without some intermissions by the King deceased and therefore to be put in Execution with the greater safety For though the young King by Reason of his tender Age could not but want a great proportion of His Father's Spirit for carrying on a work of such weight and moment yet he wanted nothing of that power in Church-concernment which either Naturally was inherent in the Crown Imperial or had been Legally vested in it by Acts of Parliament Neither could His Being in Minority nor the Writings in His Name by the Lord Protectour and the Rest of the Council make any such difference in the Case as to invalidate the Proceedings or any of the Rest which followed in the Reformation For if they did the Objection would be altogether as strong against the Reformation made in the Minority of King Josias as against this in the Minority of the present King That of Josias being made as Josephus telleth us by the Advice of the Elders as this of King EDVVARD the Sixth by the Advice of the Council And yet it cannot be denyed but that the Reformation made under King Iâ—sias by Advice of His Council was no less pleasing unto God nor less valid in the Eys of all His Subjects then those of Jeboshaphat and Hezekiah in their Riper years who perhaps acted singly on the strength of their Own Judgements onely without any Advice Now of Josias we are told by the said Historian That When He grew to be twelve years old He gave manifest Approbation of His Piety and Justice For He drew the People to a conformable Course of Life and to the Detestation and Abolishing of Idols that were no Gods and to the Service of the Onely True God of their Fore-Fathers And considering the Actions of His Predecessours He began to Rectifie them in that wherein they were deficient with no less Circumspection then if He had been an Old Man And that which He found to be Correspondent and Advisedly done by them that did He both maintain and imitate All which things He did both by Reason of His Innated Wisdom as also by the Aâ—moâ—shment and Council of His Elders in following orderly the Laws not onely in matters of Religion but of Civil Politie Which puts the Parallel betwixt the two young Kings in the Case before us above all Exception and the Proceedings of King Edward or His Council rather beyond all Dispute Now whereas Question hath been made whether the twenty fourth Injunction for Labouring on the Holy Day in time of Harvest extend as well to the Lord's Day as the Annual Festivals The matter seems to any well-discerning eye to be out of Question For in the third Chapter of the Statute made in the fifth and sixth years of King Edward the Sixth when the Reformation was much more advanced then it was at the present the Names and Number of such Holy Days as were to be observed in this Church are thus layed down That is to say All Sundaies in the year the Feasts of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Epiphany c. with all the Rest still kept and there named particularly And then it followeth in the Act That it shall and may be lawfull for every Husband-man Labourer Fisher-man and to all and every other person or persons of what Estate Degree or Condition he or they be upon the Holy-Days afore-said in Harvest or at any other times in the year when necessity shall so require to Labour Ride Fish or Work any kind of work at their free-will and Pleasure any thing in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding The Law being such there is no question to be made in point of practice nor consequently of the meaning of the King's Injunction For further opening of which Truth we finde that not the Country onely but the Court were indulged the Liberty of attending business on that day it being Ordered by the King amongst other things That the Lords of the Council should upon Sundays attend the publique Affairs of this Realm dispatch Answers to Letters for good order of State and make full dispatches of all things concluded the Week before Provided alwaies That they be present at Common Prayer and that on every Sunday-Night the King's Secretary should deliver him a Memorial of such things as are to be debated by the Privy Council in the week ensuing Which Order being compared with the words of the Statute may serve sufficiently to satisfie all doubts and scruples touching the true intent and meaning of the said Injunction But as this Question was not startled till the Later Times when the Lord's Day began to be advanced into the Reputation of the Jewish Sabbath so was there nothing in the rest of the said Injunctions which required a Commentary Some words and Passages therein which seem absurd to us of this present Age being then clearly understood by all and every one whom they did concern Published and given in charge by the Commissioners in their several Circuits with great Zeal and Chearfullness and no less readily Obeyed in most parts of the Realms both by Priests and People who observed nothing in them either new or strange to which they had not been prepared in the Reign of the King deceased None forwarder in this Compliance then some Learned men in and about the City of London who not long since had shewed themselves of a contrary Judgement Some of them running before Authority and others keeping even pase with it but few so confident of themselves as to lagg behind It was Ordered in the twenty first That at the time of High Mass the Epistle and Gospel should be read in the English Tongue and That both at the Mattens and Even-Song a Chapter out of the New Testament should be also read And for Example to the rest of the Land the Complime being a part of the Evening Service was sung in the King 's Chapel on Mâ—nday in the Easter-week then falling on the eleventh of April in the English Tongue Doctour Smith Master of Whittington-College in London and Reader in Divinity at the King's-College at Oxford afterwards better known by the name of Christ-Church had before published two Books One of them written In Defence of the Mass The other endeavouring to prove That unwritten Verities ought to be believed under pain of Damnation But finding that these Doctrines did not now beat according to the Pulse of the Times he did voluntarily retract the said Opinions declaring in a Sermon at Saint Paul's Cross on Sunday the fifteenth of May that his said former Books and Teachings were not only erroneous but Heretical The like was done in the Moneth next following by Doctour Pern afterwards Master of Peter-House in Cambridge who having on Saint George's day delivered in the Parish-Church of Saint Andrew Vndershaft for sound Catholick Doctrine That the Pictures of Christ and of the Saints were to be adored upon the seventeenth day of June declared himself in the
refused to do their sentence was pronounced by the Prolocutor in the name of the rest in which they were deolared to be no members of the Chruch and that therefore they their patrons and followers were condemned as Hereticks In the reading whereof they were again severally asked whether they would turn or not to which they severally answered read on in God's name for they were resolved not to turn And so the sentence being pronounced they were returned again to their several prisons there to expect what execution would ensue upon it And execution there was none to ensue upon it â—ill the end of the Session of Parliament then next following because till then there was no saw in force for putting Hereticks to death as in former times During which interval they excrcited themselves in their private studies or in some godly meditations wrâ—â—ing consolatory Letters unto such of their friends as were reduced by the iniquity of the times to the like extremity amongst which as they understood their dear brother Mr John Hooper Bishop of Glocester to have been marked out for the slaughter so that intelligence revived in Bishop Râ—dley's thoughts the remembrance of that conteroveâ—sie which had been between them concerning the Episcopal habit in the time of King Edward There is no question to be made but that they had forgotten and forgiven that quarrel long before yet Ridley did not think he had done enough if he left not to the world some testimony of their mutual charity as well as their consent in doctrine such as might witness to the world that they maintained the spirit of unity in the bond of peace Concerning which he writes to him in this manner following viz. But now dear Brother forasmuch as I understand by your books which I have but superficially seen that we throughly agree and wholly consent together in those things which are the grounds and substantial points of our Religion against the which the world so furiously rageth in these our dayes however in times past in ceâ—ain by-matters and circumstances of Religion your wisdom and my simplicity I must confesse have a little jarred each of us following the aboundance of his own spirit Now I say be assured that even with my whole heart God is my witnesse in the bowels of Christ I love you in the truth and for the truths sake which abideth in us as I am perswaded and by the Grace of God shall abide in us for â—ver more And because the world as I perceive brother ceaseth not to play his pageant and busily conspireth against Christ our Saviour with all possible force and power Exalting high things against the knowlege of God Let us join hands together in Christ as if we cannot overthrow yet to our power and as much as in us lyeth let us shake those high Altitudes not with carnal but with spiritual weapons and withall brother lâ—t us prepare our selves to the day of dissâ—lâ—tion by that which after the short time of this bodily affliction by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall triumph together with him in eternal glory Comforted with reciprocal letters of this holy nature they both prepared themselves for death in which Hooper had the honour to lead the way as being more in Bâ—nner's eye when the Act past for reviving the Statutes before mentioned in the case of Heresie But Hooper having led the way and many â—ther godly and religious men following the same tract which he had made it came at last unto the turn of these reverend Prelates to pass through the same 〈◊〉 to the Land of Promise In order whereunto a Commission is directed from the Pope to Dr. James Broâ—ks Bishop of Glocester by which he is authorized as Subdelegate to his Holiness to proceed in the cause of â—homas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury The like Commission is directed to Dr Martin and Dr Story to attend the business as delegated thereunto by the King and Queen before whom convented in St Mary's Church on the 12th of September he did his reverence to the two Doctors as Commissioners for the King and Queen but could not be perswaded to shew any respect to the Bishop of Glâ—cesteâ— because commissionared by the Pope He had before abjur'd the Popes supremacy in the time of King Henry and would not now submit unto it in the Reign of Queen Mary desiring the Bishop not to interpret it an affront to his person to whom otherwise he should gladly pay all due regards had he appeared in any other capacity than the Popes Commissioner Not being able to remove him from that resolution they propounded to him certain Articles concerning his having been twice maried his denyal of the Pope's supremacy his judgement in the point of the blessed Sacrament his having been declared an Heretick by the late Prolocutor and the rest of the Commissioners there assembled To all which Articles he so answered as to deny nothing of the charge in matter of fact but only to stand upon his justification in point of Doctrine The whole proceeding being summed up he is cited to appear before the Pope within 80 dayes To which he said that he was most willing so to do if the King and Queen would please to send him And so he was returned to the prison from whence he came and there kept safe enough from making any journy to Rome remaining in safe â—â—stody till he was brought out to suffer death of which more hereafter On the 28th of the same month comes out another Commission from the Cardinal Legate directed to John White Bishop of Lincoln James Brooks Bishop of Glocester and John Holyman Bishop of Bristow or any two of them inabling them to proceed to the degradation of the other two Bishops if they retracted not those doctrines for holding which they had been formerly deâ—lared to be Hereticks But they couragiously adhering to their first opinions and otherwise expressing as little reverence to the Substitutes of the Cardinal Legate as Cranmer had done to the Commissioners of the Pope the sentence was pronounced upon them to this effect that is to say That forasmuch as the said Nichosas Ridley and Hugh Latimer did affiâ—m maintain and stubbornly desend certain opinions and Heresies contrary to the Word of God and the received faith of the Church as first In denying the true and natural body of Christ and his natural blood to be in the Sacrament of the Altar 2. In affirming the substance of bread and wine to râ—main after the words of the consecration And 3. In denying the Masse to be a lively sacrifice of the Church for the quick and the dead and by no means could be reduced from the same that therefore they said John of Lincoln James of Glocester and John of Bristol did adjudge and condemn them the said N. Ridlâ—y and H. Latimer as Hereticks both by word and deed to be degraded from the degree of a Bishop from Priesâ—hood and all
symitry which showed it selfe in all her features and what she carried on that side by that advantage was over-ballanced on the other by a pleasing sprightfulnesse which gained as much upon the hearts of all beholders It was conceived by those Great Critticks in the schooles of Beauty that love which seemed to threaten in the eyes of Queen Jane did only seem to sport it selfe in the eyes of Queen Ann that there was more Majesty in the Gaâ—b of Queen Jane Seimour and more lovelinesse in that of Queen Ann Bollen yet so that the Majesty of the one did excell in Lovelyness and that the Lovelinesse of the other did exceed In majesty Sir John Russell afterwards Earle of Bedford who had beheld both Queens in their greatest Glories did use to say that the richer Queen Jane was in clothes the fairer she appeared but that the other the richer she was apparrelled the worse she looked which showes that Queen Ann only trusted to the Beauties of Nature and that Queen Jane did sometimes help her selfe by externall Ornaments In a word she had in her all the Graces of Queen Ann but Governed if my conjecture doth not faile me with an evener and more constant temper or if you will she may be said to be equally made up of the two last Queens as having in her all the Attractions of Queen Ann but Regulated by the reservednesse of Queen Katharine also It is not to be thought that so many rare perâ—ections should be long concealed from the eye of the King or that love should not worke in him it's accustomed effects of desire and hope In the prosecution whereof he lay so open to discovery that the Queen couâ—d not chuse but take notice of it and intimated her suspitioâ—s to him as appeares by a letter of hers in the Scrinia Sacra Iâ— which she signifies unto him that by hastning her intended death he would be left at liberty both before God and man to follow his affection already setled on the Party for whose sake she was reduced unto that condition and whose name she could some while since have pointed to his Grace not being ignorant of her suspicions And it appeared by the event that she was not much mistaken in the Mark she aimed at For scarce had her lementable death which happened on the nineteenth of May prepared the way for the Legitimating of this new affection but on the morrow after the King was secretly married to Mistress Seimour and openly showed her as his Queen in the Whitsontide following A Marriage which made some alteration in the face of the Court in the advancing of her kindred and discountenancing the Dependants of the former Queen but otherwise produced no change in Affaires of State The King proceeded as before in suppressing Monasteries extinguishing the Popes Authority and â—ltering divers things in the face of the Câ—uâ—ch which tended to that Reformation which after followed For on the eighth of June began the Parliament in which here past an Act for tâ—e finall extinguishing of the Power of the Popes of Rome Cap. 10. And the next day a Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy managed by Sir Thomas Cromwell advanced about that time unto the Title of Lord Cromwell of Wimbledon and made his Majesties Viccar Generall of all Ecclesiast â—all Matâ—ers in the Realme of England By whose Authority a book was published after Mature debate and Deliberation under the name of Articles Devised by the Kings Highness in which mentioned â—ut three Sacraments that is to â—ay Baptisme Penâ—ance and the Lords Supper Besides which book there were some Acts agreed upon in the Convocation for diminishing the superflâ—ous number of Holy dayes especially of such as happened in the time of Harvest Sâ—gnified afterwards to the people in certain Injunctions published in the Kings name by the new Viccar Generall as the first fruits of his Authority In which it was ordained amongst other things that the Curates in every Parish Church should teach the People to say the Lords Prayer the Creed the Ave-Mary and the Ten Commandments in the English Tongue But that which seemed to make most for the Advantage of the new Queen and her Posterity if it please God to give her any was the unexpected death of the Duke of Richmond the Kings naturall Son begotten on the body of the Lady Talboiâ— So dearly cherished by his Father having then no lawful Issuâ—-male that in the sixth yeare of his Age An. 1525. he created him Earl of Nottingham and not long after Duke of Richmond and Sommerset preferred him to the Honourable office of Earle Marshall elected him into the Order of the Garter made him Lord Admirall of the Royall Navy in an expedition against France and finally Affianced him to Mary the daughter of Thomas Howard Duke of Norâ—olk the most â—owerfull Subject in the Kingdom Now were these all the favours intended to him The Crown it selfe being designed him by the King in default of Lawfull Issue to be procreated and begotten of his Royall Body For in the Act of the Succession which past in the Parliament of this year the Crown being first setled upon the Issue of this Queen with the remainder to the Kings issue lawfully begotten on any following wife whatsoever there past this clause in favour of the Duke of Richmond as it was then generally conceived that is to say That for lack of lawfull heires of the Kings body to be procreated or begotten as is afore limitted by this Act it should and might be lawfull for him to confer the same on any such Person or Persons in Possession and Remainder as should please his Highnesse and according to such Estate and after such manner â—orme fashion order and condition as should be expressed declared named and lâ—mitted in his said Letters Patents or by his last Will the Crown to be enjoyed by such person or persons so to be nominated and appointed in as large and ample manner as if such Person or Persons had been his Highnesse Lawfull Heires to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm And though it might please God as it after did to give the King some Lawfull Issue by this Queen yet took he so much care for this naturall son as to enable himselfe by another Clause in the said Act to advance any person or persons of his most Royall Blood by Letters Patents under the Great Seale to any Title Stile or Name of any Estate Dignity or Honour whatsoever it be and to give to them or any of them any Castles Honours Mannours Lands Tenements Liberties Franchiefes or other Hereditaments in â—ee simple or Fee â—tail or for terme of their lives or the life of any of them But all these expectations and Provisions were to no effect the Duke departing this life at the age of 17 yeares or thereabouts within few dayes after the ending of this Session that is to say on the 22th day of July Anno 1536. to the
For notwithstanding all these Motives the See remained where it was and the Bishop continued in that See till this present year in which he was made use of amongst many others by the Lord Protectour for Preaching up the War against Scotland For which and many other good Services already passed but more to be performed hereafter he was Translated to this See on the death of Knight but the precise Day and Time thereof I have no where found But I have found that being Translated to this See he gratified the Lord Protectour with a Present of eighteen or nineteen Manours which antiently belonged unto it and lying all or most part of them in the County of Sommerset seemed very conveniently disposed of for the better Maintainance of the Dukedom or rather of the Title of the Duke of Sommerset which he had took unto himself More of which strange Donations we shall finde in others the more to be excused because there was no other means as the Times then were to preserve the whole but by advancing some part thereof to the Spoil of others Anno Regni Edw. Sexti 2o. An. Dom. 1547 1548. THe Parliament ending on the twenty fourth day of December as before was said seems to have put a stop to all Publique Businesses as if it had been done of purpose to give the great Ministers of State a time of breathing But no sooner was the year begun I mean the second year of the King but that a Letter is sent from the Arch-Bishop to Doctour Bonnâ—r Bishop of London requiring him in the name of his Majesty and the Lords of his Council to proceed unto the Reformation of such Abuses as were therein mentioned and to give Order for the like to the rest of the Suffragans By antient Right the Bishops of London are accounted Deans of the Episcopal College and being such were by their place to signifie the pleasure of their Metropolitane to all the Bishops of the Province to execute his Mandates and disperse his Missives on all Emergency of Affairs as also to preside in Convocations or Provincial Synods during the vacancy of the See or in the necessary absence of the Metropolitane In which Capacity and not out of any Zeal he had to the Reformation Bishop Bonner having received the Arch-Bishop's Letters communicateth the Contents thereof to the rest of the Suffragan-Bishops and amongst others to Doctour Thomas Thirlby then Bishop of Westminster in these following words My very Good Lord AFter my most hearty Commendations These are to Advertise your Good Lordship that my Lord of Canterbury's Grace this present 28th of January sent unto me his Letters Missive containing this in Effect That my Lord Protectour's Grace with advice of other the King's Majestie 's Honourable Privy Council for certain Considerations them moving are fully resolved that no Candles shall be borne upon Candlemassâ— day nor also from henceforth Ashes or Palms used any longer requiring Me thereupon by his said Letters to cause Admonition and Knowledg thereof to be given unto your Lordship and other Bishops with celerity accordingly In consideration whereof I do send at this present these said Letters to your Good Lordship that you thereupon may give Knowledge and Advertisement thereof within your Diocess as appertaineth Thus committing your Good Lordship to Almighty God as well to fare as your Good heart can best desire Written in haste at my House in London the said 28th of January 1547 8. Such was the Tenour of this Letter the Date whereof doth very visibly declare that the Counsel was as suddain as the Warning short For being Dated on the 28th of January it was not possible that any Reformation should be made in the first particular but onely in the Cities of London and Westminster and the parts adjoyning the Feast of Purification following within five days after But yet the Lords drove on so fast that before this Order could be published in the remote parts of the Kingdom they followed it with another as little pleasing to the main body of the People concerning Images which in some places of the Realm were either not taken down at all as was required the year before by the King's Injunctions or had been re-advanced again assoon as the first Heats of the Visitation had began to cool Which because it cannot be expressed more clearly then in the Letters of the Council to the Lord Arch-Bishop and that the Reader be not troubled with any Repetitions I shall commit the Narrative thereof to the Letters themselves which are these that follow AFter Our Right Hearty Commendations to Your Good Lordship where now of late in the King's Majestie 's Visitations amongst other Godly Injunctions Commanded generally to be observed through all parts of this His Highness Realm One was set forth for the taking down of such Images as had at any time been abused with Pilgrimages Offerings or Censes albeit that this said Injunction hath in many parts of the Realm been quietly obeyed and executed yet in many other places much strife and contention hath risen and dayly riseth and more and more increaseth about the execution of the same Some men being so Superstitious or rather Willfull as they would by their good Wills retain all such Images still though they have been most manifestly abused And almost in every place is Contention for Images Whether they have been abused or not And whilst these men go on on bothsides contentiously to obtain their minds contending whether this Image or that Iâ—age hath been Offered unto Kissed Censed and otherwise abused Paris have in some places been taken in such sort as further Inconveniences be like to ensue if remedy be not found in time Considering therefore that almost in no place of this Realm is any sure quietness but where all Image be clean taken away and pulled down already to the intent that all Contention in every part of this Realm for this matter may be clearly taken away and the lively Image of Christ should not contend for the dead Imaâ—es which be things not necessary and without the which the Churches of Christ continued most Godly many years We have thought good to signifie unto you that his Highness Pleasure with the Advice and Consent of Vs the Lord Protectour and the rest of the Council is That immediately upon sight hereof with as convenient diligence as you may you shall not onely give Order that all the Images remaining in any Church or Chapel within your Diocess be removed and taken away but also by your Letters signifie unto the rest of the Bishops within your Province this his Highness pleasure for the like Order to be given by them and every of them within their several Diocesses And in the Execution hereof We require both you and the rest of the said Bishops to use â—uch forâ—-sight as the same may be quietly done with as Good satisfaction of the People as may be From Sommerset Place the 11th of Febr.
1547. Your Lordship 's assured Loving Friends Edw. Sommerset Hen. Arundel Anth. Wingfield John Russell Thomas Seimour William Paget These quick Proceedings could not but startle those of the Romish Party though none so much as Bishop Bonner who by his place was to disperse those unwelcome Mandates in the Province of Canterbury And though he did perform the service with no small Reluctancy yet he performed it at the last his Letter to the Bishop of Westminster his next neighbouring Bishop not bearing Date untill the twentieth of that Moneth Nor was Bishop Gardiner better pleased when he heard the News who thereupon signified in his Letter to one Mr. Vaughan his great dislike of some Proceedings had at Portsmouth in taking down the Images of Christ and his Saints certifying him withall not onely that with his own eyes he had seen the Images standing in all Churches where Luther was had in Estimation but that Luther himself had purposely written a Book against some men which had defaced them And therefore it may well be thought that Covetousness spurred on this business more then Zeal there being none of the Images so poor and mean the Spoyl whereof would not afford some Gold and Silver if not Jewels also besides Censers Candlesticks and many other rich Utensils appertaining to them In which Respect the Commissioners hereto Authorised were entertained in many places with scorn and railing and the further they went from London the worse they were handled Insomuch that one of them called Body as he was pulling down Images in Cornwal was stabbed into the body by a Priest And though the Principal Offender was â—anged in Smithfield and many of his Chief Accomplices in other Parts of the Realm which quieted all Matters for a time yet the next year the storm broke out more violently then before it did not onely to the endangering of the Peace of those Western Counties but in a manner of all the Kingdom Which great Commotions the Council could not but fore-see as the most probable Consequents of such Alterations especially when they are suddain and pressed too fast There being nothing of which People commonly are so tender as they are of Religion on which their Happiness dependeth not onely for this World but the World to come And therefore it concerned them in point of Prudence to let the People see that there was no intention to abolish all their antient Ceremonies which either might consist with Piety or the Profit of the Common-Wealth And in particular it was held expedient to give the generality of the Subject some contentment in a Proclamation for the strict keeping of Lent and the Example of the Court in pursuance of it For Doctour Glasâ—er having broke the Ice as before was said there was no scarcity of those that cryed down all the Observations of Days and Times even to the Libelling against that antient and Religious Fast in most scandalous Rhythms Complaint whereof being made by Bishop Gardiner in a Letter to the Lord Protectour a Proclamation was set out bearing Date in January by which all People were Commanded to abstain from Flesh in the time of Lent and the King's Lenten-Dyet was set out and served as in former Times And now comes Bishop Latimer on the Stage again being a man of Parts and Learning and one that seemed inclinable enough to a Reformation He grew into esteem with Cromwel by whose Power and Favour with the King he was made Bishop of Worcester An. 1535. continuing in that See till on the first of Juâ—ly 1539. he chose rather willingly to Resign the same then to have any hand in Passing the Six Articles then Agitated in the Convocation and Confirmed by Parliament After which time either upon Command or of his own accord he forbore the Pulpit for the space of eight whole years and upwards betaking himself to the retiredness of a private life but welcome at all times to Arch-Bishop Cranmer to whom the Piety and Plainness of the Man was exceeding acceptable And possible enough it is that being Sequestred from Preaching and all other Publick Acts of the Ministration he might be usefull to him in Composing the Homilies having much in them of that plain and familiar Style which doth so visibly shew it self in all his Writings On New-Years Day last past being Sunday he Preached his first Sermon at St. Paul'â—-Crâ—ss the first I mean after his re-Admission to his former Ministry and at the same place again on that Day seven-night and on the Sunday after also and finally on the day of St. Paul's Conversion the twenty fifth of that Moneth By means whereof he became so Famous and drew such multitudes of People after him to hear his Sermons that being to Preach before the King on the first Friday in Lent it was thought necessary that the Pulpit should be placed in the King's Privâ—-Garden where he might be heard of more then four times as many Auditours as could have thronged into the Chapel Which as it was the first Sermon which was Preached in that place so afterward a fixed and standing Pulpit was erected for the like Occasions especially for Lent-Sermons on Sundays in the after-noon and hath so continued ever since till these later Times Now whilst Affairs proceeded thus in the Court and City some Godly Bâ—shops and other Learned and Religious Men were no less busily imployed in the Castle of Windsor appointed by the King's Command to Consult together about one Vniform Order for Administring the Holy Communion in the English Tongue under both Kinds of Bread and Wine according to the Act of Parliament made in that behalf Which Persons so convened together if at the least they were the same which made the first Liturgie of this King's time as I think they were were these who follow that is to say Thomas Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Thomas Goodrick Bishop of Ely and afterwards Lord Chancellour Henry Holbeck Bishop of Lincoln George Day Bishop of Chichester John Skip Bishop of Hereford Thomas Thirlby Bishop of Westminster Nicholas Ridley Bishop of Rochester Richard Cox Almoner to the King and Dean of Christ-Church Doctour May Dean of St. Paul's Doctour Taylor then Dean after Bishop of Lincoln Doctour Heyns Dean of Exeter Doctour Robertson afterwards Dean of Durham Doctour Ridley Master of Trinity-College in Cambridge Who being thus Convened together and taking into Consideration as well the right Rule of the Scripture as the Usage of the Primitive Church agreed on such a Form and Order as might comply with the Intention of the King and the Act of Parliament without giving any just Offence to the Romish Party For they so Ordered it that the whole Office of the Mass should proceed as formerly in the Latine Tongue even to the very end of the Canon and the receiving of the Sacrament by the Priest himself Which being passed over they began with an Exhortation in the English Tongue directed to all those which did intend to be
had been given before between the time of the Duke's Acknowledgment and the Sentence passed on him by the Lords and so disposed that none of the Factions might have any ground for a Complaint One of each side being taken out for these Advancements For on the nineteenth day of January William Lord St. John a most affectionate Servant to the Earl of Warwick was preferred unto the Title of Earl of Wiltshire the Lord Russell who had made himself the Head of those which were engaged on neither side was made Earl of Bedford and Sir William Paget Comptroller of his Majestie 's Houshold who had persisted faithfull to the Lord Protectour advanced to the Dignity of a Baron and not long after to the Chancellour-ship of the Dutchy of Lancaster Furnished with Offices and Honours it is to be presumed that they would finde some way to provide themselves of sufficient Means to maintain their Dignities The Lord Wentworth being a younger Branch of the Wentworths of Yorkshire had brought some Estate with him to the Court though not enough to keep him up in Equipage with so great a Title The want whereof was supplied in part by the Office of Lord Chamberlain now conferred upon him but more by the goodly Manours of Stebunâ—th commonly called Stepney and Hackney bestowed upon him by the King in consideration of the Good and Faithfull Services before performed For so it happened that the Dâ—an and Chapter of St. Paul's lying at the Mercy of the Times as before was said conveyed over to the King the said two Manours on the twelfth day after Christmâ—ss now last past with all the Members and Appertenances thereunto belonging Of which the last named was valued at the yearly rent of 41. pounds 9. â— 4 d. The other at 140. pounds 8 â— 11. â— ob And being thus vested in the King they were by Letters Patents bearing Date the sixteenth of April then next following transferred upon the said Lord VVâ—ntworth By means whereof he was possessed of a goodly Territory extending on the Thames from St. Katharine's near the Tower of London to the Borders of Essex near Black-wall from thence along the River Leâ— to Stratford le Bow and fetching a great compass on that side of the City contains in all no fewer then six and twenty Town-ships Streets and Hamlets besides such Rows of Building as have since been added in these later Times The like provision was made by the new Lord Pâ—get a Londoner by Birth but by good Fortune mixed with Merit preferred by degrees to be one of the Principal Secretaries to the late King Henry by whom he was employed in many Embassies and Negotiations Being thus raised and able to set up for himself he had his share in the division of the Lands of Chantery Free-Chapels c. and got into his hands the Episcopal House belonging to the Bishop of Exeter by him enlarged and beautified and called Paget-House sold afterwards to Robert Earl of Leicester from whom it came to the late Earls of Essex and from them took the name of Essex-House by which it is now best known But being a great House is noâ— able to keep it self he played his Game so well that he got into his possession the Manour of Beau-desart of which he was created Baron and many other fair Estates in the County of Stafford belonging partly to the Bishop and partly to the Dean and Chaâ—ter of Lichfield neither of which was able to contend with so great a Courtier who held the See and had the Ear of the Protectour and the King 's to boot What other Course he toâ—k to improve his Fortunes we shall see hereafter when we come to the last part of the Tragedy of the Duke of Sommerset For Sommerset having gained his Liberty and thereby being put into a Capacity of making use of his Friends found Means to be admitted to the King's Presence by whom he was not onely welcomed with all the kind Expressions of a Gracious Prince and made to sit down at his own Table but the same day the eighth of April he was again sworn one of the Lords of the Privy Council This was enough to make Earl Dudly look about him and to pretend a Reconciliation with him for the present whom he meant first to make secure and afterwards strike the last blow at him when he least look'd for it And that the knot of Amity might be tyed the faster and last the longer a True-Loves-Knot it must be thought or else nothing worth a Marriage was nâ—gotiated between John Lord Viscount L'isle the Earl's Eldest Son and the Lady Ann Seimour one of the Daughters of the Duke which Marriage was joyfully solemnized on the third of June at the King's Mannour-House of Shâ—â—e the King himself gracing the Nuptials with his Presence And now who could imagine but that upon the giving of such Hostages unto one another a most inviolable League of Friendship had been made between them and that all Animosities and Displeasures being quite forgotten they would more powerfully Co-operate to the publick Good But leaving them and their Adâ—erents to the dark Contrivances of the Court we must leave England for a time and see how our Affairs succeeded on the other side of the Sea Where in the middle of the former Dissensions the French had put us to the Worst in the way of Arms and after got the Better in a Treaty of Peace They had the last year taken in all the Out-works which seemed the strongest Ramparâ—s of the Town of Bulloign but had not strength enough to venture on the Town it self provided plentifully of all necessaries to endure a Siege and bravely Garisoned by men of too much Courage and Resolution to give it up upon a Summons Besides they came to understand that the English were then Practicing with Charles the Emperour to associate with them in the War according to some former Capitulations made between those Crowns And if they found such Dâ—ffiâ—ulties in maintaining the War against either of them when they fought singly by themselves there was no hope of any good Success against them should they unite and poure their Forces into France Most true it is that after such time as the French had bid Defiance to the King and that the King by reason of the Troubles and Embroilments at home was not in a Condition to attend the Affairs of France Sir William Paget was sent Ambassadour to Charles the Fifth to desire Succour of Him and to lay before Him the Infancy and several Necessities of the young King being then in the twelfth year of His Age. This desire when the Emperour had refused to hearken to they besought Him that he would at the least be pleased to take into His Hands the keeping of the Town of Bulloign and that for no longer time then untill King EDVVARD could make an End of the Troubles of His Subjects at home and compose the Discords of the Court which
Earl of Pembroke of that House was of himself a Man of a daring Nature Boisterously bold and upon that account much favoured by King â—enry the Eighth growing into â—ore Credit with the King in regard of the Lady Ann his Wife the Sister of Queen Katâ—â—in Par and having mightily raised hâ—msâ—lf in the fall of Abbies he was made chief Gentleman of the Privy-Chamber and by that Title raâ—ked amongst the Executours of the King 's last Will and then appointed to be one of the Council to the King now Reigning Being found by Dudly a fit man to advance his ends he is by his Procurement gratâ—fiâ—d for I know not what Service unless it were for furthering the Sale of Bulloign with some of the King's Lands amounting to five hundred pounds in yearly Rents and made Lord Prâ—sident of Wales promoted afterwards to the place of Master of the Horse that he might be as considerabâ—e in the Court as he was in the Country It was to be presumed that he would not be wanting unto him who had so preferred him By these three all Affairs of Court were carried plotâ—ed by Dudley smoothed by the Courtship of the Marquess and executed by the bold hand of the new Lord President Being thus fortified he revives his former Quarrel with the Duke of Sommerset not that he had any just ground for it but that he looked upon him as the onely Block which lay in the way of his Aspirings and â—herefore was to be removed by what means soever Plots are lai'd therefore to entrap him Snares to catch him Reports raised him as a Proud and Ambitious Person of whose Aspirings there would be no other end then the Crown it self and common Rumours spread abroad that some of his Followers had Proclaimed him King in several places onely to finde how well the People stood affected to it His Doors are watched and Notice took of all that went in and out his Words observed made much worse by telling and aggravated with all odious Circumstances to his Disadvantage No way untravailed in the Arts of Treachery and Fraud whâ—ch might bring him into Suspicion with the King and Obloquie with the common People The Duke's Friends were not ignorant of all these Practises and could not but perceive but that his Ruin and their own was projected by them The Law of Nature bound them to preserve themselves but their Adversaries were too cunning for them at the Weapon of Wit and had too much Strength in their own Hands to be easily overmastered in the way of Power Some dangerous Counsels were thereupon infused into him more likely by his Wife then by any other to invite these Lords unto a Banquet and either to kill them as they sate or violently to drag them from the Table and cut of their Heads the Banquet to be made at the Lord Pageâ—'s Hoâ—se near Saint Clement's Church and one hundred stout Men to be lodged in Sommerset-Place not far off for the Execution of that Mâ—rther This Plot confessed if any Credit may be given to such Confessions by one Crane and his Wife both great in the Favour of the Duchess and with her committed And after justâ—fied by Sir Thomas Palmer who was committed with the Duke in his Examination taken by the Lords of the Council There were said to be some Consultations also for raising the Forces in the North for setting upon the Gens'd arms which served in the Nature of a Life-Guard as before was said upon some day of General-Muster two thousand Foot and one hundred Horse of the Duke's being designed unto that Service and that being done to raise the City by Proclaiming Liberty To which it was added by Hammond one of the Duke 's false Servants That his Chamber at Greenwich had been strongly guarded by Night to prevent the Surprisal of his Person How much of this is true or whether any of it be true or not it is not easie to determâ—ne though possibly enough it is that all this Smoak could not be without some Fire which whosoever kindled first there is no doubt but that Earl Dudly blew the Coals and made it seem greater then it was Of all these Practises and Designs if such they were the Earl is conâ—tantly advertised by his Espials whom he had amongâ—â— them and gave them as much Linâ— and Leisure as they could desire till he had made all things ready for the Executing of his own Projectments But first there must be a great day of bestowing Honours as well for gaining the more Credit unto him and his Followers as by the jollity of the Time to take away all Fear of Danger from the Opposite Party In Pursuit whereof Henry Lord Gray Marquess of Dorset descended from Elizabeth Wife of King Edward the Fourth by Her former Husband is made Duke of Suffolk to which he might pretend some Claim in Right of the Lady Frances his Wife the eldest Daughter of Charls Brandon Duke of Suffolk and Sister of Henry anâ— Charls the two late Dukes thereof who dyed a few Moneths since at Cambridg of the Sweating Sickness The Earl himself for some Reasons very well known to himself and not unknown to many others is made Duke of Northumberland which Title had lain Dormant ever since the Death of Henry Lord Percy the sixth Earl of that Family who dyed in the year 1537. or thereabouts of whom more anon The Lord Treasurer Pawlet being then Earl of Wiltshire is made Marquess of Winchester Sir William Herbert created at the same time Lord Herbert of Cardiff and Eâ—rl of Pembroke Some make Sir Thomas Darcie Captain of the Guard to be advanced unto the Title of Lord Darcy of Chich on the same day also which others place perhaps more rightly on the fifth of April The Solemnity of which Creations being passed over the Order of Knighthood is conferred on William Cecil Esquire one of the Secretaries of Estate John Cheek Tutour or Schole-Master to the King Henry Dudley and Henry Nevil Gentlemen of the Privy-Chamber At or about which time Sir Robert Dudley the third Son of the new Duke of Nâ—rthumberland but one which had more of the Father in hâ—m then all the rest is sworn of the Bedâ—Chamber to the King which was a place of greatest Trust and Nearness to His Majestie 's Person The Triumphs of this Day being the eleventh day of October were but a Porlogue to the Tragedy which began on the fifth day after At what time the Duke of Sommerset the Lord Gray Sir Thomas Palmer Sir Ralph Vane Sir Thomas Arundel together with Hammond Newdigate and two of the Seimours were seised on and committed to Custody all of them except Palmer Vane and Arundel being sent to the Tower And these three kept in several Chambers to attend the pleasure of the Council for their Examinations The Duchess of Sommerset Crane and his Wife above-mentioned and one of the Gentlewomen of her Chamber were sent unto the Tower on the morrow
Christians should cease from all other kinde of Labours and apply themselves onely and wholely unto such Holy Works as properly pertain to True Religion that the said Holy Works to be performed upon those Days are more particularly to hear to learn and to remember Almighty God's great Benefits his manifold Mercies his inestimable Gracious Goodness so plentifully poured upon all his Creatures rendring unto him for the same our most hearty thanks That the said Days and Times are neither to be called or accounted Holy neither in the Nature of the time or day nor for any of the Saints sakes whose Memories are preserved by them but for the Nature and Condition of those Godly and Holy Works with which onely God is to be Honoured and the Congregation to be Edified That the Sanctifying of the said Days consisteth in separating them apart from all prophane uses and Dedicated not to any Saint or Creature but onely to the Worship of God That there is no certain time nor definite number of days appointed by Holy Scripture but that the appointment of the time as also of the days is left to the Liberty of Christ His Church by the Word of God That the days which from thenceforth were to be kept as Holy days in the Church of England should be all Sundays in the Year the Feast of the Circumcision the Epiphany the Purification of the Blessed Virgin c. with all the rest recited at the end of the Calender in the publick Liturgy That the Arch-Bishops Bishops c. shall have Authority to punish the Offenders in all or any of the Premisses by the usual censures of the Church and to impose such penance on them as to them or any of them shall seem expedient and finally that notwithstanding any thing before declared it shall and may be lawfull for any Husbandman Labourer Fisherman c. to labour ride fish or work any kind of work on the foresaid Holy days not onely in the time of Harvest but at any other time of the year when need shall require with a Proviso for the Celebrating of St. Georg's Feast on the two and twenty three and twenty and four and twentieth Days of April yearly by the Knights of the Right Honourable Order of the Garter or by any of them Which Declaration as it is agreeable in all points to the Tenour of approved Antiquity so can there nothing be more contrary to the Doctrine of the Sabbatarians Which of late time hath been Obtruded on the Church Then for the number of the Fasts It is Declared that from that time forwards every Even or Day going before any of the aforesaid Days of the Feasts of the Nativity of Our Lord of Easter of the Ascension of our Lord Pentecost of the Purification and the Annunciation of the aforesaid Blessed Virgin of All-Saints of all the said Feasts of the Apostles other then of St. John the Evangelist and of St. Philip and Jacob shall be fasted and Commanded to be kept and observed and that none other Even or Day shall be Commanded to be Fasted For Explication of which last Clause it is after added that the said Act or any thing therein contained shall not extend to abrogate or take away the Abstinence from Flesh in Lent or on Fridays and Saturdays or any other appointed pointed to be kept for a Fasting-Day but onely on the Evens of such other Days as formerly had been kept and observed for Holy and were now abrogated by this Act. And for the better suppressing or preventing of any such Fasts as might be kept upon the Sunday it was Enacted in the same according to the Practice of the Elder Times that when it shall chance any the said Feasts the Eves whereof are by this Statute to be kept for Fasting-Days to fall upon the Munday that then the Saturday next before shall be Fasted as the Eve thereof and not the Sunday Which Statute though repealed in the first of Queen Mary and not revived till the first year of the Reign of King James yet in Effect it stood in Force and was more punctually observed in the whole time of Queen Elizabeth 's Reign then after the Reviver of it Such course being taken for the due observing of Days and Times the next care was that Consecrated Places should not be Prophaned by Fighting and Quarrelling as they had been lately since the Episcopal Jurisdiction and the Ancient Censures of the Church were lessened in Authority and Reputation And to that end it was Enacted in this present Parliament that if any Persons whatsoever after the first day of May then next following should quarrel chide or brawl in any Church or Church-yard he should be suspended ab ingressu Ecclesiae if he were a Lay-man and from his Ministration if he were a Priest that if any Person after the said time should smite or lay violent hands upon another he should be deemed to be Excommunicate ipso facto and be excluded from the Fellowship and Company of Christ's Congregation and finally that if any Person should strike another with any weapon in the Church or Church-yard or draw his sword with an intent to strike another with the same and thereof be lawfull convicted he should be punished with the loss of one of his Ears c. A seasonable severity and much conducing to the Honour both of Church and State There were some Statutes also made for taking away the benefit of Clergy in some certain Cases for making such as formerly had been of any Religious Order to be Heritable to the Lands of their Ancestours or next of Kindred to whom they were to have been Heirs by the Common Law for Confirming the Marriages of Priests and giving them their â—ives and Children the like Capacities as other Subjects did enjoy whereof we have already spoke in another place There also passed another Act that no Person by any means should lend or forbear any Sum of Mony for any manner of Vsury or encrease to be received or hoped for above the sum lent upon pain to forâ—eit the sum so lent and the encrease and to suffer imprisonment and make fine at the King's pleasure But this Act being found to be prejudicial to the â—rade of the Kingdom first discontinued of it self and was afterwards repealed in the thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth This Parliament ending on the fifteenth of April gave time enough for Printing and Publishing the Book of Common-Prayer which had been therein Authorised the time for the Officiating of it being fixed on the Feast of All-Saints then next ensuing Which time being come there appeared no small Alteration in the outward Solemnities of Divine Service to which the people had been formerly so long accustomed For by the Râ—brick of that Book no Copes or other Vestures were required but the Surplice onely whereby the Bishops were necessitated to forbear their Crosses and the Prebends of St. Paul's and other Churches occasioned to leave off their
added from the Holy Scripture where Solomon is found to be preferred unto the Throne by David before Adonijah the youngest Son before the eldest a Childe before a Man experienced and well grown in years And some Examples also might be had of the like Transpositions in the Realm of Scotland in Hungary Naples and else where enough to shew that nothing had been done in this great Transaction which was not to be presidented in other Places Upon all which Considerations it was thought most agreeable to the Rules of Polity that the King by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England should so dispose of the Possession of the Crown with such Remainders and Reversions as to him seemed best as might prevent such Inconveniencies and Emergent Mischiefs as might otherwise happen which could not better be effected then by setting the Crown on the Head of the Lady Jane a Lady of a Royal Blood born in the Realm brought up in the Religion now by Law established Married already to a Person of Desert and Honour and such an one in whom all those Graces were concentred which were sufficient to adorn all the rest of Her Sex Thus Reason being thus prepared the next Care was to have the Instrument so contrived in due form of Law that nothing might be wanting in the Stile and Legalities of it which might make it any way obnoxious to Disputes and Questions For the doing whereof it was thought necessary to call in the Assistance of some of the Judges and others of His Majesties Council learned in the Laws of this Realm by whose Authority it might be thought more passable amongst the People Of all which Rank none was thought fitter to be taken into the Consultation then Sir Edward Montague not onely as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and very well experienced in His own Profession But because he being one of the Executours of the King deceased his concurrence with the rest of the Council seemed the more considerable A Letter is therefore sent unto him on the eleventh of June subscribed by the Lord Treasurer the Duke of Northumberland the Earls of Shrewsbury Bedford and Pembroke the Lord Admiral Clinton the Lord Darcie Sir John Gale Sir William Peter Sir William Cecil and Sir John Cheek By the Tenour whereof he was commanded to attend upon their Lordships the next day in the Afternoon and to bring with him Sir John Baker Chancellour of the first-Fruits and Tenths Master Justice Bromeley together with the Attorney and Sollicitour General Being brought into the King's Presence at the time appointed whom they found attended by the Lord Treasurer and some others of those who had subscribed the former Letter the King declared Himself with a weak Voice to this Effect viz. That He had considered in His Sickness of the Estate of His Realm which if it should descend on the Lady Mary who was then unmarried it might so happen that She might marry a Stranger born whereby not onely the Laws of the Realm might be changed and altered but all His own Proceedings in Religion might be also reversed That it was His Pleasure therefore that the Crown should Descend after His Decease unto such Persons aâ—d in such Form as was contained in certain Articles then ready to be shewed unto them to be by them digested and disposed of in due Form of Law These Articles when they had Perused and Considered of they signified unto the King that they conceâ—ved them to be contrary to the Act of Succession which being made in Parliament could not be Frustrated or made Ineffectual but by Parliaments onely Which Answer notwithstanding the King without allowing further time or deliberation commanded them to take the Articles along with them and give the Business a Dispatch with all speed as might be But finding greater Difficulties in it then had appeared unto their Lordships they made a Report unto them at their next Attendance that they had Considered of the King's Articles and the Act of Succession whereby it appeared manâ—festly that if they should make any Book concerning the King's Commandment they should not onely be in danger of Treason but their Lordships also The sum of which Report being cerâ—ifiâ—d to the Duke of Northumberland who though absent was not out of Call he came in great Rage and Fury to the Council-Chamber called the Chief Justice Traitour affirmed that he would fight in his Shirt in that Quarrel against any man living and behaved himself in such an outragious manner as put both Mountague and Justice Bromely in a very great fear that he would have struck them Calâ—ed to the Court again by a Letter of the fourteenth of the same Moneth they found the King more earnest in it then He was before requiring them with a sharp Voice and a displeased Countenance to dispatch the Book according to the Articles delivered to them and telling them that He would have a Parliament shortly to Confirm the same When nothing else would serve the turn Answer was made That His Câ—mmandment should be obeyed upon Condition that they might be Commissionated so to do by His Majestie 's Warrant under the Great Seal of England and have a General Pardon for it when the Deed was done Not daring longer to resist and having made as good Provision as they could for their own Indemnâ—ty they betook themselves unto the Work digested it in form oâ— Law caused â—t to be Engrossed in Parchment and so dispatched it for the Seal to the Lord Chancellour Goodrick sufficiently prepared before-hand not to stick upon it Bâ—t then appeared another Difficulty amongst the Lords of the Council some of whâ—ch not well satisfied with these Proceedings appeared as backward in Subscribing to the Instrument before it went unto the Seal as the Great Lawyers had done at the first in being brought to the Employment But such was the Authority which Dudley and his Party had gained amongst them that some for fear and some for favour did Subscribe at last a Zeal to the Reformed Religion prevailing in it upon some a doubt of loosing their Church-Lands more powerfully over-swaying others and all in fear of getting the displeasure of that Mighty Tyrant who by his Power and Practices carried all before him The last that stood it out was Arch-Bishop Cranmer Who being sent for to the Court when all the Lords of the Council and most of the Judges of the Realm had subscribed the Instrument refused to put his hand unto it or to consent to the Disherison of the late King's Daughters After much Reasoning of the Case he requires a longer time of deliberation consults about it with some of the most Learned Lawyers and is finally sent for by the King who having fully set his heart upon the Business did use so many Reasons to him in behalf of Religion and plyed him with such strong Perswasions in pursuance of them that at the last he suffered himself to be overcome by His Importunities
a Mercy had advanced Her to That Therefore She should chearfully take upon Her the Name Title and Estate of Queen of England France and Ireland with all the Royalties and Preheminencies to the same belonging Receiving at their hands the First-Fruits of the Humble Duty now tendred by them on their Knees which shortly was to be payed to Her by the rest of the Kingdom This Speech being ended the poor Lady found Her Self in a great Perplexity not knowing whether she Should more lament the Death of the King or Her Adoption to the Kingdom the first Loss not to be repaired the next Care possible to be avoided She looked upon the Crown as a great Temptation to resist which She stood in need of all the Helps which both Philosophy and Divinity could suggest unto Her And She knew also that such Fortunes seldom knocked twice for entrance at the same Man's Gate but that if once refused they are gone for ever Taking some time therefore of Deliberation She summoned a Council of Her purest Thoughts by whose Advice half drownned in Tears either as sorrowing for the King's Death or fore-seeing Her own She returned an Answer in these Words or to this Effect That The Laws of the Kingdom and Natural Right standing for the King's Sister She would beware of burthening Her weak Conscience with a Yoke which did belong to them That She understood the Infamy of those who had permitted the violation of Right to gain a Scepter That it were to mock God and deride Justice to scruple at the stealing of a Shilling and not at the Vsurpation of a Crown Besides said She I am not so young nor so little read in the Guils of Fortune to suffer my self to be taken by them If she inrich any it is but to make them the Subject of her Spoil If she raise others it is but to pleasure her Self with their Ruins What shâ— adored but yesterday is to day her Pastime And if I now permit her to adorn and Crown me I must to Morrow suffer her to crush and tear me in pieces Nay with what Crown doth she Present me A Crown which hath been Violently and Shamefully wrested from Katharine of Arragon made more unfortunate by the Punishment of Ann Bulloign and others that wore it after Her And why then would you have me add my Blood to theirs and to be the third Victime from whom this Fatal Crown may be ravished with the Head that wears it But in Case it should not prove Fatal unto me and that all its Venom were consumed if Fortune should give me Warranties of her Constancy Should I be well advised to take upon me these Thorns which would dilacerate though not kill me outright to burthen my self with a Yoke which would not fail to torment me though I were assured not to be strangled with it My Liberty is better then the Chain you proffer me with what pretious stones soever it be adorned or of what Gold soever framed I will not exchange my Peace for Honourable and pretious Jealousies for Magnificent and Glorious Letters And if you love me sincerely and in good earnest you will rather wish me a secure and quiet Fortune though mean then an exalted Condition exposed to the Wind and followed by some dismal Fall It had been happy for Her self Her Fathers and their several Families if they had suffered themselves to be overcome by such powerfull Arguments which were not onely persuasive but might seem convincing had they not all been fatally hurried unto their own Destruction But the Ambition of the two Dukes was too Strong and Violent to be kept down by any such prudent Considerations So that being wearied at the last with their Importunities and overcome by the entreaties of Her Husband whom She dearly loved She submitted unto that necessity which She could not vanquish yielding her Head with more unwillingness to the Ravishing Glories of a Crown then afterwards She did to the Stroak of the Ax. The Point being thus concluded on the two Dukes with all the rest of the Lords of the Council swore Allegeance to her And on the same day about five of the Clock in the afternoon they caused Her Solemnly to be Proclaimed Queen of England France and Ireland c. in many of the principal Streets in London and after by Degrees in most of the Chief Cities Towns and Places of greatest Concourse and Resort of People In which Proclamation it was signified That by the Letters Patents of the late King Edward bearing Date the twenty first of June last past the Lady Jane Gray Eldest Daughter to the Duchess of Suffolk had been declared His true and lawfull Successour to the Crown of England the same to be enjoyed after Her Decease the Heirs of Her Body c. as in the said Letters Patents more especially did at large appear Which Proclamation though it was published in the City with all due Solemnities and that the Concourse of People was exceeding great yet their Acclamations were but few which served as a sufficient Argument to the Friends and Followers of the Princess Mary that they were rather drawn together out of Curiosity to behold some unusual Spectacle then out of any purpose to congratulate at the Queen's Advancement And so far some of of them declared their dislike thereof that the next Day one Gilbert Pot was set on the Pâ—llory in Cheâ—pside his Ears first nailed and afterwards cut off for certain words which he had spoken at the Publishing of the Proclamation a Trumpet sounding at the Time of the Execution and an Herald in his Coat of Arms publickly noting his Offence in a Form prescribed A Severity neither safe nor necessary the party being of no better Condition then a Vintner's Boy as the Case then stood For the next day the Lords received Advertisement from divers hands that many persons of Quality were drawn together at Kenning-Hallâ—Castle in Norfolk to offer their Service and assistance to the Princess Mary who finding by the Answer which She had received from the Lords of the Council that no good was otherwise to be be done resolved not to be wanting to Her own Pretensions and to that end gave chearfull Entertainment to all comers which either favoured Her Title or embraced Her Religion Amongst such Gentlemen as were certified to the Lords of the Council I finde the names of the Earl of Bath Sir Thomas Wharton son to the Lord Wharton Sir John Mordant Son to the Lord Mordant Sir William Drury Sir John Shelton Sir Henry Bedingfield Mr. Henry Jenningham Mr. John Sulierd Mr. Richard Higham of Lincoln's-Inn It was advertised also that the Earl of Sussex and Mr. Henry Ratcliff his Son were coming towards Her with their Forces which last Advertisement gave the Business some appearance of Danger for what else was to be expected but that the Countenance and Encouragement of so great a Person might draw many more unto the side who otherwise would have
Sir John Mason Master of the Requests R. Bowes Master of the Rolls Most of which had formerly subscribed the answer to a Letter which came to them from the Princesse Mary on the ninth of July and were all pâ—â—doned for so doing except Cranmer only Now the Tenor of the said 〈◊〉 was as followeth In the name of our Soveraign Lady Mary the Queen to be declared to the Duke of Northumberland and all other his Band of what degree soever they be YOu shall command and charge in the Queens Highness name the said Duke to disarm himselfe and the cease all his men of war and to suffer no part of his army to do any villany nor any thing contrary to the peace and himself to forbear his comming to this City untill the Queens pleasure be expressedly declared unto him And if he will shew himselfe like a good quiet subject we will then continue as we have begun as humble suitors to our Soveraign Lady the Queen's Highnesse for him and his and for our selves And if he do not we will not fail to spend our lives in subduing of him and his Item Ye shall declare the like matter to the Marquesse of Northampton and all other Noble men and Gentlemen and to all men of war being with any of them Item Ye shall in all places where ye come notifie it If the Duke of Northumberland do not submit himselfe to the Queens Highnesse Queen Mary he shall be accepted as a Traytor And all we of the Nobility that were Counsellors to the late King will to the utmost portion of our power persecute him and his to their afterconfusion The Pursuivant having communicate his Instructions found none more ready to obey them then the Duke himselfe who had before dismist his forces and now prepared for his departure from that place though to what he knew not But as he was pulling on his boots he was first slaid by some of the Pensioners who being drawn into the action against their wils resolved to have him in a readinesse to bear witnesse to it and after taken into custody by Slegg a Serjeant The businesse being in dispute another Packet comes from the Lords of the Council by which all parties were required to depart to their severall dwellings the benefit whereof the Duke laid claim to for himself and was accordingly left by them at his own disposal And so he passed that night in some good assurance that he should fare no worse than the rest of the Council who had engaged him in the same cause and by whose order he had undertaken the command of that Army In the mean time the Earl of Arundell had done his errand to the Queen to so good a purpose that he was presently dispatched with Order to seize upon him Who coming to Cambridge the next morining found him preparing for his journy laid hold upon him and committed him to the charge of some of the Guard It is reported that the Duke had no sooner seen the Earle of Arundell but he fell down upon his knees and besought him to be good unto him humbling himselfe before him with more abjectednesse than formerly he had insulted over him with pride and insolence By safe but easie journies he is brought unto the Tower on the 25 day of July together with the Earl of Warwick the Earle of Huntington the Lord Hastings the Lord Ambrose and the Lord Henry Dudley two of Northumberlands younger sons Sir Andrew Dudly the Duke's brother Sir John Gates and Henry Gates his brother Sir Thomas Palmer who formerly had served his turn in the destruction of the Duke of Sommerset and Dr Sandys Vice Chancelor of the University of Cambridge Followed the next day after by the Marquesse of Northampton Dr Nicholas Ridley Bishop of London the Lord Robert Dudley another of Northumberland's sons and Sir Robert Corbet who having made their Applications to the Queen at Framingham found there no better entertainment than if they had been take in some act of Hostility The 27 day brings in Sir Roger Chomley Chief Justice of the Kings Bench and Sir Edward Mountague Chief Justice of the Common Pleas the Duke of Suffolk and Sir John Cheek on the morrow after shutting up the Arrer But the Duke of Suffolk stayed not long for being considered in himself as an easie person of whom they were to fear no danger and otherwise no more in fault than the rest of the Council he was released again within three dayes after to the great comfort of his daughter the late queen Jane who would have died dayly for her Father though but once for her self But so it fared not with the Duke of Northumberland a more dangerous person who together with John Earl of Warwick his eldest son and William Marquesse of Northampton was brought to their tryal on the eighth of August before Thomas Duke of Norfolk then sitting as Lord High Steward in Westminster Hall The Duke being brought unto the bar humbled himself with great reverence before his Peers professing his faith and allegiance to the Queen against whom he confessed he had so grievously offended that he intended not to speak any thing in his own defence But having been trained up to the study of the Laws in his younger dayes he desired the judgement of the Court in these two points First Whether any man doing any act by Authority of the Princes Councel and by warrant of the Great Seal of England and doing nothing wâ—thâ—â—t the same might be charged with treason for any thing which he might do by warrant thereof And secondly which pinched then his Judges to some purpose Wheâ—her any such persons as were equally culpable in the crime and those by whose Letters and Commandments he was directed in all his doings might sit as Judges and passe upon his trial as his Peers Whereunto it was answered by the Court with advice of the Judges First That the Great Seal which â—e preâ—ended 〈◊〉 his warrant was not the Seal of the lawful Queen of the Realm but thâ— Seâ— of 〈◊〉 â—â—surper who had no authority and therefâ—re could bâ— no warrant to him And secondly That if any were as deeply to be touched in the case as himself yet so long as nâ— attainder was upon Record against them they were looked upon by the Law as persons capable of passing upon any tryal and not to bâ— challenged by any in that respect but only at the Prince's pleasure Which being delivered by the Court in point of Law the Duke conceived that it would be to no purpose for him to plead Not Guilty and thereupon confessed the Indictment as the other two prisoners also did they all received judgement in the usual form On the pronouncing whereof he besought the Lords to move the Queen that she would be gratious to his sons who might be able to do good service in the time to come considering that they went not with him of their own free will but only in
obedience to his commands who was their Father in which as his desires were granted by the Lords so the Lords were gratified in them by the Queen none of his sons being executed though all condemned except Guilford only whose case was different from the others The like judgement also pass'd on the morrow after on Sir John Gates Sit Henry Gates Sir Andrew Dudley and Sir Thomas Palmer who confessing the Indictment also submitted themselves to the Queens mercy without further tryal In that short interval which past between the sentence and the execution the Duke was frequently visited by Dr Nicholas Heath then newly restored unto the See of Worcester It was another of the requests which he made to the Lords that some godly and learned man might be licenced by the Queen to repair unto him for the quiet and satisfaction of his conscience and the resolved to send him none as she did to others in like case but one of her own under a pretence of doing good unto their soâ—ls by gaining them to a right understanding of the faith in Christ. According to which purpose Heâ—â—h bestirs himself with such dexterity that the Duke either out of weaknesse or hope of life or that it was indifferent to him in what Faith he died who had shewn so little while he lived retracted that Religion which he had adorned in the time of King Edward and outwardly professed for some years in the Reign of King Henry And hereof he gave publick notice when he was on the scaffold on the 22 of that monâ—h In the way towards which there passed some words betwixt him and Gates each laying the blame of the late action on the other but afterwards mutually forgiving and being forgiven they died in good charity with one anoâ—her Turning himself unto the people he made a long Oration to them touching the quality of his offence and his fore-passed life and then admonished the spectators To stand to the Religion oâ— their Ancestâ—rs rejecting that of lâ—â—er date which had occasioned all the 〈◊〉 of the foregoing thirty years and that for prevention for the future if they desired 〈◊〉 present their souls unspotted in the â—ight of God and were truly affected to their Country they should expel those trumpets of Sedition the Preachers of the reformed Religion that for himself whatever had otherwise been pretended he professed â—o other Religion than that of his Fathers for testimony whereof he appealed to his good friend and ghâ—stly father the Lord Bishop of Worcester and finally that being blinded with ambition he had been contenâ—ed to make a rack of his conscience by teâ—porising for which he professed himself sincerely repentant and so acknowledged the justice of his death A declaration very unseasonable whether true or false as that which render'd him less pitied by the one side and more scorned by the other With him died also Gates and Pâ—lâ—â—r the rest of the condemned prisoners being first reprieved and afterwards absolutely pardoned Such was the end of this great person the first Earl of Warwick and the laâ—â— Duke of Northumberland of this Name and Family By birth he was the eldest son of Sir Edâ—ond Sutton alias Dudley who together with Sir Richard Empson were the chief instruments and promoters under Henry the 7th for putting the penal lawes in execution to the great grievance and oppression of all sorts of subjects For which and other offences of a higher nature they were both sacrificed to the fury of the common people by King Henry the 8th which possible might make him carry a vindicative mind towards that King's children and prompt him to the dis-inheriting of all his Progeny First trained up as his Father had also been before him in the study of the common Laws which made him cunning enough to pick holes in any mans estate and to find wayes by which to bring their lives in danger But finding that the long sword was of more estimation than the long Robe in the time of that King he put himself forwards on all actions wherein honour was to be acquired In which he gave such testimony of his judgement and valour that he gained much on the affections of his Prince By whom he was created Viscount Lisâ—e on the 15th of March An. 1541. installed Knight of the Garter 1543. and made Lord Admiral of England Imployed in many action against the Scots he came off alwayes with successe and victory and having said this we have said all that was accounted good or commendable in the whole course of his life Being advanced unto the Title of Earl of Wâ—rwick by King Edward the 6th he thought himself in a capacity of making Queens as well as Richard Nevil one of his Predecessors in that Title had been of setting up and deposing Kings and they both perished under the ambition of those proud attempts Punished as Nevil also was in having no issâ—e male remaining to preserve his name For though he had six sons all of them living to be men and all of them to be married men yet they went all childlesse to the grave I mean as to the having of lawful issue as if the curse of Jeconiâ—ah had been laid upon them With him died also the proud Title of Duke of Nâ—rthâ—â—berland never aspired to by the Percies though men of eminent Nobility and ever since the time of King Henry the first of the Race of Emperours Which Family as well in reference to the merit oâ— their Noble Ancestors as the intercession of some powerful friends were afterwards restored to all the Titles and Honours which belonged to that House in the persons of Thomas and Henry Grand children to Henry the 5th Earl thereof An. 1557. The matters being thus laid together we must look back upon the Queen Who seeing all obstacles removed betwixt her and the Crown dissolved her Camp at 〈◊〉 consisting of fourteen thousand men and prepared for her journey towards London Met on the way by the Princesse Elizabeth her sister attended with no fewer than 1000 horse She made her entrance into London on the third of August no lesse magnificent for the Pomp and bravery of it than that of any of her predecessors Taking possession of the Tower she was first welcomed thither by I 〈◊〉 the old Duke of Norfolk Annâ— Dutchesse of Sommerset Edward Lord Coâ—â—â—ney eldest son to the late Marquesse of Excester and Dr Stephan Gardiner Bishop of Winchester all which she lifted from the ground called them her prisoners graciously kissed them and restored them shortly after to their former liberty Taking the Great Seal from Dr Goodrick Bishop of Ely within two dayes after she gave it for the present to the custody of Sir Nichâ—lâ—s Hare whom she made Master of the Rolls and afterwards committed it on the 23d of the same month together with the Title of Lord Chancellor on the said Dr Gardiâ—er then actually restored to the See of Wâ—â—chestor Having performed the obsequies of her
by the Divines of King Edward's time that neither any satisfaction had been given to their Arguments nor that any right judgement could be made in the points disputed where the adverse party late as Judges in their own concernments Many checks had been given by Weston to the â—ix Divines but especially to the Arch-Deacon of Winchester and there was much disorder otherwise in the disputation though certain great Lords were present at it which hindered it from producing any good effect So that being weary at the last of their own confusions it was thought fit to put an end to the dispute Which Weston did accordingly in these following words It is not saith he the Queens pleasure that we should spend any longer time in these debates and ye are well enough already For you saith he have the Word and we have the Sword So powerful is the truth that may times it will find some means to vent it self when we least intend it and sometimes also when we most labour to suppress it The Parliament and Convocation had thus concluded on the point and little question would be made but that such Bishops as disliked the alterations in the time of King Edward will be sufficiently active in advancing the results of both But Bonner will not stay so long he is resolved to go along with the Parliament if not before it For after the ending of the Even song on St. Katherine's day before the consultations of the Parliament had been confirmed by the Royal assent he caused the Quire of St. Paul's to go about the steeple singing with lights after the old custome And on St Andrew's day next following he began the Procession in Latine himself with many Parsons and Curates and the whole Quire together with the Lord Mayor and divers of the Aldermen the Prebends of the Church attired in their old gray Amises as they used to call them in which manner they continued it for three dayes after In setting up the Mass with all the Pomps and Rites thereof at the time appointed it is not to be thought that he could be backward who shewed himself so forward in the rest of his actings And therefore it can be no news to hear that on the 14th of January he restored the solemn Sundays Procession about the Church with the Mayor and Aldermen in their Clokes the Preacher taking his benediction in the midst of the Church according to the ancient custome or that he should send out his Mandates to all Parsons and Curates within his Diocess for taking the names of all such as would not come the Lent following to Auricular confession and receive at Easter or finally that he should issue out the like commands to all Priests and Curates which lived within the compass of his jurisdiction for the abolishing of such Paintings and Sentences of holy Scripture as had been pensiled on the Church walls in King Edward's dayes He knew full well that as the actions of the Mother Church would easily become exemplary to the rest of the City so the proceedings of that City and the parts about it would in time give the law to the rest of the Kingdom and that there was no speedier way to advance a general conformity over all the Kingdom than to take beginning at the head from whence both sence and motion is derived to the rest of the body Which makes it seem the greater wonder that he should be so backward in advancing Images if at the least his actings in that kind have not been misplaced as not to go about it till the year next following unless it were that he began to be so wise as to stay until the Queen's affairs were better setled But no sooner was her marriage past when we find him at it For having by that time prepared a fair and large Image of our Saviour which they called the Rood he caused it to be laid along upon the pavement of St Paul's Quire and all the doors of the Church to be kept close shut whilst he together with the Prebends sung and said divers prayers by it Which done they anointed it with oyl in divers places and after the anointing of it crept unto it and kissed it and after weighed it up and set it in its accustomed place the whole quire in the mean time singing Te Deum and the bels publishing their joy at the end of the Pageant After which a command is given to Dr Story who was then Chancellor of his Diocess and afterwards a most active instrument in all his butcheries to visit every Parish Church in London and Middlesex to see their Rood loâ—ts repaired and the Images of the Crucifix with Mary and John to be placed on them But it is time that we return to the former Parliament during the sitting whereof the Queen had been desired to mary and three husbands had been nominated of several qualities that she might please her self in the choice of one That is to say Edward Lord Courtney whom she had lately restored to the Title of Earl of Devon Reginald Pole a Cardinal of the Church of Rome descended from George Duke of Clarence and Philip the eldest son of Charles the Emperour It is affirmed that she had carried some good affections to the Earl of Devonshire ever since she first saw him in the Tower as being of a lovely personage and Royal extraction the Grandson of a Daughter of King Edward the 4th But he being sounded afar off had declined the matter Concerning which there goes a story that the young Earl peâ—itioning her for leave to travel she advised him to mary and stay at home assuring him that no Lady in the land how high soever would refuse to accept him for an husband By which words though she pointed out her self unto him as plainly as might either stand with the Modesty or Majesty of a Maiden Queen Yet the young Gentleman not daring to look so high as a Crown or being better affected to the person of the Princess Elizabeth desired the Queen to give him leave to mary her sister Which gave the Queen so much displeasure that she looked with an evil eye upon them both for ever after upon the Earl for not accepting that love which she seemed to offer and on her sister as her Rival in the Earls affections It was supposed also that she might have some inclinations to Cardinal Pole as having been brought up with him in the house of his Mother the late Countess of Salisbury But against him it was objected that he began to grow in years and was so given unto his book that he seemed fitter for a Coul than to wear a Crown that he had few dependances at home and fewer alliances abroad and that the Queen's affairs did require a man both stout and active well back'd with friends and able at all points to carry on the great concernments of the Kingdom And then what fitter husband â—ould be found out for
Ricot in reference perhaps to his fatheâ—s suffering in the cause of her mother from whom descended Francis Lord Norris advanced by King James to the Honors of Viscount Tame and Earl of Berkshire by Letters Patens bearing date in January Anno 1620. After him on the 7th of April comes Sir Edward North created Baron of Charâ—eleg in the Country of Cambridge who having been Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations in the time of King Henry and raised himself a fair Estate by the fall of Abbyes was by the King made one of his Executors and nominated to be one of the great Councill of Estate in his Son's Minority Sir John Bâ—ugis brings up the rear who being descended from Sir John Chandois a right noble Banneret and from the Bottelers Lords of Sudley was made Lord Chandois of Sudley on the 8th of April whiâ—h goodly Mannor he had lately purchased of the Crown to which it was Escheated on the death of Sir Thomas Seymour Anno. 1549. the Title still enjoyed though but little else by the seventh Lord of this Name and Family most of the Lands being dismembred from the House by the unparallel'd Impudence to give it no worse name of his elder brother Some Bishops I find consecrated about this time also to make the stronger party for the Queen in the House of Peers no more Sees actually voided at that time to make Rome for others though many in a fair way to it of which more hereafter Hooper of Glocester commanded to attend the Lords of the Council on the 22 of August and committed prisoner not long after was outed of his Bishoprick immediately on the ending of the Parliament in which all Consecrations were declared to be void and null which had been made according to the Ordinall of King Edward the 6 th Into whose place succeeded James Brooks Doctor in Divinity sometimes Fellow of Corpus Christi and Master of Bâ—liol Colledge in Oxon employed not long after as a Delegat from the Pope of Rome in the proceedings against the Archbishop of Canterbury whom he condemned to the stake To Jaylor of whose death we have spoken before succeeded Doctor John White in the See of Lincoln first School-master and after Warden of the Colledge near Winchester to the Episcopall See whereof we shall find him translated Anno 1556. The Church of Rochester had been void ever since the removall of Doctor Story to the See of Chichester not suffered to return to his former Bishoprick though dispoiled of the later But it was now thought good to fill it and Maurice Griffin who for some years had been the Archdeacon is consecrated Bishop of it on the first of April One suffrage more was gained by the repealing of an Act of Parliament made in the last Session of King Edward for dissolving the Bishoprick of Durham till which time Doctor Cuthbert Tunstall though restored to his Liberty and possibly to a good part also of his Churches Partimony had neither Suffrage as a Peer in the House of Parliament not could act any thing as a Bishop in his own Jurisdiction And with these Consecrations and Creations I conclude this year An. Reg. Mar. 2º An. Dom. 1554 1555. THe next begins with the Arrivall of the Prince of Spain wafted to England with a Fleet of one hundred and sixty sail of Ships twenty of which were English purposely sent to be his Convoy in regard of the warrs not then expired betwixt the French and the Spaniards Landing at Southampton on the 19 th of July on which day of the month in the year foregoing the Queen had been solemnly proclaimed in London he went to Winchester with his whole Retinue on the 24 th where he was received by the Queen with a gallant Train of Lords and Ladies solemnly married the next day being the Festival of St. James the supposed Tutelary Saint of the Spanish Nation by the Bishop of Winchester at what time the Queen had passed the eight and thirtieth year of her age and the Prince was but newly entred on his twenty seventh As soon as the Marriage-Rites were celebrated Higueroa the Emperors Embassador presented to the King a Donation of the Kingdoms of Naples and Cicily which the Emperor his father had resigned unto him Which presently was signified and the Titles of the King and Queen Proclaimed by sound of Trumpet in this following Style PHILIP and MARY by the grace of the God King and Queen of England France Naples Jerusalem Ireland Defenders of the Faith Princes of Spain and Cicily Arch-Dukes of Austria Dukes of Millain Burgundy and Brabant Counts of Ausperge Flanders and Tirroll c. At the proclaiming of which Style which was performed in French Latine and English the King and Queen showed themselves hand in hand with two Swords born before them for the greater state or in regard of their distinct Capacity in the publick Government From VVinchester they removed to Basing and so to VVindsor where Philip on the 5 th of August was Installed Knight of the Garter into the fellowship whereof he had been chosen the year before From thence the Court removed to Richmond by land and so by water to Suffolk-place in the Burrough of Southwark and on the 12 th of the same month made a magnificent passage thorow the principal streets of the City of London with all the Pomps accustomed at a Coronation The Triumphs of which Entertainment had continued longer if the Court had not put on mourning for the death of the old Duke of Norfolk who left this life at Framingham Castle in the month of September to the great sorrow of the Queen who entirely loved him Philip thus gloriously received endeavoureth to sow his Grandure to make the English sensible of the benefits which they were to partake of by this Marriage and to engratiate himself with the Nobility and People in all generous ways To which end he caused great quantity of Bullion to be brought into England loaded in twenty Carts carrying amongst them twenty seven Chests each Chest containing a Yard and some inches in length conducted to the Tower on the second of October by certain Spaniards and English-men of his Majesties Guard And on the 29 th of January then next following ninety nine Horses and two Carts laden with Treasures of Gold and Silver brought out of Spain was conveyed through the City of the Tower of London under the conduct of Sir Thomas Grosham the Queens Merchant and others He prevailed also with the Queen for discharge of such Prisoners as stood committed in the Tower either for matter of Religion or on the account of Wyaâ—'s Rebellion or for engaging in the practice of the Duke of Northumberland And being gratified therein according unto his desire the Lord Chancellor the Bishop of Ely and certain others of the Councill were sent unto the Tower on the 18 th of January to see the same put in execution which was accordingly performed to the great joy
enjoying all those Rights and Privileges which formerly he stood possessed of in this Kingdom For the passing of which Bill into Act the King and Queen vouchsafed their presence as soon as it was fitted and prepared for them not staying till the end of the Session as at other times because the businesse might not suffer such a long delay It was upon the 24 th of November that the Cardinal came first to London and had his Lodgings in or near the Court till Lambeth house could be made ready to receive him Having reposed himself for a day or two the Lords and Commons are required to attend their Majesties at the Court where the Cardinal in a very grave and eloquent speech first gave them thanks for being restored unto his Country in recompence whereof he told them that he was come to restore them to the Country and Court of Heaven from which by their departing from the Church they had been estranged He therefore earnestly exhorts them to acknowledge their errors and cheerfully to receive that benefit which Christ was ready by his Vicar to extend unto them His Speech is said to have been long and artificial but it concluded to this purpose That he had the Keys to open them a way into the Church which they had shut against themselves by making so many Laws to the dishonour and reproach of the See Apostolick on the revoking of which Laws they should â—ind him ready to make use of his Keys in opening the doors of the Church unto them It was concluded hereupon by both Houses of Parliament that a Petition should be made in the name of the Kingdom wherein should be declared how â—orry they were that they had withdrawn their obedience from the Apostolick See and consenting to the Statutes made against it promising to do their best endeavour hereafter that the said Laws and Statutes should be repealed and beseeching the King and Queen to intercede for them with his Holiness that they may be absolved from the Crimes and Censures and be received as penitent children into the bosom of the Church These things being thus resolved upon both Houses are called again to the Court on St. Andrews day where being assembled in the presence of the King and Queen they were asked by the Lord Chancellor Gardiner whether they were pleased that Pardon should be demanded of the Legat and whether they would return to the Unity of the Church and Obedience of the Pope Supream Head thereof To which when some cryed Yea and the rest said nothing their silence was taken for consent and so the Petition was presented to their Majesties in the name of the Parliament Which being publickly read they arose with a purpose to have moved the Cardinal in it who meeting their desires declared his readinesse in giving them that satisfaction which they would have craved And having caused the Authority given him by the Pope to be publickly read he showed how acceptable the repentance of a sâ—nner was in the sight of God and that the very Angels in Heaven rejoyced at the conversion of this Kingdom Which said they all kneeled upon their knees and imploring the mercy of God received absolution for themselves and the rest of the Kingdom which Absolution was pronounced in these following words Our Lord Jesus Christ which with his most precious blood hath redeemed and wash'd uâ— from all our sins and iniquities that he might purchase unto himself a glorious Spouse without spot or wrinckle and whom the Father hath appointed Head over all his Church He by his mercy absolve you And we by Apostolick Authority given unto us by the most holy Lord Pope Julius the 3 d his Vicegerent here on earth do absolve and deliver you and every of you with the whole Realm and the Dominions thereof from all Heresie and Schism and from all and every Judgment Censures and Pains for that cause incurred And also we do restore you again unto the unity of our Mother the holy Church as in our Letters more plainly it shall appear In the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Which words of his being seconded with a loud Amen by such as were present he concluded the days work with a solemn Procession to the Chapel for rendring Prayers and Thanks to Almighty God And because this great work was wrought on St. Andrews day the Cardinal procured a Decree or Canon to be made in the Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy that from thenceforth the Feast of St. Andrew should be kept in the Church of England for a Majus Duplex as the Rituals call it and celebrated with as much solemnity as any other in the year It was thought fit also that the actions of the day should be communicated on the Sunday following being the second of December at St. Paul's Crosse in the hearing of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and the rest of the City According to which appointment the Cardinal went from Lambeth by water and landing at St. Paul's Wharf from thence proceeded to the Church with a Cross two Pillars and two Pole-axes of silver born before him Received by the Lord Chancellor with a solemn Procession they â—arried till the King came from Westminster Immediately upon whose comming the Lord Chancellor went into the Pulpit and preached upon on those words of St. Paul Rom. 13. Fratres scientes quia hora est jam nos de somno surgerâ— c. In which Sermon he declared what had been done on the Friday before in the submission which was made to the Pope by the Lords and Commons in the name of themselves and the whole Kingdom and the Absolution granted to them by the Cardinal in the name of the Pope Which done and Praiers being made for the whole Estate of the Catholick Church the company was for that time dismissed And on the Thursday after being the Feast of St. Nicholas day the Bishops and Clergy then assembled in their Convocation presented themselves before the Cardinal at Lamboth and kneeling reverently on their knees they obtained pardon for all their Perjuries Schisms and Heresies From which a formal Absolution was pronounced also that so all sorts of people might partake of the Pope's Benediction and thereby testifie their obedience and submission to him The news whereof being speedily posted over to the Pope he caused not onely many solemn Processions to be made in Rome and most parts of Italy but proclaimed a Jubile to be held on the 24th of December then next comming For the anticipating of which solemnity he alleged this reason That it became him to imitate the father of the Prodigal child and having received his lost son not onely to expresse a domestical joy but to invite all others to partake thereof During this Parliament was held a Convocation also as before was intimated Bonner continuing President of it and Henry Cole Archdeacon of Ely admitted to the office of Prolocutor They knew well how the Cards were
English Chruch in each of their several congregations Their principal retiring places amongst the last were Arrow Zurick and Geneva and in the first the Cities of Embden Stralsburge and Franckfort In Franckfort they enjoyed the greatest privileges and therefore resorted thither in the greatest numbers which made them the more apt unto Schisms and factions At their first coming to that place which was on the 27th of June Anno 1554. by the power and favour of John Glauberge one of the Senators of that City they were permitted to have the use of one of their Churches which had before been granted to such French exiles as had repaired thither on the like occasion yet so that the French were still to hold their right the English to have the use of it one day and the French another and on the Lords day so to divide the hours between them that the one might be no hinderance unto the other It hath been said also that there was another condition imposed upon them of being conform unto the French in Doctrine and Ceremonies Which condition if it were imposed by the Magistrates not sought by themselves must needs be very agreeable to the temper and complexion of their principal Leaders who being for the most part of the Zuinglian-Gospellers at their going hence became the great promoters of the Puritan faction at their comming home The names of Whittingham Williams Goodman Wood and Sutton who appeared in the head of this congregation declare sufficiently of what Principles and strain they were how willing they would be to lay aside the face of an English Church and frame themselves to any Liturgie but their own On July the 14th they first obtained a grant of their Church and on the 29th took possession of it The interval they spent in altering and disfiguring the English Lyturgie of which they left nothing but the reading of the Psalms and Chapters Those comfortable interlocutories between the Minister and the People were no longer used as savouring in their opinion of some disorder in the course of the ministration the Letany and the Surplice they cast aside as having too much in them of the Church of Rome the Confession they had altered so as they conceived most agreeable to their present condition and for the Hymns which intervened between the Chapters and the Creed they changed them for such Psalms in the English Meerer as had been made by Sternhold and Hopkins in the time of King Edward The Psalm being done the Preacher goes into the Pulpit in which the Minister prayed for the assistance of God's Spirit and so proceeded to the Sermon Which done an other Prayer was made for all orders and estates of men but more particularly for the welfare of the Church of England composed in imitation of the Prayer for the Church Militant here on earth but ending as that did not with the Pater-noster After which most extreamly out of order followed the rehearsal of the Articles of the Christian Faith another Psalm and finally the dismission of the people with The Peace of God This was the form devised for that Congregation for the imposing whereof on all the rest of the English Churches they did then use their best endeavours and for obtruding which on the whole Church of England they raised such tumults and commotions in the following times Growing in love with this fair Babe of their own begetting they write their Letters of the second of August to such of the English as remained at Stralsburge and Zurick inviting them to repair to Franckfort and unite themselves unto that Church which had been there erected with the leave of the Magistrate But they had heard in both places of those Alterations which had been made at Franckfort in the form of Gods publick Service and thereupon refused to accept of the invitation though it seemed to promise them some advantages by the commodious situation of that City in respect of England the great resort of strangers thither at the yearly Marts plenty of Books and other helps in the way of study which were not to be found in the other two Cities From Stralsburge modestly from Zurick resolutely but from both it was plainly signified that they resolved to maintain the Order of the Church of England The like Letter had been writ to the English at Embden of which Congregation Doctor Scory the late Bishop of Chichester was the Super-intendent and we may readily believe that they received the like repulse from his Church at Embden as they had from Gryndal Sandys and Haddon or who had the constituting of the Church of Stralsburge or from Horn Chambers Parkhurst and other of the Students which remained at Zurick The noise of this new Church at Franckfort occasioned Knox who after proved the great incendiary of the Realm and Church of Scotland to leave his Sanctuary in Geneva in hope to make a better market for himself in that Congregation He had not long before published a seditious Pamphlet entituled The first blast of the Trumpet in which he bitterly inveighed against the Government of Women aiming there especially at the three Queen Maries that is to say Mary Queen of England Mary Queen of Scots and Mary of Lorrain Queen Regent of Scotland By which seditious Pamphlet he had made not onely his own Country too hot for him but could assure himself of no safety in France or England To Geneva therefore he retires and from thence removes to Franckfort as the â—itter Scene for his intendments hoping to get as great a name in this new Plantation as Calvin had gotten in the old It was about the end of September that he came to Franckfort where he took the charge of that Church upon him Whittingham and the rest submitting unto his Apostleship This gave a new dis-satisfaction to the English at Stralsburge and Zurick who knew the spirit of the man and feared the dangerous consequents and effects thereof Nor was the condition of affairs much bettered by the coming of Whitehead who afterwards refused the Archbishoprick of Canterbury though far the more moderate of the two New Letters are reciprocated between Franckfort and Zurick from Franckfort on the 15th of November in open defiance as it were to the English Liturgy from Zurick on the 28th in defence thereof and of their constancy and resolution for adhering to it The breach growing every day more wide than other Gryndal and Chambers came from Stralsburge to attone the difference by whom it was proposed unto them That the substance of the English Liturgy being retained there might be a forbearance of some ceremonies and offices in it But Knox and Whittingham were as much bent against the substance of the Book as against any of the circumstantials and extrinsicals which belonged unto it So that no good effect following on this interposition the Agents of the Church of Stralsburge return back to their brethren who by their Letters of the 13th of December expostulate in
poor people there exceeding charitable It was supposed that Oxon stood as much in need of a Visitation as Cambrige did A Commission is therefore granted by the Cardinal-Legat to Doctor James Brooks Bishop of Glocester Ormanete the Popes Datary Cole and Wright Doctors of the Civil Law c. to rectifie such things as they foundamiss in that University or in any College of the same It was given them also in charge amongst other things that they should take the body of this good woman out of her grave into which she had been laid Anno 1552. and to consume the same with fire not doubting but she was of the same Religion which her husband had professed before But when the Commissioners came to execute that part of their business they could find no witnesse to depose any thing for certain touching her Religion such as were brought before them agreeing generally in this answer That they did not understand her Language and therefore could not tell of what Religion she was It was therefore signified to the Cardinal that for want of legal evidence against her they could not lawfully proceed in burning her body as they had done the bodies of Bucer and Fagius against whom there was evidence enough to be found in their writings beâ—ides that which was given in from the moutheâ— of Witnesses The Cardinal thereupon gives order to Doctor Marshal Dean of Christ-Church to take up her body which had been buried near to that of St. Frideswide and to lay it out of Christian burial who very readily obeyed took up the bones of that vertuous woman and most prophanely buried them in a common dunghil But long they lay not in that place for Queen Elizabeth comming to the Crown within two years after gave order that this body should be decently interred as became the quality of her person and the reverence due unto her husband as also that Bucer â—agius should in the other University be publickly restor'd to their former honors In obedience unto whose commands the body of the one is taken out of the dunghil and laid into the grave of St. Frideswide their bones so intermingled with one another that there could be no fear of offering the like inhumanity to them for the time to come And that the like honour might be done to Bucer and â—agius a solemn commemoration of them was held at Cambridge the Sermon preached by Mr. James Pilkington who not long after was preferred to the See of Durham the Panegyrick made by Ackworth Orator of that University who spared no part of a good Orator in setting forth their due praises and deserved commendations But we must now look back again on the Reign of Queen Mary in which we find little more to do than the magnificent reception of Osep Napea Embassador from the great Duke of Muscovy upon this occasion The English Merchants at the sollicitation of Sebastian Cabot had furnished out some ships for the discovery of a North-East passage towards the rich Countries of Cathai and China in which they made so good a progress that they attained as far as the Port of St. Nicholas one of the principal Port-towns of the Empire of Russia and laid the first foundation of a wealthy Trade with that mighty Empire For their encouragement therein the Privileges of the Easterlings commonly called the Merchants of the Stilyard who before had managed all the Trade of the North East parts were seized on by King Edward the 6th and the way thereby laid open to the Merchant-Adventurers to encrease their shipping with their wealth For the continuance of which Trade betwixt the Nations the Emperor John Basiliwits sends his Ambassador above named imbarked in one of the English ships under the conduct and government of Richard Chancellor the most expert Pilot of that age But so it hapned that the rest of the ships being scattered by a strong tempest on the coast of Norway the ship which carried the Ambassador was wreckt upon the coast of Scotland the lading for the most part lost amounting to twenty thousand pounds and upwards besides many rich presents sent from the Russian Emperor to the King and Queen The Ambassador with much ado was preserv'd from drowning but the Pilot lost who by labouring to preserve the life of the other neglected the best opportunity to save his own The news wherof being brought to the Merchants of London who by this time were grown into a Company of 140. they procured Letters from the King to the Regent of Scotland for the courteous entertainment of the said Ambassador and the restoring of such goods as had escaped the wreck and having furnished him with mony and all other necessaries caused him to be conducted towards the Court. Taking his leave of Scotland on the 14th of February he is brought by easie journeys within twelve miles of London honorably entertained in all places as he past along and there received by four-score of the Russian Merchants in their chains of gold Furnished with Gold Velvet Silk and all other things he is by the whole Company of the Russian Merchants magnificently brought into London on the last of that month met on the way by the Lord Viscount Montacute attended with a gallant train of three hundred Horse at the Queens command and received at Smithfield-bars by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in their scarlet Robes Conducted to his lodgings in Fâ—â—-Church street he was there presented in the Queens naâ—e with a piece of cloâ—th of Tissue two pieces of cloth of gold one whereof was raised with Crimson Velvet with many other pieces of the like rich making which very thankfully he received Abiding at his lodging till the Kings coming back from Flanderâ— which was not till the 21 of March he was brought upon out Lady day by water to the Court at Westminster received at his landing by six Lords he was by them brought into a chamber where he found the Lords Chancellor Treasurer Privy Seal Admiral Bishop of Ely and other Counsellors Who having exchanged salutations with him attended him to the King and Queen sitting under a rich Canopy or cloath of State in the great Hall there Having presented his Letters of Credence exprest himself unto their Majesties in a short Oration which was interpreted to them both in English and Spanish and presented them with two timber of Sables which with much diligence had been recovered out of the wreck he was by them remitted to his lodging with the like solemnity Attended shortly after by the Bishop of Ely and Mr Secretary Peter who after much Communication and several Treaties setled at last a friendly entercourse and commerce betwixt the Nations the Articles whereof engrossed in parchment were afterwards presented to him raâ—ified and confirmed by the Great Seal of England On the 23d of April he was brought again into the Court where having seen the Pomps and Orders of St George's Feast the Service of the Royal Chapel
upon condition that this Town were regained from the English But the French shall have it now at an easier rate The Queen had broke the Peace with France and sent a considerable Body of Forces to the aid of Philip but took no care to fortifie and make good this place as if the same Garrison which had kept it in a time of peace had been sufficient to maintain it also in a time of war For so it hapned that Francis of Lorain Duke of Guise one of the best Soldiers of that age being called back with all his forces from the war of Iâ—aly and not well pleased with the loss of that opportunity which seemed to have been offered to him for the conquest of Naples resolved of doing somewhat answerable unto expectation as well for his own honor as the good of his Country He had long fixed his eyes on Calais and was informed by Senarpont Governor of Bolloigne and by consequence a near neighbour to it that the Town was neither so well fortified nor so strongly garrisoned but that it might be taken without any great difficulty For confirmation whereof Monsieur a' Strozzie one of the Marshals of France under the favour of a disguise takes a view of the place and heartneth on the Duke with the feasibility of the undertaking Philip who either had intelligence of the French designes or otherwise rationally supposing what was like to follow in the course of War had often advised the Queen to have a care of that Piece and freely offered his assistance for deâ—ence thereof But the English over wisely jealous left Philip had a practice on 〈◊〉 it lying commodiously for his adjoyning Neatherlands neglected both 〈◊〉 advice and proffer Nay so extreamly careless were the Council of England in looking to the preservation and defence of this place that when the Duke sate down before it there was not above 500 Soldiers and but two hundred fighting men amongst the Townsmen although the whole number of Inhabitants amounted to 4200 persons On New years day the Duke of Guise sate down before it and on twelfth-Twelfth-day had it surrendred up unto him by the Lord Deputy Wentworth who had the chief command and government of it The noise of the thundring Canon heard as far as Antwerp could not but rouse the drousie English to bethink themselves of some relief to be sent to Calais and they accordingly provided both ships and men to perform that service But the winds were all the while so strong and so cross against them that before the English ships could get out of their Havens the French were Masters of the Town Some greater difficulty found the Duke in the taking of the Castle of Guisnesse where the Lord Gray a valiant and expert Soldier had the chief command But at length the Accessories followed the same fortune with the Principal both Guisnesse and Hanine and all the other Pieces in the County of Oye being reduced under the power of the French within few days after There now remained nothing to the Crown of England of all its antient Rights in France but the Islands of Gernsey Jersey Sark and Aldernay all lying on the coast of Normandy of which Dukedome heretofore accounted members Held by the English ever since the time of the Norman Conquest they have been many times attempted by the French but without successe never so much in danger of being lost as they were at this present Some of the French had well observed that the Island of Sark an Island of six miles in compass enjoyned the benefit of a safe and commodious Haven but without any to defend it but a few poor Hermites whom the privacy and solitariness of the place had invited thither The Island round begirt with Rocks lying aloft above the Sea and having onely one streight passage or ascent unto it scarce capable of two abreast Of this Island the French easily possest themsevles dislodged the Hermites fortifie the upper part of the Ascent with some pieces of Ordnance and settle a small Garrison in it to defend the Haven But long they had not nested there when by a Gentleman of the Neatherlands one of the subjects of King Philip it was thus regained The Flemmish Gentleman with a small Bark came to Anchor in the Road and pretending the death of his Merchant besought the French that they might bury him in the Chapel of that Island offering a present to them of such Commodities as they had aboard To this request the French were easily entreated upon condition that they should not come to shore with any weapen no not so much as a Pen-knife This leave obtained the Flemming row'd unto the shoar with a Coffin in their skiff for that us purposely provided and manned with Swords Arcubusses Upon their landing and a search so strict and narrow that it was impossible to hide a Pen-kife they were permitted to draw their Coffin up the Rocks some of the French rowing back unto the ship to fetch the Present where they were soon made fast enough and laid in hold The Flemmings in the mean time which were on the land had carried their Coffin into the Chapel and having taken thence their weapons gave an Alarum unto the French who taken thus upon the suddain and seeing no hopes of succour from their fellows yielded themselves and abandoned the possession of that place A Stratagem to be equalled if not preferred unto any of the Antients either Greeks or Romans did not that fatal folly reprehended once by Tacitus still reign amongst us that we extol the former days and contemn the present The losse of this Island gave a new Alarum to the Council of England who thereupon resolved to set out a right puissant Navy as well for the securing of the rest of the Islands as to make some impression on the Main of France It was not till the month of April that they entred into consultation about this business and so exceeding tedious were they in their preparations that the month of July was well spent before they were ready to weigh Anthor During which time the French hâ—d notice of their purpose and understanding that they had an aim on Brest in Breâ—agn they took more care in fortifying it against the English than the English did for Calais against the French It was about the middle of July that the Lord Admiral Clynton set sail for France with a Fleet of one hundred and forty ships whereof thirty 〈◊〉 Finding no hopes of doing any good on Brest bends his course for Conquâ—â— an open Sea-town of that Province at this place he lands his men takes and sacks the Town burns it together with the Abbey and having wasted all the Country round about returned with safety to his ships But the Flemish somewhat more greedy on the spoil and negligent in observing Martial Discipline are valiantly encountred by a Nobleman of that Country and sent back fewer by five hundred than
out of his mothers womb as she was at the stake and most unmercifully flung into the fire in the very birth Sixty four more in those furious times were presented for their faith whereof seven were whipped sixteen perished in prison twelve buried in Dunghills and many more lay in captivity condemned which were delivered by the opportune death of Queen Mary and the most auspicious entrance of Queen Elizabeth whose gracious government blotted out the remembrance of all former sufferings the different conditions of whose Reigns with the former two may seem to have somewhat in them of those appearances which were presented to Elijah in the Book of Kings in the first Bâ—ok and ninteenth Chapter wherein we find it written That a great and strong wind rent the mountains and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord but the Lord was not in the wind and after the wind an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake a fire but the Lord was not in the fire and finally after the fire a still small voice in which the Lord spake unto his Prophet So in like manner it may be feared that God was neither in that great and terrible wind which threw down so many Monasteries and Religious houses in the Reign of King Henry nor in that Earthquake which did so often shake the very foundations of the State in the time of King Edward nor in the Fire in which so many godly and religious persons were consumed to ashes in the days of Queen Mary but that he shewed himself in that still small Voice which breathed so much comfort to the souls of his people in the most gracious and fortunate Government of a Virgin-Queen For now it pleased God to hearken to the cry of those his Saints which lay under the Altar and called upon him for an end of those calamities to which their dear brethren were exposed The Queen had inclined unto a Dâ—opsie ever since the time of her supposed being with child which inclination appeared in her more and more when her swelling fell from the right place to her lower parts increasing irrecoverably in despight of Physick till at last it brought her to her death But there are divers other causes which are supposed to have contributed their concurrence in it Philip upon the resignation of his fathers Kingdoms and Estates had many necessary occasions to be out of the Kingdom and yet she thought that he made more occasions than he needed to be absent from her This brought her first into a fancy that he cared not for her which drew her by degrees into a fixed and setled melancholly confirmed if not encreased by a secret whisper that Philip entertained some wandring Loves when he was in Flanders Her Glasses could not so much flatter as not to tell her that she had her fathers feitures with her mothers complexion and she was well enough able to inform her self that the â—everity of her humour had no great charms in it so that on the point she wanted many of those natural and acquired attractions which might have served to invite or reward affection Fixed on this melancholy pin the death of Charls the Emperour which hapned on the 2â— of September comes to help it forward a Prince upon whose countenance and support she had much depended both when she was in disgrace with her father and out of favour with her brother But that which came nearest to her heart was the loss of Calais first lost for want of giving credit to the intelligence which had been sent her by her Husband and secondly by the loss of that opportunity which might have been taken to regain it Monsieur â— ' Termes who was made Governour of the Town had drained it of the greatest part of the Garison to joyn with some other forces for the taking of some Towns in Flanderâ— But in a Battel fought near Graveling on the 13th of July he lost not onely his own liberty but more then five thousand of his men the fortune of the day falling so heavily on the Soldiers of Calais that few of them escaped with life So that if the Queens Navy which had done great service in the fight had showed it self before the Town and Count Egmond who commanded the Flemmings had sate down with his victorious Army to the Landward of it it might have been recovered in as few days as it had been lost This opportunity being neglected she gave her self some hopes of a restitution upon an agreement then in treaty between France and Spain But when all other matters were accorded between those Crowns and that nothing else was wanting to compose all differences but the restoring of this Town the French were absolutely resolved to hold it and the Spaniards could in honor make no Peace without it So the whole Treaty and the deceiptful hopes which she built upon it came at last to nothing And though she had somewhat eased her self not long before by attainting the Lord Wâ—ntworth and certain others for their cowardly quitting of the place which they could not hold yet that served onely like a cup of Strong-waters for the present qualm without removing the just cause of the present distemper And it encreased so plainly in her that when some of her Visitants not knowing the cause of her discomforts applyed their several cordials to revive her spirits she told them in plain tearms that they were mistaken in the nature of her disease and that if she were to be dissected after her death they would find Calais next her heart Thus between jealousie shame and sorrow taking the growth of her infirmity amongst the rest she became past the help of Physick In which extremity she began to entertain some thoughts of putting here sister Elizabeth beside the Crown and setling the Succession of it on her cousen the Queen of Scots and she had done it at the least as much as in her was if some of the Council had not told her That neither the Act of the Succession nor the Last Will and Testament of King Henry the Eighth which was built upon it could otherwise be repealed than by the general consent of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament So that being altogether out of hope of having her will upon her sister of recovering Calais of enjoying the company of her husband and reigning in the good affection of her injured subjects she gave her self over to those sorrows which put an end to her life on the 17th of November some few hours before day when she had reigned five years and four months wanting two days onely Her death accompanied within few howers after by that of the Lord Cardinal-Legat ushered in by the decease of Purefew alias Wharton Bishop of Hereford and Holyman the new Bishop of Bristow and Glyn of Bangor and followed within two or three months after by Hopton Bishop of Norwich and Brooks of Glocester As if it had
extreame griefe of the King and the generall sorrow of the Court who had him in a High degree of veneration for his birth and Galantry It appeares also by a passage in this Act of Parliament above mentioned that the King was not only hurried to this Marriage by his own affections but by the humble petition and intercession of mâ—st of the Nobles of his Realm moved thereunto as well by the conveâ—ienâ—y of her yeares as in respect that by her excellent beauty and purenesse of flesh and blood I speak the very words of the Act it selfe she was apt God willing to concieve issue And so accordingly it proved For on the 12th of October 1537. about two of the clock in the morning she was delivered of a young Prince Christened not long after by the name of Edward but it cost her deare she dying within two dayes after and leaving this Character behind her of being the Discreetest Humblest and Fairest of all the Kings Wives It hath been commonly reported and no lesse generally believed that that childe being come unto the birth and there wanting naturall strength to be delivered his Mothers body was ripped open to give him a passage into the World and that she died of the Incision in a short time after The thing not only so related in our common Heralds but taken up for a constant and undoâ—bted truth by Sir John Haywood in his History of the Life and Reign of King Edward the sixth which notwithstanding there are many reasons to evince the contrary For first it is observed by the said Sir John Haywood that children so brought forth were by the ancient Romans esteemed fortunate and commonly proved great enterprisers with happy successe And so it is affirmed by Pliny viz. Auspicatius Enecta Matre Nascuntur c. called first Caesones and afterwards more commonly Caesares as learned Writers do averr quia caeso matris utero in Lucem prodiissent because their Mothers bodies had been opened to make passage for them Amongst whom they reckon Caeso and Fabius who was three times Consull Scipio sirnamed Affricanus Renowned for his Victories in Spain his vanquishing of Haniball and humbling the proud Cities of Carthage And besides others Julius Caesar who brought the whole Roman Empire under his Command whereas the life of this Prince was short his Reigne full of troubles and his end generally supposed to be traiterously contrived without performing any memorable Action either at home or abroad which might make him pass in the account of a fortunate Prince or any way successefull in the enterprising of Heroick Actions Besides it may appeare by two severall Letters the one written by the appointment of the Queen her selfe immediately after her delivery the other by one of her Physitians on the morrow after that she was not under any such extream necessity though questionlesse she had a hard labour of it as report hath made her For first the Queen immediately upon the birth of the Prince caused this ensuing Letter signed with her own signet to be sent unto the Lordâ— of the Privy Counsell that is to say RIght trusty and well Beloved we greet you well And forasmuch as by the inestimable goodnesse and Grace of Almighty God we be delivered and brought in Childeâ—â—ed of a PRINCE concieved in most Lawfull Matrimony between my Lord the Kings Majesty and us Doubting not but that for the Love and affection you beare unto us and to the Common-Wealth of this Realme this knowledge shall be joyous and Glad Tidings unto you We have thought good to certifie you of this same To the intent ye might not only render unto God Condigne thanks and praise for so great a benefit but also continually pray for the long Continuance and preservation of the same here in this life to the Honour of God joy and pleasure of my Lord the KING and us and the Vniversall Weale quiet and tranquillity of this whole Realme Given under our signet at my Lords Mannor of Hamptonâ—Court the twelâ—th day of October But having a hard labour of it as before was said it brought her first into a very high distemper and after into a very great looseness which so accelerated the approach of death that she prepared her selfe for God according to the Rites of the Church then being And this appâ—ares by a letter of the Queenes Physitians directed in these words to the Lords of the Counsell viz. THese shall be to advise your Lordships of the Queenes Estate Yesterday afternoon she had a naturall lax by reason whereof she began to lighten and as it appeared to amend and so continued till towards night All this night she hath been very sick and doth rather appare then amend her Confessor hath been with her Grace this morning and hath done that to his office appertaineth and is even now preparing to Administer to her Grace the Sacrament of Vnction Subscribed at Hampton Court on Wednesday morning at eight of the clock by Thomas Cutland Robert Karhold Edward Bayntam John Chambers Priest William Butts George Owen So died this Noble Beautifull and Vertuous Queen to the Generall lamentation of all good Subjects and on the twelfth of November following with great Solemnity was conveyed to Windsor and there Magnificently interred in the midst of the quire In memory of whom I find this Epitaph not unworthy the greatest wits of the present times to have then been made viz. Phoenix Jana Jacet nâ—to Phaenice Dolendum est Saecula Phoenices nulla tulisse duas That is to say Here Jane a Phenix lies whose death Gave to another Phenix breath Sad case the while that no age ever Could show two Phaenixes together But to return unto the Prince It is affirmed with like confidence and as little truth that on the 13th day of October then next following that being but the sixth day after his birth he was created Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwall Earle of Chester c. In which though I may easily excuse John Stow and Bishop Goodwine who report the same yet I shall never pardon the late Lord Herbert for his incuriosity as one that had fit opportunities to know the contrary For first Prince Edward was never created Duke of Cornwall and there was no reason why he should he being actually Duke of Cornwall at the houre of his birth according to the Entaile which was made of that Dukedome to the Crown by King Edward the third And secondly he was never created Prince of Wales nor then nor any time then after following his Father dying in the midst of the preparations which were intended for the Pomp and Ceremony of that Creation This truth confessed by Sir John Haywood in his History of the Life and Reigâ— of this King and generally avowed by all our Heralds who reckon none of the children of King Henry the Eighth amongst the Princes of Wales although all of them successively by vulgar
towards London where he was Proclaimed King with all due Solemnities He made his Royal Entry into the Tower on the last of January Into which He was conducted by Sir John Gage as the Constable of it and there received by all the Lords of the Council who with great Duty and Affection did attend His comings and waiting on Him into the Chamber of Presence did very chearfully swear Allegiance to him The next day by the general consent of all the Council the Earl of Hartford the King's Uncle was chosen Governour of His Person and Protectour of His Kingdomes till He should come unto the Age of eighteen years and was Proclaimed for such in all parts of London Esteemed most fit for this high Office in regard that he was the King's Uncle by the Mothers side very near unto Him in Blood but yet of no capacity to succeed in the Crown by reason whereof his Natural Affâ—ction and Duty was less easie to be over-carried by Ambition Upon which Gâ—ound of civil Prudence it was both piously and prudently Ordained by Solon in the State of Athens That no man should be made the Guardian unto any Orphan to whom the Inheritance might fall by the Death of his Ward For the first Handselling of his Office he Knighted the young King on the sixth of February Who being now in a capacity of conferring that Order bestowed it first on Henry Hoble-Thorn Lord Mayor of London and presently after on Mr. William Portman one of the Justices of the Bench being both dubbed with the same Sword with which He had received the Order of Knighthood at the hands of His Vncle. These first Solemnities being thus passed over the next care was for the Interment of the Old King and the Coronation of the New In order to which last it was thought expedient to advance some Confidents and Principal Ministers of State to higher Dignities and Titles then before they had the better to oblige them to a care of the State the safety of the King's Person and the preservation of the Power of the Lord Protectour who chiefly moved in the Design Yet so far did self-Interest prevail above all other Obligations and tyes of State that some of these men thus advanced proved his greatest Enemies the rest forsaking him when he had most need to make use of their Friendship In the first place having resigned the Office of Lord High Chamberlain he caused himself to be created Lord Seimour and Duke of Somerset Which last Title â—ppâ—rtaining to the King's Progenitours of the House of Lancaster and since the expiring of the Beauforts conferred on none but Henry the Natural Son of the King decealed was afterwards charged upon him as an Argument of his aspiring to the Crown which past all doubt he never aimed at His own turn being thus unhappily served the Lord William Parr Brother of Queen Katherinâ— Parr the Relict of the King deceased who formerly in the thirty fifth of the said King's Reign had been created Earl of Essex with reference to Ann his Wife Daughter and Heir of Henry Bâ—urchier the last Earl of Essex of that House was now made Marquess of Northampton in reference to her Extraction from the Bohunes once the Earls thereof John Dudly Viscount L'isle and Knight of the Garter having resigned his Office of Lord Admiral to gâ—â—tifie the Lord Protectour who desired to confer that place of Power and Trust on his younger Brother was in Exchange created Lord High Chamberlain of England and Earl of Warwick Which Title he affected in regard of his Discent from the Beauchamps who for long time had worn that Honour from whom he also did derive the Title of Viscount L'isle as being the Son of Edmond Sutton alias Dudley and of Elizabeth his Wife Sister and Heir of John Gray Viscount L'isle discended by the Lord John Talbot Viscount L'isle from Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick and Dame Elizabeth hisâ— Wife the direct Heir of Waren Lord L'isle the last of the Male Issue of that Noble Family In the next place comes Sir Thomas Wriothsley a man of a very new Nobility as being Son of William Wriothsley and Grand-Child of John Wriothsley both of them in their Times advanced no higher then to the Office of an Herald the Father by the Title of York the Grand-father by that of Garter King at Arms. But this man being planted in a warmer Sun grew up so fast in the esteem of King Henry the Eight that he was first made Principal Secretary afterwards created Baron of Tichfield advanced not long after to the Office of Lord Chancellour And finally by the said King installed Knight of the Garter An. 1545. For an addition to which Honours he was now dignified with the Title of the Earl of South-hampton enjoyed to this day by his Posterity These men being thus advanced to the highest Titles Sir Thomas Seimour the new Lord Admiral is Honoured with the Stile of Lord Seimour of Sudeley and in the beginning of the next year made Knight of the Garter prepared by this accumulation of Honours for his following Marriage which he had now projected and soon after compassed With no less Ceremony though not upon such lofty Aims Sir Richard Rich another of the twelve which were appointed for Subsidiaries to the great Council of Estate by the King deceased was prefered unto the Dignity of Lord Rich of Leez in Essex the Grand-father of that Robert Lord Rich who by King James was dignified with the Title of Earl of Warwick Anno 1618. In the third place came Sir William Willoughby discended from a younger Branch of the House of Eresby created Lord Willoughby of Parham in the County of Sussex And in the Rear Sir Edmond Sheffield advanced unto the Title of Lord Sheffield of Butterwick in the County of Lincoln from whom the Earls of Moulgrave do derive themselves All which Creations were performed with the accustomed Solemnities on the seventeenth of February and all given out to be designed by King Henry before his death the better to take off the Envy from the Lord Protectour whom otherwise all understanding people must needs have thought to be too prodigal of those Honours of which the greatest Kings of England had been so sparing For when great Honours are conferred on persons of no great Estates it raiseth commonly a suspicion amongst the people That either some proportionable Revenue must be given them also to the impoverishing of the King or else some way left open for them to enrich themselves out of the purses of the Subject These Preparations being dispatched they next proceed unto the Coronation of the King performed with the accustomed Rites on the twentieth of the same Moneth by Arch-Bishop Cranmer The Form whereof we finde exemplified in a Book called The Catalogue of Honour published by Thomas Mills of Canterbury in the year 1610. In which there is nothing more observable then this following Passage The King saith he being brought
said Church to have been deceived in that what he before had taught them and to be sorry for delivering such Doctrine to them But these men might pretend some Warrant from the King's Injunctions which they might conceive it neither fit nor safe to oppose and therefore that it was the wisest way to strike Sail betimes upon the shooting of the first Warning-Piece to bring them in But no man was so much before hand with Authority as one Doctour Glasier who as soon as the Fast of Lent was over and it was well he had the Patâ—ence to stay so long affirmed publickly in a Sermon at Saint Paul's Cross That The Lent was not ordained of God to be Fasted neither the Eating of Flesh to be forborn but that the same was a Politick Ordinance of men and might therefore be broken by men at their pleasures For which Doctrine as the Preacher was never questioned the Temper of the Times giving Incouragement enough to such Extravagancies so did it open such a Gap to Carnal Liberty that the King found it necessary to shut it up again by a Proclamation on the sixteenth of January commanding Abstinence from all Flesh for the Lent then following But there was something more then the Authority of a Minour King which drew on such a General Conformity to these Injunctions and thereby smoothed the way to those Alterations both in Doctrine and Worship which the Grandees of the Court and Church had began to fashion The Lord Protectour and his Party were more experienced in Affairs of State then to be told That All great Counsels tending to Innovation in the Publick Government especially where Religion is concerned therein are either to be back'd by Arms or otherwise prove destructive to the Undertakers For this cause he resolves to put himself into the Head of an Army as well for the security of His Person and the Preservation of his Party as for the carrying on of the Design against all Opponents And for the Raising of an Army there could not be a fairer Colour nor a more popular Pretence then a War in Scotland not to be made on any new emergent Quarrel which might be apt to breed suspicion in the Heads of the People but in Pursuit of the great Project of the King deceased for Uniting that Realm by the Marriage of their young Queen to His onely Son to the Crown of England On this pretense Levies are made in all parts of the Kingdom great store of Arms and Ammunition drawn together to advance the service considerable Numbers of Old Souldiers brought over from Bulloign and the Peeces which depended on it and good Provision made of Shipping to attend the Motions of the Army upon all occasions He entertained also certain Regiments of Walloons and Germanes not out of any great Opinion which he had of their Valour though otherwise of good Experience in the Wars but because they were conceived more likely to enforce Obedience if his Designs should meet with any Opposition then the Natural English But in the first place Care was taken that none of the neighbouring Princes should either hinder his Proceedings or assist the Enemy To which end Doctour Wotton the first Dean of Canterbury then Resident with the Queen Dowager of Hungary who at that time was Regent of the Estates of Flanders for Charls the Fifth was dispatched unto the Emperour's Court there to succeed in the place of Doctour Bonner Bishop of London who together with Sir Francis Bryan had formerly been â—ent Embassadours thâ—ther from King Henry the Eighth The Principal part of his Employment besides such matters as are incident to all Ambassadours was to divert the Emperour from concluding any League with France contrary to the Capitulations made between the Emperour and the King deceased but to deal with him above all things for declaring himself an Enemy to all of the Scotish Nation but such as should be Friends to the King of England And because some Remainders of Hostility did still remain between the English and the French notwithstanding the late peace made between the Crowns it was thought fit to sweeten and oblige that People by all the acts of Correspondence and friendly Neighbourhood In Order whereunto it was commanded by the King's Proclamation That Restitution should be made of such Ships and Goods which had been taken from the French since the Death of King Henry Which being done also by the French though far short in the value of such Reprisals as had been taken by the English there was good hope of coming to a better understanding of one another and that by this Cessation of Arms both Kings might come in short time to a further Agreement But that which seemed to give most satisfaction to the Court of France was the performance of a solemn Obsequie for King Francis the First who left this Life on the twenty second day of March and was Magnificently Interred amongst His Predecessours in the Monastery of Saint Dennis not far from Paris Whose Funerals were no sooner Solemnized in France but Order was given for a Dirige to be sung in all the Churches in London on the nineteenth of June as also in the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul in the Quire whereof being hung with black a sumptuous Herse had been set up for the present Ceremony For the next day the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury assisted with Eight other of the Bishops all in their Rich Mitres and other their Pontificals did sing a Mass of Requiem the Funeral Sermon being preached by Doctour Ridley Lord Elect of Rochester who if he did his part therein as no doubt he did could not but magnifie the Prince for His Love to Learning Which was so great and eminent in Him that He was called by the French L' pere des Arts des Sciences and The Father of the Muses by some Writers of other Nations Which Attributes as He well deserved so did He Sympathize in that Affection as he did in many other things with King Henry the Eighth of whose Munificence for the Encouragements of Learning we have spoke before This great Solemnity being thus Honourably performed the Commissioners for the Visitation were dispatched to their several Circuits and the Army drawn from all parts to their Rendez-vous for the War with Scotland Of which two Actions that of the Visitation as the easiest and meeting with a People which had been long trained up in the Schole of Obedience was carried on without any shew of Opposition submitted to upon a very small Dispute even by some of those Bishops who were conceived most likely to have disturbed the business The first who declared his aversness to the King's Proceedings was Dr. Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester who stomaching his being left out of the Lift of the Council appeared more cross to all their doings then other of his Order For which being brought before their Lordships and not giving them such satisfaction as they looked for from
look upon themselves and upon their enemies themselves dreadful their enemies gorgeous and brave on their side men on the other spoyle in case either through flowness or cowardise they did not permit them to escape who â—o now already had began their flight And to say truth the English having changed their Ground to gain the Hill which â—â—y near their Shipping and which also gave them the advantage both of Sun and Wind wrought an opinion in the Scots that they dislodged to no â—ther end then to recover their Ships that they might save themselves though they lost their Carriages In confidence whereof they quitted a place of great strength where they were incamped and from which the whole Army of England was not able to force them But the old English Proverb telleth us that They that reckon without their Host are to reckon twice and so it fared with this infatuated People For on the tenth of September the Battails being ready to joyn a Peece of Ordnance discharged from the Galley of England took off five and twenty of their men amongst whom the eldest Son of the Lord Graham was one Whereupon four thousand Archers terrified with so unexpected a slaughter made a stand and could never after be brought on so that they stood like men amazâ—d as neither having Hearts to Fight nor Opportunity to Fly Which consternation notwithstanding the Lord Gray being sent with a strong Party of Horse to give the Onset found the Main Body so well Embattailed and such a Valiant Opposition made by a stand of Pikes that they were almost as impenetrable as a Rock of Adamants till being terrified by the English Ordnance which came thundering on them from the top of the Hill and galled by the Great-Shot from the Ships they began to brangle Which being perceived by the English they gave a loud Shout crying They Fly They Fly and thereby so astonished the affrighted Enemy that they began to fly indeed and presently throwing down their Arms betook themselves unto their Heels Many were slain upon the Place more executed in the Chase and not a few in the Esk which so improvidently they had passed the day before so that the number of the slain was thought to have amounted to fourteen thousand About fifteen hundred of both sorts were taken Prisoners amongst which the daring Earl of Huntly was one of the Chief who being after asked How he liked the Marriage is said to have returned this Answer That He could well enough brook the Wedding but that he did not like that kind of Woing Amongst the number of the slain were found good store of Monks and Friers some thousands of which had put themselves into the Army which had been raised especially by their Power and Practices The Greatness of the Booty in Arms and Baggage was not the least cause that the English reaped no better Fruit from so great a Victory and did not prosecute the War to an absolute Conquest For being intent in pillaging the dead and gathering up the Spoils of the field and solacing themselves in Leith for five dayes together they gave the Scots time to make Head again to fortifie some Strong places on the other side of the Fryth and to remove the Queen to Dun-britton-Castle from whence they conveyed her into France in the year next following And though the loss rather then neglect of this opportunity is to be attributed in the first place to God's secret pleasure who had reserved the Union of the Kingdoms till an happier time yet were there many Second Causes and subordinate Motives which might prevail upon the Lord Protectour to return for England without advancing any further For either he might be taken off by the Earl of Warwick who then began to cast an Envious eye on his Power and Greatness Or might be otherwise unwilling of his own accord to tempt his Fortune any further by hazarding that Honour in a second Battail which he had acquired in the first Or he might think it more conducible to his Affairs to be present at the following Parliament in which he had some work to do which seemed more needfull to him then the War with Scotland The good Success whereof would be ascribed to his Officers and Commanders but the Misfortunes wholly reckoned upon His account Or finally which I rather think he might conceive it necessary to preserve his Army and Quarter it in the most convenient places near the English Borders that it might be ready at Command upon all occasions if his Designs should meet with any opposition as before was said And this may be believed the rather because that having fortified some Islands in the Mouth of the Fryth he Garisoned the greatest part of his Army in Hume-Castle and other Peeces of importance most of them lying near together and the furthest not above a days March from Berwick Now as concerning the Day in which this Victory was obtained I finde two notable Mistakes The one committed by the Right Reverend Bishop Godwin and the other by the no less Learned Sir John Hayward By Bishop Godwin it is placed exceeding rightly on the tenth of September but then he doth observe it as a thing remarkable That this memorable Victory was obtained on the very same day in which the Images which had been taken out of the several Churches were burned in London Whereas we are informed by John Stow a diligent Observer of Days and Times That the Images in the Churches of London were not taken down before the seventeenth of November And we are told by Sir John Hayward that the day of this Fight was the tenth of December which must be either a mistake of the Press or a slip of the Pen it being noted in the words next following That on the same day thirty four years afore the Scots had been defeated by the English at Flodden-field Which though it pointeth us back to the Moneth of September yet the mistake remaineth as unto the Day that Battail being fought not on the tenth but the ninth of September as all our Writers do agree But leaving these Mistakes behind us let us attend the Lord Protectour to the Court of England Towards which he hastened with such speed that he stayed but twenty five days upon Scotish Ground from his first Entrance to his Exit And being come unto the Court he was not onely welcomed by the King for so great a Service with a Present of 500l per Ann. to him and to his Heirs for ever but highly Honoured by all sorts of people the rather in regard that he had bought so great a Victory at so cheap a Rate as the loss of sixty Horse onely and but one of his Foot And now 't is high time to attend the Parliament which took beginning on the fourth of November and was Prorogued on the twenty fourth of December following In which the Cards were so well packed by Sir Ralph Sadlier that there was no need of
sorry Pittances were forced to put themselves into Gentlemens Houses and there to serve as Clerkâ— of the Kitching Surveyourâ— Receivers c. pag. 241. All which Enormities though tending so apparently to the Dâ—shonour of God the Disservice of the Church and the Disgrace of Religion were generally connived at by the Lords and others who onely had the power to Reform the same because they could not question those who had so miserably invaded the Churches Patrimony without condemning of themselves Thus leaving England for a while we are to take a short Survey of Affairs in Scotland into which the French had put ten thousand Souldiers three thousand of them being Almains under the Command of Mounsieur D' Essie who joyning with the Scots laid Siege before the Town of Haddington on Peter's-Eve For the Relief whereof a strength of one thousand three hundred Horse was sent from Berwick under the Conduct of Sir Robert Bowes and Sir Thomas Palmer who falling very unfortunately into the Hands of the Enemy were for the most part slain or taken The English notwithstanding made good the Town and held it out so long that in the end the Earl of Shrewsbury with a Power of sixteen thousand men of which there were four thousand Lansquenets or Germane Souldiers appeared in fight On whose approach the Enemy withdrew themselves and raised their Siege on or about the twentieth day of August giving great commendation to the English Garison for the notable service they had done in defence of the Town The Siege being raised the Earl of Shrewbury with his Forces returned for England leaving the Town well stored with Victuals and plentifully furnished with all manner of Ammunition which put the Souldiers of the Garison into so good heart that they made many Sallies out and frequently Skirmished with the French and Scots whom they found Quartered in the Villages and Towns adjoyning But the matter being taken into Debate by the Council of England it was Resolved especially by those who secretly envied at the Power and Greatness of the Lord Protectour That the keeping of the Town would not quit the Cost as being farthest from the Borders and not to be Relieved if it were distressed without the raising and imploying of a Royal Army And thereupon the Earl of Rutland was sent thither with three thousand of the Lansquenets and as many Borderers who coming to the Town on the twentieth of September sleighted the Works and having destroyed the Houses caused all the Ordnance and Carriages to be sent to Berwick and returned without Battail The voluntary quitting of which Town drew after it the loss of all the Peeces which we held in Scotland The English Forces being removed from the Town of Haddington the French immediately prepared for their going home-wards carrying a richer Lading with them then all the Arms and Ammunition which they brought at their coming For while the Army lay at the Siege at Haddington the Ministers of the French King were busied in Treaty with the Scots for putting the Young Queen into their Power transporting her into France and Marrying her unto the Daulphin But in this point they found the Council much divided Some thought That the Conditions offered by the Lord Protectour not till then generally known were to be embraced in regard it gave them an assurance of ten years Peace at the least and that if either of the Princes died within that time they should be left at Liberty to Order the Affairs of that Kingdom to the most Advantage But against this it was alledged by those of the opposite Party whom the French King had bought with ready Money and Anual Pensions That as long as the Queen remained amongst them they should never be Free from the Pretensions of the English From which there was no question but they would desist when they saw the Ground thereof to be taken away by the Queens Removal Of which Party besides those which were corrupted by the Gold of France were the Bishops and Clergy who being Zealous for the preservation of their Old Religion abominated nothing more then the Alliance with England And so the matter being carried in behalf of the French and there being now no further need of them for defence of the Countrey they gave Order to make ready their Shipping and nominated a set day for their Departure Which day being come they Coasted about Scotland by the Isles of Orkney took in the young Queen at Dunâ—britton-Castle and passing through St. George's Chanel arrived in Bretaigne whilest a strong Squadron of the English attended for their coming in the Narrow-Seas But this Departure of the French though it much weakened did not disanimate the Scots for making trial of their Fortune against the Hume-Castle and Fast-Castle remained amongst some others as Thorns in their Sides but they regained them both this year Hume-Castle they surprised by means of some of their own Nation who being reputed Friends and suffered to have free and frequent Access unto it had Opportunity both to discover the Weaknesses of it and by what Ways it might most easily be taken And being more cordially affected to their Old Country-men then their New Acquaintance they directed a select number of Souldiers to some secret Paâ—sages by which having fiâ—st climbed up a very steep Rock they found an Entrance into the Castle put the secure Garison to the Sword and possessed the Place leaving a fair warning unto all others Fast-Castle they surprised by a Warlike Stratageme For the Governour having Commanded the neighbouring Villages at a prefixed day to bring in their Contribution of Corn and other necessary Provision the Enemy makes Use of this Opportunity Souldiers habited like Peasants came at the day fraught with their Burthens whereof having eased their Horses they carry them on their shoulders over the Bridg which joyned two Rocks together and so gained Entrance the Watch-word being given they cast down their Burthens till the Sentinels open the Gates to their Fellows and become Masters of the Place The News of which Surprisals together with that of the Queens Removal being brought into the Court of England which then began to be divided into Sides and Factions there was no further Care taken for the Prosecution of the Scotish War which for the pâ—esent much refreshed that impoveâ—ished Kâ—ngdom Now while these Traverses of War were made in Scotland there was no solid Peace though no open Discord in the Church of England It hath been shewed that Bishop Gardiner having long lain Prisoner in the Fleet was on the Morrow after twelfth-Twelâ—th-Day last restored to Liberty and permitted to return unto his Diocess Where contrary to the Promise made at his Enlargment he began to shew himself displeased with the King's Proceedings in the case of Images Concerning which he wrote a long Letter to the Lord Protectour on the twenty first of May and backed it with another of the sixth of June and otherwise appeared so cross to the
unnatural proceedings against his Brother and somewhat must be done for his restoring to their good opinions though to the prejudice of the Publick Upon this ground he caused a Proclamation to be Published in the beginning of May Commanding that they who had inclosed any Lands accustomed to be common should upon a certain pain before a day signed lay them open again Which so encouraged the rude Commons in many Parts of the Realm that without Expecting the time limitted by the Proclamation they gathered together in a riotous and tumultuous manner pulled up the Pales flung down the Banks and filled the Ditches laying all open as before For which some of them had been set upon and slâ—in in Wiltshire by Sir William Herbert others suppressed by force of Armes conducted by the Lord Gray of Wilton as were those in Oxfordshire and some again reduced to more moderate and sober courses by the perswasion of the Lords and Gentlemen as in Kent and Sussex But the most dangerous commotions which held so long as to Entitle them to the name of Rebellions were those of Devonshire and Norfolk places remote from one another but such as seemed to have communicated Counsels for carrying on of the design The first of these in Course of time was that of Devonshire began as those in other places under pretence of throwing open the enclosures but shortly found to have been chiefly raised in maintainance of their old Religion On Whitson-Munday June the tenth being next day after the first exercising of the Publick Liturgiâ— Some few of the Parishioners of Samford Courtney compelled their Parish-Priest who is supposed to have invited them to that compassion to let them have the Latine Mass as in former times These being seconded by some others and finding that many of the better sort were more like to engage in this quarrel then in the other prevailed with those which before had Declared onely against Inclosures to pretend Religion for the cause of their coming together And that being done they were first Headed by Humphry Arundel Esquire Commander of St. Michaels Mount and some other Gentlemen which so increased the Reputation of the Cause that in short time they had made up a Body of ten thousand men Of this Commotion there was but little notice taken at the first beginning when it might easily have been crushed the Lord Protectour not being very forward to suppress those Risings which seemed to have been made by some incouragement from his Proclamations In which Respect and that his good fortune now began to fail him when the mischief did appear with a face danger and could not otherwise be redressed but by force of Arms in stead of putting himself into the Head of an Army the Lord Russel is sent down with some slender Forces to give a stop to their Proceedings But whether it were that he had any secret instructions to drill on the time or that he had more of the States-Man then the Souldier in him or that he had not strength enough to encounter the Enemy he kept himself aloofe as if he had been sent to look on at a distance without approaching near the danger The Rebels in the mean time increasing as much in confidence as they did in numbers sent their Demands unto the King Amongst which one more specially concerned the Liturgie which therefore I have singled out of all the rest with the King's Answer thereunto in the words that follow It was demanded by the Rebels That for as much as we constantly believe that after the Priest hath spoken the words of Consecration being at Mass there Celebrating and Consecrating the same there is very really the Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ God and Man and that no substance of Bread and Wine remaineth after but the very self-same Body that was born of the Virgin Mary and was given upon the Cross for our Redemption therefore we will have Mass Celebrated as it was in Times past without any man communicating with the Priests for as much as many presuming unworthily to receive the same put no difference between the Lord's Body and other kind of meat some saying that it is Bread both before and after some saying that it is profitable to no man except he receive it with many other abused Terms To which Demand of theirs the King thus Answered viz. That for the Mass I assure you no small study nor travail hath been spent by all the Learned Clergy therein and to avoid all contention it is brought even to the very use as Christ left it as the Apostles used it as the holy Fathers delivered it indeed somewhat altered from that to which the Popes of Rome for their Lucre had brought it And although saith He ye may hear the contrary from some Popish evil men yet Our Majesty which for Our Honour may not be blemished and stained assureth you that they deceive abuse you and blow these Opinions into your heads to finish their own purposes But this Answer giving no content they Marched with all their Forces to the Siege of Exeter carrying before them in their March as the Jews did the Ark of God in the Times of old the Pix or Consecrated Host borne under a Canopie with Crosses Banners Candlesticks Holy-Bread and Holy-Water c. But the Walls of Exeter fell not down before this False Ark as Dagon did before the True For the Citizens were no less gallantly resolved to make good the Town then the Rebels were desperately bent to force it To which Resolution of the Citizens the natural Defences of the City being round in Form scituate on a rising Hill and environed with a good Old Wall gave not more Encouragement then some insolent speeches of the Rebels boasting that they would shortly measure the Silks and Sattens therein by the length of their Bows For fourty days the Siege continued and was then seasonably raised the Rebels not being able to take it sooner for want of Ordnance and the Citizens not able to have held it longer for want of Victuals if they had not been Succoured when they were One fortunate Skirmish the Lord Russel had with the daring Rebels about the passing of a Bridg at which he slew six hundred of them which gave the Citizens the more Courage to hold it out But the coming of the Lord Gray with some Companies of Almain-Horse seconded by three hundred Italian-Shot under the Command of Baptista Spinoli put an end to the Business For joyning with the Lord Russel's Forces they gave such a strong Charge upon the Enemy that they first beat them out of their Works and then compelled them with great Slaughter to raise their Siege Blessed with the like Success in some following Fights the Lord Russel entereth the City on the sixth of August where he was joyfully received by the half-starved Citizens whose Loyalty the King rewarded with an encrease of their Privileges and giving to their Corporation the Manour
thought fit to nominate to that imployment And afterwards appointed a Sub-Committee of eight Persons to prepare the Work make it ready for the rest that it might be dispatched with the more expedition which said eight persons were the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Doctour Thomas Goodrick Bishop of Elâ— Doctour Richard Cox the King's Almoner and Peter Martyr Doctour in Divinity William May and Rowland Taylour Doctours of the Laws John Lucas and Richard Goodrick Esquires By whom the Work was undertaken and digested fashioned according to the Method of the Romane Decretals and called by the Name of Reformatiâ— Legum Ecclesiasticarum c. But not being Commissionated hereunto till the eleventh of November in the year 1551 they either wanted time to communicate it to the chief Commissioners by whom it was to be presented to the Kâ—ng or found the King encumbred with more weighty matters then to attend the peâ—â—sal of it And so the King dying as he did before he had given life unto it by his Royal Signature the Design miscarried never thought fit to be resumed in the following Times by any of those who had the Government of the Chuâ—ch or were concerned in the Honour and Safety of it There also passed another Act in Order to the Peace of the Common-Wealth but especially procuâ—ed by the Agents of the Duke of Sommerset the better to secure him from all Attempts and Practices for the Times ensuing by which his Life might be illegally endangered The purport of which Act was to make it High Treason for any twelve Persons or above assembled together to kill or imprison any of the King's Council or alter any Laws or continue together the space of an hour being Commanded to return by any Justice of the Peace Mayour Sheriff c. Which Act intended by his Friends for his Preservation was afterwards made use of by his Enemies for the onely means of his Destruction deferred a while but still resolved upon when occasion served It wâ—s not long before Earl Dudly might perceive that he had served other mens Turâ—s against the Duke as well as his own and that having served their Turns therein he â—ound no such forwardness in them for raising him unto the Place They were all willing enough to unhorse the Duke but had no mind that such a rank Rider as the Earl should get into the Saddle Besides he was not â—o be told that there was nothing to be charged against the Duke which could touch his life that so many men of dâ—fferent Humours were not like to hold â—ong in a Plot together now their Turns were served that the Dukâ—'s Friends could not be so dull as not to see the emptiness of the Practice which was forged against him nor the King so forgetfull of his Uncle when the Truth was known as not to raise him up again to his former height it therefore would be fittest for his ends and purposes to close up the Breach to set the Duâ—e at Liberty from his Imprisonment but so to order the Affair that the Benefit should be acknowledged to proceed from himself alone But first the Duke must so acknowlege his Offences that his Adversaries might come off with Honour In Order whereunto he is first Articled against for many Crimes and Misdemeanours rather imputed to him then proved against him And unto all these he must be laboured to subscribe acknowledging the Offences contained in them to beg the Favour of the Lords and cast himself upon his Knees for his Majestie 's Mercy All which he very poorly did subscribing his Confession on the twenty third of December Which he subjoyned unto the Articles and so returned it to the Lords Anno Regni Edw. Sexti 4 o. An. Dom. 1549 1550. THe Lords thus furnished with sufficient matter for a Legal Proceeding condemned him by a Sentence passed in the House of Peers unto the Loss of all his Offices of Earl Marshal Lord Treasurer and Lord Protectour as also to â—he Forfeiture of all his Goods and near two thousand pounds of good yearly Rents Which being signified unto him he acknowledged himself in his Letter of the second of February to be highly â—avoured by their Lordships in that they brought his Cause to be Finable Which Fine though it was to him almost unsupportable yet he did never purpose to contend with them nor once to justifie himself in any Action He confess'd That being none of the wisest he might easily err that it was hardly possible for any man in Eminent place so to carry himself that all his Actings should be blameless in the eye of Justice He therefore submitted himself wholly to the King's Mercy and to their Discretions for some Moderation desiring them to conceive of what he did amiss as rather done through Rudeness and want of Judgment then through any malicious Meaning and that he was ready both to do and suffer what they should appoint And finally he did again most humbly upon his Knees intreat Pardon and Favour and they should ever finde him so lowly to their Honours and Obedient to their Orders as he would thereby make Amends for his former Follies By which Submission it may be called an Abjectedness rather as he gave much secret Pleasure to the most of his Adversaries so he gained so far upon the King that he was released of his Imprisonment on the fourth day after And by his Majestie 's Grace and Favour he was discharged of his Fine his Goods and Lands being again restored unto him except such as had been given away either the malice of his Enemies being somewhat appeased or wanting power and credit to make Resistance This great Oak being thus shrewdly shaken there is no doubt but there will be some gathering up of the Sticks which were broken from him and somewhat must be done as well to gratifie those men which had served the Turn as to inclinâ— others to the like Propensions And therefore upon candlemasâ—-Candlemasâ—-Day being the dâ—y on which he had made his humble Submission before-mentioned William Lord St. John Lord Great Master and President of the Council is made Lord Treasurer John Dudley Earl of Warwick Lord High Chamberlain is preferred to the Office of Lord Great Master the Marquess of North-hampton created Lord High Chamberlain Sir Anthony Wingfield Captain of the Guard is made Comptroller of the King's House in the place of Sir William Paget of whom more anon and Sir Thomas Darcie advanced to the Office of Vice-Chamberlain and Captain of his Majestie 's Guard And though the Earls of Arundel and Souâ—â—-hampton had been as forward as any of the rest in the Duke's destruction yet now upon some Court-displeasures they were commanded to their Houses and dismissed from their Attendance at the Council-Table the Office of Lord Chamberlain of his Majestie 's Houshold being taken from the Earl of Arundel and bestowed on Wentworth ennobled by the Title of Lord Wentworth in the first year of the King Some Honours
the Mass which was not to be Celebrated but upon an Altar The Fourth That the Altars were Erected for the Sacrifices of the Law which being now ceased the Form of the Altar was to cease together with them The Fifth That as Christ did Institute the Sacrament of his Body and Blood at a Table and not at an Altar as appeareth by the three Evangelists so it is not to be found that any of the Apostles did ever use an Altar in the Ministration And finally That it is declared in the Preface to the Book of Common-Prayer That If any Doubt arise in the Use and Practising of the said Book that then to appease all such Diversity the Matter shall be referred unto the Bishop of the Diocess who by his Discretion shall take Order for the quieting of it The Letter with these Reasons being brought to Ridley there was no time for him to dispute the Commands of the one or to examine the Validity and Strength of the other And thereupon proceeding shortly after to his first Visitation he gave out one Injunction amongst others to this Effect That Those Churches in his Diocess where the Altars do remain should conform themselves unto those other Churches which had taken them down and that instead of the multitude of their Altars they should set up one decent Table in every Church But this being done a question afterwards did arise about the Form of the Lords Board some using it in the Form of a Table and others in the Form of an Altar Which being referred unto the Determination of the Bishop he declared himself in favour of that Posture or Position of it which he conceived most likely to procure an Vniformity in all his Diocess and to be more agreeable to the King 's Godly Proceedings in abolishing divers vain and superstitious Opinions about the Mass out of the Hearts of the People Upon which Declaration or Determination he appointed the Form of a Right Table to be used in his Diocess and caused the Wall standing on the back side of the Altar in the Church of Saint Paul's to be broken down for an Example to the rest And being thus a leading Case to all the rest of the Kingdom it was followed either with a swifter or a slower Pase according as the Bishops in their several Diocesses or the Clergie in their several Parishes stood affected to it No Universal Change of Altars into Tables in all parts of the Realm till the Repealing of the First Liturgie in which the Priest is appointed To stand before the middest of the Altar in the Celebration and the establishing of the Second in which it is required That The Priest shall stand on the North side of the Table had put an end to the Dispute Nor indeed can it be supposed that all which is before affirmed of Bishop Ridley could be done at once or acted in so short a Space as the rest of this year which could not give him time enough to Warn Commence and carry on a Visitation admitting that the Inconveniency of the Season might have been dispensed with And therefore I should rather think that the Bishop having received His Majestie 's Order in the end of November might cause it to be put in Execution in the Churches of London and Issue out his Mandates to the rest of the Bishops and the Arch-Deacons of his own Diocess for doing the like iâ— other Places within the compass of their several and Respective Jurisdictions Which being done as in the way of Preparation his Visitation might proceed in the Spring next following and the whole Business be transacted in Form and Mâ—nner as before laid down And this may be beleived the rather because the changing of Altars into Tables is made by Holinshead a Diligent and Painfull Writer to be the Work of the next year as questionless it needs must be in all Parts of the Realm except London and Westminster and some of the Towns and Villages adjoyning to them But much less can I think that the Altar-wall in Saint Paul's Church was taken down by the Command of Bishop Ridley in the Evening of Saint Barnaby's Day this present year as is affirmed by John Stow. For then it must be done five Moneths before the coming out of the Order from the Lords of the Council Assuredly Bishop Ridley was the Master of too great a Judgment to run before Authority in a Business of such Weight and Moment And he had also a more high Esteem of the Blessed Sacrament then by any such unadvised and precipitate Action to render it less Venerable in the Eyes of the Common People Besides whereas the taking down of the said Altar Wall is said to have been done â—n the first Saint Barnâ—â—y's Day which was kept Holy with the Church that Circumstance is alone sufficient to give some Light to the Mistake The Liturgie whâ—ch appointed Saint Barnaby's Day to be kept for an Holy-Day was to be put in Execution in all parts of the Realm at the Feast of Whitsun-tide 1549 and had actually been Officiated in some Churches for some Weeks before So that the first Saint Barnaby's Day which was to be kept Holy by the Rules of that Liturgie must have been kept in that year also and consequently the taking down oâ— the said Altar-Wall being done â—n the Evening of that day must be supposed to have been done above ten Moneths before Bishop Ridley was Translâ—ted to the See of London Let therefore the keeping Holy of the first Saint Barnaby's Day be placed in the year 1549 the Issuing of the Order from the Lords of the Council in the year 1550 and the taking down of the Altar-Wall on the Evening of Saint Barnaby's Day in the year 1551. And then all Inconveniences and Contradictions will be taken away which otherwise cannot be avoided No change this year amongst the Peers of the Realm or Principal Officers of the Court but in the Death of Thomas Lord Wriothesly the first Earl of South-hampton of that Name aâ—d Family who died at Lincoln-Place in Holâ—born on the thirtieth day of July leaving his Son Henry to succeed him in his Lands and Honours A Man Unfortunate in his Relations to the two Great Persons of that Time deprived of the Great Seal by the Duke of Sommerset and removâ—d from his Place at the Council-Table by the Earl of Warwick having first served the Turns of the one in lifting him into the Saddle and of the other in dismounting him from that High Estate Nor finde I any great Change thiâ— year amongst the Bishops but that Doctour Nicholas Ridley Bishop of Rechester was Transloted to the See of London on the twelfth of April and Doctoâ—r John Pâ—ynet Consâ—crated Bishop of Rochester on the twenty sixth of June By which Account he must needs be the first Bishop which received Episcopal Consecration according to the Foâ—m of the English Ordinal as Farrars was the fiâ—st who was advanced
unto that Honour by the King's Letters Patenâ—s As for Ridley we have spoke before and as for Poynet he is affirmed to have been a Man of verâ— good Learning with Reference to his Age and the Time he lived in well studied in the Greek Tongue and of no small Eminence in the Arts and Mathematical Sciences A Change was also made in Cambridg by the Death of Bucer which I finde placed by Fâ—x on the twenty third of December by others with more Truth on the nineteenth of January both in the Compass of this year and by some others with less Reaâ—â—n on the tenth of March But at whâ—t time sover he died certain it is that he was most Solemnly Interred in Saint Marie's Church attended to Fu his â—rave by all the Heads and most of the Graduates in that Vniversity his neâ—al Sermon Preached by Dâ—ctâ—ur Parâ—er â—he first Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in Queen Elizâ—beth'â— Time the Panegyrick made by one of the Haddons a Man of a moâ—â— Fluenâ— and Rhetorical Sâ—yle all that pretended to the Muses in both Vniverâ—ities setting forth his great Worth and their own Loss in him with the best of their Poetry Anno Regni Edw. Sexti 5 o. An. Dom. 1550 1551. WE must begin this year with the Deprivation of Bishop Gardiner whom we left committed to the Tower the last of June in the year 1548. There he remained almost two years without being pressed to any particular Point the yielding unto which might procure his Liberty or the Refusal justifie such a long Imprisonment On the tenth of June this year the Publick Liturgie now being generally executed in all Parts of the Kingdom was offered to his Consideration that some Experiment might be made whether he would put his Hand unto it and promise to advance the Service Upon the fourth day after the Duke of Sommerset with five other of the Lords of the Council was sent unto the Tower to receive his Answer Which he returned to this effect That he had deliberately considered of all the Offices contained in the Common-Prayer-Book and all the several Branches of it That Though he could not have made it in that Manner had the Matter been referred unto him yet that he found such things therein as did very well satisfie his Conscience and therefore that he would not onely execute it in his own Person but cause the same to be Officiated by all those of his Diocess But this was not the Answer which the Courtiers looked for It was their Hope they should have found him more averse from the King's Proceedings that making a Report of his Perversness he might be lifted out of that Wealthy Bishoprick which if it either were kept Vacant or filled with a more Tractable Person might give them opportunity to enrich themselves by the Spoil thereof Therefore to put him further to it the Lord Treasurer the Earl of Warwick Sir William Herbert Master of the Horse and Mr. Secretary Petre are sent upon the ninth of July with certain Articles which for that end were Signed by the King and the Lords of the Council According to the Tenour hereof he was not onely to testifie his Consent to the Establishing of the Holy-Days and Fasting-Days by the King's Authority the Allowance of the Publick Liturgie and the Abrogating of the Statute for the Six Articles c. but to Subscribe to the Confession of his Fault in his former Obstinacy after such Form and Manner as was there required To which Articles he Subscribed without any great Hesitancy but refused to put his Hand to the said Confession There being no reason as he thought and so he answered those which came unto him from the Court on the Morrow after that he should yield to the Confâ—ssion of a Guilt when he knew himself Innocent He is now faln into the Toil out of which he finds but Little Hope of being set free For presently on the neck of this a Book of Articles is drawn up containing all the Alteration made by the King and His Father as well by Acts of Parliament as their own Injunctions from the first Suppression of the Monasteries to the coming out of the late Form for the Consecration of Arch-Bishops Bishops c. Of all which Doings he is required to signifie his Approbation to make Confession of his Fault with an Acknowledgment that he had deserved the Punishment which was aid upon him Which Articles being tendered to him by the Bishop of London the Master of the Horse Mr. Secretary Petre and Goodrick a Counsellour at Law appeared to him to be of such an hard Digestion that he desir'd first to be set at Liberty before he should be pressed to make a particular Answer This being taken for a Refusal and that Refusal taken for a Contempt the Profits of his Bishoprick are Sequestered from him for three Moneths by an Order of the Council-Table bearing date the nineteenth of the Moneth the said Profits in the mean time to be collected or received by such Person or Persons as the King should thereunto appoint with this Intimation in the Close that if he did not tender his Submission at the end of that Term he should be taken for an Incorrigible Person and unmeet Minister of this Church and Finally to be procceeded against to a Deprivation The Term expired and no such humble Submission or Acknowledgment made as had been required at his Hands a Commission is directed to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of London Ely and Lincoln Sir William Peter c. authorised thereby to proceed against him upon certain Articles in the same contained Convented before whom at Lambeth on the fifteenth of December he received his Charge Which being received he used so many Shifts and found so many Evasions to elude the Business that having appeared six Days before them without coming to a plain and Positive Answer he was upon the fourteenth of February Sentenced to a Deprivation and so remitted to the Tower But Gardiner did not mean to die so tamely and therefore had no sooner heard the Definitive Sentence but presently he Protesteth against the same makes his Appeal unto the King and causeth both his said Appeal and Protestation to be Registred in the Acts of that Court. Of all which he will finde a time to serve himself in the Alâ—eration of Affairs It was presumed that the Report of this Severity against a Man so eminent for his Parts and Place would either bring such other Bishops as had yet stood out to a fit Conformity or otherwise expose both them and their Estates to the like Condemnation But some there were so stiff in their old Opinions that neither Terrour nor Perswasion could prevail upon them either to give their Approbation of the King's Proceedings or otherwise to advance the Service And some there were who though they outwardly complyed with the King's Commands yet was it done so coldly and with such Reluctancy as laâ—'d them open to the
Elizabeth to the See of York as also Doctour Rowland Merick preferred by the same Queen to the See of Bangor though they appeared not visibly in the Information which was made against him In which I finde him charged amongst other things for Celebrating a Marriage without requiring the Married Persons to receive the Communion contrary to the Rubrick in the Common-Prayer-Book for going ordinarily abroad in a Gown and Hat and not in a Square Cap as did the rest of the Clergy for causing a Communion-Table which had been placed by the Official of Caer-marthen in the middle of the Church the High Alltar being then demolished to be carried back into the Chancel and there to be disposed of in or near the place where the Altar stood for suffering many Superstitious Uâ—ages to be retained amongst the people contrary to the Laws in that behalf But chiefly for exercising some Acts of Episcopal Jurisdiction in his own name in derogation of the King's Supremacy and grounding his Commissions for the exercise thereof upon foreign and usurped Authority The Articles fifty six in number but this last as the first in Rank so of more Danger to him then all the reâ—t preferred against him but not prosecuted as long as his great Patron the Duke of Sommerset was in place and Power But he being on the sinking hand and the Bishop too stiff to come to a Compliance with those whom he esteemed beneath him the Suit is followed with more noise and violence then was consistent with the credit of either Party The Duke being dead the four Knights Executed and all his Party in Disgrace a Commission is Issued bearing Date the ninth of March to enquire into the Merit of the Articles which were charged against him On the return whereof he is Indicted of a Prâ—â—munire at the Assizes held in Caer-marthen in the July following committed thereupon to Prison where he remained all the rest of King Edward's time never restored to Liberty till he came to the Stake when all his Sufferings and Sorrows had an end together But this Business hath carried us too far into the next year of this King to the beginning whereof we must now return Anno Regni Edw. Sexti 6o. An. Dom. 1551 1552. WE must begin the sixth year of the King with the fourth Session of Parliament though the beginning of the fourth Session was some days before that is to say on the twenty third day of January being the next day after the Death of that Great Person His Adversaries possibly could not do it sooner and found it very unsafe to defer it longer for fear of being over-ruled in a Parliamentary way by the Lords and Commons There was Summoned also a Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy of the Province of Canterbury to begin upon the next day after the Parliament Much business done in each as may appear by the Table of the Statutes made in the one and the passing of the Book of Articles as the Work of the other But the Acts of this Convocation were so ill kept that there remains nothing on Record touching their Proceedings except it be the names of such of the Bishops as came thither to Adjourn the House Onely I finde a Memorandum that on the twenty ninth of this present January the Bishoprick of Westminster was dissolved by the King's Letters Patents by which the County of Middlesex which had before been laid unto it was restored unto the See of London made greater then in former times by the Addition of the Arch-Deaconry of St. Alban's which at the dissolution of that Monastery had been laid to Lincoln The Lands of Westminster so dilapidated by Bishop Thirlby that there was almost nothing left to support the Dignity for which good service he had been preferred to the See of Norâ—ich in the year foregoing Most of the Lands invaded by the Great men of the Court the rest laid out for Reparation to the Church of St. Paul pared almost to the very quick in those days of Rapine From hence first came that significant By-word as is said by some of Robbing Peter to pay Paul But this was no Business of that Convocation though remembred in it That which most specially doth concern us in this Convocation is the settling and confirming of the Book of Articles prepared by Arch-Bishop Cranmer with the assistance of such Learned men as he thought fit to call unto him in the year last past and now presented to the consideration of the rest of the Clergy For that they were debated and agreed upon in that Convocation appears by the Title of the Book where they are called Aâ—ticuli de quibus in Synodo Londinensi An. Dom. 1552 c. that is to say Articles Agreed upon in the Synod of London An. 1552. And it may be concluded from that Title also that the Convocation had devolved their Power on some Grand Committee sufficiently Authourised to Debate Conclude and Publish what they had Concluded in the name of the rest For there it is not said as in the Articles Published in Queen Elizabeth's time An. 1562. That they were agreed upon by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of both Provinces and the whole-Clergy in the Convocation holden at London but that they were agreed upon in the Synod of London by the Bishops and certain other Learned Men inter Episcopos â—lios Eruditos viros as the Latin hath it Which seems to make it plain enough that the debating and concluding of the Articles contained in the said Book was the Work onely of some Bâ—shops and certain other Learned men sufficiently empowered for that end and purpose And being so empowered to that end and purpose the Articles by them concluded and agreed upon may warrantably be affirmed to be the Acts and Products of that Convocation Confirmed and Published for such by the King's Authority as appears further by the Title in due form of Law And so it is resolved by Philpot Arch-Deacon of Winchester in behalf of the Catechism which came â—ut An. 1553. with the Approbation of the said Bishops and Learned men Against which when it was objected by Doctour Weston Prolocutour of the Convocation in the first of Queen Mary that the said Catechism was not set forth by the Agreement of that House it was Answered by that Reverend and Learned man That The said House had granâ—ed the Authority to make Ecclesiastical Laws unto certain Persons to be appointed by the King's Majesty and therefore whatsoever Ecclesiastical Laws they or the most part of them did set forth according to the Statute in that behalf provided might be well said to be done in the Synod of London And this may also be the Case of the Book of Articles which may be truly and justly said to be the Work of that Convocation though many Members of it never saw the same till the Book was published in regard I still use Philpot's words in the Acts and Mon. Fol.
Hoods To give a beginning hereunto Bishop Ridley then Bishop of London obediently conforming unto that which he could not hinder did the same day Officiate the Divine Service of the Morning in his Rochet onely without Cope or Vestment he Preached also at St. Paul's Cross in the afternoon the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Companies in their best Liveries being present at it the Sermon tending for the most part to the setting forth of the said Book of Common-Prayer and to acquaint them with the Reason of such Alterations as were made therein On the same day the New Liturgie was executed also in all the Churches of London And not long after I know not by what strange forwardness in them that did it the Upper Quire in St. Paul's Church where the High-Altar stood was broken down and all the Quiâ—e thereabout and the Communion-Table was placed in the Lower Part of the Quiâ—e where the Priest sang the Dayly Service What hereupon ensued of the Rich Ornaments and Plate wherewith every Church was furnished after its proportion we shall see shortly when the King's Commissioners shall be sent abroad to seise upon them in His Name for their own Commodity About this time the Psalms of David did first begin to be Composed in English Meeter by one Thomas Sternhold one of the Grooms of the Privy-Chamber who Translating no more then thirty seven left both Example and Encouragement to John Hopkins and others to dispatch the rest A Device first taken up in France by one Clement Marot one of the Grooms of the Bed-Chamber to King Francis the First who being much addicted to Poetry and having some acquaintance with those which were thought to have enclined to the Reformation was perswaded by the Learned Vatablus Professour of the Hebrew Tongue in the University of Paris to exercise his Poetical Fancies in Translating some of David's Psalms For whose satisfaction and his own he Translated the first fifty of them and after flying to Geneva grew acquainted with Beza who in some tract of time Translated the other hundred also and caused them to be fitted unto several Tunes which â— hereupon began to be Sung in private houses and by degrees to be taken up in all the Churches of the French and other Nations which followed the Genevian Plat-form Marot's Translation said by Strada to have been ignorantly and perversely done as being but the Work of a man altogether unlearned but not to be compared with that Barbarity and Botching which every where occurreth in the Translation of Sternhold and Hopkins Which notwithstanding being first allowed for private Devotion they were by little and little brought into the use of the Church Permitted rather then Allowed to be Sung before and after Sermons afterwards Printed and bound up with the Common-Prayer-Book and at last added by the Stationers at the end of the Bible For though it be expressed in the Title of those Singing Psalms that they were set forth and allowed to be Sung in all Churches before and after Morning and Evening Prayer and also before and after Sermons yet this Allowance seems rather to have been a Connivance then an Approbation No such Allowance being any where found by such as have been most Industrious and concerned in the search thereof At first it was pretended onely that the said Psalms should be Sung before and after Morning and Evening Prayer and also before and after Sermons which shews they were not to be intermingled in the Publick Liturgie But in some tract of time as the Puritan Faction grew in strength and confidence they prevailed so far in most places to thrust the Te Deum the Benedictus the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis quite out of the Church But of this more perhaps hereafter when we shall come to the Discovery of the Puritan Practices in the Times succeeding Next to the business of Religion that which took up a great part of the Publick Care was the Founding and Establishing of the new Hospital in the late dissolved House of Grey-Friers near New-gate in the City of London and that of St. Thomas in the Borough of Soâ—thwark Concerning which we are to know that the Church belonging to the said House together with the Cloysters and almost all the Publick Building which stood within the Liberties and Precincts thereof had the good Fortune to escape that Ruin which Generally befell all other Houses of that Nature And standing undemolished till the last Times of King Henry it was given by him not many days before His Death to the City of London together with the late dissolved Priory called Little St. Bartholomew's which at the Suppression thereof was valued at 305. pounds 6. s. 7. d. In which Donation there was Reference had to a Double End The one for the Relieving of the Poor out of the Rents of such Messuages and Tenements as in the Grant thereof are contained and specified The other for Constituting a Parish-Church in the Church of the said dissolved Grey-Friers not onely for the use of such as lived within the Precincts of the said two Houses but for the Inhabitants of the Parishes of Saint Nicholas in the Shambles and of Saint Ewines scituate in Warwick-Lane-end near New-gate Market Which Churches with all the Rents and Profits belonging to them were given to the City at the same time also and for advancing the same ends together with five hundred Marks by the year for ever the Church of the Grey-Friers to be from thenceforth called Christ-Church Founded by King Henry the Eighth All which was signified to the City in a Sermon Preached at Saint Paul's Cross by the Bishop of Rochester on the thirteenth of January being no more then a Fortnight before the death of the King so that He wanted not the Prayers of the Poor at the Time of His Death to serve as a Counter-Ballance for those many Curses which the poor Monks and Friers had bestowed upon Him in the Time of His Life In pursuance of this double Design the Church of the said Friers which had before served as a Magazine or Store-house for such French-Wines as had been taken by Reprise was cleansed and made fit for Holy uses and Mass again sang in it on the thirteenth day of January before remembred resorted to by such Parishioners as were appointed to it by the King's Donation After which followed in the first years of King Edward the Sixth the taking down of the said two Churches and building several Tenements on the Ground of the Churches and Church-Yards the Rents thereof to be imployed for the further maintenance and Relief of the poor living and loytering in and about the City to the great Dishonour of the same But neither the first Grant of the King nor these new Additions being able to carry on the work to the end desired it happened that Bishop Ridley preaching before the King did much insist upon the settling of of some constant course for Relief of the Poor Which
was at the Heart the more Sorrowful appearance did he outwardly Make. Whither any tokens of Poyson did Appear reports are various Certainly his Physicians discerned an invincible Malignity in his disease and the Suspicion did the more encrease for that the Complaint proceded chiefly from the Lights a part as of no quickness so no seat for any sharp Disease The Bruit whereof being got amongst the People they break out into immoderate Passions Complaining that for this cause his two Uncles had been taken away that for this cause the most Faithful of his Nobility and of his Council were disgraced and removed from Court that this was the reason why such were placed next his Person who were most assuredly disposed either to commit or permit any Mischeif that now it did appear that it was not vainly conjectured some years before by Men of Judgment and Foresight that after Sommerset's Death the King should not long Enjoy his Life But the DVKE regarded not much the muttering Multitude knowing full well that Rumours grow Stale and Vanish with Time and yet somewhat to abate or Delay them for the present He caused speeches â—o be spread abroad that the KING began to be in a Recovery of his Health which was the more readily Beleived because most desired it to be true To which Report the General Jugdment of his Physicians gave no little Countenance by whom it was affirmed that they saw some hopes of his Recovery if he might be removed to a Better and more Healthful Air. But this DVKE Dudly did not like of and therefore he so dealt with the LORDS of the Council that they would by no means yield unto it upon pretense of his Inability to endure any such Remove And now the time being near at hand for the last Act of this Tragedy a certain Gentlewoman accounted a fit Instrument for the purpose offered her Service for the Cure giving no small assurance of it if He might be committed wholy to her disposing But from this Proposition the KING'S Physicians shewed themselves to be very averse in regard that as she could give no reason either of the nature of the Disease or of the part afflicted so she would not declare the means whereby she intended to work the Cure Whose Opposition notwithstanding it was in time resolved by the Lords of the Council that the Physicians should be discharged and the Ordering of the King's Person committed unto her alone But she had not kept Him long in hand when He was found to have fallen into such Desperate Extremity as manifestly might Declare that His Death was hastened under pretense of finding out a more quick way for restoring of His Health For now it visibly appeared that His Vital Parts were mortally stuffed Which brought Him to a difficulty of speech and breathing that His Legs swelled his Pulse failed and his Skin changed colour with many other horrid Symptoms of approching Death Which being observed the Physicians were again sent for when it was too late and sent for as they gave it out but for Fashion onely because it was not thought fit in Reason of State that a King should by without having some Physicians in attendance of him by some of which it was secretly whispered That neither their Advice nor Applications had been at all regarded in the course of his Sickness That the King had been ill dealt with more then once or twice and that when by the Benefit both of his Youth and of careful Means there were some fair hopes of his Recovery He was again more strongly Over-laied then ever And for a farther proof that some undue Practises had been used upon him it is Affirmed by a Writer of the Popish Party who could have no great cause to pity such a Calamitous End not onely that the Apothecary who poysoned him as well for the Horrour of the Offence as the Disquietness of his Conscience did not long after drown himself but that the Landress who washed his Shirts loâ—t the Skin of her fingers Againâ—t which general apprehensions of some ill Dealing toward this unfortunate Prince it can be no sufficient Argument if any Argument at all that Queen Mary caused no Enquiry to be made about it as some supposed She would have done if the suspicion had been raised upon any good Grounds For it may easily be Believed that She who afterwards admitted of a Consultation for Burning the Body of Her Father and cutting off the Head of Her Siâ—ter would not be over-Careful in the search and punâ—shment of those who had precipitated the Death of her Brother The differences which were between them in the point of Religion and the King's forwardness in the Cause of the Lady Jane His rendring Her uncapaable as much as in Him was to succeed in the Crown and leaving Her in the Estate of Illegitimation were thought to have enough in them of a Supersedeas unto all Good Nature So that the King might dye by such sinister Practises without putting Queen MARY to the trouble of enquiring after them who thought Her Self to have no Reason of being too sollicitous in searching out the secret Causes of His Death who had been so injurious to Her in the time of His Life A Life which lasted little and was full of trouble so that Death could not be unwelcome to Him when the hopes of His Recovery began to fail Him Of which if He desired a Restitution it was rather for the Church's sake then for His own His dying Prayers not so much aiming at the prolonging of His Life as the Continuance of Religion Not so much at the freeing of Himself from His Disease as the preserving of the Church from the danger of Popery Which dying Prayer as it was taken from His Mouth was in these words following Lord God deliver me out of this miserable and wretched life and take me among thy Chosen Howbeit not my Will but Thine be done Lord I commit my Spirit to Thee O Lord Thou knowest how happy it were for Me to be with Thee Yet for thy Chosen's sake send me Life and Health that I may truly se ve Thee Oh my Lord God! bless my People and save Thine Inheritance O Lord God save thy Chosen People of England Oh Lord God! defend this Realm from Papistry and maintain thy true Religion that I and my People may praise thy Holy Name for Jesus Christ his sake With this Prayer and other Holy Meditations He prepared that Pious Soul for God which He surrendred into the Hands of His Creatout on the sixth of July toward Night when He had lived fifteen Years eight Moneths and four and twenty Days Of which He had Reigned six Years five Moneths and eight Days over His Body kept a while at Greenwich was on the eight of August removed to Westminster and on the morrow after solemnly Interred amoâ—gst His Ancestours in the Abbey Church In the performance whereof the Lord Treasure Paulet with the Earls of
offered to which She could pretend no Right whilest the Queen was living And if Examples of that Nature should pass unpunished no Prince could possibly be safe nor Tiâ—les valid as long as any Popular Spirit could pretend a Colour to advance some other to the Throne Upon which Reason of State She was brought to Her Trial at the Guild-Hall in London on the third of November accompanied with Her Husband the Lord Guilford Dudly his Company never till that Hour unwelcome to Her together with Arch-Bishop Cranmer the Lord Ambrose Dudly the second Son then living to the Duke of Northumberland Sentence of Death passed upon them all though at that time not executed upon any of them The Lord Ambrose was reserved unto better Fortunes as the Arch-Bishop was to a more miserable but more Glorious Death And for Her self and Her dear Husband it was conceived that now the Law had done its part in their Condemnation the Queen in pitty of their Youth and Innocence would have gone no further But as they were first brought under this Affliction by the inordinate Ambition of the Duke of Northumberland so shall they shortly finde an end of all their Troubles by the rash and unadvised Attempts of the Duke of Suffolk For upon Wyaâ—'s breaking out in Kent and the Earl of Devon-Shire in the West the Duke had been prevailed with amongst many others to apâ—ear in the Action To which he unadvisedly yielded caused Proclamation to be made in some Towns of Leicester-Shire against the Queen's intended Marriage with the Prince of Spain and drew together many of his Friends and followers to oppose that Match And though he was discomfited within few days after yet the Queen saw that she could promise Her self neither Peace nor Safety as long as the Lady Jane was preserved alive Whose Restitution to the Throne must be the matter chieflly aimed at in these Insurrections though other Colours were devised to disguise the Business Her Death is now resolved upon but first She must be practised with to change Her Religion as the Great Duke of Northumberland had done before To which end Fecknam is employed not long before made Dean of Saint Paul's and not long after Abbot of Westminster a Man whose great Parts promised him an easie Victory over a poor Lady of a broken and dejected Spirit but it proved the contrary For so well had She studied the Concernments of Her own Religion and managed the Conference with him with such a readiness of Wit such constancy of Resolution and a Judgment so well-grounded in all helps of Learning that She was able to make Answer to his strongest Arguments as well to Her great Honour as his Admiration The Substance of which Conference he that â—â—sts to see may finde it in the Acts and Monuments fol. 1290. So that not able to prevail with Her in the Change of Religion he made offer of his Service to prepare Her for Death which though She thankfully accepted of as finding it to proceed from a good Affection yet soon he found that She was also before hand with him in those Preparations which are fit and necessary for a dying Christian. Friday the ninth of February was first designed for the Day of Her Execution but the Desire of gaining Her to the Church of Rome procured Her the short Respite of three Days more On Sundayâ—night â—night being the Eve unto the 〈◊〉 of Her Translation She wrote a Letter in the Greek Tongue at the end of the Testament which She bequeathed as a Legacy to Her Sister the Lady Katharine which being such a lively Picture of the Excellent Lady may well deserve to be continually kept in Remembrance of Her and is this that followeth I have here sent you Good Sister Katharine a Book which although it be not outwardly trimmed with Gold yet inwardly it is more worth then pretious Stones It is the Book Dear Sister of the Law of the Lord. It is his Testament and last Will which he bequeathed unto us Wretches which shall lead you to the path of eternal Joy and if you with a good mind read it and with an earnest mind do purpose to follow it it shall bring you to an immortal and everlasting Life It shall teach you to live and learn you to die It shall win you more then you should have gained by the possession of your wofull Father's Lands For as if God had prospered him you should have inherited his Lands so if you apply diligently this Book seeking to direct your Life after it you shall be an inheritour of such Riches as neither the Covetous shall withdraw frâ—m you neither Thief shall steal neither yet the Moths corrupt Desire with David Good Sister to understand the Law of the Lord God Live still to die that you by Death may purchase eternal Life and trust not that the tenderness of your Age shall lengthen your Life for as soon if God calls goeth the young as the old and labour always to learn to die Defie the World Deny the Divel and Despise the Flesh and Delight your self onely in the Lord. Be penitent for your Sins and yet Despair not Be strong in Faith and yet presume not and desire with Saint Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ with whom â—ven in Death there is Life Be like the good Servant and even at Midnight be waking lest when Death cometh and stealeth upon you like a Thief in the night you be with the evil Servant â—ound sleeping and lest for lack of Oyl you be found like the five foolish Women and like him that had not on the Wedding-Garment and then ye be cast out from the Marriage Rejoyce in Christ as I do Follow the Steps of your Master Christ and take upon you your Cross. Lay your Sins on his Back and always embrace him And as touching my Death rejoyce as I do good Sister that I shall be delivered of this Corruption and put on Incorruption For I am assured that I shall for losing of a mortal Life win an immortal one The which I pray God to grant you and send you of his Grace to live in his Fear and to die in the true Christian Faith from the which in God's Name I exhort you that you never swerve neither for Hope of Life nor for Fear of Death For if you will deny his Truth to lengthen your Life God will deny you and yet shorten your Days and if you will â—leave unto him he will prolong your Days to your Comfort and to his Glory To the which Glory God bring me now and you hereafter when it pleaseth him to call you Fare you well Good Sister and put your onely trust in God who onely must help you The Fatal Morning being come the Lord Guilford earnestly desired the Officers that He might take His Farewell of Her Which though they willingly permitted yet upon notice of it She Advised the contrary assuring Him That such a meeting would
proceed upon The Lord Rochfort her own brother having some sute to obtain by her of the King was found whispering to her on her bed when she was in it which was interpreted for an act of some great dishonor done or intended to the King as if she had permitted him some farther liberties than were consistent with the innocent familiarity between brothers and sisters In the aggravating whereof with all odious circumstances none was more forward than the Lady Rochfort her self whether out of any jealousie which she had of her husband or whether out of some inveterate hatred which she had to the Queen according to the peccant humor of most sisters in law is not clearly known It was observed also that Sir Henry Norris Groom of the Stool unto the King had entertained a very dear affection for her not without giving himself some hopes of succeeding in the King's bed as Sir Thomas Seimer after did if she chanced to survive him And it appears that she had given him opportunity to make known his affection and to acquaint her with his hopes which she expressed by twitting him in a frolick humor with â—ooking after dead mens shoos Weston and Bâ—eerton both Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber were observed also to be very diligent in their services and addresses to her which were construed rather to proceed from love than duty though no reciprocation could be found to proceed from her but what was agreeable to that affability and general debonairness which she shewed to all men Out of these premises weak and imperfect though they were the King resolves to come to a conclusion of his aims and wishes A solemn Tilting was maintained at Greenwich on the first of May at which the King and Queen were present the Lord Rochfort and Sir Henry Norris being principal Challengers The Queen by chance let fall her handkerchief which was taken up by one of her supposed favourits who stood under the window whom the King perceived to wipe his face with it This taken by the King to be done of purpose and thereupon he leaves the Queen and all the rest to behold the Sports and goeâ—h immediately in great haste to Westmâ—â—ster to the no small amazement of all the company but the Queen especially Rochfort and Norris are committed to the Tower on the morrow after to which unfortunate place the Queen her self on the same day was conducted by Sir Thomas Audeley Lord Chancellor the Duke of Norfolk Cromwel then Master of the Rolls and principal Secretary and Kingston Lieutenant of the Tower Informed by them upon the way of the Kings suspitions she is said to have fallen upon her knees and with dire imprecations to have disavowed the crime whatsoever it were wherewith she was charged beseeching God so to regard her as the justness of her cause required After which William Breerton Esquire and Sir Francis Westâ—n of the King 's Privy Chamber together with Mark Smeton one of the King's Musicians were committed on the same occasion These persons being thus committed and the cause made known the next care was to find sufficient Evidence for their condemnation It was objected that thâ— Queen growing out of hope of having any issue male by the King had used the company of the Lord Râ—chfort Norris Bâ—eerton and Weston and possibly of Smeton also involving her at onâ—e in no smaller crimes than those of Adultery and Incest For proof whereof there was no waâ—t of any artifices in sifting canvasing and intangling not onely the Prisoners themselves but all such Wiâ—nesses of either sex as were thought fit to be examined by the Kingâ— Commissioners from none of which they were able to get any thing by all their Arts which might give any ground for her conviction but that Maâ—k Smeton had been wrought on to make some confession of himself to her dishonor out of a vain hope to save his own life by the loss of hers Concerning which Cromwel thus writes unto the King after the Prisoners had been throughly examined in the Tower by the Lords of the Council Many things saith hâ— have been objected but nothing confessed onely some circumstances have been a knowledged by Mark. To which effect and other the particulars before remembred take here a Letter written by Sir Eâ—ward Baynâ—on to Sir William Fitswilâ—iams being then Treasurer of the Household and not long after raised unto the style and Title of Earl of Southampâ—on Mr. Treasurer THis shall be to advertise you that here is much communication that no man will confess any thing against her at all but onely Mark of any actual thing Wherefore in my foolish conceit it should much touch the Kings honor if it should no further appear And I cannot believe but that the other two be as far culpable as ever was he and I think assuredly the one keepeth the others counsel as many conâ—ectures in my mind causeth me to think and especially of the communication that was last between the Queen Mr. Norres Mr. Amner and me as I would if I might speak with Mr. Secretary and you together more plainly expresse my mind If the case be that they have confessed like witnesses aâ—l things as they â—â—ould do then the matter is at a point I have mused much at the manner of Mistresse Margery which hath used her self so strangely towards me of late being her friend so much as I have been But no doubt it cannot be chosen but she must be of counsell therewith for there hath been great friendship between the Queen and her of â—aâ—e I hear further that the Queen standeth stifly in her opinion that she will die in it which I think is in the trust that she hath of the other two But if your businesse be such as you cannot come I would gladly come and wait on you if you think it requisite In appears also by a Letter of Sir William Kingstons that he had much communication with her when she was his prisoner in which her language seemed to be broken and distressed betwixt tears and laughter out of which nothing could be gathered but that she exclaimed against Norris as if he had accused her It was further signified in that Letter that she named some others who had obsequiously applied themselves to her love and service acknowledging such passages though not sufficient to condemn her as shewed she had made use of the utmost liberty which could be honestly allowed her Most true it is as far as any truth can be collected from common and credible reports that Norris being much favoured by the King was offered pardon for his life if he would confess the crimes which he was accused of To which he made this generous answer That in his conscience he thought her guiltlesse of the crimes objected but whether she were or no he could not accuse her of any thing and that he had rather undergo a thousand deaths than betray the innocent So that upon the point
who do less deserve it that it is therefore necessary that the ears of Princes should be open unto all complaints and their hands ready to receive Petitions from all sorts of people to the end that knowing their grievances and distresses they may commiserate them in the one and afford them remedy in the other that a good Prince must have somewhat in him of the Priest who if he be not sensible of the infirmities of his brethren cannot be thought to intercede so powerfully in their behalf as when he hath been touched with the true sense and feeling of their extremities and finally that the School is never better governed than by one who hath past through all the forms and degrees thereof and having been perfectly trained up in the ways of obedience must know the better how to use both the Rod and Ferula when he comes to be Master of the rest The first eight years of the Reign of QUEEN ELIZABETH An. Reg. Eliz. 1. An. Dom. 1558 1559. ELizabeth the only child then living of King Henry the 8th succeeded her Sister in the Throne on the 17th of November Anno 1558. Ferdinand of Austria being then Emperour Henry the 2d King of the French Philip the second King of Spain and Paul the 4th commanding in the Church of Rome Queen Mary not long before her death had called a Parliament which was then sitting when the news thereof was brought unto the Lords in the House of Peers The newes by reason of the Queens long sickness not so strange unto them as to take them either unresolved or unprovided for the declaring of their duty to the next successor though some of them perhaps had some secret wishes that the Crown might have fallen rather upon any oâ—her than upon her to whom it did of right belong so that upon a short debate amongst themselves a message is sent to the Speaker of the House of Commons desiring him and all the Members of that House to come presently to them upon a business of no small importance to the good of the Kingdom Who being come the Lord Chancellor Heath with a composed and setled countenance not without sorrow enough for the death of the one or any discontent for the succession of the other declared unto them in the name of the rest of the Lords that God had taken to his mercy the late Queen Mary and that the succession to the Crown did belong of right to the Princess Elizabeth whose Title they conceived to be free from all legal questions that in such cases nothing was more necessary than expedition for the preventing of all such plots and practices of any discontented or ambitious persons as might be set on foot to the disturbance of the common quiet and therefore that there concurrence was desired in proclaiming the new Queen with all speed that might be they being then so opportunely convened together as the Representees of the whole body of the Commons of the Realm of England Which being said the Knights and Burgestes gave a ready consent to that which they had no reason to deny and they which gave themselves some thoughts of inclining otherwise conceived their opposition to the general Vote neither safe nor seasonable So that immediately the Princess Elizabeth was proclaimed by the King at Arms first before Westminster Hall door in the Palace Yard in the presence of the Lords and Commons and not long after at the Cross in Cheapside and other places in the City in the presence of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and principal Citizens to the great joy of all peaceable and well-affected people It was not long before the Princess had advertisement of the death of her sister together with the general acknowledgement of her just and lawful Title to the Crown Imperial The newes whereof being brought unto her by some of the Lords she prepared for her removal from Hatfield on the Saturday after being the 19th of that month and with a great and Royal train set forwards to London At Higate four miles from the City she was met by all the Bishops then living who presented themselves before her upon their knees in testimony of their loyalty and affection to her In which address as she seemed to express no small contentment so she gave to each of them particularly her hand to kiss except only unto Bonner of London whose bloody butcheries had render'd him uncapable in her opinion of so great a favour At her first coming to the City she took her lodging in the Charterhouse where she staid some days till all things in the Tower might be fitted and prepared for her reception Attended by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen with a stately strain of Lords and Ladies and their several followers She entreth by Cripple gate into the City passeth along the wall till she came to Bishops gate where all the Companies of the City in their several Liveries waited her coming in their proper and distinct rancks reaching from thence until the further end of Mark Lane where she was entertained with a peal of great Ordnance from the Tower At her entrance into which place she render'd her most humble thanks to Almighty God for the great and wondrous change of her condition in bringing her from being a prisoner in that place to be the Prince of her people and now to take possession of it as a Royal Palace in which before she had received so much discomfort Here she remained till the 5th day of December then next following and from thence removed by water unto Sommerset House In each remove she found such infinite throngs of people who flocked from all parts to behold her both by land and water and testified their publick joy by such loud acclamations as much rejoyced her heart to hear and could not but express it in her words and countenance by which she doubled their affections and made her self the absolute Mistriss at all times of their hands and purses She had been forged upon the anvil of adversity which made her of so fine a temper that none knew better than her self how to keep her State and yet descend unto the meanest of her subjects in a popular Courtship In the mean time the Lords of the Council had given Order for the stopping of all Ports and Havens that no intelligence of the Queens death might be caried out of the Realm by which any disturbance might be plotted or contrived against it till all things were setled here at home But finding such a general concurrence in all sorts of people in acknowledging her just and lawful Title testified by so many outward signs of a publick joy that there was no fear of any danger from abroad that bar was speedily removed and the Ports opened as before to all sorts of passengers And in the next place care was taken for sending new Commissions unto such Embassadors as resided in the Courts of several Princes both to acquaint them with
no Sermon was preached at St. Paul's Cross or any publick place in London till the Easter following At what time the Sermons which were to be preached in the Spittle according to the antient custom were performed by Doctor Bill the Almoner to the Queen and afterwards the first Dean of Westminster of the Queens foundation Doctor Richard Cox formerly Dean of Westminster preferred in short time after to the See of Ely and Mr. Robert Horn of whom mention hath been made before at the troubles of Franckfort advanced not long after to the See of Winchester The Rehearsal Sermon accustomably preached at St. Pauls Crosse on the Sunday following was undertook by Doctor Thomas Sampson then newly returned from beyond the Seas and after most unhappily made Dean of Christ-church But so it chanced that when he was to go into the Pulpit the dore was locked and the key thereof not to be found so that a Smith was sent for to break open the dore and that being done the like necessity was found of cleansing and making sweet the place which by a long disuse had contracted so much filth and nastiness as rendred it unfit for another Preacher By the other Proclamation which was published on the 30th of December â—t was enjoyned That no man of what quality or degree soever should presume to alter any thing in the state of Religion or innovate in any of the rites and ceremonies thereunto belonging but that all such rites and ceremonies should be observed in all Parish Churches of the Kingdom as were then used and retained in her Majesties Chapel until some further order should be taken in it Onely it was permitted and withall required that the Letany the Lords Prayer the Creed and the Ten Commandments should be said in the English tongue and that the Epistle and the Gospel at the time of the High Mass should be read in English which was accordingly done in all the Churches of London on the next Sunday after being New-years day and by degrees in all the other Churches of the Kingdom also Further than this she thought it not convenient to proceed at the present but that she had commanded the Priest or Bishop for some say it was the one and some the other who officiated at the Altar in the Chapel-Royal not to make any Elevation of the Sacrament the better to prevent that adoration which was given unto it and which she could not suffer to be done in her sight without a most apparent wrong to her judgment and conscience Which being made known in other places and all other Churches being commanded to conform themselves to the example of the Chapel the elevation was forborn also in most other places to the great discontent and trouble of the Popish party And though there was no further progress toward a Reformation by any publick Act or Edict yet secretly a Reformation in the form of Worship and consequently in point of Doctrine was both intended and projected For making none acquainted with her secret purposes but the Lord Marquis of Northampton Francis Earl of Bedford Sir John Gray of Pergo one of the late Duke of Suffolk's brothers and Sir William Cecil she committed the reviewing of the former Litutgy to the care of Doctor Parker Doctor Gryndal Doctor Cox Doctor Pilkington Doctor Bill Doctor May and Mr. Whitehead together with Sir Thomas Smith Doctor of the Laws a very learned moderate and judicious Gentleman But what they did and what preferments they attained to on the doing of it we shall see anon wheu we shall find the Book reviewed confirmed by Act of Parliament and executed in all parts of the Kingdom as that Act required But first some publick Acts of State and great Solemnities of Court are to be performed The Funeral of the Queen deceased solemnised on the 13th of December at the Abbey of Westminster and the Sermon preached by Doctor White then Bishop of Winchester seemed onely as a preamble to the like Solemnity performed at the said place about ten days after in the Obsequies of Charls the 5th which mighty Emperor having first left the world by resigning his Kingdoms and retiring himself into a Monastery as before was said did after leave his life also in September last and now upon the 24th of this present December a solemn Obsequie was kept for him in the wonted form a rich Hearse being set up for him in the Church of Westminster magnificently covered with a Pall of gold his own Embassador serving as the principal Mourner and all the great Lords and Officers about the Court attending on the same in their rancks and orders And yet both these though stately and majestical in their several kinds came infinitely short of those Pomps and Triumphs which were prepared and reserved for the Coronation As a Preparation whereunto she passed from Westminster to the Tower on the 12th of January attended by the Lord Mayor the Aldermen and other Citizens in their Barges with the Banners and Escutcheons of their several Companies loud Musick sounding all the way and the next day she restored some unto their old and advanced others to new honors according to her own fancy and their deservings The Marquis of Northampton who had lain under an Attaindure ever since the first beginning of the Reign of Queen Mary she restored in blood with all his Titles and Estates The Lord Edward Seimer eldest son to the late Duke of Somerset was by her reconfirmed in the Titles of Viscount Beaâ—châ—mp and Earl of Hertford which had been formerly entayled upon him by Act of Parliament The Lord Thomas Howard second son of Thomas the late Duke of Norfolk and brother to Henry Earl of Surrey beheaded in the last days of King Henry the Eighth she advanced to the Title of Viscount Howard of Bindâ—n She also preferred Sir Oliver St. Johns who derived himself from the Lady Maâ—garet daughter of John Duke of Somerset from whom the Queen her self descended to the dignity of Lord St. John of Bletso and Sir Henry Carte son of Sir William Carie Knight and of Mary Bollen his wife the onely sister of Queen Anne Bollen she promoted to the honor and degree of Lord Carie of Hansdon The ordinary acts of grace and favour being thus dispatched she prepares the next morning for a triumphant passage through London to her Palace at Westminster But first before she takes her Chariot she is said to have lifted up her eyes to heaven and to have used some words to this or the like effect O Lord Almigâ—â—y and everâ—iving 〈◊〉 I give thee most hearty thanks that thou hast been so mercifu unto me as to spare me to see this joyful day And I acknowledge that thou hast dealt as wonderfully and aâ— mercifully with me as thou didst with thy true and faithful servant Daniel thy Prophet whom thou deliveredst out of the den from the cruelty of the raging greedy Lyons even so was I overwhelmed and only by
who were appointed to revise it as before is said In the performance of which service there was great care taken for expunging all such passages in it as might give any scandal or offence to the Popish party or be urged by them in excuse for their not comming to Church and joyning with the rest of the Congregation in Gods publick Worship In the Letany first made and published by King Henry the 8th and afterwards continued in the two Lituâ—gies of King Edward the 6th there was a Prayer to be delivered from the tyranny and all the detestable enormities of the Bâ—shop of Rome which was thought fit to be expunged as giving matter of scandal and dis-affection to all that party or otherwise wisht well to that Religion In the first Liturgie of King Edward the Sacrament of the Lords Body was delivered with this Benediction that is to say The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for the preservation of thy body and sâ—ul to life everlasting The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ c. Which being thought by Calvin and his Disciples to give some countenance to the grosse and carnal Presence of Christ in the Sacrament which passeth by the name of Transâ—bstantiation in the Schools of Rome was altered into this form in the second Liturgy that is to say Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and â—eed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving Take and drink this c. But the Revisors of the Book joyned both Forms together lest under colour of rejecting a Carnal they might be thought also to deny such a Real Presence as was defended in the Writings of the Antient Fathers Upon which ground they expunged also a whole Rubrick at the end of the Communion-service by which it was declared that kneeling at the participation of the Sacrament was required for no other reason than for a signification of the humble and grateful acknowledging of the benefits of Christ given therein unto the worthy Receiver and to avoid that prophanation and disorder which otherwise might have ensued and not for giving any adoration to the Sacramental Bread and Wine there bodily received or in regard of any real and essential presence of Christs body and blood And to come up the closer to those of the Church of Rome it was ordered by the Queens Injunctions that the Sacramental Bread which the Book required onely to be made of the finest flower should be made round in fashion of the Wafers used in the time of Queen Mary She also ordered that the Lords Table should be placed where the Altar stood that the accustomed reverence should be made at the name of Jesus Musick retained in the Church and all the old Festivals observed with their several Eves By which compliances and the expunging of the passages before remembred the Book was made so passable amongst the Papiâ—ts that for ten years they generally repaired to their Parish Churches without doubt or scruple as is affirmed not onely by Sir Edward Coke in his speech againâ—t Gâ—â—net and his Charge given at the Assizes held at Norwich but also by the Queen her self in a Letter to Sir Francis Walsingham then being her Resident or Leiger-Ambassador in the Court of France the same confessed by Sanders also in his Book de Schismate And that the Book might passe the better in both Houses when it came to the Vote it was thought requisite that a Disputation should be held about some points which were most likely to be checked at the Disputants to be five Bishops and four other learned men of the one side and nine of the most learâ—ed men graduated in the Schools on the other side the Disputation to begin on the 30th of March and to be holden in the Church of Westminster in the presence of as many of the Lords of the Council and of the Members of both Houses as were desirous to inform themselves in the state of the Questions The Disputation for that reason to be held in the English Tongue and to be managed for the better avoiding of confusion by a mutual interchange of writings upon every point those writings which were mutually given in upon one day to be reciprocally answer'd on another so from day to day till the whole were ended To all which points the Bishops gave consent for themselves and the rest of their party though they refused to stand unto them when it came to the tryal The points to be disputed on were three in number that is to say That it is against the word of God and the custom of the antient Church to use a Tongue unknown to the people in Common-Praier and in the administration of the Sacâ—aments 2. That every Church hath authority to appoint take away and change Ceremonies and Ecclesiastical Rites so the same be to edification 3. That it cannot be proved by the word of God that there is in the Masse offered up a sacrifice propitiatory for the living and the dead And for the Disputants of each side they were these that follow that is to say first for the Popish party Dr. White Bishop of Winchester Dr. Bayn Bishop of Lichfield Dr. Scot Bishop of Chester and Dr. Watson Bishop of Lincâ—ln Dr. Fecknam Abbot of Westminster Dr. Henry Cole Dean of St. Pauls Dr. Harpâ—field Archdeacon of Canterbury Dr. Chadsey Prebend of St. Paâ—ls and Dr. Langdale Archdeacon of Lewis in Sussex For those of the Protestant perswasion appeared Dr. Scory the late Bishop of Chichester Dr. Cox the late Dean of Westminster Dr. Sandys late Master of Katherine Hal. Mr. Horn the late Dean of Durham Mr. Elmar late Archdeacon of Stow Mr. Whâ—tehead Mr. Gryndal Mr. Gâ—est and Mr. Jewel all of which except onely Whiâ—ehead attained afterwards to some eminent place in the sacred Hieraâ—chy The day being come and the place fitted and accommodated for so great an audience the Lord Keeper Bacon takes the Chair as Moderator not for determining any thing in the points disputed but for seeing good order to be kept and that the Disputation might be managed in the form agreed on When contrary to expectation the Bishops and their party brought nothing in writing to be read publickly in the hearing of all the Auditors but came resolved to try it out by word of mouth and to that end appointed Cole to be their Spokesman For which neglect being reproved by the Lord Keeper they promised a conformity on the Monday following being the second day of April but would not stand unto it them because they would not give their Adversaries so much leisure as a whole nights deliberation to return an answer Desired and pressed by the Lord Keeper to proceed according to the form agreed on for the better satisfaction and contentment of so great an Audience it was most obstinately denyed Wâ—tson and White behaving themselves with so little reverence or so much insolency rather as to threaten the Queen
City of Cambray in which all differences were concluded also between France and Spain all other Articles being accorded the restitution of Calais to the Queen of England seemed the onely obstacle by which the general peace of Christendom was at the point to have been hindred But the Queen either preferring the publick good before private interest or fearing to be left alone if she should stand too obstinately upon that particular came at the last to this agreement viz. That Calais should remain for the tearm of eight years then next following in the hands of the French that at the end of the said tearm it should be deliveâ—ed unto the English or otherwise the French King should pay unto the Queen the sum of 500000 Crowns According unto which Agreement Peace was proclaimed in London on the 7th of April between the Queens Majesty on the one part and the French King on the other as also between her and the King Dolphin with his wife the Queen of Scots and all the Subjects and Dominions of the said four Princes The Proclamation published by Garter and Norrey Kings at Arms accompanied with three other Heralds and five Trumpeters the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in their Scarlet Gowns being present on horseback But long the French King lived not to enjoy the benefit of this general Peace unfortunately wounded in Paris at a Tilt or Tournament by Count Monâ—gomery of which wound he shortly after died on the 10th of July leaving be hind him four sons Francis Charls Henry and another Francis of which the three first according to their seniority enjoyed that Kingdom And though she had just cause to be offended with the young King Francis for causing the Queen of Scots his wife to take upon her self the Title and Arms of England yet she resolved to bestow a royal Obsequy on the King deceased which was performed in St. Paul's Church on the 8th and 9th of September in most solemn manner with a rich Hearse made like an Imperial Crown sustained with eight pillars and covered with black Velvet with a Valence fringed with gold and richly hanged with Scâ—tcheous Pennons and Banners of the French Kings Arms the principal mourner for the first day was the Lord Treasurer Paulet Marquis of Winchester assisted with ten other Lords Mourners with all the Heralds in black and their Coat-Armours uppermost The divine Offices performed by Doctor Matthew Parker Lord elect of Canterbury Doctor William Barlow Lord elect of Chichester and Doctor Iâ—hn Scory Lord elect of Hereford all sitting in the Throne of the Bishop of London no otherwise at that time than in hoods and Surplices by whom the Derige was executed at that time in the English toung The Funeral Sermon preached the next morning by the Lord of Hereford and a Communion celebrated by the Bishops then attired in Copes upon their Surplices At which time six of the chief mourners received the Sacrament and so departed with the rest to the Bishops Palace where a very liberal Entertainment was provided for them By which magnificency and the like this prudent Queen not onely kept â—er own reputation at the highest amongst forein Princes but caused the greater estimation to be had by the Catholick party of the Religion here established Anno Reg. Eliz. 2. A. D. 1559 1560. WE must begin this year with the Consecration of such new Bishops as were elected to succeed in the place of those which had been deprived the first of which was that of the most reverend Doctor Matthew Parker elected to the See of Canterbury on the first of August but not consecrated till the 17th of December following That Dignity had first been offered as is said by some to Doctor Nicholas Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York who grown in years and still a well-willer to the Pope desired to be excused from undertaking of a charge so weighty And some say it was offered unto Whitehead also who had been Chaplain to Anne Bollen the Queen's mother but he returned the like refusal though on other grounds as more inclined by reason of his long abode in Calvin's Churches to the Presbyterians than the Episcopal form of Government and it was happy for the Church might have been betrayed by his dissaffection that he did refuse it The Chair being better filled by Parker another of Queen Bollen's Chaplains but better principled and of a far more solid judgment in affairs of moment The Congeâ—d ' sleiur which opened him the way to this eminent Dignity bears date on the 18th day of July within few days after the deprivation of the former Bishops to satisfie the world in the Queens intention of preserving the Episcopal Government And therefore why the consecration was deferred so long maybe made a question some think it was that she might satisfie her self by putting the Church into a posture by her Visitation before she passed it over to the care of the Bishops others conceive that she was so enamoured with the power and title of Supream Governess that she could not deny her self that contentment in the exercise of it which the present Interval afforded For what are Titles without Power and what pleasure can be took in Power if no use be made of it And it is possible enough that both or either of these considerations might have some influence upon her But the main cause for keeping the Episcopal Sees in so long a vacancy must be found else-where An Act had passed in the late Parliament which never had the confidence to appear in print in the Preamble whereof it was declared That by dissolution of Religious Houses in the time of the late King her Majesties father many Impropriations Tithes and portions of Tithes had been invested in the Crown which the Queen being a Lady of a tender conscience thought not fit to hold nor could conveniently dismember from it without compensation in regard of the present low condition in which she found the Crown at her comming to it And thereupon it was enacted that in the vacancy of any Archbishoprick or Bishoprick it should be lawful for the Queen to issue out a Commission under the Great Seal for taking a survey of all Castles Mannors Lands Tenements and all other Hereditaments to the said Episcopal Sees belonging or appertaining and on the return of such surveys to take into her hands any of the said Castles Mannors Lands Tenements c. as to her seemed good giving to the said Archbishops or Bishops as much annual Rents to be raised upon Impropriations Tithes and portions of Tithes as the said Castles Mannors Lands c. did amount unto The Church Lands certified according to the antient Rents without consideration of the Casualties and other Perqâ—isites of Court which belonged unto them the Retribution made in Pensions Tithes and portions of Tithes extended at the utmost value from which no other profit was to be expected than the Rent it self Which Act not being to take effect
special Coâ—fidence which we have and ever had in them to have a due and diligent Eye perfect Zeal Love and Affection to the Honour Surety Estate and Dignity of Our said Son and the Good State and Prosperity of this Our Realm And that all delays set apart they well aid and assist Our said Councellours and Executours to the performance of this Our present Testament and last Will in every part as they will answer before God at the day of Judgement Cum venerit judicate vivos mortuos And furthermore for the special Trust and Confidence which We have in the Earls of Arundel and Essex that now be Sir Thomas Cheney Knight Treasurer of Our Houshould Sir John Gage Knight Comptroller of Our Houshold Sir Anthony Wingfield Knight Our Vice-Chamberlain Sir William Peter Knight one of Our two principal Secretaries Sir Richard Rich Knight Sir John Baker Knight Sir Ralph Sadler Knight Sir Thomas Seimour Knight Sir Richard Souâ—hwel and Sir Edmond Peckham Knights they and every of them shall be of Council for the aiding and assisting of the fore-named Councellours and Our Executours when they or any of them shall be called by Our said Executours or the more part of the same Item We bequeath to Our Daughters Mary and Elizabeth's Marriage they being married to any outward Potentate by the Advice of the aforeâ—said Councellours if We bestow them not in Our Life-time ten thousand pounds in Money Plate Jewels and Houshold-stuff for each of them or a larger sum as to the discretion of Our Executours or the more part of them shall be thought convenient Willing them on My Blessing to be ordered as well in Marriage as in all other lawfull things by the Advice of Our foreâ—named Councellours And in case they will not then the sum to be minished at the Councellours Discretions And Our further Will is That from the first Hour of Our Death untill such time as the said Councellours can provide either of them or both some Honourable Marriages They shall have each of them M. M. M. lb. ultra reprisas to live upon Willing and charging the afore-said Councellours to limit and appoint to either of them such said Officers and Ministers for Orderance thereof as may be imployed both to Our Honour and Theirs And for the great Love Obedience and Chastness of Life and Wisdom being in Our fore-named Wife and Queen We bequeath unto Her for Her proper Vse and as it shall please Her to Order it M. M. M. lb. in Plate Jewels and Stuff of Houshold besides such Apparell as it shall please Her to take as She hath already And further We give unto Her M. lb. in Money with the enjoying of Her Dowry and Joynture according to Our Grant by Act of Parliament Which said He bequeathed in other Legacies amongst the Lords of His Council and other of His Principal Officers whom He had declared for His Executours the sum of 6433. lb. 6. s. 8. d. And amongst other Knights and Gentlemen His Domestick Servants and such as were in Ordinary Attendance about the Court under which stile I find that Patrick before-remembred the Sum of 5â—83 lb. 6. s. 8. d. Both Sums amounting in the total to 11516. lb. 13. s. 4. d. And so concludeth with a Revocation of all other Wills and Testaments by Him formerly made that onely this might stand in Force and be effectual to all Intents and Purposes in the Law whatsoever Dated 30. December Signed with His own hand and Witnessed by eleven of such of His Physicians and Attendants as were then about Him Such was the Last Will and Testament of this Puissant Prince Of which how little was performed and how much less should have been performed if some Great Persons whom He had nominated for His Executours might have had their Wills we shall hereafter show in fit time and place In the mean season we will see Him laid into His Grave which was done with as much convenient speed as the necessary Preparations for a Royal Funeral could of right admit For on the fourteenth day of February then next following His Body being removed in a Solemn and Magnificent manner to Shene near Richmond was the next day with like Solemnity attended to His Castle of Windsore one of the Goodlieâ—t and most Gallant Seats of the Christian World and there Interred in a Vault prepared for Himself and His Dear Wife Queen Jane as in His Last Will He had desired For though a most Magnificent and Costly Tomb had been begun for Him by Cardinal Wolâ—â—e in a by-Chapel of that Church commonly called The Chapel of King Henry the Eighth yet being an unfinished piece and the King having otherways disposed of His own Interment a Vault was opened for Him in the middest of the Quire Into which the Body of the King was no sooner laid but all His Officers brake their Staves and threw them in the Grave according to the usual Ceremonies on the like Occasions receiving new ones the next day at the hands of His Son Nor were the Funeral Rites performed by His own Subjects onely but a Solemn Obsequie was kept for Him in the Church of Nostre-Dame in Paris by King Francis the First notwithstanding that He had been Excommunicated by the Popes of Rome So much that Generous Prince preferred His old affections to this King for former Favours not onely above the late displeasures conceived against Him for the taking of Bulloign but even above the Pope's Curse and all the Fulminations of the Court of Rome which might follow on it But long it will not be before we shall discharg this debt in paying the like Duty to the Honour of Francis who dying on the two and twentieth day of March next following had here an Obsequie as Solemn as the Times could give Him Of which more hereafter THE LIFE and REIGN OF KING EDWARD THE SIXTH Anno Reg. 1. Anno Dom. 1546 1547. HENRY being dead EDWARD His onely surviving Son at the age of nine years three moneths and sixteen days by the name of King EDWARD the Sixth succeeds His Father in the Throne Charles the Fifth being then Emperour of Germany and King of Spain Francis of Angâ—lesme the last Branch of the Royal Line of Valoys King of the French and Paul the Third of the Noble House of the Farnezi presiding in the Church of Rome No sooner was His Father dead but Edward Earl of Hartford and Sir Anthony Brown Master of the Horse were by the Rest of the Council dispatched in hast to Hartford-Castle where at that time He kept His Court accompanied with His Sister the Princess Elizabeth about four years elder then Himself Both whom they brought the next day as far as Enfield where they imparted to Them the sad News of the King's Decease received by both with such a measure of true Sorrow that it was very hard to say whither Their Tears did more obscure or set forth Their Beauties The next day advancing