practical Exhortations founded on them Many Complaints were made of those that were licensed to preach and that they might be able to justify themselves they began generally to write and read their Sermons and thus did this Custom begin in which what is wanting in the heat and force of Delivery is much made up by the strength and solidity of the Matter and has produced many Volumes of as excellent Sermons as have been preached in any Age. Plays and Enterludes were a great Abuse in that time in them Mock-Representations were made both of the Clergy and of the Pageantry of their Worship The Clergy complained much of these as an Introduction to Atheism when things Sacred were thus laught at and said They that begun to laugh at Abuses would not cease till they had represented all the Mysteries of Religion as ridiculous The graver sort of Reformers did not approve of it but political Men encouraged it and thought nothing would more effectually pull down the Abuses that yet remained than the exposing them to the scorn of the Nation A War did now break out between England and Scotland at the Instigation of the King of France A War with Scotland King Henry set out a Declaration pretending that the Crown of Scotland owed Homage to him and cited many Precedents to shew that Homage was done not only by their Kings but by consent of the States for which Original Records were appealed to The Scots on the other hand asserted that they were a free and independent Kingdom that the Homages antiently made by their Kings were only for Lands which they had in England and that those more lately made were either offered by Pretenders in the case of a doubtful Title or were extorted by Force And they said their Kings could not give up the Rights of a free Crown and People The Duke of Norfolk made an In-road into Scotland with 20000 Men in October but after he had burnt some small Towns and wasted Teviotdale he returned back to England In the end of November an Army of 15000 Scots with a good Train of Artillery was brought together They intended to march into England by the Western Road. The King went to it in Person but he was at this time much disturbed in his Fancy and thought the Ghost of one whom he had unjustly put to death followed him continually he not only left the Army but sent a Commission to Oliver Sinclare then called his Minion to command in chief This disgusted the Nobility very much who were become weary of the Insolence of that Favourite so they refused to march and were beginning to separate While they were in this Disorder 500 English appeared and they apprehending it was a fore Party of the Duke of Norfolk's Army refused to fight so the English fell upon them and dispersed them they took all their Ordinance and Baggage and 1000 Prisoners of whom 200 were Gentlemen The chief of these were the Earls of Glencarn and Cassilis The News of this so over-charged the Melancholy King that he died soon after leaving only an Infant Daughter newly born to succeed him The Lords that were taken were brought up to London and lodged in the Houses of the English Nobility Cassilis was sent to Lambeth where he received those Seeds of Knowledg which produced afterwards a great Harvest in Scotland The other Prisoners were also instructed to such a degree that they came to have very different Thoughts of the Changes that had been made in England from what the Scotish Clergy had possessed them with who had encouraged their King to engage in the War both by the assurance of Victory since he fought against an Heretical Prince and the Contribution of 50000 Crowns a Year The King's Death and the Crowns falling to his Daughter made the English Council lay hold on this as a proper Conjuncture for uniting the whole Island in one therefore they sent for the Scotish Lords and proposed to them the marrying the Prince of Wales to their young Queen this the Scots liked very well and promised to promote it all they could And so upon their giving Hostages for the performing their Promises faithfully they were sent home and went away much pleased both with the Splendor of the King's Court and with the way of Religion which they had seen in England A Parliament was called A Parliament called in which the King had great Subsidies given him of six Shillings in the Pound to be paid in three Years A Bill was proposed for the advancement of true Religion by Cranmer and some other Bishops for the Spirits of the Popish Party were much fallen ever since the last Queen's Death yet at this time a Treaty was set on foot between the King and the Emperour which raised them a little for since the King was like to engage in a War with France it was necessary for him to make the Emperour his Friend Cranmer's Motion was much opposed and the timorous Bishops forsook him yet he put it as far as it would go An Act about Religion tho in most Points things went against him By it Tindall's Translation of the Bible was condemned as crafty and false and also all other Books contrary to the Doctrine set forth by the Bishops But Bibles of another Translation were still allowed to be kept only all Prefaces or Annotations that might be in them were to be dashed or cut out All the King's Injunctions were confirmed No Books of Religion might be printed without Licence there was to be no Exposition of Scripture in Plays or Enterludes none of the Laity might read the Scripture or explain it in any publick Assembly But a Proviso was made for publick Speeches which then began generally with a Text of Scripture and were like Sermons Noblemen Gentlemen and their Wives or Merchants might have Bibles but no ordinary Woman Tradesman Apprentice or Husbandman might have any Every Person might have the Book set out by the
Bishops and the Psalter and other Rudiments of Religion in English All Church-men that preached contrary to that Book for the first Offence were only required to recant for the second to abjure and carry a Faggot but were to be burnt for the third the Laity for the third Offence were only to forfeit their Goods and Chattels and to be liable to perpetual Imprisonment but they were to be proceeded against within a Year The Parties accused were not allowed Witnesses for their Purgation The Act of the six Articles was confirmed and it was left free to the King to change this Act or any Proviso in it There was also a new Act past giving Authority to the King's Proclamations and any nine Privy Counsellours were empowered to proceed against Offenders To this the Lord Mountjoy dissented and it is the only Instance of any Protestation against any of the publick Acts that past in this whole Reign By the Act about Religion as the Laity were delivered from the fear of Burning so the Clergy might not be burnt but upon the third Conviction The Act being also put entirely in the King's Power he had now the Reformers all at mercy for he could bind up the Act or execute it as he pleased and he affected this much to have his People depend entirely upon him The League offensive and defensive for England and Calais and for the Netherlands was sworn by the King and the Emperour and Assurances were given that tho the King would not declare Lady Mary legitimate upon which the Emperour insisted much yet she should be put in the Succession to the Crown next Prince Edward The Emperour was glad thus to engage the Kings of England and France in a War by which the Germans were left without Support and so he resolved to carry on his great design of making himself Master of Germany In Scotland the Earl of Arran Affairs in Scotland Hamilton next in Blood to the young Queen was established in the Government during the Queen's Minority he was a Man of great Vertue and much inclined to the Reformation but was soft and easie to be wrought on King Henry sent Sir Ralph Sadler to him to induce him to set forward the Match and to offer him Lady Elizabeth to his Son It was agreed and confirmed in Parliament that the Young Queen should be bred in Scotland till she was ten Years old the King of England sending a Nobleman and his Lady with others not exceeding twenty to wait on her and after that Age she was to be sent to England and in the mean while six Hostages were to be given but all the Clergy headed by Cardinal Beaton set themselves much against this The Queen-Mother opposed it much and it was also said a Match with the French would be more for the Interest of the Nation who being at so great a distance could not oppress them so easily as the English might for if the French opprest them the English would be ready to protect them but if they came under the Yoke of England they could expect no Protection from any other Prince This meeting with that Antipathy that was then formed between the two Nations and being inflamed by the Clergy turned the People generally to prefer a Match with France to that which was proposed for the Prince of Wales The French sent over the Earl of Lennox to make a Party against the Governour they sent also over the Governour 's Base-Brother afterwards made Arch-bishop of St. Andrews to take him out of the hands of the English and he made him apprehend great danger if he went on in his Opposition to the Interests of Rome that he would be declared illegitimate as being begotten in a second Marriage while the first that was annulled because of a Precontract did subsist for if the annulling the first should be reversed then the second could be of no force and if that were once done the Earl of Lennox who was next to him in blood would be preferred to him These threatnings joyned with his Brother 's Artifices had their full Effect on him for he turned off wholly from the Interests of England and gave himself up to the French Councils When it was thus resolved to break the Match with England the Lords that had left Hostages for their faithful performing the Promises they made to King Henry were little concerned either in their own Honour or in the safety of their Hostages only the Earl of Cassilis thought it was unworthy of him to break his Faith in such a manner so he came into England and put himself in King Henry's Hands who upon that called him another Regulus but used him better for he gave him his Liberty and a Noble Present and sent him back with his Hostages but resolved to take a severe Reparation of those who had failed him in that Kingdom At the same time he began the War with France one of the Reasons he gave for it was that Francis had failed in the matter of shaking off the Pope's Authority and advancing a Reformation in which he had promised to second him The King married Katherine Parre Some burnt at Windsor Widow to Nevill Lord Latimer She secretly favoured the Reformation but could not divert a Storm which fell then on a Society at Windsor Person a Priest Testwood and Marbeck two Singing-men and Filmer one of the Town were informed against by Dr. London who had insinuated himself much into Cromwel's Favour and was eminently zealous in the Suppression of the Monasteries But now he made his Court no less dextrously to the Popish Party Gardiner moved in Council That a Commission might be granted for searching all suspected Houses for Books written against the six Articles So the four before mentioned were found to have some of them and upon that account were seized on Sir Philip Hobbey and Dr. Hains Dean of Exeter were also put in Prison There was a Concordance of the Bible and some Notes upon it in English found written by Marbeck which was look'd on as the Work of some learned Man for it was known that he was illiterate Marbeck said the Notes were his own gathered by him out of such Books as he fell on And for the Concordance he said he compiled it by the help of a Latin Concordance and an English Bible tho he understood little Latin He had brought it to the Letter L. This seemed so incredible that it was look'd on only as a Pretence to conceal the true Author so to try him they gave him some Words of the Letter M and shut him up with a Latin Concordance and an English Bible and by his Performance in that they clearly saw that the whole Work was his own and were not a little astonished at the Ingeniousness and Diligence of so poor a Man When the King heard of it he said Marbeck was better imployed than they were that examined him So he was preserved tho the other
day before the dissolution of the Parliament The Lords added a Proviso confirming the Duke of Somerset's Attainder but that was cast out by the Commons Some Writings had been sealed with relation to a Marriage between the Earl of Hartford the Dukes Son and the Earl of Oxford's Daughter and the Lords sent down a Bill voiding these but upon a division in the House of Commons 68. were for it and 69. were against it so it was cast out The House was now thin when we find but 137. Members in it but that is one of the effects of a long Parliament many grow infirm and many keep out of the way on design and those who at their first Election were the Representatives of the People after they have sat long become a Cabal of Men that pursue their own Interests Tonstall is imprisoned more than the Publick Service Tonstall Bishop of Durham upon some Informations was put in Prison in the former year The Duke of Northumberland intended to erect a great Principality for his Family in the North and the accession of the Jurisdiction of the County Palatine which is in that See seemed so considerable that he resolved to ruine Tonstall and so make way for that He complied in all the changes that were made though he had protested against them in Parliament he writ also for the Corporal Presence but with more Eloquence than Learning He was a candid and moderate Man and there was always a good correspondence between Cranmer and him and now when the Bill was put in against him he opposed it and protested against it by which he absolutely lost the Duke of Northumberland but all the Popish complying Bishops went along with it There were some Depositions read in the House of Lords to justifie it but when the Bill with these was sent down to the Commons they resolved to put a stop to that way of condemning Men without hearing them so they sent a Message to the Lords that he and his Accusers might be heard face to face and that not being done they let the Bill fall By these Indications it appeared that the House of Commons had little kindness for the Duke of Northumberland Many of them had been much obliged to the Duke of Somerset so it was resolved to have a new Parliament and this which had sat almost five years was on the 15th of April dissolved The Convocation did confirm the Articles of Religion A Reformation of Ecclesiastical Laws prepared that had been prepared the former year and thus was the Reformation of Worship and Doctrine now brought to such perfection that since that time there has been very little alteration made in these But another Branch of it was yet unfinished and was now under consultation touching the Government of the Church and the rules of the Ecclesiastical Courts Two Acts had passed in the former reign and one in this impowering XXXII to revise all the Laws of the Church and digest them into a body King Henry issued out a Commission and the Persons were named who made some progress in it as appears by some of Cranmer's Letters to him In this Reign it had been begun several times but the Changes in the Government made it be laid aside Thirty two were found to be too many for preparing the first draught so Eight were appointed to make it ready for them These were Cranmer and Ridley Cox and Peter Martyr Traheron and Taylor and Lucas and Gosnold two Bishops two Divines two Civilians and two Common Lawyers but it was generally believed that Cranmer drew it all himself and the rest only corrected what he designed Haddon and Cheek were imployed to put it in Latine in which they succeeded so well and arrived at so true a purity in the Roman stile that it looks like a work of the best Ages of that State before their Language was corrupted with the mixture of barbarous terms and phrases with which all the later Writings were filled but none were more nauseously rude than the Books of the Canon-Law The Work was cast into fifty one Titles perhaps it was designed to bring it near the number of the Books into which Justinian digested the Roman Law The Eight finished it and offered it to the XXXII who divided themselves into Four Classes every one was to offer his Corrections and when it had past through them all it was to be offered to the King for his Confirmation but the King died before it was quite finished nor was it ever afterwards taken up yet I shall think it no useless part of this work to give an account of what was intended to be done in this matter as well as I relate what was done in other things The first Title of it was concerning the Catholick Faith The heads of it it was made Capital to deny the Christian Religion The Books of Scripture were reckoned up and the Apocrypha left out The four first General Councils were received but both Councils and Fathers were to be submitted to only as they agreed with the Scriptures The second enumerates and condemns many Heresies extracted out of the Opinions of the Church of Rome and the Tenets of the Anabaptists and among others those who excused their lives by the pretence of Predestination are reckoned up 3. The judgment of Heresie was to lye in the Bishops Court except in exempted places Persons suspected might be required to purge themselves and those who were convicted were to abjure and do Penance but such as were obstinate were declared Infamous and not to have the benefit of the Law or of making Testaments and so all Capital proceedings for Heresie were laid aside 4. Blasphemy against God was to be punished as obstinate Heresie 5. The Sacraments and other parts of the Pastoral Charge were to be decently performed 6. All Magick Idolatry or Conjuring was to be punished arbitrarily and in case of obstinacy with Excommunication 7. Bishops were appointed once a Year to call all their Clergy together to examine them concerning their Flocks and Itinerant Preachers were to be often imployed for visiting such Precincts as might be put under their care 8. All Marriages were to be after asking of Banes and to be annulled if not done according to the Book of Common Prayer Corrupters of Virgins were to marry them or if that could not be done to give them the third part of their Goods and suffer Corporal punishment Marriages made by force or without consent of Parents were declared null Polygamy was forbid and Mothers were required to suckle their Children 9. The degrees of Marriage were setled according to the Levitical Law but spiritual kindred was to be no barr 10. A Clergy-man guilty of Adultery was to forfeit his Goods and Estate to his Wife and Children or to some pious use and to be banished or Imprisoned during life a Layman guilty of it was to forfeit the half and be banished or Imprisoned during life Wives that were
Conquerors time besides many other Acts that clearly imported a Supremacy over all Persons and in all Causes But they did at the same time so explain and limit this Power that it was visible they did not intend to subject Religion wholly to the Pleasure of the King for it was declared that his Power was only a Coercive Authority to defend the true Religion to abolish Heresies and Idolatries to cause Bishops and Pastors to do their Duties and in case they were negligent or would not amend their Faults to put others in their room Upon the whole matter they concluded that the Pope had no Power in England and that the King had an intire Dominion over all his Subjects which did extend even to the regulating of Ecclesiastical Matters These things being fully opened in many Disputes The Clergy submitted to it and published in several Books all the Bishops Abbots and Priors of England Fisher only excepted were so far satisfied with them or so much in love with their Preferments that they resolved to comply with the Changes which the King was resolved to make Fisher was in great esteem for Piety and strictness of Life and so much pains was taken on him A little before the Parliament met Cranmer proposed to him that he and any five Doctors he would choose and Stokesly with five on his side should confer on that point and examine he Authorities that were on both sides he accepted of it and Stokesly wrote to him to name time and place but Fisher's Sickness hindered the Progress of that motion The Parliament met the 15th of January A Session of Parliament there were but seven Bishops and twelve Abbots present the rest it seems were unwilling to concur in making this change tho they complied with it when it was made Every Sunday during the Session a Bishop preached at St. Paul's and declared that the Pope had no Authority in England Before this they had only said that a General Council was above him and that the Exactions of that Court and Appeals to it were unlawful but now they went a strain higher to prepare the People for receiving the Acts then in Agitation On the 9th of March The Pope's Power taken away the Commons began the Bill for taking away the Pope's Power and sent it to the Lords on the 14th who past it on the 20th without any dissent In it they set forth the Exactions of the Court of Rome grounded on the Pope's Power of dispensing and that as none could dispense with the Laws of God so the King and Parliament only had the Authority of dispensing with the Laws of the Land and that therefore such Licenses or Dispensations as were formerly in use should be for the future granted by the two Arch-bishops some of these were to be confirmed under the Great Seal and they appointed that thereafter all Commerce with Rome should cease They also declared that they did not intend to alter any Article of the Catholick Faith of Christendome or of that which was declared in the Scripture necessary to Salvation They confirmed all the Exemptions granted to Monasteries by the Popes but subjected them to the King's Visitation and gave the King and his Council power to examine and reform all Indulgences and Priviledges granted by the Pope The Offenders against this Law were to be punished according to the Statutes of Premunire This Act subjected the Monasteries entirely to the King's Authority and put them in no small Confusion Those that loved the Reformation rejoyced both to see the Pope's Power rooted out and to find the Scripture made the Standard of Religion After this Act The Act of the Succession another past in both Houses in six Days time without any Opposition Settling the Succession of the Crown confirming the Sentence of Divorce and the King's Marriage with Queen Anne and declaring all Marriages within the Degrees prohibited by Moses to be unlawful All that had married within them were appointed to be divorced and their Issue illegitimated and the Succession to the Crown was settled upon the King's Issue by the prefent Queen or in default of that to the King 's right Heirs for ever All were required to swear to maintain the Contents of this Act and if any refused to swear to it or should say any thing to the Slander of the King's Marriage he was to be judged guilty of misprision of Treason and to be punished accordingly The Oath is also set down in the Journals of the House of Lords by which they did not only swear Obedience to the King and his Heirs by his present Marriage but also to defend the Act of Succession and all the Effects and Contents in it against all manner of Persons whatsoever by which they were bound to maintain the Divorce both against the Pope's Censures and the Emperour if he went about to execute them At this time An Act regulating the proceedings against Hereticks one Philips complained to the House of Commons of the Bishop of London for using him cruelly in Prison upon Suspicion of Heresy the Commons sent up this to the Lords but received no Answer So they sent some of their Members to the Bishop desiring him to answer the Complaints put in against him But he acquainted the House of Lords with it and they all with one consent voted that none of their House ought to appear or answer to any Complaint at the Bar of the House of Commons So the Commons let this particular Case fall and sent up a Bill to which the Lords agreed regulating the Proceedings against Hereticks That whereas by the Statute made by King Henry the Fourth Bishops might commit Men upon Suspition of Heresy and Heresy was generally defined to be whatever was contrary to the Scriptures or Canonical Sanctions which was liable to great Ambiguity therefore that Statute was repealed and none were to be committed for Heresy but upon a Presentment made by two Witnesses None were to be accused for speaking against things that were grounded only upon the Pope's Canons Bail was to be taken for Hereticks and they were to be brought to their Trials in open Court and if upon Conviction they did not abjure or were Relapses they were to be burnt the King 's Writ being first obtained This was a great check to the Bishop's Tyrrany and gave no smal comfort to all that favoured the Reformation The Convocation sent in a Submission at the same time The Submission of the Clergy by which they acknowledged That all Convocations ought to be assembled by the King 's Writ and promised upon the Word of Priests never to make nor execute any Canons without the King's Assent They also desired That since many of the received Canons were found to be contrary to the King's Prerogative and the Laws of the Land there might be a Committee named by the King of 32 the one half out of both Houses of Parliament and the other
before the Act of Parliament past for suppressing the lesser Monasteries Q. Katherine was put to much trouble for keeping the Title Queen Queen Katherin's Death but bore it resolutely and said That since the Pope had judged that her Marriage was good she would die rather than do any thing in prejudice of it Her Sufferings begot Compassion in the People and all the Superstitious Clergy supported her Interests zealously But now her Troubles ended with her Life She desired to be buried among the Observant Friers for they had suffered most for her She ordered 500 Masses to be said for her Soul and that one of her Women should go a Pilgrimage to our Lady of Walsingham and give 200 Nobles on her way to the Poor When she found Death coming on her as she writ to the Emperour recommending her Daughter to his care So she writ to the King with this Inscription My dear Lord King and Husband She forgave him all the Injuries he had done her and wish'd him to have regard to his Soul She recommended her Daughter to his Care and desired him to be kind to her three Maids and to pay her Servants a Years Wages and ended thus mine Eyes desire you above all things She died on the Eighth of January at Kimbolt on in the 50th Year of her Age 33 years after she came to England She shas a Devout and Exemplary Woman She used to work with her own hands and kept her Women at work with her The Severities and Devotions that were known to her Priests and her Alms-Deeds joined to the Troubles she fell in begat a high Esteem of her in all sorts of People The King complained often of her Peevishness but that was perhaps to be imputed as much to the Provocations he gave her as to the Sowrness of her Temper He ordered her to be buried in the Abbey of Peterborough and was somewhat touched with her Death But Q. Ann did not carry this so decently as became a happy Rival In February a Parliament met In Parliament the lesser Monasteries suppressed after a Prorogation of 14 Months The Act impowering 32 to revise the Ecclesiastical Laws was confirmed but no time was limited for finishing it so it had no effect The chief business of this Session was the suppressing of the Monasteries under 200 l. a Year The Report the Visitors made was read in the two Houses and disposed them to great easiness in this matter The Act sets forth the great disorders of those Houses and the many unsuccessful Attempts that had been made to reform them so the Religious that were in them were ordered to be put in the greater Houses where Religion was better observed and the Revenues of them were given to the King Those Houses were much richer than they seemed to be for an abuse that had run over Europe of keeping the Rents of the Church at their first Rates and instead of raising them the exacting great Fines for the Incumbent when the Leases were renewed was so gross in those Houses that some rated but at 200 l. were in real value worth many Thousands By another Act a new Court was erected with the Title of the Court of the Augmentations of the King's Revenue consisting of a Chancellor a Treasurer 10 Auditors 17 Receivers besides ofther Officers The King was also empowered to make new Foundations of such of those Houses now suppressed as he pleased which were in all 370 and so this Parliament after six Years Continuance was now dissolved A Convocation sate at this time A Translation of the Bille designed in which a motion was made for Translating the Bible into English which had been promised when Tindal's Translation was condemned but was afterwards laid aside by the Clergy as neither necessary nor expedient So it was said that those whose Office it was to teach People the Word of God did all they could to suppress it Moses the Prophets and the Apostles wrote in the Vulgar Tongue Christ directed the People to search the Scriptures and as soon as any Nation was converted to the Christian Religion the Bible was translated into their Language nor was it ever taken out of the hands of the People till the Christian Religion was so corrupted that it was not safe to trust them with such a Book which would have so manifestly discovered those Errours and the Legends as agreeing better with those Abuses were read instead of the Word of God So Cranmer look'd on the putting the Bible in the People's hands as the most effectual means for promoting the Reformation and therefore moved that the King might be prayed to give order for it But Gardiner and all the other Party opposed this vehemently They said All the extravagant Opinions then in Germanny rose from the indiscreet use of the Scriptures Some of those Opinions were at this time disseminated in England both against the Divinity and Incarnation of Christ and the usefulness of the Sacraments for which 19 Hollanders had been burnt in England the former Year It was therefore said That during these Distractions the use of the Scriptures would prove a great Snare So it was proposed that instead of them their might be some short Exposition of the Christian Religion put in the Peoples hands which might keep them in a certain Subjection to the King and the Church But it was carried in the Convocation for the Affirmative At Court Men were much divided in this Point some said if the King gave way to it he would never be able after that to govern his People and that they would break into many Divisions But on the other hand it was said That nothing would make the Difference between the Pope's Power and the King's Supremacy appear more eminently than if the one gave the People the free use of the Word of God whereas the other had kept them in Darkness and ruled them by a blind Obedience It would be also a great mean to extinguish the Interest that either the Pope or the Monks had in England to put the Bible in the People's hands in which it would appear that the World had been long deceived by their Impostures which had no Foundation in the Scriptures These Reasons joyned with the Interest that the Queen had in the King prevailed so far with him that he gave order for setting about this with all possible hast and within three Years the Impression of it was finished At this time the King was in some Treaty with the German Princes not only for a League in Temporal Concerns but likewise in matters of Religion The King thought the Germans should have in all things submitted to him and the Opinion he had of his own Learning which was perhaps heightned a little with his new Title of Head of the Church made him expect that they should in all points comply with him Gardiner was then his Ambassadour in France and diswaded him much from any Religious League with them
Crowned Gardiner with ten other Bishops performing that Ceremony with the ordinary solemnity Day being esteemed the best Preacher among them preached the Sermon There was a General Pardon proclaimed and with that the Queen discharged the Subjects of the two Tenths two Fifteenths and a Subsidy that had been granted by the last Parliament and she also declared that she would pay both her Fathers Debts and her Brothers and though her Treasure was much exhausted yet she esteeming the love of her People her best Treasure forgave those Taxes in lieu of which she desired only the hearts of her Subjects and that they would serve God sincerely and pray earnestly for her On the 20th A Parliament meets and repeals several Laws of October a Parliament met There had been great violences used in many Elections and many false Returns were made some that were known to be zealous for the Reformation were forcibly turned out of the House of Commons which was afterwards offered as a ground upon which that Parliament and all Acts made in it might have been annulled There came only two of the Reformed Bishops to the House of Lords The two Arch-bishops and three Bishops were in Prison Two others were turned out the rest stayed at home so only Taylor and Harley the Bishops of Lincoln and Hereford came When Mass began to be said they went out as some report it but were never suffered to come to their places again others say they refused to joyn in that Worship and so were violently thrust out In the House of Commons some of the more forward moved that King Edward's Laws might be reviewed but things were not ripe enough for that Nowell a Prebendary of Westminster was returned Burgess for a Town but the House voted That the Clergy being represented in the lower House of Convocation could not be admitted to sit among the Laity The Commons sent up a Bill of Tonnage and Poundage which the Lords sent down amended in two Proviso's and the Commons did not then insist on their Priviledge that the Lords could not alter a Bill of Money The only publick Bill that was finished this Session was a Repeal of all late Statutes making any Crime Treason that was not so by the 25. of Edward the Third or Felony that was not so before King Henry the Eighth excepting from the benefit of this Act all that were put in Prison before the end of September last who were also excepted out of the General Pardon The Marchioness of Exeter and the Earl of Devonshire her Son were restored in blood by two private Acts and then the Parliament was prorogued for three days that it might be said the first Session under the Queen was meerly for Acts of Mercy At their next Meeting The Qu.'s Mother's marriage confirm'd after the Bill of Tonnage and Poundage was past a Bill past through both Houses in Four days repealing the Divorce of the Queens Mother In which they declared the Marriage to have been lawful and that malicious Persons had possessed the King with scruples concerning it and had by Corruption procured the Seals of Foreign Universities condemning it and had by threatnings and sinistrous Arts obtained the like in England Upon which Cranmer had pronounced the Sentence of Divorce which had been confirmed in Parliament They therefore looking on the miseries that had fallen on the Nation since that time as Judgments from God for that sentence condemn it and repeal the Acts confirming it Gardiner in this performed his promise to the Queen of getting her to be declared Legitimate without taking notice of the Pope's authority but he shewed that he was past shame when he procured such a Repeal of a Sentence which he had so servilely promoted and he particularly knew the falshood of this pretence that the foreign Universities were corrupted He had also set it on long before Cranmer engaged in it and sat in Court with him when it was pronounced By this Act the Lady Elizabeth was upon the matter again illegitimated since the ground upon which her Mothers marriage subsisted was the Divorce of the first Marriage and it was either upon this pretence or on old scores that the Queen who had hitherto treated her as a Sister began now to use her more severely Others suggest that a secret rivalry was the true spring of it It was thought the Earl of Devonshire was much in the Queens favour but he either not presuming so high or liking Lady Elizabeth better who was both more beautiful and was XIX Years younger than the Queen made his addresses to her which provoked the Queen so much that it drew a great deal of trouble on them both The next Bill was a Repeal of all the Laws made in King Edward's reign King Edward's Laws about Religion repealed concerning Religion it was argued six days in the House of Commons and carried without a Division by this Religion was again put back into the state in which King Henry had left it and this was to take place after the 20th of December next but till then it was left free to all either to use the old or the new Service as they pleased Another Act past against all that should disquiet any Preacher for his Sermons or interrupt Divine Offices either such as had been in the last year of King Henry or such as the Queen should set out by which she was empowered to restore the service in all things as it had been before her Father made the breach with Rome Offenders were either to be punished by Ecclesiastical Censures or by an Imprisonment for three Months And the House of Commons was now so forward that they sent up a Bill for the Punishing of all such as would not come to Church or Sacraments after the Old Service should be again set up yet the Lords fearing this might alarm the Nation too much let it fall Another Law was made that if any to the number of Twelve should meet to alter any thing in Religion or for any Riot or should by any publick notice such as Bells or Beacons gather the People together and upon Proclamation made should not disperse themselves they and all that assisted them were declared guilty of Felony and if any more than two met for these ends they should lye a Year in Prison and all People were required under severe Penalties to assist the Justices for repressing such Assemblies So the favour of the former Act of Repeal appeared to be a mockery when so soon after it so severe a Law made by which disorders that might arise upon sudden heats were declared to be Felonies The Marquess of Northampton's second Marriage was also annulled but no Declaration was made against Divorces in general grounded on the Indissolubleness of the Marriage bond only that particular sentence was condemned as pronounced upon false surmises An Act also passed The Duke of Norfolks Attainder repealed annulling the Attainder of the Duke of
that could be obtained It was agreed that at the end of eight Years Calais should either be restored or 500000. Crowns should be payed the Queen yet if during that time she made War either on France or Scotland she was to forfeit her right to Calais Aymouth in Scotland was to be rased and all differences on the Borders there were to be determined by some deputed on both sides this being adjusted a General Peace between the Crowns of England France and Spain was concluded and thus the Queen being freed from the dangerous consultations that the continuance of a War might have involved her in was the more at liberty to settle matters at home The first Bill Acts past in Parliament that was brought to try the Temper of the Parliament was for the Restitution of the Tenths and First-fruits to the Crown against this all the Bishops protested but that was all the opposition made to it By it not only that Tax was of new laid on the Clergy but all the Impropriated Benefices which Queen Mary had surrendred were restored to the Crown After this The Commons pray the Queen to marry the Commons made an Address to the Queen desiring her to choose such a Husband as might make both her self and the Nation happy She received this very kindly since they had neither limited her to time nor Nation but declared that as hitherto she had lived with great satisfaction in a single state and had refused the Propositions that had been made her both in her Brothers and Sisters reign so she had no Inclination to change her course of life If ever she did it she would take care that it should be for the good and to the satisfaction of her People She thought she was married to the Nation at her Coronation and looked on her People as her Children and she would be well contented if her Tombstone might tell Posterity Here lies a Queen that reigned so long and lived and dyed a Virgin There was little more progress made in this matter save that a Committee was appointed by both Houses to consider what should be the Authority of the Person whom the Queen might happen to marry but she sent them a Message to proceed to other affairs and let that alone A Bill for the Recognition of her Title to the Crown was put in Her Title to the Crown acknowledged It was not thought necessary to Repeal the Sentence of her Mothers Divorce for the Crown purged all defects and it was thought needless to look back unto a thing which could not be done without at least casting some reproach on her Father so it was in general words Enacted That they did assuredly believe and declare that by the Laws of God and the Realm she was their lawful Queen and was rightly and lineally descended This was thought a much wiser way than if they examined the Sentence of Divorce that past upon the Confession of a Precontract which must have revived the remembrance of things that were better left in silence Bills were put in for the English Service Acts concerning Religion for reviving King Edward's Laws and for annexing the Supremacy again to the Crown To that concerning the Supremacy two Temporal Lords and nine Bishops with the Abbot of Westminster dissented It was proposed to revive the Law for making the Bishops by Letters-Patents as was in King Edward's time but they choosed rather to revive the Act for Electing them made in the 25. Hen. 8. They revived all Acts made against the Pope's power in King Henry's time and repealed those made by Queen Mary They enacted an Oath for acknowledging the Queen Supream Governour in all causes and over all Persons Those that refused it were to forfeit all Offices that they held either in Church or State and to be under a disability during life If any should advance the authority of a Foreign Power for the first offence they were to be fined or imprisoned for the second to be in a Praemunire and the third was made Treason The Queen was also impowered to give Commissions for Judging and Reforming Ecclesiastical matters who were limited to judge nothing to be Heresie but what had been already so judged by the authority of the Scriptures or the first four General Councils All Points that were not decided either by express words of Scripture or by those Councils were to be referred to the Parliament and Convocation The Title of Supream Head was changed partly because the Queen had some scruples about it and partly to moderate the opposition which the Popish party might otherwise make to it and the refusing the Oath was made no other way Penal but that all Offices or Benefices were forfeited upon it which was a great mitigation of the severity in King Henry's time The Bishops are said to have made several Speeches against this in the House of Lords but that which goes under the name of Heath's Speech must be a forgery for in it the Supremacy is called a new and unheard of thing which could not have flowed from one that had sworn it so often both under King Henry and King Edward Tonstall came not to this Parliament and he was so offended with the Cruelties of the last Reign that he had withdrawn himself into his Diocess where he burnt none himself upon that it was now thought that he was so much alienated from those Methods that some had great hopes of his declaring for the Reformation Heath had been likewise very moderate nor were any burnt under him Upon the power given the Queen to appoint some to Reform and direct all Ecclesiastical matters was the Court called the High Commission Court founded which indeed was nothing but the sharing that authority which was in one Person in King Henry's time into many hands for that Court had no other authority but that which was lodged formerly in Cromwell as the King's Vicegerent and was now thought too great to be trusted to one Man Great complaints were made of seditious Sermons preached by the Popish Clergy Preaching without Licence forbidden upon which the Queen followed the Precedent that her Sister had made and forbid all Preaching excepting only by such as obtained a Licence under the Great Seal for it She likewise sent an Order to the Convocation requiring them under the pains of a Praemunire to make no Canons Yet the lower House in an Address to the upper House declared for the Corporal Presence and that the Mass was a Propitiatory Sacrifice and for the Supremacy and that matters of Religion fell only under the Cognisance of the Pastors of the Church The greatest part of both Universities had also set their hands to all these Points except the last This it seems A publick Conference about Religion was the rather added by the Clerks of Convocation to hinder a publick Conference which the Queen had appointed between the Bishops and the Reformed Divines It was first