If full Forty days be necessary for a Summons then the Writs must have been issued forth the day before the late Queens disgrace so that it was designed before the Justs at Greenwich and did not flow from any thing that then appeared When the Parliament met the Lord Chancellor Audley in his speech told them That when the former Parliament was dissolved the King had no thoughts of Summoning a new one so soon But for two reasons he had now called them The one was that he finding himself subject to so many infirmities and considering that he was Mortal a rare thought in a Prince he desired to settle an apparent heir to the Crown in case he should die without Children lawfully begotten The other was to repeal an Act of the former Parliament concerning the Succession of the Crown to the issue of the King by Queen Anne Boleyn He desired them to reflect on the great troubles and vexation the King was involved in by his first unlawful Marriage and the dangers he was in by his second which might well have frighted any body from a third Marriage But Anne and her Conspirators being put to death as they well deserved the King at the humble request of the Nobility and not out of any Carnal concupiscence was pleased to Marry again a Queen by whom there were very probable hopes of his having children Therefore he recommended to them to provide an heir to the Crown by the Kings direction who if the King dyed without children lawfully begotten might Rule over them He desired they would pray God earnestly that he would grant the King issue of his own body and return thanks to Almighty God that preserved such a King to them out of so many eminent dangers who imployed all his care and endeavours that he might keep his whole people in quiet peace and perfect charity and leave them so to those that should succeed him But though this was the chief cause of calling the Parliament it seems the Ministers met with great difficulties and therefore spent much time in preparing mens minds For the Bill about the Succession to the Crown was not brought into the House of Lords before the 30th day of Iune that the Lord Chancellor offered it to the House It went through both Houses without any Opposition It contained first a repeal of the former Act of Succession and a Confirmation of the two Sentences of Divorce the issue of both the Kings former Marriages being declared illegitimate and for ever excluded from claiming the inheritance of the Crown as the Kings Lawful heirs by lineal descent The Attainder of Queen Anne and her Complices is confirmed Quen Anne is said to have been inflamed with pride and Carnal desires of her body and having confederated her self with her complices to have committed divers Treasons to the danger of the Kings Royal person with other aggravating words for which she had justly suffered death and is now attainted by Act of Parliament And all things that had been said or done against her or her Daughter being contrary to an Act of Parliament then in force are pardoned and the inheritance of the Crown is established on the issue of Queen Iane whether Male or Female or the Kings issue by any other Wife whom he might Marry afterwards But since it was not fit to declare to whom the Succession of the Crown belonged after the Kings death lest the person so designed might be thereby enabled to raise trouble and Commotions therefore they considering the Kings wise and excellent Government and confiding in the love and affection which he bore to his Subjects did give him full Power to declare the Succession to the Crown either by his Letters Patents under the great Seal or by his last will Signed with his hand and promised all faithful obedience to the persons named by him And if any so designed to succeed in default of others should endeavor to usurp upon those before them or to exclude them they are declared Traytors and were to forfeit all the Right they might thereafter claim to the Crown And if any should maintain the Lawfulness of the former Marriages or that the issue by them was legitimate or refused to swear to the Kings issue by Queen Iane they were also declared Traytors By this Act it may appear how absolutely this King Reigned in England Many question'd much the validity of it and as shall afterwards appear the Scots said that the Succession to the Crown was not within the Parliaments Power to determine aboutit but must go by inheritance to their King in default of issue by this King Yet by this the King was enabled to settle the Crown on his Children whom he had now declared Illegitimate by which he brought them more absolutely to depend upon himself He neither made them desperate nor gave them any further Right than what they were to derive purely from his own good pleasure This did also much pacifie the Emperor since his Kinswoman was though not restored in blood yet put in a capacity to succeed to the Crown At this time there came a new Proposition from Rome to try if the King would accommodate matters with the Pope Pope Clement the Seventh dyed two years before this in the year 1534. and Cardinal Farnese succeeded him called Pope Paul the Third He had before this made one unsuccessful attempt upon the King but upon the beheading of the Bishop and declared Cardinal of Rochester he had Thundered a most terrible Sentence of Deposition against the King and designed to commit the Execution of it to the Emperor Yet now when Queen Katharine and Queen Anne who were the occasions of the Rupture were both out of the way he thought it was a proper conjuncture to try if a Reconciliation could be effected This he proposed to Sir Gregory Cassali who was no more the Kings Ambassador at Rome but was still his Correspondent there The Pope desired he would move the King in it and let him know that he had ever favoured his Cause in the former Popes time and though he was forced to give out a Sentence against him yet he had never any intention to proceed upon it to further Extremities But the King was now so entirely alienated from the Court of Rome that to cut off all hopes of reconciliation he procured two Acts to be passed in this Parliament The one was for the utter extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome It was brought into the House of Lords on the 4th of Iuly And was read the first time the 5th and the second time on the 6th of Iuly and lay at the Committee till the 12th And on the 14th it was sent down to the Commons who if there be no mistake in the Journal sent it up that same day They certainly made great haste for the Parliament was dissolved within Four days The Preamble of this first Act contains severe Reflections on
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
that Commotion were severely handled It was by their means that the discontents were chiefly fomented they had taken all the Oaths that were enjoyned them and yet continued to be still practising against the State which as it was highly contrary to the peaceable Doctrines of the Christian Religion so it was in a special manner contrary to the Rules which they professed that obliged them to forsake the World and to follow a Religious and Spiritual course of Life The next Example of justice was a year after this of one Forrâ—st an Observant Frier he had been as Sanders says Confessor to Queen Katharine but it seems departed from her interests for he insinuated himself so into the King that he recovered his good Opinion Being an ignorant and lewd man he was accounted by the better sort of that House to which he belonged in Greenwich a Reproach to their Order concerning this I have seen a large account in an Original Letter written by a Brother of the same House Having regained the Kings good Opinion he put all those who had favoured the Divorce under great fears for he proceeded cruelly against them And one Rainscroft being suspected to have given secret Intelligence of what was done among them was shut up and so hardly used that he dyed in their hands which was as that Letter relates done by Frier Forrests means This Frier was found to have denyed the Kings Supremacy for though he himself had sworn it yet he had infused it into many in Confession that the King was not the Supream Head of the Church Being questioned for these practices which were so contrary to the Oath that he had taken he answered that he took that Oath with his outward man but his inward man had never consented to it Being brought to his Tryal and accused of several Heretical opinions that he held he submitted himself to the Church Upon this he had more freedom allowed him in the Prison but some coming to him diverted him from the Submission he had offered so that when the Paper of Abjuration was brought him he refused to set his hand to it upon which he was judged an Obstinate Heretick The Records of these Proceedings are lost but the Books of that time say that he denyed the Gospel it is like it was upon that pretence that without the determination of the Church it had no Authority upon which several writers of the Roman Communion have said undecent and scandalous things of the holy Scriptures He was brought to Smithfield where were present the Lords of the Council to offer him his pardon if he would abjure Latimer made a Sermon against his errors and studyed to perswade him to recant but he continued in his former opinions so he was put to death in a most severe manner He was hanged in a chain about his middle and the great Image that was brought out of Walâ—s was broken to pieces and served for fewel to burn him He shewed great unquietness of mind and ended his Life in an ungodly manner as Hall says who adds this Character of him that he had little knowledg of God and his sincere truth and less trust in him at his ending In Winter that year a correspondence was discovered with Cardinal Pole who was barefaced in his Treasonable designs against the King His Brother Sir Geofrey Pole discovered the whole Plot. For which the Marquess of Exceter that was the Kings Cousin-german by his Mother who was Edward the 4ths Daughter the Lord Montacute the Cardinals Brother Sir Geofrey Pole and Sir Edward Nevill were sent to the Tower in the beginning of November They were accused for having maintained a correspondence with the Cardinal and for expressing an hatred of the King with a dislike of his proceedings and a readiness to rise upon any good opportunity that might offer it self The special matter brought against the Lord Montacute and the Marquis of Excetâ—r who were tryed by their Peers on the 2d and 3d of December in the 30th year of this Reign is that whereas Cardinal Pole and others had cast off their Alleageance to the King and gone and submitted themselves to the Pope the Kings mortal enemy the Lord Montacute did on the 24th of Iuly in the 28th year of the Kings Reign a few months before the Rebellion broke out say that he liked well the proceedings of his Brother the Cardinal but did not like the proceedings of the Realm and said I trust to see a change of this World I trust to have a fair day upon those Knaves that rule about the King and I trust to see a merry World one day Words to the same purpose were also charged on the Marquess the Lord Montacute further said I would I were over the Sea with my Brother for this World will one day come to stripes it must needs so come to pass and I fear we shall lack nothing so much as honest men he also said he had dreamed that the King was dead and though he was not yet dead he would die suddenly one day his Leg will kill him and then we shall have jolly stirring saying also that he had never loved him from his childhood and that Cardinal Wolsey would have been an honest man if he had had an honest Master And the King having said to the Lords he woulâ—â—eave them one day having some apprehensions he might shortly die that Lord said if he will serve us so we shall be happily rid a time will come I fear we shall not tarry the time we shall do well enough He had also said he was sorry the Lord Abâ—rgâ—â—â—â—y was dead for he could have made ten thousand men and for his part he would go and live in the West where the Marquess of Excâ—ter was strong and had also said upon the breaking of the Northern Rebellion that the Lord Darcy played the fool for he went to pluck away the Council but he should have begun with the head first but I beshrew him for leaving off so soon These were the Words charged on those Lords as clear discoveries of their Treasonable designs and that they knew of the Rebellion that brake out and only intended to have kept it off to a fitter opportunity they were also accused of Correspondence with Cardinal Polâ— that was the Kings declared Enemy Upon these points the Lords pleaded not Guilty but were found Guilty by their Peers and so Judgment was given On the 4th of December were Indicted Sir Geofrey Polâ— for holding Correspondence with his Brother the Cardinal and saying that he approved of his proceedings but not of the Kings Sir Edâ—ard Nevill Brother to the Lord Abergaveny for saying the King was a Beast and worse than a Beast George Crofts Chancellor of the Cathedral of Chichester for saying the King was not bâ—t the Pope was Supream head of the Church and Iohn Collins for saying the King would hang in Hâ—ll one day for the plucking down of
Abbeys All those Sir Edward Nevill only excepted pleaded Guilty and so they were condemned but Sir Geofrey Pole was the only person of the number that was not Executed for he had discovered the matter At the same time also Cardinal Pole Michael Throgmorton Gentleman Iohn Hilliard and Thomas Goldwell Clerks and William Pâ—â—to a Franciscan of the Observance were Attainted in Absence because they had cast off their duty to the King and had subjected themselves to the Bishop of Rome Pole being made Cardinal by him and for writing Treasonable Letters and sending them into England On the 4th of February following Sir Nicholas Carew that was both Master of the Horse and Knight of the Garter was Arraigned for being an adherent to the Marquess of Exeter and having spoke of his Attaindor as unjust and cruel he was also Attainted and Executed upon the 3d of March When he was brought to the Scaffold he openly acknowledged the errors and superstition in which he had formerly lived and blessed God for his Imprisonment for he then began to relish the Life and sweetness of Gods holy Word which was brought him by his Keeper one Phillips who followed the Reformation and had formerly suffered for it After these Executions followed the Parliament in the year 15â—9 in which not only these Attaindors that were already passed were confirmed but new ones of a strange and unheard-of nature were Enacted It is a blemish never to be washed off and which cannot be enough condemned and was a breach of the most sacred and unalterable Rules of Justice which is capable of no excuse it was the Attainting of some persons whom they held in custody without bringing them to a Tryal Concerning which I shall add what the great Lord Chief Justice Cook writes although I question not the Power of the Parliament for without question the Attaindor stands of force in Law yet this I say of the manner of proceeding Aâ—ferat Oblivio si potest si non utrumque silentium tegat For the more high and absolute the Jurisdiction of the Court is the more just and honourable it ought to be in the proceedings and to give Example of Justice to inferior Courts The chief of these were the Marchioness of Exeter and the Countess of Sarum The special matter charged on the former is her confederating her self to Sir Nicolas Carew in his Treasons to which is added that she had committed divers other abominable Treasons The latter is said to have confederated her self with her Son the Cardinal with other aggravating words It does not appear by the Journal that any Witnesses were examined only that day that the Bills were read the third time in the House of Lords Cromwell shewed them a Coat of white silk which the Lord Admiral had found among the Countess of Sarums Cloaths in which the Arms of England were wrought on the one side and the Standard that was carryed before the Rebels was on the other side This was brought as an evidence that she approved of the Rebellion Three Irish Priests were also Attainted for carrying Letters out of Ireland to the Pope and Cardinal Pole as also Sir Adrian Fortescue for endeavouring to raise Rebellion Thomas Dingley a Knight of St. Iohn of Ierusalem and Robert Granceter Merchant for going to several Forreign Princes and perswading them to make War upon the King and assist the Lords Darcy and Hussie in the Rebellion they had raised Two Gentlemen a Dominican Frier and a Yeoman were by the same Act Attainted for saying that that venemous Serpent the Bishop of Rome was Supream Head of the Church of England Another Gentleman two Priests and a Yeoman are Attainted for Treason in general no particular crime being specified Thus sixteen persons were in this manner Attainted and if there was any Examination of Witnesses for convicting them it was either in the Star-Chamber or before the Privy Council for there is no mention of any evidence that was brought in the Journals There was also much haste made in the passing this Bill it being brought in the 10th of May was read that day for the first and second time and the 11th of May for the third time The Commons kept it five days before they sent it back and added some more to those that were in the Bill at first but how many were named in the Bill Originally and how many were afterwards added cannot be known Fortescue and Dingley suffered the 10th of Iuly As for the Countess of Sarum the Lord Herbert saw in a Record that Bulls from the Pope were found in her House that she kept correspondence with her Son and that she forbade her Tenants to have the new Testament in English or any other of the Books that had been published by the Kings Authority She was then about seventy years of Age but shewed by the answers she made that she had a vigorous and masculine mind She was kept two years Prisoner in the Tower after the Act had passed the King by that reprieve designing to oblige her Son to a better behaviour but upon a fresh provocation by a new Rebellion in the North she was beheaded and in her the name and line of Plantagenet determined The Marchioness of Exceter died a natural death In November this year were the Abbots of Reading Glossenbury and Colechester Attainted of Treason of which mention was made formerly In the Parliament that sate in the year 1540 they went on to follow that strange precedent which they had made the former year By the 56th Act Giles Heron was Attainted of Treason no special matter being mentioned By the 57th Act Richard Fetherstoun Thomas Abell and Edward Pole Priests and William Horn a Yeoman were Attainted for denying the Kings Supremacy and adhering to the Bishop of Rome by the same Act the Wife of one Tirrell Esquire was Attainted for refusing her duty of Alleageance and denying Prince Edward to be Prince and heir of the Crown and one Laurence Cook of Doncaster was also Attainted for contriving the Kings death By the 58th Act Gregory Buttolph Adam Damplip and Edward Brindeholm Clerks and Clement Philpot Gentleman were Attainted for adhering to the Bishop of Rome for corresponding with Cardinal Pole and endeavouring to surprize the Town of Callais By the same Act Barnes Gerard and Ierome were Attainted of whose sufferings an account has been already given By the 59th Act William Bird a Priest and Chaplain to the Lord Hungerford was attainted for having said to one that was going to Assist the King against the Rebels in the North I am sorry thou goest seest thou not how the King plucketh down Images and Abbies every day and if the King go thither himself he will never come home again nor any of them all which go with him and in truth it were pity he should ever come home again and at another time upon ones saying O good Lord I ween all the World will be
to you the King 's said Ambassador shall have a good colour to induce the Pope's Holiness saying as of your self That you have well considered your own pursuits for producing the Brief at Rome and because the Emperor might per-case think that the Pope were about to arect unto him the falsity of the said Brief therefore you can be contented that that matter be put off and no mention to be made thereof by his Nuntio or otherwise whereunto it is not to be doubted but the Pope's Holiness will have special regard and facilly condescend to your desires in that behalf Finally It appeareth also by certain your Letters sent as well to the King's Highness as to me that the Pope's Holiness is much desirous to study and find a mean and way to satisfy the King's Highness in this behalf Amongst which one clause in his Letters to me is this Tametsi enim jurisperitorum consilium quaesiverimus sed nihil reperimus quod bonis orâ—toribus simul justitiae ac honori nostro satisfaceret sed tamen agimus omnia tentamus omnes modos Regiae suae Serenitati ac circumspectioni tuae satisfaciendi And it is added in the Margin with Wolsey's hand Mi Petre referas tuis literis pervelim quid tibi mihi Pontifex dixerit de modis excogitandis quomodo subridens dicebat In nomine Patris c. Wherefore since his Holiness so plainly declared that he seeketh the ways and means to satisfie the King's Highness it shall be in any wise expedient that you the said Orators perceiving any towardness of Advocation lay this to the Pope's Holiness saying That that is not the way to satisfy his Grace and yet besides that by your Wisdoms to find the means to understand and know of his Holiness what be the ways and means which his Holiness hath studied or can study to satisfie the King according to his writing in this behalf whereof they shall say his Grace is glad and is very desirous to know and understand the same and as you shall perceive any towardness or untowardness in the Pope in that behalf so to set forth your pursuits to the best purpose accordingly And thus heartily fare you well From Richmond the 21 day of May. Your loving Friend T. Cardinalis Eborac May 31. Romae 1529. XXVI A Letter of the Popes to the Cardinal An Original Dilecto Filio nostro Thomae tituli Sanctae Ceciliae Presbytero Cardinali Eboracensi nostro sedis Apostolicae Legato de latere Clemens manu propria DIlecte Fili noster salutem Apostolicam benedictionem Cum Angliae Rex ac Circumspectio vestra vetera vestra erga nos Sedem Apostolicam merita novis officiis augeretis optabamus occasionem in qua vos nostrum amorem cognoscere possetis sed molestissime tulimus eam primum esse oblatam in qua circumsepti angustis terminis Justitiae non possemus progredi quantum vellemus studio vobis gratificandi multis ac rationabilibus Causis desiderium vestrum impedientibus quod quidem Regiis Oratoribus istuc redeuntibus demonstrare conati sumus Sed super his publicis negotiis copiosius vobiscum loquetur Dilectus Filius noster Cardinalis Campegius Datum Romae die ultima Maii 1529. J. April 6. 1529. XXVII The King's Letter to his Ambassadours to hinder an Avocation of the Suit An Original By the King Henry Rex TRusty and right well-beloved we greet you well Since your departure from hence we have received sundry your Letters to us directed whereof the last beareth date at Rome the 4 th day of the last month and have also seen such other as from time to time ye have sent to the most Reverend Father in God our most entirely well-beloved Counsellor the Lord Legate Cardinal Archbishop of York Primate of England and our Chancellour By continue whereof we have been advertised of the Successes as well of your Journey thitherwards as of such things as ye to that time had done in our Causes to you committed for the which your diligent advertisement and good acquittal we give unto you condign thanks ascertaining you We do not a little marvel that in your said last Letters you shew so much desperation of any great favour to be had at the Pope's hand in our said Causes considering that neither ye then had spoken with his Holiness in the same nor by such Conferences as ye had had with Mr. Iacobo Salviati or other on his behalf we can perceive but all good favour and towardness tho per-case the superiority of the Imperials and the common fame led you to think the contrary Howbeit as you know no credence is to be given unto such common report nor we trust the same shall prove more true than hath done the Opinion that was of the Lord Legate Campegius now here Resident whom we find and certainly know to be of a far other sort in his love and inclination towards us than was spoken not having such affection towards the Emperor as in him was suspected And to be plain with you if ever he had been of other mind we have said somewhat to him after such manner as might soon change that intention So that little Faith is to be given to the outward Sayings and Opinions of such People as measure every thing at their pleasure which we doubt not but ye right wisely do consider and that ye have before this time by your diligent sollicitation made to speak with the Pope's Holiness for declaration of your Charge proved the contrary Whereof we shall be glad and joyous to hear willing and desiring you therefore according to the great and special confidence that we have in you to pretermit no time in the diligent handling and execution of your said Charge but by one good way or other to find the mean if you have not already done it to declare the same unto the Pope wherein the good advice and address of the Bishop of Verone shall We trust do you great furtherance and by whose means if ye for the Pope's extreme debility or sickness might in no wise be often admitted unto his presence ye may signify unto him at great length our whole Mind Desire and Intent after such form as your Instructions and Letters given and sent unto you in that behalf do purport For sure ye may be it shall highly confer unto the benefit of our Causes that ye have there present one so fast and assured Friend unto us as we trust the Bishop of Verone is who shall be able right largely to countervail and meet with the malicious practices of the Archbishop of Capua who is thought to be one of the chief Authors and Contrivers of the Falsities Crafts and Abuses set forth to the hindrance of our said Causes which no Man shall more politickly and facilly deprehend than the said Bishop of Verone may do And therefore he is by you with all good means and
Witness what I said unto him after your Grace came from Rochester yea and after your Grace's Marriage And also now of late sithence Whitsuntide and I doubt not but many and divers of my Lords of your Council both before your Marriage and sithence have right-well perceived that your Majesty hath not been well pleased with your Marriage And as I shall answer to God I never thought your Grace content after you had once seen her at Rochester And this is all that I know most gracious and most merciful Sovereign Lord beseeching Almighty God who ever hath in all your Causes counselled preserved opened maintained relieved and defended your Highness So he will now vouchsafe to counsel you preserve you maintain you remedy you relieve and defend you as may be most to your Honour with Prosperity Health and Comfort of your Hearts desire For the which and for the long Life and prosperous Reign of your most Royal Majesty I shall during my Life and whiles I am here pray to Almighty God that he of his most abundant Goodness will help aid and comfort you after your continuance of Nestor's Years that that most noble Imp the Princes Grace your most dear Son may succeed you to Reign long prosperously and feliciously to God's pleasure beseeching most humbly your Grace to pardon this my rude writing and to consider that I a most woful Prisoner ready to take the Death when it shall please God and your Majesty and yet the frail flesh inciteth me continually to call to your Grace for Mercy and Grace for mine Offences and thus Christ save preserve and keep you Written at the Tower this Wednesday the last of Iune with the heavy Heart and trembling hand of your Highness's most heavy and most miserable Prisoner and poor Slave Thomas Cromwell Most Gracious Prince I cry for Mercy Mercy Mercy XVIII The King 's own Declaration concerning it An Original FIrst I depose and declare That this hereafter written is meerly the verity intended upon none sinister affection nor yet upon none hatred nor displeasure and herein I take God to witness Now to the Matter I say and affirm That when the first communication was had with me for the Marriage of the Lady Ann of Cleves I was glad to hearken to it trusting to have some assured Friend by it I much doubting that time both the Emperor France and the Bishop of Rome and also because I heard so much both of her excellent Beauty and vertuous Conditions But when I saw her at Rochester the first time that ever I saw her it rejoiced my heart that I had kept me free from making any Pact or Bond before with her till I saw her my self for then I adsure you I liked her so ill and so far contrary to that she was praised that I was woe that ever she came into England and deliberated with my self that if it were possible to find means to break off I would never enter Yoke with her Of which misliking both the great Master the Admiral that now is and the Master of the Horses can and will here record Then after my repair to Greenwich the next day after I think and doubt not but that the Lord of Essex well examined can and will or hath declared what I then said to him in that case not doubting but since he is a Person which knoweth himself condemned to die by Act of Parliament will not damn his Soul but truly declare the Truth not only at that time spoken by me but also continually till the day of Marriage and also many times after whereby my lack of consent I doubt not doth or shall well appear And also lack enough of the Will and Power to consummate the same wherein both he my Physicians the Lord Privy Seal that now is Hennage and Denny can and I doubt not will testify according to truth which is That I never for love to the Woman consented to marry nor yet if she brought Maiden-head with her took any from her by true Carnal Copulation This is my brief true and perfect Declaration XIX The Iudgment of the Convocation for annulling of the Marriage with Ann of Cleve TEnor vero Literarum Testimonialum hujusmodi sequitur est talis Excellentissimo in Christo Principi c. Thomas Cantuarien Edwardus Eboracen Archiepiscopi caeterique Episcopi reliquus vestri Regni Angliae clerus Autoritate Literarum Commissionalium Vestrae Majestatis Congregati ac Synodum universalem repraesentantes cum obsequio reverentia honore debitis salutem foelicitatem Cum nos humillimi Majestatis Vestrae devotissimi subditi Convocati Congregati sumus virtute Commissionis Vestrae magno sigillo Vestro sigillat dat 6 Julii Anno foelicissimi Regni Vestri tricesimo secundo quam accepimus in haec quae sequitur verba Henricus Octavus Dei Gratia Angliae c. Archiepiscopis Cantuarien Eborac ac caeteris Regni nostri Angliae Episcopis Decanis Archidiaconis universo Clero salutem Egerunt apud nos Regni nostri proceres populus ut cum nuper quaedam emerserint quae ut illi putant ad nos Regnique nostri successionem pertineant inter quae praecipua est causa conditio Matrimonii quod cum Illustri Nobili Foemina Domina Anna Clevensi propter externam quidem conjugii speciem perplexum alioqui etiam multis ac variis modis ambiguum videtur Nos ad ejusdem Matrimonii disquisitionem ita procedere dignaremur ut opinionem Vestram qui in Ecclesia nostra Anglicana scientiam Verbi Dei Doctrinam profitemini exquiramus vobisque discutiendum Autoritatem ita demandemus ut si animis Vestris fuerit persuasum Matrimonium cum praefata Domina Anna minime consistere aut cohaerere debere nos ad Matrimonium contrahend cum alia liberos esse Vestro Patrum ac reliquae deinde Ecclesiae suffragio pronuncietur confirmetur Nos autem qui Vestrum in reliquis Ecclesiae hujus Anglicanae negotiis gravioribus quae Ecclesiasticam Oeconomiam Religionem spectant judicium amplecti solemus ad veritatis explicandae testimonium omnino necessarium rati sumus Causae hujusmodi Matrimonialis seriem circumstantias vobis exponi communicari curare ut quod vos per Dei Leges licere decreveritis id demum totius Ecclesiae nostrae Autoritate innixi licite facere exequi audeamus Vos itaque Convocari in Synodum Universalem nostra Autoritate convenire volentes vobis conjunctim divisim committimus atque mandamus ut inspecta hujus negotii veritate ac solum Deum prae oculis habentes quod verum quod justum quod honestum quod sanctum est id nobis de communi Concilio scripto annuncio renuncietis de communi consensu licere definiatis Nempe hoc unum a vobis nostro jure postulamus ut tanquam fida proba Ecclesiae membra causae huic
what Law the order of Ecclesiastical Constitution is bounden and let them not think those words of the Apostle to be his but rather the words of Christ himself Opinor requiri Consecrationem quandam hoc est impositionem manuum Orationem jejunium c. tamen nusquam hoc munere fungi posse nisi ubi Magistratus invitet jubeat aut permittat By Scripture there is no Consecration of Bishops and Priests required but only the appointing to the Office of a Priest cum Impositione manuum Consecration of Bishops and Priests I read not in the New Testament but Ordinatio per manuum Impositionem cum Oratione is read there as in the places above and the only appointment as I think is not sufficient Praeter vocationem ceu designationem externam quae vel a Principe fit vel a populo per electionem suffragia requiritur Ordinatio alia per manuum impositionem idque per Verbum Dei Besides the appointing to the Office it appeareth that in the Primitive Church the Apostles used certain Consecration of the Ministers of the Church by imposition of Hands and Prayer Acts 6. and with Fasting Acts 14 c. The Office of Priesthood is too dangerous to set upon when one is but appointed only Therefore for the confirmation of their Faith who take in hand such charge and for the obtaining of farther Grace requisite in the same Consecration was ordained by the Holy Ghost and hath been always used from the beginning Deputation to the Office is not sufficient to make a Priest or a Bishop as appeareth by David and Solomon who deputed the 24 above-mentioned to their Offices yet they made none of them Priests nor any other The appointing to the Office per manuum Impositionem is in Scripture and the Consecration of them hath of long time continued in the Church There is a certain kind of Consecration required which is imposition of the Bishops hands with Prayer and the appointing only is not sufficient To the twelfth I suppose that there is a Consecration required as by Imposition of Hands for so we be taught by the ensample of the Apostles In the New Testament is required to the making of a Bishop Impositio manuum cum Oratione which I take for Consecration and Appointment unto the Office is not sufficient for King David 1 Chron. 24. did appoint 24 to be Bishops who after were consecrated so that both the Appointment and the Consecration be requisite Respondent Eboracens Londinens Carliolens Leighton Tresham Robertâ—onus Edgeworth Curren Dayns Oglethorp Consecrationem esse requisitam Redmanus ait eam receptam esse ab Apostolis atque a Spiritu Sancto institutam ad conferendam gratiam Dayus Roffens Symmons aiunt Sacerdotium conferri per manuum impositionem idque ê Scripturis Consecrationem vero diu receptam in Ecclesia Coxus Institutionem cum manuum impositione sufficere neque per Scripturam requiri Consecrationem Robertsonus addit supra alios nusquam hoc munere fungi posse quempiam nisi ubi Magistratus invitet jubeat aut permittat In the twelfth Question where it is asked Whether in the New Testament be required any Consecration of a Bishop or only appointing to the Office be sufficient The Bishop of St. Davids saith That only the appointing Dr. Cox That only appointing cum manuum Impositione is sufficient without Consecration The Bishops of York London Duresme Carlisle Drs. Day Curren Leighton Tresham Edgworth Oglethorp say That Consecration is requisite Dr. Redmayn saith That Consecration hath been received from the Apostles time and institute of the Holy Ghost to confer Grace My Lord of Rochester Dr. Day and Symmons say That Priesthood is given per manuum impositionem and that by Scripture and that Consecration hath of long time been received in the Church 13. Question Whether if it fortuned a Christian Prince Learned to conquer certain Dominions of Infidels having none but temporal learned Men with him if it be defended by God's Law that he and they should Preach and Teach the Word of God there or no And also make and constitute Priests or no Answers IT is not against God's Law but contrary they ought indeed so to do and there be Histories that witnesseth that some Christian Princes and other Laymen unconsecrate have done the same To the thirteenth To the first part of this Question touching Teaching and Preaching the Word of God in case of such need we think that Laymen not ordered not only may but must preach Christ and his Faith to Infidels as they shall see opportunity to do the same and must endeavour themselves to win the Miscreants to the Kingdom of God if that they can for as the Wise Man saith God hath given charge to every Man of his Neighbour and the Scripture of God chargeth every Man to do all the good that he can to all Men And surely this is the highest Alms to draw Men from the Devil the Usurper and bring them to God the very Owner Wherefore in this case every Man and Woman may be an Evangelist and of this also we have example But touching the second part for case of Necessity As we neither find Scripture nor Example that will bear that any Man being himself no Priest may make that is to say may give the Order of Priesthood to another and authority therewith to minister in the said Order and to use such Powers and Offices as appertaineth to Priesthood grounded in the Gospel So we find in such case of need what hath been done in one of the ancient Writers altho this authority to ordain after form afore-mentioned be not to Laymen expresly prohibited in Scripture yet such a prohibition is implied in that there is no such authority given to them either in Scripture or otherways for so much as no Man may use this or any other authority which cometh from the Holy Ghost unless he hath either Commission grounded in Scripture or else Authority by Tradition and ancient use of Christ's Church universally received over all To the thirteenth and fourteenth following I think that necessity herein might either be a sufficient Rule and Warrant to determine and order such Cases considering that tempore necessitatis mulier baptizat laicus idem facit audit confessionem or else that God would inspire in the Princes heart to provide the best and most handsome Remedy therein And hard were it peradventure to find such great necessity but either in the train of the said Prince or in the Regions adjoining thereunto there might be had some Priests for the said purposes or finally That the Prince himself godlily inspired in that behalf might for so good purposes and intents set forth the Act indeed referring yet this thing to the better judgment of others To the thirteenth and fourteenth following I never read these cases neither in Scripture nor in
This as it was fatal to the Counts of Tholouse who were great Princes in the South of France and first fell under the Censures so it was terrible to all other Princes who thereupon to save themselves delivered up their Subjects to the Mercy of the Ecclesiastical Courts Burning was the death they made choice of because Witches Vizards and Sodomites had been so executed Therefore to make Heresie appear a terrible thing this was thought the most proper punishment of it It had also a resemblance of everlasting Burning to which they adjudged their Souls as well as their bodies were condemned to the â—ire but with this signal difference that they could find no such effectual way to oblige God to execute their sentence as they contrived against the Civil Magistrate But however they confidently gave it out that by vertue of that Promise of our Saviours Whose sins ye bind on Earth they are bound in Heaven their Decrees were ratified in Heaven And it not being easie to disprove what they said people believed the one as they saw the other Sentence executed So that whatever they condemned as Heresie was looked on as the worst thing in in the world There was no occasion for the execution of this Law in England till the days of Wickliffe And the favour he had from some great men stopt the Proceedings against him But in the 5th year of King Richard the Second a Bill passed in the House of Lords and was assented to by the King and published for an Act of Parliament though the Bill was never sent to the House of Commons By this pretended Law it appears Wickliff's followers were then very numerous that they had a certain habit and did Preach in many places both in Churches Church-yards and Markets without Licence from the Ordinary and did preach several Doctrines both against the Faith and the Laws of the Land as had been proved before the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the other Bishops Prelats Doctors of Divinity and of the Civil and Canon-Law and others of the Clergy That they would not submit to the admonitions nor Censures of the Church but by their subtile ingenious words did draw the people to follow them and defend them by strong hand and in great routs Therefore it was Ordained that upon the Bishops certifying into the Chancery the names of such Preachers and their Abettors the Chancellour should issue forth Commissions to the Sheriffs and others the Kings Ministers to hold them in Arrest and strong Prison till they should justify them according to the Law and reason of Holy Church From the gentleness of which law it may appear that England was not then so tame as to bear the severity of those cruel laws which were setled and put in execution in other Kingdoms The Custome at that time was to engross Copies of all the Acts of Parliament and to send them with a Writ under the great Seal to the Sheriffs to make them be proclaimed within their jurisdictions And Iohn Braibrook Bishop of London then Lord Chancellour sent this with the other Acts of that Parliament to be proclaimed The Writ bears date the 26th of May 5 to Reg. But in the next Parliament that was held in the 6th year of that Kings Reign the Commons preferred a Bill reciting the former Act and constantly affirmed that they had never assented to it and therefore desired it might be declared to be void for they Protested it was never their intent to be Iustified and to bind themselves and their Successors to the Prelats more than their Ancestors had done in times past To which the King gave the Royal Assent as it is in the Records of Parliament But in the Proclamation of the Acts of that Parliament this Act was suppressed so that the former Act was still looked on as a good law and is Printed in the Book of Statutes Such pious frauds were always practised by the Popish Clergy and were indeed necessary for the supporting the Credit of that Church When Richard the 2d was deposed and the Crown usurped by Henry the 4th then he in gratitude to the Clergy that assisted him in his coming to the Crown granted them a law to their hearts content in the 2 d. year of his Reign The Preamble bears That some had a new Faith about the Sacraments of the Church and the Authority of the same and did Preach without Authority gathered Conventicles taught Schools wrote Books against the Catholick Faith with many other heinous aggravations Upon which the Prelats and Clergy and the Commons of the Realm prayed the King to provide a sufficient remedy to so great an evil Therefore the King by the assent of the States and other discreet men of the Realm being in the said Parliament did Ordain That none should Preach without Licence except persons Priviledged That none should Preach any Doctrine contrary to the Catholick Faith or the Determination of the Holy Church and that none should favour and abett them nor keep their Books but deliver them to the Diocesan of the place within 40 days after the Proclamation of that Statute And that if any Persons were defamed or suspected of doing against that Ordinance then the Ordinary might Arrest them and keep them in his Prison till they were Canonically purged of the Articles laid against them or did abjure them according to the Laws of the Church Provided always that the proceedings against them were publickly and judicially done and ended within three Months after they had been so Arrested and if they were Convict the Diocesan or his Commissaries might keep them in Prison as long as to his discretion shall seem expedient and might Fine them as should seem competent to him certifying the Fine into the Kings Exchequer and if any being Convict did refuse to abjure or after Abjuration did fall into Relapse then he was to be left to the Secular Court according to the Holy Canons And the Majors Sheriffs or Bayliffs were to be personally present at the passing the Sentence when they should be required by the Diocesan or his Commissaries and after the Sentence they were to receive them and them before the People in a high place do to be Brent By this Statute the Sheriffs or other Officers were immediatly to proceed to the Burning of Hereticks without any Writ or Warrant from the King But it seems the Kings Learned Council advised him to issue out a Writ De Haeretico comburendo upon what grounds of Law I cannot tell For in the same year when William Sartre who was the first that was put to death upon the account of Heresie was judged Relapse by Thomas Arundel Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in a Convocation of his Province and thereupon was degraded from Priesthood and left to Secular Power a Writ was issued out to Burn him which in the Writ is called The Customary Punishment relating it as like to the Customs that were beyond
And the corruptions of their Worship and Doctrine were such that a very small proportion of common sense with but an overly looking on the New Testament discovered them Nor had they any other varnish to colour them by but the Authority and Traditions of the Church But when some studious men began to read the Ancient Fathers and Councils though there was then a great mixture of Sophisticated stuff that went under the Ancient names and was joyned to their true works which Criticks have since discovered to be spurious they found a vast difference between the first Five Ages of the Christian Church in which Piety and Learning prevailed and the last Ten Ages in which Ignorance had buried all their former Learning only a little misguided Devotion was retained for Six of these Ages and in the last Four the restless Ambition and Usurpation of the Popes was supported by the seeming holiness of the begging Friers and the false Counterfeits of Learning which were among the Canonists School-men and Casuists So that it was incredible to see how men notwithstanding all the opposition the Princes every-where made to the progress of these reputed new Opinions and the great advantages by which the Church of Rome both held and drew many into their Interests were generally inclined to these Doctrines Those of the Clergy who at first Preached them were of the begging Orders of Friers who having fewer engagements on them from their Interests were freer to discover and follow the truth And the austere Discipline they had been trained under did prepare them to encounter those difficulties that lay in their way And the Laity that had long lookt on their Pastors with an evil eye did receive these Opinions very easily which did both discover the Impostures with which the world had been abused and shewed a plain and simple way to the Kingdom of Heaven by putting the Scriptures into their hands and such other Instructions about Religion as were sincere and genuine The Clergy who at first despised these new Preachers were at length much Allarmed when they saw all people running after them and râ—ceiving their Doctrines As these things did spread much in Germany Switzerland and the Netherlands so their Books came over into England where there was much matter already prepared to be wrought on not only by the prejudices they had conceived against the corrupt Clergy but by the Opinions of the Lollards which had been now in England since the days of Wickliff for about 150 years Between which Opinions and the Doctrines of the Reformers there was great Affinity and therefore to give the better vent to the Books that came out of Germany many of them were translated into the English-Tongue and were very much read and applauded This quickned the proceedings against the Lollards and the enquiry became so severe that great numbers were brought into the Toils of the Bishops and their Commissaries If a man had spoken but a light word against any of the Constitutions of the Church he was seized on by the Bishop's Officers and if any taught their Children the Lord's Prayer the Ten Commandments and the Apostle's Creed in the Vulgar Tongue that was crime enough to bring them to the Stake As it did Six men and a woman at Coventry in the passion-Passion-week 1519. being the 4 th of April Longland Bishop of Lincoln was very cruel to all that were suspected of Heresie in his Diocess several of them abjured and some were Burnt But all that did not produce what they designed by it The Clergy did not correct their own faults and their cruelty was looked on as an evidence of Guilt and of a weak Cause so that the method they took wrought only on peoples fears and made them more cautious and reserved but did not at all remove the Cause nor work either on their reasons or affections Upon all this the King to get himself a name and to have a lasting Interest with the Clergy thought it not enough to assist them with his Authority but would needs turn their Champion and write against Luther in defence of the Seven Sacraments This Book was magnified by the Clergy as the most Learned Work that ever the Sun saw and he was compared to King Solomon and to all the Christian Emperours that had ever been And it was the chief subject of flattery for many years besides the glorious Title of Defender of the Faith which the Pope bestowed on him for it And it must be acknowledged that considering the Age and that it was the Work of a King it did deserve some Commendation But Luther was not at all daunted at it but rather valued himself upon it that so great a King had entred the lists with him and answered his Book And he replied not without a large mixture of Acrimony for which he was generally blamed as forgetting that great respect that is due to the Persons of Soveraign Princes But all would not do These Opinions still gained more footing and William Tindal made a Translation of the New Testament in English to which he added some short Glosses This was printed in Antwerp and sent over into England in the year 1526. Against which there was a Prohibition published by every Bishop in his Diocess Bearing that some of Luthers followers had erroneously Translated the New Testament and had corrupted the Word of God both by a false Translation and by Heretical Glosses Therefore they required all Incumbents to charge all within their Parishes that had any of these to bring them in to the Vicar-General within 30 days after that premonition under the pains of Excommunication and incurring the suspition of Heresie There were also many other Books Prohibited at that time most of them written by Tindal And Sir Thomas More who was a man celebrated for Vertue and Learning undertook the answering of some of those but before he went about it he would needs have the Bishops Licence for keeping and reading them He wrote according to the way of the Age with much bitterness and though he had been no Friend to the Monks and a great declaimer against the Ignorance of the Clergy and had been ill used by the Cardinal yet he was one of the bitterest Enemies of the new Preachers not without great cruelty when he came into Power though he was otherwise a very good-natured man So violently did the Roman Clergy hurry all their Friends into those excesses of Fire and Sword When the Party became so considerable that it was known there were Societies of them not only in London but in both the Universities then the Cardinal was constrained to act His contempt of the Clergy was looked on as that which gave encouragement to the Hereticks When reports were brought to Court of a company that were in Cambridge Bilney Latimer and others that read and propagated Luther's Book and Opinions some Bishops moved in the year 1523. that there might be a Visitation appointed
Carnalis Copula But in this perhaps is left out and 't is plainly said That they had Consummated their Marriage This the King's Council who suspected that the Breve was forged made great use of when the Question was argued whether Prince Arthur knew her or not Though at this time 't was said the Spaniards did put it in on design knowing it was like to be proved that the former Marriage was Consummated which they intended to throw out of the debate since by this it appeared that the Pope did certainly know that and yet granted the Breve and that therefore there was to be no more enquiry to be made into that which was already confessed so that all that was now to be debated was the Popes power of granting such a Dispensation in which they had good reason to expect a favourable Decision at Rome But there appeared great grounds to reject this Breve as a forged writing It was neither in the Records of England nor Spain but said to be found among the Papers of D. de Puebla that had been the Spanish Ambassador in England at the time of concluding the Match So that if he only had it it must have been cassated otherwise the Parties concerned would have got it into their hands Or else it was forged since Many of the names were written false which was a presumption that it was lately made by some Spaniards who knew not how to write the names true For Sigismund who was Secretary when it was pretended to have been Signed was an exact man and no such errors were found in Breves at that time But that which shewed it a manifest Forgery was that it bore date the 26th of December Anno 1503. on the same day that the Bull was granted It was not to be imagined that in the same day a Bull and a Breve should have been expedited in the same business with such material differences in them And the stile of the Court of Rome had this singularity in it That in all their Breves they reckon the beginning of the year from christmas-Christmas-day which being the Nativity of our Lord they count the year to begin then But in their Bulls they reckon the year to begin at the Feast of the Annunciation So that a Breve dated the 26th of December 1503. was in the vulgar account in the year 1502. therefore it must be false for neither was Iulius the 2d who granted it then Pope nor was the Treaty of the Marriage so far advanced at that time as to admit of a Breve so soon But allowing the Breve to be true they had many of the same Exceptions to it that they had to the Bull since it bore that the King desired the Marriage to avoid a Breach between the Crowns which was false It likewise bore that the Marriage had been Consummated between the Queen and Prince Arthur which the Queen denied was ever done so that the suggestion in her name being as she said false it could have no force though it were granted to be a true Breve And they said it was plain the Imperialists were convinced the Bull was of no force since they betook themselves to such arts to fortifie their Cause When Cardinal Campegio came to England he was received with the publick Solemnities ordinary in such a case and in his speech at his first Audience he called the King the Deliverer of the Pope and of the City of Rome with the highest complements that the occasion did require But when he was admitted to a private Conference with the King and the Cardinal he used many arguments to diswade the King from prosecuting the matter any further This the King took very ill as if his errand had been rather to confirm than annul his Marriage and complained that the Pope had broken his word to him But the Legate studied to qualifie him and shewed the Decretal Bull by which he might see that though the Pope wished rather that the business might come to a more friendly conclusion yet if the King could not be brought to that he was empowered to grant him all that he desired But he could not be brought to part with the DecretalBull out of his hands or to leave it for a minute either with the King or the Cardinal saying That it was demanded on these terms that no other person should see it and that Gardiner and the Ambassador had only moved to have it expedited and sent by the Legate to let the King see how well the Pope was affected to him With all this the King was much dissatisfied but to encourage him again the Legate told him he was to speak to the Queen in the Popes name to induce her to enter into a Religious life and to make the Vows But when he proposed that to her she answered him modestly that she could not dispose of her self but by the advice of her Nephews Of all this the Cardinal of York advertised the Cassalies and ordered them to use all possible endeavours that the Bull might be showen to some of the Kings Council Upon that Sir Gregory being then out of Rome the Proto-Notary went to the Pope and complained that Campegio had disswaded the Divorce The Pope justified him in it and said He did as he had ordered him He next complained that the Legate would not proceed to execute the Legantine Commission The Pope denied that he had any order from him to delay his proceedings but that by vertue of his Commission they might go on and pass Sentence Then the Proto-Notary pressed him for leave to shew the Bull to some of the Kings Council complaining of Campegio's stiffness in refusing it and that he would not trust it to the Cardinal of York who was his equal in the Commission To this the Pope answered in passion That he could shew the Cardinals Letter in which he assures him that the Bull should only be shewed to the King and himself and that if it were not granted he was ruined therefore to preserve him he had sent it but had ordered it to be burnt when it was once shewed He wished he had never sent it saying he would gladly lose a Finger to recover it again and expressed great grief for granting it and said They had got him to send it and now would have it showed to which he would never consent for then he was undone for ever Upon this the Proto-Notary laid before him the danger of losing the King and the Kingdom of England of ruining the Cardinal of York and of the undoing of their Family whose hopes depended on the Cardinal and that by these means Heresie would prevail in England which if it once had great footing there would not be so easily rooted out That all persons judged the Kings Cause right but though it were not so some things that were not good must be born with to avoid greater evils And at last he fell
Clergy swore to the King and the Pope were read in the House of Commons but the Consequence of them will be better understood by setting them down The Oath to the Pope I Iohn Bishop or Abbot of A from this hour forward shall be faithful and obedient to S. Peter and to the holy Church of Rome and to my Lord the Pope and his Successors canonically entering I shall not be of counsel nor consent that they shall lose either Life or Member or shall be taken or suffer any violence or any wrong by any means Their Counsel to me credited by them their Messengers or Letters I shall not willingly discover to any person The Papacy of Rome the Rules of the holy Fathers and the Regality of S. Peter I shall help and maintain and defend against all men The Legat of the See Apostolick going and coming I shall honourably entreat The Rights Honours Privileges Authorities of the Church of Rome and of the Pope and his Successors I shall cause to be conserved defended augmented and promoted I shall not be in Council Treaty or any act in the which any thing shall be imagined against him or the Church of Rome their Rights Seats Honours or Powers And if I know any such to be moved or compassed I shall resist it to my power and as soon as I can I shall advertise him or such as may give him knowledge The Rules of the holy Fathers the Decrees Ordinances Sentences Dispositions Reservations Provisions and Commandments Apostolick to my power I shall keep and cause to be kept of others Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebels to our Holy Father and his Successors I shall resist and persecute to my power I shall come to the Synod when I am called except I be letted by a Canonical Impediment The Thresholds of the Apostles I shall visit yearly personally or by my Deputy I shall not alienate or sell my Possessions without the Popes counsel So God help me and the Holy Evangelists The Oath to the King I Iohn Bishop of A utterly renounce and clearly forsake all such Clauses Words Sentences and Grants which I have or shall have hereafter of the Popes Holiness of and for the Bishoprick of A that in any wise hath been is or hereafter may be hurtful or prejudicial to your Highness your Heirs Successors Dignity Privilege or Estate Royal. And also I do swear that I shall be faithful and true and faith and truth I shall bear to you my Sovereign Lord and to your Heirs Kings of the same of Life and Limb and yearly Worship above all Creatures for to live and die with you and yours against all people And diligently I shall be attendant to all your needs and business after my wit and power and your Counsel I shall keep and hold knowledging my self to hold my Bishoprick of you onely beseeching you of Restitution of the Temporalties of the same promising as before that I shall be a faithful true and obedient Subject to your said Highness Heirs and Successors during my Life and the Services and other things due to your Highness for the Restitution of the Temporalties of the same Bishopriâ—k I shall truly do and obediently perform So God me help and all Saints The Contradiction that was in these was so visible that it had soon produced a severe Censure from the House if the Plague had not hindered both that and the Bill of Subsidy So on the 14th of May the Parliament was prorogued Two days after Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellour having oft desired leave to deliver up the Great Seal and be discharged of his Office obtained it and Sir Thomas Audley was made Lord Chancellour More had carried that Dignity with great temper and lost it with much joy He saw now how far the Kings Designs went and though he was for cutting off all the Illegal Jurisdiction which the Popes exercised in England and therefore went cheerfully along with the Sute of Praemunire yet when he saw a tâ—tal Rupture like to follow he excused himself and retired from Business with a Greatness of Mind that was equal to what the ancient Philosophers pretended in such cases He also disliked Anne Boleyne and was prosecuted by her Father who studied to fasten some Criminal Imputations on him about the discharge of his Imployment but his Integrity had been such that nothing could be found to blemish his Reputation In September following the King created Anne Boleyne Marchioness of Pembroke to bring her by degrees up to the Heighth for which he had designed her And in October he passed the Seas and had an Enterview with the French King where all the most obliging Complements that were possible passed on both sides with great Magnificence and a firm Union was concerted about all their Affairs They published a League that they made to raise a mighty Army next year against the Turk but this was not much considered it being generally believed that the French King and the Turk were in a good Correspondence As for the matter of the Kings Divorce Francis encouraged him to go on in it and in his intended Marriage with Anne Boleyne promising if it were questioned to assist him in it And as for his appearance at Rome as it was certain he could not go thither in Person so it was not fit to trust the secrets of his Conscience to a Proxie The French King seemed also resolved to stop the payments of Annates and other Exactions of the Court of Rome and said he would send an Ambassador to the Pope to ask Redress of these and to protest that if it were not granted they would seek other remedies by Provincial Councils And since there was an interview designed between the Pope and the Emperor at Bononia in December the French King was to send two Cardinalsthither to procure Judges for ending the business in England There was also an interview proposed between the Pope and the French King at Nice or Avignon To this the King of England had some Inclinations to go for ending all differences if the Pope were well disposed to it Upon this Sir Thomas Eliot was sent to Rome with answer to a message the Pope had sent to the King from whose Instructions both the substance of the message and of the answer may be gathered The Pope had offered to the King that if he would name any indifferent place out of his own Kingdom he would send a Legate and two Auditors of the Rota thither to form the Process reserving only the Sentence to himself The Pope also proposed a Truce of three or four years and promised that in that time he would call a general Council For this message the King sent the Pope thanks but for the Peace he could receive no propositions about it without the concurrence of the French King and though he did not doubt the justice of a general Council yet considering the state of the Emperor's Affairs at that time
Court had an eye on their Lands made them to be as complyant as could be But Fisher was a man of great reputation and very ancient so that much pains was taken to satisfie him A week before the Parliament sat down the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury proposed to him that he and any Five Doctors such as he should choose and the Bishop of London and Five Doctors with him might confer about it and examine the Authorities of both sides that so there might be an Agreement among them by which the scandal might be removed which otherwise would be taken from their Janglings and Contests among themselves Fisher accepted of this and Stokesley wrote to him on the 8th of Ianuary that he was ready whenever the other pleased and desired him to name time and place and if they could not agree the matter among themselves he moved to refer it to two Learned men whom they should choose in whose determination they would both acquiesce How far this overture went I cannot discover and perhaps Fishers sickness hindred the progress of it But now on the 15th of Ianuary the Parliament sat down by the Journals I find no other Bishops present but the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of London Winchester Lincoln Bath and Wells Landaffe and Carlisle There were also twelve Abbots present but upon what pretences the rest excused their attendance I do not know perhaps some made a difference between submitting to what was done and being active and concurring to make the change During the Session a Bishop preached every Sunday at Pauls-Cross and declared to the people That the Pope had no Authority at all in England In the two former Sessions the Bishops had preached that the general Council was above the Pope but now they struck a note higher This was done to let the people see what justice and reason was in the Acts that were then passing to which I now turn and shall next give an account of this great Session of Parliament which I shall put rather in the natural Method according to the matter of the Acts than in the order of time as they passed On the 9th of March a Bill came up from the Commons for dischargeing the Subjects of all dependance on the Court of Rome it was read the first time in the House of Lords the 13th of March and on the 14th was read the second time and Committed The Committee reported it on the 19th by which it appears there was no stiff nor long opposition and he that was likest to make it was both obnoxious and absent as will afterwards appear On the 19th it was read the third time and on the 20th the fourth time and then passed without any protestation Some Proviso's were added to it by the Lords to which the Commons agreed and so it was made ready for the Royal assent In the Preamble the intolerable exactions for Peter-pence Provisions Pensions and Bulls of all sorts are complained of which were contrary to all Laws and grounded only on the Popes Power of Dispensing which was Usurped But the King and the Lords and Commons within his own Realm had only power to consider how any of the Laws were to be Dispensed with or Abrogated and since the King was acknowledged the Supreme Head of the Church of England by the Prelates and Clergy in their Convocations Therefore it was Enacted that all Payments made to the Apostolick Chamber and all Provisions Bulls or Dispensations should from thenceforth cease But that all Dispensations or Licences for things that were not contrary to the Law of God but only to the Law of the Land should be granted within the Kingdom by and under the Seals of the two Arch-Bishops in their several Provinces who should not presume to grant any contrary to the Laws of Almighty God and should only grant such Licences as had been formerly in use to be granted but give no Licence for any new thing till it were first examined by the King and his Council whether such things might be dispensed with and that all Dispensations which were formerly taxed at or above 4 l. should be also confirmed under the Great-Seal Then many clauses follow about the Rates of Licences and the ways of procuring them It was also declared that they did not hereby intend to vary from Christ's Church about the Articles of the Catholick Faith of Christendom or in any other things declared by the Scriptures and the word of God necessary for their Salvation confirming withal the exemptions of Monasteries formerly granted by the Bishop of Rome exempting them still from the Arch-Bishops Visitations declaring that such Abbeys whose Elections were formerly confirmed by the Pope shall be now confirmed by the King who likewise shall give Commission under his Great-Seal for visiting them providing also that Licences and other Writs obtained from Rome before the 12 of March in that year should be valid and in force except they were contrary to the Laws of the Realm giving also to the King and his Council power to order and reform all Indulgences and Priviledges or the abuses of them which had been granted by the See of Rome The offenders against this Act were to be punished according to the Statutes of Provisors and Premunire This Act as it gave great ease to the Subject so it cut off that base trade of Indulgences about Divine Laws which had been so gainful to the Church of Rome but was of late fatal to it All in the Religious Houses saw their Priviledges now struck at since they were to be reformed as the King saw cause which put them in no small confusion Those that favoured the Reformation rejoyced at this Act not only because the Popes Power was rooted out but because the Faith that was to be adhered to was to be taken from those things which the Scriptures declared necessary to Salvation so that all their fears were now much qualified since the Scripture was to be the standard of the Catholick Faith On the same day that this Bill passed in the House of Lords another Bill was read for confirming the Succession to the Crown in the Issue of the Kings present Marriage with Queen Anne It was read the second time on the 21 of March and Committed It was reported on the 23th and read the third time and passed and sent down to the Commons who sent it back again to them on the 26th so speedily did this Bill go through both Houses without any opposition The Preamble of it was The distractions that had been in England about the Succession to the Crown which had occasioned the effusion of much Blood with many other mischiefs all which flowed from the want of a clear Decision of the true Title from which the Popes had Usurped a Power of investing such as pleased them in other Princes Kingdoms and Princes had often maintained such Donations for their other ends therefore to avoid the like
saw her no more with those eyes which she had formerly captivated but grew jealous and ascribed these caresses to some other criminal affections of which he began to suspect her This being one of the most memorable passages of this Reign I was at more than ordinary pains to learn all I could concerning it and have not only seen a great many Letters that were writ by those that were set about the Queen and catcht every thing that fell from her and sent it to Court but have also seen an account of it which the Learned Spelman who was a Judge at that time writ with his own hand in his Common-place Book and another account of it writ by one Anthony Anthony a Surveyor of the Ordnance of the Tower From all which I shall give a just and faithful relation of it without concealing the least circumstance that may either seem favourable or unfavourable to her She was of a very cheerful temper which was not always limited within the bounds of exact decency and discretion She had rallied some of the Kings Servants more than became her Her Brother the Lord Rochford was her Friend as well as Brother but his spiteful Wife was jealous of him and being a Woman of no sort of Vertue as will appear afterwards by her serving Queen Katharine Howard in her beastly practices for which she was attainted and executed she carryed many Stories to the King or some about him to perswade that there was a familiarity between the Queen and her Brother beyond what so near a Relation could justifie All that could be said for it was only this that he was once seen leaning upon her Bed which bred great suspition Henry Norris that was Groom of the Stole Weston and Brereton that were of the Kings Privy-Chamber and one Mark Smeton a Musician were all observed to have much of her favour And their zeal in serving her was thought too warm and diligent to flow from a less active Principle than Love Many circumstances were brought to the King which working upon his aversion to the Queen together with his affection to Mistress Seimour made him conclude her guilty Yet somewhat which himself observed or fancied at a Tilting at Greenwich is believed to have given the Crisis to her Ruin It is said that he spied her let her Handkerchief fall to one of her Gallants to wipe his face being hot after a Course Whether she dropt it carelesly or of design or whether there be any truth in that story the Letters concerning her fall making no mention of it I cannot determine for Spelman makes no mention of it and gives a very different account of the discovery in these words As for the evidence of this matter it was discovered by the Lady Wingfield who had been a Servant to the Queen and becoming on a sudden infirm sometime before her death did swear this matter to one of her ..... and here unluckily the rest of the Page is torn off By this it seems there was no legal evidence against the Queen and that it was but a Witness at second hand who deposed what they heard the Lady Wingfield swear Who this person was we know not nor in what temper of mind the Lady Wingfield might be when she swore it The safest sort of forgery to one whose Conscience can swallow it is to lay a thing on a dead persons name where there is no fear of discovery before the great day and when it was understood that the Queen had lost the Kings heart many either out of their zeal to Popery or design to make their fortune might be easily induced to carry a story of this Nature And this it seems was that which was brought to the King at Greenwich who did thereupon immediately return to Whitehall it being the 1st of May. The Queen was immediately restrained to her Chamber the other Five were also seized on But none of them would confess any thing but Mark Smeton as to any actual thing so Cromwell writ Upon this they were carryed to the Tower The poor Queen was in a sad condition she must not only fall under the Kings displeasure but be both defam'd and destroyed at once At first she smiled and carryed it cheerfully and said she believed the King did this only to prove her But when she saw it was in earnest she desired to have the Sacrament in her Closet and expressed great devotion and seemed to be prepared for death The surprize and confusion she was in raised fits of the Mother which those about her did not seem to understand But Three or Four Letters which were writ concerning her to Court say that she was at some times very devout and cryed much and of a sudden would burst out in Laughter which are evident signs of Vapours When she heard that those who were accused with her were sent to the Tower she then concluded her self lost and said she should be sent thither next and talked idlely saying That if her Bishops were about the King they would all speak for her She also said That she would be a Saint in Heaven for she had done many good deeds and that there should be no Rain but heavy judgments on the Land for what they were now doing to her Her Enemies had now gone too far not to destroy her Next day she was carryed to the Tower and some Lords that met her on the River declared to her what her Offences were Upon which she made deep Protestations of her Innocence and begged leave to see the King but that was not to be expected When she was carryed into the Tower She fell down on her knees and prayed God to help her as she was not guilty of the thing for which she was accused That same day the King wrote to Cranmer to come to Lambeth but ordered him not to come into his presence Which was procured by the Queens Enemies who took care that one who had such credit with the King should not come at him till they had fully perswaded him that she was guilty Her Uncles Lady the Lady Boleyn was appointed to lye in the Chamber with her Which she took very ill for upon what reason I know not she had been in very ill terms with her She engaged her into much discourse and studied to draw Confessions from her Whatsoever she said was presently sent to the Court. And a Woman full of Vapours was like enough to tell every thing that was true with a great deal more for persons in that condition not only have no command of themselves but are apt to say any thing that comes in their fancy The Duke of Norfolk and some of the Kings Council were with her but could draw nothing from her though they made her believe that Norris and Mark had accused her But when they were gone she fell down on her knees and wept and prayed often Iesu have Mercy on me and then fell a-laughing
and his Gospel so if she be proved culpable there is not one that loveth God and his Gospel that ever will favour her but must hate her above all other and the more they favour the Gospel the more they will hate her For then there was never creature in our time that so much slandered the Gospel And God hath sent her this punishment for that she feignedly hath professed his Gospel in her mouth and not in heart and deed And though she have offended so that she hath deserved never to be reconciled unto your Graces favour yet Almighty God hath manifoldly declared his goodness towards your Grace and never offended you But your Grace I am sure knowledgeth that you haue offended him Wherefore I trust that your Grace will bear no less entire favour unto the truth of the Gospel than you did before Forsomuch as your Graces favour to the Gospel was not led by affection unto her but by zeal unto the truth And thus I beseech Almighty God whose Gospel he hath ordained your Grace to be Defender of ever to preserve your Grace from all evil and give you at the end the promise of his Gospel From Lanbeth the 3d day of May. After I had written this Letter unto your Grace my Lord Chancellor my Lord of Oxford my Lord of Sussex and my Lord Chamberlain of your Graces House sent for me to come unto the Star-Chamber and there declared unto me such things as your Graces pleasure was they should make me privie unto For the which I am most bounden unto your Grace And what Communication we had together I doubt not but they will make the true report thereof unto your Grace I am exceedingly sorry that such faults can be proved by the Queen as I heard of their relation But I am and ever shall be Your faithful Subject Your Graces most humble Subject and Chaplain T. Cantuariensis But Jealousie and the Kings new affection had quite defaced all the remainders of esteem for his late beloved Queen Yet the Ministers continued practising to get further evidence for the Tryal which was not brought on till the 12th of May and then Norris Weston Brereton and Smeton were tryed by a Commission of Oyer and Terminer in Westminster-Hall They were twice indicted and the indictments were found by two Grand Juries in the Counties of Kent and Middlesex The Crimes with which they were charged being said to be done in both these Counties Mark Smeton confessed he had known the Queen Carnally Three times The other Three pleaded not Guilty but the Jury upon the evidence formerly mentioned found them all Guilty and Judgment was given that they should be drawn to the place of Execution and some of them to be hanged others to be beheaded and all to be quartered as Guilty of high Treason On the 15th of May the Queen and her Brother the Lord Rochford who was a Peer having been made a Viscount when his Father was Created Earl of Wiltshire were brought to be Tryed by their Peers The Duke of Norfolk being Lord high Steward for that occasion With him sate the Duke of Suffolk the Marquess of Exeter the Earl of Arundel and Twenty Five more Peers of whom their Father the Earl of Wiltshire was one Whether this unnatural complyance was imposed on him by the Imperious King or officiously submitted to by himself that he might thereby be preserved from the Ruin that fell on his Family is not known Here the Queen of England by an unheard-of president was brought to the Bar and Indicted of high Treason The Crimes charged on her were that she had procured her Brother and the other Four to lye with her which they had done often that she had said to them that the King never had her heart and had said to every one of them by themselves that she loved them better than any person whatsoever Which was to the slander of the issue that was begotten between the King and her And this was Treason according to the Statute made in the 26th year of this Reign so that the Law that was made for her and the issue of her Marriage is now made use of to destroy her It was also added in the Indictment that she and her complices had conspired the Kings death but this it seems was only put in to swell the charge for if there had been any evidence for it there was no need of stretching the other Statute or if they could have proved the violating of the Queen the known Statute of the Twenty Fifth year of the Reign of Edward the Third had been sufficient When the Indictment was read she held up her hand and Pleaded not Guilty and so did her Brother and did answer the evidence was brought against her discreetly One thing is remarkable that Mark Smeton who was the only person that confessed any thing was never confronted with the Queen nor was kept to be an evidence against her for he had received his Sentence Three dayes before and so could be no witness in Law but perhaps though he was wrought on to confess yet they did not think he had confidence enough to aver it to the Queens face therefore the evidence they brought as Spelman says was the Oath of a Woman that was dead yet this or rather the Terror of offending the King so wrought on the Lords that they found her and her Brother Guilty and Judgment was given that she should be Burnt or Beheaded at the Kings pleasure Upon which Spelman observes that whereas Burning is the death which the Law appoints for a Woman that is attainted of Treason yet since she had been Queen of England they left it to the King to determine whether she should dye so infamous a death or be Beheaded but the Judges complained of this way of proceeding and said such a disjunctive in a Judgment of Treason had never been seen The Lord Rochford was also Condemned to be Beheaded and Quartered Yet all this did not satisfie the enraged King but the Marriage between him and her must be annulled and the issue illegitimated The King remembred an Intrigue that had been between her and the Earl of Northumberland which was mentioned in the former Book and that the then Lord Piercy had said to the Cardinal ' That he had gone so far before witnesses that it lay upon his Conscience so that he could not go back this it 's like might be some promise he made to Marry her per verba de futuro which though it was no Precontract in it self yet it seems the poor Queen was either so ignorant or so ill-advised as to be perswaded afterwards it was one though it 's certain that nothing but a Contract per verba de praesenti could be of any force to annul the subsequent Marriage The King and his Council reflecting upon what it seems the Cardinal had told him resolved to try what could be made of it and pressed the Earl of
Northumberland to confess a Contract between him and her But he took his Oath before the Two Arch-Bishops that there was no Contract nor promise of Marriage ever between them and received the Sacrament upon it before the Duke of Norfolk and others of the Kings Privy Council wishing it might be to his Damnation if there was any such thing concerning which I have seen the Original Declaration under his own hand Nor could they draw any Confession from the Queen before the Sentence for certainly if they could have done that the Divorce had gone before the Tryal and then she must have been tryed only as Marchioness of Pembroke But now she lying under so terrible a Sentence it is most probable that either some hopes of Life were given her or at least she was wrought on by the Assurances of mitigating that cruel part of her judgment of being Burnt into the milder part of the Sentence of Having her head cut off so that she confessed a Pre-contract and on the 17th of May was brought to Lambeth and in Court the afflicted Arch-Bishop sitting Judge some persons of Quality being present she confessed some just and lawful impediments by which it was evident that her Marriage with the King was not valid Upon which Confession the Marriage between the King and her was judged to have been null and void The Record of the Sentence is burnt but these particulars are repeated in the Act that passed in the next Parliament touching the Succession to the Crown It seems this was secretly done for Spelman writes of it thus It was said there was a Divorce made between the King and her upon her confessing a Precontract with another before her Marriage with the King so then it was then only talkt of but not generally known The two Sentences that were past upon the Queen the one of Attaindor for Adultery the other of Divorce because of a Precontract did so contradict one another that it was apparent one if not both of them must be unjust for if the Marriage between the King and her was null from the beginning then since she was not the Kings wedded Wife there could be no Adultery and her Marriage to the King was either a true Marriage or not if it was true then the annulling of it was unjust and if it was no true Marriage then the Attainder was unjust for there could be no breach of that Faith which was never 〈…〉 So that it is plain the King was resolved to be rid of her and 〈…〉 her Daughter and in that transport of his fury did not 〈◊〉 that the very method he took discovered the unjustice of his â—â—â—â—eedings against her Two days after this she was ordered to be Executed in the Green on Tower-Hill How she received these tidings and how stedfast she continued in the protestations of her Innocence will best appear by the following circumstances The day before she suffered upon a strict search of her past Life she called to mind that she had played the Step-Mother too severely to Lady Mary and had done her many injuries Upon which she made the Lieutenant of the Tower's Lady sit down in the Chair of State which the other after some Ceremony doing she fell down on her knees and with many tears charged the Lady as she would answer it to God to go in her name and do as she had done to the Lady Mary and ask her forgiveness for the wrongs she had done her And she said she had no quiet in her Conscience till she had done that But though she did in this what became a Christian the Lady Mary could not so easily pardon these injuries but retained the resentments of them her whole life This ingenuity and tenderness of Conscience about lesser matters is a great presumption that if she had been guilty of more eminent faults she had not continued to the last denying them and making protestations of her Innocency For that same night she sent her last message to the King and acknowledged her self much obliged to him that had continued still to advance her She said he had from a private Gentlewoman first made her a Marchioness and then a Queen and now since he could raise her no higher was sending her to be a Saint in Heaven She protested her Innocence and recommended her Daughter to his care And her carriage that day she died will appear from the following Letter writ by the Lieutenant of the Tower copied from the Original which I insert because the Copier imployed by the Lord Herbert has not writ it out faithfully for I cannot think that any part of it was left out on design Sir These shall be to advertise you I have received your Letter wherein you would have strangers conveyed out of the Tower and so they be by the means of Richard Gressum and William Cooke and Wytspoll But the number of strangers past not thirty and not many of those and the Ambassador of the Emperor had a Servant there and honestly put out Sir If we have not an hour certain as it may be known in London I think here will be but few and I think a reasonable number were best for I suppose she will declare her self to be a good woman for all men but for the King at the hour of her death For this morning she sent for me that I might be with her at such time as she received the Good Lord to the intent I should hear her speak as touching her Innocency alway to be clear And in the writing of this she sent for me and at my coming she said Mr. Kingston I hear say I shall not die aforenoon and I am very sorry therefore for I thought to be dead by this time and past my pain I told her it should be no pain it was so sottel And then she said I heard say the Executioner was very good and I have a little Neck ANNA BVLLEN REGINA ANGLIAE ELIZABETHAE REGINAE MATER Nata Ano. 1507 Nupsit An o 1532 Nov 14 Elix Filian peperit An o 1533 Sept. 7 Capite plexa Ano. 1536 May 19. Printed for Rich Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Church yard and put her hands about it laughing heartily I have seen many men and also women Executed and that they have been in great sorrow and to my knowledge this Lady has much joy and pleasure in death Sir her Almoner is continually with her and had been since two a Clock after midnight This is the effect of any thing that is here at this time and thus Fare you well Yours William Kingston A little before Noon being the 19th of May she was brought to the Scaffold where she made a short Speech to a great company that came to look on the last Scene of this fatal Tragedy The chief of whom were the Dukes of Suffolk and Richmond the Lord Chancellor and Secretary Cromwell with the Lord Mayor the Sheriffs
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
and that which he prints is not exactly according to the Record For as he prints it the Bishop of London is not named in the precedency which is not according to the Parliament-Roll in which the Bishop of London has the precedence next the Arch-Bishop of York and though this is corrected in a Posthumous edition yet in that set out by himself it is wanting Nor is that Omission among the Errours of the Press for though there are many of these gathered to be amended this is none of them This I do not take notice of out of any vanity or humour of Censuring a man so great in all sorts of Learning but my design is only to let ingenious persons see that they ought not to take things on trust easily no not from the greatest Authors These are all the publick Acts that relate to Religion which were passed in this Parliament With these there passed an Act of Attaindor of the Marquess of Exeter and the Lord Montacute with many others that were either found to have had a great hand in the late Rebellion or were discovered to hold correspondence with Cardinal Pool who was then trafficking with forreign Princes and projecting a League among them against the King But of this I shall give a more full account at the end of this Book being there to open the grounds of all the Attaindors that were passed in these last years of the Kings Reign There is one remarkable thing that belongs to this Act. Some were to be attainted in absence others they had no mind to bring to make their answer but yet designed to attain them Such were the Marchioness of Exeter and the Countess of Sarum Mother to Cardinal Pool whom by a gross mistake Speed fancies to have been condemned without Arraignment or Tryal as Cromwel had been by Parliament For she was now condemned a year before him About the Justice of doing this there was some debate and to clear it Cromwel sent for the Judges and asked their opinions Whether a man might be attainted in Parliament without being brought to make his answer They said it was a dangerous Question That the Parliament ought to be an example to all inferiour Courts and that when any person was charged with a Crime he by the common Rule of Justice and Equity should be heard to plead for himself But the Parliament being the Supream Court of the Nation what way soever they proceeded it must be good in Law and it could never be questioned whether the party was brought to answer or not And thus a very ill president was made by which the most innocent person in the world might be ruined And this as has often been observed in the like cases fell very soon heavily on the Author of the Counsel as shall appear When the Parliament was Prorogued on the 28th of Iune the King apprehending that the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury might be much cast down with the Act for the six Articles sent for him and told him That he had heard how much and with what Learning he had argued against it and therefore he desired he would put all his arguments in writing and bring them to him Next day he sent the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk and the Lord Cromwel to dine with him Ordering them to assure him of the Kings constant and unshaken kindness to him and to encourage him all they could When they were at Table with him at Lambeth they run out much on his commendation and acknowledged he had opposed the Act with so much Learning Gravity and Eloquence that even those that differed from him were much taken with what he said and that he needed fear nothing from the King Cromwel saying that this difference the King put between him and all his other Councellors that when complaints were brought of others the King received them and tried the truth of them but he would not so much as hearken to any complaint of the Arch-Bishop From that he went on to make a Parallel between him and Cardinal Wolsey That the one lost his Friends by his haughtiness and pride but the other gained on his Enemies by his gentleness and mildness Upon which the Duke of Norfolk said he might best speak of the Cardinal for he knew him well having been his man This nettled Cromwel who answered that though he had served him yet he never liked his manners and that though the Cardinal had designed if his attempt for the Popedome had been successful to have made him his Admiral yet he had resolved not to accept of it nor to leave his Countrey To which the Duke of Norfolk replied with a deep Oath That he Lied with other reproachful language This troubled Cranmer extremely who did all he could to quiet and reconcile them But now the Enmity between those two great Ministers broke out to that height that they were never afterwards hearty friends But Cranmer went about that which the King had commanded and made a Book of the reasons that led him to oppose the six Articles in which the places out of the Scriptures the Authorities of the ancient Doctors with the arguments drawn from these were all digested in a good method This he commanded his Secretary to write out in a fair hand that it might be given the King The Secretary returning with it from Croydon where the Arch-Bishop was then to Lambeth found the Key of his Chamber was carried away by the Arch-Bishops Almoner So that he being obliged to go over to London and not daring to trust the Book to any others keeping carried it with himself where both he and the Book met with an un-lookt-for encounter Some others that were with him in the Wherry would needs go to the South-wark side to look on a Bear-baiting that was near the River where the King was in person The Bear broke loose into the River and the Dogs after her They that were in the Boat leaped out and left the poor Secretary alone there But the Bear got into the Boat with the Dogs about her and sunk it The Secretary apprehending his life was in danger did not mind his Book which he lost in the water But being quickly rescued and brought to land he begun to look for his Book and saw it floating in the River So he desired the Bear-ward to bring it to him who took it up but before he would restore it put it into the hands of a Priest that stood there to see what it might contain The Priest reading a little in it found it a Confutation of the six Articles and told the Bearward that whosoever claimed it would be hanged for his pains But the Arch-Bishops Secretary thinking to mend the matter said it was his Lords Book This made the Bear-ward more intractable for he was a spiteful Papist and hated the Arch-Bishop so that no offers nor entreaties could prevail with him to give it back Whereupon Morice that was the
Beauty But he excused himself that he thought the thing was so far gone that it was decent to write as he had done The King lamented his condition in that Marriage and expressed great trouble both to the Lord Russel Sir Anthony Brown Sir Anthony Denny and others about him The last of those told him this was one Advantage that mean persons had over Princes That great Princes must take such Wives as are brought them whereas meaner persons go and chuse Wives for themselves But when the King saw Cromwel he gave his grief a freer vent to him He finding the King so much Troubled would have cast the chief blame on the Earl of Southampton for whom he had no great kindness And said when he found her so far short of what reports and Pictures had made her he should have stayed her at Callice till he had given the King notice of it But the Earls Commission being only to bring her over he said It had been too great a presumption in him to have interposed in such a manner And the King was convinced he was in the right So now all they had to insist on was the clearing of that Contract that had passed between her and the Marquess of Lorain which the Ambassadors who had been with the King had undertaken should be fully done and brought over with her in due form of Law So after the Lady was brought in great State to Greenwich the Council met and sent for the Ambassadors of the Duke of Cleves that conducted her over and desired to see what they had brought for clearing the breach of that Contract with the Marquess of Lorrain But they had brought nothing and made no account of it saying that the Contract was in their Minority when they could give no consent and that nothing had followed on it after they came to be of Age. But this did not satisfie the Kings Council who said these were but their words and they must see better proofs The Kings Marriage was Annulled with Anne Boleyn upon a pre-contract therefore he must not again run the like hazard So Olisleger and Hogâ—sden the Ambassadors from Cleve did by a formal Instrument Protest before Cromwel that in a peace made between their late Master Iohn Duke of Cleve and Anthony Duke of Lorrain one of the conditions was that this Lady being then under Age should be given in Marriage to Francis Son to the Duke of Lorrain who was likewise under Age which Treaty they affirmed they saw and read But that afterwards Henry de Groffe Ambassador of Charles Duke of Gueldres upon whose mediation that peace had been concluded declared in their hearing that the Espousals were Annulled and of no effect and that this was Registred in the Chancery of Clâ—ve of which they promised to bring an Authentical Extract within three Months to England Some of the Counsellors who knew the Kings secret dislike of her person would have insisted more on this But the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Duresm said if there was no more than that it could be no just hindrance to the Solemnization of the Marriage So the King seeing there was no remedy and being much pressed both by the Ministers of Cleve and by the Lord Cromwel Marryed her on the 6th of Ianuary But expressed so much aversion and dislike of her that every body about him took notice of it Next day the Lord Cromwel asked him how he liked her then He told him He was not every man therefore he would be free with him He liked her worse than he did He suspected she was no Maid and had such ill smells about her that he loathed her more than ever and did not believe he should ever consummate the Marriage This was sad news to Cromwel who knew well how delicate the King was in these matters and that so great a Misfortune must needs turn very heavy on him that was the chief Promoter of it He knew his Enemies would draw great advantages from this and understood the Kings temper too well to think his Greatness would last long if he could not induce the King to like the Queen better But that was not to be done for though the King lived five Months with her in that State and very oft lay in the Bed with her yet his Aversion rather encreased than abated She seemed not much concerned at it and as their Conversation was not great so she was of an heavy Composition and was not much displeased to be delivered from a Marriage in which she had so little satisfaction Yet one thing shews that she wanted not Capacity For she learned the English Language very soon and before her Marriage was Annulled she spoke English freely as appears by some of the Depositions There was an Instrument brought over from Cleve taken out of the Chancery there by which it appeared That Henry de Groffe Ambassador from the Duke of Gueldres had on the 15th of February in the year 1535. declared the Nullity of the former Contract in express words which are set down in high Dutch but thus put in Latine Sponsalia illa progressum suum non habitura I will not answer for the Latine ex quo dictus Dux Carolus admodum doleret propterea quaedam fecisset amplius facturus esset And Pallandus that was Ambassador from the Duke of Cleves in the Duke of Guelders Court wrote to his Master Illustrissimum Ducem Gueldriae certo scire prima illa Sponsalia inter Domicellam Annam fore inania progressum suum non habitura When this was shewed the King his Council found great exceptions to it upon the Ambiguity of the word Sponsalia it not being expressed whether they were Espousals by the words of the present or of the future tense and intended to make use of that when there should be a fit opportunity for it On the 12th of April a Session of Parliament was held The Journal shews that neither the Abbot of Westminster nor any other Abbot was present After the Lord Chancellor had opened the reasons for the Kings meeting them at that time as they related to the Civil Government Cromwel as Lord Vice-gerent spake next in the Kings name and said There was nothing which the King so much desired as a firm union among all his Subjects in which he placed his chief security He knew there were many Incendiaries and much Cockle grew up with the Wheat The rashness and licentiousness of some and the inveterate Superstition and stiffness of others in the Ancient Corruptions had raised great dissensions to the sad regret of all good Christians Some were called Papists others Hereticks which bitterness of Spirit seemed the more strange since now the Holy Scriptures by the Kings great care of his people were in all their hands in a Language which they understood But these were grosly perverted by both sides who studied rather to justifie their passions out
than Complements And though he clearly discovered having sent over the Duke of Norfolk to Francis that he was not to depend much on his friendship yet at the same time he knew that the Emperor would not yield up the Dutchy of Milan to him upon which his heart was much set So he saw they could come to no agreement Therefore he made no great account of the loss of France since he knew the Emperor would willingly make an Alliance with him The hopes of which made him more indifferent whether the German Princes were pleased with what he did or not since he had now attained the end he had proposed to himself in all his Negotiations with them which was to secure himself from any trouble the Emperor might give him Therefore Cromwels Counsels were now disliked for he had always enclined the King to favour those Princes against the Emperor Another secret cause was that as the King had an unconquerable aversion to his Queen so he was taken with the Beauty and behaviour of Mistress Katharine Howard Daughter to the Lord Edmond Howard a Brother of the Duke of Norfolks And as this designed Match raised the credit of her Uncle so the ill consequences of the former drew him down who had been the chief Counsellor in it The King also found his Government was grown uneasie and therefore judged it was no ill Policy to cast over all that had been done amiss upon a Minister who had great Power with him and being now in disgrace all the blame of these things would be taken off from the King and laid on him and his Ruin would much appease discontents and make them more moderate in censuring the King or his Proceedings It is said that other Particulars were charged on him which lost him the Kings favour If this be true it is like they related to the encouragement he was said to have given to some Reformers in the opposition they made to the six Articles Upon the Execution of which the King was now much set His fall was so secretly carryed that though he had often before looked for it knowing the Kings uneasie and jealous temper yet at that time he had no apprehensions of it till the Storm broke upon him In his fall he had the common fate of all disgraced Ministers to be forsaken by his Friends and insulted over by his Enemies Only Cranmer retained still so much of his former simplicity that he could never learn these Court Arts. Therefore he wrote to the King about him next day He much magnified his diligence in the Kings service and preservation and discovering all Plots as soon as they were made That he had always loved the King above all things and served him with great fidelity and success That he thought no King of England had ever such a servant upon that account he had loved him as one that loved the King above all others But if he was a Traytor he was glad it was discovered But he prayed God earnestly to send the King such a Councellor in his stead who could and would serve him as he had done This shews both the firmness of Cranmers friendship to him and that he had a great Soul not turned by the changes of mens fortunes to like or dislike them as they stood or declined from their greatness And had not the Kings kindness for Cranmer been deeply rooted this Letter had ruined him For he was the most impatient of Contradiction in such cases that could be Cromwels ruin was now Decreed and he who had so servily complyed with the Kings pleasure in procuring some to be Attainted the year before without being brought to make their answer fell now under the same severity For whether it was that his Enemies knew That if he were brought to the Bar he would so justifie himself that they would find great difficulties in the Process or whether it was that they blindly resolved to follow that injustifiable Precedent of passing over so necessary a Rule to all Courts of giving the Party accused an hearing the Bill of Attaindor was brought in to the House of Lords Cranmer being absent that day as appears by the Journal on the 17th of Iune and read the first time and on the 19th was read the second and third time and sent down to the Commons By which it appears how few friends he had in that House when a Bill of that nature went on so hastily But it seems he found in the House of Commons somewhat of the same measure which ten years before he had dealt to the Cardinal though not with the same success For his matter stuck ten days there At length a new Bill of Attaindor was brought up conceived in the House of Commons with a Proviso annexed to it They also sent back the Bill which the Lords sent to them But it is not clear from the Journals what they meant by these two Bills It seems they rejected the Lords Bill and yet sent it up with their own either in respect to the Lords or that they left it to their choice which of the two Bills they would offer to the Royal Assent But though this be an unparliamentary way of proceeding I know no other sense which the words of the Journal can bear which I shall set down in the Margent that the Reader may Judge better concerning it * And that very day the King assented to it as appears by the Letter written the next day by Cromwel to the King The Act said that the King having raised Thomas Cromwel from a base degree to great Dignities and high Trusts yet he had now by a great number of Witnesses persons of honour found him to be the most Corrupt Traitor and deceiver of the King and the Crown that had ever been known in his whole Reign He had taken upon him to set at liberty divers persons put in Prison for misprision of Treason and others that were suspected of it He had also received several bribes and for them granted Licenses to carry Money Corn Horses and other things out of the Kingdom contrary to the Kings Proclamations He had also given out many Commissions without the Kings knowledg and being but of a base Birth had said That he was sure of the King He had granted many Passports both to the Kings Subjects and Forreigners for passing the Seas without search He being also an Heretick had dispersed many Erroneous Books among the Kings Subjects particularly some that were contrary to the Belief of the Sacrament And when some had informed him of this and had shewed him these Heresies in Books Printed in England he said they were good and that he found no fault in them and said It was as Lawful for every Christian man to be the Minister of that Sacrament as a Priest And whereas the King had constituted him Vice-gerent for the Spiritual affairs of the Church he had under the Seal of that
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
temper was found it was placed as a Distinct Commandment but not at full length the words For I the Lord thy God c. being left out and only those that go before being set down In the Explanation of this Commandment Images were said to be profitable for putting us in mind of the great blessings we have received by our Saviour and of the vertues and holiness of the Saints by which we were to be stirred up to imitate them So that they were not to be despised though we be forbidden to do any godly honour to them And therefore the Superstition of preferring one Image to another as if they had any special vertue in them or the adorning them richly and making Vowes and Pilgrimages to them is condemned yet the Censing of Images and Kneeling before them are not condmned but the people must be taught that these things were not to be done to the Image it self but to God and his honour To the third Commandment they reduced the Invocation of Gods name for his Gifts And they condemned the Invocation of Saints when such things were prayed for from them which were only given by God This was the giving his Glory to Creatures yet to pray to Saints as Intercessors is declared lawful and according to the Doctrine of the Catholick Church Upon the 4th Commandement a Reâ—t from labour every 7th day is said to be Ceremonial and such as only obliged Iews but the Spiritual signification of Rest among Christians was to abstain from Sin and other Carnal pleasures But besides that we were also bound by this Precept sometimes to cease from labour that we may serve and worship God both in publick and private And that on the dayes appointed for this purpose people ought to examine their lives the past week and set to amendment and give themselves to prayer reading and meditation Yet in cases of necessity such as saving their Corn or Cattel men ought not superstitiously to think that it is a Sin to work on that day but to do their work without scruple Then follow very profitable Expositions of the other Commandments with many grave and weighty admonitions concerning the duties by them enjoyned and against those sins which are too Common in all Ages After that an Explanation of the Lords Prayer was added In the preface to which it is said that it is meet and requisite that the unlearned people should make their Prayers in their Mother-Tongue whereby they may be the more stirred to Devotion and to mind the things they prayed for Then followed an Exposition of the Angels Salutation of the Blessed Virgin In which the whole History of the Incarnation of Christ was opened and the Ave Maria explained which Hymne was chiefly to be used in Commemoration of Christs Incarnation and likewise to set forth the praises of the Blessed Virgin The next article is about Free-will which they say must be in man otherwise all Precepts and Exhortations are to no purpose They defined it a power of the will joyned with Reason whereby a reasonable creature without constraint in things of reason discerneth and willeth good and evil but chooseth good by the assistance of Gods grace and evil of it self This was perfect in the State of Innocency but is much impaired by Adams Fall and now by an especial grace offered to all men but enjoyed only by those who by their free-will do accept the same it was restored that with great watchfulness we may serve God acceptably And as many places of Scripture shew That free-will is still in man so there be many others which shew that the grace of God is necessary that doth both prevent us and assist us both to begin and perform every good work Therefore all men ought most gratefully to receive and follow the motions of the Holy Ghost and to beg Gods grace with earnest devotion and a stedfast Faith which he will grant to all that so ask it both because he is naturally good and he has promised to grant our desires For he is not the author of Sin nor the Cause of mans Damnation but this men draw on themselves who by vice have corrupted these Natures which God made good Therefore all Preachers were warned so to moderate themselves in this high point that they neither should so preach the Grace of God as to take away Free-will nor so extol Free-will as injury might be done to the Grace of God After this they handled Justification Having stated the miseries of man by nature and the guilt of Sin with the unspeakable goodness of God in sending Christ to redeem us by his death who was the Mediator between God and man They next shew how men are made partakers of the blessings which he hath procured Justification is the making of us righteous before God whereby we are reconciled to him and made heirs of Eternal life that by his Grace we may walk in his ways and be reputed just and righteous in the day of Judgment and so attain Everlasting Happiness God is the chief cause of our Justification yet man prevented by Grace is by his free-consent and obedience a worker toward the attaining his own Justification For though it is only procur'd through the merits of Christs death yet every one must do many things to attain a right and claim to that which though it was offered to all yet was applied but to a few We must have a stedfast Faith true Repentance real purposes of amendment committing Sin no more but serving God all our lives which if we fall from we must recover it by Penance Fasting Almes Prayer with other good works and a firm Faith going forward in mortification and obedience to the Laws of God It being certain that men might fall away from their Justification All curious reasonings about Predestination were to be set apart there being no certainty to he had of our Election but by feeling the motions of Gods Spirit in us by a good and virtuous life and persevering in it to the end Therefore it was to be taught that as on the one hand we are justified freely by the free Grace of God so on the other hand when it is said We are justified by Faith it must be understood of such a Faith in which the fear of God Repentance Hope and Charity be included all which must be joyned together in our Justification and though these be imperfect yet God accepteth of them freely thorough Christ. Next good works were explained which were said to be absolutely necessary to Salvation But these were not only outward corporal works but inward Spiritual works as the Love and Fear of God Patience Humility and the like Nor were they Superstitions and mens Inventions such as those in which Monks and Friers exercised themselves nor only moral works done by the power of Natural reason but the works of Charity flowing from a pure heart a good Conscience and Faith
the Army was ill advised so his giving a Commissâ—on to Oliver Sinclar â—hat was his Minion to command in Chief did extreamly disgust the Nobility They loved not to be commanded by any but their King and were already weary of the insolence of that Favourite who being but of ordinary birth was despised by them so that they were beginning to separate And when they were upon that occasion in great disorder a small body of English not above 500 Horse appeared But they apprehending it was the Duke of Norfolks Army refused to fight and fell in confusion Many Prisoners were taken the chief of whom were the Earls of Glencairn and Cassillis the Lords Maxwell Sommervell Oliphant Gray and Oliver Sinclar and about 200 Gentlemen and 800 souldiers and all the Ordnance and Baggage was also taken The news of this being brought to the King of Scotland encreased his former disorders and some few days after he dyed leaving an infant Daughter but newly born to succeed him The Lords that were taken Prisoners were brought to London where after they had been charged in Council how unkindly they had used the King they were put in the keeping of some of the greatest quality about Court But the Earl of Cassillis had the best luck of them all For being sent to Lambâ—th where he was a Prisoner upon his parole Cranmer studied to free him from the darkness and fetters of Popery in which he was so successful that the other was afterwards a great Promoter of the Reformation in Scotland The Scots had been hitherto possessed with most extraordinary prejudices against the Changes that had been made in England which concurring with the ancient Animosities between the two Nations had raised a wonderful ill opinion of the Kings proceedings And though the Bishop of St. Davids Barlow had been sent into Scotland with the Book of the Institution of a Christian Man to clear these ill impressions yet his endeavours were unsuccessful The Pope at the instance of the French King and to make that Kingdom sure made David Beaton Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews a Cardinal which gave him great Authority in the Kingdom so he with the rest of the Clergy diverted the King from any correspondence with England and assured him of Victory if he would make War on such an Heretical Prince The Clergy also offered the King 50000 Crowns a-year towards a War with England and possessed all the Nation with very ill thoughts of the Court and Clergy there But the Lords that were now Prisoners chiefly the Earl of Cassillis who was best instructed by his Religious Host conceived a better opinion of the Reformation and carried home with them those seeds of knowledg which produced afterwards a very fruitful Harvest On all these things I have dwelt the longer that it might appear whence the inclination of the Scotish Nobility to Reform did take its first rise though there was afterwards in the Methods by which it was advanced too great a mixture of the heat and forwardness that is natural to the Genius of that Countrey When the news of the King of Scotlands death and of the young Queens birth that succeeded him came to the Court the King thought this a very favourable conjuncture to unite and settle the whole Island But that unfortunate Princess was not born under such happy Stars though she was Mother to him in whom this long-desired Union took effect The Lords that were then Prisoners began the motion and that being told the King he called for them to Hampton-Court in the Christmas-time and said now an opportunity was put in their hands to quiet all troubles that had been between these two Crowns by the Marriage of the Prince of Wales to their young Queen In which he desired their assistance and gave them their Liberty they leaving hostages for the performance of what was then offered by them They all promised their Concurrence and seemed much taken with the greatness of the English Court which the King always kept up not without affectation they also said they thought God was better served there than in their own Countrey So on New-years-day they took their journey towards Scotland but the sequel of this will appear afterwards A Parliament was summoned to meet the two and twentieth of Ianuary which sate to the 12th of May. So the Session begun in the 34th and ended in the 35th year of the Kings Reign from whence it is called in the Records the Parliament of the 34th and 35th year Here both the Temporality and Spirituality gave great Subsidies to the King of six shillings in the Pound to be paid in three years They set forth in their Preambles The expence the King had been at in his War with Scotland and for his other great and urgent occasions by which was meant a War with France which broke out the following Summer But with these there passed other two Acts of great importance to Religion The Title of the first was An Act for the advancement of True Religion and abolishment of the contrary The King was now entring upon a War so it seemed reasonable to qualifie the severity of the late Acts about Religion that all might be quiet at home Cranmer moved it first and was faintly seconded by the Bishops of Worcester Hereford Chichester and Rochester who had promised to stick to him in it At this time a League was almost finished between the King and the Emperour which did again raise the Spirits of the Popish Faction They had been much cast down ever since the last Queens fall But now that the Emperor was like to have an Interest in English Councils they took heart again and Gardiner opposed the Arch-Bishops motion with all possible earnestness And that whole Faction fell so upon it that the timorous Bishops not only forsook Cranmer but Heath of Rochester and Skip of Hereford were very earnest with him to stay for a better opportunity But he generously preferred his Conscience to those arts of Policy which he would never practise and said he would push it as far as it would go So he plied the King and the other Lords so earnestly that at length the Bill passed though clogg'd with many Provisoes and very much short of what he had designed The Preamble set forth that there being many dissensions about Religion the Scriptures which the King had put into the hands of his People were abused by many seditious persons in their Sermons Books Playes Rithmes and Songs from which great Inconveniences were like to arise For preventing these it was necessary to establish a Form of sincere Doctrine conformable to that which was taught by the Apostles Therefore all the Books of the Old and New Testament of Tindals Translation which is called Crafty False and Vntrue are forbidden to be kept oâ— used in the Kings Dominions with all other Books contrary to the Doctrine set forth in the year 1540. with
with the French King the very next day being the 19th of September which is set down at large by the Lord Herbert On the 30th of September the King returned into England in October following Bulloign was very near lost by a surprize but the Garrison put themselves in order and beat back the French Several Inroads were made into Scotland but not with the same success that the former Expedition had For the Scots animated with supplies sent from France and inâ—â—amed with a desire of revenge resumed their wonted courage and beat back the English with considerable loss Next year the French King resolving to recover Bulloign and to take Calais that so he might drive the English out of France intended first to make himself Master of the Sea And he set out a great Fleet of an hundred and fifty greater Ships and sixty lesser ones besides many Gallies brought from the Streights The King set out about an hundred Ships On both sides these were only Merchant Ships that were hired for this War But after the French Fleet had looked on England and attempted to Land with ill success both in the Isle of Wight and in Sussex and had engaged in a Sea-fight for some hours they returned back without any considerable action Nor did they any thing at Land But the Kings Fleet went to Normandy where they made a descent and burnt the Countrey So that this year was likewise glorious to the King The Emperor had now done what he long designed And therefore being courted by both Crowns he undertook a Mediation that under the Colour of Mediating a peace he might the more effectually keep up the War The Princes of Germany saw what mischief was designed against them The Council of Trent was now opened and was condemning their Doctrine A League was also concluded between the Pope and the Emperor for procuring Obedience to their Canons and Decrees And an Army was raising The Emperor was also setting on foot old quarrels with some of the Princes A firm Peace was concluded with the Turk So that if the Crowns of England and France were not brought to an Agreement they were undone They sent Ambassador to both Courts to mediate a Peace With them Cranmer joyned his endeavours but he had not a Cromwel in the Court to manage the Kings temper who was so provoked with the ill Treatment he had received from France that he would not come to an Agreement nor would he restore Bulloign without which the 〈◊〉 woâ—ld hear of no Peace Cranmer had at this time almost prevailed with the King to make some further steps in a Reformatiâ—â— But 〈◊〉 who was then Ambassadour in the Emperours Coâ—â—â— being advertised of it wrote to the King That the Emperour â—ould certainly joyn with France against him if he made any further Innovation in Religion This diverted the King from it and in August this year the only great Friend that Cranmer had in the Court died Charles Duke of Suâ—â—â—lk who had long continued in the height of favor which was always kept up not only by an agreement of humours between the King and him but by the constant success which followed him in all his exploits He was a Favourer of the Reformation as far as could consist with his interest at Court which he never endangered upon any account Now Cranmer was left alone without friend or support Yet he had gained one great Preferment in the Church to a man of his own mind The Arch-Bishoprick of York falling void by Lee's death Robert Alrich that was Bishop of Landaff was promoted to that See in Ianuary Kitchin being made Bishop of Landaff who turned with every Change that was made under the three succeeding Princes The Arch-Bishop of York set about the Reforming of things in his Province which had layn in great confusion all his Predecessors time So on the third of March he took out a Licence from the King for making a Metropolitical Visitation Dell that was Bishop of Worcâ—stâ—r had resigned his Bishoprick the former year the reason of which is not set down The Bishop of Rochester Heath was Translated to that See and Henry Holbeach that favoured the Reformation was made Bishop of Rochester And upon the Translation of Sampson from Chichester to Coventry and Litchfield Day that was a Moderate man and inclinable to Reformation was made Bishop of that See So that now Cranmer had a greater Party among the Bishops than at any time before But though there were no great Transactions about Religion in England this year there were very remarkable things done in Scotland though of a different nature which were the burning of Wishart and some months after that the killing of Cardinal Beaton the account of both which will not I hope be Ingrateful to the Reader Mr. George Wishart was descended of a Noble Family he went to finish his studies in the University of Cambridge where he was so well instructed in the Principles of true Religion that returning to Scotland Anno 1544. He Preached over the Countrey against the Corruptions which did then so generally prevail He stayed most at Dundee which was the chief Town in thâ—se parts But the Cardinal offended at this sent a threatning Message to the Magistrates upon which one of them as Wishart ended one of his Sermons was so obsequious as to forbid him to Preach any more among them or give them any further trouble to whom he answered That God knew he had no design to trouble them but for them to reject the Messengers of God was not the way to escape trouble when he was gone God would send Messengers of another sort among them He had to the hazard of his Life Preached the word of Salvation to them and they had now rejected him but if it was long well with them he was not led by the Spirit of Truth and if unlooked for trouble fell on them he bade them remember this was the Cause of it and turn to God by Repentance From thence he went to the Western parts where he was also much followed But the Arch-Bishop of Glasgow giving order that he should not be admitted to Preach in Churches he Preached often in the fields and when in some places his followers would have forced the Churches he checkt them and said it was the word of Peace that he Preached and therefore no blood should be shed about it But after he had stayed a month there he heard that there was a great Plague in Dundee which broke out the fourth day after he had left it upon which he presently returned thither and Preached oft to them standing over one of the Gates having taken care that the Infected persons should stand without and those that were clean within the Gate He continued among them and took care to supply the poor and to visit the sick and do all the Offices of a faithful Pastor in that extremity Once as he ended his
durst adventure on making any complaints against her Yet the Kings distempers encreasing and his peevishness growing with them he became more uneasie and whereas she had frequently used to talk to him of Religion and defend the Opinions of the Reformers in which he would sometimes pleasantly maintain the Argument now becoming more impatient he took it ill at her hands And she had sometimes in the heat of discourse gone very far So one night after she had left him the King being displeased vented it to the Bishop of Winchester that stood by And he craftily and maliciously struck in with the Kings anger and said all that he could devise against the Queen to drive his resentments higher and took in the Lord Chancellor into the design to assist him They filled the Kings head with many stories of the Queen and some of her Ladies and said They had favoured Anne Askew and had Heretical Books amongst them and he perswaded the King that they were Traitors as well as Hereticks The matter went so far that Articles were drawn against her which the King Sigâ—ed for without that it was not safe for any to Impeach the Queen But the Lord Chancellor putting up that Paper carelesly it dropt from him And being taken up by one of the Queens Party was carryed to her Whether the King had really designed her ruin or not is differently represented by the Writers who lived near that time But she seeing his hand to such a Paper had reason to conclude her self lost Yet by advice of one of her Friends she went to see the King who receiving her kindly set on a Discourse about Religion But she answered that women by their first Creation were made subject to men and they being made after the Image of God as the Women were after their Image ought to instruct their Wives who were to learn of them and she much more was to be taught by his Majesty who was a Prince of such excellent Learning and Wisdom Not so by St. Mary said the King you are become a Doctor able to Instruct us and not to be Instructed by us To which she answered That it seemed he had much mistaken the freedom she had taken to argue with him since she did it partly to engage him in discourse and so put over the time and make him forget his pain and partly to receive Instructions from him by which she had profited much And is it even so said the King then we are friends again So he embraced her with great affection and sent her away with very tender assurances of his constant Love to her But the next day had been appointed for carrying her and some of her Ladies to the Tower The day being fair the King went to take a little air in the Garden and sent for her to bear him company As they were together the Lord Chancellor came in having about forty of the Guard with him to have arrested the Queen But the King stept aside to him and after a little discourse he was heard to call him Knave Fool and Beast and he bade him get him out of his Sight The Innocent Queen who understood not that her danger was so near studied to mitigate the Kings displeasure and interceded for the Lord Chancellor But the King told her she had no reason to plead for him So this design miscarried which as it absolutely disheartned the Papists so it did totally alienate the King from them and in particular from the Bishop of Winchester whose sight he could never after this endure But he made an humble Submission to the King which though it preserved him from further punishment yet could not restore him to the Kings favour But the Duke of Norfolk and his Son the Earl of Surrey fell under a deeper Misfortune The Duke of Norfolk had been long Lord Treasurer of England He had done great services to the Crown on many signal Occasions and success had always accompanied him His Son the Earl of Surrey was also a brave and noble person Witty and Learned to an high degree but did not command Armies with such Success He was much provoked at the Earl of Hertfords being sent over to France in his room and upon that had said That within a little-while they should smart for it with some other expressions that savoured of Revenge and a dislike of the King and a hatred of the Counsellors The Duke of Norfolk had endeavoured to ally himself to the Earl of Hertford and to his Brother Sir Thomas Seimour perceiving how much they were in the Kings favour and how great an Interest they were like to have under the succeeding Prince And therefore would have engaged his Son being then a Widower to Marry that Earls Daughter And pressed his Daughter the Dutchess of Richmond Widow to the Kings Natural Son to Marry Sir Thomas Seimour But though the Earl of Surrey advised his Sister to the Marriage projected for her yet he would not consent to that designed for himself nor did the Proposition about his Sister take effect The Seimours could not but see the Enmity the Earl of Surrey bore them and they might well be jealous of the Greatness of that Family which was not only too big for a Subject of it self but was raised so high by the dependence of the whole Popish Party both at home and abroad that they were like to be very dangerous Competitors for the chief Government of Affairs if the King were once out of the way whose disease was now growing so fast upon him that he could not live many weeks Nor is it unlikely that they perswaded the King that if the Earl of Surrey should marry the Lady Mary it might embroil his Sons Government and perhaps ruine him And it was suggested That he had some such high project in his thoughts both by his continuing unmarried and by his using the Armes of Edward the Confessor which of late he had given in his Coat without a Diminution But to compleat the Duke of Norfolks ruin his Dutchess who had complained of his using her ill and had been separated from him about four years turned Informer against him His Son and Daughter were also in ill terms together So the Sister Informed all that she could against her Brother And one Mrs Holland for whom the Duke was believed to have an unlawful affection discovered all she knew but all amounted to no more than some passionate Expressions of the Son and some Complaints of the Father who thought he was not beloved by the King and his Councellors and that he was ill used in not being trusted with the secret of affairs And all persons being encouraged to bring Informations against them Sr. Richard Southwell charged the Earl of Surreâ— in some points that were of a higher nature which the Earl denied and desired to be admitted according to the Martial Law to fight in his shirt with Southwel But that not being granted he and his
Hospital and he order'd the Church of the Franciscans a little within Newgate to be opened which he gave to the Hospital This was done the 3d of Ianuary Another was of Trinity Colledg in Cambridg one of the Noblest Foundations in Christendom He continued in a decay till the 27 of the moneth and then many signs of his approaching end appearing few would adventure on so unwelcom a thing as to put him in mind of his change then imminent but Sir Anthony Denny had the honesty and courage to do it and desired him to prepare for death and remember his former life and to call on God for mercy through Jesus Christ. Upon which the King expressed his grief for the Sins of his past Life yet he said he trusted in the mercies of Christ which were greater than they were Then Denny asked him if any Churchman should be sent for and he said if any it should be Arch-Bishop Cranmer and after he had rested a little finding his Spirits decay apace he ordered him to be sent for to Croydon where he was then But before he could come the King was Speechless So Cranmer desired him to give some sign of his dying in the Faith of Christ upon which he squeezed his hand and soon after died after he had Reigned 37 years and 9 months in the six and fiftieth year of his age His death was kept up three dayes for the Journals of the House of Lords shew that they continued reading Bills and going on in business till the 31st and no sooner did the Lord Chancellor signify to them that the King was dead and that the Parliament was thereby dissolved It is certain the Parliament had no being after the Kings breath was out so their sitting till the 31st shews that the Kings death was not generally known all those three dayes The reasons of concealing it so long might either be that they were considering what to do with the Duke of Norfolk or that the Seymours were laying their matters so as to be secure in the Government before they published the Kings Death I shall not adventure on adding any further Character of him to that which is done with so much Wit and Judgment by the Lord Hâ—rbert but shall refer the Reader wholly to him only adding an account of the blackest part of it the Attaindors that passed the last 13 years of his life which are comprehended within this Book of which I have cast over the Relation to the Conclusion of it In the latter part of his Reign there were many things that seem great severities especially as they are represented by the Writers of the Roman party whose relations are not a little strengthned by the faint excuses and the mistaken accounts that most of the Protestant Historians have made The King was naturally impetuous and could not bear provocation the times were very ticklish his Subjects were generally addicted to the old Superstition especially in the Northern parts the Monks and Friers were both numerous and wealthy the Pope was his implacable Enemy the Emperor was a formidable Prince and being then Master of all the Netherlands had many advantages for the War he designed against Enâ—land Cardinal Pole his kinsman was going over all the Courts of Christendom to perswade a League against England as being a thing of greater necessity and merit than a War against the Turk This being without the least aggravation the state of affairs at that time it must be confessed he was sore put to it A Superstition that was so blind and headstrong and Enemies that were both so powerful so spiteful and so industrious made rigour necessary nor is any General of an Army more concerned to deal severely with Spies and Intelligencers than he was to proceed against all the Popes adherents or such as kept correspondence with Pole He had observed in History that upon much less provocation than himself had given not only several Emperors and forreign Princes had been dispossessed of their Dominions but two of his own Ancestors Henry the 2d and King Iohn had been driven to great extremities and forced to unusual and most indecent submissions by the means of the Popes and their Clergy The Popes power over the Clergy was so absolute and their dependence and obedience to him was so implicite and the Popish Clergy had so great an interest in the superstitious multitude whose consciences they governed that nothing but a stronger passion could either tame the Clergy or quiet the People If there had been the least hope of impunity the last part of his Reign would have been one continued Rebellion therefore to prevent a more profuse effusion of blood it seemed necessary to execute Laws severely in some particular instances There is one calumny that runs in a thread through all the Historians of the Popish side which not a few of our own have ignorantly taken up That many were put to death for not swearing the Kings Supremacy It is an impudent falshood for not so much as one person suffered on that account nor was there any Law for any such Oath before the Parliament in the 28th year of the Kings Reign when the unsufferable Bull of Pope Paul the 3d engaged him to look a little more to his own safety Then indeed in the Oath for maintaining the successiono f the Crown the Subjects were required under the pains of Treason to swear that the King was supream head of the Church of England but that was not mentioned in the former Oath that was made in the 25th and enacted in the 26 year of his Reign It cannot but be confessed that to enact under pain of death that none should deny the Kings Titles and to proceed upon that against offenders is a very different thing from forcing them to swear the King to be the Supream Head of the Church The first instance of these Capital proceedings was in Easter-Term in the beginning of the 27th year of his reign Three Priors and a Monk of the Carthusian Order were then endited of Treason for saying that the King was not Supream head under Christ of the Church of England These were Iohn Houghton Prior of the Charter-house near London Augustin Webster Prior of Axholme Robert Laurence Prior of Bâ—vâ—ll and Richard Reynolds a Monk of Sion this last was esteemed a learned man for that time and that Order They were tried in Westminster-Hall by a Commission of Oyer and Terminer they pleaded not guilty but the Jury found them guilty and judgment was given that they should suffer as Traitors The Record mentions no other particulars but the writers of the Popish side make a splendid recital of the courage and constancy they expressed both in their Tryal and at their Death It was no difficult thing for men so used to the Legend and the making of fine stories for the Saints and Martyrs of their Orders to dress up such Narratives with much pomp But as their pleading Not
you so much the more to accelerate as ye know how necessary it is that all diligence and expedition be used in that Matter And so ye all to handle and endeavour your selves there for the time of your demor as ye may do the most benefit and advantage that may be to the speedy furtherance of the said Cause And forasmuch as at the dispatch of your said last Letters ye had not opened unto the Pope's Holiness the last and uttermost Device here conceived and to you written in my Letters sent by the said Alexander but that ye intended as soon as ye might have time and access to set forth the same wherein it is to be trusted since that thing could by no colour or respect to the Emperor be reasonably denied ye have before this time done some good and brought unto perfection I therefore remitting you to such Instructions as ye received at that time advertise you that the King's mind and pleasure is ye do your best to attain the Ampliation of the said Commission after such form as is to you in the said last Letters and Instructions prescribed which if ye cannot in every thing bring to pass at the least to obtain as much to the King's purpose and the benefit of the Cause as ye can wherein all good policy and dexterity is to be used and the Pope's Holiness by all perswasions to be induced thereunto shewing unto the same how ye have received Letters from the King's Highness and me responsives to such as ye wrote of the Dates before rehearsed whereby ye be advertised that the King's Highness perceiving the Pope's strange demeanour in this his great and weighty Cause with the little respect that his Holiness hath either to the importance thereof or to do unto his Holiness at this his great necessity gratuity and pleasure not only cannot be a little sorry and heavy to see himself frustrate of the future hope and expectation that his Grace had to have found the Pope's Holiness a most loving fast near and kind Father and assured Friend ready and glad to have done for his Grace that which of his Power Ordinary or Absolute he might have done in this thing which so near toucheth the King's Conscience Health Succession Realm and Subjects But also marvelleth highly That his Holiness both in Matters of Peace Truce in this the King's Cause and in all other hath more respect to please and content him of whom he hath received most displeasures and who studieth nothing more than the detriment of the See than his Holiness hath either to do that which a good common Father for the well of the Church Himself and all Christendom is bounden and oweth to do or also that which every thing well pondered it were both of Congruence Right Truth Equity Wisdom and conveniency for to do Thinking verily that his Highness deserved to be far otherwise entreated and that not at his most need in things nearest touching his Grace and where the same had his chief and principal confidence thus to have his just and reasonable Petitions rejected and totally to be converted to the arbitre of his Enemy which is not the way to win acquire and conserve Friends to the Pope's Holiness and See Apostolick nor that which a good and indifferent Vicar of Jesus Christ and common Father unto all Princes oweth and is bound to observe Nevertheless ye shall say the King's Highness who always hath shewed and largely comprobate himself a most devout Son unto the See Apostolick must and will take patience and shall pray to God to put in the Pope's mind a more direct and vertuous intent so to proceed in his acts and doing as he may be found a very Father upright indifferent loving and kind and not thus for partial respect fear or other inordinate Affection or cause to degenerate from his best Children showing himself unto them as a Step-Father nor the King's Highness ye shall say can persuade unto himself that the Pope's Holiness is of that nature and disposition that he will so totally fail his Grace in this Matter of so high importance but that by one good mean or other his Holiness will perfectly comprobate the intire love that always the same hath shewed to bear towards his Highness wherein ye shall desire him now to declare by his Acts the uttermost of his intent and disposition so as ye Mr. Stevins and Mr. Brian who be revoked home do not return with void hands or bring with you things of such meagerness or little substance as shall be to no purpose And thus by these or like words seconding to the same effect which as the time shall require and as he shall have cause ye by your Wisdoms can qualifie and devise It is not to be doubted but that the Pope's Holiness perceiving how the Kings Highness taketh this Matter and that two of you shall now return will in expedition of the said Ampliation of the Commission and other things requisite strain himself to do unto the King's Highness as much gratuity and pleasure as may be for the better attaining whereof ye shall also shew how heavy and sorry I with my Lord Legate Campegius be to see this manner of proceeding and the large promises which he and I so often have made unto the King's Highness of the Pope's fast and assured mind to do all that his Holiness etiam ex plenitudine potestatis might do thus to be disappointed most humbly beseeching his Holiness on my behalf by his high Wisdom to consider what a Prince this is the infinite and excellent gratitudes which the same hath exhibited to the Pope's Person in particular and to the See Apostolick in the general the magnitude and importance of this Cause with the Consequences that may follow by the good or ill entreating of the King's Highness in the same wherein ye shall say I have so largely written so plainly for my discharge declared the truth unto his Holiness and so humbly reverently and devoutly made intercession that more can I not add or accumulate thereunto but only pray unto God that the same may be perceived understood and taken as the exigence of the Case and the merits of this Noble Prince doth require trusting always and with fervent desire from day to day abiding to hear from his said Holiness some such thing as I shall now be able constantly to justifie and defend the great things which I and my said Lord Legate have said and attested on his Holiness behalf This with all other such matter as may serve to the purpose ye shall extend as well as ye can and by that means get and attain as much to your purpose for the corroboration and surety of all things to be done here as is possible leaving to speak any more or also to take or admit any rescripts for exhibition of the Brief advocation of the Cause or other of the former degrees seeing that all which shall or can be
or Monk of this House have any Child or Boy laying or privily accompanying with him or otherwise haunting unto him other than to help him to Mass. Also that the Brethren of this House when they be sick or evil at ease be seen unto and be kept in the Infirmary duly as well for their sustenance of Meat and Drink as for their good keeping Also that the Abbot or President keep and find in some University one or two of his Brothers according to the Ability and Possessions of this House which Brethren after they be learned in good and holy Letters when they return home may instruct and teach their Brethren and diligently preach the Word of God Also that every day by the space of one hour a Lesson of Holy Scripture be kept in this Covent to which all under pain by this said President to be moderated shall resort which President shall have Authority to dispense with them that they with a low and treatable voice say their long hours which were wont to be sung Also that the Brethren of this House after Divine Service done read or hear somewhat of Holy Scripture or occupy themself in some such like honest and laudable exercise Also that all and every Brethren of this House shall observe the Rule Statutes and laudable Customs of this Religion as far as they do agree with Holy Scripture and the Word of God And that the Abbot Prior or President of this Monastery every day shall expound to his Brethren as plainly as may be in English a certain part of the Rule that they have professed and apply the same always to the Doctrine of Christ and not contrariwise and he shall teach them that the said Rule and other their Principles of Religion so far as they be laudable be taken out of Holy Scripture and he shall show them the places from whence they were derived and that their Ceremonies and other observances of Religion be none other things than as the first Letters or Principles and certain Introductions to true Christianity or to observe an order in the Church And that true Religion is not contained in Apparel manner of going shaven Heads and such other marks nor in silence fasting up-rising in the night singing and such other kind of Ceremonies but in cleanness of mind pureness of living Christ's Faith not feigned and brotherly Charity and true honouring of God in Spirit and Verity And that those above-said things were instituted and begun that they being first exercised in these in process of time might ascend to those as by certain steps that is to say to the chief point and end of Religion and therefore let them be diligently exhorted that they do not continually stick and surcease in such Ceremonies and Observances as tho they had perfectly fulfilled the chief and outmost of the whole true Religion but that when they have once past such things they endeavour themselves to higher things and convert their minds from such external Matters to more inward and deeper Considerations as the Law of God and Christian Religion doth teach and show And that they assure not themselves of any Reward or Commodity any wise by reason of such Ceremonies and Observances except they refer all such to Christ and for his sake observe them and for that they might thereby the more easily keep such things as he hath commanded as well to them as to all Christian People Also that the Abbot and President of this Place shall make a full and true reckoning and accompt of his Administration every year to his Brethren as well of his Receipts as Expences and that the said Accompt be written in a great Book remaining with the Covent Also that the Abbot and President of this House shall make no waste of the Woods pertaining to this House nor shall set out unadvisedly any Farmes or Reversions without the consent of the more part of the Convent Also that there be assigned a Book and a Register that may copy out into that Book all such Writings word by word as shall pass under the Convent-Seal of this House Also that no Man be suffered to profess or to wear the Habit of Religion in this House e're he be 24 years of Age compleat And that they entice nor allure no Man with suasions and blandyments to take the Religion upon him Item that they shall not shew no Reliques or feigned Miracles for encrease of Lucre but that they exhort Pilgrims and Strangers to give that to the Poor that they thought to offer to their Images or Reliques Also that they shall suffer no Fairs or Markets to be kept or used within the limits of this House Also that every Brother of this House that is a Priest shall every day in his Mass pray for the most happy and most prosperous estate of our Sovereign Lord the King and his most noble and lawful Wife Queen Ann. Also that if either the Master or any Brother of this House do infringe any of the said Injunctions any of them shall denounce the same or procure to be denounced as soon as may be to the King's Majesty or to his Visitor-General or his Deputy And the Abbot or Master shall minister spending Mony and other Necessaries for the way to him that shall so denounce Other Spiritual Injunctions may be added by the Visitor as the place and nature of the Comperts shall require after his discretion Reserving Power to give more Injunctions and to examine and discuss the Comperts to punish and reform them that be convict of any notable Crime to search and try the Foundations Charters Donations Appropriations and Muniments of the said Places and to dispose all such Papistical Escripts as shall be there found to the Right Honourable Mr. Thomas Cromwell General-Visitor to the King 's said Highness as shall seem most expedient to his high wisdom and discretion III. Some Particulars relating to the Dissolution of Monasteries Section I. The Preamble of the Surrender of the Monastery of Langden OMnibus Christi fidelibus c. Willielmus Dyer Abbas Monasterii Beatae Mariae Virginis S. Thomae Martyris de Langden in Com. Kent ejusdem loci Conventus Ordinis Praemonstrat capitulum dictae domus plene facientes ejusdemque domus quae in suis fructibus redditibus provenien even emolumen non mediocriter deteriorata est quasi in totum diminuta ingentique aere alieno obruta oppressa gravata extitit statum usque adeo matura deliberatione diligenti tractatu considerantes ponderantes pensantes quod nisi celeri remedio regia provisione huic Monasterio sive Prioratui quippe quod de ejus fundatione personatu existit brevi succuratur provideatur funditus in Spiritualibus Temporalibus annihiletur per praesentes damus concedimus c. The rest follows in the ordinary form of Law but the ordinary Preamble in most Surrenders is Omnibus Christi fidelibus c. Nos Salutem Sciatis
Nunnery Yorksh. no Subscriptions 3. September Haughmond Can. August Sallop the Abbot and 10 Mon. 9. Nunnkeling Nunnery Yorksh. no Subscription but the Seal 10. Nunniton Nunnery the Prioress 27 Crosses for Subscript 12. Ulnescroft Liecestersh the Prior and 11 Friers 15. Marrick Nunnery Yorksh. the Prioress 15. Burnham Nunnery Bucks the Abbess and 9 Nuns 19. St. Bartholomew Smithfield the Prior. 25. October Edmundsbury Bened. Suffolk the Abbot and 44 Monks 4. November A Commission for the surrender of St. Allborrough Chesh. 7. Berkin Nunnery Essex the Abbess 14. Tame Oxfordsh Bp. * Reonen and 16 Monks 16. Osney ibid. id and 12 Monks 17. Godstow Nunnery Oxfordsh subscribed by a Notary 17. Studley Nunnery Oxfordsh signed as the former 19. Thelsford Norfolk the Prior and 13 Monks 16. February Westminster Bened. the Abbot and 27 Monks 16. Ianuary A Commission to the Arch-Bpp of Canterb. for taking the Surrender of Christ's-Church Canterb. 20. March And another for the surrender of Rochester both dated 20. March Waltham Benedict Essex the Abbot and 17 Monks 23. St. Mary Watte Gilber Bpp. of Landaffe Commend 8 Friers and 14 Nuns  There is also in the Augmentation-Office a Book concerning the Resignations and Suppressions of the following Monasteries St. Swithins Winchester 15. November St. Mary Winchester 17. Wherewell Hampshire 21. Christ's Church Twinham the Commendator thereof is called Episcopus Neopolitanus 28. Winchelcomb 3. December Ambrose Bury 4. St. Austins near Bristol 9. Billesswick near Bristol 9. December Malmesbury 15. Cirencester 19. Hales 24. St. Peter's Glocester 2. Ianuary Teuksbury 9. There are also several other Deeds enrolled which follow St. Mary-Overhay in Southwark 14. October St. Michael near Kingston upon Hall Carthus 9. November Burton upon Trent Staffordsh 14. Hampol Nunnery Yorksh. 19. St. Oswald Yorksh. 20. Kirkstall Yorksh. 22. Pomfret Yorksh. 23. Kirkelles Yorksh. 24. Ardyngton Yorksh. 26. Fountains Yorksh. 26. St. Mary York 29. St. Leonard York 1. December Nunnapleton Nunnery Yorksh. 5. St. Gelmans Selbe Yorksh. 6. Melsey Yorksh. 11. Malton Yorksh. 11. Whitby Yorksh. 14. Albalanda Northumb. 18. Montgrasse Carthus Yorksh. 18. Alnewick Premonstrat Northumb. 22. Gisburne August Yorksh. 22. Newshame Dunelme 29. St. Cuthberts Cathedral of Duresme 31. St. Bartholomew Nunnery in Newcastle 3. Ianuary Egleliston Richmondsh 5. St. Mary Carlile Cumber 9. Hoppa Premonst Westmorland 14. St. Werburg Chester 20. St. Mary Chester a Nunnery 21. St. Peters Shrewsbury 24. St. Milburg Winlock Salop. 26. Section IV. IT seems there was generally a Confession made with the Surrender Of these some few are yet extant though undoubtedly great care was taken to destroy as many as could be in Queen Mary's time That long and full one made by the Prior of St. Andrews in Northampton the Preamble whereof is printed by Fuller and is at large printed by Weaver is yet preserved in the Augmentation-Office There are some few more also extant six of these I have seen one of them follows FOrasmuch as we Richard Green Abbot of our Monastery of our Blessed Lady St. Mary of Betlesden and the Convent of the said Monastery do profoundly consider That the whole manner and trade of living which we and our pretensed Religion have practised and used many days does most principally consist in certain dumb Ceremonies and other certain Constitutions of the Bishops of Rome and other Forinsecal Potentates as the Abbot of Cistins and therein only noseled and not taught in the true knowledg of God's Laws procuring always Exemptions of the Bishops of Rome from our Ordinaries and Diocesans submitting our selves principally to Forinsecal Potentates and Powers which never came here to reform such disorders of living and abuses as now have been found to have reigned amongst us And therefore now assuredly knowing that the most perfect way of living is most principally and sufficiently declared unto us by our Master Christ his Evangelists and Apostles and that it is most expedient for us to be governed and ordered by our Supream Head under God the King 's most noble Grace with our mutual assent and consent submit our selves and every one of us to the most benign Mercy of the King's Majesty and by these presents do surrender c. The Surrender follows in common form Signed by the Abbot Subprior and 9 Monks 25. Septemb. Regni 30. There are others to the same purpose Signed by the Guardian and seven Franciscans at Alisbury the 1st of October By the Franciscans at Bedford the 3d of October The Franciscans in Coventry the 5th of October And the Franciscans in Stamford the 8th of October And the Carmelites in Stamford on the same day which I shall also insert the former four agreeing to it FOrasmuch as we the Prior and Friers of this House of Carmelites in Stamford commonly called the White Friers in Stamford in the County of Lincoln do profoundly consider that the perfection of Christian living doth not consist in some Ceremonies wearing of a white Coat disguising our selves after strange fashions dockying and becking wearing Scapulars and Hoods and other-like Papistical Ceremonies wherein we have been most principally practised and noseled in times past but the very true way to please God and to live a true Christian Man without all hypocrisy and feigned dissimulation is sincerely declared to us by our Master Christ his Evangelists and Apostles being minded hereafter to follow the same conforming our self to the Will and Pleasure of our Supream Head under God on Earth the King's Majesty and not to follow henceforth the superstitious Traditions of any Forinsecal Potentate or Power with mutual assent and consent do submit our selves unto the Mercy of our said Sovereign Lord and with the like mutual assent and consent do surrender c. Signed by the Prior and 6 Friers Section V. Of the manner of suppressing the Monasteries after they were Surrendred THe Reader will best understand this by the following account of the Suppression of the Monastery of Teuksbury copied from a Book that is in the Augmentation-Office which begins thus THe Certificate of Robert Southwell Esquire William Petre Edward Kairne and Iohn London Doctors of Law Iohn Ap-rice Iohn Kingsman Richard Paulet and William Bernars Esquires Commissioners assigned by the King's Majesty to take the Surrenders of divers Monasteries by force of his Grace's Commission to them 6 5 4 or 3 of them in that behalf directed bearing date at his Highness's Palace of Westminster the 7 th day of Novemb. in the 31 year of the Reign of our most dread Sovereign Lord Henry the Eighth by the Grace of God King of England and of France Defender of the Faith Lord of Ireland and in Earth immediately under Christ Supreme Head of the Church of England of all and singular their Proceedings as well in and of these Monasteries by his Majesty appointed to be altered as of others to be dissolved according to the tenour purport and effect of his Graces said Commission with Instructions to them
likewise delivered as hereafter ensueth Com. Glocester Teuksbury late Monastery Surrendred to the use of the King's Majesty and of his Heirs and Successors for ever made bearing date under the Covent-Seal of the same late Monastery the 9 th day of Ianuary in the 31 year of the Reign of our most dread victorious Sovereign Lord King Henry the Eighth and the said day and year clearly dissolved and suppressed The clear yearly value of all the Possessions belonging to said late Monastery As well Spiritual as Temporal over and besides 136 l. 8 s. 1 d. in Fees Annuities and Custodies granted to divers Persons by Letters Pattents under the Covent-Seal of the said late Monastery for term of their lives l. s. d. 1595 15 06 Pensions assigned to the late Religious dispatched that is to say to  l. s. d.  Iohn Wich late Abbot there 266 13 04 551 06 08 Iohn Beley late Prior there 16 00 00 I. Bromesgrove late Prior of Delehurst 13 06 08 Robert Circester Prior of St. Iames 13 06 08 Will. Didcote Prior of Cranborne 10 00 00 Robert Cheltenhem B. D. 10 00 00 Two Monks 8 l. a piece 16 00 00 One Monk 07 00 00 27 Monks 6 l. 13 s. 4 d. each 180 00 00 And so remains clear l. s. d. 1044 08 10 Records and Evidences Belonging to the late Monastery Remains in the Treasury there under the Custody of Iohn Whittington Kt. the Keys whereof being delivered to Richard Paulet Receiver Houses and Buildings assigned to remain undefaced The Lodging called the Newark leading from the Gate to the late Abbots Lodging with Buttery Pantry Cellar Kitching Larder and Pastry thereto adjoining The late Abbot's Lodging the Hostery the great Gate entring into the Court with the Lodging over the same the Abbot's Stable Bakehouse Brewhouse and Slaughterhouse the Almry Barn Derryhouse the great Barn next Aven the Maltinghouse with the Garnees in the same the Oxhouse in the Barton the Barton-gate and the Lodging over the same Committed to the custody of Iohn Whittington Knight Deemed to be superfluous The Church with Chappels Cloister Chapter-house Misericord the two Dormitories the Infirmary with Chappels and Lodgings within the same the Work-hay with another House adjoining to the same the Covent-Kitching the Library the old Hosteory the Chamberers Lodging the new-Hall the old Parlor adjoining to the Abbot's Lodging the Cellarers Lodging the Poultry-house the Gardner the Almary and all other Houses and Lodgings not above reserved Committed as above-said Leads remaining upon The Quire Iles and Chappels annext the Cloister Chapter-houser Frater St. Michaels Chappel Halls Fermory and Gate-house esteemed to 180 Foder Bells remaining In the Steeple there are eight poize by estimation 14600 weight Jewels reserved to the use of the King's Majesty Miters garnished with gilt rugged Pearls and counterfeit Stones 2. Plate of Silver reserved to the same use Silver gilt 329 ounces Silver parrel gilt 605 ounces Silver white 497 ounces 1431. Ornaments reserved to the said use One Cope of Silver Tissue with one Clesible and one Tunicle of the same one Cope of Gold Tissue with one Cles and two Tunicles of the same  Sum of all the Ornaments Goods and Chattels belonging to the said late Monastery Sold by the said Commissioners as in a particular Book of Sales thereof made ready to be shewed as more at large may appear l. s. d. 194 08 00 Payments To the late Religious Servants dispatcht To 38 late Religious Persons of the said late Monastery of the King's Mat. reward 80 13 04 To an 144 late Servants of the said late Monastery for their Wages and Liveries 75 10 00 Payments For debts owing by the said late Monastery To divers Persons for Victuals and Necessaries of them had to the use of the said Monastery with 10 l. paied to the late Abbot there for and in full paiment of 124 l. 5 s. 4 d. by him to be paid to certain Creditors of the said late Monastery by Covenants made with the aforesaid Commissioners 18 12 00 And so remains clear 19 12 08 Then follows a List of some small Debts owing to and by the said Monastery Then follows a List of the Livings in their Gift Com. Glocest. Four Parsonages and 10 Vicarages Com. Wigorn. Two Parsonages and 2 Vicarages Com. Warwic Two Parsonages Com. Will. Bristol Five Parsonages and 1 Vicarage Com. Wilts 00 2 Vicar Com. Oxon. One Pars. and 2 Vicar Com. Dors. Four Pars. and 2 Vicar Com. Sommers Three Pars. Com. Devon 00 1 Vicar Com. Corub 00 2 Vicar Com. Glamorg and Morgan 00 5 Vicar In all 21 Parsonages and 27 Vicarages IV. Queen Boleyn's last letter to King Henry SIR YOur Grace's displeasure and my Imprisonment are things so strange unto me as what to write or what to excuse I am altogether ignorant Whereas you send unto me willing me to confess a Truth and so obtain your favour by such an one whom you know to be mine ancient professed Enemy I no sooner received this Message by him than I rightly conceived your meaning and as if as you say confessing a Truth indeed may procure my safety I shall with all willingness and duty perform your Command But let not your Grace ever imagine that your poor Wife will ever be brought to acknowledg a Fault where not so much as a thought thereof preceded And to speak a Truth never Prince had Wife more loyal in all duty and in all true affection than you have ever found in Ann Boleyn with which Name and Place I could willingly have contented my self if God and your Grace's pleasure had been so pleased Neither did I at any time so far forget my self in my Exaltation or received Queenship but that I always looked for such an alteration as now I find for the ground of my preferment being on no surer Foundation than your Grace's Fancy the least alteration I knew was fit and sufficient to draw that Fancy to some other Subject You have chosen me from a low estate to be your Queen and Companion far beyond my desert or desire If then you found me worthy of such honour Good your Grace let not any light Fancy or bad counsel of mine Enemies withdraw your Princely Favour from me neither let that Stain that unworthy stain of a disloyal heart towards your good Grace ever cast so foul a blot on your most dutiful Wife and the Infant-Princess your Daughter Try me good King but let me have a lawful Trial and let not my sworn Enemies sit as my Accusers and Judges yea let me receive an open Trial for my Truth shall fear no open shame then shall you see either mine innocency cleared your suspicion and Conscience satisfied the ignominy and slander of the World stopped or my Guilt openly declared So that whatsoever God or you may determine of me your Grace may be freed from an open censure and mine Offence being so lawfully proved your Grace is at liberty both
pleasure Item If the said Commissioners have but one County in charge then to certifie the said Chancellor in form aforesaid and there to remain till they know further of the King's pleasure VII Injunctions given by the Authority of the King's Highness to the Clergy of this Realm IN the Name of God Amen In the Year of our Lord God one thousand five hundred thirty six and of the most noble Reign of our Sovereign Lord Henry the Eighth King of England and France the 28 Year and the day of I Thomas Cromwel Knight Lord Cromwel Keeper of the Privy-Seal of our said Sovereign Lord the King and Vicegerent unto the same for and concerning all his Jurisdictions Ecclesiastical within the Realm visiting by the King's Highness's Supream Authority Ecclesiastical the People and Clergy of this Deanery of by my trusty Commissary lawfully deputed and constitute for this part have to the glory of Almighty God to the King's Highness's honour the publick Weal of this his Realm and encrease of Vertue in the same appointed and assigned these Injunctions ensuing to be kept and observed of the Dean Parsons Vicars Curates and Stipendaries resiant or having cure of Soul or any other Spiritual Administrations within this Deanery under the pains hereafter limited and appointed The first is That the Dean Parsons Vicars and other having cure of Soul any-where within this Deanery shall faithfully keep and observe and as far as in them may lie shall cause to be observed and kept of other all and singular Laws and Statutes of this Realm made for the abolishing and extirpation of the Bishop of Rome's pretensed and usurped Power and Jurisdiction within this Realm And for the establishment and confirmation of the King's Authority and Jurisdiction of the same as of the Supream Head of the Church of England and shall to the uttermost of their Wit Knowledg and Learning purely sincerely and without any colour or dissimulation declare manifest and open for the space of one quarter of a year next ensuing once every Sunday and after that at the least-wise twice every quarter in their Sermons and other Collations that the Bishop of Rome's usurped Power and Jurisdiction having no establishment nor ground by the Law of God was of most just causes taken away and abolished and therefore they owe unto him no manner of obedience or subjection and that the King's Power is within his Dominion the highest Power and Potentate under God to whom all Men within the same Dominions by God's Commandment owe most loyalty and obedience afore and above all other Powers and Potentates in Earth Item Whereas certain Articles were lately devised and put forth by the King's Highness's Authority and condescended upon by the Prelates and Clergy of this his Realm in Convocation whereof part are necessary to be holden and believed for our Salvation and the other part do concern and teach certain laudable Ceremonies Rites and Usages of the Church meet and convenient to be kept and used for a decent and politick order in the same the said Dean Parsons Vicars and other Curats shall so open and declare in their said Sermons and other Collations the said Articles unto them that be under their Cure that they may plainly know and discern which of them be necessary to be believed and observed for their Salvation and which be not necessary but only do concern the decent and politick order of the said Church according to such Commandment and Admonition as hath been given unto them heretofore by Authority of the King's Highness in thaâ— behalf Moreover That they shall declare unto all such as be under their Cure the Articles likewise devised put forth and authorized of late for and concerning the abrogation of certain superfluous Holy-days according to the effect and purport of the same Articles and perswade their Parishioners to keep and observe the same inviolable as things honesty provided decreed and established by common consent and publick Authority for the Weal Commodity and Profit of all this Realm Besides this to the intent that all Superstition and Hypocrisie crept into divers Mens hearts may vanish away they shall not set forth or extol any Images Reliques or Miracles for any superstition or lucre nor allure the People by any inticements to the pilgrimages of any Saint otherwise than is permitted in the Articles lately put forth by the Authority of the King's Majesty and condescended upon by the Prelates and Clergy of this his Realm in Convocation as though it were proper or peculiar to that Saint to give this Commodity or that seeing all Goodness Health and Grace ought to be both asked and looked for only of God as of the very Author of the same and of none other for without him it cannot be given But they shall exhort as well their Parishioners as other Pilgrims that they do rather apply themselves to the keeping of God's Commandments and fulfilling of his Works of Charity perswading them that they shall please God more by the true exercising of their bodily Labour Travail or Occupation and providing for their Families than if they went about to the said Pilgrimages and that it shall profit more their Souls health if they do bestow that on the Poor and Needy which they would have bestowed upon the said Images or Reliques Also in the same their Sermons and other Collations the Parsons Vicars and other Curats aforesaid shall diligently admonish the Fathers and Mothers Masters and Governors of Youth being within their Cure to teach or cause to be taught their Children and Servants even from their Infancy their Pater Noster the Articles of our Faith and the Ten Commandments in their Mother Tongue And the same so taught shall cause the said Youth oft to repeat and understand And to the intent that this may be the more easily done the said Curats shall in their Sermons deliberately and plainly recite of the said Pater Noster the Articles of our Faith and the Ten Commandments one Clause or Article one day and an other another day till those be taught and learnt by little and shall deliver the same in writing or shew where printed Books containing the same be to be sold to them that can read or will desire the same And thereto that the said Fathers and Mothers Masters and Governors do bestow their Children and Servants even from their Childhood either to Learning or some other honest Exercise Occupation or Husbandry exhorting counselling and by all the ways and means they may as well in their said Sermons and Collations as otherwise perswading the said Fathers Mothers Masters and other Governors being under their Cure and Charge diligently to provide and foresee that the said Youth be in no manner-wise kept or brought up in idleness lest at any time afterwards they be driven for lack of some Mystery or Occupation to live by to fall to begging stealing or some other unthriftiness forasmuch as we may daily see through sloth and
dread and fear to detect or accuse such detestable known Hereticks the particularities and specialities of which said abominable Heresies Errors and Offences committed and done by the said Thomas Cromwell being over-tedious long and of too great number here to be expressed declared or written And to the intent to have those damnable Errors and Heresies to be inculcated impressed and infixed in the Hearts of your Subjects as well contrary to God's Laws as to your Laws and Ordinances Most Gracious Soveraign Lord the same Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex hath allured and drawn unto him by Retainours many of your Subjects sunderly inhabiting in every of your said Shires and territories as well erroneously perswading and declaring to them the Contents of the false erroneous Books above-written to be good true and best standing with the most Holy Word and Pleasure of God as other his false and heretical Opinions and Errors whereby and by his Confederacies therein he hath caused many of your faithful Subjects to be greatly infected with Heresies and other Errors contrary to the right Laws and Pleasure of Almighty God And the same Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex by the false and traiterous means above-written supposing himself to be fully able by force and strength to maintain and defend his said abominable Treasons Heresies and Errors not regarding his most bounden Duty to Almighty God and his Laws nor the natural Duty of Allegiance to your Majesty in the last day of March in the 30 year of our most gracious Reign in the Parish of St. Peter the Poor within your City of London upon demonstration and declaration then there made unto him that there were certain new Preachers as Robert Barnes Clerk and other whereof part been now committed to the Tower of London for preaching and teaching of leud Learning against your Highness's Proclamations the same Thomas affirming the same preaching to be good most detestably arrogantly erroneously wilfully maliciously and traiterously expresly against your Laws and Statutes then and there did not lett to declare and say these most traiterous and detestable words ensuing amongst other words of like matter and effect that is to say That if the King would turn from it yet I would not turn And if the King did turn and all his People I would fight in the Field in mine own Person with my Sword in my hand against him and all others and then and there most traiterously pulled out his Dagger and held it on high saying these words Or else this Dagger thrust me to the heart if I would not die in that Quarrel against them all And I trust if I live one year or two it shall not lie in the King's Power to resist or lett it if he would And further then and there swearing by a great Oath traiterously affirmed the same his traiterous saying and pronunciation of words saying I will do so indeed extending up his Arm as though he had had a Sword in his Hand to the most perrilous grievous and wicked Example of all other your loving faithful and obedient Subjects in this your Realm and to the peril of your most Royal Person And moreover our most Gracious Soveraign Lord the said Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex hath acquired and obtained into his possession by Oppression Bribery Extort Power and false Promises made by him to your Subjects of your Realm innumerable Sums of Mony and Treasure and being so enriched hath had your Nobles of your Realm in great disdain derision and detestation as by express words by him most opprobriously spoken hath appeared And being put in remembrance of others of his estate which your Highness hath called him unto offending in like Treasons the last day of Ianuary in the 31 year of your most noble Reign at the Parish of St. Martin in the Field in the County of Middlesex most arrogantly willingly maliciously and traiterously said published and declared That if the Lords would handle him so that he would give them such a Break-fast as never was made in England and that the proudest of them should know to the great peril and danger as well of your Majesty as of your Heirs and Successors For the which his most detestable and abominable Heresies and Treasons and many other his like Offences and Treasons over-long here to be rehearsed and declared Be it Enacted Ordained and Established by your Majesty with the Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That the said Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex for his abominable and detestable Heresies and Treasons by him most abominably heretically and traiterously practised committed and done as well against Almighty God as against your Majesty and this your said Realm shall be and stand by Authority of this present Parliament convicted and attainted of Heresie and High Treason and be adjudged an abominable and detestable Heretick and Traitor and shall have and suffer such pains of death losses and forfeitures of Goods Debts and Chattels as in 〈◊〉 of Heresie and High Treason or as in cases of either of them at the pleasure of your most Royal Majesty And that the same Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex shall by Authority abovesaid lose and forfeit to your Highness and to your Heirs and Successors all such his Castles Lordships Mannors Mesuages Lands Tenements Rents Reversions Remainders Services Possessions Offices Rights Conditions and all other his Hereditaments of what names natures or qualities soever they be which he the said Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex or any other to his use had or ought to have had of any Estate of Inheritance in Fee-Simple or Fee-Tail in Reversion or Possession at the said last day of March in the said thirtieth Year of your most Gracious Reign or at any time sith or after as in Cases of High Treason And that all the said Castles Lordships Mannors Lands Mesuages Tenements Rents Reversions Remainders Services Possessions Offices and all other the Premisses forfeited as is abovesaid shall be deemed invested and adjudged in the lawful real and actual possession of your Highness your Heirs and Successors for ever in the same and such estate manner and form as if the said Castles Lordships Mannors Mesuages Lands Tenements Rents Reversions Remainders Services Possessions Offices and other the Premisses with their Appurtenances and every of them were specially or particularly founden by Office or Offices Inquisition or Inquisitions to be taken by any Escheator or Escheators or any other Commissioner or Commissioners by virtue of any Commission or Commissions to them or any of them to be directed in any County or Counties Shire or Shires within this your Realm of England where the said Castles and other the Premisses or any of them been or do lay and returned into any of your Majesties Courts Saving to all and singular Person and Persons Bodies politick and corporate their Heirs and Successors and their Successors and Assignes of
every of them other than the said Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex and his Heirs and all and every other Person and Persons claiming by the same Thomas Cromwell and to his use all such Right Title Entrie Possession Interest Reversions Remainders Lease Leases Conditions Fees Offices Rents Annuities Commons and all other Commodities Profits and Hereditaments whatsoever they or any of them might should or ought to have had if this Act had never been had nor made Provided always and be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid that this Act of Attainder ne any Offence ne other thing therein contained extend not unto the Deanery of Wells in the County of Sommerset nor to any Mannors Lands Tenements or Hereditaments thereunto belonging nor be in any wise prejudicial or hurtful unto the Bishop of Bath and Wells nor to the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral Church of St. Andrew of Wells nor to any of them nor to any of their Successors but that the said Bishop Dean and Chapters and their Successors and every of them shall and may have hold use occupy and enjoy all and singular their Titles Rights Mannors Lands Tenements Rents Reversions and Services and all and singular other their Hereditaments Commodities and Profits of what nature kind or quality or condition soever they be in as ample and large manner and form as tho this Act of Attainder or any Offence therein mentioned had never been had committed nor made and that from hence-forth the Dean and his Successors Deans of the said Cathedral Church that hereafter shall be prefected elected and admitted to the same Shall by the Authority aforesaid be Dean of the said Cathedral Church fully and wholly incorporated with the Chapter of the same in as ample large and like manner and form to all intents and purposes as the Deans before this time hath been and used to be with the said Chapter of the said Cathedral Church of Wells And that the same Dean and Chapter and their Successors shall have occupy and enjoy all and singular their such Possessions Mannors Lands Tenements Rents Reversions and Services and all and singular their Hereditaments of what nature kind name or names they be called or known And shall be adjudged and deemed in actual and real possession and season of and in the same Premisses to all intents and purposes according to their old Corporation as tho this Act of Attainder or any thing clause or matter therein contained had never been had committed nor made This said Act of Attainder or any other Act Provision or any thing heretofore had or made to the contrary notwithstanding Cui quidem petitioni cum provisione praedict perlect intellect per dictum Dominum Regem ex Authoritate consensu Parliamenti praedicti sic Responsum est Soit faict come il est desiro Cromwell's Letter to the King concerning his Marriage with Ann of Cleve An Original To the King my most Gracious Sovereign Lord his Royal Majesty MOst Merciful King and most Gracious Sovereign Lord may it please the same to be advertised That the last time it pleased your benign Goodness to send unto me the Right Honourable Lord Chancellor the Right Honourable Duke of Norff. and the Lord Admiral to examine and also to declare unto me divers things from your Majesty among the which one special thing they moved and thereupon they charged me as I would answer before God at the dreadful day of Judgment and also upon the extreme danger and damnation of my Soul and Conscience to say what I knew in the Marriage and concerning the Marriage between your Highness and the Queen To the which I answered as I knew declaring unto them the Particulars as nigh as I then could call to remembrance Which when they had heard they in your Majesty's Name and upon like charge as they had given me before commanded me to write to your Highness the truth as much as I knew in that Matter which now I do and the very truth as God shall save me to the uttermost of my knowledg First After your Majesty heard of the Lady Ann of Cleves arrival at Dover and that her Journies were appointed toward Greenwich and that she should be at Rochester on New-years Even at night your Highness declared to me that you would privily visit her at Rochester upon New-years-day adding these words To nourish love which accordingly your Grace did upon New-years-day as is above-said And the next day being Friday your Grace returned to Greenwich where I spake with your Grace and demanded of your Majesty How ye liked the Lady Ann your Highness answered as me thought heavily and not pleasantly Nothing so well as she was spoken of saying further That if your Highness had known as much before as ye then knew she should not have come within this Realm saying as by the way of lamentation What Remedy Unto the which I answered and said I know none but was very sorry therefore and so God knoweth I was for I thought it a hard beginning The next day after the receipt of the said Lady and her entry made unto Greenwich and after your Highness had brought her to her Chamber I then waited upon your Highness into your Privy-Chamber and being there your Grace called me unto you saying to me these words or the like My Lord is it not as I told you say what they will she is nothing so fair as she hath been reported howbeit she is well and seemly Whereunto I answered and said By my Faith Sir ye say truth adding thereunto that I thought she had a Queenly manner and nevertheless was sorry that your Grace was no better content And thereupon your Grace commanded me to call together your Council which were these by name The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk my Lord Admiral and my Lord of Duresme and my self to commune of these Matters and to know what Commissions the Agents of Cleves had brought as well touching the performance of the Covenants sent before from hence to Dr. Wotton to have been concluded in Cleves as also in the declaration how the Matters stood for the Covenants of Marriage between the Duke of Lorrain's Son and the said Lady Ann. Whereupon Olisleger and Hogeston were called and the Matters purposed whereby it plainly appeared that they were much astonished and abashed and desired that they might make answer in the next morning which was Sunday And upon the Sunday in the morning your said Counsellors and they met together early and there eft-soons was proposed unto them as well touching the Commission for the performance of the Treaty and Articles sent to Mr. Wotton as also touching the Contracts and Covenants of Marriage between the Duke of Lorrain's Son and the Lady Ann and what terms they stood in To which things so proposed they answered as Men much perplexed That as touching Commission they had none to treat concerning the Articles sent to
God had taken them Fasting Praying and laying their hands upon them the which Saul Ananias the Disciple had baptized laying his hand upon him that he might be replenished with the Holy Ghost And Paul so made ordained Timothy and Tite willing them to do likewise as he had done and appointed to be done from City to City Iames was ordained the Bishop of Ierusalem by Peter Iohn and Iames. So that Example otherwise we read not Incertus sum utri fuere priores at si Apostoli in prima profectione Ordinaâ—i erant apparet Episcopos fuisse priores nempe Apostolos nam postea designavit Christus alios septuaginta duos Nec opinor absurdum esse ut Sacerdos Episcopum Consecret si Episcopus haberi non potest Although by Scripture as St. Hierome saith Priests and Bishops be one and therefore the one not before the other Yet Bishops as they be now were after Priests and therefore made of Priests The Apostles were both Bishops and Priests and they made Bishops and Bishops as Titus and Timotheus made Priests Episcopatum ejus accipiat alter Act. 1. Presbyteros qui in vobis sunt obsecro ego Compresbyter 1 Pet. 5. And in the beginning of the Church as well that word Episcopus as Presbyter was common and attributed both to Bishops and Priests Utrique primi a Deo facti Apostoli Episcopi Septuaginta discipuli ut conjectura ducor Sacerdotes Unde verisimile est Episcopos praecessisse Apostoli enim prius vocati erant They be of like beginning and at the beginning were both one as St. Hierome and other old Authors shew by the Scripture wherefore one made another indifferently Christ our chief Priest and Bishop made his Apostles Priests and Bishops all at once and they did likewise make others some Priests and some Bishops and that the Priests in the Primitive Church made Bishops I think no inconvenience as Ierome saith in an Epist. ad Euagrium Even like as Souldiers should choose one among themselves to be their Captain So did Priests choose one of themselves to be their Bishop for consideration of his learning gravity and good living c. and also for to avoid Schisms among themselves by them that some might not draw the People one way and others another way if they lacked one Head among them Christ was and is the great High Bishop and made all his Apostles Bishops and they made Bishops and Priests after him and so hath it ever-more continued hitherto I say Christ made the Apostles first Priests and then Bishops and they by this Authority made both Priests and Bishops but where there had been a Christian Prince they would have desired his Authority to the same To the Tenth The Apostles were made of Christ Bishops and Priests both at the first and after them Septuaginta duo Discipuli were made Priests Menevens Therleby Redmanus Coxus asserunt in initio eosdem fuisse Episcopos Presbyteros Londinens Carliolens Symons putant Apostolos fuisse institutos Episcopos a Christo eos postea instituisse alios Episcopos Presbyteros 72 Presbyteros postea fuisse Ordinatos Sic Oglethorpus Eboracens Tresham aiunt Apostolos primo fuisse Presbyteros deinde Episcopos cum aliorum Presbyterorum credita esset illis cura Robertsonus incertus est utri fuere priores non absurdum tamen esse opinatur ut Sacerdos consecret Episcopum si Episcopus haberi non potest Sic Londinens Edgworth Dayus putant etiam Episcopos ut vulgo de Episcopis loquimur fuisse ante Presbyteros Leightonus nihil Respondet In the tenth Where it is asked Whether Bishops or Priests were first The Bishop of St. David my Lord Elect of Westminster Dr. Cox Dr. Redmayn say That at the beginning they were all one The Bishops of York London Rochester Carlisle Drs. Day Tresham Symmons Oglethorp be in other contrary Opinions The Bishop of York and Doctor Tresham think That the Apostles first were Priests and after were made Bishops when the overseeing of other Priests was committed to them My Lords of Duresme London Carlisle Rochester Dr. Symmons and Crayford think That the Apostles first were Bishops and they after made other Bishops and Priests Dr. Coren and Oglethorp say That the Apostles were made Bishops and the 72 were after made Priests Dr. Day thinks That Bishops as they be now-a-days called were before Priests My Lord of London Drs. Edgworth and Robertson think it no inconvenience if a Priest made a Bishop in that time 11. Question Whether a Bishop hath Authority to make a Priest by the Scripture or no And whether any other but only a Bishop may make a Priest Answers A Bishop may make a Priest by the Scripture and so may Princes and Governours also and that by the authority of God committed to them and the People also by their Election for as we read that Bishops have done it so Christian Emperors and Princes usually have done it and the People before Christian Princes were commonly did Elect their Bishops and Priests To the eleventh That a Bishop may make a Priest may be deduced of Scripture for so much as they have all Authority necessary for the ordering of Christ's Church derived from the Apostles who made Bishops and Priests and not without Authority as we have said before to the ninth Question and that any other than Bishops or Priests may make a Priest we neither find in Scripture nor out of Scripture To the eleventh I think That a Bishop duly appointed hath authority by Scripture to make a Bishop and also a Priest because Christ being a Bishop did so make himself and because alive his Apostles did the like The Scripture sheweth by example that a Bishop hath authority to make a Priest albeit no Bishop being subject to a Christian Prince may either give Orders or Excommunicate or use any manner of Jurisdiction or any part of his Authority without Commission from the King who is Supream Head of that Church whereof he is a Member but that any other Man may do it besides a Bishop I find no example either in Scripture or in Doctors By what is said before it appeareth that a Bishop by Scripture may make Deacons and Priests and that we have none example otherwise Opinor Episcopum habere Authoritatem creandi Sacerdotem modo id Magistratus publici permissu fiat An vero ab alio quam Episcopo id rite fieri possit haud scio quamvis ab alio factum non memini me legisse Ordin conferr gratiam vid. Eck. homil 60. Bishops have authority as is afore-said of the Apostles in the tenth Question to make Priests except in cases of great necessity Bishops have authority by Scripture to ordain Bishops and Priests Joh. 20. Hujus rei gratia reliqui te Cretae ut constituas oppidatim Presbyteros
of ancient Authors to shew that a Bishop or a Priest may Excommunicate open deadly sinners continuing in obstinacy with contempt I have read in Histories also that a Prince hath done the same Opinor Episcopum aut Presbyterum Excommunicare posse tanquam ministrum os Ecclesiae ab eadem mandatum habens Utrum vero id juris nulli nisi Sacerdotibus in mandatis dari possit non satis scio Excommunicandum esse opinor pro hujuscemodi criminibus qualia recenset Paulus 1 Cor. 5. si is qui frater nominatur est fornicator aut avarus aut idolis serviens aut maledicus aut ebriosus aut rapax cum hujusmodi ne cibum sumere c. A Bishop or a Priest as a publick Person appointed to that Office may excommunicate for all publick Crimes And yet it is not against God's Law for others than Bishops or Priests to Excommunicate A Bishop or a Priest may Excommunicate by God's Law for manifest and open Crimes Also others appointed by the Church tho they be no Priests may exercise the power of Excommunication Non solum Episcopus Excommunicare potest sed etiam tota Congregatio idque pro lethalibus criminibus ac publicis ê quibus scandalum Ecclesiae provenire potest Non tamen pro re pecuniaria uti olim solebant They may Excommunicate as appeareth 1 Cor. 5. 1 Tim. 1. and that for open and great Crimes whereby the Church is offended and for such Crimes as the Prince and Governours determine and thinketh expedient Men to be excommunicate for as appeareth in nonnullis Constitutionibus Iustiniani Whether any other may pronounce the Sentence but a Bishop or a Priest I am uncertain A Bishop or a Priest only may excommunicate a notorious and grievous Sinner or obstinate Person from the Communion of Christian People because it pertaineth to the Jurisdiction which is given to Priests Io. 26. Quorum Remiseritis c. et Quorum retinetis c. There is one manner of Excommunication spoken of 1 Cor. 5. which private Persons may use Si is qui frater nominatur inter vos est fornicator aut avarus aut idolis ferviens c. cum hujusmodi ne cibum quidem capiatis Excluding filthy Persons covetous Persons Braulers and Quarrellers out of their Company and neither to eat nor drink with them Whosoever hath a place under the Higher Power and is assigned by the same to execute his Ministry given of God he may Excommunicate for any Crime as it shall be seen to the High Power if the same Crime be publick A Bishop and Priest may Excommunicate by Scripture as touching for what Crimes I say for every open deadly sin and disobedience And as touching Whether only the Priest may Excommunicate I say not he only but such as the Church authorizes so to do To the sixteenth I say that a Bishop or a Priest having License and Authority of the Prince of the Realm may excommunicate every obstinate and inobedient Person for every notable and deadly sin And further I say That not only Bishops and Priests may Excommunicate but any other Man appointed by the Church or such as have authority to appoint Men to that Office may Excommunicate A Bishop or a Priest may Excommunicate an obstinate Person for publick Sins Forsomuch as the Keys be given to the whole Church the whole Congregation may Excommunicate which Excommunication may be pronounced by such a one as the Congregation does appoint altho he be neither Bishop nor Priest Menevens Herefordens Thirleby Dayus Leightonus Coxus Symmons Coren concedunt authoritatem excommunicandi etiam Laicis modo a Magistratu deputentur Eboracens Edgworth prorsus negant datum Laicis sed Apostolis eorum successoribus tantum Roffensis Redmanus Robertsonus ambigunt num detur Laicis Londinens non respondet Quaestioni Oglethorpus Thirliby aiunt Ecclesiae datam esse potestatem Excommunicandi Idem Treshamus In the sixteenth Of Excommunication they do not agree The Bishops of York Duresme and Dr. Edgworth say That Lay-men have not the authority to Excommunicate but that it was given only unto the Apostles and their Successors The Bishops of Hereford St. Davids Westminster Doctors Day Coren Leighton Cox Symmons say That Lay-men may Excommunicate if they be appointed by the High Ruler My Lord Elect of Westminster Dr. Tresham and Dr. Oglethorp say further That the Power of Excommunication was given to the Church and to such as the Church shall institute 17. Question Whether Unction of the Sick with Oil to remit Venial Sins as it is now used be spoken of in the Scripture or in any ancient Authors Answers UNction of the Sick with Oil to remit Venial Sins as it is now used is not spoken of in the Scripture nor in any ancient Authors T. Cantuarien This is mine Opinion and Sentence at this present which I do not temerariously define but do remit the judgment thereof wholly unto your Majesty To the seventeenth Of Unction of the Sick with Oil and that Sins thereby be remitted St. Iames doth teach us but of the Holy Prayers and like Ceremonies used in the time of the Unction we find no special mention in Scripture albeit the said St. Iames maketh also mention of Prayer to be used in the Ministry of the same Edward Ebor. To the seventeenth I think that albeit it appeareth not clearly in Scripture whether the usage in extream Unction now be all one with that which was in the beginning of the Church Yet of the Unction in time of Sickness and the Oil also with Prayers and Ceremonies the same is set forth in the Epistle of St. Iames which place commonly is alledged and so hath been received to prove the Sacrament of extream Unction Ita mihi Edmundo Londinensi Episcopo pro hoc tempore dicendum videtur salvo judicio melius sentientis cui me prompte humiliter subjicio In Unction of them that be Sick with Oil and praying for them for remission of Sins is plainly spoken of in the Epistle of St. Iames but after what form or fashion the said Inunction was then used the Scripture telleth not Written on the back of the Paper The Bishop of Rochester's Book Extream Unction is plainly set out by St. Iames with the which maketh also that is written in the 6 th of St. Mark after the mind of right good ancient Doctors Robert Carliolen De Unctione Infirmorum nihil reperio in Scripturis praeter id quod scribitur Marc. 6. Jacob. 5. Thomas Robertson T. Cantuarien Unction of the Sick with Oil consecrat as it is now used is not spoken of in Scripture Richardus Cox Unction of the Sick with praying for them is found in Scripture George Day Opiniones non Assertiones De Unctione Infirmorum cum oleo adjecta Oratione expressa mentio est in
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
Hereticks in a little time Bird said doest thou marvel at that I tell thee it is no marvel for the great Master of all is an Heretick and such a one as there is not his like in the World By the same Act the Lord Hungerford was likewise Attainted The Crimes specified are that he knowing Bird to be a Traitor did entertain him in his house as his Chaplain that he ordered another of his Chaplains Sir Hugh Wood and one Doctor Maudlin to use Conjuring that they might know how long the King should live and whether he should be victorious over his Enemies or not and that these three years last past he had frequently committed the detestable sin of Sodomy with several of his Servants All these were Attainted by that Parliament The Lord Hungerford was Executed the same day with Cromwell he dyed in such disorder that some thought he was frenetick for he called often to the Executioner to dispatch him and said he was weary of Life and longed to be dead which seemed strange in a man that had so little cause to hope in his death For Powel Fetherstoun and Abell they suffered the same day with Barnes and his friends as hath been already shewn This year Sampson Bishop of Chichester and one Doctor Wilson were put in the Toâ—er upon suspition of correspondence with the Pope But upon their submission they had their pardon and liberty In the year 1541 five Priests and ten secular persons some of them being Gentlemen of Quality were raising a new Rebellion in Yorkshire which was suppressed in time and the Promoters of it being apprehended were Attainted and Executed and this occasioned the death of the Countess of Sarum after the Execution of the Sentence had been delayed almost two years The last instance of the Kings severity was in the year 1543 in which one Gardiner that was the Bishop of Winchesters kinsman and Secretary and three other Priests were tryed for denying the Kings Supremacy and soon after Executed But what special matter was laid to their charge cannot be known for the Record of their Attaindor is lost These were the proceedings of this King against those that adhered to the interests of Rome in which though there is great ground for just censure for as the Laws were rigorous so the Execution of them was raised to the highest that the Law could admit yet there is nothing in them to justifie all the clamors which that party have raised against King Henry and by which they pursue his memory to this day and are far short both in number and degrees of the cruelties of Queen Maries Reign which yet they endeavour all that is possible to extenuate or deny To Conclude we have now gone through the Reign of King Henry the 8th who is rather to be reckoned among the Great than the Good Princes He exercised so much severity on men of both perswasions that the writers of both sides have laid open his faults and taxed his cruelty But as neither of them were much obliged to him so none have taken so much care to set forth his good qualities as his Enemies have done to enlarge on his Vices I do not deny that he is to be numbered among the ill Princes yet I cannot rank him with the worst The End of the third Book and of the first Part. ADDENDA After some of the sheets of this History were wrought off I met with Manuscripts of great Authority out of which I have Collected several particulars that give a clear light to the proceedings in those times which since they came too late to my knowledg to be put in their proper places I shall here add them with refâ—râ—nces to the places to which they belong Ad Page 202. line 13. THere it is said that the Earl of Wiltshire Father to Queen Anne Boleyn was one of the Peers that Judged her In this I too Implicitly followed Doctor Heylin he seeming to write with more than ordinary care for the Vindication of that Queen and with such assurance as if he had seen the Records concerning her so that I took this upon trust from him The reason of it was that in the search I made of Attaindors I did not find the Record of her Tryal so I concluded that either it was destroyed by Order during her Daughters Reign or was accidentally lost since that time And thus having no Record to direct me I too easily followed the Printed Books in that particular But after that part of this History was wrought off I by chance met with it in another place where it was mislaid and there I discovered the error I had committed The Earl of Wiltshire was not one of her Judges these by whom she was tryed were the Duke of Suffolk the Marquis of Exceter the Earls of Arundell Oxford Northumberland Westmoreland Derby Worcester Rutland Sussex and Huntington and the Lords Audley Delaware Mountague Morley Dacres Cobham Maltravers Powis Mounteagle Clinton Sands Windsor Wentworth Burgh and Mordant in all twenty six and not twenty Eight as I reckoned them upon a Vulgar Error The Record mentions one particular concerning the Earl of Northumberland that he was taken with a sudden fit of sickness and was forced to leave the Court before the Lord Rochford was Tryed This might have been only Casual but since he was once in Love with the Queen and had designed to Marry her see Page 44 it is no wonder if so sad a change in her Condition did raise an unusual disorder in him When I had discovered the mistake I had made as I resolved to publish this free Confession of it so I set my self not without some Indignation to examine upon what Authority Doctor Heylin had led me into it I could find no Author that went before him in it but Sanders the chief design of whose writing was to defame Queen Elizabeth and to blast her Title to the Crown To that end it was no ill piece of his skill to perswade the World of her Mother lewdness to say that her own Father was convinced of it and condemned her for it And Doctor Heylin took this as he has done many other things too easily upon Sanders Testimony Ad Page 217. line 37. The Articles of Religion of which an abstract is there set down are indeed published by Fullâ—r but he saw not the Original with all the Subscriptions to it which I have had in my hands and therefore I have put it in the Collection with three other Papers which were soon after offered to the King by Cranmer The one is in the form of fifteen queries concerning some abuses by which the people had been deceived as namely by these Doctrines that without Contrition sinners may be reconciled to God that it is in the Power of the Priest to pardon or not to pardon sin at his pleasure and that Gods pardon cannot be obtained without Priestly Absolution Also he complained that the people